Body Hacks: GABA Tea
This is the second installment of Body Hacks: Things you can do for yourself or consume that act as “power ups” in the game of life. Remember, I’m not a doctor so consult your doctor before doing anything ever.
This installment of body hacks features one of my best friends, GABA tea. I’m going to do my best to focus on the GABA more than the tea, as I am thinking of doing a whole post on high quality tea, although there is going to need to be a bit of tea talk to fully explain. GABA can also be taken as a supplement but I prefer it in tea form, for reasons I will explain later.
Ok, firstly, what is GABA?? GABA stands for gamma-Aminobutyric acid (way easier to just say GABA). According to a report by these guys GABA is a neurotransmitter which is chiefly responsible for controlling neuron excitability. Basically what that means, is that it is responsible for inhibiting feelings of over-excitability, anxiety, stress, tension, etc. It was even explained to me as a sort of opposite of sugar, which pretty much causes all the things I just mentioned. Another interesting tid-bit, in humans, GABA is primarily responsible for muscle tone.
GABA is primarily a neuro-inhibitor. When I briefly worked at a tea shop that carried GABA tea, I would explain this as something which controls and maintains the “electricity” in your brain. I’m definitely not qualified to say that it actually “calms the electricity” in your brain but that is definitely the sense one gets from drinking this tea— that the electrical storm of white-noise, stress, and distraction is dampened (not completely eradicated but softened). Now, GABA is not a narcotic; consuming GABA will not immediately relax you with a wave of opiate-like euphoria, nor will it inhibit your ability to operate machinery or drive or defuse bombs or whatever your day job entails. Think of GABA as a “brain lubricant”.
In the herbalist community, GABA is said to have “adaptogenic” properties. Your buddies over at www.wisegeek.com have this to say:
In order to be considered an adaptogen, an herb must have three traits. It must be nontoxic to the user, at least in any reasonable amount. It must also generate a nonspecific response, meaning that it does not target a specific region of the body, but rather benefits the body as a whole. In addition, adaptogens must help to create a state of balance or normalization in the patient, restoring the natural homeostasis of his or her body. In addition to helping your body adapt to stress, adaptogens also appear to be good for you; many of them are high in antioxidants, for example, which can help fight heart disease.
Basically, an adaptogen is something that helps your body with what it needs, whether it be fatigue, or anxiety. Thought of as a balancing agent, these adaptogenic herbs have been used for thousands of years in the east. I don’t know about you, but whenever I hear something like “thousands of years in the east” I get this warm feeling like I can be like all those enlightened gurus if I use what they surely used.
For lack of a sarcasm font, I’m going to go ahead and say I was joking right there and whenever you hear something like that, think twice and do your research because people throw that whole “used in Asia for centuries” thing around liberally to sell some bunk herbs and tonics. There is a lot of legitimate stuff in eastern medicine and I can personally say that I have benefited immensely from Traditional Chinese Medicine (I wouldn’t be writing this otherwise), but it would be foolish to think that just anything herbal and exotic is a magical elixir— regardless of what someone’s “Tibetan Lama” friend (who no one has heard of) said about it. Rest assured though, GABA is not snake oil. It’s not manna from the ethereal heavens either but it’s definitely an enjoyable addition to the day, with some science to back it up.
Random cautionary interruptions aside, GABA tea’s calming, focusing effects and adaptogenic properties make it great as a healthy coffee replacement and it is something you can sip on throughout the day without worrying about feeling like some sort of caffeine fiend, constantly drumming your fingers on your desk and yawning every 10 seconds (caffeine sensitivity may vary). Right now I work in an office. Although it’s not necessarily a clock-in, clock-out, rigid, eight-hour situation, I do spend a good amount of time at a desk and I do have to wake up early. This type of work is very conducive to GABA tea.
I think now is a good time to bring up why I have been talking about GABA tea and not just GABA supplements. First of all, it is a personal bias based on the fact that I much prefer plants to pills, regardless of whether or not it is pharmaceutical or herbal. My reasoning is as follows: when certain compounds exist in nature, they are usually contained within a web of other compounds that nature has chosen to package them with. It could be said that these compounds are in their original “context”, being balanced and tempered by the other compounds in the plant. This is the reason why people describe very different experiences when chewing coca leaves (mild energy and focus boost) than people who do cocaine (“LET’S DO THIS!!!). Same active ingredient, different context.
Often times, when the compound is in it’s natural context, it is delivered in tandem with things that nature has decided would be beneficial in terms of keeping things stable and subtle. Herbalist, James Green explains it way better in his book, The Male Herbal but to put it briefly, when you take the ingredient you want out of the plant and synthesize it in pill form, it loses it’s “support system” and becomes volatile and unpredictable (e.g. side effects).
Bringing the conversation back to the subject at hand, I feel that GABA is much better delivered to the body via it’s tea form. Tea has many health benefits, which I will explain in a later post, but most importantly for the purposes of this post, it contains L-theanine. L-theanine has been shown to increase dopamine levels in the brain. Also, incidentally, it is a GABA precursor! This means that it increases GABA levels in the brain. All tea cointains L-Theanine and therefore has a subtle boosting effect on in-brain GABA. With GABA tea, you basically have a one two punch of L-theanine and GABA—-BaBOOM!. Tea is already soothing to drink (believe me, it’s gotten me through many cold-calling sessions at work) and GABA is a wonderful addition to this experience.
So, naturally, the next question is “Where can I get GABA tea?” If you’re a little more reticent, you might be asking “What makes tea, GABA tea?” Let’s answer the second question. Japanese scientists found that when introducing tea (usually Oolong) to a nitrogen-rich atmosphere, the GABA levels in the tea are increased 5-10 times the original amount. Although it can be found all over the internet, for reasons of personal bias and sincere belief in the product quality, I recommend ordering from Mad Monk Tea. If you are in the San Diego area, you can come through and taste some at the shop.
GABA is not liquid enlightenment. It’s not going to make everything better but I will say, I have seen a noticeable difference in my stress levels when drinking this tea.
Hopefully you’ve enjoyed this installment of body hacks. Remember, I’m not a doctor so please consult one before you leave your house and do anything ever….because they should be in charge of your health and not you.
Where’s my sarcasm font?
