Picture-J.M.Garg –https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7995641
“Bacopa is a perennial, creeping herb native to the wetlands of southern and Eastern India, Australia, Europe, Africa, Asia, and North and South America It is known by the common names water hyssop, waterhyssop, brahmi, thyme-leafed gratiola, herb of grace, and Indian pennywort. It is also found in Florida, Hawaii and other southern states of the United States where it can be grown in damp conditions by a pond or bog garden.”
Bacopa Monieri is both an adaptogen and nootropic. Bacopa provides nervous system support for individuals under stress.
Nootropic definition: used to enhance memory or other cognitive functions.
Adaptogen defintion: a natural substance considered to help the body adapt to stress and to exert a normalizing effect upon bodily processes
Bacopa can also help improve:
1.Memory
2.Learning
3.Attention
4.Focus
5. Strong regulation of mood function at the serotonin receptor.
6. Neuroprotection
7. Antioxidant to reduce oxidative stress
Bacopa and Acetylcholine: Proposed Mechanism of actions:
AcetylCholine Definition=Acetylcholine is a neurotransmitter, which is a chemical released by a nerve cell or neuron. ... Acetylcholine causes muscles to contract, activates pain responses and regulates endocrine and REM sleep functions.
Acetylcholine, which acts as a messenger between nerves — a huge variety of nerves.
Acetylcholine tells muscles to twitch and more, but it also tells your hippocampus to store a memory. It plays an essential role in alertness, attention, learning, and memory. It’s so essential to memory, in fact, that acetylcholine deficits are associated with Alzheimer’s disease.
It appears that Bacopa decreases Acetylcholine esterase activity, prolonging the effects of acetylcholine, which may be at least one mechanism by which Bacopa improves cognitive processing, working memory and attention.
Bacopa also has the following benefits below, another reason that we call it a nootropic.
- Acetylcholine esterase inhibition (increases half life of acetylcholine)
- Choline acetyltransferase activation (increases endogenous acetylcholine synthesis)
- Phosphodiesterase inhibition (increase cerebral blood flood)
- B-amyloid reduction
- Neuro protection (via redox and enzyme induction aka antioxidant)
- Bacopa maintains balance of serotonin, by increasing serotonin synthesis and regulating the re-uptake serotonin, increasing the duration and intensity of serotonergic activity at the synapse
Bacopa monnieri (Brahmi)
Bacopa is one of the reported most sacred herbs in ayurvedic medicine. Indian medicine also refers to it as a “nerve tonic”. This herb is used by Ayurvedic medical practitioners for almost 3000 years. The traditional use of bacopa as an anti-anxiety remedy in Ayurvedic medicine is supported by both animal and clinical studies. Bocopa is used in Indian tradition medicine in the treatment of number of brain disorders namely anxiety and poor memory (Singh and Dhawan, 1997).
Bacopa contains active phytochemicals called Bacosides.
Bacopa monniera extract or its constituent bacosides suggest an involvement of the GABA-ergic activity in bacopa’s action on central nervous system. Bacopa not only enhances memory, it also shows an anti-stress effect.
Bacopa modulates the activities of Heat shock proteins, Cytochrome P450 genes, and SOD (super oxide dismustase)
Side note: SOD is an enzyme that helps break down potentially harmful oxygen molecules in cells
Therefore Bacopa protects the brain from deleterious effect of stress (Kar Chowdhury et al., 2002).
Bacopa and managing stress?
The National Institute of Mental Health defines stress as “the brain’s response to any demand.” The stress response system is designed to respond to all stress without bias. The criteria that determines how healthy or harmful the response is based on intensity, duration,repeated hits and individual perception of the situation.
Research reveals that moderate release of cortisol and neurotransmitters in response to stress is normal, but repeated, high output over a long period of time without reprieve can cause the prefrontal cortex to shrink, reducing the brain’s capacity for memory and learning.
The amygdala is then stimulated and causes the brain to be more receptive to stress, increasing agitation. This scenario not only creates a domino effect, predisposing the brain to a high sense of threat, it also creates a vicious cycle of stress perception that is difficult to break.
The Amygdala stores our fear and aggression responses. When a stressful situation comes along our Amygdalda disables the frontal lobe (reasoning, cognition, problem solving) and activates the fight or flight response. An overaction of the Amygdala is thought to be involved causing exaggerated anxiety from non-stressful stimuli, and eventually will cause loss of dendritic cell communication leading to eventual cognitive decline.
” In the process of learning, new neurons grow in certain parts of the brain which handle sensory information. Memories are the result of changes of the ability of neurons to transfer information to other neurons of circuits started by previous neural activity. These circuits become “memory traces.” The hippocampus and the amygdala of the brain store information on memory and emotions. ”
This is an actual picture below from a study that shows increases in neurons of the Amygdala in rats from supplementing in increasing doses with Bacopa. (d is the highest).
Photomicrographs of silver-nitrate-impregnated basolateral amygdaloid neurons from control rats A) and rats treated with Bacopa monniera, BM, for 6 weeks at doses of 20 mg/kg B), 40 mg/kg C) and 80 mg/kg D). A significant increase in dendritic arborization in the BM 20-, 40- and 80-mg/kg groups is demonstrated.
Arborization definition
1. a fine branching structure at the end of a nerve fiber.
What this means is: Bacopa Monnieri, improves memory and learning by making ACTUAL structural changes the neurons of the amygdala, speeding up the communication between neurons, and allowing for enhanced mental processing.
This is one of my favorite studies to show clinicians when during an in-service training. As most indiviuduals are visual learners, pictures really stick.
Here is a simpler picture with bocopa supplementation that showed an increase in neurons with higher dosing (d being highest).
Pretty cool right?
Now for Bacopa in human studies…
“Seventy six adults aged between 40 and 65 years volunteered for the double-blind randomized, placebo control study in which various memory functions were tested and levels of anxiety measured in three testing sessions: one prior to the trial, one after three months on the trial, and one six weeks after the completion of the trial. The results showed a significant effect of bacopa on the test for the retention of new information. In the follow-up tests it was found that the rate of learning was unaffected, suggesting that bacopa decreases the rate of forgetting of newly acquired information.”
Now you are probably wondering, where do I find some Bacopa? There are several sources of Bacopa on the internet, but not all products/raw materials are created equal. I really like a newer product by Ortho Molecular Products-NUADAPT, that combines Bacopa M. in a therapeutic dose of 300mg, but also helps minimize the effects of excessive cortisol (stress) with Phosphatidylserine and additional adaptogenic herbs. You can find NuAdapt at a local healthcare provider near you. If you don’t have one, you can find NuAdapt at our store us.fullscript.com/welcome/fredrickson
Disclaimer: Always consult with your doctor or physician before trying a new supplement.
REFERENCES
Enhancement of Amygdala Neurons with Bacopa Monniera.
Enhancement of basolateral amygdaloid neuronal dendritic arborization following Bacopa monniera extract treatment in adult rats.
Effect of bacosides, alcoholic extract of Bacopa monniera Linn. (brahmi), on experimental amnesia in mice.
Herbal Remedies to Treat Anxiety Disorders
By Bhagya Venkanna Rao, Bettadapura N. Srikumar and Byrathnahalli S. Shankaranarayana Rao
Submitted: November 26th 2010
Enhancement of basolateral amygdaloid neuronal dendritic arborization following Bacopa monniera extract treatment in adult rats.
Really good link for in-depth science of the Amygdala.
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