It has been known that India has the world’s
lowest rate of Alzheimer’s Disease. To understand their lifestyle and food
intake may reveal the secret.
One of common food ingredients use in every
house of Indian is turmeric, the golden spice which contains powerful
antioxidant – curcumin. Indian people have used turmeric powder for hundreds of
centuries not only in their everyday food but also in wedding ceremony and
daily mask as it is claimed to clear acne and nourish skin either use it
directly on the face or mixed together with milk.
There are
estimates that people in India take about 2 grams of turmeric per day from the
food intake and that provides roughly 100 mg of curcumin. Some scientists think
that the regular ingestion of this spice help reduce rate of Alzheimer's
disease in India. The
prevalence of Alzheimer's among adults in India aged 70 to 79 is among the
world's lowest. It is 4.4 times less than the rate in the United States.
Turmeric is being studied for its ability to
help treat Alzheimer's disease but most of the studies so far have been on
animals. Good news is there is a growing number of mainstream researchers see
turmeric and curcumin as possible herb in preventing and fighting disease in
humans. But until these compounds are tested in people there is no way to know
their full potential.
Besides FDA’s approved drugs for Alzheimer’s,
curcumin may be effective than many other drugs being tested as Alzheimer's
treatments. Scientists found that curcumin was able to reduce deposits of
beta-amyloid proteins in the brains of elderly lab mice that ate curcumin as
part of their diets. Moreover, when the researchers added low doses of curcumin
to human beta-amyloid proteins in a test tube, the compound kept the proteins
from aggregating and blocked the formation of the amyloid fibers that make up
Alzheimer's plaques. The study by UCLA and Veterans Affairs scientists, indicated
that a rodent chow laced with curcumin slowed the accumulation in mouse brains
of protein fragments known as beta amyloids which are focused as a key to the
development of Alzheimer's.
This is likely to be too good to be true if
we overlook the side effects of turmeric. It is not clear about the effect of high
dose turmeric curcumin consumption for continuous use and scientists cannot
fully attest that it will not interact with other medicines. According to
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, there is a possibility that the
consumption of supplemental doses of turmeric can significantly increase
oxalate levels in urine and lead to increasing risk of kidney stone formation. However, some researchers theorize that
calcium can help prevent the formation of stones and drinking enough water can
flush away those might cause kidney stone. Considering the fact that Indian
food is always added yogurt or milk in recipe, this may be another traditional
wisdom from Indian people
New researches and tests are on the way and
we will see soon if Turmeric – Curcumin is the promising hope as we wish or
not.
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