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A diagnosis of AlzheimerÂ’s, sadly, has become almost like a rite of passage in so-called developed countries. AlzheimerÂ’s is considered the most common form of dementia, which is defined as a serious loss of cognitive function beyond what is expected from normal aging in previously unimpaired persons. A 2006 study estimated that 26 million people throughout the world suffer from this condition, and that by 2050, the prevalence will quadruple, by which time one in 85 people worldwide will be afflicted with the disease. Given the global extent of the problem, interest is growing in safe and effective preventive and...

One of the most promising new treatments for Alzheimer's disease may already be in your kitchen. Curcumin, a natural product found in the spice turmeric, has been used by many Asian cultures for centuries, and a new study indicates a close chemical analog of curcumin has properties that may make it useful as a treatment for the brain disease. "Curcumin has demonstrated ability to enter the brain, bind and destroy the beta-amyloid plaques present in Alzheimer's with reduced toxicity," said Wellington Pham, Ph.D., assistant professor of Radiology and Radiological Sciences and Biomedical Engineering at Vanderbilt and senior author of the...

(NaturalNews) Nature is full of various herbs and spices that protect against disease and even treat and cure it. And according to Chris Kilham, an ethnobotanist and Fox News' "Medicine Hunter", turmeric root -- also known in its extract form as curcumin -- is one such powerful spice that appears to both prevent the onset of Alzheimer's disease and even cure it. "People who develop Alzheimer's disease get a sticky plaque in the brain called amyloid beta," explained Kilham to Dr. Manny Alvarez in a recent Fox News interview. Such plaques either develop as a result of Alzheimer's, or they...

Early research findings may lead to new treatments for the diseaseUCLA scientists and colleagues from UC Riverside and the Human BioMolecular Research Institute have found that a form of vitamin D, together with a chemical found in turmeric spice called curcumin, may help stimulate the immune system to clear the brain of amyloid beta, which forms the plaques considered the hallmark of Alzheimer's disease. The early research findings, which appear in the July issue of the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, may lead to new approaches in preventing and treating Alzheimer's by utilizing the property of vitamin D3 — a form...

Yellow pigment in curry spice blocks, breaks up brain plaques in mice A dietary staple of India, where Alzheimer's disease rates are reportedly among the world's lowest, holds potential as a weapon in the fight against the disease. The new UCLA-Veterans Affairs study involving genetically altered mice suggests that curcumin, the yellow pigment in curry spice, inhibits the accumulation of destructive beta amyloids in the brains of Alzheimer's patients and also breaks up existing plaques. Reporting in the Dec. 7, 2004, online edition of the Journal of Biological Chemistry, the research team also determined curcumin is more effective in inhibiting...

Curry 'may slow Alzheimer's' A spicy ingredient of many curries may be an effective treatment for Alzheimer's disease, say researchers. A team from the University of California at Los Angeles believes that turmeric may play a role in slowing down the progression of the neurodegenerative disease. The finding may help to explain why rates of Alzheimer's are much lower among the elderly in India than in their Western peers. Previous studies have found that Alzheimer's affects just 1% of people over the age of 65 living in some Indian villages. Vindaloos Turmeric is found in everything from mild Kormas to...

WASHINGTON : Too bad Ronald Reagan never developed a taste for curry. It might have saved him from Alzheimer's disease. As the former President's death focuses attention on the degenerative brain condition that devastates memory, recent studies have shown that diets rich in curcumin, a compound found in the common Indian curry spice turmeric ( haldi ) can help prevent Alzheimer's. In fact, American researchers reckon the high incidence of turmeric use is one reason why the disease is rare in India . Studies have noted that the elderly living in Indian villages appear to have the lowest incidence of...

One of the curcumin–thalidomide hybridsCancer researchers in the US and China have combined the turmeric spice pigment curcumin and the drug thalidomide to create hybrid compounds that can kill multiple myeloma cells.Multiple myeloma is the second most common type of blood cancer, killing 20% of affected patients each year. The drug thalidomide, banned after causing birth defects when given during pregnancy in the 1950s, was recently rediscovered and approved for the treatment of multiple myeloma. Thalidomide works by disturbing the microenvironment of tumour cells in bone marrow. However, it disintegrates in the body. Curcumin, a yellow pigment from the common...

Worried about osteoporosis? Take turmeric! Indian spice improves bone density by up to 7%, study revealsTurmeric helps to build and repair bone mass in the elderly, a new study reveals. Taking a supplement of the popular Indian spice improves bone density by up to seven per cent over six months, researchers found. A compound in turmeric, known as curcumin, is thought to balance out cells that remove ageing parts of bone before it is replaced, according to previous findings. Almost three quarters of elderly people suffer declining bone density, which can cause osteoporosis and is responsible for around 65,000 potentially...

WEDNESDAY, Aug. 17, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Taking calcium supplements with the hope of keeping osteoporosis at bay may raise an older woman's risk of dementia, a new study suggests. And that seems particularly true if a woman has already sustained an event causing poor blood flow to the brain (cerebrovascular disease), such as from a stroke, researchers said. The study can't prove cause-and-effect. However, dementia risk was seven times higher in female stroke survivors who took calcium supplements, compared to women with a history of stroke who didn't use the supplements, the findings showed. The risk of dementia also...

Scientists have developed a drug that can help bones regrow. It could be used to treat people suffering from osteoporosis and other bone-related problems stemming from conditions including diabetes and obesity. Researchers found the drug, which acts on stem cells, suppresses a protein called PPARy. When this was reduced in mice, bone growth was encouraged. […] The new drug is being developed at the Scripps Research Institute in the US, where Professor Patrick Griffin, of the department of molecular therapeutics, said: “These findings demonstrate for the first time a new therapeutic application for drugs targeting PPARy, which had previously been...

Researchers say it may be possible to slow and even reverse aging by keeping DNA more stably packed together in our cells In a breakthrough discovery, scientists report that they have found the key to keeping cells young. In a study published Thursday in Science, an international team, led by Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte at the Salk Institute, studied the gene responsible for an accelerated aging disease known as Werner syndrome, or adult progeria, in which patients show signs of osteoporosis, grey hair and heart disease in very early adulthood. These patients are deficient in a gene responsible for copying...

WEDNESDAY, July 11 (HealthDay News) -- Drinking one or two alcoholic beverages several times a week may improve the bone health of older women and reduce their risk for osteoporosis, a small study suggests. Bones are living tissue with old bone continually removed and replaced in a process called remodeling. In people with the bone-thinning disease osteoporosis, more bone is lost than replaced. Postmenopausal women are at particular risk because of reduced estrogen, a hormone essential for bone strength, the researchers explained. "This study clearly demonstrates that even small amounts of alcohol have potent actions and can rapidly impact bone...

Vitamin D is known for helping create strong bones and is a key regulator of serum calcium levels. Recent studies, however, have not offered much proof that Vitamin D supplements prevents bone fractures.

When it comes to improving bone health in postmenopausal women — and people of all ages, actually — a Florida State University researcher has found a simple, proactive solution to help prevent fractures and osteoporosis: eating dried plums. "Over my career, I have tested numerous fruits, including figs, dates, strawberries and raisins, and none of them come anywhere close to having the effect on bone density that dried plums, or prunes, have," said Bahram H. Arjmandi, Florida State's Margaret A. Sitton Professor and chairman of the Department of Nutrition, Food and Exercise Sciences (http://www.chs.fsu.edu/nfes/) in the College of Human Sciences....

As strange as it sounds, a new research study published in the FASEB Journal (http://www.fasebj.org), suggests that the "healthy" ingredient in red wine, resveratrol, may prevent the negative effects that spaceflight and sedentary lifestyles have on people. The report describes experiments in rats that simulated the weightlessness of spaceflight, during which the group fed resveratrol did not develop insulin resistance or a loss of bone mineral density, as did those who were not fed resveratrol. This study also suggests that resveratrol may be able to prevent the deleterious consequences of sedentary behaviors in humans.

To fully optimize a drug therapy for osteoporosis and low bone mineral density (BMD), patients should maintain vitamin D levels above the limits recently recommended by the Institute of Medicine (IOM), according to a new study by researchers from Hospital for Special Surgery in New York. The study will be presented at the Endocrine Society's Annual Meeting in Boston, June 4-7. The study demonstrated that maintaining a circulating vitamin D level above 33 ng/ml is associated with a seven-fold greater likelihood of having a more favorable outcome with bisphosphonate therapy. Last November, the IOM issued recommendations that 25-Hydroxy vitamin D...

A team of researchers at Columbia Engineering and Columbia University Medical Center announced today the results of the first study comparing bone structure in Chinese-American women to Caucasian women. The report, just presented at the Orthopaedic Research Society's annual meeting at Long Beach, CA, found that pre-menopausal Chinese-American women have far greater bone strength than their Caucasian counterparts, as determined by a breakthrough technological advance. The Columbia team was led by X. Edward Guo, Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Columbia University's School of Engineering and Applied Science, and, from Columbia University Medical Center, John P. Bilezikian, Professor of Medicine and...

New report reveals tragic state of post-fracture care in the region, predicts huge increase in osteoporotic fractures due to aging populationsPreliminary findings from an upcoming new report by the International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF) show alarming projections and reveal the poor state of post-fracture care in the Russian Federation and many other countries in the region. The findings were announced today at a press conference in St. Petersburg at the IOF Summit of Eastern European and Central Asian Osteoporosis Patient Societies. Osteoporosis, a disease of the bone which leaves people at increased risk of fracture, is most common in the older...

The agave plant, the key ingredient in Mexico's famous tequila, could help treat diabetes and osteoporosis, according to Mexican researchers. > Drinking tequila would not give the same health benefits, however, since fructans lose their effect during the fermentation process, Lopez added. >