Rosemary Shown to Help with Exam Revision

A recent study in the UK has shown that students have better memories when the scent of rosemary is added to the room. The essential oil has been known as a potent tool for generations, however science is always looking for ways to prove it. Controlled environments and comparable results are difficult to find in the real world and it seems that an attempt has been made to establish a positive peek into the actions of these stimulating oils.


Dr Mark Moss of Northumbria University has demonstrated the effects on memory with a group of students in a class room asked to perform memory recall tests. A room was used without rosemary, and in another test the rosemary oil was allowed to diffuse around the students. It was shown that there was an almost ten percent increase in memory ability.


Dr Moss suggests (BBC) that the results are similar in adults. This benefit of rosemary can easily be applied to situations where memory is important. Exams spring to mind, revising is always a drag and finding the space in the head to store all the information needed tends to cause stress and worry for many. This mentally stimulating aroma could be something to help with that.


It's been traditional knowledge for many years, ancient Greeks would wear rosemary for exams, and even Shakespeare noted its ability for “remembering” in Hamlet. There are three types of memory, according to the experts. Past memory is a knowing of past events, present memory is being able to hold ideas and concepts in the mind during daily life, and then there is future memory, where we make a mental note of something for later. We all have various abilities with each type of memory, the latter being the one most people struggle with.


Rosemary appears to be benefiting the whole range of memory application, which maybe could act as a protective element to help us keep our ability to remember. It would be worth exploring it a little more, neuroscience is very tricky to analyse, but the long term effects of rosemary use could be tracked over time.  
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