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Human beings have used sesame seeds in one form or another for more than 5,000 years. It’s use coincides with the rise of human civilization. Since writing started around this time, we have no way of knowing with any certain how far back humans have used it.
It’s not unreasonable to think that its use even predates civilization. Since writing didn’t yet exist, we’ll never be certain just how long humans have used it.
These days, we can find sesame in a variety of foodstuffs. It’s also available as sesame oil. Like the seeds, use of sesame oil dates back thousands of years. The ancients used it as healing oils.
Even today, many of us use it for its medicinal purposes. Since it’s relatively cheap, we should think of it as an extra tool to stick in our toolbox of modern medicinal products.
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If Cancer Were a Person, Sesame Oil Might Kick it in the Face
Of the many components of sesame oil, one is phytate, an antioxidant compound that might reduce your chances of developing cancer.
You can find phytate in many natural products, including most grains and legumes. Wait a minute, you might say, if most grains contain phytates, then why should I bother with sesame oil?
Well, we might respond, sesame oil also contains magnesium and calcium, both of which can help reduce your chances of developing colorectal cancer and colon cancer respectively.
Taken together, phytate, magnesium, and calcium contained in sesame oil could do a great deal in helping you ward off the big C, among other diseases.
It Can Help Your Heart Continue to Beat, Beat, Beat
Heart problems are high in this day age. In fact, they’re known and infamous killers. In the United States alone, heart diseases killed nearly 800,000 people in 2011, making it the equivalent of public enemy number one of diseases.
Another benefit of sesame oil is the variety of acids it contains. Such polyunsaturated acids as sesamin and sesamol can assist you in developing and maintaining good hearth health.
There’s some evidence that sesamol, a known antioxidant, can slow or even stop the process of atherosclerosis, a disease that can cause the buildup of plaque in your arteries.
It Can Help Control and Manage Diabetes
In addition to other nutrients, magnesium found in sesame oil can do wonders for people suffering from diabetes, especially Type II diabetes. Studies have shown that these nutrients can increase the efficacy of certain oral medications commonly prescribed to Type II diabetics.
They can also help diabetic patients maintain their cholesterol levels, or even control or reduce their glucose. Lower glucose in diabetics could improve their health significantly.
This is nothing to shake a stick at. Maintaining your glucose levels if you’re a diabetic could be the difference between improved health and physical and mental misery.
Helps Lower Blood Pressure
If magnesium were a person, it might be a superhero. Its advantages are plentiful. As we’ve seen above, it can factor in helping prevent cancer and controlling diabetes.
Since it’s so high in content in sesame oil, it can also help you maintain lower blood pressure.
Sesamin and sesamol also play a part in maintaining healthy blood pressure levels. These antioxidants can help reduce cholesterol. They’re also low in saturated fat—the worst kind of fat for your heart.
Studies have also shown that sesame oil can reduce patients’ blood pressure to ideal ranges, even better than some medication.
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Increases Bone Health and Can Kick Osteoporosis Where it Hurts
Of the many minerals contained in sesame oil, three—magnesium, copper, and zinc—are known to assist in the development of bones.
In studies in rats, sesame oil showed the ability to increase the internal architecture of bones. In humans, though, sesame oil can also aid in bone development.
But let’s focus on zinc for a moment. Zinc deficiency can increase your likelihood of developing osteoporosis. Combined with calcium also found in sesame oil, zinc might strengthen your bones, shielding them from osteoporosis.
As you may or may not know, osteoporosis is a disease that can weaken your bones, rendering them brittle while leaving you a fragile shell of your former self.
Anxiety and Depression
Fewer illnesses can prove as debilitating as anxiety and depression. Anxiety alone can paralyze you emotionally, crushing you with fear and tension. In it’s worst iterations, anxiety might even discourage your from leaving your house.
Patients with depression experience similar symptoms, along with emptiness, feelings of worthlessness, and even suicidal ideation.
If you’re like me and you suffer from anxiety and depression, then you might have tried pharmaceuticals. If you’re also like me, you might hate the effects these meds have on you.
Anti-anxiety pills are, at root, sedatives. I hated the almost zombified state they put me in.
Yet another chemical found in sesame oil—this truly is the mother of all oils—is an amino acid called Tyrosine. Its main benefit is that it encourages the production and release of serotonin, a common neurotransmitter.
Serotonin is nature’s way of helping us deal with anxiety and depression. With sesame oil, you might experience an influx of it, which can help ward against these mental illnesses.
Improves Circulation
You can take sesame oil orally or you can receive it by absorbing it through your skin. Oiling yourself with it before a message might ensure that it’s absorbed effectively and enters the blood stream.
Since sesame oil contains zinc and copper, it might increase your red blood cells. It might also correct or repair damaged or defective blood cells, which, in turn, can increase your circulation.
Healthy blood circulation can have significant health benefits, including the possibility of strengthening your heart, arteries, and muscles. Again, it might help keep your heart beat-beat-beating along.
It Can Kick Start Your Metabolism and Digestion
Using sesame oil as a staple of your diet can flood your body with an enormous amount of nutrients. Magnesium, phosphorous, fiber, vitamin B6, and others can work in conjunction to maintain your metabolism in healthy ways.
It might also keep your digestion on track by training it to effectively attack a variety of different kinds of foods and naturally occurring chemicals, proteins, and so on.
Oral Health: Oil Pulling is the New Swishing
The act of oil pulling is an ancient technique used in India. Essentially, it’s similar to using mouth wash. Just fill your mouth with it and swish it around.
Be certain to do it long enough to ensure that it coats every inch of your mouth, every nook and cranny of your teeth. Oil pulling might improve your oral health by reducing bad bacteria in your mouth.
Some people even suggest that it can aid in whitening your teeth.
Deflating Inflammation
Ah, copper. It’s not only valuable enough that people will vandalize houses and rip it out of walls, it’s also a necessary component of every healthy human body. As we’ve seen above, copper can aid in a variety of ways.
An anti-inflammatory, copper, along with zinc, can help lower inflammation in many patients. This could be useful for people who suffer from gout or even rheumatoid arthritis.
Doing It’s Part in Making Your Hair Healthy and Pretty
I double dog dare you to wash your hair with sesame oil. Go ahead, try it. Unless, of course, you don’t want to increase the possibility of having truly amazing hair.
The fatty acids and minerals found in sesame oil might help hair retain its natural color. It also might strengthen hair follicles, prevent hair loss, and it might even help prevent rashes or psoriasis on your scalp.
Skin Health: Sesame Oil Could Help You Look Pretty, Oh So Pretty—and Young
In addition to the variety of acids contained in sesame oil, you can also finds vitamins such as vitamin E, D, and B. These are essential in keeping your skin smooth and they might even reduce blemishes.
Calling on our old friend zinc again, this chemical might decrease age spots, or it could even increase the chances of smoother skin, thus reducing the appearance of aging.
Final Thoughts
As we’ve seen, you can ingest sesame oil or absorb it through your skin. It contains enough vitamins, acids, and minerals to help with a variety of illnesses. Although you shouldn’t treat it as a miracle cure and abandon all other medications or therapies, you should, as we noted above, consider it a tool.
Any good toolbox will hold a variety of tools to be used for a variety of jobs. Anything you might use in an attempt to prove your health and appearance should be considered one of many tools at your disposal.
Keep in mind that the above isn’t a challenge or a bucket list. You’re under no obligation to treat it as a checklist and work on attempting everything. If you’d like, try one or two and see how things go.