Bacopa: Health Benefits and Uses
Bacopa Monnieri (also known by its common name, Bacopa or Brahmi, water hyssop, or thyme-leaved Graciela) is a perennial herb from India used in traditional Ayurvedic medicine for hundreds of years. The plant is a small and creeping succulent, meaning that it loves water and typically grows in wetlands, ponds, and tidal lands.
More importantly, Bacopa may be an effective supplement ingredient thanks to its unique chemical composition and the health benefits that have been observed historically and with recent scientific studies. Today, let’s break down the potential health benefits and uses of Bacopa when consumed by itself or as part of modern supplements.
Antioxidant Defense
First and foremost, Bacopa is rich in antioxidant activity: essential substances that may help defend your cells against free radical molecular damage. Free radical molecules bounce around and can damage cells either physically or chemically, leading to cellular malfunctions.
Bacopa has antioxidants, which link up with free radicals and prevent them from causing these negative effects. There’s plenty of evidence showing that the bacosides – the key compounds inside Bacopa – may neutralize free radicals very effectively, especially by preventing fat molecules from reacting to free radicals.
Bottom line: Bacopa may be very effective at assisting with long-term health and wellness and reducing the lifetime risk for health issues.
Reduces Discomfort
In addition to having high antioxidant content, Bacopa may also help to reduce discomfort in the body. In a nutshell, discomfort or irritation is just the body’s natural response to illness or injury.
There’s some evidence to suggest that Bacopa may suppress the release of certain cells called cytokines, which are molecules that cause the inflammatory response to kick off. Furthermore, Bacopa may also reduce the discomfort that has already started, minimizing swelling in the event of an injury or illness.
While more research still needs to be conducted, it’s safe to say that Bacopa shows reasonably powerful soothing effects. So it may play a helpful role in supplements with similar ingredients.
Reduced Stress
Anxious feelings and stress are pervasive in modern society for a variety of reasons. Fortunately, Bacopa may be able to help reduce anxious feelings and stress.
That’s because Bacopa is a so-called adaptogenic herb. This means that the herb increases the body’s resistance to stress levels. It does this by reducing the hormone level called cortisol: one of the body’s key stress hormones.
While cortisol is important in certain situations – such as during an emergency when you need your fight or flight response to work – too much cortisol can lead to long-term discomfort, mood swings, and a variety of other chronic conditions.
By minimizing cortisol levels throughout the body, Bacopa may help to relieve tension, stress, and anxious feelings. Several studies have found that just 300 mg of Bacopa daily can significantly reduce mental health symptoms in studied adults.
While Bacopa cannot treat either of these chronic conditions, it may be a helpful everyday supplement for treating milder stress-related symptoms.
Potential Brain Boosts
Alongside the above benefits, certain studies have shown that Bacopa may help to enhance brain function. Brain function in this sense means cognitive agility, working memory accuracy, learning rate, and efficiency when processing visual information.
Older adults, in particular, may be interested in Bacopa. Some Bacopa extract studies have shown that the compound may improve attention, memory, and processing even complex information compared to placebo treatments.
While Bacopa can’t be used to offset mental degradation overall, it still may have beneficial effects when combined with other forms of mental exercise and supplements like the solutions at Hope Health.
Reduced Blood Pressure
High blood pressure is a serious problem in America, as it is linked to heart issues like heart attacks. High blood pressure places a lot of strain on your heart and surrounding blood vessels.
Luckily, Bacopa may be able to help reduce your blood pressure and keep it within a normal range. Some studies have shown that Bacopa may significantly lower blood pressure when taken daily in dosages of 300 mg.
Note that most successful studies have been performed on animals, however. More human research is required to confirm Bacopa’s blood pressure-reducing effects.
How To Use Bacopa
All of these potential benefits are great, but you need to take Bacopa properly to experience any benefits. Fortunately, Bacopa is widely available; you can find it as a key ingredient in many top supplements.
Additionally, Bacopa is increasingly available in powder form. This allows you to experience the effects of Bacopa Monnieri by mixing it with milk or water. Incidentally, watch for side effects such as nausea, stomach ache, or dry mouth.
When taking Bacopa, it’s a good idea to make sure that your chosen supplement only has Bacopa in concentrations of between 300 to 450 mg per day. While dosage requirements can vary dramatically, the above range is used in all of the cited studies showing Bacopa benefits.
You may also want to combine Bacopa with certain other healthy supplements. Take Hope Health’s Immune + Organic Capsules. These immune support vitamins are packed with beneficial ingredients like antioxidants, vitamin E, and vitamin C. All of these put together can potentially provide your body with a dose of significant wellness benefits.
Add Bacopa to the mix, and you’ll give your immune system and overall body exactly what it needs to reduce fatigue, minimize discomfort, and improve your overall health.
Summary
As you can see, Bacopa may be a very effective supplementary ingredient and has a place in many health supplements and other wellness solutions. Over time, and as more research is completed, Bacopa could become a staple soothing agent and play a key role in developing future supplement cocktails or vitamins for healthy adults.
Try our Immune + Organic Supplement today, or check out the rest of our body-first supplement solutions for more wellness support.
Sources:
Bacopa monnieri as an Antioxidant Therapy to Reduce Oxidative Stress in the Aging Brain | NCBI
The Ayurvedic plant Bacopa monnieri inhibits inflammatory pathways in the brain | NCBI