Perhaps you heard that turmeric, the golden curry spice, is the new so-called Wonder Supplement.

Or is it curcumin, a yellow pigment in turmeric that is the wonderkind?

It's been marketed so well that turmeric lattes can be purchased in ordinary chain coffee shops,

and turmeric smoothies are just about everywhere. So is it all quackery, or is tumouric really

a spice for life? In Dr. Gregor's book, How Not to Age, he mentioned a remarkable case series

in which the symptoms of three Alzheimer's patients dramatically improved after

tumor treatment. In one case, an 83-year-old woman started losing her short-term memory and

becoming disoriented. But after taking tumor for a year, she came to recognize her family,

living a peaceful life without significant behavioral symptoms of dementia.

The investigators concluded that this was the first demonstration of turmeric as an effective

and safe drug for the treatment of Alzheimer's.

Of course, it's not a drug at all.

Tumurk is just a spice you can get at the grocery store.

The researchers had given study participants around

a quarter teaspoon a day, which would come out to less than five cents. In a petri dish,

curcumin not only inhibits the production of amyloid beta and prevents its aggregation into plaques,

but it can also help break up preformed plaques and tangles, as well as protect nerve cells

from amyloid neurotoxicity.

Kirkuman is so good at homing in on amyloid that it can be used to stain and label plaques

for imaging and brain tissue from patients with Alzheimer's disease.

A single dose of a third of a teaspoon of straight turmeric, stuffed in a capsule to disguise it,

can improve working memory within six hours after consumption in healthy older adults.

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