Curries Fight Aging

Eating curries may protect against cancer, Alzheimer’s and infectious disease, as well as improving heart health. New research shows that cucurmin, the compound that gives tumeric its yellow color, stabilizes cell membranes, effectively reversing age related changes.

The study is one of many that points to traditional foods as the answer to the epidemic of new health issues that threatens to overwhelm our economies and significantly damage our quality of life. Alzheimer’s and cancer both occur much more frequently in populations that consume industrialized foods.

The new study, in the current Journal of the American Chemical Society, shows cucurmin working at low concentrations to affect the negative curvature of the cell membrane. Tumeric, a member of the ginger family, has a 2500 year history as a folk medicine in India, where it is used to disinfect cuts and burns. It is also a key component of the diet in a society that, like many traditional cultures, blurs the distinction between food and medicine.

Tumeric offers better anti-inflammatory properties than drugs such as NSAIDS, and may be useful for arthritis and other painful conditions. Clinical studies have demonstrated tumeric’s potential in preventing and treating prostate cancer, breast cancer, and melanoma. Other data indicates it may be helpful in the fight against obesity by aiding fat metabolism.
Other benefits attributed to tumeric include improvements in psoriasis, cholesterol metabolism, MS and type 2 diabetes.