Surviving City Stress with Tea

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Metro De-Stress Tea

Serves 2
All of the herbs in this recipe can be purchased in bulk at some health-food stores or from herbalists.

3 parts Siberian ginseng root
3 parts schisandra fruit
1 part burdock root
1 part wild oats

Blend the herbs and store in a lidded jar. To make tea, boil 4 cups water. Pour into a jar with 3 tablespoons of the herbs. Cover. Let steep for 4 hours. Strain and drink 1 cup three times a day.

Love Your Liver Tea

Serves 2
Herbalist Betzy Bancroft offers the following tea for supporting the liver and sparking digestion. Red clover is a nutritive blood cleanser. Nettle is a rich source of vitamins and minerals. Dandelion and lemon are traditional liver herbs. Citrus improves digestion.

2 parts red clover blossoms
2 parts nettle leaf
1 part dandelion root
1 part citrus peel, lemon or orange

Blend herbs and store in a lidded jar. To make tea, pour boiling water over the herbs (1 heaping teaspoon to 2 level teaspoons per 4-oz. cup). Cover and steep 30 minutes to an hour. Drink 3 cups a day.

Most of us don’t yearn to sit in traffic, breathe polluted air, listen to police sirens, witness muggings, work in buildings whose windows don’t open, or live with cockroaches. Those of us who choose to live in cities usually do so to take advantage of their benefits—better jobs, cultural activities, diversity, easy access to stores and restaurants, the thrum of urban excitement.

As city dwellers take the good with the bad, so can they take better care of their health. A few simple—and time-saving—changes can make any routine healthier. Herbs, in particular, offer a cushion against stress and fatigue. They can also boost nutrition, facilitate our bodies’ detoxification process, soothe anxiety, and banish insomnia.

Dealing with environmental chemicals

We live in a chemical world. Cities can be particularly toxic, with industrial pollution, car exhaust, and a high density of plastics and other manufactured materials.

Chemicals absorbed into the body eventually meet the liver, which either destroys them or alters their structure to make them easier to eliminate from the intestines or kidneys. Chronic exposure to air pollution, pharmaceutical drugs, hormones, and chemicals in our foods taxes our livers.

You can support liver function with herbs such as dandelion, burdock, and milk thistle, says Betzy Bancroft, general manager of Herbalist and Alchemist, a Washington, New Jersey, company that makes herbal extracts, and professional member of the American Herbalists Guild.

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