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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