Tea is mainly associated with the alternative medicine industry more than with contemporary science. And despite so many anecdotal records in history about its potential health benefits, tea remains lacking in solid scientific backing.
In a 2015 New York Times article, Aaron Carroll, a professor of pediatrics at the Indiana University School of Medicine, revealed his findings on the correlation of health and tea through meta-analyses. The data showed the significant potential of tea to help reduce the risk of liver diseases, depression, stroke, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases.
That makes it officially awesome to integrate tea consumption into your fitness routine.
“Research has shown the significant potential
of tea to help reduce the risk of liver
diseases, depression, stroke, diabetes,
and cardiovascular diseases.”
What You Need to Know Before Stocking Up
Sure, it’s easy to buy tea anywhere, even from your local convenience store. But if you want to obtain the maximum health benefits of drinking tea, you should make sure that what you’re drinking is really tea.
There are only seven varieties of tea: yellow, dark, pu’er, white, green, oolong, and black tea. All these varieties are derived from the plant called Camelia sinensis. Anything else that says otherwise is an infusion of different plant essentials.
What Are the Health Benefits of Tea?
The method of preparation is what makes the different varieties of tea. And each has its own pronounced health benefits. But for the sake of this article, you are going to focus only on their collective benefit. The following are some of the most impressive health benefits of tea consumption.
Tea Helps Lower Cholesterol
According to traditional Chinese medicine, Pu’er tea is great for energy loss, although this capacity is also shared by the other varieties. Per existing scientific studies, the presence of antioxidants called catechins in green tea, for example, assists with your body’s ability to burn fat as an energy fuel. This accounts for an increase in muscle endurance and for why green tea is perhaps the most popular variety of tea in the West.
Tea Is Good for the Heart
Patients who are susceptible to developing cardiovascular or heart diseases have been found to have reduced their uric acid and C-reactive protein levels after black tea consumption, according to a 2009 study.
In a separate paper, flavonoids, a compound rich in the tea plant, have been found to protect risks of developing hypertension.
Another research in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition suggests that drinking three to four cups of tea per day cuts down your chances of having a heart attack.
Tea Helps Prevent Cancer
The science on tea’s cancer-preventive capacity is as equivocal as its capacity to cure. However, the studies are abound, pointing to tea’s antioxidant properties and anti-inflammatory effects as key mechanisms for preventing the disease.
For instance, a systematic review on scientific literature in 2015 found that black tea is not linked to a reduced risk of endometrial cancer. However, a one-cup-a-day rate of consumption was linked to a reduction in relative risk by a measure of 11 percent.
Green tea was also associated with lower rates of cancer in the prostate.
Matcha tea, a derivative of green tea, is rich in antioxidants, which not only help your body build a strong immune defense and prevent cancer but also improve your mental clarity. Green tea helps mitigate various serious medical conditions like diabetes.
Tea Reduces Stress Levels
Stress is no easy foe. Stress not only adds to your body fat, but it also makes you age faster. Chronic stress produces more serious complications in your health and can be dangerous for your long-term health.
If you’re looking to integrate stress reduction in your diet, drinking tea is a great recommendation. Tea helps reduce the body’s cortisol levels (the hormones that you normally use during fight-or-flight situations), as shown in a 2006 study. Aside from bringing cortisol levels back to normal, tea also yields greater subjective relaxation.
Tea Helps Increase Focus and Concentration
In 2008, a study was conducted on the effects of combined caffeine and a naturally occurring amino acid called L-theanine, and it was found that they help improve reaction time, memory, and focus.
This makes tea a great beverage to help you calm down for an interview or get you focused during a test.
Tea Helps You Fight Allergens
A lot of people suffer from a common discomfort that comes with the spring blossoms. This is most commonly caused by allergic sensitivity to pollens present in trees, grass, weed, or airborne mold spores.
Fortunately, tea may just be that springtime concoction you need to get rid of this familiar irritation. Quercetin, a flavonol found in tea, is found to provide an antihistamine response, according to a Japanese study conducted in 2007.
Tea Reduces the Risk of Developing Dementia
Turns out, not only can tea help slow down the natural aging process and make you look younger but also mitigate the onset of dementia, a common neurodegenerative disease. Research in 2011 concludes that tea consumption helps increase your attention span and improve memory recall and acts on different pathways to lessen the risk of developing dementia.
If you care about your long-term health, drinking tea definitely sounds like a habit you should cultivate at a younger age.
The Bottom Line
Despite the fact that rigorous scientific studies on the health benefits of tea are insubstantial, there are clear research studies that point to tea’s unmistakable potential.
Explore and start reaping these benefits today.
Have you used tea for health and wellness?
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