A Weekly Curry May Fight Dementia, Says Scientist June 4th, 2009
UK, June 3, 2009 : Eating a curry once or twice a week could help prevent the onset of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, a US researcher suggested in a presentation at the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ annual meeting.
Curcumin, a component of the spice turmeric, appears to prevent the spread of amyloid protein plaques in the brain–formations which are thought to contribute to the development of dementia.
Professor Murali Doraiswamy of Duke University, North Carolina, said there is evidence that people who eat a curry meal two or three times a week have a lower risk of dementia. Prof. Doraiswami said also that a curcumin-rich diet has been demonstrated to dissolve amyloid plaques in the brains of laboratory animals and to prevent younger mice from forming new plaques. “The next step is to test curcumin on human amyloid plaque formation using newer brain scans, and there are plans for that.”
Some UK experts, however, have been skeptical. Rebecca Wood, of the Alzheimer’s Research Trust, stressed that people would need to eat a lot of curry - over 100g of turmeric curry powder - to get a clinical dose of curcumin and cautioned that Prof. Doraiswamy’s hypothesis has not been confirmed in human clinical trials.
As most readers will know, some curry powders contain a significant amount of turmeric, the beneficial component mentioned in this report, while others contain little or none.
Source : news.bbc.co.uk
UK, June 3, 2009 : Eating a curry once or twice a week could help prevent the onset of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, a US researcher suggested in a presentation at the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ annual meeting.
Curcumin, a component of the spice turmeric, appears to prevent the spread of amyloid protein plaques in the brain–formations which are thought to contribute to the development of dementia.
Professor Murali Doraiswamy of Duke University, North Carolina, said there is evidence that people who eat a curry meal two or three times a week have a lower risk of dementia. Prof. Doraiswami said also that a curcumin-rich diet has been demonstrated to dissolve amyloid plaques in the brains of laboratory animals and to prevent younger mice from forming new plaques. “The next step is to test curcumin on human amyloid plaque formation using newer brain scans, and there are plans for that.”
Some UK experts, however, have been skeptical. Rebecca Wood, of the Alzheimer’s Research Trust, stressed that people would need to eat a lot of curry - over 100g of turmeric curry powder - to get a clinical dose of curcumin and cautioned that Prof. Doraiswamy’s hypothesis has not been confirmed in human clinical trials.
As most readers will know, some curry powders contain a significant amount of turmeric, the beneficial component mentioned in this report, while others contain little or none.
Source : news.bbc.co.uk
