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Green Tea and Stress
Scientists the world over have confirmed that tea
produces countless health-promoting effects. But most people don’t
realize that the simple acts of making and drinking the brew may have
their own beneficial effects!
One Japanese study of more than 3,000 women over
the age of 50 who regularly practiced the Japanese tea ceremony found
that these women lived longer than those in a matched control group who
didn’t perform the tea ceremony.1 In a stressed-out world, it
appears that the calming and relaxing ritual of boiling water, adding
the leaves, inhaling the delicious aroma, and taking the time to sit
down and slowly sip the tea may be almost as beneficial as the brew
itself.
Of course, no one knows for sure whether it was the
tea ceremony or the catechins, theanine or other health-promoting
ingredients in green tea that relieved stress and prolonged the lives of
the Japanese women in the study.
What we do know is that stress is an
invisible killer that contributes to cancer, heart disease, stroke and
other deadly diseases. It unleashes a barrage of super-charged hormones
like epinephrine, norepineprine and cortisol that increase blood
pressure, release high levels of fat and sugar into the bloodstream, and
break down muscle tissue. Eventually, stress can overwhelm the body’s
immune system, leaving it vulnerable to disease. So keeping these
powerful hormones at moderate levels is crucial to maintaining good
health.
To test the ability of tea (in this case, black
tea) to do this, scientists measured levels of the stress hormone
cortisol in 75 healthy nonsmoking men.2 The men were divided
into two groups and given either tea or a similar, non-tea drink for six
weeks, after which they were subjected to stress-inducing tasks.
They found that those who had consumed the tea
produced lower levels of cortisol and were more relaxed overall than
those who had consumed the non-tea drink. The researchers concluded that
drinking black tea may be able to
speed recovery from the daily stresses in life and bring stress hormone
levels back to normal.
Tea break,
anyone?
(For more on
green tea's effects on stress, click here to read article on green tea's
stress-fighting ingredient, theanine.)
Footnotes:
1Sadakata
S, Fukao A, Hisamichi S. Mortality among female practicioners of Chanoyu
(Japanese “tea-ceremony”). Tohoku J Exp Med 1992; 166:475-77.
2Steptoe
A, Gibson EL, Vuononvirta R, et al. The effects of tea on
psychophysiological stress responsivity and post-stress recovery: a
randomised double-blind trial. Psychopharmacology (Berl.)
2007;190(1):81-89.
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Nadine Taylor, M.S., R.D. presents
GreenTeaLibrary.com,
the most comprehensive collection of scientific information
describing the health benefits of green tea.
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