Comments on: Green Tea Allergy?

By: Craig

Craig — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:26:16 +0000

Now this site is interesting. I have had what I thought was a random breathing problem for years. It normally hit me when I was home (I work out of town) and I had always associated it with the air near home, a nearby factory or something. Or stress. I could find no other correlation.

And this morning I woke early, jet lagged and drank a green tea - which I (re)started drinking a few weeks ago. I felt quite nauseous. And then I realized my latest bout of breathing problems started a few weeks ago also. It is hard to describe, I can breathe ok, enough to go for a run or whatever, but I just always seem to be breathing at 95%, and then every 5 mins (or more frequently when I am aware of it) I really need to have that “proper” breath, where you can catch your breath fully. Sometimes yawning helps (true).

And then later this morning I had another green tea and realized it had become worse. So I googled my way here. As for many in this blog, I’m fine with coffee. So ok, no more green tea for a few days and let’s see how it goes. I had booked a chest x-ray and lung function test for next week, so here’s hoping it’s an easy solution to an old mystery (for me).

Thanks for the blog.

By: Jackie

Jackie — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 15:55:32 +0000

I had pretty bad allergies when I was younger and have been really healthy for the most part in the past 3 years, so I realize more quickly than others when it’s an allergic reaction and not just feeling sick.
But, I got sick over the winter and they had free tea at my school on thursdays.. When I drank the tea I felt even sicker, but thought it was just the sickness I had.
Today I got a smoothie w/ a green tea additive and got really sick, let’s just say it’s probably a detox for me. I don’t like the taste, but I keep on going back (antioxidants they claim!) and that was a baaad idea. Glad to see I’m not the only one.. I didn’t know it was possible to be allergic to tea and really wish I could figure out what part of the tea I’m allergic too. I drink caffeine in coffee and soda, so I know it’s not that unless like someone said above, the caffeine is molecularly or something different.

By: smartmatch

smartmatch — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 03:56:32 +0000

i’ve always had this same weird reaction, maybe an allergy (i have actual allergies to cats which are much more severe), to any kind of tea (green, black, herbal) it’s very mild so i used to actually wonder if i was imagining it but it always happens, i get mildly achey (joint discomfort and stiffness, not pain) and itchy and slightly irritable. happens with a lot of different “herbal” things, including the illegal ones ; ) also ginseng, etc.
coffee is fine, so it’s not the caffeine. definitely happens with green tea. i never heard of anyone else getting this from tea.

By: Craig

Craig — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 13:07:04 +0000

My girlfriend brought back a “blooming” green tea ball from China that we prepared and drank. The next day I was covered in hives, my joints ached, and I felt lethargic. I have never been allergic to anything before in my life, so this was a huge surprise to me. Needless to say, I am not drinking anymore of that stuff.

By: Dan S.

Dan S. — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 00:50:59 +0000

Lots of stories here: here’s mine: if I drink tea (green or black, though green tea may have the strongest reaction) on a not-full enough stomach my whole body starts to rev up after an hour or so and I start throwing up. Then, after I’ve done that, i feel fine. Coffee does not give me this reaction. My stomach my get upset from too much coffee, but not in the same way. Tea may also be linked to a feeling of fatigue, but that’s hard for me to evidence. I would note a few things, apologies if people have already noted them: there’s a heck of a lot of chemicals in green tea. But the big “unique” one is EGCG. Green tea has more of this than most other foods do , and it’s this chemical that induces the cell-death of cancer cells and lots of other good things. Its also the chemical that pregnant women are warned against, because it can be too much of a good thing for a fetus. Perhaps, it’s also this chemical that some people are responding negatively too. Also, just a reminder, red-tea is not from the same plant as green, black, and white tea. It’s from a plant popular in South Africa and Botswana, not camelia sinensis.

By: Kelly

Kelly — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 11:47:58 +0000

It would be great if a doctor or doctors were to peek in on our forum here and try to provide some actual medical feedback. While clearly we all know we’ve experienced the symptoms we’ve discussed, reception when discussing them with our individual practitioners doesn’t always appear to provide an acceptable response.

By: Damian

Damian — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 21:43:56 +0000

Hey glad i found this!!! I was entralled with matcha green tea for quite a while and started out drinking the starbucks green tea latte. Loved the stuff and couldnt get enough! I had no reacton to it then one day i was getting my hair cut and started feeling hot and woozy and spinny i really cant describe it! I wrote it off as a virus thing at first and continued drinking it (in martinis! ) again i thought i was fine. Knowing how much i loved ths stuff my hubbby bought me a green tea latte powder for my birthday from Japan I was thrilled! that was until i had an iced version of it the next morning! I was shopping and started feeling hot flashes i thought it was the store! i sat in my car for the longest time and felt horrible I was afraid to drive and freeked out my hubby ! I finally got things under control but when i got to work the wooziness started again i had to get some benedryl and was fine after that! Now howver i am super scared to eat or drink things new which bums me out because i am totally a foodie I really want to know what causes this specifically I talked to my doctor and she was no help at all!

By: Debbie

Debbie — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 13:52:29 +0000

I decided today as part of a weight loss strategy to start drinking green tea. I had my first cup, and it was very tasty. 10 minutes later, I had to lay down to fight nausea and broke out in a sweat. No problem with coffee or cola. Has to be the tea. It’s been about half an hour, and I’m OK. Started searching for answers on Google, and looks like I’m not alone. Well, back to coffee and diet Coke!

By: John

John — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 00:09:52 +0000

My problem is exactly like what Mary described above on June 9th. My rash is red, raised, and very itchy. I thought it was eczema spreading like wildfire down my legs as I do suffer mildly from it on my hands but this was a little different. I too ran out of green tea and hadn’t bought any to replace in a while…noticing my skin did get some better. I bought a case of green tea and almost instantly after I started drinking it again, BAM!…the rash was back. I haven’t had this reaction to coffee or other teas. To be safe, I’ve stopped ingesting anything with caffeine. It has been four days now and my rash is almost completely gone. I hope it stays gone! This is something I’ve suffered with for about 2 years and had been to dermatologists only to get creams that temporarily work. I hope so much this is the true cure. Thank you.

By: Linda W

Linda W — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 02:15:24 +0000

Interesting to see how many folks have a reaction to tea, esp. green tea. I am allergic to green tea, black tea, and rooibos tea. I first discovered that tea was what caused a chronic cough when black tea showed up as an allergen on skin tests, producing a wheal.
I posted twice about tea allergy on my blog and got a few comments. One writer pointed out that tea contains nicotine! For a scientific study on nicotine content of certain vegetables and tea, see http://pubs.acs.org/cgi-bin/abstract.cgi/jafcau/1999/47/i08/abs/jf990089w.html.