This Is What Happens When You Drink Cinnamon Tea Every Day

Warm and sweet in flavor and aroma, cinnamon has been used as a spice for hundreds of years. But it has also been used as an alternative remedy to treat various physical symptoms and conditions, per BMC Complementary Medical Therapies. Over time, scientists have come to understand that what has earned cinnamon its well-deserved health halo is that some of the organic compounds that give cinnamon its essential attributes, including "cinnamaldehyde, cinnamic acid, cinnamate, and numerous other components such as polyphenols" possess antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, among other pharmacological benefits, according to a 2014 review published in the journal Evidence Based Complimentary Alternative Medicine. 

Cinnamon tea also contains a variety of antioxidants (via Healthline), which are compounds that fight free radicals in your body that can cause oxidation and increase your risk of developing many diseases. Drinking cinnamon tea every day will increase the antioxidants in your body and decrease your risk of developing diabetes, cancer, and heart disease. Other compounds in this tea have been shown to reduce inflammation in the body. Inflammation can lead to a variety of diseases including heart disease, arthritis, and other chronic conditions.

Nevertheless, Healthline points out that in higher doses, one of the compounds in cinnamon, coumarin, may cause a number of deleterious health effects including mouth sores, excessively low blood sugar, cellular damage, and drug interactions. Because a single teaspoon of cassia cinnamon — the more widely available of the two main varieties of cinnamon sold in the U.S. — may exceed the recommended daily tolerability level for coumarin, if you're interested in reaping cinnamon's health benefits, it may be safer to limit the amount you take, per Healthline, by brewing cinnamon tea using a single cinnamon stick (per The People's Pharmacy), as opposed to, say, consuming cinnamon by the spoonful or in pill form. With that in mind, here's what you might expect when you start drinking cinnamon tea every day.

A single serving of cinnamon tea is a rich source of vitamin K, fiber, and manganese, but delivers only two calories, which could make it a handy weight-loss tool, according to Healthy Food Serving. Apart from the satiety support his low-calorie beverage may offer, there is also evidence that cinnamon supplementation helps with weight loss — as much as the prescription drug for weight loss, orlistat, albeit for different reasons, per this 2019 study published in the journal, Endocrine. 

In that study, half of the test subjects were given orlistat twice daily for 30 days and then once daily for 30 days. The other half received cinnamon supplementation for the entire 60 days. Blood tests were taken at the outset and after the completion of the study period. A comparison of the results suggests that whereas orlistat helped those who took it to lose weight by stabilizing blood sugar and decreasing appetite, cinnamon helped those who took it to lose weight by reducing both serum insulin level and insulin resistance (higher levels of insulin in the blood are associated with weight gain, according to Mayo Clinic, and so is insulin resistance, according to Cleveland Clinic). What isn't entirely clear from the study, however, is whether the strength of the cinnamon supplements exceeded the strength of a cup of cinnamon tea, and as Healthline points out, at higher dosages, cinnamon can be harmful.

Peptic ulcer disease refers to open sores in the stomach or the first part of the small intestine, per the Cleveland Clinic. The most common cause of peptic ulcer disease is the bacteria Helicobacter pylori (aka H. pylori), via Cleveland Clinic. The overgrowth of H. pylori is also associated with chronic gastritis, inflammatory bowel disease, and, rarely, cancers of the stomach. Since cinnamon has been proven effective against a number of bacterial infections, scientists have been inspired to investigate whether cinnamon supplementation may be used to treat H. pylori, particularly in light of the fact that increased antibiotic resistance has made it increasingly difficult to treat this particular bacteria. 

As it turns out, cinnamon consumption may safely help inhibit the growth of H. pylori with little or no adverse reactions and without adding to the problem of antibiotic resistance, per this 2015 study published in the Journal of Traditional and Complementary Medicine. However, cinnamon tea may help even if your stomach upset is not caused by H. pylori. According to a 2006 study published in the Siriraj Medical Journal, a "stomachache remedy" made with cinnamon was demonstrated to be as effective as the anti-dyspepsia medication simethicone in treating indigestion. In other words, drinking cinnamon tea may provide stomach relief in a few ways, both by treating the symptoms of ordinary indigestion, and in helping to kill off the bacteria most often responsible for causing peptic ulcer disease.

One of the ways the human body was designed to prevent cancer is through apoptosis, according to the National Human Genome Institute, which defines it as the mechanism by which routine cell death is occurs throughout our lives as a matter of course. Apoptosis is critical, first, in fetal development, in that it eliminates cells that might otherwise produce various malformations such as webbing between the fingers or even an extra fingers. In adulthood, apoptosis is crucial to help the body discard potentially harmful cells — such as cancer cells — before they can accumulate. Accordingly, when apoptosis is interrupted or overwhelmed by the rapid proliferation of harmful cells, negative consequences may result, including cancer. 

According to a 2019 academic paper published in the European Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, cinnamon possesses anticarcinogenic properties due to its promotion of apoptosis. Therefore, cinnamon may someday be used as an anti-cancer treatment modality that targets pathological cells and causes them to self destruct before they can become a diagnosable cancer. Much more research is needed, however, to determine safety and efficacy of using cinnamon for this purpose, as well as to identify the optimal method for delivering cinnamon's antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties to damaged cells. But for now, know that the cinnamon in your tea may be fighting cancerous cells in your body.

PMS symptoms give way to some relief upon the start of monthly bleeding, but in many women, that relief is short-lived as dysmenorrhea sets in. This very common condition, which is characterized by painful period cramping that is often associated with related physical complaints such as gastrointestinal distress, nausea, and vomiting, is caused by uterine contractions, according to this 2015 study published in the Iranian Red Crescent Medical Journal. Although that study was small, it suggests that cinnamon supplementation may "significantly reduce pain, the amount of menstrual bleeding, nausea and vomiting in female." At least that's what it did for 38 female college students who were given cinnamon capsules and assessed for dysmenorrhea symptoms. Apparently, in these women cinnamon supplementation had a "significant effect" on diminishing all of these aspects of dysmenorrhea, whereas the 38 in the placebo group did not enjoy such benefits.

In this study, the cinnamon was given by capsule — each containing 420 mg of cinnamon. However, similar results were obtained via 2018 study published in the International Journal of Science and Healthcare Research, in which another relatively small experimental group of female college students was given cinnamon tea. In those women, dysmenorrhea symptoms were diminished at clinically significant levels. Concluding that cinnamon tea is effective at reducing dysmenorrhea symptoms, the study also noted that turmeric water is equally effective. 

Since high blood pressure is often associated with the existence of fatty buildup in blood vessels, optimizing one's blood lipid profile may help reduce high blood pressure. Cinnamon supplementation has been shown to reduce bad cholesterol as well as triglycerides in the blood of people with type 2 diabetes, per a 2015 study published in Diabetology International. For that study, 49 people with type 2 diabetes were given cinnamon supplementation in the form of cinnamon capsules for a period of 60 days, and 50 people were given a placebo capsule over the same time period. At the end of the study period, good cholesterol (HDL), bad cholesterol (LDL), and triglycerides (a type of fat found in the blood, and high levels of which are associated with increased stroke risk, per Mayo Clinic) levels in the subjects were compared with their baseline levels. What the researchers found is that all measures of metabolic dysfunction were significantly improved in the people given cinnamon supplementation, including LDL levels (which tended to decrease), HDL levels (which tended to increase), and triglyceride levels (which tended to decrease). 

Accordingly, the researchers concluded that cinnamon supplementation may help people with type 2 diabetes to avoid diabetic complications, including a diagnosis of metabolic syndrome. On the other hand a January 2022 review published in the American Journal of Medicine raises doubts regarding cinnamon's ability to decrease LDL and triglyceride levels. Accordingly, more research is needed in this area.

Although there hasn't yet been a ton of scientific research on the safety and efficacy of cinnamon supplementation in humans for the purpose of preventing neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, some studies suggest, nevertheless, that the possibility is worth digging into, per Healthline. One such study, which was published in 2018 in the journal Pharmacological Research, was a meta-analysis of existing research on cinnamon's anti-inflammatory and antioxidative effects on the brain. What the researchers discovered is that cinnamon may, indeed, offer some degree of protection against Alzheimer's disease and its progression. Likewise, a 2014 study published in the Journal of Neuroimmune Pharmacology demonstrated that cinnamon supplementation helped improve motor function in mice in whom Parkinson's symptoms were induced chemically. 

Randomized, controlled clinical studies involving humans will be needed to confirm these possible connections. And there may be one key problem: As the Alzheimer's Society points out, "the levels of cinnamon a person would have to eat to replicate the results of many of the experiments that have taken place would actually be toxic." Nevertheless, drinking cinnamon tea in moderation should not present a risk of toxicity, and it may turn out that this practice has neurological/cognitive benefits.