A 28-year-old woman from London was left on an IV drip in hospital after developing heart palpitations caused by drinking matcha tea once a week for six months. Lynn Shazeen, a nurse, began consuming matcha as part of a diet to reduce inflammation, but after three months she started experiencing fatigue, feeling cold, and occasional heart palpitations.
When her symptoms worsened, Lynn went to hospital where blood tests revealed her iron levels had nearly halved, dropping from 23 to 13. Doctors diagnosed her with anaemia and administered a detox IV along with iron supplements to restore her levels.
Lynn, who has a history of anaemia, said: 'It was the only change I had made to my diet and daily routine. Myself and my doctor worked through every possibility but it became clear that the matcha was the cause.' Research supported by the National Institutes of Health has found that green tea, including matcha, contains catechins that can interfere with the body's absorption of iron from food.
Lynn has since stopped drinking matcha and now only consumes regular tea, alongside iron and vitamin C tablets to boost her iron levels. She said: 'As soon as I saw that my iron levels had dropped from 23 to 13, I knew immediately that it was the matcha that had caused it.'
