Not long ago, a new trend of bathing with tea leaves emerged in the country. Tempted by the idea of "washing your way to health," people rushed to buy large quantities of tea for bathing. Especially middle-aged and elderly friends who are usually knowledgeable about tea drinking were particularly enthusiastic about it. So, is bathing with tea actually beneficial to health? What should one pay attention to when doing so? Bathing with tea has a long history.
Bathing with tea, or tea bathing, has been popular in recent years in Southeast Asia and Japan. In fact, tea bathing has a long history in the mountainous areas of southern China, especially in ethnic minority regions, and is an important part of our traditional tea culture. According to records, as early as the Yin and Zhou dynasties, the Minyue people living along the Nine-Bend Stream in the Wuyi Mountains of Fujian had the custom of tea bathing.
In the villages and jungles of the Yao ethnic group on the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, due to the high mountains, heavy humidity, and pervasive miasma, people were prone to illnesses such as colds and plagues. Medical resources were scarce since ancient times, but tea bushes grew all over the mountains. Through their work and life experiences, people continuously accumulated knowledge in their fight against diseases and gradually understood the health-preserving value of tea. After their labor, they not only took tea baths but also brewed tea with other Chinese herbs into a medicinal liquid for bathing. After washing in the warm and fragrant liquid, their skin felt smooth and clean, and their ailments were relieved, leaving them feeling refreshed and comfortable. Therefore, the Yao people have the saying that tea bathing can "ward off disasters and eliminate difficulties." Nowadays, some hotels and inns in Taiwan have prepared tea bathing solutions and introduced them into their water towers for guests to use during showers. Its effectiveness in health preservation and strengthening the body is indeed real.
Although the scientific mechanism of tea bathing requires further study, its health benefits have already been confirmed by practice:
The tea bathing solution is alkaline, and its cleansing effect on the skin is undeniable.
It can promote metabolism and improve the function of related organs in the human body, thereby achieving a certain degree of disease prevention and health strengthening effect.
Tea is rich in ingredients such as caffeine, tannic acid, theophylline, catechinic acid, and tea polyphenols, as well as various vitamins and minerals, which have the effects of disinfection and bacteria inhibition, removing dirt and protecting the skin, and relieving fatigue.
In addition, some have proposed that tea bathing can inhibit the peroxidation of lipids and the formation of nitrosamines in the body, thus helping to prevent and treat cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, as well as having anti-cancer and anti-aging effects. The benefits of tea bathing to human health are objectively real, and its rise as a new trend is by no means accidental.
Pay attention to contraindications and differentiate based on constitution
Of course, any health care method has the issue of individual differences. A hot tea bath is an immersion bath. Due to differences in age, gender, and physical constitution, the choice of tea type and quantity should vary from person to person. Young and middle-aged people, with their robust vitality, are suitable for using green tea, whereas for the elderly, due to the decline in physiological function and insufficient vital energy, it is more appropriate to use milder black tea or oolong tea for bathing.
Furthermore, as a special type of warm bath, entering the bath will cause the rapid dilation of blood vessels on the body's surface, leading to a large amount of blood flowing to the surface. This causes a redistribution of blood in the body, and a potential adverse effect could be relative ischemia of the abdominal organs and the cardiovascular and cerebrovascular systems, leading to indigestion, dizziness, or even fainting. Therefore, it is not advisable to bathe with water that is too hot. It is also not advisable to bathe when sick, after a heavy meal, when hungry, or when overly fatigued.