Curry, Turmeric, & Curcumin….

Today's Post: Friday, 7-17-2009

People in India who eat a lot of curry and curried foods tend to not get Alzheimer’s disease or cancer.

From that information, the turmeric spice that is in almost all curries and colors them yellow looks to be protective against Alzheimer’s disease and cancer.

And, curcumin is thought to be the major component of turmeric that has these effects.

There are two pieces of good news.

1. You can buy turmeric or curcumin supplements at most health food and supplement stores

2. The follow up studies are quite clear. Not only does turmeric prevent Alzheimer’s disease and many kinds of cancer, it apparently does so in multiple ways in each case.

It may also slow aging, help prevent cardiovascular disease, and prevent MS.

Turmeric definitely helps with some kinds of stomach upset.

It also works as an anti-inflammatory agent. And turmeric is an antioxidant.

So, curry as a food component is a superfood. (It adds a LOT of flavor with no added salt needed also.)

And, turmeric or curcumin as a supplement is a super supplement.

1. I began taking turmeric because the evidence I saw for preventing Alzheimer’s disease looked convincing to me and because Alzheimer’s disease is a condition I want to completely avoid if I can.

The follow up research more recently is extremely good and promising.

In Alzheimer’s disease prevention, the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects of turmeric tend to prevent nerve damage in the first place. Turmeric, along with exercise, seems to cause the growth of new nerve and brain cells. And, either directly or by empowering your immune system or both, turmeric both prevents amyloid build up in the brain, & it will remove amyloid build up that has already occurred .

In addition, turmeric’s effects in preventing oxidation of your blood lipids and preventing high levels of inflammation tend to prevent cardiovascular disease and keep your circulation good. And since damaged circulation tends to cause both Alzheimer’s disease and age related mental decline, turmeric also is of some help in preventing Alzheimer’s disease in that way.

Turmeric may not be able to reverse severe Alzheimer’s disease that has already destroyed a lot of brain cells or prevent senility caused by other factors such as lead or mercury poisoning.

But if you want to avoid Alzheimer’s disease completely or prevent early stage Alzheimer’s disease from progressing, it may be quite effective.

It also looks like many of these same effects do help turmeric to prevent or slow the progression of MS.

2. The follow up research more recently is extremely good and promising that turmeric prevents many kinds of cancers well and all kinds to some extent.

It was in the online health news recently that turmeric definitely helps prevent a common kind of breast cancer.

Because of turmeric’s antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects it tends to prevent the damage to the DNA in your cells that causes cancer.

And, whether by those two effects alone or with others, turmeric has been found to lower the level of the mutagens, or DNA damaging chemicals, in your body.

So, less cancers ever start in the first place.

In some studies, curcumin has been found to hinder the growth of abnormal cells.

It apparently interferes with their growth directly and may have similar effects on HIV viruses and other viruses as well as cancer cells.

And, with cancer cells and as part of its inflammation fighting ability, turmeric also tends to suppress the development of new blood vessels to feed cancer cells or to cause or complicate inflammation. (Turmeric may even do this only for abnormal conditions, unlike the drugs that inhibit blood vessel formation that also inhibit it for muscles that get extra use or for your heart developing extra circulation if its initial supply blood vessels become partially or completely blocked.)

So, cancer cells that form are less likely to keep growing.

In conclusion, I’m so glad I’ve been taking turmeric supplements for quite a while now & started to prevent Alzheimer’s disease.

It looks like it HAS added to the list of things I do to prevent Alzheimer’s disease.

And, it looks like it has also been helping to prevent heart disease, MS, and most cancers too even though I was unaware of it before.

Lastly, although turmeric is NOT my favorite flavor in curry mixes, I’ve managed to eat curried foods more often and add curry spices to my food more often.

And, although there are some supplements I’ve temporarily discontinued and some I may wait a bit to refill to save money at times, turmeric is now on my list of supplements I will not willingly run out of or discontinue.