Stressed Out – L-Theanine

Ever wondered why your job is so stressful? Or that you haven’t gotten enough sleep due to partying with your friends, even though you were supposed to finish that essay for that one class you signed up for and now you are typing away to meet the deadline and turning it in. Or even better… the two p.m. slumps.

Well, it might be because your L-theanine is a bit low. However, there are many ways to make sure that you get a boost of energy even though you feel tired and you are probably drinking it right now. Green tea seems to help us when we are overly stressed and when it’s nice and hot, we feel relaxed and whatever stress we hold onto melts away. However, L-theanine can also stimulate the brain and overall make you feel good, as well as blocking out certain neurotransmitters in your brain.

Try Green Tea

 

If you are wondering about the benefits of green tea, you can look at many Google searches and they will tell you different things about the health benefits of drinking green tea. However, they will say the same thing that is truly effective. That green tea can help your central nervous system function properly. Even though green tea has the same properties as coffee in the caffeine department without the extra “jittery” effect.

Green tea can be effective as it can make you more productive but can also give you more stable energy, while improving your brain to function properly. There is even a study that green tea can protect your brain when you are older. And that it may help lower the chances of getting Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease. Both are very common neurodegenerative diseases that can be prevented by the various protective effect by drinking green tea. Not only that but it can also balance out the two neurotransmitters that are a key essential to having a healthy brain activity.

 

Neurotransmission

There are two types of neurotransmitters in our brains that work together to make sure that we are functioning properly. They are Glutamate and GABA. Both are mostly located in the brain’s neuro system as they are together and bringing a balance to our system. Glutamate’s function is to make our brain fired up and ready to learn new things. As well as being an important part of our brain development.

But when there is too much Glutamate in our brain, we become very hyper-aware of our surroundings, neurological inflammation, and anxiety. But when we add L-theanine to Glutamate, the Glutamate’s neurotoxicity is lowered by the L-theanine supplement. But the only way to counteract Glutamate is with GABA. GABA or Gamma-Aminobutyric Acid is the body’s main neurotransmitter that is responsible for our cells.

 

Chill Out

 

It’s basically the “chill pill” for our central nervous system. This neurotransmitter counteracts with Glutamate, which is very hyper; while GABA is very relaxed. Not only GABA calms downs our central nervous system, but it also gives us a much-needed restful sleep when we are exhausted from a long day. And when we are done with exercising, GABA helps our muscle tissue regenerate. GABA seems to know when we need to rest our brains from burning out and crashing hard on the couch after a long stressful day at work or school.

The best way to describe how GABA and Glutamate work together is to imagine your body as a car. Glutamate is the gas where we have to go from one place to the other and GABA is the brakes where we have stop and rest a bit. And when we add L-theanine to the mixture, it’s a sense of an added booster to our body and central nervous system to not only be relaxed but also have a bit of energy to go out on our daily day to day life.

But there is always still going to be stress in our lives if we don’t control it. Stress can be caused by many things that we all go through. Sometimes it can be something small like deadlines on projects that you are preparing for, that one exam that you have to take in class, or trying to find a job.

Those give us minor headaches that we have to step back a bit and take a deep breath. Other times stress can be something major like having too many commitments that we can’t handle, having poor organization skills, or even having a very highly stressed job. These major stressors can cause us to have high blood pressure and heart disease that we have to go to the doctor to get a prescription or even see a therapist so we can calm our mind down.

L-Theanine

 

Going back to L-theanine, it is proven that L-theanine can help us relax a bit in stressful situations. An animal study showed us what would happen when L-theanine is in the blood system of rats. Those rats that are treated with L-theanine are more relaxed in a stressful situation than those that are not treated.

With L-theanine, it is proven that this supplement has beneficial properties to help us calm down our central nervous system but also makes us feel a bit better in our day to day lives. We all deal with stress differently as there are certain things that help us alleviate it and even help us get better if we continue to do the things we love.

 

Conclusion

Whether it is taking a walk, writing down in a journal, exercising, seeking some professional help if things get way too hectic or doing a hobby that we love; stress is always going to be there within us, but only we can control it with the right ingredients.

Therefore, whenever you feel overly stressed from working too hard, having way too many plans that you can’t commit, or feeling very low on energy. Remember to stop and breathe a bit as you get into your comfiest clothes, put on a movie or binge-watch a series on Netflix, and make yourself a cup of hot green tea. Then when you are all comfortable on the couch and when you take that first sip, not only your body; but your brain will thank you for that break in your hectic daily life.

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Reduce Excessive *FOOT PRONATION & POSTURE* with Custom Foot Orthotics | El Paso, TX (2019)

 

 

The following video discusses how excessive foot pronation can ultimately affect foot posture and mobility. Several factors can affect foot posture and mobility, such as excessive foot pronation. Excessive foot pronation is most prevalent among the general population, therefore, it is considered to be one of the most common factors for abnormal foot posture and mobility, which can lead to a variety of health issues like overuse injuries. Excessive foot pronation and even supination can ultimately affect overall health and wellness.

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What’s Afoot

Foot Dysfunction can very easily cause a domino effect that extends all the way to the back. The feet are the foundation of the body and when there is a problem with the way they function it can cause the entire body to shift out of alignment. For instance, overpronation of the foot causes a series of internal changes that extend up through the leg. The femur may rotate causing hip pain and inflammation of the sacroiliac joint which leads to back pain. Other misalignments in the body that are caused by foot problems can also lead to chronic lower back pain as well.

 

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NCBI Resources:

Researchers at Japan’s Kyoto University found that drinking green tea could help prevent deadly abdominal aortic aneurysms. They believe that the beneficial compounds in green tea are polyphenols, a type of antioxidant that fights free radicals and reduces inflammation. The polyphenols also appear to make arteries stronger and more flexible by regenerating elastin, an essential protein that makes arteries stretchy, yet sturdy. Green and white teas contain large amounts of EGCG, a powerful antioxidant linked to a lower risk of heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and numerous types of cancer. A study at Japan’s Okayama University found that senior citizens who drank large amounts of green tea slashed their risk of dying from heart disease by as much as 76 percent, and a Chinese study found that drinking green tea cut the risk of lung cancer by two-thirds.

 

 

Cited:

10 Proven Benefits of Green Tea: www.healthline.com/nutrition/top-10-evidence-based-health-benefits-of-green-tea#section2

10 Proven Benefits of Green Tea: www.healthline.com/nutrition/top-10-evidence-based-health-benefits-of-green-tea#section5

Glutamate (neurotransmitter): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glutamate_(neurotransmitter)

Gamma-Aminobutyric acid: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamma-Aminobutyric_acid

Stress: Why does it happen and how can we manage it?: www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/145855.php

Effects of L-Theanine on Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Induced Changes in Rat Brain Gene Expression: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25165739