Green tea supplement ruins man's liver

I mean, I would hope so... There was an 80% mortality rate at that dose. That was the point of the study. They did large doses to see if there was serious toxicity, and there was. If we got 80% mortality rate at lower dosages we would be having a much different conversation right now. If you opened the study and read the rest of it, you would see there are cases of human toxicity at much lower dosages.

Recently, however, cases of hepatotoxicity have been associated with consumption of high doses of green tea-containing dietary supplements (10–29 mg/kg/d p.o.) (reviewed in Mazzanti et al.,2009). In nearly all cases, patients presented with elevated serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and bilirubin levels. In some cases, liver biopsies were performed and periportal and portal inflammation were observed.

So that's a dose of 850mg to 2.4 grams per day for my weight. That is well within reason for someone to take daily. Someone who weighs less would need to take even less.

Then there is this:

Although in most reports of hepatotoxicity, patients used concentrated extracts or ‘‘pill or capsule” dosage forms, there is a report of a 45-yrs old man who developed jaundice and elevated serum ALT following consumption of 6 cups/d green tea infusion for 4 months (Jimenez-Saenz and Martinez-Sanchez Mdel, 2006). The underlying reasons for this difference in sensitivity are unclear, but may be related to intra-individual differences in biotransforming enzyme relevant to metabolism of green tea polyphenols.

So 6 cups of green tea a day caused it in one person. Pair that with the other evidence we have, and there is cause for concern here. When this thread popped up, I wanted to write this all off as a unreasonable dosage or contaminant issue, too. Then I started reading into it more. Now I am on the fence about it.