Drink Tea to Stay Germ-free (NY, Reuters Health
 (4/21/03)

Dr. Jack F. Bukowski of Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, and colleagues, extracted gamma delta T cells from people who did not usually drink tea. They exposed some of these immune system cells to ethylamine, a chemical produced when the liver processes the L-theanine in tea. They mixed the T cells with bacteria and found that cells that had been previously exposed to ethylamine multiplied and produced germ - fighting chemicals; whereas the unexposed cells did not fight the bacteria. The researchers also found that subjects who were assigned to drink 20 ounces of tea daily for 2 weeks produced anti-germ chemicals when exposed to pathogens, but coffee drinkers did not.