Tea: Can Tea Reduce Your Stress Level?

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Article Title:

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Tea: Can Tea Reduce Your Stress Level?

Article Description:

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Our lives are busier today than ever. We work longer hours and

have hectic family lives, too. All of this activity can lead to

higher stress levels, and the physical symptoms that accompany

such high stress levels.

Additional Article Information:

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982 Words; formatted to 65 Characters per Line

Distribution Date and Time: 2007-03-13 10:24:00

Written By: Jon M. Stout

Copyright: 2007

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Tea: Can Tea Reduce Your Stress Level?

Copyright © 2007 Jon M. Stout

Golden Moon Tea

http://www.GoldenMoonTea.com

Our lives are busier today than ever. We work longer hours and

have hectic family lives, too. All of this activity can lead to

higher stress levels, and the physical symptoms that accompany

such high stress levels.

High levels of stress can lead to headaches, vision troubles,

joint stiffness and other physical symptoms. Over time, these

symptoms can turn into more significant physical problems. Long

term exposure to extreme stress causes serious back and neck

problems, psychological problems and even high blood pressure in

some people.

In addition, stress causes our bodies to release the hormone

cortisol. Cortisol often causes weight gain; meaning that too

much stress can often make you fat. There are two important

pieces to managing stress in your life.

The first piece to managing stress is reducing it where you can.

Take a look at your life and remove the things causing you stress

wherever possible. For example, does your high traffic commute

cause you to arrive at work already stressed out? Consider

public transportation, carpooling, working from home or altering

your hours to avoid traffic.

Is your family life too hectic with sports and activities?

Consider reducing the number of activities your family

participates in. Keep the ones that bring the most pleasure, but

allow your family a few nights at home with no activities.

The second part of preventing stress from causing you physical

and emotional difficulties is managing the stress you can't

avoid. No matter how hard we try, none of us will be able to

completely rid our lives of stress.

So, get rid of stress where you can, but then learn to manage the

stress you have left. How you react to stressors in your life is

critical, and it is something you can have some control over.

Employing stress reduction techniques on a regular basis can have

a powerful influence on your ability to manage stress. Some of

the most popular stress reduction techniques include:

Exercise – Not only is exercise good for the body, it's good for

the mind, too. Exercise can relieve physical symptoms of stress

like tight muscles and can relieve psychological symptoms, too,

since focusing on the physical and rhythmic elements of exercise

can often relieve the stress that's weighing on your mind.

Yoga and Stretching – Yoga and its relaxing stretches can be a

great way to soothe the mind and work out the kinks in the body.

Like other forms of exercise, yoga helps free your mind from your

stresses and worries, too.

Meditation – Many people swear by their meditation routine.

Meditation teaches your mind to " turn off " . Whether your

meditation consists of 5 minutes of sitting in a quiet room with

your eyes closed or a more complex routine including music and

guided meditation, it's a very successful stress reduction

technique. When you teach your brain to " turn off' for a few

minutes, you'll also find that you've taught it to focus more

intently when needed. This can be beneficial when you need to

concentrate to work out problems.

There are numerous other stress management techniques that work

for many people. Pilates, crafts and hobbies, music and dance can

all be great ways to relieve stress. The key is making the time

to do the things that help you to cope with the stress in your

life.

Watch What You Eat and Drink

When you're under stress, your diet can either help or hurt you.

Eating nutritious foods can make you feel better. On the other

hand, foods full of sugar and fat can weigh you down, making you

feel worse than before. So, eat a healthy diet to stay at your

best even when stress is getting you down.

Some studies have suggested that you can benefit from drinking

tea when you're under stress. In particular, a study conducted

by the Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Natural

Products in China studied the effects of tea on women under

stress. Fifty five Chinese women were studied over a period of

time while under a regimen of oolong tea. The women's stressors

and physical symptoms of stress were monitored.

The women were divided into three groups. One group received

daily doses of oolong tea, one group received barley tea and the

third group received water. Barley tea is a very popular beverage

in Asia and is made from barley kernels rather than the camellia

sinensis plant, where regular tea comes from. Barley tea is

considered to be an overall healthy beverage.

During the study, participants received their test beverage twice

in the morning and twice in the evening. They were also subjected

to work and deadlines designed to cause stress.

The results of the study concluded that the women who consumed

tea showed reduced signs of physical stress related symptoms like

headaches, stiffness in the neck and back and eye fatigue. Those

participants receiving oolong tea showed greater benefit than

those receiving barley tea. However, participants receiving

barley tea showed greater benefit than the participants receiving

water.

In addition to relief in physical symptoms, participants

receiving oolong tea also showed a reduction in the amount of

cortisol released by the brain.

This study's conclusions provide powerful help to those of us

trying to reduce the stress in our lives. Simply ensuring that we

drink tea on a regular basis may help us to cope with the stress

in our lives more easily and may help us reduce the physical

problems that go along with stress.

We may even be able to decrease the amount of cortisol released

by our bodies during stress, avoiding the weight gain that so

often accompanies periods of high stress in our lives.

Tea is a delicious and healthy beverage. It has no side effects

and is generally well tolerated by everyone. There's no reason

why we can't all add tea to our diets to help us manage stress

more effectively.

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Jon M. Stout is Chairman of the Golden Moon

Tea Company. For more information about tea,

(http://www.goldenmoontea.com/greentea)

green tea (http://www.goldenmoontea.com/blacktea)

and black tea go to http://www.goldenmoontea.com