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2009-06-04 20:12:20
Eating a curry once or twice a week could help prevent the onset of Alzheimer's
disease and dementia, a US researcher suggests.
The key ingredient is curcumin, a component of the spice turmeric.
Curcumin appears to prevent the spread of amyloid protein plaques - thought to
cause dementia - in the brain.
But the theory, presented at the Royal College of Psychiatrists' annual
meeting, has been given a lukewarm reception by UK experts.
If you have a good diet and take plenty of exercise, eating curry regularly
could help prevent dementia
Professor Murali Doraiswamy Duke University
Amyloid plaques, along with tangles of nerve fibres, are thought to contribute
to the degradation of the wiring in brain cells, eventually leading to symptoms
of dementia.
Professor Murali Doraiswamy, of Duke University in North Carolina, said there
was evidence that people who eat a curry meal two or three times a week have a
lower risk of dementia.
He said researchers were testing the impact of higher doses - the equivalent of
going on a curry spree for a week - to see if they could maximise the effect.
Animal studies
Professor Doraiswamy told the meeting: "There is very solid evidence that
curcumin binds to plaques, and basic research on animals engineered to produce
human amyloid plaques has shown benefits."
"You can modify a mouse so that at about 12 months its brain is riddled with
plaques.
"If you feed this rat a curcumin-rich diet it dissolves these plaques. The same
diet prevented 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."
Professor Doraiswamy said a clinical trial was now underway at the University
of California, Los Angeles, to test curcumin's effects in Alzheimer's patients.
He said research had also examined turmeric's therapeutic potential for
treating conditions such as cancer and arthritis.
Good diet
He stressed that eating a curry could not counter-balance the increased risk of
dementia associated with a poor diet.
Indian communities that regularly eat curcumin have a surprisingly low
incidence of Alzheimer's disease but we don't yet know why
Dr Susanne Sorensen Alzheimer's Society
However, he said: "If you have a good diet and take plenty of exercise, eating
curry regularly could help prevent dementia."
Professor Doraiswamy predicted it might be possible to develop a curry pill
which had the same therapeutic effect.
However, 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.
She said: "Professor Doraiswamy's unpublished research applies only to animal
models; his hypothesis has not been confirmed in human clinical trials.
"We look forward to the results of the human curcumin trial at UCLA."
Dr Susanne Sorensen, of the Alzheimer's Society, said: "Indian communities that
regularly eat curcumin have a surprisingly low incidence of Alzheimer's disease
but we don't yet know why.
"Alzheimer's Society is keen to explore the potential benefits of curcumin in
protecting the brain and we are conducting our own research into this area.
"A cheap, accessible and safe treatment could transform the quality of life of
thousands of people with the condition."