Cinnamon has been used as a medicine for over 3,000 years. Modern studies confirm that this sweet and spicy bark can help with diabetes, digestion, and pain. But recent research reveals a potentially new function for cinnamon: improving our ability to learn.
In a study published June 2016 in the Journal of Neuroimmune Pharmacology, researchers found that mice that had previously demonstrated poor spatial memory learned to navigate a maze in less than half the time after taking cinnamon orally for a month, even when the location of the exit was changed with each test.
Researchers also discovered that the cinnamon treatment contributed to favorable changes in the hippocampus of these mice.
If the effects seen in mice are translated to human-size doses, adults would need about half a teaspoon of cinnamon powder per day.
