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Since antiquity cinnamon has had many uses. Moses included it as an ingredient of the holy anointing oil. The Chinese knew it as Gui Zhi and recommended it for its antibacterial and antipyretic properties. Medieval physicians included cinnamon in their preparations to treat arthritis and infections. Our ancestors were clearly onto something worthwhile.
Today, scientists know that cinnamon is converted in the body to sodium benzoate which has powerful anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant actions. Many of this spice’s benefits likely derive from these actions in the body. Sodium benzoate is frequently added to foods and beverages. However, as is true for so many chemicals in our diet, a little bit sodium benzoate is good; too much can be harmful. Finding the best daily dose of this ancient spice requires careful investigation.
A recent study by researchers from Rush University Medical School in Chicago (J Neuroimmune Pharmacology, 2016, vol 11, p 693) has now found detailed evidence that the benefits of cinnamon, via its metabolite sodium benzoate, may also produce very specific changes in how memories are made in the brain. Similar to the benefits of many other molecules found in nature, cinnamon only improved brain function in subjects who had existing problems with learning. If we only focus upon the effects of cinnamon in the learning-impaired subjects, the changes observed were quite impressive: The basic architecture of the individual components of the brain, the neurons, was significantly transformed by cinnamon. The scientists discovered that the physical connections between neurons was altered so that memories could form more easily.
The doses for humans, scaled up from the animals used in this study, would be about 1 gram per day. I realize that seems like a lot of cinnamon. The problem is that most of the cinnamon we consume is not completely absorbed within the intestines: it is either utilized for its benefits by the trillions of bacteria (about five pounds worth) that live within the gut or it is destroyed by enzymes within the body. Fortunately, a sufficient amount of sodium benzoate that is produced from the cinnamon does cross the blood brain barrier fairly well to gain access to the brain.
Cinnamon has also been shown to protect the brain in many other conditions. It protected mice from a form of multiple sclerosis, it increased chemicals in the brain that protected dopamine neurons in an animal model of Parkinson’s disease and reduced the formation of reactive oxygen molecules that accelerate the effects of aging in the brain and body. When Hippocrates wrote “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food” he was likely thinking about cinnamon.
© Gary L. Wenk, Ph.D. Author of “Your Brain on Food,” 2nd Ed, 2015 (Oxford University Press)
