Thursday TeaDay 8/28/08 Tea and the common cold?

[henley]

Do you believe either through personal experience or opinion that tea can reduce the occurrence of common illnesses such as colds and sinus infections.

A resounding heart felt NOT YET!!! Have been fighting a sinus infection since Monday & I've been drinking every color tea possible (including green) but no improvement yet. However, knowing I'm allergic to spring & fall (goldenrod is in bloom), I'm used to this & know it will eventually pass.

On a lighter note, today makes it officially a year I've been hanging out here. My tastebuds really like y'all but my wallet doesn't! Do you see what you people have caused? Following is Extreme Makeover: Tea Edition.

BEFORE


AFTER


I was happy & content w/my little grocery store tea bags until finding TC & learning about loose leaf tea & all the different kinds available. Now I'm hopelessly hooked! The tea drawer is almost completely full. Thankfully the Adagio tins stack on top of one another otherwise I'd really be in trouble.

Sal - I like the dark tea in the light cup. Very pretty!

Auggy - Vanilla mint is one of my favorites. May have to mix some up today.

Golden Monkey w/bfast this morning. On my 3rd cup & it's almost empty so time to put the kettle back on. Have a great day!

[hop_goblin]

All I know is that a few months ago, I had gotten celulitis which is a potentially life threatening muscular and skin infection. I had dropped a heavy pan on my foot and thought that I just bruised it badly. However, I was starting to get night sweats, fatigue, and serious pain from my foot. I waited four days from the onset of the most severe symptoms to seek medical attention since I thought it was just a bad bad bruise. When I finally went to the emergency room, the doctor couldn't believe that I waited 4 days to get med attention much less have the infection stay pretty much focused on the impact site. Although the infection was starting spread over most of my foot and up to my ankle, it did not progress like it should of. According the the doctor, the type of infection that had was the galloping in that it should have became systemic in a couple of days, but for some reason the infection stayed very much at bay. Although when I was in the emergency room, I had a fever of 103F, having not seeked out med attention 4 days should of started to affect my organs and the possible amputation of my foot. To make this story short, the doc had no clue why I didn't have any severe complications or had lost my foot. Well, even though I was on my death bed, so to speak, durin the time I did not seek med attention, I was still drinking my shupu and studies suggests this is an antibacterial! IS THERE ANYTHING PUERH CAN'T DO!

[olivierco]

Extreme Makeover: Tea Edition.

For the next step a teafridge is mandatory.

Kanro gyokuro right now.

[chamekke]

I've always drunk tea, even if I was on the bag for most of my life, and have always had colds once or twice per year, so... it's hard to answer the poll question really

And re: Salsero's cup...

Some anonymous designer brought skill and thought to detail: in this photo, you can just make out the series of ridges running around the circumference of the cup stacked from the bottom to the top, sort of like a pile of tires. Think Michelin tire guy. Well, that little feature makes it easier and more pleasant to hold in your hand, providing a tactile sensation to accompany the visual. Between the nice feel and the muted tones, this cup is worth handling empty. Fill it with tea and it enhances the performance of the tea without upstaging it.

I love chawan-shaped yunomi with ridges like these. The karesansui cup that you bought through Toru-san has similar ridges, no? That's one of the things that captivated me about it. So attractive and comfortable!

[Cinnamon Kitty]

Maybe. Even though I have been drinking lots of tea, during last winter and into the spring, I still managed to come down with the flu, a sinus infection, and pink eye with in less than 2 months. So far the summer has been relatively free of being sick beyond allergy related sinus headaches. Sometimes tea maybe help lessen some of my sinus headaches, but I don't see it helping me much beyond that.

This morning, more steeps of yesterday's Nan Tou.

[geeber1]

I voted 'Maybe,' just because I feel healthier if I drink tea rather than soda.

(It's not my birthday, but according to my statistical analysis, chances are that somewhere in the world, someone may well be celebrating a birthday this week.)

Trey, you were right about someone somewhere celebrating a birthday this week.

Mine is today and here in my workplace there are at least four other people who had them this week also. Yesterday our tech guy requested lasagna for his birthday, I think that's the most unusual birthday treat I've seen so far ... but it was delicious!

[fencerdenoctum]

I dare say that due to my intense tea drinking my constitution has increased exponentially. I am as strong as a bull moose!

*top hat and monocle*

The Tea Sipping Swordsman,
Fencerdenoctum

[hop_goblin]

I dare say that due to my intense tea drinking my constitution has increased exponentially. I am as strong as a bull moose!

*top hat and monocle*

The Tea Sipping Swordsman,
Fencerdenoctum

I wonder how many will get the Teddy R. insinuation

[kymidwife]

It's funny that I've been more worried lately that tea might be making me sick, rather than keeping me healthier. In general, I know the antioxidants are a health benefit, but I'm not sure if I think tea has boosted my immunity to infection. I do find it very soothing when I am congested or have tummy upset.

So they still don't know what's making me tingle... except my mono spot came back positive, despite the fact that I had mono already, 5 years ago. So I may be having a flair of Epstein Barr virus. Had an MRI... normal, thank goodness. Labs, all basically normal except my B1 was one point low. Nothing remarkable. Have an enlarged thyroid but normal thyroid blood tests, so I am having a nuclear scan to check it but it appears to be a multinodular benign goiter.

As for the tea, everyone is telling me the tea and caffeine are not the cause of my issues, but the stimulant effect may make it worse... no one seems to be worried about pesticides or the like. I haven't had any aspartame or other artificial sweeteners for well over a month now.

In my cup this morning... Darjeeling Puttabong that Auggy and I both purchased from Teavana in Dallas last month... it's exceptionally good for Teavana tea. I'll probably mostly drink water for the remainder of the day until this evening, as I'm trying to be pretty moderate on my caffeine intake for a while.

Have a great Teaday!

Sarah

[xine]

How appropriate! I am coming down with allergies due to the weather changing, my SO's best friend's animal infested house (1 cat and 1 dog=after 20 minutes of sitting in their apartment last night, sniffles and teary eyes), AND maybe a cold on top of that. Lots of sinus annoyance.

I think tea can help in these manners in a soothing way; having a nice hot cup of tea in bed (Where I wish i was now), but otherwise, I don't use it as a cure of sorts. I drink a lot of tea each day and I haven't really noticed myself getting less sick since I've start consuming tea daily. My seasonal colds come just when they're about to, and my allergies are always present- cats, dogs, spring, early fall. So yeah. No changes.

Having just a lot of plain water today. I'm thinking of making some nice TKY later, though.

Henley- props on the organizational skillets. I love your super-neat tea drawer!

[kongni]

This is a really interesting topic!
I think tea can definitely prevent colds and it's antibacterial qualities may help stave off nose/throat infections and, as hop_goblin has pointed out, possibly more serious infections.

There is one problem. I am lazy and my hagi sencha cup only gets a quick water scrub maybe once a week to get any buildup off. The same goes for jars that I store water in. Over the summer I got a nose and throat infection and I suspect it was from using water that sat in a sealed jar for too long in the heat. It went away quickly though so maybe it was the shincha helping?

salsero - love the cup! thanks for being so dedicated to keeping this forum lively!

[Chip]

Interesting posts everyone.

I am actually convinced that tea can and has helped me. Maybe it is all the Japanese greens I drink. Not sure. But ever since i committed to green tea, my annual killer cold that inevitably evolved into a severe sinus infection, well, it is pretty much a fading memory. I did get a minor cold early in the summer, but it just never became much more than a few sniffles. I am also a believer in saline nasal spray during the heating season.

Speaking of Japanese green tea, currently Fukamushi Superior from O-Cha. Started the day with Adagio Darjeeling.

[Wosret]

Tea always makes me feel better when I have a cold, or any kind of illness. I've always been a tea drinker, so it's impossible for me to tell if there's a statistically correlation for me between drinking tea and not, and getting colds and not. It's not like I'm about to give up tea completely to find out! (And let me tell you, a cold during pregnancy feels about a million times worse than a normal cold.)

I also make the ginger-honey brew for sore throats, but I also add lemon. Hot toddies have also helped!

[henley]

Happy Birthday, Geeber1!!!

Hope it's a special day!

[Pentox]

I could never tell if tea helps or not. I somewhat rarely get sick, and haven't seen much of a change since I started drinking tea. Although this morning I'm not feeling so hot, almost called in sick to work today, but that would have been a big problem if I wasn't here today.