Benefit And Harmful Effects Of Black Tea

Benefits of Black Tea:

• In moderate quantities black tea is refreshing, stimulates the mental faculties, clears the mind and facilitates its working.
• Theine also found in coffee, Paraguay tea, mate, coco and Kola nut a closely allied alkaloid is astringent and diuretic, which helps to diminish the waste of the body, carbonic acid, urea, uric acid and waters.
• It increases the assimilation of nitrogenous and hydrocarbon foods.

Harmful effects of Black Tea:

The harmful effects of drinking excessive tea in case of specific diseases are as summed below:

• Effects on GI Tract: Tea is said to slow down digestion. It impedes the action of ptyalin, a digestive ferment of saliva which acts as cooked starch. Tannin is responsible for inhibition of this condition. This effect could however disappear once milk is added as milk precipates tannin. Tea also delays stomach digestion and could lead to gas formation (flatulent dyspepsia), nausea, vomiting heartburn, stomach ulcers, diarrhoea and at times constipation.
• Effects on Kidney Functions: Experiments show that 5 cups of tea increases the urine by 400 – 500% in people vulnerable to kidney related ailments. This continued stimulation of kidneys by caffeine might damage them. Tea could also promote kidney stone because of its high concentration of oxalate.
• Incontinence: Drinking too much tea could lead to incontinence or frequent/urgent impulse to urinate. According to a recent study conducted at St. George’s Hospital London, caffeine could exert pressure on bladder by causing muscle surrounding it to contract increasing the need to urinate.
• Effects on Heart: When indulged into excess it affects the heart, vasomotor center and motor nerves causes pallor, feeble pulse and raises blood pressure.. Cardiac muscles are also stimulated by caffeine as coronary arteries get dilated resulting in the increase in the rate of blood flow.
• Effects on Respiration: The quickening of respiration lowers the level of carbon dioxide and increases the heat production of body by 10 – 20%.
• Effects on Nervous system: Strong tea affects nervous system causing giddiness, insomnia, poor concentration, irritability, tremulousness of the limbs, supra-orbital headache, nervousness, hallucinations and nightmare, disorder of the mental faculties, which amounts nearly to insanity. It has a degenerative effect on the nervous system analogue to what follows with the moderate dose of alcohol.
• Effects on Skin: Tanin affects the water content in the body, as a result of which the skin becomes brittle and rough.

Premenstrual syndrome: Drinking tea could aggravate symptoms of premenstrual syndrome. According to a research conducted under Dr Annette Rossignol, an associate professor of public health at Oregon University, women in China who drank between 1 – 4 cups of tea a day were twice as likely to have PMS then non tea drinkers. Drinking 8 cups of tea increased the PMS occurrence 10 times.