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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 10 of 10. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by laima on October 8, 2006, at 11:10:49
I saw this on BBC today- seems improbable- but perhaps I will experiment by switching from coffee:Black tea 'soothes away stress'
Scientists have evidence behind what many tea drinkers already know - a regular cuppa can help you recover more quickly from everyday life stresses.
The study of black tea - instead of green or herbal varieties - found it helps cut levels of the stress hormone cortisol circulating in the blood.They found people who drank tea were able to de-stress more quickly than those who drank a tea substitute.
The University College London study is in the journal Psychopharmacology.
Slow recovery following acute stress has been associated with a greater risk of chronic illnesses such as coronary heart disease
Professor Andrew Steptoe
In the study, 75 young male regular tea drinkers were split into two groups and monitored for six weeks.They all gave up their normal tea, coffee and caffeinated beverages, and then one group was given a fruit-flavoured caffeinated tea mixture made up of the constituents of an average cup of black tea.
The other group was given a caffeinated placebo identical in taste, but devoid of the active tea ingredients.
Stressful tasks
All drinks were tea-coloured, but were designed to mask some of the normal sensory cues associated with tea drinking (such as smell, taste and familiarity of the brew).
This was designed to eliminate confounding factors such as the 'comforting' effect of drinking a cup of tea.
Both groups were subjected to challenging tasks, while their cortisol, blood pressure, blood platelet and self-rated levels of stress were measured.
In one task, volunteers were exposed to one of three stressful situations (threat of unemployment, a shop-lifting accusation or an incident in a nursing home), where they had to prepare a verbal response and argue their case in front of a camera.
The tasks triggered substantial increases in blood pressure, heart rate and subjective stress ratings in both of the groups.
However, 50 minutes after the task, cortisol levels had dropped by an average of 47% in the tea-drinking group compared with 27% in the fake tea group.
Blood platelet activation - linked to blood clotting and the risk of heart attacks - was also lower in the tea drinkers.
In addition, this group reported a greater degree of relaxation in the recovery period after the task.
Complex drink
Researcher Professor Andrew Steptoe said: "Drinking tea has traditionally been associated with stress relief, and many people believe that drinking tea helps them relax after facing the stresses of everyday life.
"However, scientific evidence for the relaxing properties of tea is quite limited."
Professor Steptoe said it was unclear what ingredients in tea were responsible.
He said it was very complex, and ingredients such as catechins, polyphenols, flavonoids and amino acids had all been found to affect neurotransmitters in the brain.
Nevertheless, the study suggests that drinking black tea may speed up our recovery from the daily stresses in life.
"Although it does not appear to reduce the actual levels of stress we experience, tea does seem to have a greater effect in bringing stress hormone levels back to normal.
"This has important health implications because slow recovery following acute stress has been associated with a greater risk of chronic illnesses such as coronary heart disease."
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/health/5405686.stm
Posted by Meri-Tuuli on October 8, 2006, at 14:25:06
In reply to tea lowers cortisol??, posted by laima on October 8, 2006, at 11:10:49
Yeah I saw that study...
Well drinking tea can't be all that awful.
I have my doubts, well not doubts per se, but something...all this cortisol lowering.
But what are the effects re:mood?
I mean, do you actually feel like you have less cortisol? Does that mean you feel less stressed? Its so hard to objectify in an indiviual patient. I expect its hard to measure.
I mean, in people, the same person, you can never truely compare two stressful events - because time will have elapsed between the two events - and that in itself will influence the reponse to the second stressful event.
And mice...I mean...mice? Okay so they can measure these things in mice, but well, how applicable is that really to us humans? I mean, fine for broad stuff, but the finer stuff??? How can they judge the finer nuances of human experience re: cortisol stuff in mice???
Sigh.
Meri
Posted by nolvas on October 8, 2006, at 15:19:21
In reply to Re: tea lowers cortisol??, posted by Meri-Tuuli on October 8, 2006, at 14:25:06
It may lower cortisol but the caffiene in tea is enough to heighten my anxiety unfortunately. Still interesting though all the same.
Posted by psychobot5000 on October 11, 2006, at 13:34:10
In reply to Re: tea lowers cortisol??, posted by nolvas on October 8, 2006, at 15:19:21
Tea is often touted in China and elsewhere as being responsible for many, many health benefits--some of these claims are surely unsupported, but given tea's popularity as a beverage in most of the world, there actually is a lot of research.
Tea drinking cultures have long believed that largescale consumption of tea (as in a tea ceremony) can be relaxing, whether this is caused mostly by theanine or other chemicals. My own experience bears this out. I am sensitive to anxiety, and will not drink coffee, because it gives me jitters. Tea has something in it that changes the experience for me--makes smooth and relaxing as well as stimulating (my heart-rate still goes up). No idea whether this is connected to cortisol.
Posted by laima on October 11, 2006, at 15:20:54
In reply to Re: tea lowers cortisol??, posted by psychobot5000 on October 11, 2006, at 13:34:10
Interesting- your post reminds me of once hearing someone claim that the caffeine in coffee and the caffeine in tea are somehow processed differently in the body. She believed that coffee zapped right on into the blood to make a person jittery, and that tea was far slower and smoother. (No references or backing facts were offered.) So now I am wondering!> Tea drinking cultures have long believed that largescale consumption of tea (as in a tea ceremony) can be relaxing, whether this is caused mostly by theanine or other chemicals. My own experience bears this out. I am sensitive to anxiety, and will not drink coffee, because it gives me jitters. Tea has something in it that changes the experience for me--makes smooth and relaxing as well as stimulating (my heart-rate still goes up). No idea whether this is connected to cortisol.
Posted by Meri-Tuuli on October 11, 2006, at 15:36:17
In reply to Re: tea lowers cortisol?? » psychobot5000, posted by laima on October 11, 2006, at 15:20:54
Perhaps the action of caffine is the same in tea and coffee, but there are other substances involved - perhaps tea has other things in it to counteract the caffine or to promote more relaxation, or perhaps theres something else in coffee which is responsible for the 'jitters'. Is it theobromide or something...anyway.....
Kind regards
Meri
Posted by laima on October 11, 2006, at 15:50:54
In reply to Re: tea lowers cortisol??, posted by Meri-Tuuli on October 11, 2006, at 15:36:17
Well, that makes sense. I mean, caffeine is caffeine, isn't it? As you say, there must be some other factors involved, maybe tea has something to temper the jitteriness, or whatever. I think a cup of tea also has less caffeine than a cup of coffee--but I don't think that's what the person I was talking to meant, as we were drinking tea by the bucket while she was wired on some 2 cups coffee. I mean, I don't think that's the whole story here about this new aspect to the "tea mystery".
> Perhaps the action of caffine is the same in tea and coffee, but there are other substances involved - perhaps tea has other things in it to counteract the caffine or to promote more relaxation, or perhaps theres something else in coffee which is responsible for the 'jitters'. Is it theobromide or something...anyway.....
>
> Kind regards
>
> Meri
Posted by psychobot5000 on October 11, 2006, at 15:59:41
In reply to Re: tea lowers cortisol??, posted by Meri-Tuuli on October 11, 2006, at 15:36:17
> Perhaps the action of caffine is the same in tea and coffee, but there are other substances involved - perhaps tea has other things in it to counteract the caffine or to promote more relaxation, or perhaps theres something else in coffee which is responsible for the 'jitters'. Is it theobromide or something...
________The hypothesis that there are other active substances makes more sense to me than that the caffeine is somehow processed differently (how would that happen)...though I guess it's possible. There are in any case various other substances known of that appear in tea, though I think caffeine is probably the strongest.
1: Theanine--has been shown to promote 'alpha waves,' in the brain--associated with being awake but relaxed, as compared to 'beta' waves, which occurr when you're excited, or theta (light sleep) waves or delta waves ('deep' sleep). I've also heard it may increase GABA. I take it as a supplement for anxiety with some mild success.
2: Theophyline and theobromine--both methylxanthine stimulants (as caffeine is, though I believe it is considered stronger in many ways), and appearing in tea in smaller amounts than caffeine. Theophyline is used as a respiratory stimulant for asthma...theobromine I know little about except that it's poisonous to kitties (but not people).
3: polyphenols, flavonoids, and various other chemicals--there are many chemicals which fall into this class, EGCG' being most talked about. Apparently it's an antioxidant of great potency, as well as being a bit of a stimulant. One or several of these chemicals is responsible for inhibiting metabolism of dopamine by COMT. There's too much information on these for me to keep it straight.
There's actually a lot of information of this type about tea on the net, often done by japanese or chinese researchers. Much of the world tends to be interested in it, because they drink so much of it. It's claimed to be of much help for general health and well-being, weight loss, and various other concerns, and in many case there seems to be evidence to back it up.
Anyway, hope that's useful.
Psychbot
Posted by Meri-Tuuli on October 11, 2006, at 16:10:47
In reply to Re: other tea chemicals and claims, posted by psychobot5000 on October 11, 2006, at 15:59:41
Yes that was useful! Thanks.
COMT inhibition is a very good thing - I think Linkadge went through a stage of experimenting with various natural COMT inhibitors but I'm not sure what the upshot of his experimentation was. So you seem to think that tea (or a chemical within tea) is a natural COMT inhibitor?
I wonder what about the differences in tea, black, green, white? Well green tea is supposed to be full of antioxidants....
M
Posted by psychobot5000 on October 11, 2006, at 16:51:06
In reply to Re: other tea chemicals and claims » psychobot5000, posted by Meri-Tuuli on October 11, 2006, at 16:10:47
> COMT inhibition is a very good thing - I think Linkadge went through a stage of experimenting with various natural COMT inhibitors but I'm not sure what the upshot of his experimentation was. So you seem to think that tea (or a chemical within tea) is a natural COMT inhibitor?
I got part of my information from Lingadge's posts--he'd probably know much better about the COMT inhibition thing than I do. But I have read that EGCG (and probably other tea chemicals) is a COMT inhibitor.
Concerning which tea has the most chemicals, some essays I've read say that green (and moreso, white) teas generally have more of the healthful chemicals(catechins, polyphenols, flavonoids), os well as less caffeine. But I know I've drank some fine black teas that have a lot of -something- in them, something anxiolytic and different from coffee. Green tea, being less fermented (the more the tea is processed, the more the chemicals break down), is supposed to have more EGCG. White, being the last fermented type of green, is supposed to have a little more than other greens.
It also matters how you brew the stuff. Since I like my (green) tea brewed with water well below boiling, and steeped for only about a minute, I get less of the benficial chemicals than people who drink stronger brews.
Best,
Psychbot
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