A Darned Good Cuppa
By Hannah Isom
Here in Britain, we are renowned for insisting that a cup of tea is the solution to most of life’s problems, and by Jove it looks like we were right on the money! New evidence has been brewed up this week, claiming a cup of tea is enough to reduce the stresses of modern life.
Scientists from University College London, have just unveiled this Nobel prize-worthy data after months of painstaking tea supping in one of the first studies to assess tea with a double-blind, placebo-controlled, all-singing, all-dancing experimental design. The study, published in the Journal of Psycopharmacology, assessed 75 young, male tea drinkers and found that people who drank tea were better at de-stressing than those who drank a ‘fake tea substitute’.
The investigation was all very complex and scientific. Participants were forced to give up their regular caffeine fix and were given either black tea, or a caffeinated control drink, which lacked all the magical tea ingredients, four times a day for 6 weeks. The drinks were also ‘disguised’ by removing the sensory cues associated with regular tea to eliminate the confounding ‘comfort’ effect of a damn good cuppa.
Volunteers were then exposed to mock stressful situations which included the threat of being sacked, being accused of shoplifting, and a rather ambiguous ‘incident’ in a nursing home. These situations all increased the subjects’ heart rate, blood pressure and general stress levels. 50 minutes after the task, levels of the stress hormone, cortisol, had fallen a whopping 47% among the tea-drinkers, compared to a paltry 27% among the placebo group. There was also evidence to suggest that tea could even decrease your risk of having a heart attack, thought presumably not if you spill it on your crotch whilst watching telly.
As ground-breaking as the revelations were, scientists are still a bit puzzled as to what ingredients are responsible for the zen effect. Tea is full of loads of stuff like catechins, polyphenols, flavonoids and amino acids, all of which do funny things to the chemical messages in your brain. Researchers now plan to investigate these ingredients further, and may also choose to look into the added benefits of biscuit-dunking.
To read more about Hannah or to view more of her articles click here
Scientists from University College London, have just unveiled this Nobel prize-worthy data after months of painstaking tea supping in one of the first studies to assess tea with a double-blind, placebo-controlled, all-singing, all-dancing experimental design. The study, published in the Journal of Psycopharmacology, assessed 75 young, male tea drinkers and found that people who drank tea were better at de-stressing than those who drank a ‘fake tea substitute’.
The investigation was all very complex and scientific. Participants were forced to give up their regular caffeine fix and were given either black tea, or a caffeinated control drink, which lacked all the magical tea ingredients, four times a day for 6 weeks. The drinks were also ‘disguised’ by removing the sensory cues associated with regular tea to eliminate the confounding ‘comfort’ effect of a damn good cuppa.
Volunteers were then exposed to mock stressful situations which included the threat of being sacked, being accused of shoplifting, and a rather ambiguous ‘incident’ in a nursing home. These situations all increased the subjects’ heart rate, blood pressure and general stress levels. 50 minutes after the task, levels of the stress hormone, cortisol, had fallen a whopping 47% among the tea-drinkers, compared to a paltry 27% among the placebo group. There was also evidence to suggest that tea could even decrease your risk of having a heart attack, thought presumably not if you spill it on your crotch whilst watching telly.
As ground-breaking as the revelations were, scientists are still a bit puzzled as to what ingredients are responsible for the zen effect. Tea is full of loads of stuff like catechins, polyphenols, flavonoids and amino acids, all of which do funny things to the chemical messages in your brain. Researchers now plan to investigate these ingredients further, and may also choose to look into the added benefits of biscuit-dunking.
To read more about Hannah or to view more of her articles click here
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