This well-known spice would boost your memory
Cinnamon is full of benefits. It stimulates breathing, boosts the immune system, and can help digestion if drunk with lukewarm water, lemon, and honey. But another, more surprising, virtue would be to improve memory and aid learning, according to a study published in the journal Nutritional Neuroscience.
Cinnamon would improve cognitive function
To arrive at such conclusions, researchers at the University of Medical Sciences in Birjand, Iran, have collected more than 2,500 papers on the effects of cinnamon on the brain. After analyzing them, they selected 40, corresponding to their criteria.
In detail, 33 of these studies were carried out in vivo, i.e. on living organisms such as humans or rodents. Five were in vitro, i.e. performed on non-living organisms, e.g. cells. Finally, the last two were clinical studies, i.e. with patients.
Using in vivo studies in living organisms, the researchers say that ‘the use of cinnamon or its components, such as eugenol (a flavor), cinnamaldehyde (a molecule responsible for taste) and cinnamic acid (an organic acid obtained from cinnamon) may positively alter cognitive function’.
Cinnamon, the solution to improve our memory and reduce stress?
To determine the impact of cinnamon on the brain, the researchers analyzed the results of two studies carried out with patients. In the first, teenagers chewing cinnamon gum. In the second, diabetic adults had to eat 2 grams of cinnamon on white bread. Only the experience with chewing gum has been conclusive, reducing anxiety and improving memory.
‘Most studies have reported that cinnamon may be useful in preventing and reducing cognitive function disorders,’ the researchers write, concluding: ‘Cinnamon can be used as an adjunct in the treatment of related diseases. However, further studies are needed in this area.’
