Tea can be a nice comforting beverage for seniors to enjoy, and can also have benefits for their health.
Tea has an incredible history and, for many, is associated with comfort and traditions. The act of sitting down with a cup of tea can be relaxing, grounding, and comforting for many seniors who have enjoyed tea throughout their lives. On top of the positive emotional and calming impacts that drinking tea can have for those who enjoy it, tea itself can also have health benefits that are great for various areas of seniors’ bodies and minds.
The Benefits
Tea can impact the body in many ways, and some of the benefits are specific to particular kinds of tea. The list that follows are some areas in which tea has been generally shown to create positive impacts for health.
- Calm: Some of the elements contained within the tea plant itself (like the amino acid L-Theanine) have been shown to impact the brain in ways that promote relaxation. Tea can also help to physically relax the tightness and stiffness that often comes with a stressful event. Drinking tea can help both the body and mind to ease up and become more relaxed.
- Weight-Loss: Seniors who need to work on regulating their weight to promote health and wellbeing can benefit from integrating tea into their routines. Teas (such as green tea) can help the body to metabolize fats, and switching to tea or iced tea in place of processed beverages that are higher in sugar can help seniors to consume less sugar and calories.
- Memory and Concentration: Tea has been shown to be helpful for cognitive function and memory, and certain teas (such as green tea) have been studied for their potential ability to slow down the brain’s age-related decline in efficiency and function. Tea can also help with concentration without creating the jittery feeling that often comes with coffee.
- Bone Health: Tea drinking can have an impact upon the mineral density of bones and can therefore contribute to lowering the chance of fractures and slowing bone-loss that comes with age.
- Heart Health: Drinking tea has been associated with better management of cholesterol and lower incidence of heart attack because of healthy antioxidants.
- Dental Health: Tea can help to prevent bacterial growth on the teeth and has been shown to play a role in decreasing the incidence of tooth-loss in seniors who consume it regularly.
Enjoying Tea
Tea is something that is easy to enjoy and to incorporate into seniors’ lives. Seniors who have trouble with caffeine will benefit from trying herbal teas instead (which can be great for sleep, digestion, nausea, and calming stress). Sitting down with a cup of tea to relax is something that can be great for seniors mentally, but the power of tea itself is that it can impact the body as well as the mind.
