Everyday herb reduces hot flushes and helps arthritis, diabetes sufferers

Medical aficionados all agree, sage is not just an interesting herb to spice up your meals with.  It is also a very interesting natural remedy and preventive tool.

Research points to sage’s power to reduce the hot flashes of menopause, help lower glucose, cholesterol, and triglyceride levels in diabetics, and inhibit inflammation enhance mood and cognitive performance.   But perhaps most remarkable, experts now recognise the memory-enhancing capacity of sage in individuals with and without Alzheimer’s disease. Sage provides an array of complex compounds such as chlorogenic acid, estrogenic substances, tannic acids, resins, and potent flavones.

This article might just be enough to convince you to consider adding a little more sage to your diet and cooking.

Sage has been shown to have three very direct impacts:

Reducing hot flushes

For centuries, sage has been recommended by folk medicine experts as a remedy for excessive sweating and hot flushes. In recent years, scientists have investigated this potential benefit and found that menopausal women with hot flushes respond well to sage-based treatment.  Women with at least five daily hot flushes were given a once-daily tablet of fresh sage leaves for about two months.

Each week passed, during which the participants experienced a significant drop in both the number and severity of hot flashes. After the eight-week period, the mean number of mild hot flashes had decreased by 46%, moderate hot flashes by 62%, severe hot flashes by 79%, and very severe hot flashes had decreased by 100%!

Other menopausal symptoms—including psychological and urogenital problems—were also greatly reduced by the sage therapy.

Reducing the impact of inflammation like arthritis and asthma

Potent anti-inflammatory sage components such as luteolin and rosmarinic acid may help inhibit inflammation in conditions such as arthritis, asthma, and inflammatory acne.

Luteolin has shown exceptional inhibition of TANK-binding kinase 1 (TBK1), an enzyme believed to play a role in the development of inflammatory diseases. Published in Biochemical Pharmacology, a study reported that luteolin had the strongest inhibitory activity against TBK1 among six tested natural anti-inflammatory compounds.¹⁷

The rosmarinic acid in sage supports this anti-inflammatory effect by inhibiting enzymes linked to inflammatory responses.¹⁸

A 2013 study reported in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology examined the published research on 71 herbs and found that sage provides an array of critical anti-inflammatory properties.¹⁹

Sage extracts have been shown to inhibit NF-kB, a protein complex that controls many genes involved in inflammation and that is chronically active in many inflammatory diseases ranging from atherosclerosis to inflammatory bowel disease.¹⁹

Helping type II diabetes patients

A team of researchers in Iran demonstrated that, in patients with type II diabetes, sage provides antihyperglycemic effects and improves lipid profile.

In a randomized, placebo-controlled study, half of a group of 80 hyperlipidemic type II diabetics were given a 500 mg capsule of sage leaf extract three times a day, while other participants were given a placebo.

After three months, the sage treatment showed various beneficial effects on blood sugar and blood lipids. Sage lowered fasting glucose by 32.2%, lowered glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) by 22.7%, reduced total cholesterol by 16.9%, decreased triglycerides by 56.4%, lowered LDL cholesterol by 35.6%, and raised HDL cholesterol by 27.6%.²

Interesting insights?

As always, you should seek insights from a medical professional before taking supplements or natural therapies.