Curry Recipe Ingredient Helps Treat Alzheimer's

Whether you call it turmeric, haldi, or yellow ginger, Curcuma longa, a yellow root that has been a staple ingredient in Indian curry recipes for centuries, is turning out to indeed possess all the health giving properties that Indians have always known it to have.

It has been found that Alzheimer’s disease is quite uncommon in India. In some rural parts of the country, the chances of this disease developing in people above the age of 65 is as low as 1 percent, and in larger urban areas, it is just 2.4 percent. In comparison, in the US, the people in the same age group have 5 percent to 17 percent chances of being afflicted with this disease.

A fact that has made Western scientists sit up and wonder why this is so. And they are discovering in clinical trial after clinical trial that diets that are high in curcumin – the compound that gives turmeric its characteristic yellow color – may be the reason that Alzheimer’s disease is so rare amongst the aging population in India as compared to that in Western countries.

Research has found that not only does curcumin help in preventing the changes that take place in the brain which lead to Alzheimer’s disease, but that it also has the ability of reversing the damage that has already occurred in those afflicted with the disease.

So, How Does This Curry Ingredient Prevent Changes In The Brain?

More than a thousand scientific studies have been carried out on the health benefits of turmeric in humans. And these studies have found that turmeric helps the body in getting rid of toxins that cause cancer. It has also been found that turmeric has the ability of blocking estrogen receptors as well as enzymes that cause cancer. And it also aids in stopping the development of new blood vessels in tumors, which is an important element in keeping the tumor from becoming larger as well as spreading to the rest of the body.

However, scientists are most exited by turmeric’s property of reducing, preventing and stopping inflammation. Which aspect has been described in Ayurveda, the ancient medical texts of India. Indians have been using turmeric bandages as a disinfectant to heal wounds since ages. People have long been gargling with turmeric to alleviate laryngitis and have been rubbing it on skin to cure psoriasis and cuts. They have been ingesting it to treat respiratory diseases like bronchitis as well as chronic ailments like diabetes. And scientists are now discovering that inflammation has a huge role to play in Alzheimer’s disease.

Turmeric’s Anti-Inflammatory Effects Help To Combat Alzheimer’s

Turmeric belongs to the ginger family, known as Zingiberaceae, which grows in the tropical regions of South Asia. Scientists think that the curcumin that it contains has the ability of fighting diseases like Alzheimer’s by blocking the inflammatory effects caused by a powerful protein. One of the characteristic aspects of Alzheimer’s disease is that there is an accumulation of plaques of amyloid protein in the brain. In some studies, it was found that apart from lowering the amyloid, curcumin also lessens the response of the brain to it.

Scientists are discovering that compared to the other drugs that are being investigated for treating and preventing Alzheimer’s turmeric is far more effective. It has been found that turmeric’s actual shape and structure helps it to get through the blood-brain barrier and bind to the amyloid protein. Other studies are proving that turmeric actually helps in removing the amyloid proteins that have already accumulated in the neurons. In other words, turmeric helps in maintaining the healthy metabolism of the brain cells, also aids the cells in repairing themselves, and also helps in keeping brain cells connected to one another. In short, turmeric helps the brain cells to remain healthy.