Green Tea - An Herbal Wonder!

by: Patricia Zelkovsky

There are more than a hundred varieties of teas, but you may be surprised to learn that most teas have medicinal benefits, specifically green tea. If you are a tea drinker, you may be benefiting from its herbal tea remedies at this very moment. How about a cup of green tea as an herbal remedy?

Green Tea is fast becoming the tea of choice as one of several herbal tea remedies. Well known for its antioxidant properties, it also has anti-inflammatory and anticancer properties as well. According to Jennifer Warner, "...drinking green tea may also fight fat. A study showed that people who drank a bottle of tea fortified with green tea extract every day for three months lost more body fat than those who drank a bottle of regular oolong tea." If that isn't an incentive to drink green tea, what is?

You've had a stressful day at work. The heat is overwhelming, and you just want to get home and relax. Have a cup of green tea. It will calm your nerves; detox and de-stress your body. No doubt you've seen all of the new green tea products in your local supermarket. Lipton, specifically, came out with green iced tea. How terrific is that?

Continuing research on the beneficial properties of green tea to human health has produced several new findings. "Most notable is a study by Japanese scientists of the Saitama Cancer Research Institute relating the delay of cancer onset with the consumption of green tea. The study shows that early stage breast cancer spreads less rapidly in women with a history of drinking five or more cups of green tea a day. As a result, there is a lower recurrence rate and a longer disease-free period."

Green tea antioxidants have been shown to have a direct effect on lowering cholesterol levels as well. Green tea also causes carbohydrates to be released slowly, preventing sharp increases in blood-insulin levels. This promotes the burning of fat. Many scientists believe there is a connection between all of the components of green tea; and these combined properties account for its health-enhancing properties. Unfermented green tea leaves, by the way, are the most natural way to gain these benefits.

Did you know that green tea can even help prevent tooth decay? Just as its bacteria-destroying abilities can help prevent food poisoning, it can also kill the bacteria, which causes dental plaque. On another front, skin treatments containing green tea from deodorants to creams are starting to appear on the market. For those of you who have been drinking green tea for some time; good for you! It's time for the rest of you to consider its beneficial affects as well.

Patricia is a health focused content author, today helping you learn more about Green Tea Benefits

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Patricia_Zelkovsky

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Calming Effect of Theanine in Tea

Theanine is an amino acid which is present in tea plant (camellia sinensis). It cannot be found in any other plant except for one non edible mushroom. Green tea, black tea and oolong tea contains theanine.

Promotes alpha brain wave activity

Theanine is readily absorbed by the intestines and because it can cross the blood-brain barrier, it enters the brain and affects the neurotransmitters. The alpha brain wave activity, which can be measured at the back to the top of the head, increases at approximately 20 minutes after ingesting tea. A person is in a relaxed and calm state of mind when the brain is in this alpha state. The mind also becomes more alert, not drowsy as you may associate with a calm state. This state can last for up to four hours.

Brain waves

The frequency of our brain waves depends on our waking or sleeping state. From the deep sleep of 0.5Hz(cycles per second) to around 14Hz when fully awake. The following is a summary of our brain wave activities:

• Beta waves - approximately 14 cycles per second, occurs when we are fully awake. This is our normal conscious state.
• Alpha waves - between 8 to 13 cycles per second, occurs when we are awake but in a relaxed state. Meditation also produces this waves.
• Theta waves - between 4 to 7 cycles per second, occurs when we are in a light sleep.
• Delta waves - between 0.5 to 3 cycles per second, occurs when we are in deep sleep. Sleep walking and talking in your sleep are most likely to occur in this stage. This is also the stage where a person is hard to wake.

Beta waves have the highest frequency (cycles per second) but the lowest in amplitude (strength). It is also exhibits an erratic pattern because of conscious waking activity. As the waves become lower in frequency, it's amplitude increases.

Theanine can make your more attentive

Recent studies have shown that theanine can alter the networks in the brain responsible for attention and focus. That could mean better efficiency and productivity in accomplishing tasks. Our minds can easily wander by the multitudes of information and activity going on in our brain. Try to stop what you are doing for a while and examine your mind, what other things are you thinking? Many other things for sure with lesser focus. But if you're not paying much attention to the task at hand, your mind could easily give focus to those 'other things'.

Anxiety and stress reliever

Your worries will be put aside since theanine can put you in a relaxed mood. Theanine influences the formation of GABA (gamma amino butyric acid) which is an inhibitory neurotransmitter. GABA inhibits 'excitement' thereby inducing relaxation. GABA also influences the dopamine and serotonin neurotransmitters which are responsible for giving us a sense of well being and putting us in a happy mood.

Calming effect of tea

Tea also contains caffeine which 'stimulates' and it may enhance the attention and focus that theanine brings. However, the other effects of caffeine like elevating the cortisol levels and releasing adrenalines may not be beneficial for our health. Decaffeinating your tea can be a solution in bringing about the many good benefits of the other ingredients in tea like the antioxidants from catechins and the calming effect of theanine.

If you want to have a calm mind, heightened attention level, antioxidant protection from free radicals, and be in a good mood - consider drinking tea. Some people however don't like the taste of tea. An alternative way to ingest the benefits of tea is taking the extracted form like this green tea extract. It's a flavored concentrated liquid green tea extract combined with other herbs to give you all the benefits of green tea plus the added benefits of other herbs and it does not contain caffeine.

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Herbal Green Tea Extract

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How Long Does Caffeine Stay in Your Body?

As long as caffeine is in your blood, it's effects will also manifest.

The time it takes for the body to eliminate one half of a caffeine dose is normally between 3 to 12 hours. It is called the half-life of caffeine. Several factors can shorten or lengthen the half life of caffeine. Smoking, medications and diseases are some factors. Pregnant women have higher caffeine half-life, 18 to 20 hours - pretty much longer for the fetus since its organs are not yet fully formed to be able to eliminate caffeine easily. About 99% of the elimination process takes place in the liver.

The effects of caffeine can begin as soon as you swallow your caffeinated beverage or food. It easily enters the bloodstream through the stomach and the intestines. Noticeable effects can be experienced 15 minutes after ingesting and peaking at around 30 - 60 minutes.

If you regularly drink a cup of coffee or tea in the morning and another in the evening, you can expect to have caffeine in your blood every hour of the day. The effect of caffeine in your body will be active 24/7. Stress hormones are released by the adrenal glands because caffeine fools your body into thinking that you are in a stressful situation. It follows that your body is in stress mode 24/7. We cannot avoid it but we normally encounter stressful situations in our daily lives and ingesting caffeine heightens the stress effects.

We know that coffee and tea are rich in antioxidants and having these in our body gives us better protection against diseases. The irony is that coffee and tea also contain caffeine which may not be good if you take more than 250 mg (approximately 10 cups of green tea or 3 cups of coffee). Nausea, dizziness, headaches and irregular heart beats are some symptoms of taking too much caffeine.
Decaffeinated coffee or tea may be helpful although they are not totally caffeine free. At least only a little caffeine is left and you can drink more without having the symptoms of caffeine overdose and getting more benefits from antioxidants that these beverages contain. See the benefits you get from this decaffeinated herbal green tea .

An alternative to drinking decaffeinated tea is decaffeinating it yourself. See my earlier post: Decaffeinated Tea.

Caffeine and Tea

I'm including caffeine in my posts because is one of the components of tea. This is the start of several posts regarding caffeine.

How much caffeine does tea contain?

Approximate figures from the U.S. Department of Nutritional Services are as follows:

• Black Tea 25 -110 mg
• Oolong Tea 12 - 55 mg
• Green Tea 8 - 36 mg

The longer the tea is brewed, the higher the caffeine content in a cup will be.

Where else can caffeine be found?

• Coffee - A richer source of caffeine than tea.
• Soft drinks - Usually the colas. A 12oz cola has more caffeine content than green tea
• Cocoa and chocolates
• Pharmaceutical drugs - An example is Midol

Is caffeine beneficial for your body?

At low doses - less than 200mg - may be beneficial. It can improve alertness because it stimulates the nervous system - this could help students when 'cramming' for an exam-:)

At higher doses, the beneficial effects diminishes and the harmful effects sets in.

My personal experience with caffeine

I started drinking coffee when I was a teenager. From time to time, I experience my heart palpitating but it lasts for only a few seconds, it's not frequent though. I didn't know what caused it and I just accepted it as a natural behavior of my heart.

Later on I noticed that the more coffee I drank, the more frequent those palpitations manifested.

Another experience I had which I think I had a caffeine overdose was the time when my flight was delayed. The plane was scheduled to leave at 7:00 AM. With nothing to do at the airport, I drank around 8 cups of coffee in a span of 2 hours. It made me wide awake and felt refreshed. A few hours after I arrived home, I experienced the feeling of over fatigue that led me to sleep for 4 straight hours. What a waste of day time it was.

Caffeine and Tea

Tea contains many beneficial ingredients for good health. Antioxidants are one of them. The more tea we drink, the more antioxidants we ingest to our body which could equate to better health. But the caffeine in our blood also increases as we drink more tea.

Well I have good news for you. There is a way to cut the caffeine content of tea by up to about 80%. I'll show it to you in my next post. In the mean time why not check out this caffeine free herbal green tea, it's great for the health.

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How Long Does Caffeine Stay in Your Body?
Decaffeinated Tea
Herbal Green Tea
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Herbal Green Tea Extract

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Herbal Green Tea

We all know that green tea is beneficial to our health. One of its benefit is to increase the enzymes which belong to the glutathione S-transferase (GST) family (our internal antioxidants). These enzymes are responsible for modifying cancer causing molecules and render them inactive.

To get the full benefit of green tea, you must drink more than 3 cups daily and that would mean more caffeine intake. Some experts even recommend 8 to 10 cups.

Caffeine and the polyphenols in tea has some contrasting effects. One of which is that the polyphenols in tea may prevent heart disease but caffeine may increase the risk of it. I'll make a post on this later.

There are some products which extract the polyphenols in green tea and eliminates the caffeine content like this herbal green tea extract. Check it out and read more benefits from this caffeine free green tea.

I hope this would be a good tip for you.

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How Long Does Caffeine Stay in Your Body?
Decaffeinated Tea
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Herbal Green Tea Extract

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Vitamins C, E, and A Has No Effect on Cardiovascular Disease Prevention?

Confusing stories are spreading around basing from a 9 year study done on more than 8,000 people taking the antioxidants vitamin c, vitamin e and beta carotene. These stories states that these antioxidant vitamins does not prevent cardiovascular disease.

I believe that antioxidants promotes health. Preventing cardiovascular disease is just one of the many diseases which antioxidants can help prevent. It saddens me to know that stories discrediting antioxidants over pharmaceuticals are making the headlines.

Pharmaceutical drugs are made from synthetic materials and as such, it is not a 'natural' substance inside our body. I'm not saying that it's no good - many diseases have been treated with these drugs.

Antioxidants and vitamins like vitamin c, vitamin e and beta carotene - which the study focused on - can be found in fruits and vegetables meaning they are natural substances. Before the invention of drugs, people relied on fruits and vegetables for their nutrition and health needs. They utilized the natural defenses of herbs like black tea, green tea, oolong tea and herbal green tea which contain vitamin c and bioflavonoids

So why the stories on drugs over natural nutrients and antioxidants? Why confuse the public? Why the intellectual dishonesty?

Click the link below and find out.. The article clears the confusion. A must read

Unraveling the lies about the antioxidant study on vitamins E and C

A side note: Pharmaceutical drugs treats diseases which have already began. Antioxidants and vitamins however, prevents diseases from happening and even accelerating the recuperation process once the disease has began.

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