Herbal Memory Enhancers Reno NV

Sage Advice for Memory

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Having trouble remembering the names of people you’ve just met at a party? Try slipping some sage into your drink.For centuries, sage has had a memory-enhancing reputation among medical herbalists. And some research has shown that it boosts the activity of a brain chemical called acetylcholine, which is involved in memory. (Alzheimer’s patients have low levels of this chemical.) Few studies, however, have tested whether the herb actually affects short-term memory in people. So British scientists gave 44 college students a word recall test.

Right before the test, the participants took either sage oil tablets, ranging in dosage from 25 to 150 microliters, or placebos. The students watched 15 words flash consecutively on a computer screen, and had one minute to write down as many as they could remember. They did the same thing several times during the next six hours. The students who took 50 or 100 microliters of sage remembered an extra word or two, even up to four hours after they popped the pills, says lead researcher Andrew Scholey, a psychopharmacologist at Northumbria University in Newcastle upon Tyne. While that may not sound like much, the study offers the first hard evidence that sage can improve short-term memory in healthy young adults. This could be the extra edge, however slight, that college students may need before an exam. Or, for that matter, for anyone seeking a social boost: People always like you better when you remember their names.

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