Is it unhealthy to drink "too much tea" ???

46 Replies
owlicia said

K. This is the perfect place to find out if I drink too much tea. (Mostly yerba matè, and green)
Ok, so I wake up and drink a liter, in about in hour. At the place I work, we sell beer in 33oz mugs. I have one at home and I usually drink any where from 4-7 liters of tea a day. I don’t feel ANY negative side effects. My energy is thru the roof, I’m in a much better mood, and my job keeps me running around all day so it’s beneficial to me. Anyway, just wondering if this is excessive? It might be, but I feel fine sooooo, I’m probably going to keep drinking line this. Also, Im 24, 5’1", 110 lbs and I smoke.

Rachel J said

Well, if you smoke, I wouldn’t worry about what tea is doing to my health if I were you. I don’t say that to be snarky, just to suggest that if you are concerned about not harming your health, drop the cigs! Then address other issues if necessary. FWIW, I had a pack a day habit in my early 20s. Your future self will thank you for quitting!

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owlicia said

Well, its mostly weed. Spliffs. Tobacco and weed. And Ive been smoking for like….6 years probably. I just don’t want my teeth or anything to fall out. I’m pretty healthy and active. I just read this article about some woman who drank up to 100 tea bags a day, and doctors thought she had cancer but turns out, too much tea. That’s why I’m curious.

Lala said

That woman drank tea made with 100 tea bags. Ie. One pitcher of tea with 100 tea bags in it.

Rachel J said

:/

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TeaLady441 said

I understand what people say about moderation being key, but… how much is too much tea?

I think I drink about 5-8 12oz cups in a day, (brewing two at a time and alternating) but I always pair a black tea with something else, and in the evening I’ll drink decaf teas too. I can drink black tea right up until I go to bed without it (seeming to) affect my sleep. But I think at the most I’d have 60-72 oz in a day of caffeinated tea.

Sounds like a lot, but then I think that is still less than some coffee drinkers drink in a day.

Well, it’s not great for calcium uptake so maybe take some extra calcium if you’re worried. That’s about what I drink too, in 16 oz mug equivalents. Plus matcha.

TeaLady441 said

Thanks! Also, it’s good to know I’m not alone. :P

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Yes. Please see attached article:

Woman ‘Addicted to Tea’ Drinks So Much Tea That All Her Teeth Fall Out and Her Bones Go Crazy

http://jezebel.com/5992005/woman-addicted-to-tea-drinks-so-much-tea-that-all-her-teeth-fall-out-and-her-bones-go-crazy

Heh!

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There is some risk of Fluoride in tea, over-consumption can lead to problems in bone health.
http://fluoridealert.org/issues/sources/tea/
Decaffeinated tea is not the answer! The decaffeination process introduces more problems, as most industrial processing does
http://www.secondcuppa.com/the-truth-about-decaffeinated-tea/

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This week I had an interesting experience with my tea drinking and hot yoga.
There are a few posts here already mentioning possible dehydration- I practice hot yoga 1-3x/week, and I maybe have 6 cups of tea per week. Yesterday, just because, I drank about 64 oz of different types of tea throughout the day, and I eat about 6 small meals daily, so the only difference in my normal day activities was the tea- during the class yesterday evening, I felt so dehydrated, I got really woozy, started seeing stars and blacked out a little, yikes! I just took myself to child’s pose whenever I felt it coming on, and rested there and recovered my breath, but I have been doing hot yoga for about a year, and while it’s definitely always a challenging exercise and practice, I’ve never felt so dehydrated and dizzy! My friend took herself out of her practice to lean over and check on me- I am usually very strong with my practice, feeling so dizzy was out of the norm for me. So I wondered if drinking too much tea had anything to do with it and I found this Q&A. Great comments! From now on I’ll make sure to also drink plain water in between if I’m drinking large amounts of tea. Thanks, and I hope this is helpful to the discussion :)

Lala said

You were probably tea drunk :) Its a real thing. I believe it is due to the L-theanine (?) in the tea. In large quantities it can cause lightheadedness, etc.

1. Could be L-theanine, if you become distressed, emotional, have too much salt it can lower your bp*. This under normal circumstances would be good, even beneficial! but if you are unprepared for it, it may be shocking or cause you to feel distressed.

2. Could be low Blood pressure – If you drink a lot of any liquid and do not consume enough salt or Vit. K your blood pressure can drop significantly and especially if you are sweating (you literally sweat salt out) and in a hot environment. You may also have been hyperthermic. From personal experience I can tell you you need to be consuming AT LEAST 1,000 mg of sodium if you are drinking 1/2 gal of any liquid in a day. Any lower sodium amounts and you will experience dizzyness, black outs (especially walking from an air condition environment outside into a warmer environment), and night time leg cramps.

Do any of these sound like possibilities?

Too much l-theanine = Runners high, giddy, happy, relaxed, lowered blood pressure.
Too much water + not enough salt + Heat + sweating = Dehydration and hyperthermia, dizzyness, lighheaded, nausea, ect.

*If your normal bp is 120/80 when your vessels are relaxed and happy. and you become distressed and Bp becomes 140/90 L-th can drop it back down to 120/80. It will NOT over lower your Bp, it will only lower it to your natural blood pressure. You can take an entire bottle of L-th tablets and other than wasting your $$ It wont do anything. The LD50 in rats is 5,000mg/kg (http://www.thorne.com/altmedrev/.fulltext/10/2/136.pdf). Though l-th does drop “raised” bp it does not mess with Orthostatic bp and will not exacerbate Orthostatic hypotension.

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