I buy these things but I wonder if they are truly pharmacologically-active and not just bullshit. Discuss
Super real.
Lavender has a wonderful sedating effect. I like to science, so I vaped some essential oil once upon a time… very nice calming effects that make you want to sleep, but that doesn’t knock you out. Great sleep, nice and cozy.
There’s limited hard science becasue what’s the incentive??
But thousands of years of use in practice, so that says something.
But thousands of years of use in practice, so that says something.
Could be placebo
Quacks always forget that for thousands of years we died to stupid bullshit, all the fucking time.
Modern medicine is a big reason we have 8 billion people now, instead of a few million.
Agriculture and penicillin are largely responsible for the population boom.
I vaped some essential oil once upon a time…
Isn’t that generally ill-advised? Or are there essential oils that are safe for that?
Extremely ill advised. I’m amazed it didn’t kill him.
You don’t inhale random things to see what happens what the hell is wrong with you.
Where’s your sense of adventure?
I made an educated guess that my lungs wouldn’t melt and my brain wouldn’t shut off. It worked, was nice, might try it again.
There are essential oils I would dare do this with, but in terms of bronchial irritation and LD50, lavender oil is pretty tame.
No, no. He said it’s science
The incentive is a publication on your CV.
The problem is that people don’t know how to search for scientific articles, and aren’t versed in understanding what makes a study a good one.
Nearly all “alternative medicines” have been scientifically studied. The difference between them and regular medicines are that the real medicines have a clear clinical benefit.
A worthwhile thing to keep in mind whether it’s for tea, supplements, or whatever, is that medication is based on things that were observed from “natural” sources.
For example, willow bark was/is/has been used for pain and inflammation. It also contains salicin which is similar to acetysalicylic acid, which you’ll know better as aspirin.
Does that mean all the things people say do a thing work? Not at all. Do some of them have varying degrees of effect of some percentage of people? Yes.
Not bullshit but not magic either.
For example, L-Theanine is psychoactive, lots of clinical support for that.
Additionally, I would say that the ritual around “sitting down and having a nice relaxing cup of lemon & ginger tea” has some calming benefits in itself - even if those benefits are not from the ingredients in the tea.
Ya, maybe the bullshit part was a bit excessive as a rhetorical flourish 😳
For example, L-Theanine is psychoactive, lots of clinical support for that.
Which one is that in, and how much?
I drink a ton of this shit, as far as I can tell it’s just warm and tasty.
Green Tea is one of the best natural sources of L-Theanine I think.
It’s available as a refined “supplement”. I have no idea how much L-Theanine there is in Green Tea vs the refined supplement, and no idea how efficacious the supplement is.
Also no idea in which circumstances you would notice any benefits. The thing about anxiety and stress is that it’s an umbrella term that describes a bunch of different conditions each of which can be caused by a multitude of different issues. Who knows which of those issues L-Theanine might mitigate.
It’s often recommended if you’re going through withdrawals. I’ve heard it recommended for people stopping caffeine (harder than it sounds) or even SNRIs.
Yes! The ritual and opportunity to reflect while drinking tea is probably more potent?
(Why am I still on my phone while drinking my 4th cup of tea? Fuck…)
Give skullcap a try if you can find the extract or a tea, that one worked super well for me to help get to sleep
What do you think or Yogi-brand teas?
I haven’t had a lot of luck with that brand, but I know it’s popular so maybe some do. Bigelow Stress Free is one that has skullcap and worked well for me. But it’s a bit hard to find :/ which is weird because I actually really like the flavor too (rose and mint.) Rather than stress relief I use it as a sleep aid though - it’s more of a “lets you sleep” than “makes you sleep” which I like.
They literally have:
- Calming
- stress relief
- Restful sleep
And I’m pretty sure its all like the same shit :/
Maybe it is, but that shit really helps me
As Tim Minchin said:
Do you know what they call alternative medicine that’s been proven to work?
Medicine.
Water has memory and whilst its memory of a long lost drop of onion juice seems infinite, it somehow forgets all the poo it’s had in it.
I mean, a natural medicine doesn’t cease to exist after a pharmacologist “discovers” its use. Willow tree bark is used to make asprin but there are still warnings out there that there is no scientific proof of its efficacy.
Maybe the medicine derived from salicylic acid is the only effective thing about it, or maybe other presently unknown compounds contribute in a way that will later be used to develop a new medicine.
Valerian root for example has been proven in animal studies and other clinical trial to have some effects, and possibly interact with GABA receptors but the mechanism is unknown and it is still described as having no science to back up its uses, despite being similar to Willow in history.
I’m not saying this to encourage people who go 100% naturopathic and might swear that all modern medicine is a poison. Just want to include some nuance in a conversation thats is often way too extreme in its convictions either way.
You are absolutely right, but I wasn’t talking about natural medicine, but alternative medicine.
Are you talking about specifically tea, or are you talking about tisanes, in general?
It depends completely on the plant, the processing (if any), and other factors. I know nothing about lemongrass but St Johns Wort for example is GABAergic, acts on serotonin and dopamine, and under controlled trials shows clinical significance.
Placebo is one of those factors and it can be a MASSIVE factor. Conversely, nocebo, the opposite of placebo shows that if patients do not believe something will work, even though it’s shown highly significant clinical success, chances of it working on them are far less.
I remember going to a tea shop years ago. The person working there asked if I wanted one of the samples they had. The conversation went like this:
“It’s good for heart health, your liver, and getting rid of toxins.”
“Does it taste good too?”
“Oh yeah. Of course.”
“Ok. Let’s start there.”
Tea can do many things but it’s not medicine. That’s stupid.
Whatever the heck lemongrass actually does, it sure tastes delicious
It never seems to get its own one-man show, its always lumped with at least like 5 other ingredients so I can’t isolate it but I’m sure you’re correct. I love lemon + I love grass so ya
I have had tea made directly from lemongrass, not the packaged kind, and I loved it
I think the taste can be somewhat prominent in Thai curries and soups at least
It’s so good in that context! I grew some last year but uh…. never ate it. Didn’t get that large though.
The aromatic oils in plants contain the same sorts of chemicals like terpenes as in cannabis, and many are known to be pharmacologically active, including mental effects. Myrcene, for instance, is abundant in most cannabis and also found in verbena, lemon grass, hops, mango, West Indian bay tree, and cardamom.
For example here’s a paper about the psychological effects of mint oil: Volatile Terpenes and Brain Function: Investigation of the Cognitive and Mood Effects of Mentha × Piperita L. Essential Oil
Another one…
Therapeutic and Medicinal Uses of TerpenesEver had black coffee with cardamom? It’s very tasty, imo, and it has a strange calming effect on me, despite having a bunch of caffeine. Almost like the world just quieted, allowing me to hear everything more clearly. I’ve never known why, but maybe this is a reason.
Spearmint tea is also beneficial for acne.
How?
Placebo effect is real.
Not only is it real, but you can still benefit from placebos knowing that they’re placebos! VSauce did a pretty cool episode on it: https://youtube.com/watch?v=QDCcuCHOIyY
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://youtube.com/watch?v=QDCcuCHOIyY
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source, check me out at GitHub.
That’s why double-blinded studies exist.
I haven’t noticed lemongrass calming me but I like the flavour though I’m generally pretty calm already.
[Napoleon Dynamite] Lucky :/
I want to buy them and drink them too 🍰
By personal (yet anecdotal) evidence, I can testify that at least camomile works. The regular tea is not concentrated enough for me to have any noticeable effect, but the oily extract (apigenin) does wonders for my stressed-out brain!
