Black and green tea
Tea is a universal drink for maintaining health and restoring strength. It has a complex healing and prophylactic effect, affecting all physiological systems of the body.
This action is usually mild and non-specific, in other words, it leads to a general improvement in health, to an increase in the adaptive abilities and resistance forces of the organism, to an increase in life expectancy, etc. By analogy with ginseng, eleutherococcus and other plants, tea can be called a “small” adaptogen.
According to current data, to fully manifest the prophylactic effect of tea, at least 5-6 cups should be drunk daily, and to obtain a pronounced healing effect – 6 to 10 cups. In this case, the tea should not be very strong (especially in some diseases) and should be warm, but not hot (so it is better absorbed). Green tea has the most pronounced healing effect, and black tea is slightly weaker.
The caffeine in tea (which is much milder than that in coffee) has been shown to lower the levels of lactic acid, glycogen and other metabolic products that reflect the degree of muscle fatigue and exhaustion. This also explains the beneficial effects of tea on the heart – it makes it more resilient and protects it from a heart attack. In addition, the tea has P-vitamin activity, thanks to
which strengthens the walls of vessels and capillaries and makes them more flexible and elastic.
Another of its valuable properties is that it not only prevents the deposition of fats and fat-like substances (lipids) on the walls of the vessels, but also destroys the already accumulated fatty plaques.
And that’s not all: tea normalizes the functions of the cardiovascular system as a whole. It slightly accelerates blood circulation and dilates the vessels of the brain and heart, normalizes blood pressure and removes some unpleasant symptoms associated with this disease – for example, migraine-like headache (in this case, tea should be combined with aspirin or paracetamol).
In vegetative neurosis and hypotension (low blood pressure) it is good to drink a little stronger black tea.
Tea has the ability to purify the blood – the polyphenols in it actively bind and remove carcinogenic substances from the body. In addition, tea strengthens immunity, which significantly reduces the risk of a number of diseases.
The ability of tea to remove radioactive and other harmful substances from the body increases if it is combined with rose hips and honey (it does not matter in what form the rose hips are taken – decoction, syrup, etc.). Doctors recommend drinking tea during or after a long sitting in front of the TV or computer monitor (they also have a weak radiation).
The properties of tea to relieve all cold and flu symptoms and speed up recovery are well known. This effect is significantly enhanced if the tea is combined with herbs (linden, mint, thyme, etc.), honey and lemon.
For the treatment of colds, tea can be used in unlimited quantities, the principle being: the more – the better. Care should be taken only in the presence of high fever. In such cases, tea should not be abused as it overloads the heart and kidneys.
Tea is a natural stimulant for the nervous system, which exerts a moderately tonic, but quite prolonged effect.
It has a tonic effect on the entire human nervous system – both on the central and peripheral departments. For example, tea significantly shortens reaction time because it speeds up both the processing of information in the brain and the transmission of nerve impulses.
It should be noted that, compared with coffee, the stimulating effect of tea is more uniform and prolonged. The tonic effect of the coffee occurs in the first 1-2 hours after its intake, reaching its maximum in the first hour. The tonic effect of the tea lasts about 6 hours, reaching its maximum (slightly lower than coffee) in the first half hour, after which it stabilizes and very slowly decreases over the next 4-5 hours.
Another feature is that tea has not only a short-term but also a long-term tonic effect on the nervous system. It is no longer due to caffeine, but to the complex of vitamins (mainly B) and trace elements contained in the tea. This action harmonizes the nervous system as a whole, normalizes its activity, makes it more resistant to strong and unexpected stimuli.
Tea is a mild psychostimulant that enhances and accelerates many mental processes: it sharpens the work of the analysts (especially vision) and increases the general sensitivity and receptivity of the nervous system; increases the speed of reactions; aids the absorption and memorization of new information; facilitates the concentration of attention and improves its stability and distribution; accelerates the thought process and is specifically related to creative thinking and the generation of new ideas.
Today, the term “stress” is widely used. Generally (though rather inaccurately) this word is used to describe the reaction of a person to any strongly adverse environmental impact. Stress can be both physiological and psychological (emotional).
To combat stress, plants called adaptogens are successfully used – ginseng, eleutherococcus and some others. Tea also belongs to the plants possessing adaptogenic effect, although slightly weaker.
The anti-stress effect of tea is expressed as follows:
- tea acts as a “quick help” in sudden stress, for example when a person receives extremely bad, traumatic news;
- tea is a good prophylactic and increases general tolerance to both physical and emotional stress (one becomes less sensitive to various stressors and
- extreme conditions); tea increases endurance, increases the time of resistance against stress and delays the onset of the exhaustion phase (some specialists are of the opinion that in the stage of
- active struggle with stressors caffeine is harmful because it stimulates and accelerates the “burning” of the body’s resources);
- tea is also useful after stress, because it successfully compensates for the spent vitamins and trace elements and restores strength.
Depression is quite a serious disorder and only a doctor can make such a diagnosis. But in everyday life, we are used to defining depression as any more permanent lowering of mood.
In medicine, antidepressants are called drugs that improve the mood background. Tea is also a kind of antidepressant and moderately increases this background.