Posted by KaraS on August 17, 2004, at 20:43:17
I copied part of this post from another site to get people's reactions to it:
"... I think I've discovered something! I read on a site somewhere that green tea contains something called "catechins". As well as being antioxidant, they stop noradreneline (the neurotransmitter responsible for energy and alertness) from being broken down. Here's a good link that explains the "science bit": http://www.drumlib.com/dp/000018A.htm"So I thought I'd try it. And the result is, I stopped taking SJW 10 days ago, and I feel FINE! I started out drinking 2-3 cups a day, and felt OK. Then yesterday I started on some caffeine-free standardised extract, and got a real boost from that. The effect for me is softer and more mellow than SJW. I feel alert, but also relaxed. (I thought I would try a supplement because it might contain less theanine, as well as less caffeine. Theanine is an amino acid found in green tea that is supposed to be calming, but when I tried it as a supplement a few weeks ago I felt terrible - tense and withdrawn. Though the tea doesn't make me feel like that, I thought that any theanine in it might be making it less effective)."
Anyway, I followed this person's subsequent posts and with a few additional weeks, she is still feeling great and attributing it to the green tea catechins. Could something like green tea possibly have that much effect or do you think it's in large part the placebo thing?
-K
poster:KaraS
thread:378901
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/alter/20040815/msgs/378901.html