With its many benefits scientifically proven by multiple studies, turmeric is one of the most versatile spices for health. Its anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties are well known to the general public and are no longer in need of demonstration. Turmeric is also antiviral, antifungal and antibacterial.

A magical spice, in short!

But curcumin is also considered by many researchers as the most promising molecule among all those developed against Alzheimer's disease! In Belgium, more than 9% of people aged 65 and over are affected by this pathology, and more than 26% of those aged 85 and over! Among our French neighbors, there are approximately 900,000 cases of Alzheimer's.

Surprisingly - or not, for that matter - statistics show that the rate of Alzheimer's disease in some rural areas of India is significantly lower than in other countries. The number of cases is even among the lowest in the world! A study in Singapore also showed that people who consumed curry, of which turmeric is one of the components, performed much better on cognitive tests.

Although not supported by scientific data, the high consumption of turmeric in India and other Asian regions is one of the reasons cited for this phenomenon.

Numerous experiments conducted by the University of California have shown that "poor man's saffron" destroys and prevents the formation of beta-amyloid protein plaques responsible for the degeneration of certain brain cells in Alzheimer's disease.

Curcumin thus helps to prevent the loss of synapses and cognitive impairment caused by amyloid proteins by acting in several ways: by blocking the accumulation and aggregation of amyloid proteins, by correcting the damage caused by inflammation or by blocking lipid peroxidation that accelerates the disappearance of neuronal connections...

It is therefore quite sensible to include turmeric in one's diet, but unfortunately, eating a spoonful of this spice from time to time will not be enough to make us fully benefit from its many therapeutic virtues.

Our intestine has a lot of difficulty in absorbing curcumin molecules, which are very easily eliminated by our metabolism.

The piperine contained in pepper increases tenfold our ability to benefit from the virtues of turmeric. Be careful, however, because piperine also tends to increase the absorption of other molecules, including heavy metals and drugs. The curcumin-pepper duo is therefore to be used with caution for people under medication.

Food supplements, created to guarantee a better absorption of curcumin by the intestine, are to be privileged to benefit, at best, from its numerous and miraculous virtues.

Update 2/21/17: To read further and answer some questions, we direct you
to articles from Ohio University and UCLA studies that detail the effects of curcumin
on metabolism and Alzheimer's disease prevention.

http://alzheimer.neurology.ucla.edu/Curcumin.html
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3518252/