"Lovers of Indian food give yourselves a second helping Daily consumption of a certain form of curcumin  the substance that gives Indian curry its bright color  improved memory and mood in people with mild agerelated memory loss according to the results of a study conducted by UCLA researchers. The research httpsdoi.org.j.jagp... published online Jan.  in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry examined the effects of an easily absorbed curcumin supplement on memory performance in people without dementia as well as curcumins potential impact on the microscopic plaques and tangles in the brains of people with Alzheimers disease. Found in turmeric curcumin has previously been shown to have antiinflammatory and antioxidant properties in lab studies. It also has been suggested as a possible reason that senior citizens in India where curcumin is a dietary staple have a lower prevalence of Alzheimers disease and better cognitive performance.   Exactly how curcumin exerts its effects is not certain but it may be due to its ability to reduce brain inammation which has been linked to both Alzheimers disease and major depression said Dr. Gary Small director of geriatric psychiatry at UCLAs Longevity Center and of the geriatric psychiatry division at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA https and the studys first author. The doubleblind placebocontrolled study involved  adults between the ages of  and  years who had mild memory complaints. Participants were randomly assigned to receive either a placebo or  milligrams of curcumin twice daily for  months.   All  subjects received standardized cognitive assessments at the start of the study and at sixmonth intervals and monitoring of curcumin levels in their blood at the start of the study and after  months. Thirty of the volunteers underwent positron emission tomography or PET scans to determine the levels of amyloid and tau in their brains at the start of the study and after  months.   The people who took curcumin experienced significant improvements in their memory and attention abilities while the subjects who received placebo did not Small said. In memory tests the people taking curcumin improved by  percent over the  months. Those taking curcumin also had mild improvements in mood and their brain PET scans showed significantly less amyloid and tau signals in the amygdala and hypothalamus than those who took placebos. The amygdala and hypothalamus are regions of the brain that control several memory and emotional functions. Four people taking curcumin and two taking placebos experienced mild side effects such as abdominal pain and nausea. The researchers plan to conduct a followup study with a larger number of people. That study will include some people with mild depression so the scientists can explore whether curcumin also has antidepressant effects. The larger sample also would allow them to analyze whether curcumins memoryenhancing effects vary according to peoples genetic risk for Alzheimers their age or the extent of their cognitive problems. These results suggest that taking this relatively safe form of curcumin could provide meaningful cognitive benefits over the years said Small UCLAs ParlowSolomon Professor on Aging. The papers authors in addition to Small are Prabha Siddarth Dr. Zhaoping Li Karen Miller Linda Ercoli Natacha Emerson Jacqueline Martinez KoonPong Wong Jie Liu Dr. David Merrill Dr. Stephen Chen Susanne Henning Nagichettiar Satyamurthy SungCheng Huang Dr. David Heber and Jorge Barrio all of UCLA. The study was supported by the Ahmanson Foundation the Marshall and Margherite McComb Foundation the McMahan Foundation Bob and Marion Wilson the Fran and Ray Stark Foundation Fund for Alzheimers Disease Research the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Institutes of Health.   Theravalues Corp. provided the curcumin and placebos for the trial as well as funds for laboratory testing and for Smalls travel to present preliminary findings at the  Alzheimers Association International Conference. SEE ORIGINAL STUDY http"