HEALTH: Curry Spice Slows Alzheimer's

[Guest guest]

Eat your turmeric everyone....

 

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http://news.excite.com/news/r/011115/13/health-alzheimers

 

Curry Spice Could Slow Alzheimer's, Study Shows

 

Updated: Thu, Nov 15 1:19 PM EST By E.J. Mundell NEW YORK (Reuters

Health) -

 

Diets rich in curcumin--a compound found in the curry spice turmeric--

may help explain why rates of Alzheimer's disease are much lower among

the elderly in India compared with their Western peers.

 

Alzheimer's disease is characterized by the buildup of amyloid protein

" plaques " within the brain. In studies in rats, curcumin " not only

reduces the amyloid, but also reduces the (brain's) response to the

amyloid, " according to researcher Dr. Sally Frautschy of the University

of California, Los Angeles.

 

She presented her findings Thursday at the annual meeting of the Society

for Neuroscience in San Diego, California.

 

Previous studies have noted that elderly individuals living in Indian

villages appear to have the lowest incidence of Alzheimer's disease in

the world, with just 1% of those aged 65 and older contracting the

degenerative brain condition. The reasons for this low incidence remain

unclear, however.

 

Frautschy speculated that curcumin found in curry could provide a clue

to this puzzle since the compound has " a long history of dietary and

herbal medicinal use " and is also a powerful antioxidant and

anti-inflammatory agent.

 

In her study, Frautschy fed middle-aged (9 months old) and aged (22

months old) rats diets rich in curcumin. All of the rats had received

brain injections of amyloid to mimic progressive Alzheimer's disease.

 

" Curcumin reduced the accumulation of beta-amyloid and the associated

loss of proteins " in the synapses, or gaps, between individual brain

cells, Frautschy reported.

 

" Synapses connect nerve cells and are crucial for memory, " the

California researcher explained. Keeping synapses free of plaque is

important because " their loss correlates well with memory decline in

Alzheimer's. "

 

This type of memory preservation may have been reflected in the fact

that rats fed curcumin also performed much better in memory-dependent

maze tests compared with rats on normal diets, according to Frautschy.

Curcumin also appeared to reduce Alzheimer's-related inflammation in

neurologic tissue.

 

Because " a combined anti-inflammatory and antioxidant approach will be

useful for Alzheimer's prevention or treatment, " Frautschy speculates

that curcumin could be especially valuable in the fight against the

disease, especially in combination with anti-inflammatory drugs like

ibuprofen. Her team is hopeful they will soon receive funding for

clinical trials to investigate curcumin-ibuprofen combination therapy.

 

Curcumin may not be the only compound in the kitchen spice rack able to

ward off Alzheimer's. In an interview with Reuters Health, Frautschy

said that " chemicals from rosemary (rosmarinic acid) and ginger

(vanillin and zingerone, also high in Indian diets) have similar

structure and should be tested. "