Use that tumeric for Alzheimers prevention

[theist 1]

Curry Spice Chemical Could Curb Alzheimer's

 

<!-- END HEADLINE --> <!-- BEGIN STORY BODY --> Wed Jul 18, 11:46 PM ET

 

WEDNESDAY, July 18 (HealthDay News) -- A chemical found in curry may help the immune system clear away brain plaques associated with Alzheimer's disease, a new study suggests.

The findings build on previous research linking curry consumption to reduced Alzheimer's risk, including one study that found that only 1 percent of elderly Indians developed the disease -- a quarter of the rate seen in the United States.

For this new study, published July 16 in the online early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers from the David Geffen School of Medicine in Los Angeles and the Human BioMolecular Research Institute in San Diego looked at blood samples of Alzheimer's disease patients.

They found that a chemical called bisdemethoxycurcumin boosted immune cells called macrophages to clear amyloid beta, the protein that forms the brain plaques associated with Alzheimer's disease.

Bisdemethoxycurcumin is the active ingredient in curcuminoids -- a natural substance found in turmeric root. Turmeric is a spice often found in curry powders.

The team also identified the genes involved in the process, called MGAT III and Toll-like receptors, which are also responsible for a number of key immune system functions.

These findings provide more insight into the role of the immune system in Alzheimer's disease and may lead to a new treatment approach, the researchers said. Future treatments may rely on the innate immune system, which is present at birth, rather than on antibodies produced by B cells -- a part of the immune system that develops later.

More information

The Alzheimer's Association has more about Alzheimer's disease.

[suchandra 1]

 

Curry Spice Chemical Could Curb Alzheimer's

 

<!-- END HEADLINE --> <!-- BEGIN STORY BODY --> Wed Jul 18, 11:46 PM ET

 

WEDNESDAY, July 18 (HealthDay News) -- A chemical found in curry may help the immune system clear away brain plaques associated with Alzheimer's disease, a new study suggests.

The findings build on previous research linking curry consumption to reduced Alzheimer's risk, including one study that found that only 1 percent of elderly Indians developed the disease -- a quarter of the rate seen in the United States.

For this new study, published July 16 in the online early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers from the David Geffen School of Medicine in Los Angeles and the Human BioMolecular Research Institute in San Diego looked at blood samples of Alzheimer's disease patients.

They found that a chemical called bisdemethoxycurcumin boosted immune cells called macrophages to clear amyloid beta, the protein that forms the brain plaques associated with Alzheimer's disease.

Bisdemethoxycurcumin is the active ingredient in curcuminoids -- a natural substance found in turmeric root. Turmeric is a spice often found in curry powders.

The team also identified the genes involved in the process, called MGAT III and Toll-like receptors, which are also responsible for a number of key immune system functions.

These findings provide more insight into the role of the immune system in Alzheimer's disease and may lead to a new treatment approach, the researchers said. Future treatments may rely on the innate immune system, which is present at birth, rather than on antibodies produced by B cells -- a part of the immune system that develops later.

More information

The Alzheimer's Association has more about Alzheimer's disease.

 

The book "Manual of Indian Spices" speaks about the situation in India where often too high concentration of toxic heavy metals like lead, copper, Zinc, mercury, arsenic and tin are found in food and spices. This might also originate in India's highly polluted rivers. An alternative would be Canadian Turmeric.http://www.ccac-accc.ca/news.php?id=556

 

 

 

Spices and condiments are a major commercial crop in India, and earns foreign exchange worth Rs. 3620 million annually, yet books on spices and condiments relevant to the Indian context are few and far between. There is no single compedium which deals with all aspects and facts of spices and condiments which may meet the requirements of all those handling them at various stages, from harvesting to their end-use. Manual of Indian Spices takes care of all these needs.

Usually spices and condiments have been projected as good culinary aids. However, their role as drugs in medicine (Ayurvedic, Unani, Allopathy as well as Homoeopathy) has not been projected authentically. This manual has, for the first time, collated details about their adoption as drugs by major pharmacopoeias of the world.

An analysis of spices and condiments did appear as a section in Mr. Mahindru's earlier book " Handbook of Food Analysis " (1987). In the present Manual this topic has been expanded also estimation of pesticides' and insecticides' residues on spice crops as well as determination of toxic heavy metals like lead, copper, Zinc, mercury, arsenic and tin.

Various physiochemical constants under Agmark and P.F.A. Act of whole and ground spices and condiments have been condensed for ready comparison and reference.

Food adulteration cases, the major decisions directly related to spices and condiments, have been meticulously culled out from several law journals to be of direct help to average vendors, manufactures and others.

Up-to-date area and production figures, crop wise, have been adduced so also export statistics projecting different important angles of export marketing.

Oleoresins, their characteristics and quality control parameters, have been elaborated so as to assist in their handling for marketing purpose.

In short, this manual fulfills the needs of producers, processors, quality controllers, and exporters by providing comprehensive Information on Indian Spices and Condiments hitherto scarcely reported in a ready-reference manner.

 

This Comprehensive Manual of Indian Spices has been prepared by S.N. Mahindru after a careful review of literature on essential subjects directly or indirectly related to spices. It is difficult to get such an assorted and exhaustive information in a single compilation. I am sure that Manual of Indian spices will soon become popular among all those concerned with spices : their production, usage, quality control, trade and export."

 

C.K. George

Executive Director,

Spices Board of India

 

[theist 1]

I heard that about Indian Ayurvedic products but never suspected just straight tumeric. Canadian from now on.

[Vigraha 0]

 

 

Following this chart also helps with Alzheimer's disease

 

[suchandra 1]

Don't Go Easy on the Turmeric

 

By Viji Sundaram for India-West on 26 Nov 2007

 

Image: Melanie Cook

 

 

<!--paging_filter-->Researchers at the University of Texas have concluded that curcumin, the dye that lends turmeric its yellow color, can block the biological pathway to melanoma and other cancers.

Dr. Bharat Aggarwal, who headed the 12-member team of researchers at UT's M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, told India-West in a telephone interview earlier this week that his clinical research has made available not only "the master switch to turn off cancer, but also a cure for it.It was already known that curcumin can prevent cancer," Aggarwal said. "Now it can also be used to cure cancer." And, he added: "We are providing evidence that curcumin can work on at least one dozen cancers."

In fact, "let's put it this way: we have not found a single cancer on which curcumin doesn't work," Aggarwal asserted. Turmeric, whose vernacular name is haldi, is a rhizome of the plant Curcuma longa. The medicinal use of this plant has been documented in Ayurveda, a 5,000-year-old system of medicine that has its origins in India.

Turmeric has long been used as a food preservative, a coloring agent, a spice to flavor food and as a folk medicine to cleanse the body.

Two to five percent of turmeric contains curcumin.

Because of turmeric's extensive use in foods in India and Pakistan, the incidence of cancer, especially breast, colon prostate and lung, is a lot less in those countries, Aggarwal said. And because south Indians use turmeric more widely than north Indians, "the prevalence of cancer is less among them than among north Indians," he said.

The spice has been shown to relieve arthritis as well, he added. The UT team's research focused on how curcumin stops laboratory strains of melanoma from proliferating, and pushes the cancer cells to commit suicide.

The team homed in on a molecule called NF-kappa B, a powerful protein known to promote an abnormal inflammatory response that leads to cancer in some people, arthritis in others, and a wide range of other diseases in other people.

"Nearly 98 percent of all diseases are controlled by this molecule," Aggarwal told India-West, pointing out that the humble yellow dye can subdue this potent molecule.

Earlier this year, a UCLA study published in the online edition of the Journal of Biological Chemistry, indicated that curcumin inhibits the accumulation of destructive beta amyloids in the brains of Alzheimer's patients.

The team determined that curcumin is more effective in inhibiting formation of the protein fragments than many other drugs being tested to treat Alzheimer's. The prevalence of the disease among older adults in India is 4.4 times less than in the U.S., suggesting that many Indians might be benefiting from having turmeric as a dietary staple.

Researchers at Emory University have tweaked the curcumin structure and made analogues - synthetic versions -- of it which are far more potent than the real thing, Aggarwal said. The analogues were tested by the National Cancer Institute and found very effective, he said. Combined with black pepper, curcumin becomes 2,000 times more potent, a fact that has resulted in the manufacture in the U.S. of a formulation called "Super Curcumin" and sold as a dietary supplement.

Note Tattvas Herbs Turmeric contains Bioperine (extract of Black Pepper)

Aggarwal said that Indians have known all along about the anti-inflammatory benefits of turmeric, but "there was no documented proof" up until now.