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Yellow curry may boost brain power

YELLOW CURRY: Turmeric (inset) gives the dish its characteristic colour.

Yellow ginger or turmeric which is the yellow root of Curcuma longa, may be good for the brain. The ingredient which is commonly used in curry (giving the dish the yellow colour) seems to boost brain power in elderly people. In a study involving 1,092 Asian people (between 60 and 93 years old) unaffected by Alzheimer's Disease, a research team at NUS discovered that those who consumed curry "occasionally", and "often" did better in a standard test of cognitive function, than those who never or rarely ate curry. Those who ate curry once or more in six months, but less than once a month are classified under "occasionally" — those who ate curry more than once a month, as "often".

The study, led by Associate Professor Ng Tze Pin, Department of Psychological Medicine, was published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, DOI: 10.1093/aje/kwj267. It was also featured in New Scientist (August 2006). Extensive information was collected on personal, social, behavioral, and health-related variables that included detailed histories of medical conditions, medications, substance use, dietary intake including curry consumption, functional assessments, and semi-structured diagnostic interviews for psychiatric disorders. The data were collected in the subjects' homes by trained nurses and field interviewers in English, Chinese, or Malay. Subjects were given the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) — a widely-used test that provides a global measure of cognitive function including memory, attention, language and visuospatial (visual perception of spatial relationships between objects) ability.

Anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties

Past researches have shown that curcumin and other products isolated from turmeric possess potent anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. In vitro, it has been shown that curcumin is several times more potent than vitamin E as a free radical scavenger. It can also protect against atherogenesis, the formation of atheromas (plaques) in arteries. However, before Associate Professor Ng and team's research, there has been no epidemiologic evidence to support the link between dietary curry consumption and lowered dementia risk or cognitive enhancement in the elderly.

The NUS team also did a study using Alzheimer transgenic mouse model which showed that at low doses, curcumin reduced amyloid and plaque burden by 43-50 per cent. Amyloid is a protein deposit associated with tissue degeneration — found in the brains of individuals with Alzheimer's. Anti-inflammatory drugs and antioxidants are promising neuroprotective agents against Alzhemimer's disease. Long-term use of nonsterioidal anti-inflammatory drugs is associated with a reduced risk of Alzheimer's disease but their use is limited by gastro-intestinal, liver and kidney toxicity. "In view of its efficacy and remarkably low toxicity, curcumin shows promise for the prevention of Alzheimer's disease," the researchers wrote in their paper, Curry Consumption and Cognitve Function in the Elderly.

The researchers also noted that the prevalence of Alzheimer's disease is purportedly lower in India among the elderly than that of the US. This could be linked to the fact that turmeric is widely consumed by people in India. However, the team cautions that the evidence from their study is only tentative. But it does pave the way for further investigations of curry consumption in relation to Alzheimer's disease.

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