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L-Theanine: a 4,000 Year Old Mind-Hack
- justinchen 16y agoHow about a chart of teas and their L-Theanine concentrations?
- tony584 16y agoIt depends not just on each tea, but each harvest of each tea since theanine levels are affected by levels of sunlight the leaves have received.
- ekanes 16y agoThanks, but I think the grandparent was looking for help in what to choose. "It depends" is true but not helpful What tea should we be drinking? :)
- tony584 16y agoAnything you like, it is best to approach tea by taste, not by health benefits... start with experimentation -- whites, greens, oolongs, yellows, blacks, pu-erhs all have extremely different tastes.
- huertanix 16y agoPersonally, I'm a fan of Maté for its high caffeine content and wood-esque flavor.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- silentbicycle 16y agoI like maté too, but it isn't tea - it's a different plant (which also contains caffeine; apparently it's an easily synthesized pesticide).
- silentbicycle 16y agoWell, what other food and drinks do you like? If you like scotch, try lapsang souchoug - it's a smoked Chinese black tea. If you like sushi, try Japanese sencha or gyokuro - the same umami flavors in nori and kombu come through in the tea. Etc. Etc. If you were me, I would suggest a "malty" Assam (or an Irish breakfast blend) for most mornings, lapsang souchong for cold winter weekends, bundled up with crossword puzzles or programming texts, cheap-but-decent Assam as a base for making masala chai (with fresh cardamom and vanilla sugar), and good Sencha for the office. Citrusy green teas are great for summer pitchers of iced tea. A good tea shop will be able to find matches for what you like, though. (Also, somebody at Tea Gschwendner (in Chicago) taught me that, after smelling lots of interesting teas, the best way to reset your sense of smell is to smell your clothes. FWIW.)
- davidhollander 16y agoSencha and its variants will have the highest http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sencha http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sencha only chart I could find: http://www.o-cha.com/green-tea-benefits.htm http://www.o-cha.com/green-tea-benefits.htm I'm able to buy loose leaf in bulk from a local store so I can't recommend a particular online retailer. In person I would go by smell rather than brand, the aroma of good sencha is very distinct.
- silentbicycle 16y agoFirst off, there doesn't seem to be much benefit in taking more than what's already present in a cup or so of good green tea, though, so the exact content in varieties probably doesn't matter. If you ever get bulk l-theanine powder (it's quite cheap), you'll recognize the taste. It's particularly prominent in sencha, gyokuro, and other Japanese green teas - that savory/salty/MSGish taste. Anecdotally, l-theanine negates most of the jitteriness from caffeine for me. Coffee, pop, etc. make me edgy in a way that tea doesn't.
- pavel_lishin 16y agoI wonder which mushroom it is.
- tmcw 16y agohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L-Theanine http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L-Theanine
- manche 16y agoCaffeine can decrease anxiety? That's highly contradictory to a bulk of medical wisdom out there. People can experience spikes in their heart rate due to stimulants like caffeine. Also, tea is more of a cultural phenomenon in that region of the world. It's not thought of as a tool for meditation. In fact, in yogic traditions, you're supposed to stay away from caffeine.
- Alex3917 16y agoCaffeine can decrease anxiety? That's highly contradictory to a bulk of medical wisdom out there. "Medicinal plants contain a wide array of chemical compounds. At first, this looks like chaos, but more investigation reveals a distinct order. Natural selection pressures push a plant to "try out" variations on molecules to enhance the plant's odds of surviving stressful environments. So, often, one molecule is present in the greatest amount and has the most dramatic effect in a human body -- but along with it are variations of that molecule in the same plant. For example, for several years, I did ethnobotanical study in South America, researching native uses for coca leaf, which most of us know only as the source of the isolated, problematic, addictive drug cocaine. For Andean Indians, whole coca leaf is the number one medicinal plant. They use it to treat gastrointestinal disturbances; specifically, for both diarrhea and constipation. From the perspective of Western pharmacology, this makes no sense. Cocaine stimulates the gut, it increases bowel activity, so obviously it would be a good treatment for constipation, but what could it do for diarrhea except make it worse? However, if you look carefully at the coca leaf's molecular array, you find 14 bioactive alkaloids, with cocaine in the greatest amount. While cocaine acts as a gut stimulant, other coca alkaloids can have precisely the opposite action, they inhibit gut activity. This means that when you take the whole mixture into the body, the potential is there for the action to go in either direction. What decides it? The state of the body, which is a function of which receptors in the gut's tissues are available for binding. During my time in Andean Indian communities, I collected many reports about whole coca's paradoxical, normalizing effect on bowel function, and experienced it firsthand, as well." http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andrew-weil-md/why-plants-are-usually-be_b_785139.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andrew-weil-md/why-plants-are-...
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- acconrad 16y agoPretty much any amino acid will help brain function, but with any study, they always give absurdly high amounts to their test subjects in comparison to what the average human consumes. Plus, these are scientific research papers. Even a 1% improvement is enough for them to be quoted as saying "improves brain function." Drinking tea is good for you, we've known this for years. Keep drinking it.
- electromagnetic 16y ago> Drinking tea is good for you, we've known this for years. Keep drinking it. That's all I need to hear. I've been drinking tea since I was 4, and I'm not about to stop now.
- mbm 16y agoThis is interesting, but I'm always suspicious of articles that seem to hand-pick their science. This isn't a critique of tea being good for you (I'm sipping on a chai right now and feeling dandy) but a little healthy skepticism from seeing years of nutrition/health effects studies contradict each other. For more detailed thoughts on the problem see John Ioannidis' "Why Most Published Research Findings are False."
- pluies 16y agoEspecially when it comes from a website which sole purpose seems to promote tea and sell tea-related products. (Not that it's a bad thing per se, of course.)
- tony584 16y agoAll teas contain L-theanine. I too am skeptical about all of the health-information swirling around about teas these days, which is why I researched this topic and wrote about it.
- johnnyjustice 16y agoCan you provide your writing?
- tony584 16y agothis HNews post is my writing.
- pw 16y agoTrue, but it sure makes for an effective marketing hack targeting a certain internet subculture...
- lynx44 16y agoI have written 200+ articles in health and medicine and looked into L-Theanine specifically. It has benefits and does work to enhance the benefits of caffeine. That said, this article over-hypes it, and it's really not that big of an impact.
- jseliger 16y agoNote: this is not a troll or me trying to be a jerk. Nonetheless, can you link us to some of the research on L-Theanine?
- knowledgesale 16y agothe wikipedia article seem to be much more useful and objective than the original post http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theanine http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theanine ,and see references there-in
- tony584 16y agoI used medical journals for the research, they are all behind paywalls -- if you have access to some University Journal Databases, check the sources in the bottom of the articles. The most recent study was published in December of 2010.
- foxhop 16y agoWe have created some great comments here, but they are disconnected or disassociated with the original article. When I write a comment I typically write in hacker news and on the original publication page.
- civilian 16y agoThis seems relevant: http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/play/snake-oil-supplements/ http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/play/snake-oil-supplem... It says that green tea may be beneficial to people's health- although doesn't specify L-Theanine or the attentiveness. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11897173?dopt=Abstract http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11897173?dopt=Abstract
- adulau 16y ago{Disclaimer: I'm a tea drinker} Those medical studies are usually discarding the parallel social relation of drinking tea. Tea drinkers may have different habits than the coffee drinkers. This is similar than the "the children who have grown with books at home have better education", the reason is not really the books by them-self but more just a sign of the social behaviour. Might be the case of (some) tea drinkers.
- tony584 16y agohey, OP here... Researchers are still out to lunch as far as tea goes with: weight loss, cancer prevention, anti-aging, and diabetes as many conflicting studies have been made. The affects L-theanine, and the combination of L-theanine with Caffeine have been studied and there has been little variance in their conclusions. Myself, along with a few other tea industry-ites have been following these reports. We scoff at all of the weight loss tea spam out there and question each study that comes out. This is only to serve as a culmination of several studies done specifically about the combination of L-theanine and Caffeine. Enjoy! Questions? Find me on twitter: @worldoftea
- jcfrei 16y agoif this holds true then I need this stuff in my energy drink of choice. no time to prepare tea during work.
- alexophile 16y agoTony - I never thought I'd say this on HN, but you should totally open up a brick and mortar store. There's so few places in Chicago to go and get good loose leaf tea, shipping seems silly (I live <1 mile away), and a great tea shop is such a cool thing to have around. There's all sorts of empty storefronts (one under my place, even) just begging for something interesting. I guess "you should" is the wrong language. Perhaps supplant with "it would be incredibly inconvenient but way cool if you were to"
- temugen 16y agoThere are a few nice places around Chicago. Have you been to Ten Ren? Edit: Most of the places in the child comments are great too. I'd personally try to avoid Teavana, though. From my experience, they take low grade teas and sell them for a much higher price for the masses. I've also seen paint come off of some teaware there with little effort.
- tony584 16y agoTen Ren is way overpriced. IMO the best one in Chicago is Todd and Holland.
- acgourley 16y agoAdagio has opened 2 B&M locations nearby, http://www.adagio.com/stores/ http://www.adagio.com/stores/ I think their retail model is actually really interesting, and their blog is very transparent about the realities of the business: http://www.tearetailer.com/ http://www.tearetailer.com/
- andyangelos 16y agoBourgeois Pig has a decent selection of teas, including the Theanine heavy Gyokuro, but they don't sell in bulk. Their baristas might be able to tell you where they buy from though - assuming it is local. I've purchased some decent Silver Needle at Coffee and Tea Exchange in Lakeview - but the prices are a little high.
- tony584 16y agoThanks Alex, I sincerely hope to in the future, but it isn't in the cards for a few years! We do tastings in Chicago however, I can put you on the list if you send me your email: tony@chicagoteagarden.com
- lachyg 16y agoThis, in the form of green tea extract, makes up a major part of Tim Ferriss' PAGG Stack. Interesting :-)
- eibrahim 16y agoThanks for screwing up my tea. Can't I just drink it to enjoy it? Now, I have high expectations from my tea which I am sure will not be met. Thanks a lot. PS: I drink probably 3 cups a day. I am still not a genius and I get sleepy by mid-day.
- TheSOB88 16y agoThanks for screwing up my HN. Can't I read someone's thoughts without someone feeling cranky and sleep-deprived all over it? Now my high expectations from HN haven't been met. Thanks a lot.
- foxhop 16y agoMy response was too long, so I wrote my thoughts here: http://russell.ballestrini.net/response-to-l-theanine-a-4000-year-old-mind-hack/ http://russell.ballestrini.net/response-to-l-theanine-a-4000...
- silentbicycle 16y agoFYI, the "You should follow me on twitter _here_" link at the end of your article is broken, just pointing to http://russellbal/ http://russellbal/ .
- foxhop 16y agoThanks for looking out for me! : ) +1
- srean 16y agoTheanine is supposed to increase GABA levels in the brain by passing through the blood brain barrier. From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theanine http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theanine Rather, its primary effect seems to increase the overall level of the brain inhibitory transmitter GABA. But doesnt GABA make one relaxed and sleepier and hinder formation of new memories ? From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamma-Aminobutyric_acid#Pharmacology http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamma-Aminobutyric_acid#Pharmac... Drugs that act as agonists of GABA receptors or increase the available amount of GABA typically have relaxing, anti-anxiety and anti-convulsive effects.,. Many of the substances below are known to cause anterograde amnesia and retrograde amnesia. Followed by a list of substances that increase GABA levels I am not knowledgible about these things but I recollect reading that in vertebrates the primary function of GABA is to inhibit synaptic activity. It is probably good for someone who is high-strung or epileptic. But for a normal person is it good to boost GABA levels in the brain ? Caffeine, I guess, will counter some of these effects, but still it makes me worried to play with brain chemistry. Particularly with supplements. Edit: To one who downvoted, could you tell me what you found objectionable ?
- wonginator1221 16y agoDo any of you buy your tea online? I've heard good things about Adagio, but haven't had a need to buy from them.
- silentbicycle 16y agoDepending on where you live, there are probably decent tea shops (or, failing that, gourmet or health food stores with decent tea selections). It's nice to be able to smell different varieties, try samplers, etc. That said, I've had consistently good experiences with Adagio, and (once you know what you like) tea is well-suited to mail order.
- jacques_chester 16y agoYou can buy theanine as a supplement. In combination with my zoloft it gave me some fairly monstrous panic attacks.</anecdote>
- alttab 16y agoUpvote this if you made at least 2 cups of tea for the first time today after reading.
- beefman 16y agoTea is definitely a mind-hack. I've taken lots of theanine capsules and... not so much. YMMV.
- apinstein 16y agoI can't speak for the science, but anecdotally this has been very true for me. I used to never drink coffee or tea; when I really needed to "wake up" I'd have an espresso and I'd be good for 10-12 hours. Then I had a kid and found myself needing it daily. After a few months of daily coffee I started to realize that I was exhausted until I drank some coffee; then I wasn't so tired but still couldn't concentrate very well. Having read a similar article a few weeks ago I switched to tea instead of coffee and I must say I've felt much more productive on tea as well as slightly less exhausted before I drink it. Would love to hear of others' anecdotal evidence.
- Stormbringer 16y agoI have become very suspicious of caffeine as a stimulant. For starters, with coffee there is the one-two punch that you get a sugar rush and then later on the caffeine kicks in. (I've read somewhere that caffeine takes about 6 hours to kick in, so if you're perking up straight away it is perhaps not the caffeine per se) If you don't take sugar and it is the caffeine kicking in, it may be doing so in a particularly horrible and insidious way, that it is (mildly) addictive, and the perking up is simply the absence of the withdrawal symptoms (that old story about banging your head on a brick wall - it feels so good when you stop). Anecdotally, something I found really interesting is that I play much better chess when I'm off caffeine than when I'm on. Oh sure, on caffeine you feel all perky and smart and as if your brain is running ten times faster (or whatever), but I think what is actually happening is that we just get bored faster. On caffeine I might only think one or two moves ahead and then pick the moves that my intuition tells me. But off caffeine I can actually 'slow down' enough to play noticeably better, I can think an extra couple of moves ahead over and above the "do something now!!!" mode that caffeine puts me in. If this is right, then caffeine makes me stupider, because I rush in, and can't sit still to do the deep thinking that really high quality thought and software design require.