This is one of the most important posts I have had this year, and recommend you take careful note of this. It is available from Amazon Australia. If there are any compounding chemists or health food shops that stock it., let me know. Now I know why I always feel better after a cup of tea.

Best of 2019: Midyear Roundup

One supplement you should start taking now

Kristin Bundy, for MDLinx | January 08, 2019

Finding ways to avoid burnout—which occurs twice as often in physicians than in those in other professions—became the focus of several health-care systems and universities this year. In fact, several health-care institutions have implemented wellness programs and formed committees charged with improving work conditions and decreasing stress in physicians.

If you’re considering adding L-theanine to your daily wellness practice, a dose of 100- 400 mg is recommended, beginning with the smallest dose and gradually increasing until feeling the effects.

Many of these programs rely on peer interaction and may take time to implement and achieve results; however, physicians can work to improve their own mental health now by taking a dietary supplement that has been shown to ease stress and anxiety.

L-theanine, a water-soluble, non-protein amino acid commonly found in green tea and some mushrooms, has been widely studied for its ability to encourage wakeful relaxation without sedation. L-theanine is thought to work by decreasing “excitatory” brain chemicals that contribute to stress and anxiety while increasing brain chemicals that encourage a sense of calm. It’s even been known to lower stress-related blood pressure and heart rate.

On their website, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center breaks down L-theanine’s proposed mechanism of action. Essentially, L-theanine crosses the blood-brain barrier, and has the ability to modulate inhibitory neurotransmitters, selective serotonin, and dopamine to bring about anxiolytic and calming effects. L-theanine can also improve cognition and selective attention, perhaps due to changes in alpha brain wave activity. Finally, its ability to selectively bind to glutamate receptors may confer neuroprotective effects as well.

In addition to promoting relaxation, L-theanine has been shown to stabilize cognitive function affected by stress hormones. More specifically, L-theanine decreases levels of corticosterone, which when elevated can inhibit spatial learning and memory formation. Other researchers have shown that, in people with anxiety, L-theanine improved attention span and reaction time. Taken with caffeine, L-theanine improved visual information processing and accuracy when moving between tasks.

Given its ability to encourage attention and focus, it may come as a surprise that L-theanine has also been found to improve time to sleep as well as quality of sleep. Instead of acting as a sedative, L-theanine works to promote better rest by reducing anxiety and promoting relaxation.

It could be L-theanine’s ability to stabilize glutamatergic concentrations that supports the benefits seen in patients with schizophrenia. Studies demonstrated that L-theanine in combination with antipsychotic treatment improved sleep and eased anxiety.

In patients with major depressive disorder, the supplement ameliorated symptoms of anxiety and depression and improved sleep quality and cognitive function.

From 2017 and 2018, 63 newly published studies outlined the effects of L-theanine. According to results of these studies, L-theanine may also help with weight loss in obese individuals, improve elevated lipids and offer neuroprotection and anti-tumor effects.

There have been no reported adverse effects linked to L-theanine. Indeed, adults generally tolerate L-theanine well. If you’re considering adding L-theanine to your daily wellness practice, a dose of 100-400 mg is recommended, beginning with the smallest dose and gradually increasing until you feel the effects. When used in combination with caffeine, consider 12-100 mg of L-theanine to 30-100 mg of caffeine.

Of course, L-theanine is not a catch-all to relieve stress. Certainly, a multi-modal approach is necessary to improve wellbeing. Nonetheless, L-theanine could be a way (and relatively cheap at approximately $22 for 120 200-mg capsules on Amazon) to help integrate more calm into the workday.

Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr. 2017 May 24;57(8):1681-1687. doi: 10.1080/10408398.2015.1016141.

L-theanine, unique amino acid of tea, and its metabolism, health effects, and safety.

Türközü D¹, Şanlier N¹.

Author information

Abstract

Tea has been a very popular beverage around the world for centuries. The reason that it is delicious, enabling hydration, showing warming and relaxing effect can be mentioned why it is consumed so much in addition to its prominent health effects. Although the catechins and caffeine are the primary bioactive components that are related with the health effects of the tea, the health effects of theanine amino acid, which is a nonproteinic amino acid special to tea, has become prominent in recent years. It has been known that the theanine amino acid in tea has positive effects especially on relaxing, cognitive performance, emotional status, sleep quality, cancer, cardiovascular diseases, obesity, and common cold. The results of acute and chronic toxicity tests conducted on the safety of theanine express that L-theanine is reliable in general even if it is consumed too much with diet. However, it has not revealed a clear evidence-based result yet regarding theanine metabolism, health effects, and its safety. Within this frame, chemical structure of theanine, its biosynthesis, dietary sources, metabolism, health effects, and safety are discussed in present study.