Drinking Matcha Japanese Tea Reduces Anxiety: Study

Do you live a very stressful life? Do not worry, Japanese Matcha tea will come to your rescue because researchers have discovered that it has various health benefits, such as reducing anxiety.

Published in the Journal of Functional Foods, the mouse study found that rodent anxiety was reduced after eating Matcha powder or Matcha extract.

According to the researchers, the soothing effects of tea are due to the mechanisms that activate dopamine D1 receptors and serotonin 5-HT1A receptors, two factors closely related to anxiety behavior.

"Although further epidemiological research is needed, the results of our study show that matcha, used for many years as a medicinal agent, could be very beneficial to the human body," said Yuki Kurauchi, lead author of The study, from Kumamoto University in Japan. .

"We hope that our research on matcha will have beneficial effects on health worldwide," said Kurauchi.

For this study, researchers performed a "High Plus Labyrinth" test – an anxiety test for rodents – and found that anxiety in mice was reduced after consuming Matcha powder or of Matcha extract.

In addition, when the anxiolytic activity of different extracts of Matcha was evaluated, a stronger effect was found with the extract derived from ethanol at 80% compared to the extract from only hot water.

Matcha is the finely ground powder of new leaves from Camellia sinensis green tea bushes grown in the shade (90% shade).