Posted by psychobot5000 on October 11, 2006, at 15:59:41
In reply to Re: tea lowers cortisol??, posted by Meri-Tuuli on October 11, 2006, at 15:36:17
> Perhaps the action of caffine is the same in tea and coffee, but there are other substances involved - perhaps tea has other things in it to counteract the caffine or to promote more relaxation, or perhaps theres something else in coffee which is responsible for the 'jitters'. Is it theobromide or something...
________The hypothesis that there are other active substances makes more sense to me than that the caffeine is somehow processed differently (how would that happen)...though I guess it's possible. There are in any case various other substances known of that appear in tea, though I think caffeine is probably the strongest.
1: Theanine--has been shown to promote 'alpha waves,' in the brain--associated with being awake but relaxed, as compared to 'beta' waves, which occurr when you're excited, or theta (light sleep) waves or delta waves ('deep' sleep). I've also heard it may increase GABA. I take it as a supplement for anxiety with some mild success.
2: Theophyline and theobromine--both methylxanthine stimulants (as caffeine is, though I believe it is considered stronger in many ways), and appearing in tea in smaller amounts than caffeine. Theophyline is used as a respiratory stimulant for asthma...theobromine I know little about except that it's poisonous to kitties (but not people).
3: polyphenols, flavonoids, and various other chemicals--there are many chemicals which fall into this class, EGCG' being most talked about. Apparently it's an antioxidant of great potency, as well as being a bit of a stimulant. One or several of these chemicals is responsible for inhibiting metabolism of dopamine by COMT. There's too much information on these for me to keep it straight.
There's actually a lot of information of this type about tea on the net, often done by japanese or chinese researchers. Much of the world tends to be interested in it, because they drink so much of it. It's claimed to be of much help for general health and well-being, weight loss, and various other concerns, and in many case there seems to be evidence to back it up.
Anyway, hope that's useful.
Psychbot
poster:psychobot5000
thread:692962
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/alter/20060817/msgs/693878.html