The Healing Benefits of Spagyric Cilantro

Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Healthy Living Livestream. I'm your host, Dr. Andrew Kaufman. Today, we are going to talk about the healing benefits of cilantro. But before I get started, I'd like to announce to everyone that my shop will be having a surprise sale sometime very, very soon. And if you'd like to take advantage of that, including a discount on my spagyric cilantro tincture, the subject of today's livestream, please follow the link to sign up for my newsletter and then you'll be among the first to know when the sale breaks.

Okay, thank you, everyone. So today I am talking about cilantro, the herb that you may know as a culinary herb, and it does have different names because it's also known as coriander. This nomenclature varies geographically, but also coriander often refers to the seeds of the plant, whereas cilantro refers to the leaves and stems. So there's a little bit of confusion about this, but I'm going to talk about many studies today which all use various parts of the plant. Now, this plant you know about because of its culinary use as a flavoring in a variety of dishes from different cultures, especially from near Asia, but also in Latin America. It's become kind of a common ingredient in our cooking. But what you may not know is that also traditionally this has been used as a medicinal herb in many cultures across Asia.

And if we can bring up the first slide here, this is a summary from a review article of various traditional uses from different countries in Asia predominantly. For example, it's used for joint inflammation and rheumatism in India. In China, it's used for measles, diabetes, and various intestinal or stomach problems. You can see that both the seeds, the whole plant, the leaves, and various preparations are used depending on the region and the particular indication. Now, interestingly, it talks about Pakistani herbal drugs or traditional Pakistani medicine and says it's an antiviral. However, I don't think they had any concept of viruses in Pakistani traditional medicine, but also as a neuroenergizer, and that sounds a little bit more authentic. But what they probably mean is that it was used for acute seasonal illnesses.

Now, it was also used for some liver diseases, but you'll find a more common theme among traditional uses, that it applies to the kidneys specifically. And I'll present some research data to explain why that is. In Iran, it's listed as a carminative. And you'll see many different cultures used it. And that's essentially for flatulence. Also as a diuretic, which increases the excretion through the kidneys. Other GI-type symptoms and convulsions. And we will find some evidence in the medical literature also about its properties as an anti-seizure medication. And then it lists insomnia and anxiety. And you'll see that depression and anxiety are other indications in various traditional uses. So in Morocco, it's been applied to kidney diseases and as a diuretic. Also in India, it's been used for melancholia. And it's used in tobacco and perfumes as an aromatic in addition to the ground-up coriander seeds in curries. And also, you'll see a theme that it's used a lot for diabetes-related issues. So lowering blood sugar levels in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Morocco.

And I think that probably predates the blood test for sugar. So it's probably to treat the symptoms of diabetes, which are excessive thirst, hunger, and urination. And we see similar indications in traditional Chinese medicine for acute illnesses, bad breath, and unpleasant odor from the genitals. That's an interesting one. Worms, as mentioned here, also rheumatism in the European pharmacopeia, and some more GI stuff throughout Asia. So we can see several themes here in how this herb was used in traditional forms of medicine.

Now if we go to the next slide, this is from a different review article that looks at all of the therapeutic indications based on more modern scientific studies. So not based on tradition, but based on published research studies and almost exclusively with animals. But we can see here different categories. So on the top left, we see that it prevents oxidative damage. And there's quite a lot of studies demonstrating that. And I'll highlight a couple of them as I go through. Now, this paper also talks about linalool, which is one of the terpenes that's in the cilantro plant. And it's in many other things. In fact, there's some of it in turpentine as well. But I'm not going to look at that. I want to look specifically at the cilantro plant here as a whole because that is the natural element.

So in addition to the antioxidant effect, you'll see that it inhibits microbial growth. And I don't think that this is through any direct effect on the microbes. It's probably because it can chelate the toxic material that the microbes are trying to clean up, and then they're no longer needed. Also in diabetes, it has been shown to decrease fasting blood sugar, also to prevent glycation of proteins, which is attaching sugars and then cross-linking them to proteins. And if you're familiar with the diagnostic test, the hemoglobin A1C, that's what it's measuring. It's measuring the glycation or the adding sugar to the hemoglobin protein. And then other effects as far as liver metabolism of sugar, which have all been positive, as well as decreasing excretion in the urine of blood sugar and decreasing the blood sugar levels after meals. So this has been thoroughly tested in animals to have a variety of therapeutic effects for diabetes.

Now, there are also some studies of rats where it's shown to improve memory and learning, and I'll highlight one of those. Alleviating anxiety. Now, that's a little bit more difficult to draw analogies from animals. But in terms of neurologic disease, there is some impressive data on oxidative stress in the brain and cognitive performance. And then there's at least one study as an analgesic for pain relief. So now this didn't even describe the cardiovascular benefits of which I will show some studies.

So at this point, you may be asking yourself if there's all this traditional use of the substance for a variety of indications. And we see a lot of patterns where multiple different cultures used it for the same issue. And then we see scientific studies of mostly animals, one human study looking at skin fungal infections, which also was beneficial, but showing basically that it backs up many of the traditional uses and shows some impressive therapeutic potential. You would think that this would be something that, one, there would be a huge amount of research looking at human illness and perhaps veterinary illness because of the vast therapeutic potential. And then also that we would expect doctors to know about this and that this would be one of the things that they could easily recommend to people.

But as you know, that is certainly not the case. In fact, when I was practicing medicine, I never ever heard of cilantro mentioned in any context other than, do you want some in your salsa?

So if we put up the next slide, here we can see some of the propaganda. Now this is from USA Today and I came across this by accident, but I was actually familiar with the studies that it cited and didn’t think that it was telling the full story. You can see from the title of this article, Fact Check: Cilantro removes heavy metals from the brain is unproven. That is the conclusion of the article. However, right in the text, you can see the highlighted portion where it mentions two specific studies of lead in the brain of animals.

It says in the first study, “Rather than whether cilantro can remove heavy metals...” In other words, they claim the study didn’t report on that. In the other study, they said it “did not address whether cilantro removes heavy metals directly from the brain.” I’m going to fact-check the fact-check here.

If we go to the next slide, this is the first study referenced. I clicked on the link to make sure it was the same study I already had, and it was. You can see in the highlighted portions the categories on the right: reactive oxygen species and lipid peroxidation products. These metrics were significantly reduced in the group treated with cilantro. The study clearly shows a 10-25% reduction in oxidative stress and up to a 72% decrease in brain lead levels with cilantro. So yes, cilantro does remove lead from the brain.

The next study backs this up. Blood and brain lead levels were significantly reduced, with a 75% reduction in brain lead concentration in the cilantro-treated group. They also found that cilantro increased the body’s native antioxidant enzyme activity, reducing oxidative damage. These findings directly contradict the article’s conclusion.

Moving on to cardiovascular health, cilantro’s benefits include antioxidant effects in the vascular system. It also prevents atherosclerotic plaques in animals on high-fat diets. Plaque formation was significantly reduced in cilantro-treated groups, showing the herb’s potential to protect arteries from damage.

In terms of heart rhythm, another study demonstrated that cilantro is as effective as propranolol (a beta-blocker) for reducing tachycardia and has significant effects on bradycardia. This is noteworthy, as very few substances—natural or pharmaceutical—can address both.

Finally, cilantro has shown promise in cognitive studies. Memory and learning improved in animal tests, with the herb potentially aiding in conditions like dementia. Cilantro’s ability to chelate heavy metals, including aluminum, which is linked to neurodegeneration, makes it a compelling subject for further research.

In summary, cilantro has been proven to detoxify heavy metals, reduce oxidative stress, and improve cardiovascular and cognitive health. Despite its potential, this humble herb remains underutilized in mainstream medicine. However, nature’s remedies, like cilantro, offer powerful solutions backed by science and tradition. Thank you for joining today’s discussion, and I look forward to seeing you in the next Healthy Living Livestream!