Triphala Against Cognitive Decline, Obesity, & More

Triphala is not just one thing, it is a combination of three plants being used together as one medicine:

1. Alma (Emblica officinalis)
2. Bibhitaki (Terminalia bellirica)
3. Haritaki (Terminalia chebula)

…generally prepared in a 1:1:1 ratio.

This is a traditional preparation from ayurveda, and has enjoyed thousands of years of use in India. In and of itself, ayurveda is classified as a pseudoscience (literally: it doesn’t adhere to scientific method; instead, it merely makes suppositions that seem reasonable and acts on them), but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t still have a lot to offer—because, simply put, a lot of ayurvedic medicines work (and a lot don’t).

So, ayurveda’s unintended job has often been finding things for modern science to test.

For more on ayurveda: Ayurveda’s Contributions To Science (Without Being Itself Rooted in Scientific Method)

So, under the scrutiny of modern science, how does triphala stand up?

Against cognitive decline

It has most recently come to attention because one of its ingredients, the T. chebula, has been highlighted as effective against mild cognitive impairment (MCI) by several mechanisms of action, via its…

❝171 chemical constituents and 11 active constituents targeting MCI, such as flavonoids, which can alleviate MCI, primarily through its antioxidative, anti-inflammatory, and neuroprotective properties. T. Chebula shows potential as a natural medicine for the treatment and prevention of MCI.❞

Read in full: The potential of Terminalia chebula in alleviating mild cognitive impairment: a review

The review was quite groundbreaking, to the extent that it got a pop-science article written about it:

New review suggests evaluating Tibetan medicinal herb as potential treatment for mild cognitive impairment

We’d like to talk about those 11 active constituents in particular, but we don’t have room for all of them, so we’ll mention that one of them is quercetin, which we’ve written about before:

Fight Inflammation & Protect Your Brain, With Quercetin

For gut health

It’s also been found to improve gut health by increasing transit time, that is to say, how slowly things move through your gut. Counterintuitively, this reduces constipation (without being a laxative), by giving your gut more time to absorb everything it needs to, and more time for your gut bacteria to break down the things we can’t otherwise digest:

A comparative evaluation of intestinal transit time of two dosage forms of Haritaki [Terminalia chebula Retz.]

For weight management

Triphala can also aid with weight reduction, particularly in the belly area, by modulating our insulin responses to improve insulin sensitivity:

Efficacy of [triphala], a combination of three medicinal plants in the treatment of obesity; A randomized controlled trial

Want to try some?

We don’t sell it, but here for your convenience is an example product on Amazon 😎

Enjoy!