Can Moringa Improve My Health? 21 Incredible Benefits of Moringa

If you’re searching “moringa benefits” in Google, it’s probably because somewhere along the line you heard someone mention Moringa in conjunction with some sort of health benefit.

“Moringa can help manage your diabetes!” “Moringa can lower your blood pressure!” “Use Moringa in your face scrubs and never have a breakout again!” So how much of it is true?

Honestly? Almost all of it.

Moringa is excellent for constipation. Moringa leaves have a ton of fiber, which makes you poop. Moringa seeds are also a very strong laxative, Since Moringa seeds are so strong, we highly suggest only eating a couple of the dried Moringa seeds after boiling them per day.

There are definitely Moringa posts out there that are a bit overblown. Moringa, ultimately, is a tree. A very nutritious tree! A very beneficial tree! But it’s not going to make you grow wings, and it’s not going to grant you immortality.

But the bulk of what you might have heard about Moringa is true. It genuinely is capable of changing your life for the better. Let’s read along as we discuss 21 science-based, incredible benefits of Moringa Oleifera, the miracle tree.

Moringa Lowers Blood Sugar and Helps Fight Diabetes

According to a 2017 study by the CDC, over 100 million Americans (or more than 35% of the population) have either diabetes or prediabetes. In other words, there’s a 1 in 3 chance that you (yes, you!) either have diabetes or are at severe risk of developing type 2 diabetes within the next 5 years.

Those are scary numbers. The good thing is that researchers have been studying how Moringa affects diabetes for years, and pretty much every result says the same thing: Moringa can help fight–or even cure–some types of diabetes.

Studies show that taking small doses of Moringa on a daily (or even weekly!) basis can lower postprandial blood sugar. It can decrease fasting glucose. In another study, it even cured Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes in animal test subjects entirely.

Moringa is full of antioxidants, and one of those antioxidants–something called flavonoids–helps keep your blood glucose level low, which in turn fights diabetes. What that means is that adding just a gram or two of Moringa powder to your daily meals can help prevent, decrease, or even cure diabetes.

Moringa for Constipation

If you’re an adult, you’ve probably suffered from constipation at least once or twice in your life. In fact, according to one study, at least 16% of all adults suffer from chronic constipation–constipation that lasts and lasts. In the U.S. alone, we spent $1,304,000,000 in 2017 on over-the-counter laxatives.

Constipation and other digestive issues are pretty big problems, in other words.

But we have one major tool in our constipation-fighting toolbelt, and that’s dietary fiber.

Does Moringa make you Poop?

Moringa does make you poop, Fiber bulks up your stool, increases your stool frequency, and helps prevent colon cancer. Researchers have found that people who have diets rich in fiber by and large have lower rates of constipation. And while many fruits and vegetables contain dietary fiber, Moringa is a cut above the rest.

For comparison, 100 grams of apple contains 2.4 grams of dietary fiber. 100 grams of Moringa powder contains 19.2 grams, or 8x as much. In other words, if you eat one tablespoon (14 grams) of Moringa powder a day, you’ll get more fiber than eating an entire apple.

Why Does Moringa Make You Poop

Moringa is known for its high fiber content, which promotes bowel movements and relieves constipation. The seeds are known to possess natural laxative properties, aiding digestion and stimulating bowel regularity. Including this superfood in your diet can potentially lead to improved gastrointestinal health and a regulated bowel movement pattern.

However, be careful with the seeds, as they are a really strong laxative (speaking from experience)

 

Moringa Can Lower Your Cholesterol

Heart disease is the leading cause of death within the United States, even more than cancer, accidents, or strokes. And while heart disease can be caused by a number of factors, one of the largest factors is high cholesterol.

According to the CDC, more than 95 million adults in the US currently have total cholesterol higher than 200 mg/dL. That’s almost 30% of the total population, for the record, which means that nearly 30% of all Americans are at higher-than-normal risk of heart disease.

Diets containing Moringa have been shown to decrease total levels of cholesterol in humans, animals, and even eggs. A large part of this is because of Moringa’s high level of fiber. Not only does fiber help improve your digestive health, but soluble fiber can also reduce how much cholesterol is absorbed into your bloodstream.

Another reason Moringa is so good at reducing cholesterol is that it contains PUFAs: polyunsaturated fatty acids. Don’t let the name intimidate you; PUFAs have the ability to control cholesterol. Moringa seed oil, for the record, can contain up to 72% PUFA. All of this combines to make Moringa excellent at reducing cholesterol.

Problems With Insomnia? Moringa Increases Sleepiness

Sleeplessness and insomnia are conditions that plague everyone at some point or another, but some people suffer worse than others. In fact, according to SleepScore, one-third of Americans report having trouble sleeping at least a few times a week.

Moringa can help. But how?

Moringa is one of the few foods out there that contains every single essential amino acid. One of those amino acids is called tryptophan, and tryptophan is important because it creates serotonin. And what does serotonin create?

Melatonin, which as most of you probably know, helps you sleep.

The amino acids in Moringa help produce the chemicals that make you sleepy. So the next time you’re staring up at the ceiling trying to count sheep, stir in a bit of Moringa powder into a warm cup of milk.

It won’t put you to sleep automatically, but introducing Moringa into your regular diet can absolutely help combat insomnia, and help you achieve a longer night’s sleep.

Moringa Helps Lower Blood Pressure

If you’ve ever had a nurse or doctor cluck disapprovingly at your blood pressure reading, you’re not alone. According to the American Heart Association, more than 100 million Americans currently have high blood pressure.

High blood pressure can damage and narrow your arteries, increasing the risk of stroke. It forces your heart to work faster, which can increase the risk of heart disease. It can even damage your kidneys, bones, memory, and eyes.

Moringa contains a chemical called niaziminin, which can help decrease arterial blood pressure. In fact, Moringa leaves, in particular, have been found to reduce and regulate high blood pressure.

Managing your blood pressure often requires a number of lifestyle and diet changes. Moringa can make those changes a lot simpler.

Moringa is a Powerful Antibiotic

In 1928, Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin, the first true antibiotic. In the 90 years since then, its discovery has saved the lives of tens of millions of people.

Antibiotics work to kill or inhibit the growth of bacteria, and if you’ve ever gone to the doctor with strep or some other type of infection, you’ve probably taken one.

Moringa has been used as an antibiotic for thousands of years, but it’s only been in the last 70 years or so that we’ve started really studying how Moringa’s antibiotic properties actually work.

Within that time, several studies have shown that Moringa oleifera does have antibiotic/antimicrobial properties.

Moringa contains a powerful antibiotic called pterygospermin, found in Moringa roots, leaves, and seeds.

This antibiotic works to destroy dangerous microbes and bacteria, and prevent them from replicating. In fact, one study showed that the antibiotic properties of Moringa seed extracts were actually comparable to those of penicillin.

Throw Out Your Ibuprofen — Moringa is an Anti-Inflammatory

If you’ve ever had a repetitive stress injury like carpal tunnel or tendonitis, you’ve probably spent a few weeks gobbling up NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) like ibuprofen or aspirin.

The trouble with NSAIDs, though, is that like most drugs, they also contain the risk of side effects.

So how can you fight inflammation without also having to deal with heartburn or headaches?

If you guessed “Moringa,” you’ve probably already sensed a pattern in this article.

Flavonoids are a type of antioxidant–one of the many found in Moringa. Flavonoids have a lot of benefits–they’ve been shown to protect against heart disease and cancer, for instance.

One of their benefits, though, is that flavonoids also work to fight inflammation.

Just about every part of the Moringa tree contains flavonoids, from the seeds to the root bark.

And because inflammation can not only cause pain in the short term but can cause actual bodily damage in the long term, eating Moringa to reduce that inflammation can go a long way towards improving your health.

Moringa Can Help Relieve Arthritis Symptoms

According to the Arthritis Foundation, arthritis is the leading cause of disability among adults in the United States. More than 54 million people have been diagnosed by their physician with arthritis, and millions more are likely to suffer undiagnosed.

Because arthritis affects so many people, anything that can help relieve symptoms of arthritis is in high demand. That’s where Moringa comes in.

Moringa has been used to help manage arthritis for hundreds, if not thousands, of years, and science is starting to prove that the tradition is right. In one study, researchers used an extract from Moringa flowers to help reduce arthritis in animal subjects. In another study, Moringa extract was used to help reduce joint swelling and pain.

There are even reports of people who have seen dramatic (or even complete) decreases in symptoms after they started taking Moringa.

There is no one cure for arthritis, and taking Moringa isn’t going to entirely heal joint disease. But scientists and real people both have said that Moringa can definitely help.

Moringa Can Reduce Allergies

If you’re like me, you probably have Pollen.com bookmarked. If you’re also like me, you probably spend one or two hundred bucks a year on Zyrtec and antihistamines. Allergies affect hundreds of millions of people around the globe, and our choices are either to take a lot of medication or suffer.

Research has started to suggest that Moringa can help.

Antihistamines exist outside of the pharmacy; we can find them in the natural world, too. Vitamin C is probably the most well-known one; one study showed that Vitamin C can decrease histamine levels by 38%, and Moringa, as we know, contains 7 times more Vitamin C than oranges.

But Moringa also contains Quercetin: a flavonoid that, among other benefits, can help treat allergies.

Moringa won’t rid you of your allergies entirely, but its anti-allergy (and anti-asthma!) properties mean your allergies might hit you more softly.

Moringa Allergy Symptoms

Some symptoms of a Moringa allergy include

• Red and watering eyes
• Bloating
• Diarrhea
• Sollen tongue, eyes, or face
• lightheadedness
• Swelling of the throat or mouth
• Difficulty breathing

If you experience any of these after taking your Moringa, you should immediately stop taking Moringa and consult with your doctor.

Moringa Can Help Your Wounds Heal Faster

Plants and herbs have been used for healing purposes in traditional medicine for thousands and thousands of years. In India, Moringa has served the same purpose. However, how much of that is based on science versus old wives’ tales?

Answer: a lot of it!

Studies have shown that Moringa leaves can help promote fibroblast proliferation: one of the most important steps in the healing process. In other words, Moringa can increase the speed with which skin wounds close.

This is great news for all of us, but it’s especially important for the elderly and chronically ill, whose wounds can often take much longer to heal than the average. Not only can Moringa heal skin injuries a little faster, but it can also prevent the health issues that often arise from open wounds.

Moringa Helps Decrease Anxiety and Stress

Remember tryptophan and serotonin? They have a lot more uses than just helping you fall asleep.

Serotonin is called “the happiness drug” in pop culture, and while that’s a drastic oversimplification (serotonin affects everything from memory and learning ability to organ development), studies have shown that it does seem to also affect your mood.

Because tryptophan helps create serotonin, foods that contain tryptophan can help your brain produce the amount of serotonin it needs to function normally. That, in turn, helps us regulate our anxiety and stress, and deal with them in a more helpful manner.

Add Moringa to Your Diet to Help With Weight Loss

According to the National Institutes of Health, two-thirds of Americans are either overweight or obese. Each year, we spend 2.1 billion dollars on weight loss supplements, and according to the NIH, most of those supplements have absolutely no effect on weight.

So if more than half of the ingredients commonly found in weight loss supplements have little to no effect on actual weight loss, how are we supposed to believe that Moringa would help you lose weight?

Because of science!

In 2015, researchers from Rutgers University in New Brunswick conducted a study on mice to examine the relationship between Moringa and weight loss, glucose, insulin, and cholesterol. They gave mice a high-fat diet. One group of mice was also given Moringa. The other group wasn’t. What happened?

The mice who ate Moringa did not develop fatty liver disease. Their glucose tolerance and insulin signaling improved. And it also resulted in a decrease in weight gain compared to the group that ate no Moringa whatsoever.

This study suggested that the isothiocyanates inside of Moringa act as an anti-obesity agent, and can the use of Moringa in your diet (even in an unhealthy diet, as researchers found) can help prevent and treat obesity and diabetes.

Ultimately, the best way to manage obesity and diabetes is to take care of your lifestyle and diet. But Moringa can jumpstart that, helping your body fight against unhealthy weight gain and diabetes.

Struggling to Get Enough Vitamins & Minerals? Moringa has Dozens

You might have seen the charts: the ones that tell you that Moringa has 10 times more vitamin A than carrots and 7 times more vitamin C than oranges. Surely they’re overestimating something, right?

Nope! It’s true.

Three different studies found that gram for gram, Moringa leaves contain:

• 10 times more vitamin A than carrots,
• 17 times more calcium than milk,
• 7 times more vitamin C than oranges,
• 9 times the protein found in yogurt,
• 15 times more potassium than found in bananas,
• 25 times the iron found in spinach and 14 times more iron than beef,
• And large amounts of all 9 essential amino acids

A diet heavy in vitamins and nutrients is essential to maintaining proper health. Humans simply cannot function properly if we’re lacking in one (or several) of these vitamins. Unfortunately, hundreds of millions of people around the world don’t get anywhere near the amount of v&n’s they should.

Start introducing just a tablespoon of Moringa powder into your diet. Sprinkle it on your meals, in your smoothies, in your sweets.

For virtually no effort, you’ll start to see a change in your health almost immediately.

Moringa is Loaded With Antioxidants

The human body is, for the most part, a tightly-run ship. Nucleotides bind with each other in a set format. Our heart pumps blood through the body. Most of the time, things in our bodies work just the way they’re supposed to.

But sometimes they don’t. Sometimes, the molecules in our body lose an electron when they’re not supposed to, and then become free radicals. The problem with free radicals is that they’re unstable. We do not want things in our bodies to be unstable.

This, of course, is where antioxidants come in. The purpose of antioxidants is to find free radicals and stabilize them. This is why eating foods high in antioxidants is so important to our overall health and nutrition: because they keep molecules in our body stable and help prevent neurodegenerative diseases.

Moringa is absolutely bursting with antioxidants. It has Vitamin A, C, and E. It has flavonoids, phytochemicals. Every part of the Moringa tree was seemingly created to help fight disease, and even a few teaspoons a day can absolutely skyrocket the levels of antioxidants in your body.

Studies Say Moringa Helps Improve Memory in Patients With Dementia

Dementia is probably one of the most terrifying diseases out there for a lot of us, and what’s more terrifying is that the number of dementia cases is growing. In 2010, an estimated 35.6 million people lived with dementia worldwide. By 2017, that number had jumped to more than 50 million.

One of the most important benefits of Moringa, I feel, is its ability to not only improve the health of our body or heart but its ability to protect our minds.

We’ve talked about some of that when discussing the positive effect Moringa can have on diminishing stress and anxiety. Moringa can actually also help protect the neurons in the brain itself.

Researchers have conducted studies on Moringa’s effect on subjects suffering from dementia, and the results are extremely promising.

Moringa leaves have neuroprotective properties. They can help reduce the physical neurodegeneration that comes with dementia and can help improve spatial memory. They also decrease oxidative stress, which scientists believe is the cause of neurodegeneration entirely.

In the end, the researchers concluded that while we still need more data, “M. oleifera leaves extract may be served as the potential medicinal food against dementia.”

Moringa Contains Anti-Cancer Agents

Scientists have been telling us for years that eating our fruits and veggies can reduce the risk of all types of cancers. In other words, Moringa isn’t alone in this–statistics show that the more vegetables you eat, the more fruits you fit into your diet, the lower your likelihood of cancer is.

Moringa does, however, have an even greater ability to do this.

In one study, researchers showed that an extract of Moringa leaves could fight tumor cells and prevent cell damage. In another study, Moringa was able to cause cell death in cancer cells, slowing down or stopping entirely the growth of tumor cells in the body. A third study focusing specifically on lung cancer cells showed similar results: researchers again found that Moringa was able to slow down and prevent the growth/spread of those cells.

Each of these studies implies that Moringa can be used to help prevent — and even help fight — cancer. Can it cure cancer?

No, we don’t have any data suggesting that. But study after study shows that it can be used to help prevent and slow it down.

Trouble With Hyperthyroidism? Moringa Can Help

Hyperthyroidism also called an overactive thyroid, occurs when your thyroid glands start producing too much thyroid hormone. In short order, your heartbeat becomes irregular. You start experiencing tremors, anxiety, weight loss, and palpitations. You feel fatigued, but suddenly have trouble falling asleep.

Hyperthyroidism can occur for a number of reasons: everything from autoimmune diseases to pregnancy. It can also cause a bunch of complications–brittle bones, heart and eye problems, etc. So what role does Moringa play?

Moringa extracts have been used in studies to help regulate thyroid hormones in particular and hyperthyroidism in specific. An interesting fact about this study is that both low and high doses of Moringa (175 mg/kg and 350 mg/kg, respectively) had similar effects on the thyroid. This implies that you don’t actually need a lot of Moringa to help manage your thyroid hormones; even a little can help.

Moringa Can Increase Hair Growth

If you’ve ever watched a terrible amount of your hair swirling down the shower drain, you might have done some research about what contributes to hair health and loss.

Zinc and Iron are two of the largest players. Iron, among other things, helps carry oxygen through the body, and low levels of iron have been linked to hair loss for decades. Zinc, on the other hand, helps improve rates of hair growth, and can also help heal the damaged follicles in your hair.

Guess what Moringa contains a lot of?

Moringa is full of vitamins and minerals, and its levels of zinc and iron are off the charts; remember, gram-for-gram it has 25 times the amount of iron as spinach and 14 times as much as beef.

You can find a number of truly excellent Moringa hair masks/washes/growth serum tutorials out there, but by favorite is this one by beautyklove on YouTube.

Suffering from Athlete’s Foot? Moringa is an Antifungal

Here’s something most of us don’t want to admit: most fungi are actually pretty cool. Mushrooms are fungi.

Blue cheese is made with fungi. Fungi can even be used as a bio-pesticide, killing harmful pests without actually damaging crops themselves. Fungus is, for better or for worse, a fact of life, and humans have been using it and living beside it for millennia.

Unfortunately, when fungus starts to grow on us, “cool” becomes “gross” pretty quickly.

Fortunately for all of us, though, Moringa is a powerful anti-fungal. In one study, researchers concluded that Moringa was able to fight fungal infections, including the fungi that cause skin diseases. Others studies have tested more than a dozen different types of fungi and yeasts and have found that Moringa was able to inhibit the growth of nearly all of them.

Use Moringa for Skin and Facial Care

Moringa can be used for more than just health, though, as important as that is. You can also absolutely use Moringa for your beauty regimen!

Antioxidants can help fight off the types of infection that often cause pimples and breakouts, and since Moringa is full of antioxidants, using Moringa oil or powder in your facial cleansers can add a powerful tool to your cleaning regimen.

There are a ton of recipes out there for making Moringa skin and face cleansers, but our favorite is pretty simple:

• 1 teaspoon of Moringa powder
• 1 teaspoon of milk (I use almond milk, but cow milk also works)
• 1/2 teaspoon of honey (another superfood with loads of antioxidants)

Mix all three together into you’ve formed a paste, and then apply it liberally to your face each night.

Let the face mask dry for 20 minutes, before washing off with warm water. Then pat on your favorite facial lotion.

If You Have Dry or Tough Nails, Try Moringa Oil for Nail/Cuticle Health

Moringa oil has a lot of cool uses, but one of our favorites is its ability to help with nail health. I work outside a lot, which means my nails are always a mess, and I don’t even want to mention my cuticles. Soaking my nails in moringa oil a couple of times a week has basically improved the way my nails look and feel by 100%, however.

Before bed, take a teaspoon of Moringa oil and massage it gently into your nails and cuticles. Don’t wash it off just yet! Leave it on overnight. Then in the morning, wash it off with warm soap and water.

Try it every day for the first week or so. By the second week, your nails will likely have softened enough that you can reduce your Moringa oil massages to every other day. Once you’re satisfied, just schedule a ten-minute Moringa oil massage once a week or so.