Benefits of Rosemary for Brain Function Video Lecture | Aroma Therapy: An Essential Training - Health & Fitness

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in Hamlet act 4 scene 5 aphelion notes
that rosemary is for remembrance an idea
that goes back at least a few thousand
years to the ancient Greeks who claimed
that rosemary comforts the brain
sharpens understanding restores lost
memory and awakens the mind after all
plants can be considered little chemical
factories that manufacture all sorts of
compounds that could have
neuroprotective benefits so let's cut
down on process foods eat lots of phyto
nutrient rich whole plant foods
including perhaps a variety of herbs
even the smell of certain herbs may
affect how our brain works
unfortunately I've found much of the
aromatherapy literature scientifically
unsatisfying like there'll be studies
like this offering subjective
impressions and so fine
sure sniffing an herbal sachet is indeed
easy inexpensive and safe but is it
effective they didn't compare test
scores or anything even when there is a
control group where researchers had
people do a battery of tests in a room
that smelled like rosemary lavender or
nothing and even when they did compare
test results the lavender appeared to
slow them down impair their performance
whereas the rosemary group seemed to do
better but maybe that's just because of
the mood effects maybe the rosemary
group did better just because the Roma
kind of pep them up and not necessarily
in a good way maybe kind of over
stimulating in some circumstances now
there have been studies that measured
people's brainwaves and were able to
correlate the EEG findings with the
changes in mood and performance along
with objective changes in stress hormone
levels but is this all just because
Pleasant smells improve people's moods
like if you created some synthetic
rosemary fragrance
a bunch of chemicals had nothing to do
with the rosemary plant would it still
have the same effect we didn't know
until now aromatic herbs do have
volatile compounds that theoretically
could enter the bloodstream by way of
the lining of the nose or lungs and then
potentially cross into the brain and
have direct effects but this was the
first study to put it to the test they
had people do math in a cubicle infused
with rosemary aroma and so yes they got
that same boost in performance but for
the first time showed that how much
better they did correlated with the
amount of rosemary of a rosemary
compound that made it into their
bloodstream just from being in the room
and so not only did this show that it
gets absorbed but that such natural
aromatic plant compounds may be playing
a direct effect on changes in brain
function if that's just what smelling it
can do what about eating rosemary we
have the studies on alertness and
cognition and reduced stress hormone
levels inhaling rosemary however there
are no clinical studies on cognitive
performance following ingestion of
rosemary until now older adults average
age 75 we're given two cups of tomato
juice with either nothing or a half
teaspoon of powdered rosemary which is
what one might use in a typical recipe
or a full teaspoon two teaspoons or over
a tablespoon of rosemary powder and they
even gave them some placebo pills to go
with it to even further eliminate any
placebo effects speed of memory is a
potentially useful predictor of
cognitive function during aging and what
they found is that the lowest dose have
a beneficial effect accelerating their
processing speed but the highest dose
impaired their processing speed maybe
because the half-teaspoon dose improved
alertness while the four teaspoon dose
decreased alertness
so rosemary powder at the dose nearest
to normal culinary consumption
demonstrated positive effects on speed
of memory the implicit take-home message
being more isn't necessarily better
don't take high-dose herbal supplements
extracts tinctures just cooking with
spices is sufficient a conclusion no
doubt pleasing to the spice company that
sponsored the study no side effects were
reported but that doesn't mean you can
eat the whole bush
this poor guy swallowed a rosemary twig
which punctured through the stomach into
his liver causing an abscess from which
two cups of pus and a two inch twig was
removed so explore herbs and spices in
your cooking branch out just leave the
branches out
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