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Curry Could Help Keep Off Alzheimer’s

by Medindia Content Team on Aug 3 2006 7:06 PM

Recent studies by scientists have shown that eating curry helps enhances mental performance and could help keep off Alzheimer’s.

In a research conducted by National University of Singapore on more than a thousand Asian people aged between 60 and 93 not suffering from the disease, they found that those who ate the dish at least once in a month or once in 6 months had better mental performance than those who had never had it or had it rarely.

Dr. Tze-Pin Ng, who led the research, told the New Scientist Magazine that it was remarkable to note that consumption of the curry even once in a while improved mental performance.

Curcumin, an ingredient of spice turmeric, responsible for the distinctive yellow color of the curry is thought to be responsible for the effects.

Even though researches in the past suggested that curcumin helps keep off Alzheimer’s by inhibiting the buildup of amyloid plaques, it was never thought that even small quantities could have an effect.

Curcumin is a regular ingredient in many Indian dishes and this might explain why the rates of the disease are lower in India than in the West. In UK, there are about 450,000 people who are affected with the disease.

Curcumin, which comes from turmeric, is obtained from the root of the plant of the ginger family that grows in the Himalayas.

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Curcumin besides improving mental performance and helping to ward off Alzheimer’s has also been found to fight cancers. When used in combination with drugs it can prevent spread of breast cancer, and it also helps prevent the spread of prostate cancer by blocking the protein that plays a key role in the spread of the cancer.

Dr. Ng now wishes to have controlled clinical trail to compare the effects of curcumin and a placebo to confirm his findings.

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