Rural India has the lowest validated Alzheimer’s rates in the world. Is it due to the turmeric in their curry, or their largely plant-based diets?
Preventing Alzheimer’s with Turmeric
4.4/5 - (37 votes)
There are anti-inflammatory drugs that may reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease but stomach, liver and kidney toxicity precludes their widespread use. So maybe using an anti-inflammatory food like the spice turmeric, found in curry powder, could offer the benefits without the risks? Before even considering putting it to the test, though, one might ask, “well, do populations that eat a lot of turmeric have a lower prevalence of dementia?” They may actually have the lowest reported prevalence of dementia and Alzheimer’s. OK, so far so good. But maybe because it’s such an impoverished area that victims there don’t live very long, so you need to know more than just the prevalence—how many Alzheimer’s cases are walking around, but the incidence of the disease, how many new people are getting it every year, which reflects the true rate of disease occurrence.
In rural Pennsylvania, the incidence rate of Alzheimer’s disease among seniors is 19. Nineteen people in a thousand over age 65 develop Alzheimer’s every year in rural Pennsylvania. In rural India, using the same diagnostic criteria, that same rate is 3, confirming they have among the lowest reported Alzheimer’s rates in the world.
Although there isn’t much to go on, the lower prevalence of Alzheimer’s in India is generally attributed to the turmeric consumption as a part of curry, and it is assumed that people who use turmeric regularly have a lower incidence of the disease, but let’s not just assume.
A thousand people tested and those who consumed curry at least occasionally did do better on simple cognitive tests than those who didn’t. Those that ate curry often had only about half the odds of showing cognitive impairment, after adjusting for a wide variety of potential confounding factors. This suggests that curry consumption may be associated with better cognitive performance.
Of course it probably matters what’s being curried—are we talkin’ chicken masala, or chana masala, with chickpeas instead of chicks. It may be no coincidence that the country with among the lowest rates of Alzheimers has among the lowest rates of meat consumption, with a significant percentage of Indians eating meat-free and egg-free diets.
We’ve known for over 20 years now, that those who eat meat—red meat or white meat—appear between two to three times more likely to become demented, compared to vegetarians. And the longer one eats meat-free, the lower the associated risk of dementia, whether or not you curry favor, with your brain.
To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by Katie Schloer.
Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.
- A Monroy, G J Lithgow, S Alavez. Review Article Curcumin and Neurodegenerative Diseases. Biofactors. 2013 Jan-Feb;39(1):122-32.
- V Chandra, M Ganguli, R Pandav, J Johnston, S Belle, S T DeKosky. Prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias in rural India. Neurology. 1998 Oct;51(4):1000-8.
- V Chandra, R Pandav, H H Dodge, J M Johnston, S T DeKosky, M Ganguli. Incidence of Alzheimer’s disease in a rural community in India. Neurology. 2001 Sep 25;57(6):985-9.
- T Ng, P Chiam, T Lee, H Chua, L Lim, E Kua. Curry consumption and cognitive function in the elderly. Am J Epidemiol. 2006 Nov 1;164(9):898-906.
- T Ahmed, A Gilani. Therapeutic potential of turmeric in Alzheimer’s disease: curcumin or curcuminoids. Phytother Res. 2014 Apr;28(4):517-25.
- B Lal, A K Kapoor, P K Agrawal, O P Asthana, R C Srimal. Role of Curcumin in idiopathic inflammatory orbital pseudotumors. Phytother Res. 2000 Sep;14(6):443-7.
- A Hutchins-Wolfbrandt, A M Mistry. Dietary turmeric potentially reduces the risk of cancer. Asian Pac J Cancer Prev. 2011;12(12):3169-73.
- P Giem, W L Beeson, G E Fraser. The Incidence of Dementia and Intake of Animal Products: Preliminary Findings from the Adventist Health Study. Neuroepidemiology 1993;12:28–36.
Images thanks to geralt via Pixabay and SweetOnVeg and I Believe I Can Fry via Flickr.
There are anti-inflammatory drugs that may reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease but stomach, liver and kidney toxicity precludes their widespread use. So maybe using an anti-inflammatory food like the spice turmeric, found in curry powder, could offer the benefits without the risks? Before even considering putting it to the test, though, one might ask, “well, do populations that eat a lot of turmeric have a lower prevalence of dementia?” They may actually have the lowest reported prevalence of dementia and Alzheimer’s. OK, so far so good. But maybe because it’s such an impoverished area that victims there don’t live very long, so you need to know more than just the prevalence—how many Alzheimer’s cases are walking around, but the incidence of the disease, how many new people are getting it every year, which reflects the true rate of disease occurrence.
In rural Pennsylvania, the incidence rate of Alzheimer’s disease among seniors is 19. Nineteen people in a thousand over age 65 develop Alzheimer’s every year in rural Pennsylvania. In rural India, using the same diagnostic criteria, that same rate is 3, confirming they have among the lowest reported Alzheimer’s rates in the world.
Although there isn’t much to go on, the lower prevalence of Alzheimer’s in India is generally attributed to the turmeric consumption as a part of curry, and it is assumed that people who use turmeric regularly have a lower incidence of the disease, but let’s not just assume.
A thousand people tested and those who consumed curry at least occasionally did do better on simple cognitive tests than those who didn’t. Those that ate curry often had only about half the odds of showing cognitive impairment, after adjusting for a wide variety of potential confounding factors. This suggests that curry consumption may be associated with better cognitive performance.
Of course it probably matters what’s being curried—are we talkin’ chicken masala, or chana masala, with chickpeas instead of chicks. It may be no coincidence that the country with among the lowest rates of Alzheimers has among the lowest rates of meat consumption, with a significant percentage of Indians eating meat-free and egg-free diets.
We’ve known for over 20 years now, that those who eat meat—red meat or white meat—appear between two to three times more likely to become demented, compared to vegetarians. And the longer one eats meat-free, the lower the associated risk of dementia, whether or not you curry favor, with your brain.
To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by Katie Schloer.
Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.
- A Monroy, G J Lithgow, S Alavez. Review Article Curcumin and Neurodegenerative Diseases. Biofactors. 2013 Jan-Feb;39(1):122-32.
- V Chandra, M Ganguli, R Pandav, J Johnston, S Belle, S T DeKosky. Prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias in rural India. Neurology. 1998 Oct;51(4):1000-8.
- V Chandra, R Pandav, H H Dodge, J M Johnston, S T DeKosky, M Ganguli. Incidence of Alzheimer’s disease in a rural community in India. Neurology. 2001 Sep 25;57(6):985-9.
- T Ng, P Chiam, T Lee, H Chua, L Lim, E Kua. Curry consumption and cognitive function in the elderly. Am J Epidemiol. 2006 Nov 1;164(9):898-906.
- T Ahmed, A Gilani. Therapeutic potential of turmeric in Alzheimer’s disease: curcumin or curcuminoids. Phytother Res. 2014 Apr;28(4):517-25.
- B Lal, A K Kapoor, P K Agrawal, O P Asthana, R C Srimal. Role of Curcumin in idiopathic inflammatory orbital pseudotumors. Phytother Res. 2000 Sep;14(6):443-7.
- A Hutchins-Wolfbrandt, A M Mistry. Dietary turmeric potentially reduces the risk of cancer. Asian Pac J Cancer Prev. 2011;12(12):3169-73.
- P Giem, W L Beeson, G E Fraser. The Incidence of Dementia and Intake of Animal Products: Preliminary Findings from the Adventist Health Study. Neuroepidemiology 1993;12:28–36.
Images thanks to geralt via Pixabay and SweetOnVeg and I Believe I Can Fry via Flickr.
Republishing "Preventing Alzheimer’s with Turmeric"
Terms
You may republish this material online or in print under our Creative Commons licence. You must attribute the article to NutritionFacts.org with a link back to our website in your republication.
If any changes are made to the original text or video, you must indicate, reasonably, what has changed about the article or video.
You may not use our material for commercial purposes.
You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that restrict others from doing anything permitted here.
If you have any questions, please Contact Us
Title
Preventing Alzheimer’s with Turmeric
LicenseCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)
Content URLDoctor's Note
There’s another spice that may be useful for brain health. See my video Saffron for the Treatment of Alzheimer’s. What about coconut oil? See Does Coconut Oil Cure Alzheimer’s? In terms of preventing cognitive decline in the first place, check out my video How to Slow Brain Aging By Two Years.
I’ve previously raised the issue of plant-based diets and dementia in Alzheimer’s Disease: Grain Brain or Meathead?
For more on spices and inflammation, see Which Spices Fight Inflammation? and the follow-up, Spicing Up DNA Protection.
What about treating Alzheimer’s disease with the spice turmeric? That’s the topic of my next video, Treating Alzheimer’s with Turmeric.
If you haven't yet, you can subscribe to our free newsletter. With your subscription, you'll also get notifications for just-released blogs and videos. Check out our information page about our translated resources.
Previous Video
Next Video
