Bacopa monnieri is a perennial herb native to marshy areas of India, Asia, and South America, that has been used for centuries in traditional Ayurvedic medicine to prevent disease, promote healthy longevity, and strengthen the mind.
Extensive research has been able to confirm that Bacopa may be an effective anxiety reducer,and a powerful brain protectant with potential as a treatment for Alzheimer’s disease.
Bacopa’s legal status varies throughout the world, though in most countries, including the US and Canada, it is unregulated and can be legally purchased and consumed. In Bangladesh, India, Malaysia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Australia Bacopa is regulated as an ingredient in medicinal preparations.
Benefits and Effects of Bacopa Monnieri
Bacopa monnieri is considered a powerful adaptogen, or natural substance that helps the body handle stress by normalizing bodily processes.
It’s widely used throughout Asia, both as a pharmaceutical ingredient and as a traditional treatment for a wide variety of disorders ranging from skin diseases to psychological disorders.
In the Western world, it is usually taken for its nootropic and anxiolytic properties, and for its potential as a treatment for neurological diseases.
Memory Enhancement
Traditional medicine has used Bacopa monnieri as a memory booster for centuries, and modern research confirms that it may improve both memory formation and speed of recall.
Studies have shown that Bacopa significantly improved memory in groups of older people, and ongoing research is investigating its potential for treatment of memory-impairing neurological disorders including Alzheimer’s disease.
Bacopa’s memory-enhancing capabilities don’t appear to be limited to the elderly. In a study involving 76 adults between 40 and 65 years of age, Bacopa monnieri was shown to increase the ability to retain new information, and follow-up testing indicated that it also decreased the rate of forgetting newly-acquired information.
In a six-week placebo-controlled clinical trial involving a group of 60 medical students, those who received Bacopa monnieri showed statistically significant improvement in all tests related to memory and cognitive function.
Improved Learning Ability
Bacopa monnieri has been shown to augment cognitive processing, making learning new things faster and easier.
A study on school-aged children indicated that Bacopa supplementation significantly improved spatial learning.
A 2015 review of five Indian studies on children and adolescents suggests that Bacopa supplementation resulted in significant, consistent improvements in language use, cognition, and memory.
Another study examining the effects of Bacopa on cognitive function in healthy adults noted significant improvements in visual processing speed, learning rate, and memory consolidation.
Bacopa monnieri has also been shown to enhance learning capacity in animal models, both in animals under stress and in animals in which non-spatial short-term memory, spatial working memory, and long-term fair memory were all artificially impaired. In these and other animal tests Bacopa successfully ameliorated cognitive dysfunction.
Many users report that taking Bacopa monnieri improved their overall cognition, particularly their memory.
Anxiety Reduction and Stress Relief
Bacopa monnieri has traditionally been used to relieve anxiety and ease the symptoms of stress.
Current research appears to confirm its anxiolytic properties, in both human and animal studies.
Though human studies on Bacopa’s anxiolytic potential are limited, those that exist are positive. A six-week study involving 54 healthy, non-demented volunteers over 65, Bacopa supplementation significantly reduced anxiety and depression.
In a 12-week placebo-controlled study on 72 men and women between 30 and 60, the participants who took 450 mg of Bacopa daily scored significantly lower on state anxiety than their counterparts who took placebo.
Animal studies compare Bacopa favorably to other plant extracts for the effective treatment of anxiety and other psychiatric disorders,and one study concluded that a standardized extract of Bacopa worked as effectively as lorazepam, a well-known benzodiazepine anxiolytic, in reducing anxiety in mice.
Anti-Aging Potential
One of the most exciting aspects of Bacopa monnieri is its potential as an anti-aging supplement.
Traditionally used in Ayurvedic medicine as a brain tonic, Bacopa has been shown to have powerful antioxidant properties that can protect the brain against environmental stressors implicated in the cognitive impairment related to aging, Alzheimer’s disease, and other neurological disorders.
Bacopa has also been shown to have a therapeutic effect on Parkinson’s disease, preventing the dopaminergic neurodegeneration characteristic of the condition.
In animal studies, Bacopa monnieri was shown to reduce the age-related neuroinflammation that is closely associated with neurodegenerative diseases, and it has been proven to promote production and expression of Nerve Growth Factor, a neuropeptide involved in the growth and survival of neurons.
Post time: Mar-19-2020