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27.08.2024

In this dose, cinnamon reduces rheumatism symptoms

If rheumatism patients also take two grams of cinnamon daily in addition to their regular medication, their complaints will be drastically reduced. This is suggested by a small trial published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition.

Study
In 2018, researchers from Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences in Iran published a small trial in which 36 women with rheumatism participated as test subjects. The women also received medications such as prednisolone and methotrexate.

For 8 weeks, half of the women took a placebo every day, while the other half of the women took 2 grams of cinnamon daily. The cinnamon was in capsules.

The women took 1 gram of cinnamon after breakfast and another 1 gram after dinner.

An important bioactive compound in cinnamon is cinnamaldehyde or cinnamic acid. You see the structural formula above.

According to fundamental research, cinnameldehyde inhibits inflammatory reactions that play a role in rheumatism. [Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2012:2012:429320.] That is why the researchers wondered whether cinnamon could add something to the treatment of rheumatism patients.

Results
Cinnamon supplementation reduced pain [TJC] and swelling [SJC] of the joints. Cinnamon reduced the activity of rheumatism [DAS-28] by 35 percent.

Cinnamon reduced the concentration of inflammatory factors such as TNF-alpha and CRP in the blood.

Conclusion
"Regarding the availability and lack of side effects, the regular intake of cinnamon supplement may be used as a pharmacological agent in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis," the researchers summarize.

"Further clinical studies are warranted to confirm these results and to explain the mechanism of cinnamon's anti-inflammatory action."

Safety
A thorough look at the safety aspect is not an exaggeration when it comes to cinnamon supplementation. Cinnamon not only contains cinnamaldehyde, but also coumarin. Coumarin is found in small amounts in all kinds of plant foods. A standard Western diet provides about one milligram of coumarin per day. [Mol Nutr Food Res. 2010 Feb;54(2):228-39.]

You can see the structure of coumarin below.

According to the EFSA, coumarin is harmful if the daily intake is higher than 0.1 milligrams per kilo per day. [EFSA Journal. 2008;729:1-15.] If you weigh seventy kilos, then your tolerable daily intake is 7 milligrams of coumarin per day.

If the researchers had used cinnamon from Cinnamonum verum, their subjects would probably have stayed below that limit. Two grams of that cinnamon variant provides a maximum of 0.2 milligrams of coumarin, but probably not even half of that.

Other cinnamon varieties may contain considerably more coumarin. [J Agric Food Chem. 2013 May 8;61(18):4470-6.] Cinnamonum cassia, for example, contains a maximum of 0.3 milligrams of coumarin per gram. If you take 2 grams of cinnamon, it contains at most 0.6 milligrams of coumarin.

Cinnamonum burmanni is a different story. One gram of that type of cinnamon contains a maximum of 9.3 milligrams of coumarin. If you take 2 grams of this per day, you can ingest a maximum of 18.6 milligrams of coumarin.

A bit much.

Source:
J Am Coll Nutr. 2018 May 3:1-6.

More:
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Archives:
Cinnamon Supplementation
Joint Health

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