Cortisol Levels in Black Tea

Tea has been appreciated for its medicinal affects for thousands of years. It has only been recently that these positive attributes have shown up in Western medical journals, such as Medical News Today. Cortisol regulation is one of the things tha black tea does well.

University of London Study

• In 2006, researchers at the University of London discovered what appears to be a link between black tea consumption and human stress levels. Most of the discussion surrounding the relationship between cortisol and black tea comes from the results of this study.

Research Strategy

• The researchers took 75 men and gave half of them four cups of black tea per day. The other half received a placebo. The scientists measured the patients' heart rate, blood pressure and the presence of the stress hormone cortisol before, during and after a series of stressful tasks. The individuals' responses to their feelings about the stressful situations also were recorded.

The Results

• The study shows that the tea-drinking patients' cortisol levels feel dramatically (47 percent) within the first hour after the stressful activity as compared to a much slower return among the non-tea drinkers (27 percent). Although these results do not indicate that a tea drinker going through a stressful situation will recover more quickly, it does seem to show that these individuals will be able to recover from stress faster than others.