On my Wake Up And Smell The Coffee post I had a great question from Caroline. She posed:
Oh, by the way, does the same thing happen with tea? I am sure you are aware of the English habit of offering a person a cup of tea when they are feeling crappy.
I knew there had to something behind it. I just didn’t know what. So I enlisted the help of my buddy Ellie over at The Transparent Hypnotist. True to form, she sent this information back to me.
Hi Debbie,
Glad you asked about tea. It does indeed help with stress. According to a study by the University College London (2006), black tea helps lower cortisol (the stress hormone) levels that develop during stressful situations. The test group felt the benefits of relaxation much sooner during the recovery time after a stressful situation as well.
Ellie
So there you have it. Thanks Ellie!
Well, I guess I won’t giggle anymore when my granddad offers me a cup of tea 🙂
I tried and tried to acquire a taste for tea….but it’s just never going to happen….it’s just to…..bleck
I’m a gourment coffee person 100%
I really doubt that it is due to the chemical substance that stress symptoms are reduced – I think it is rather the presence of another person and/or the process of drinking a nice cup of tea and thus concentralting on something different = relaxing is the true reason. Black tea contains the same coffeine as coffee and is stimulating – not settling.
@ Petra,
I understand your thoughts regarding the caffeine. I do agree that another person makes a difference. However the studies back up what Ellie said:
Black tea soothes away stress
4 October 2006
Daily cups of tea can help you recover more quickly from the stresses of everyday life, according to a new study by UCL (University College London) researchers. New scientific evidence shows that black tea has an effect on stress hormone levels in the body.
The study, published in the journal Psychopharmacology, found that people who drank tea were able to de-stress more quickly than those who drank a fake tea substitute. Furthermore, 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.
The rest of this article can be found at: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/media/library/tea
@ Alan,
I soooo get that! If you read my post on Friday you know of my love affair with that liquid Xanadu!
I love tea! I think it really does relax me. I used to think it was all psychosomatic, but now it looks like there’s a real effect.
Tea and stress. Hmmm…might work better than the vodka. 😉
Maybe that is why when my workers see that I have forgotten my nightly thermos of coffee they run for the hills! LOL
ive stopped drinking coffee for some time now, and maybe i could try tea for some fix. atleast to help me get some stress off my body.
Nice post Debbie. I used to drink a glass of red wine each night before I went to bed. But it didn’t feel right so I started to drink tee instead. I think its better. 🙂
I can’t let the negative comments about tea go unchecked 🙂 If you think tea is …. bleck, you aren’t drinking the right stuff. Let me guess – Liptons? You need to explore the world of gourmet tea 🙂