Tea: Can Tea Reduce Your Stress Level?

Tea: Can Tea Reduce Your Stress Level?Copyright (c) 2007 Jon M. StoutGolden Moon Teahttp://www.GoldenMoonTea.comOur lives are busier today than ever. We work longer hours andhave hectic family lives, too. All of this activity can lead tohigher stress levels, and the physical symptoms that accompanysuch high stress levels.High levels of stress can lead to headaches, vision troubles,joint stiffness and other physical symptoms. Over time, thesesymptoms can turn into more significant physical problems. Longterm exposure to extreme stress causes serious back and neckproblems, psychological problems and even high blood pressure insome people.In addition, stress causes our bodies to release the hormonecortisol. Cortisol often causes weight gain; meaning that toomuch stress can often make you fat. There are two importantpieces 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 stresswherever possible. For example, does your high traffic commutecause you to arrive at work already stressed out? Considerpublic transportation, carpooling, working from home or alteringyour hours to avoid traffic.Is your family life too hectic with sports and activities?Consider reducing the number of activities your familyparticipates in. Keep the ones that bring the most pleasure, butallow your family a few nights at home with no activities.The second part of preventing stress from causing you physicaland emotional difficulties is managing the stress you can'tavoid. No matter how hard we try, none of us will be able tocompletely rid our lives of stress.So, get rid of stress where you can, but then learn to manage thestress you have left. How you react to stressors in your life iscritical, and it is something you can have some control over.Employing stress reduction techniques on a regular basis can havea powerful influence on your ability to manage stress. Some ofthe most popular stress reduction techniques include:Exercise - Not only is exercise good for the body, it's good forthe mind, too. Exercise can relieve physical symptoms of stresslike tight muscles and can relieve psychological symptoms, too,since focusing on the physical and rhythmic elements of exercisecan often relieve the stress that's weighing on your mind.Yoga and Stretching - Yoga and its relaxing stretches can be agreat way to soothe the mind and work out the kinks in the body.Like other forms of exercise, yoga helps free your mind from yourstresses and worries, too.Meditation - Many people swear by their meditation routine.Meditation teaches your mind to "turn off". Whether yourmeditation consists of 5 minutes of sitting in a quiet room withyour eyes closed or a more complex routine including music andguided meditation, it's a very successful stress reductiontechnique. When you teach your brain to "turn off' for a fewminutes, you'll also find that you've taught it to focus moreintently when needed. This can be beneficial when you need toconcentrate to work out problems.There are numerous other stress management techniques that workfor many people. Pilates, crafts and hobbies, music and dance canall be great ways to relieve stress. The key is making the timeto do the things that help you to cope with the stress in yourlife.Watch What You Eat and DrinkWhen you're under stress, your diet can either help or hurt you.Eating nutritious foods can make you feel better. On the otherhand, foods full of sugar and fat can weigh you down, making youfeel worse than before. So, eat a healthy diet to stay at yourbest even when stress is getting you down.Some studies have suggested that you can benefit from drinkingtea when you're under stress. In particular, a study conductedby the Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine and NaturalProducts in China studied the effects of tea on women understress. Fifty five Chinese women were studied over a period oftime while under a regimen of oolong tea. The women's stressorsand physical symptoms of stress were monitored.The women were divided into three groups. One group receiveddaily doses of oolong tea, one group received barley tea and thethird group received water. Barley tea is a very popular beveragein Asia and is made from barley kernels rather than the camelliasinensis plant, where regular tea comes from. Barley tea isconsidered to be an overall healthy beverage.During the study, participants received their test beverage twicein the morning and twice in the evening. They were also subjectedto work and deadlines designed to cause stress.The results of the study concluded that the women who consumedtea showed reduced signs of physical stress related symptoms likeheadaches, stiffness in the neck and back and eye fatigue. Thoseparticipants receiving oolong tea showed greater benefit thanthose receiving barley tea. However, participants receivingbarley tea showed greater benefit than the participants receivingwater.In addition to relief in physical symptoms, participantsreceiving oolong tea also showed a reduction in the amount ofcortisol released by the brain.This study's conclusions provide powerful help to those of ustrying to reduce the stress in our lives. Simply ensuring that wedrink tea on a regular basis may help us to cope with the stressin our lives more easily and may help us reduce the physicalproblems that go along with stress.We may even be able to decrease the amount of cortisol releasedby our bodies during stress, avoiding the weight gain that sooften accompanies periods of high stress in our lives.Tea is a delicious and healthy beverage. It has no side effectsand is generally well tolerated by everyone. There's no reasonwhy we can't all add tea to our diets to help us manage stressmore effectively.-------------------------------------------------------Jon M. Stout is Chairman of the Golden MoonTea 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