Caffeine Addictions
For the majority of my life, and most likely for many others as well, I’ve had a caffeine addiction. Without my morning coffee or afternoon Redbull, I’d get headaches and feel grumpy and easily irritable throughout the day. The thought of giving up caffeine never crossed my mind. It helps me focus, makes me more sociable, and of course, keeps me awake longer. But after I started averaging at least 2 energy drinks a day and still fell asleep, I decided to try to wean off the caffeine. After a few weeks, the headaches subsided, and I started to feel steadier throughout the day.
I was only able to do this thanks to my favorite drink: tea!
You probably hear about different teas every day, ranging from matcha to London Fogs to yerba mate. Usually, we drink tea when we’re sick, need a caffeine boost, or just want a yummy drink.
However, now that tea drinking has become a hobby of mine, I’ve discovered that natural teas can help a number of health issues you may have. Here are a few:
Need to Relax?
If you’re anxious or just stressed out, I recommend chamomile, peppermint, or lavender tea.
I’m not a fan of any of these flavors on their own, so I often pair my chamomile tea with some kind of berry tea. Chamomile has an ingredient called apigenin, which acts on the same brain receptors as benzodiazepines to help you relax.
While I personally don’t like peppermint, it helps with digestion, headaches, and relaxation. Like essential oils, the scent of peppermint calms your nerves. Thanks to the menthol, peppermint can help you breathe clearly and feel cool and refreshed all over the body.
Lastly, lavender tea is great for calming and even helping some people sleep. I like adding a plain black tea with milk and honey to my lavender tea, but sometimes the lavender taste can be a little overwhelming. The smell of lavender alone is helpful, but lavender tea can directly calm your nervous system and lower your blood pressure.
Tummy Issues?
Personally, my stomach always hurts. I start each morning with ginger tea and end the day with lemon tea, but hot water overall helps with bloating.
Ginger tea is excellent for digestion, and drinking it before or after meals helps with an upset stomach and bloating. Similarly, turmeric tea is used for its anti-inflammatory properties and tastes better paired with ginger or green tea.
A lesser-known tea, dandelion root, helps flush toxins from your liver, which then aids digestion further. This could taste very bland or bitter on its own, so I usually pair it with a berry tea (in my opinion, anything tastes good with berry tea). Lastly, before I go to sleep, I drink lemon tea; the citrus, which can also be found in orange or grapefruit teas, helps aid digestion. It’s a good drink if you want to wake up the next morning without feeling bloated.
Sleeping?
While melatonin may seem like one of the only natural solutions to better sleep, teas with catnip, mugwort, and valerian root can help a lot as well.
Melatonin tea is a great solution, of course, and relaxing teas like chamomile can help as well.
Catnip is a lesser-known sleep aid that calms and soothes stress and helps when you’re feeling restless or agitated. I like to mix chamomile, melatonin, lemon, and catnip together, since catnip doesn’t taste so good.
Another tea is valerian root, which helps you fall asleep more quickly and get better-quality REM sleep. It may also help if you have anxiety or trouble relaxing.
Last but not least, my favorite tea is mugwort. Though it doesn’t taste good on its own, it has many properties beyond helping with sleep. It promotes relaxation, but one of its coolest qualities is vivid, and sometimes lucid, dreams. Since mugwort helps with a deeper REM sleep, you are almost sure to have more dreams with mugwort–I always do. It has many other benefits too, as do many of these teas, but I recommend it most for sleep.
Period Cramps?
Many of the teas that help with stomach aches, like ginger or orange, also help with period cramps, but not always.
I recommend raspberry, nettle, vitex, and linden.
Raspberry tea helps the uterus and is often used during pregnancy due to its pain-relieving effects on the uterine muscles.
Nettle tea helps relax your muscles and is used to help with all sorts of pain and muscle cramping.
Vitex is used to balance female hormones, and I find it helps most in the days before my period begins. It can also help with menopause.
Lastly, linden tea helps reduce inflammation and stomach or heart pains. Raspberry tea tastes delicious and pairs well with any of these!
Sick and Congested?
Lots of sicknesses bring congestion, and while black tea with milk and honey works, it can get boring.
Licorice tea loosens mucus and is used for runny noses or a bad cough. I don’t like licorice, so I usually drink eucalyptus tea. Pairing this with peppermint tea is great for clearing airways, reducing mucus, and improving breathing. Elderberry tea, often paired with nettle, helps boost the immune system and fight off colds and other sicknesses. Ginger and green tea can help a little as well.
Craving Caffeine or Energy?
Many teas contain natural caffeine, such as matcha and black teas. My favorite is yerba mate, and while it can be bought in cans at the store, it can also be brewed as tea. If you drink enough, it can equal the caffeine in an energy drink. Many of these teas, usually black teas, contain L-theanine as well, which helps counteract caffeine’s strength. Some people use this to help them focus, but personally, I don’t find that it works. Yet if you want energy without caffeine, teas like ginseng, ginkgo biloba, and rooibos are good options. Ginseng is found in many energy drinks because it effectively enhances alertness. Ginkgo biloba helps with blood flow and clears your head from brain fog. Similarly, certain types of rooibos tea help clear the brain as well.
These are just a few of the many, many great teas out there, and almost all of them have several benefits other than listed. Green teas alone help with almost everything. I highly recommend the brand Traditional Medicinals, but many of these teas are actually quite easy to grow yourself. Warm water in general is great for digestion and recommended for women since we run colder, and every tea has helpful antioxidants.
Tea isn’t just like any other drink; it’s an ancient practice that people have been enjoying for centuries. It’s a reminder to slow down, be mindful, and take time to take care of your body. It’s like meditation or journaling or stretching- it’s important for us to take time to do seemingly unimportant things, because they help us be more present and calm and remember not everything needs to be taken so seriously.