Of Mice (and Men’s) Brains

Feeling a little anxious or blue, you may want to start burning incense. It seems researchers from the US and Israel have found that burning frankincense activates ion channels in the brain that have been known to relieve anxiety and depression. When the scientists injected mice with incensole acetate, one of the constituents of the frankincense, it affected areas of the brain and nerve circuits that current anxiety and depression drugs affect.

It seems that many cultures may have known this for some time, if only intuitively. The burning of incense has been a common cultural and spiritually practice for at least a couple thousand of years. From a press release,Gerald Weissmann, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of The FASEB Journal, stated:

This study also provides a biological explanation for millennia-old spiritual practices that have persisted across time, distance, culture, language, and religion — burning incense really does make you feel warm and tingly all over.

Besides the fact that a scientist used the words “warm and tingly”, what I like most about the article that reported on the study, Incense Soothes the Minds of Mice…and Men?, from the Vital Choice newsletter, is their conclusion:

Before reaching for marginal, potentially problematic medicines like Prozac, it seems worth trying incense … plus omega-3s, exercise, positive thinking, and socializing!

I think this is always a very good policy! But I want to know what you think!! Post a comment and let me know.

No Comments

No comments yet.

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI

Leave a comment

You must be logged in to post a comment.