Effects of turmeric on Alzheimer's disease with behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia

Do not do anything here without your doctors approval. Only three patients and not a randomized clinical trial. Which if we had any stroke leadership or strategy would have already been running a clinical study on this. Oct. 2012 so you can see the incompetence of our medical brain leadership.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3665200/

Nozomi Hishikawa, Yoriko Takahashi,¹ Yoshinobu Amakusa,² Yuhei Tanno,³ Yoshitake Tuji,⁴ Hisayoshi Niwa,⁵ Nobuyuki Murakami,⁶ and U. K. Krishna⁷

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Abstract

We describe here three patients with the Alzheimer's Disease (AD) whose behavioral symptoms were improved remarkably as a result of the turmeric treatment, which is the traditional Indian medicine. Their cognitive decline and Behavioral and Psychological Symptoms of Dementia (BPSD) were very severe. All three patients exhibited irritability, agitation, anxiety, and apathy, two patients suffer from urinary incontinence and wonderings. They were prescribed turmeric powder capsules and started recovering from these symptoms without any adverse reaction in the clinical symptom and laboratory data. After 12 weeks of the treatment, total score of the Neuro-Psychiatric Inventory-brief questionnaire decreased significantly in both acuity of symptoms and burden of caregivers. In one case, the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) score was up five points, from 12/30 to 17/30. In the other two cases, no significant change was seen in the MMSE; however, they came to recognize their family within 1 year treatment. All cases have been taking turmeric for more than 1 year, re-exacerbation of BPSD was not seen. The present cases suggest a significant improvement of the behavioral symptoms in the AD with the turmeric treatment, leading to probable benefit of the use of turmeric in individuals with the AD with BPSD.

Keywords: Alzheimer's disease, behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia, curcumin, mini-mental state examination, neuropsychiatric inventory-brief questionnaire, turmeric

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Introduction

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia and it is characterized by the progressive cognitive impairment. The behavioral and psychological symptoms of the dementia (BPSD) are also commonly seen in patients with AD, such as hallucinations, delusions, apathy, depression, agitation, irritability, and wandering. These symptoms can have serious harmful effects on patients’ Quality of Life (QOL) and are also a burden to caregivers and increasing the costs of care.[1] Therefore, the treatment of BPSD is as important as that of core symptom such as memory disturbance and disorientation. Acetylcholinesterase (AChE) inhibitors and N-Methyl-d-Aspartate (NMDA) receptor uncompetitive antagonist (memantin hydrochloride) are commonly used for the treatment of AD. They are effective in core symptoms and BPSD treatment;[2–4] however, the effects are not completely satisfactory. They can cause adverse effects such as nausea, extra-pyramidal symptoms, drowsiness, and the other symptoms.

Neuropathologically, AD is characterized by the presence of senile plaques, neurofibrillary tangles, persistent neuronal loss, although, the neurotoxic mechanisms have not been completely elucidated. It is clear that both oxidative stress and inflammation play a key role in the illness. Recent reports have suggested therapeutic potential of curcumin in the pathophysiology of AD, because of its antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anti-amyloid effects.[5–11] Curcumin is a polyphenolic molecule extracted from turmeric, the spice consisting of the powdered rhizome of the plant Curcuma longa Linn. Turmeric contains about 5% curcumin, which gives the spice its yellow color and is used widely as yellow food coloring. It has also a medical history that date back 5000 years. It has been extensively used to treat various ailments for centuries in Ayurveda, the traditional Indian system of medicine, such as arthritis, gastric ulcer, jaundice, fever, liver disease, urinary tract disease, skin disease, and as a “blood purifier.”[12] Many pharmacological studies have been conducted to describe the multiple biological actions of curcumin. Curcumin has also demonstrated neuroprotective effects in animal models of not only AD;[13] however, also Parkinson's disease,[14–16] depression,[17–19] epilepsy,[20] and so on. Epidemiological studies in India, a country where turmeric consumption is widespread, suggest that it has one of the lowest prevalence rates of AD in the world.[21,22] In spite of the high efficacy and safety, curcumin has not yet been approved as a therapeutic agent. Here, we present three cases with the AD whose behavioral symptoms and ability perform Activities of Daily Living (ADL) were improved by turmeric treatment without any adverse effects.

Case reports at the link.