I will say one thing, without tea, I honestly feel I would have a hard time recovering as quickly as I do, and I would also have an incredibly hard time staying as alert and on top of it as I do when I am sick. I go as far as to recommend tea for anyone who is sick, because I truly believe it is a great way to go about recovering. Tea in my mind does some huge things which help people recover from illnesses, especially colds.
- Tea is mostly water, while there have been misguided claims that tea contributes to dehydration, most teas, especially those brewed at a lower leaf to water ratio, will help keep you hydrated.
- It is well known for helping promote awareness, and has caffeine to help keep you awake. So should you be sick and still need to get stuff done, tea may not make you 100% but it will help you be a little closer to 100%.
- Its warm, and steamy, the warmth and steam can help clear up any clogs you might happen to have in your sinus passages.
Again I am not claiming tea is some sort of miracle drug, and I am a firm believer that tea can not stop you from ever getting sick, but when you are sick, I most certainly believe that tea will help you recover quickly, or if not, at least make you feel better on your way to recovery.
5 comments:
This is an interesting topic. I have used to drink a lot of tea when sick - however, since I have started drinking quite often, my body just does not accept tea in sickness... it makes my stomach hurt and I do not feel the desire to drink tea at all. Strange...
Jakub
I, too, have found that tea definitely helps. If ever I have GI distress, I will usually brew up a fennel tisane.
Colds and whatnot, I will usually switch over to the greens for the extra boost.
It's interesting what Jakub had posted. Maybe it's a psychological thing: so much tea was consumed during sickness, that now the body associates the two?
Jakub,
I am wondering, if you might be drinking a tea brewed too strong on an empty stomach. I know a few times if I brewed a strong black tea first thing in the morning before I had a chance to have breakfast I would often feel quite ill.
Centranthus,
I usually brew lighter, and brew teas that are not all that special. I do not want to waste any good/ exceptional teas on myself when I am sick.
I think it may be the thing with empty stomach - and as I mostly can't eat too much when ill, it could be a part of the problem.
Actually, I have no problem drinking roasted oolongs when ill. However, the desire to do so (or to drink shengpu, which doesn't do me very well in illness) is not present, which is rather strange.
Well, human body is such a complicated beast that I'm glad it works at all :)
I've had many of these same thoughts and reactions myself. I think that the benefits of breathing in the warm, humid vapors coming off the tea are huge. When I was younger I had a tendency to get sinus infections, and I think when I made a deliberate effort to drink more tea and herbal tea, and to really savor the experience of drinking it, breathing in the hot vapors, I stopped getting sinus infections as often, and they often started going away on their own without me having to go to a doctor.
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