Nutraceuticals and nootropics for anti-aging

Alzheimer’s Disease seems to run in my family. My father, mother, and my mother’s sister all died from it, and now one of my own sisters has developed symptoms. A friend who takes lots of supplements has told me that curcumin supplements may be a preventative against Alzheimer’s. Is this true? If so, I certainly want to be using it.

There is a very short discussion of the anti-Alzheimer’s effects of curcumin in LifeLink’s monograph about PriMeric™, their curcumin product. The references in that discussion are good ones, and I particularly recommend that you look at the one by Frank and Gupta because it contains a list of substances that show promise for treating Alzheimer’s.¹

The list presented by Frank and Gupta includes:

• curcumin
• aged garlic extract
• melatonin
• resveratrol
• Ginkgo biloba extract
• green tea
• vitamin C
• vitamin E

I would add that resveratrol is problematic in that its on-the-shelf stability is questionable, and many resveratrol products on the market may be seriously degraded. As for green tea, you would do best to use a green tea extract rather than merely drinking green tea, since the anti-Alzheimer’s compounds in liquid green tea are present in low and variable amounts.

About Alzheimer’s Disease

Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease of the central nervous system. It results in progressive memory loss and dementia. Two pathological characteristics are observed in AD patients: extracellular plaques and intracellular tangles in areas of the brain essential for cognitive function. Plaques consist mostly of deposits of a protein called ‘amyloid-beta’.²

Regarding curcumin

The current situation is that a substantial number of laboratory studies have demonstrated curcumin’s ability to disrupt processes that characterize Alzheimer’s Disease.^3,4,5,6 Furthermore, when curcumin treatment has been given to animals with diseases analogous to Alzheimer’s Disease, researchers have seen reduced levels of amyloid-beta protein and oxidized proteins, and the animals have failed to develop cognitive deficits.⁶ A recent paper in the April issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA described a possible molecular mechanism that could explain how Alzheimer’s Disease develops; the researchers showed that curcumin disrupts a key part of this process by inhibiting the oxidative activity of a complex formed in the brain from amyloid-beta and heme molecules.⁷

Most of these effects of curcumin were already known five years ago.⁸ Yet, to date, not a single clinical study on humans has been completed, and only one such study has even been started, to my knowledge. Meanwhile, countless thousands of Alzheimer’s patients have suffered and died. This should come as no surprise to those who understand how the medical research establishment conducts itself nowadays. Obstructed at every turn by government bureaucrats and priestly ‘ethicists’, the cost of medical research is skyrocketing and its efficiency is crashing.

Fortunately, curcumin is still available as a supplement, and you can use it without interference from government agencies, fuzzy-minded ethicists, or overpaid medical professionals.

When choosing a curcumin supplement, you should bear in mind that curcumin normally has a very low bioavailability, so that absorption enhancers and degradation inhibitors are needed in addition to curcumin itself. These, too, are available as supplements. (See the discussion in the PriMeric monograph.)

Conclusion

When it comes to dealing with Alzheimer’s Disease, we are like people in the path of a hurricane — we are largely on our own. We should not expect much help from the Powers That Be, despite the vast sums of money they siphon from the public treasury, supposedly to help us deal with such problems. If the medical establishment someday comes up with a really good, quick cure for Alzheimer’s, and manages to bring it to market at an affordable price before we succumb to the disease, we can all celebrate. Meanwhile, curcumin and the other supplements mentioned above are available, affordable, and promising. It is up to us to decide whether to use them or to wait another twenty years for an official Santa Claus to bring us something with a government stamp of approval.

— Dr. Alexis Zarkov, Ph.D.

You can contact Dr. Zarkov at AskDrZarkov@yahoo.com.

Last modified 2006.June.28

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References

[1]  A review of antioxidants and Alzheimer's disease. Ann Clin Psychiatry. 2005 Oct-Dec;17(4):269-86. Frank B, Gupta S

[2]  ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE R&D Systems website

[3]  Antioxidant compounds have potent anti-fibrillogenic and fibril-destabilizing effects for alpha-synuclein fibrils in vitro. J Neurochem. 2006 Apr;97(1):105-15. Epub 2006 Mar 8 Ono K, Yamada M

[4]  Curcumin inhibits formation of amyloid beta oligomers and fibrils, binds plaques, and reduces amyloid in vivo. J Biol Chem. 2005 Feb 18;280(7):5892-901. Epub 2004 Dec 7. Yang F, Lim GP, Begum AN, Ubeda OJ, Simmons MR, Ambegaokar SS, Chen PP, Kayed R, Glabe CG, Frautschy SA, Cole GM

[5]  A potential role of the curry spice curcumin in Alzheimer's disease. Curr Alzheimer Res. 2005 Apr;2(2):131-6 Ringman JM, Frautschy SA, Cole GM, Masterman DL, Cummings JL

[6]  Curcumin interaction with copper and iron suggests one possible mechanism of action in Alzheimer's disease animal models. J Alzheimers Dis. 2004 Aug;6(4):367-77; discussion 443-9 Baum L, Ng A

[7]  Amyloid-beta peptide binds with heme to form a peroxidase: relationship to the cytopathologies of Alzheimer's disease. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2006 Feb 28;103(9):3381-6 Atamna H, Boyle K

[8]  The curry spice curcumin reduces oxidative damage and amyloid pathology in an Alzheimer transgenic mouse. J Neurosci. 2001 Nov 1;21(21):8370-7 Lim GP, Chu T, Yang F, Beech W, Frautschy SA, Cole GM

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Disclaimer: The information provided in this “Ask Dr. Zarkov” article contains no medical advice whatsoever — it contains ‘biological information’. Nothing in the article constitutes an effort to persuade readers to use, or not to use, this biological information as a basis for action.