Tea! (More than just a refreshing drink)

By Karin Mallion BSc (Hons) MNIMH

You may all think that tea is just a drink that the staff of St Mary’s glug incessantly, but you have no idea how useful tea is, it can be used in so many situations and it always surprises people when I tell them how versatile tea can be.

I was away on holiday a couple of years ago (well, there’s no time for holidays these days, what with Jodiworld Events to organise) and for those of you that don’t know, I was a foster carer for many years!  I digress… and one of our youngsters spent too much time diving in the pool and got himself an eye infection.  His eyes were red and swollen and (squeamish alert) oozy (yuk).  We were stuck in a caravan in Spain, with no pharmacy to hand.  So, I got a couple of tea bags, steeped them in a tablespoon of boiling water (just enough to soak them) and when they’d cooled sufficiently not to burn him, I told him to lay with the teabags on his eyes.  “Does it matter if some tea gets in my eye” he queried, nervously.  “Not at all” I told him cheerfully – “if some tea gets into the eye, it will cool and soothe the sore eyes”. Hey presto, next morning, virtually no sign of the impending conjunctivitis.  I have used teabags or cotton pads soaked in tea even for babies, who had sore or sticky eyes.  Obviously, you need to be gentle with a baby, but it works.  When my children were babies, at the first sign of nappy rash, I’d get a handful of teabags, pour some boiling water over and let them steep for about 20 minutes.  Squeeze the tea out of the teabags and pop the stewed tea into the baby bath and let baby sit in it for a while.  Chamomile tea is my favourite for this – again, works a treat – nappy rash soothed, and by using chamomile tea which has skin healing properties, virtually gone by the next morning!  Grown-ups can also benefit from sitting in a “sitz-bath” of stewed tea.  It is a remedy I’ve recommended often with one hundred percent success at reducing any redness, inflammation, itching or soreness.  (I used this remedy in hospital recently, much to the consternation of the staff nurse who thought I was a nutter).

Back in Spain meanwhile, another of our youngsters got bitten by mosquitoes.  We’d tried all the usual, aloe vera and after-bite type substances, but her ankle got bigger and bigger.  We were stuck, as previously mentioned, in a caravan, in the Spanish desert.  Not much first aid to hand (despite a large bag of herbal remedies travelling with us), so we tried tea.  We soaked eye make-up remover pads in tea, applied all over her ankle and then put a sock over it.  She slept with the sock on and next morning, her swelling had gone down dramatically, and the itching had stopped.  For your information, it is wise to perhaps put a dark towel over the bedsheets before doing this, as I spent several hours scrubbing the sheets to remove the tea stains! 

Green tea is amazing as an “anti-acne face mask” – it flushes toxins out from the skin, helps heal blemishes and soothes the complexion.  Tea contains catechins, which are antibacterial agents, that suppress acne causing bacteria and help regulate hormonal imbalances.  It also possesses potent anti-inflammatory properties that help reduce the redness and inflammation brought about by spots and acne and helps to heal them. 

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