Drink Your Way to Health!

Yes, seriously, but I mean with green tea. My latest blood level check shows that not only have they held steady but continued to improve. Long story short, my chronic leukemia (T-cell LGL Leukemia) is getting better, not worse as it’s supposed to be, and not from any medical intervention of the modern sort.  No, this remedy is quite ancient.  And I want to credit the particular tea, Yogi Green Tea with Kombucha, as I wonder if the kombucha component is also playing a role in my improvement.  My daily routine is to drink two quarts (one in the morning and one in the afternoon, (broken up into pints) of freshly brewed tea made with water just below the boil and steeped two to three minutes–longer if I want a stronger cup.  I get two pints from one bag, but if I steep those added minutes then I use a second bag for the next go round.

This kind of tea already has a marvelous fruity, minty taste but I add a bag of peppermint tea (Celestial Seasonings or some other plain mint), to further enhance the minty properties.  Mint is very soothing to the stomach. This is just me, the rest of you will probably be fine with the amount of mint already present in the tea.

Back to my blood levels, my hematologist has gone from skeptical to say the least, to puzzled, to wondering if maybe there’s something in what I’m doing after all because he has no other explanation as to why I’m improving instead of deteriorating.  When I was first diagnosed two years ago in April of 2010, he predicted  I’d likely need the big guns treatment within a year.  He’s happy to be wrong.  I’m delighted, and brewing tea as I write.  My mission, to tell the world.  You don’t have to suffer from chronic leukemia to benefit from green tea.

“Tea began as a medicine and grew into a beverage.” ~KAKUZO OKAKURA, Book of Tea

I should also mention the importance of Olive Leaf extract which I came across on a leukemia message board.  I get mine from Olivus online (their best quality capsules) and take one two times  a day.   I began with one capsule and worked my way up.  Olive leaf helps with many things, including being a powerful immune booster and can aid blood levels.  To this I add Vitamin C and TOCQ10 supplements–also beneficial.  The only contraindications I know of for olive leaf are that you shouldn’t take it if you on on a blood thinner because it also thins the blood.  And it can interfere with the effectiveness of an antibiotic so take it at a different time of day.

*This is my story.  Not a scientific study.  But pretty darn amazing.  Also, Olive leaf can make you worse before it makes you better as it cleanses toxins. I sweeten my tea with a little raw honey–also healthful–or plain sugar. Artificial sweeteners are incredibly bad for you.

“Tea … is one of those rare treasures, enjoyed throughout the world, that actually benefits health.”

~KIT CHOW, All the Tea in China

“Tea beckons us to enjoy quality time with friends and loved ones, and especially to rediscover the art of relaxed conversation.”

~DOROTHEA JOHNSON, Tea & Etiquette

“Tea is the most popular beverage, after water, throughout the world.”

~LESTER MITSCHER, The Green Tea Book

***Update August 27th, 2012: My blood levels are good and even a little better than before. The hematologist has declared my T-cell LGL leukemia dormant. I think all the green tea I drink and the olive leaf extract I take has quite a bit to do with this. Not to overlook the power of prayer. The leukemia didn’t just go to sleep on its own.