L-Theanine: Tea’s Amino Acid for Overall Wellness
Hello & Welcome to My World! Hope you all are well. I haven’t posted in two weeks because I’ve had a pinched nerve in my neck and have been unable to sit at the computer much, but I am beginning to feel better so I will work on this today. And before you ask, yes, I used “mostly” natural products to help it heal. I believe in practicing what I preach. 🙂
you should add probiotics to your natural first aid tree. If nothing else, your stomach will thank you.
This happened to me a few years ago and the doctor prescribed muscle relaxers and told me to take Aleve, but this time I substituted the muscle relaxer with Valerian root (which to the best of my knowledge is a natural muscle relaxer), but I took one Aleve per day with it. The last time it took two weeks or so to go away, and this time it also took two weeks to go away. While it is not completely gone, it is healing. It is no fun 🙁 ..
I know what caused this and will avoid doing the same thing in the future. I think I am still in my twenties when I begin to do something, but my body is definitely telling me otherwise… 🙂 At times, I get so frustrated, knowing I cannot do what I once could, but that is my life, and it beats the alternative… (If I could only learn how to control the stress in my life, I would heal much quicker.)
Now, I am sharing an article
on something that is in the tea you drink, and it is very healthy for you. Please enjoy the read and tell me your thoughts by leaving me a message below…
some morning stretches will get you up & about & feeling good. Then have a healthy cup of tea.
L-Theanine: Tea’s Amino Acid for Overall Wellness
Originally published on HVMN by Jamie Witherby.
Tea: coffee’s coy competitor in the cutthroat—yet throat-soothing—world
Green Tea has so many benefits for you; one of which is keeping your brain young; & it aids your immune system.
of hot beverages. Both provide daily stimulant boosts, both are great to share with a loved one, and both are steeped in rich and complex histories.
But popular teas (like green tea, black tea, and even tea extract and tea constituents) have something coffee doesn’t—an amino acid celebrated for its cognitive performance and wider health benefits: L-theanine (L-THEE-uh-neen).
If you have a cup of green tea or black tea in front of you, take a sip. Savor those tocopherols and flavonoids lending the cup its signature color and flavor. The tea leaves’ distinct bitterness is supplied by natural antioxidants knowns as catechins.
But there’s another flavor you should be experiencing. A pleasant mouth-
Were you aware that Earl Gray tea contains Bergamot?
filling sensation that creates a rounded and savory taste. Umami, often called the fifth taste after bitter, sour, sweet, and salty. Tea’s umami flavor is all thanks to the non-protein amino acid, L-theanine.
In this article, we won’t just stick to why tea is so tasty. We’ll talk about the positive effects L-theanine can have on your stress levels, cognitive performance, and cardiovascular and immune health.
Brain Boost
A healthy body starts with a healthy brain. L-theanine has proven itself to
Keep your brain young & healthy! Drink tea & Take nature walks to reduce your negative thinking.
be a powerful supplement for brain health by assisting with stress, sleep, attention, and memory.
So many of us are stressed out in today’s world that a cup of soothing tea could definitely help you. It certainly can’t hurt.
Stress and Anxiety
If you’ve ever brewed a cup of tea to decompress from a stressful day or
Depression, stress, anxiety… Are you plagued with any of these? When did this begin? Tea could help you.
share with an anxious friend, congratulations—you have fabulous instincts.
Researchers have found L-theanine can reduce our physiological stress responses by altering the behavior of neurotransmitters in the brain. But this isn’t a slow, thirty-days-to-better-behavior modification process. L-theanine is tough, immediately jumping on defense.
Taking L-theanine is like hiring a bodyguard for your brain.
Our brains balance activity through excitatory (upper) and inhibitory
Is something in your life overwhelming you, causing your stress, anxiety or depression? Can social media be making this worse? Also, do you eat healthy?
(downer) neurotransmitters. You’ve probably heard of some of the major excitatory neurotransmitters like dopamine and serotonin. But the balance can shift through an excess of these excitatory neurotransmitters and cause classic responses we’re familiar with: stress, anxiety, and activation of the sympathetic nervous system (also known as the fight-or-flight response).
Taking L-theanine to mimic gamma-aminobutyric acid (a neurotransmitter that blocks impulses between nerve cells in the brain) can inhibit these excitatory responses and ease their physiological stress responses, allowing you to enjoy lower heart rate, lower blood pressure, attenuation of the fight-or-flight response, and reduced cortisol levels (major stress hormone).
If the classic calming effect isn’t revealing enough, let’s pull back the covers on how deeply relaxing L-theanine can be.
Sleep
To catch some Zs, first we have to catch some waves.
During sleep, it’s all about theta waves and delta waves. Theta waves occur
Do you sometimes feel anxious or depressed? Or find it hard to remember things? Or do you have the joy of sleeping like a baby? Strength training may help you sleep better.
in the first stages of sleep and generate two distinct rhythms of greater amplitude and lower frequency than our waking beta waves. Delta waves are the lowest frequency, highest amplitude waves generated during the deepest stages of sleep. But right before sleep, when you’re still in that daydreamy, relaxed state, it’s all about your alpha waves. Your brain generates alpha waves during deeply relaxing activities, such as meditation.
But if you struggle to feel peaceful during meditation or get your mind to
My Handsome Mickey knows how to nap & meditate… Who’s more relaxed than a cat, especially when in sleep mode? We can learn from them…
achieve that quiet calm right before bed, L-theanine can take you there. Studies have shown that L-theanine can generate alpha brain waves in the parietal and occipital regions of the brain, leading to a prolonged calming effect. In a placebo-controlled study of young individuals with ADHD, L-theanine proved especially effective in helping them get to sleep and experience deep sleep.
Sleep problems are often a concern for individuals with ADHD, and L-theanine proved to be a safe and effective therapy to improve sleep quality.
Even if you don’t have ADHD, you may benefit from taking L-theanine
Do you sleep like your cat? You may want to try L-Theanine or Valerian root for a better night’s sleep.
before bed. However, drinking the amino-acid rich green tea before bedtime may not be the best idea though. Caffeine is a sneaky stimulant. Luckily, you can get all the tranquility of L-theanine without the caffeine boost by taking Yawn, HVMN’s non-habit forming sleep aid. In addition to L-theanine, Yawn contains other REM cycle saviors like magnesium glycinate, amino acid L-glycine, and the classic melatonin for better sleep quality.
Focus and Attention
L-theanine has the power to both calm you down in the evenings and
Are you self critical? Maybe something with a calming effect is what you need.
provide a boost in the morning. You know those days; poor sleep quality from the night before leaves you dull, each excruciating minute stretched out between sips of coffee. But all that coffee can have a negative build up, leading to a jittery, on edge feeling while desperately trying not to fidget during your conference room presentation.
If you’re ready to sacrifice the coffee, but not the caffeine, HVMN has Sprint to get your day going. This nootropic stack features L-theanine, caffeine, and the added bonus of ginseng to reduce your fatigue. Like the name, Sprint is made to get your mind moving quickly and keep it alert for up to six hours. It’ll provide you with that ideal mental flow to be focused, productive, and energetic without all the jitters.
The same amino acid
that ushers you into dreamland can also deliver an attentive state of mind. Multiple human studies show that consuming L-theanine can increase your focus, your reaction times, and your visual processing while reducing mental fatigue. Essentially, subjects in these human studies performed attention tasks better after taking L-theanine. Their overall mental performance improved.
Even when the mind is in a relaxed state and creating those alpha waves, it’s focused. Consider meditation: its goal is mindfulness, focusing on an inner calm. Meditating is a form of dialed-in concentration that also happens to be calming.
Memory
Maybe you’re a morning master, but you can’t remember the names of half
do you have a memory like an elephant?
your closest coworkers. Enter L-theanine, which can assist with memory.
To be clear: drinking a single cup of green tea will not suddenly remind you of where you left your keys. However, consuming L-theanine over time could help protect the neurons in your brain from injury or death to mitigate cognitive impairment and contribute to the development of your hippocampus (which, sadly, is not the future academic grounds of the large semi-aquatic African mammal). But it is the part of your brain responsible for storing memories.
Start young, and you could even stand a better chance against the oxidative damage and memory impairment of Alzheimer’s.
Oh, and remember how we talked about L-theanine reducing your cortisol levels? Cortisol can negatively impact memory retrieval. Reduce cortisol levels, and you may be able to retrieve those memories a little more easily.
We’ve touched upon what L-theanine can do for your brain, but let’s not forget about its benefits for your body.
Body Builder
L-theanine couldn’t let your brain have all the fun. So freshen up your tea, and let’s talk about what your new amino acid can do for your body.
Immune System
Unfortunately, L-theanine is not your cure for the common cold. But it has been linked to increased protection against the flu and a boost in your immune function when combined with another amino acid, L-cystine. This combination improves the production of Immunoglobin G (IgG), an antibody with a vendetta against infection, and glutathione (GSH), an antioxidant.
Antioxidants are valuable because they help our bodies remove free radicals.
Do you eat Healthy Food? Antioxidants, vitamins & minerals come from our food, & some will lower your BP ,as well as keeping your mood uplifted, & your brain & memory healthy.
Free radicals are these unpaired, unstable, thieving little molecules that steal electrons from our lipid cell membranes (also called lipid peroxidation). The theft causes tissue and muscle damage and contributes to some of the big name diseases out there: diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. L-theanine has demonstrated powerful antioxidative properties.
Cardiovascular System
Because antioxidants help us remove the free radicals that lead to
Do You have a Healthy Heart?
cardiovascular problems like heart disease, L-theanine can do some pretty amazing things for heart health.
Tea leaves from green tea and black tea on their own have been shown to improve cardiovascular health. And L-theanine sweetens the deal through its ability to mitigate blood pressure increases when the user undergoes acute stress. Translation? Less strain on the heart.
Supplementing with L-theanine
Not a fan of green tea or black tea? Healthy adults can safely and easily supplement L-theanine at a dosage of 100-200 mg per day, a staggering five to ten times higher concentration than what you’ll find in a cup of green tea.1 So even if you’re already pounding cup after cup of the umami taste bomb, you may not be enjoying all of its benefits…or at least not as efficiently. Consider supplementing with L-theanine to warm up for your day or to cool down at the end of it.
L-theanine hasn’t been linked to any adverse side effects or symptoms in the neuropharmacology sphere, but bear in mind that it should not be mixed with medications taken for high blood pressure because L-theanine reduces blood pressure. As with all new supplements and medications, consult with your healthcare provider before taking.
Last Drops
Whether you’re a coffee connoisseur or a tenacious tea drinker, your mind and body will enjoy the benefits of adding L-theanine to the mix. To recap, those are:
- Reduced levels of stress and anxiety
- Increased sleep quality
- Increased focus, attention, and memory
- Increased immune function
- Increased cardiovascular health
- Antioxidative properties
No matter what’s in your cup, we can all raise a glass to that.
I have left links in this article so you can find the original source if you want. I found this to be good information and I hope you do too.
Have a great healthy day!
Enhance Your Life with Mother Nature! Great for your Mind, Body & Spirit!