The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) says that most American adults don’t get enough of their daily nutrients. To improve your daily nutrient intake, use multivitamins, and other supplements. While not an essential amino acid, you can still enjoy the benefits of L-theanine.
Below, we’ll discuss the top nine L-theanine benefits to help improve your health. Keep reading to find out what L-theanine does.
- L-Theanine Benefits Your Sleep
Sleep deprivation is a common problem in the United States. Over 70 percent of American adults say they don’t get enough sleep at least once a month. If you don’t get enough sleep, you’re at risk for other illnesses and conditions, such as anemia and unwanted weight gain.
One of the best benefits of L-theanine is a night of better sleep. People who drank low-caffeine green tea with L-theanine reported a better quality of rest. With this nutrient, you can overcome various sleep problems, such as insomnia.
- It Increases Your Adaptability to Stress
One of the most content experiences people deal with every day is stress. Whether you’re at school, work, or home, you’ll encounter various stressful situations. Some people can handle their stress, while others are less efficient.
L-theanine helps increase your stress resiliency. Drinking a tea or coffee with at least 200 mg of L-theanine each day can help reduce your stress levels. If you start drinking L-theanine beverages every day, you’ll better manage your daily stress levels.
- Your Mood Will Perk Up
Sometimes, the stress that you feel can affect your mood or temper. If the anxiety and stress are too much, you may start feeling depressed. You may also feel more anxious about most things, even when you don’t need to.
Consuming drinks with L-theanine daily can help improve your mood. Keep in mind, L-theanine has a relaxing effect that soothes your nerves. Since it’s a different benefit of L-theanine, we’ll talk about this in more detail below.
- Enhances Relaxation Without Drowsiness
A great thing about L-theanine is that it can help you relax without making you sleepy. It means you can consume L-theanine during the day and don’t have to worry about feeling drowsy and tired. It’s a good alternative for medications or substances that otherwise cause drowsiness.
Of course, you can still consume L-theanine for sleep if you want, but your situation and desired results could affect your consumption method.
Are you looking for an easy way to consume L-theanine that can also help you sleep? Try this chewy melatonin vitamin by SugarBear.
- Increases the Good Effects of Caffeine and Reduces Its Negative Effects
Often, you’ll find L-theanine together with caffeine, especially if you drink tea. However, some people are sensitive to the negative effects of caffeine.
The side effects of caffeine include:
- Anxiety
- Insomnia
- Dehydration
- Abnormal heart rhythm
- Headaches
- Dizziness
- Increased blood pressure
Reducing the negative effects of caffeine is one of the health benefits of L-theanine. As we mentioned, it keeps you alert while helping you sleep. However, L-theanine won’t completely get rid of caffeine’s side effects.
- Decreases Blood Pressure
Studies found that L-theanine decreased blood pressure in hypertensive subjects. It also lowered blood fat levels in people suffering from obesity.
L-theanine increases nitric oxide production in the body. Nitric oxide is a compound that helps increase blood flow and lower blood pressure.
Another benefit of L-theanine is preventing LDL oxidation. It happens when LDL cholesterol particles react with free radicals. They can move into arterial walls and fill them with cholesterol.
- Helps You Become More Attentive
Sometimes, we have to engage in mental tasks that require absolute focus. For example, you’re doing some accounting tasks or proofreading your homework. If you lose yourself while concentrating on your tasks, you’ll end up miscalculating or missing a few typos.
Without enough attention, you’ll end up wasting time and effort. When you’re dealing with attention issues, take some L-theanine. It will help improve your performance in mental tasks.
- It Improves Brain Function
Did you know that your verbal fluency and executive function improves when taking L-theanine regularly? Studies show that L-theanine can improve recognition and memory. It can be a good way to promote brain development.
Older people benefit from taking L-theanine every day. After all, they’re the ones that suffer from age-related cognitive decline. A daily dose of tea or food that contains L-theanine can help protect them against brain damage.
It may also improve the cognitive damage created by aging, stress, and Alzheimer’s disease. If your loved one has this condition, include L-theanine in their daily regimen.
- L-Theanine Can Boost Your Immunity
The last L-theanine health benefit in this list is its immune system enhancements. L-theanine can reduce the occurrence of flu and the common cold. When combined with L-cystine, it can improve the efficiency of flu vaccination.
L-theanine boosts the activity of immune T cells. These are the cells that keep you safe from infections and cancer. L-theanine also maintains the proper Th1/Th2 balance, leaning more towards Th1.
This balance enhances your resistance to infectious microbes. You also lose your Th1/Th2 balance, leaning towards Th2 more when you exercise. This is why L-theanine is a good supplement for athletes, as it can revert the Th1/Th2 balance to lean towards Th1 again.
Try Out L-Theanine Today to Get These Benefits
A big part of maintaining good health is to take preventative measures. L-theanine offers some great effects that can help avoid diseases and conditions.
With that said, we hope you learned something new and enjoyed our list of the top L-theanine benefits. Use them to encourage you and your loved ones to include this nutrient as part of your daily diet.
Do you want to keep reading about other amino acids like L-theanine? We have more content that discusses the benefits of other nutrients. Check out our other blog posts now.
Image by Ri Butov
About the Author/s
The New Jersey Digest is a new jersey magazine that has chronicled daily life in the Garden State for over 10 years.
