Amanda Swart, associate professor from the Department of Biochemistry at Stellenbosch University in South Africa was interviewed on the Anxiety Summit by host of the Anxiety Summit, Trudy Scott, Food Mood Expert and Nutritionist, author of The Antianxiety Food Solution.
Rooibos: A Functional Food in the Management of Stress
- The role rooibos plays in the maintenance of normal cortisol levels
- The influence of rooibos on cytochrome P450 enzymes
- The polyphenols and flavonoids found in rooibos
- Other health benefits of rooibos
I am such a research nerd, and I like to keep up with the latest research on anxiety and stress and mood. I immediately contacted the author when I came across this study, “Rooibos Influences Glucocorticoid Levels and Steroid Ratios In Vivo and In Vitro: A Natural Approach in the Management of Stress and Metabolic Disorders.” For you research nerds out there, this was published in March this year, 2014, in Molecular Nutrition and Food Research.
Here are some great gems from my interview with Amanda:
The plant world is amazing, that’s where our medication comes from usually. The drug companies base most of their drugs on what is available in nature, and they just change structures a little bit.
If you can remember… back in the seventies and eighties, people weren’t really that stressed out yet. Stress is a very modern disease.
In the human study, they drank rooibos for six weeks, and they had six cups and they soaked the teabag for ten minutes. We didn’t see that cortisol levels decreased significantly, but what we did see is that the ratio of active to inactive was vastly improved.
If the ratio active cortisol to inactive cortisol is high, this is normally associated with metabolic syndrome, insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes and hypertension.
Here is a link to the rooibos publications on Amanda’s ResearchGate site
Here is the prostate cancer study that Amanda discussed – how one of the adrenal androgens – 11 hydroxy androstenedione, may be implicated in castration resistant prostate cancer. (This in unrelated to rooibos consumption but Amanda’s rooibos cortisol work lead her to this work)
If you are not already registered for the Anxiety Summit you can get live access to the speakers of the day here www.theAnxietySummit.com
UPDATE: the summit concluded on Tues 6/24 – season 2 of The Anxiety Summit will be in November 2014. If you’d like to be on the notification list just sign up here www.theAnxietySummit.com
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There is so much to know about the medicinal effects of our foods. I wish we were all educated to this at an early age, honestly. Fascinating to me.
I know I wasn’t stressed out in the 70s and 80s because I was a kid. I didn’t realize that the grownups weren’t stressed out then. It’s interesting to learn that stress is considered a modern disease.
I know Jessica – crazy world we live in!
Thanks for sharing this information about Rooibos – I find it really interesting that you highlight “Stress is a very modern disease.” I guess the pace of life and expectations were quite different back then!
I know Heidi – we are just so used to stress as being part of everyday normal life and it shouldn’t be!
Interesting article. Everything is relative.
Just like success to one person may not be success
to another person – stress and what causes stress
in one person may be different for someone else.
Your articles are always informative.
Absolutely wonderful stuff. I loved this interview (all of them really) on the summit. Who knew how powerful this could be.
I know, pretty amazing isn’t it?! an adaptogen in a cup of herbal tea!
Very good to know, Trudy. I rarely drink tea, but when I do it’s rooibos.
Awesome Tiffany!
Thanks for this information Trudy! I learned a lot!
Wow! Where our food and medicine comes from, how’s is engineering, where it’s made, how it’s grown, how it affects us … there is so much to and it seems so complicated!
Sometimes I even read your posts and I don’t exactly understand everything you’re saying! But I’m happy to have a resource to go to for real, truthful information that can help me improve my health and the health of my family.
Jennifer – just eat real whole food and add in some super foods like rooibos and you can’t go wrong!
Hi Trudy
We are slowly making our way through your excellent Anxiety Summit interviews and have just listened to the fascinating one about Rooibos tea which is particularly of interest to me having originated from SA myself!
Just wanted to ask if you think this product qualifies as suitable as it isn’t pure Roobois but a mix of 70% Rooibos along with others. See info in the following link:
http://www.pukkaherbs.com/tea-room/morning-time.html
Do you think this is ok or should it be pure Rooibos?
Many thanks again for all your efforts in spreading the word of health and wellness.
Hi Drew
So glad you’re enjoying the summit interviews! and yes isn’t it fascinating about rooibos!? Growing up in South Africa makes me a big fan too – I’m drinking a cup right now!
This product looks fabulous – the licorice should give it a nice flavor. It may be a little too energizing at night so I’d just watch that. I’d also check if it’s organic – no point in spoiling it all with pesticides!
Trudy
Hi Trudy
I am wondering where you got the idea that stress didn’t exist in the ’70s and ’80s. What about the ’40s, ’50s and ’60s? I would really like to know as my experience, and that of my older friends, has been quite the opposite.
As a teacher in the ’60s and ’70s and a wife, mother, student and business owner in the ’70s and ’80s, stress was part of everyday life, only the name for that overloaded, ‘flat out’, sometimes frantic and worried feeling hadn’t been invented!
And what about the ’30s and ’40s? Tell the able-bodied men, with families to feed, lining up each morning for non-existent jobs during the Great Depression (no social security then) or the people of London during the war as bombs rained around them, that they had no stress! They might disagree too.
Jill
It was Professor Swart who said this but you raise a good question. I just came across this 1950s paper that talks about “modern stress” (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S014067365091796X) so perhaps each generation feels their stress is worse than that of the previous generation
Thanks for sharing your perspectives.
Trudy
Thanks for answering, Trudy. I don’t know of Professor Swartz or his writings but I checked the first (free!) page of that article, in which the writer was hypothesising that there might be a connection between personality ‘types’, genetics, daily stress and coronary artery disease!
Perhaps the current perception and preoccupation with the role of stress in our lives has something to do with what seems like media driven fear and the instancy of communications.
But this thread is about Rooibos – so I had better go and buy some – I had forgotten that I used to like it!
Agreed on media driven fear and the instancy of communications! enjoy that rooibos! I love it!
I tried Roibos for relaxation. It definitely helps short term. But i’ve noticed that it causes anxiety levels go up after 1 week of regular consumption. Please advise.
Shyam
This is not something I’ve heard before but anything is possible. If anything (food or nutrient) makes someone anxiety worse I have them stop and we may have them use less. We also look at the ingredients and with rooibos I’d check for flavors (even natural) and other ingredients that may be doing this.
I also experience anxiety after drinking rooibos.
Angela
It’s unusual – may I ask how quickly, how much and how severe? Have you check for flavors (even natural) and other ingredients that may be doing this? Maybe gluten cross-contamination?
Hi Trudy,
The first noticeable time, it was rather severe and woke me in the night. The only thing I did differently was drink my loose leaf rooibos throughout the day over two days. Normally I’d have it once a week for Sunday breakfast. I have found others on the internet who have experienced similar episodes. I think I’m just more sensitive than most as it happened again when I tried a second time.
Angela
Thanks for the additional information – this just triggered something… I wonder if it’s a salicylate reaction. Do any other foods or drinks cause a similar reaction? Here is a salicylate resource http://salicylatesensitivity.com/ (rooibos is not listed but my colleague Julie Matthews says it’s high salicylate)
Hi Trudy.
I’m not a woman but I am over 29. 🙂
I like rooibos but I either have pyrrole disorder or hypoglycemia (or both).
I think it lowers blood sugar and certainly I get anxiety if I drink too much of it.
Tulsi tea, peppermint or chamomile are way better for me. I may have to quit the rooibos. 🙁
Regards,
Ed.
Ed
Thanks for sharing – I’ve had some feedback about rooibos and increased anxiety and suspect it’s the high oxalates
I love the taste of roobios tea, and I’m grateful you shared that it caused anxiety. I have never experience severe anxiety until this year and requires medication. now I”m starting to suspect its my Davidson organic roobios tea regardless that research said it helps w anxiety, which wasn’t the reason why i drank it in the first place. I started drinking it again and I noticed I feel anxiety coming back. It’s a shame bc i don’t really want to stop. there’s no other ingredients in the tea; just the tea itself. it’s hard to drink only one bag a day and i do try to have more water to incentivize me to drink flavor water.