For Ways Tea Improves Health Plus It Tastes Great!

Healthy things, typically, taste terrible. Tea is delicious, plus it is healthy for you! Tea is full of vitamins and minerals which promote good health. In addition, the great conversations that are produced when sharing a cuppa with a friend improves mental health; just that reason alone, is a good excuse to share a cup of tea with a friend.

In this post I am going to share on the benefits of tea in regards to arthritis, inflammation, depression, diabetes, and the immune system.  Defiantly do your homework as I am not a medical professional.

Tea for Arthritis and Inflammation

Green Tea has been found to be useful in controlling inflammation from injury or diseases such as arthritis. Green tea reduces inflammation in arthritis patients by reducing inflammation and slowing cartilage breakdown.

Tea contains compounds that may help reduce inflammation and help arthritis. Scientists at Case Western University in Cleveland took two groups of mice and gave them injections of a substance that causes immune reactions similar to those due to rheumatoid arthritis. One group had regular water to drink and the other got water laced with polyphenols, chemicals found in green tea and, to a lesser extent in black tea. Nearly all the mice that drank regular water got arthritis-like symptoms, compared to less than half of the treated mice.

Boston Globe, April 26, 1999

Researchers found that green tea significantly reduced the severity of arthritis. The researchers suggest that green tea affects arthritis by causing changes in various arthritis-related immune responses… Therefore, they recommend that green tea be further explored as a dietary therapy for use together with conventional treatment for managing Rheumatoid Arthritis.

NIH NCCAM, Spotlight on Research 2008

If you don’t like green tea, it’s probably because the tea was scorched.

Green tea is delicate, and can only stand being steeped for 3 minutes max otherwise it will turn bitter. After steeping for 3 minutes add a splash of milk you too will see that it is amazing!

Depression

Once sipping green tea you will notice a little pick-me-up. It is believed the reason for that feeling is L-theanine – which helps to combat symptoms of depression. Green Tea in conjunction with other practical relaxation techniques is known to help individuals from feeling like they are in a pit. I can testify to this personally, the tea that hooked me was a raspberry green tea.

L-Theanine is an amino acid found in green tea that has a soothing, calming effect on people who drink it. Drinking green tea containing theanine has been shown to stimulate production of brain waves known as alpha waves, these are seen when a person is in a relaxed state. It also alters levels of neurotransmitters in the brain such as serotonin and dopamine that can affect moods.

Women who drink tea are less depressed

Tea drinking… seemed to lessen depression. Compared with the 1,216 women who did not drink tea, among the 183 women who did, depression risk was about 36 percent lower. The vast majority of the tea drinkers — 90 percent — drank green tea.

Reuters January 2010

Elderly tea drinkers are less likely depressed

Elderly people who drink several cups of green tea a day are less likely to suffer from depression, probably due to a ‘feel good’ chemical found in this type of tea, Japanese researchers said. Several studies have linked drinking green tea to lessening psychological problems and Dr. Kaijun Niu, of Tohoku University Graduate School, and colleagues found men and women aged 70 and older who drank four or more cups of green tea daily were 44 percent less likely to have symptoms of depression.

Reuters, December 2009

 Diabetes

I suffer from PCOS. When I feel a carb overload, I instantly reach for Gentle Morning. It is a classic English Breakfast tea and helps me feel better almost instantly. (Tea is not a replacement for medication.)

Study links country’s black tea consumption and diabetes risk

Scientists studied black tea consumption in 42 countries and compared it to data from the World Health Organization on each country’s rates of respiratory, infectious and cardiovascular diseases, as well as cancer and diabetes. They found that, on average, a population that consumes double the amount of black tea has about one quarter less cases of diabetes. Ireland had the highest annual consumption at more than 2 kilograms per person, closely followed by the UK and Turkey. South Korea, Brazil, China, Morocco and Mexico were at the bottom of the list. Researchers admit that this study does not establish a cause and effect relationship between the two variables, but claim that the scope of the study and the robust statistical relationship will pave the way for further research.

Nutra Ingredients, Nov 2012

Green tea and grape seeds help control blood sugar

Data from Linus Pauling Institute suggests that green tea and grape seed extracts may act as plant-based alternatives to control blood sugar levels. They appear to inhibit actions of specific enzymes that are responsible for carbohydrate digestion, thereby controlling sugar levels and reducing the risk of suffering from cardiovascular or neurological complications. Scientists suspect that a specific catechin present in tea and grapes, called Epigallocatechin gallate or EGCG, may be responsible in large part for beneficial effects. Four percent of Europe’s population, or 19 million people, suffer from illnesses associated with type 2 diabetes. In the US, almost 24 million people live with diabetes, equal to 8 percent of the population.

Nutra Ingredients USA, Jul 2012

Tea can cut risk of type 2 diabetes

A study of European populations found that drinking tea was an effective way of reducing the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. It discovered that countries whose citizens are heavy tea consumers and drink at least four cups of tea per day have a 20 per cent lower risk of developing the illness. German scientists working on the study suspect that this beneficial effect may be caused by polyphenols contained in tea. They may lower the risk of type 2 diabetes by influencing glucose digestion, glucose uptake, and by protecting beta-cells from free-radical damage. The research was carried out in 8 European countries and included over twelve thousand type 2 diabetes cases. Average European tea consumption ranges from four daily cups in the UK to none a day in Spain.

Times of India, Aug 2012

 Immune system

Herbal teas are blends of dried fruit pieces. The drying process seals in the vitamin C and antioxidants in each element. We use herbal Iced Pouches as juice replacements as they are all natural with no added sugar. The Berry Blast tastes like Kool-Aid but doesn’t require any sweetener. Simple to make, pop one pouch in your container and it brews cold in your refrigerator.

Green tea protects kids from flu virus

A medical study from Japan shows evidence of a clear link between green tea consumption and reduced odds of catching the influenza virus. Scientists studied the effects of green tea on influenza in 2600 kids and found that children who drank five cups of green tea per week had significantly fewer cases of flu, compared to those who drank almost no green tea. Children who drank about one cup of green tea per day also had significantly fewer sick days from school. Green tea compounds catechins and theanine were found to enhance systemic immunity and interfere with viral replication. In fact, the results were so conclusive that scientists established that regular consumption of green tea is protective against influenza infections during the influenza season.

Daily Herald, Nov 2011

Tea helps fight infection

“The [study] results gave clear proof that five cups of tea a day sharpened the body’s disease defenses, said Dr. Jack F. Bukowski, a researcher at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and Harvard Medical School. Dr. Bukowski and his co-authors isolated a substance called L-theanine from ordinary black tea. He said L-theanine was broken down in the liver to ethylamine, a molecule that primes the response of an immune system element called the gamma-delta T cell.”

New York Times, April 22, 2003

Green tea helps bolster the body’s defenses.

“Drinking two or three American-size cups a day of green tea helps bolster the body’s defenses, especially as you age, suggests Lester A. Mitscher, PhD, professor of medicinal chemistry at the University of Kansas in Lawrence and author of The Green Tea Book: China’s Fountain of Youth”

Prevention, April 2003

Green tea could fight autoimmune disorders

Polyphenols founds in green tea may help protect the body autoimmune disorders, believes an oral biologist who has conducted extensive studies into their health promoting properties. Dr Stephen Hsu, a researcher at the Medical College of Georgia’s School of Dentistry, suspected that there may be a link between green tea consumption and autoimmunity after noting that dry mouth, or xerostamina, an autoimmune disorder suffered by around 30 percent of elderly Americans, occurs in only one to two percent of Chinese people in the same age group. Green tea is a common component of the typical Chinese diet. Autoimmune disorders occur when the immune system starts to attack the body’s own tissues. They may be triggered by other health conditions, such as type 1 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus and Sjogren’s disease, and can have debilitating and even life threatening effects. Dr Hsu will present the findings of his latest investigations, involving green tea’s role in producing autoantigens, at the Arthritis research Conference in Atlanta this weekend. Autoantigens are molecules that have useful functions, but changes in their amount or location can trigger an immune response.

nutraingredients-usa.com, 6/16/2005

Green tea fights superbugs

Green tea can help beat superbugs according to Egyptian scientists… The pharmacy researchers have shown that drinking green tea helps the action of important antibiotics in their fight against resistant superbugs, making them up to three times more effective… “In every single case green tea enhanced the bacteria-killing activity of the antibiotics,” [according to the researchers].

Science Daily, March 2008

Mechanism discovered for health benefit of green tea, new approach to autoimmune disease

One of the beneficial compounds found in green tea [EGCG] has a powerful ability to increase the number of ‘regulatory T cells’ that play a key role in immune function and suppression of autoimmune disease, according to new research in the Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University. EGCG may have health benefits through an epigenetic mechanism, meaning we aren’t changing the underlying DNA codes, but just influencing what gets expressed, what cells get turned on,’ Ho said. ‘And we may be able to do this with a simple, whole-food approach.’ Laboratory studies done with mice, Ho said, showed that treatment with EGCG significantly increased the numbers and frequencies of regulatory T cells found in spleen and lymph notes, and in the process helped to control the immune response.

Science Daily, June 2011