How the natural, unique and immune boosting properties of Rooibos Tea can help you fight off CoViD-19

The corona virus crisis has taken the world by surprise and affected us in more ways than most of us could have imagined.

This raises a huge number of questions, for which we have few answers – the number of unknowns is almost limitless. One thing we can say for sure, however, is that those with a weak immune system and frail constitution are at most risk of developing the more serious complications. So, as a matter of urgency, it makes sense to take any steps we can to keep our immune system and general health in good shape. Rooibos tea can help you do this – as you’ll discover from this post.

Rooibos tea is rich in antioxidants

Studies show that Rooibos tea is crammed with antioxidants and drinking it can increase the levels of antioxidants in your blood. This is really useful if you want to make sure your system is in the best possible shape to fight off infection.

To explain how this works we need to treat you to a short lesson in biochemistry – but we’ll try and keep it simple 😊. Here goes…

Antioxidants are the molecules that help prevent cell damage caused by the Free Radicals that your body produces. Free Radicals are molecules that have an uneven number of electrons and are thus unstable. They are produced by the body as it processes food and as it reacts to its surrounding environment. Antioxidants, however, are stable enough to do without an extra electron and so work by donating this spare electron to the free radicals, thus stabilizing them. And that’s good!

Because of their uneven number of electrons, free radicals react very easily with other molecules in your body. Such reactions are known as oxidation reactions and are quite normal and often useful. For instance, free radicals are used by your body’s cells to help fight infections. 

Rooibos tea could support the health of your heart

Maintaining the health of your heart makes sense at the best of times. But this is not the best of times. Everyone seems to respond to the virus in slightly different ways and if your body struggles to fight it off this could put a strain on your heart – so it’s more important than ever to be aware of your heart health.

One of the Antioxidants found in Rooibos tea is called Chrysoeriol. Research suggests that Chrysoeriol could help prevent your arteries from becoming narrow and hard. That’s important, because constricted and hardened arteries can lead to a heart attack.

What’s more, Rooibos tea is also thought to aid the healthy functioning of your heart by significantly inhibiting the activity of the angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE). This enzyme is understood to play a part in raising your blood pressure and is believed to contribute to the development of cardiovascular disease.

For both these reasons drinking Rooibos tea could have long term benefits for your heart – and anything that may help to keep your heart in good shape is welcome when CoViD-19 is about. 

Rooibos tea and the benefits of sleep

Rooibos tea, unlike other teas, is naturally caffeine-free. You can therefore enjoy a cup of Rooibos directly before you get some shuteye without it having any adverse effects on your quality of sleep.

What has this got to do with the corona virus? More than you might realise. Sleep is one of the most important, yet overlooked, aspects of staying healthy. During sleep, your body rests and recovers, lowering stress levels. All your body’s processes are slowed down. It is also when your body heals and gives your immune system the opportunity to refresh itself. You know from personal experience how much better you feel after a good eight hours of sleep. But there’s also plenty of scientific evidence to suggest the benefits are real. If you want to keep your immune system functioning at full capacity then you should definitely do everything you can to maximise the quality of your sleep – and drinking Rooibos tea is a big part of that because it’s caffeine-free.

Rooibos tea calms you down

These are stressful times. Quite apart from any worries you may have about catching the virus (and about your loved ones going down with it) there’s all the uncertainty about running out of food, losing your job, paying your bills, having the kids off school and whatever other surprises the situation may have in store.

We know that stress is unpleasant and has harmful long-term effects on our wellbeing. But it also detrimental in the present as it increases our chances of succumbing to infection - research suggests that stress impairs the immune system and makes you more likely to catch a virus. This creates a vicious circle.

The virus creates fear, anxiety and stress, all of which makes it more likely we’ll be infected and do a poor job of fighting the illness off…which in turn just turns the worry up a notch or two!

So, it’s important to calm yourself down and get things in perspective. Can Rooibos tea help you do that? Yes!

Did we mention that Rooibos tea is naturally caffeine-free? We did – but there’s no harm in spelling out what this means. Drink a beverage laced with caffeine and you are going to get your system all buzzed up. Not good when your nerves are already wound tight. But drink a cuppa of Rooibos and you avoid that harmful side effect altogether. In fact it’ll actually help those nerves to relax. Rooibos tea contains magnesium, a substance that calms your system down – that’s why magnesium is known as “nature’s tranquilizer”.

As well as these positive physical properties, just taking five minutes to sit down with a cuppa is therapeutic. Regular Rooibos breaks help you step away from your worries and get your stress levels under control. Will getting ourselves in a more positive frame of mind really help? Absolutely – when your attitude is good that helps your physical system stay healthy and strong…which is extremely important in these stressful times when CoViD-19 is spreading so rapidly.

A brew that’s good for you

So, four very good reasons why it makes a lot of sense to drink Rooibos tea over the coming days, weeks and months – it’ll help you keep calm and boost your immune system in this world of crazy!