Stress Relief 101

Reports regarding a study that insurance firm Direct Line commissioned recently appeared in several dailies in the United Kingdom and other places. It suggested links between stress relief and a cup of tea. The stress reduction is supposedly achieved two ways: through actual drinking of the tea and the relaxing effects of the tea preparation ritual.

Stress Relief – Does a Cup of Tea Help?

City University London psychologists Rita Michaels and Malcolm Cross did the research with the intent of measuring and better understanding the effectiveness of tea for causing calm during anxiety episodes. They likewise wished to dig deeper into the tea-making ritual as a form of stress management.

The background info for the study cited literature suggesting that drinking tea is tied to positive relaxation feelings and moods. Tea’s chemical properties have also been associated with increased brain alertness, helping to relieve stress, plus some cardiovascular system benefits.

The study used 42 volunteers, half were men and the other half women. Michaels and Cross obtained measurements along with other qualitative and descrptive results. There was one “before-and-after” experiment, followed by focus group discussions centered on tea and the participants’ related experiences. Researchers likewise inquired about the meaning of tea to them and how it made them feel as well as why.

Below are the research findings:

•    Nothing significantly different was observed in terms of anxiety prior to the mental stress activity between the two participating groups.
•    Differences however, later on were considered “marked and significant.”
•    The group that only had water to drink after the task displayed a 25-percent elevation in anxiety following the activity.
•    With the group that drank tea, there was a four-percent dip in level of anxiety.
•     Comments put forth during the discussions gave confirmation that the tea-making ritual and consumption does contribute to an overall effect of becoming stress free.
•    During the qualitative and focus group assessment, participants went on to say that they felt increased relaxation when drinking tea. They explained this with some sort of partition, wherein there seemed to be breaks from previous anxiety periods.
•    A volunteer commented that tea generated a moment for chilling out, and a line was drawn under a particular stressful incident.
•    Other participants admitted deliberately using tea to deal with stress.
•    A few of the tea group members said having tea prepared for them after a stress challenge established feelings of solidarity and communality.

Many experts remain skeptical of the study’s findings and are somewhat on the fence about supporting its conclusions. According to them, the study was relatively small in scope, it was not a blinded study – as both researchers and participants were likely clear about the subject of and reason for the test, and participants were not assigned to the groups at random.

Despite these comments, the study still does hold some significance. At present, and using what the researchers have published thus far, it is probably best for people to consider the study as being indefinite and not conclusive. The study on tea preparation as it relates to stress relief provides an interesting yet functional supposition for a bigger and more substantial clinical trial that involves a sample representative of the entire population.

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