L-Theanine – a Great Answer to Stress

People often ask me why Zen Life decided to put L-Theanine in our Stress Management supplement and the short answer to that is simple; the Japanese. Okay, maybe that’s too short.  So here’s the long and skinny on L theanine and why we believe it should be included in natural supplements for anxiety.

The story begins with green tea.  Everybody’s heard of the benefits of green tea, haven’t they?  You can’t walk two feet in a health food store without seeing boxes of green tea, green tea gum, green tea cookies, green tea ice cream, you get the idea.  Originating in China and embraced in Japan green tea has been consumed for literally thousands of years for both medicinal reasons and pure enjoyment.

While the FDA to date has not endorsed the multitude of healing virtues attributed to green tea (i.e. reduces stress, fights cancer, heart disease and obesity) most natural minded folks are willing to give the thousands of years of general good health in Japan due consideration. The problem doesn’t really lie with the lack of government approval it lies more in the question, who drinks that much tea?  I mean, really?

I know there are herbal tea enthusiasts out there (I’m sure I may be hearing from some of them soon) but honestly, how much needs to be consumed in one day to reap some of the alleged benefits of green tea?  I’ve seen reports ranging from 2-3 cups a day to what the Japanese themselves drink, more like 20.  20 cups of green tea a day?  Let’s get real, that is so not happening.  I don’t even drink 20 cups of coffee a day and I am a self proclaimed coffee addict!

Enter L-theanine.

In the year 1950 in Kyoto, Japan (here comes the part about the Japanese) the amino acid L-Theanine was successfully extracted from the Guokuro green tea leaf.  L theanine has the ability to cross the blood-brain barrier, it has been shown to increase alpha brain waves (the quiet, meditative brain waves), promote stress relief and increase the production of GABA in our brains.

In our search for ingredients that have a long history of promoting calm and good health the isolation of L-Theanine from green tea leaves is of utmost importance.  We can, in essence, insert all of the calming goodness of green tea into our natural supplements and give you the ability to go through your day drinking your beverage of choice, no worries.  It’s a beautiful thing and it’s all due, like I said, to the Japanese.