Curcumin's Cognitive Benefits Look Convincing Advances in Dementia Care

You may have heard about the exciting news about curcumin and the potential for treating Alzheimer's disease, so there was a recent study by Garry small and colleagues published in the American Journal of the geriatric Society and the study showed something really interesting it was the first

Study that used a randomized trial design in a small number of patients 40 patients aged 50 to 90 with mild memory complaints and in randomized patients

To a specific type of curcumin that was that has very small particles basically called nanoparticles and why is this important so curcumin in the past has had trouble with absorption there are a variety of supplements that have been tried

However for example John ringman and colleagues published several years back in a group of Alzheimer's patients curcumin was not effective for delaying or helping symptoms in any way but when they looked at the blood - curcumin pills that the patients were taking were not getting absorbed

So this new version of curcumin was nanoparticles and it's the the brand is called tharok human and the philosophy behind this is better absorption so when this trial was performed, not only did patients that were randomized to the active form of curcumin in 18 months not only did they have improved memory function but they actually had less amyloid in specific parts of their brain that correlated with where Alzheimer's disease happens

So what does this all mean well from a practical clinical perspective this is pretty so what does this all mean well from a practical clinical perspective this is pretty exciting, study curcumin is a very well tolerated supplement overall in my clinical practice i've been recommending that my patients who are interested in prevention or even patients with mild memory loss cook worth curcumin which is the active form of turmeric and cooking with it may increase absorption a little bit of fat in the meal

That kind of thing when it comes to the pills I think it's exciting I think that while we don't know exactly whether what's the right dose, we don't know exactly which patients it will work in.

I think this preliminary evidence suggests that curcumin may play a role in the therapeutic paradigm of Alzheimer's disease, now should curcumin be used for prevention should curcumin use be used for treatment, I don't think that we know the answers yet but hopefully further studies will occur that will clarify this when it comes to risk reduction

There's a variety of reasons why curcumin may have benefit over all it, reduces inflammation it's been studied in a variety of conditions from cancer to arthritis and maybe if you can calm down the inflammatory pathways in the brain you can kind of press the brakes towards amyloid deposition why else

Could it work well there's also?

Antioxidant properties not exactly sure but regardless we need more more research studies to figure this out so

In summary I do think that curcumin the specific form which has nanoparticles may play a role which is both now evidence-based to a degree as well as safe in both the risk reduction and potential therapeutic management of a person with Alzheimer's disease for
Medscape I'm dr. Richard Isaacson

Video Dr. Richard Isaacson is a neurologist and director of the Alzheimer Prevention Clinic at Weill Cornell Medicine and the NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City.