Black pepper not only adds a great deal of flavor to your meals but works miracles for your brain.
Black pepper acts as a bioenhancer, meaning it serves as a natural enhancer for other active ingredients. Studies show that black pepper can increase the bioavailability of Curcuma for over 1000%.
It is also used as an ingredient in many supplements. In this article, we introduce you to some of the amazing benefits of piperine on your brain and body.
What is Piperine?
Black pepper (Piper nigrum) is used universally and according to the Princeton University, it is the most widely used and traded spice in the world.
It is sometimes referred to as “the king of spices” and is full of vitamins, antioxidants, and minerals that can help with respiratory problems, anemia, indigestion, and cold.
And where does black pepper get its strong taste and benefits from?
Exactly, Piperine.
The proportion of piperine in black pepper is usually between 4.6% and 9.7%.
However, piperine is by far not as strong as the capsaicin contained in chilies.
Piperine Benefits for the Brain
Piperine has many benefits and it has a very special effect on the brain.
Piperine improves the function of your mind and optimizes your learning processes. Here are four positive effects of piperine on your brain:
1. Piperine increases the production of Endorphins
Piperine improves the production of beta-endorphins.
Beta-endorphins are the endorphins most commonly found in the human organism.
On the one hand, they are responsible for your euphoria, on the other hand, they also help to increase your stress tolerance.
Studies show that an increase in beta-endorphin levels positively affects the improvement of cognitive function in the brain.
For example, a 1985 publication by researchers Zager and Black revealed how beta-endorphins optimize memory and learning processes.
2. Piperine benefits Dopamine
Dopamine is one of the most important messenger substances in the brain.
Among other things, it is synthesized from the essential amino acid phenylalanine and activates the nerve cells, making it responsible for the processing of information.
The messenger dopamine is split by a very specific enzyme: monoamine oxidase, or MAO for short.
When split, dopamine loses its effect and this is where piperine comes into play. It inhibits the enzyme MAO and so less dopamine being split, and more of it remains in your brain.
Dopamine has a feedback effect and is largely responsible for your motivation.
Meaning: More Dopamin = More Motivation
3. Piperine and Serotonin / Melatonin
Next, to dopamine, piperine also influences the feel-good hormone serotonin, which is responsible for your mood.
Piperine enhances 5-HTP, a molecule used in the brain for serotonin production.
As for dopamine, piperine reduces its degradation by inhibiting the enzyme MAO, which would otherwise split the serotonin and render it ineffective.
It also breaks down melatonin, a hormone that is produced in the brain and is responsible for your natural day-night rhythm.
Piperine, through its impact on serotonin production, can improve your mental performance, reduce stress, and lift your spirits
A study by J. Wattana Thorn et al. from 2008 shows that piperine has antidepressant effects over a four-week dosing period.
4. Piperin benefits Parkinson’s patients
Black pepper can help treat and prevent Parkinson’s disease.
This is because the piperine pushes the dopamine capacities.
In Parkinson’s disease, dopamine production is disrupted and the dopamine-producing neurons can not produce the amounts that the body actually needs.
The lack of dopamine mainly leads to the slowing down and impairment of movements. The lack of dopamine also disrupts the balance of messenger substances in the brain.
Due dopaminemin deficiency, the messenger acetylcholine overweights, which is responsible for the tremor and muscle stiffness in Parkinson’s patients.
5. Piperine Promotes and Protects Nerve Cells
Piperin is also involved in the production of neurotransmitters because it controls the calcium flow of your body.
Calcium promotes the growth of nerve cells and helps to release neurotransmitters. Piperine can thereby improve the synchronization of nerve activity in the brain.
In addition, black pepper protects the connection between nerve cells and prevents cell death.
A publication titled “You Are What You Eat” from 2011 sees a general relationship between the consumption of spices and health.
Certain diseases, especially neurodegenerative, are less common in regions whose typical diet is spicier (for example, Asia). And Piperine is the king of spices.
Piperine Benefits as Bioenhancer in Supplements
Anyone who takes supplements, for example, to improve their health, may have heard of him before, the first-pass effect!
It describes that some agents may lose some of their effectiveness when they pass through the liver for the first time.
How can you prevent this? With the help of bioenhancers!
What are bioenhancers? Bioenhancers are natural enhancers that are able to increase the bioavailability of active ingredients, nutrients, and vitamins.
One of Piperine’s benefits is that it is a bioenhancer.
In addition to avoiding the first-pass effect, there are a few other ways in which bioenhancers can improve the bioavailability of substances:
– Substances can be better absorbed by the intestine
– Degradation of substances in the intestine and liver is reduced
– Active ingredients can bind better to pathogens and destroy them
– Defensive mechanisms of pathogens are weakened, the blood-brain barrier can be overcome more easily
– Reduction of the first-pass effect
What makes piperine a bioenahncer? It helps to absorb important nerve nutrients such as vitamin B6 and vitamin B12, tryptophan and phenylalanine as well as numerous minerals.
It is exactly these substances your brain needs for the formation of neurotransmitters
So not only is black pepper good for flavoring your food, but it can also prevent many ailments and increase the effectiveness of other substances in your body.
Simply put: If you take a supplement, it always makes sense to have piperine with it, because it significantly increases the efficiency of the other ingredients in these supplements.
Other Piperine Benefits
In addition, piperine, as an active ingredient in black pepper has many more effects on you.
It can z. B. help with colds. In addition, black pepper can effectively support your digestive system by increasing the secretion of stomach acid.
In addition, pierine can help purify your body is due to its increasing effect of sweating and urination.
Piperine has long been considered a proven remedy for colds and cough. It can even help with a stuffy nose.
In addition, this spice has the remarkable property of making you easily sneeze, so the nose is even better cleaned.
Another wonderful piperine benefit is that it has an antibacterial effect.
“Dietary piperine, by favorably stimulating the digestive enzymes of the pancreas, enhances the digestive capacity and significantly reduces the gastrointestinal food transit time.” – Shrinivasan, K. (2007)
Piperine in Medicine
Far Eastern herbs and spices appeal to a wide range of positive qualities and this is of course no different with pepper.
The spice is used since many centuries for stomach disorders, constipation/diarrhea, bronchitis, insomnia, malaria and cholera (and as a painkiller).
Conclusion
I’m sure that in the near future many more products and supplements will be thrown on the market, with a pinch of piperine. Because piperine does have great benefits.
On the one hand, the manufacturer can reduce the number of other ingredients and thus save costs or increase the potency of his product in a favorable manner.
Piperin is a supplement booster that is slowly but steadily being discovered by more and more manufacturers in the supplement industry and incorporated into their products (but still used at below average levels) to benefit the effects of individual substances.
But here too, keep your eyes open when buying eggs.
The potent dosage is in the range of 10-20mg and I have already encountered supps, which – as far as piperine is concerned – are completely under-dosed.
Cheers,
Sam
