What Exactly is L-Theanine?

* Verified by a US-based board-certified doctor.

Most people have experienced overwhelming stress and anxiety. At one point or another, most of us are stuck dealing with baseless, stubborn stress. Many people try to alter their diet, add regular exercise to their routine, and include daily meditation. Sometimes, it doesn't feel like enough.

What most people haven't heard of is L-Theanine, and how it can help with this and many other problems. L-Theanine is an amino acid with some pretty powerful health benefits.

What Exactly is L-Theanine? 

Technically, L-Theanine is an amino acid. It is not a protein, even though proteins are made up of amino acids. It is also not naturally made by the human body. It has the total opposite effect of glutamate, which is a different amino acid, even though L-Theanine very closely resembles it.

Glutamate works as an excitatory neurotransmitter, and it is the most plentiful amino acid found in our diets. The super important part about glutamate is that it is directly responsible for tons of the body's internal stress responses.

The magic of L-Theanine is that it binds to the exact same receptors as glutamate can. By doing this, it blocks the stress response, an inhibitor of sorts. A person would experience fewer feelings of stress.

Fun fact: L-Theanine is most commonly found in tea leaves!

Related: What Is Suntheamine

And, Where Does It Come From?

As just mentioned above, L-Theanine is most commonly found in tea leaves, but specifically in the Camellia sinensis. The plant was identified in 1949 by scientists. The funny thing is that it was used in Chinese medicine for thousands of years, so "discovered" may be used loosely. Though after its "discovery," the benefits of L-Theanine began to be studied.

L-Theanine is very popular for greatly enhancing the taste and smell of processed foods. It's even reportedly responsible for the sweet flavors of matcha tea.

It's important to note that drinking a cup of Camellia sinensis will still not provide you with the same amount of L-Theanine as a supplement will.

Benefits of L-Theanine 

The benefits of L-Theanine don't just start and stop with stress reduction.

Improves Mental Sharpness, Relaxation, and Improves Focus

Poor focus is one of society's biggest complaints these days. It's not hard to understand why, when everything can be done anywhere, and there's so much to do!

L-Theanine has been proven to increase Alpha Waves in the brain while at the same time decreasing Beta waves, which is a balanced environment for mind/body cohesion, alertness, clarity, and attention.

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Increases Production of GABA and Serotonin Levels

GABA is responsible for a calming effect. It's an amino acid that works as a neurotransmitter. Prolonged use and supplementation of L-Theanine can further decrease anxious and stressful states of being: there's been a direct correlation between heightened GABA levels and L-Theanine. Great news!

Heart-Helpful

L-Theanine boosts nitric oxide production, which is very important and helpful for heart health. Numerous heart-healthy effects are connected with nitric oxides like reduced risk of and effects of stroke.

Better Sleep

L-Theanine can also improve the quality of sleep. With fewer feelings of stress, fewer feelings of anxiety, and less heightened mental discomfort is general, sleep might not be a thing of the past anymore. The boost in serotonin, dopamine, and GABA levels help your mind relax so that your body can settle down.

If you've ever struggled with sleep, you know how valuable this can be.

Related: Learn More at Magic MInd

Suntheanine vs. L-Theanine

If L-Theanine is the real deal, then suntheanine is its synthesized cousin. That means suntheanine is made in a lab. It's a patented version of the amino acid L-Theanine that was and is still engineered for the purpose of providing maximum efficiency and potency.

Out of the two, suntheanine is considered to be purer and of higher quality, because it is made in a lab. It is far more concentrated, so that means it can be taken at much smaller doses, which is desirable.

As a further clarification, suntheanine is not an extract of green tea. It is a product that is a result of a process mimicking the natural process in green tea leaves.

How It's Used 

There are two other terms that you might hear in connection with L-Theanine, and those are nootropics and adaptogens. Here's a little bit about what they are:

Nootropics 

The name means "to bend or shape the mind," and it's derived from the Greek. The term was first coined by a Romanian chemist and psychologist by the name of Dr. Corneliu Giugea. His original goal and what he was attempting to do was find a sleeping pill.

Instead of coming up with a sleeping pill, he created piracetam, which he later went on to call a nootropic. In order to be considered a nootropic, the substance in question needs to:

-Enhance the memory

-Show proof of minimal side effects

-Show proof of low toxicity

-Improve subcortical/tonic cortical control mechanisms

-Under adverse conditions, improve behavior

-Protect the brain from physical or chemical injury

Adaptogens

While nootropics are purposely designed to target overall cognition and performance, adaptogens work to keep hormone levels balanced. Their job is to stabilize the autonomic and endocrine nervous systems.

If you plan to take nootropics and adaptogens together, it's very important to check with a professional to make sure that the particular combination you plan to use is safe. There are many different kinds of nootropics and adaptogens, and some adaptogens can even be nootropics, so things can get very confusing very quickly without someone there to guide you.

Related: Magic Mind Productivity Shot

Final Thoughts

Have you tried L-Theanine? What were the results? Did you feel any better or worse, or did you feel the same?

Want to know more about how Magic Mind’s Productivity Shot can help you? Contact us today with any questions!