Health Benefits of Tea: Lesson Two: Black Tea Helps You Recover Quicker From Stress and Keeps You on Track

Today’s guest post is again courtesy of Ani, founder of the California Tea House, an online tea store where you can find some of the world’s best loose leaf tea blends and Organic Herbal Teas.

The first Monday after New Year’s my gym was packed. Not a single cardio machine available during lunch time. A place where since July of last year all through the winter holiday, any machine you laid eyes on was waiting for you to stretch its own legs and uncreak its bones. But by the last week of the month the spirit of the gym-enthusiasts fizzed away as we see how hard it actually is to make it to the gym four times a week, or to refuse that delicious slice of cheese pizza when you have friends over watching football. The gradual fall off the wagon begins to add stress to our lives as we realize that as the first month of the year comes to an end, so does our confidence in maintaining our resolutions.

That’s where black tea magic comes in. Studies show that we can get back on track by drinking black tea to recover more quickly from the stresses of everyday life. According to a study by researchers at the University College London, scientific evidence shows that black tea has an effect on stress hormone levels in the body.

Published in the journal Psychopharmacology, the study found that individuals who drank tea were able to de-stress more quickly than those who drank a fake tea substitute. In addition, the study participants – who drank a black tea concoction four times a day for six weeks – were found to have lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol in their blood after a stressful event, compared with a control group who drank the fake or placebo tea for the same period of time.

In the study, regular tea drinkers were split into two groups and monitored for six weeks. 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 – the control group – was given a caffeinated placebo identical in taste, but devoid of the active tea ingredients.

Both groups underwent challenging tasks, while their cortisol, blood pressure, blood platelet and self-rated levels of stress were measured. 50 minutes after the task, cortisol levels had dropped by an average of 47 per cent in the tea drinking group compared with 27 per cent in the fake tea group.

UCL researchers also found that blood platelet activation – linked to blood clotting and the risk of heart attacks – was lower in the tea drinkers, and that this group reported a greater degree of relaxation in the recovery period after the task.

Professor Andrew Steptoe, UCL Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, says: “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. . . . [T]ea 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.”

Some great black teas to try are Golden Monkey Paw, Yunnan Golden Buds, and for a little flavor, Vanilla Creme Earl Grey at www.CaliforniaTeaHouse.com.

Now that we are able to de-stress ourselves by drinking black tea, we can hop back on the wagon and keep our goals intact.

Be sure to read Ani’s previous post on the benefits of green tea.

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Tagged as: black tea, california tea house, Stress