Tasty Curry Might Have a Fringe Benefit
By Kathleen Fackelmann
Five years ago Darci Jayne hardly ever touched a vegetable and pretty
much lived on pizza, pasta and fast food.
That diet led to weight gain and health problems, including severe
joint pain. "I was close to 200 pounds and getting scared," she says.
By cutting portion sizes she lost 50 pounds but always felt as if she
were on a diet. Then Jayne took an Indian cooking class that
emphasized fresh vegetables and curry spices.
She began to whip up an Indian dinner once or twice a week -- and
soon she noticed she wasn't always looking for a late-night snack.
And the curry in the food offered her a bonus: It seemed to ease the
pain and swelling in her joints.
"I have arthritis," says Jayne, 55. "But I'm moving better now."
Preliminary research suggests Jayne may be right. A study in the
November issue of Arthritis & Rheumatism suggests turmeric, one
component of curry spice, almost completely prevented joint swelling
in rats with arthritis. Other studies have suggested that the spice
could protect against diseases such as heart disease, cancer and
Alzheimer's, a degenerative brain disease that afflicts nearly 5
million people in the USA.
Rates of Alzheimer's in India are about four times lower than in the
USA, says Gregory Cole, a researcher at the University of California-
Los Angeles. His studies suggest that curry contains a powerful
substance that might protect the brain from damage that leads to
Alzheimer's.
Surprising findings in mice
Can scientists prove curry wards off such diseases as Alzheimer's or
cancer? Not yet, says Bharat Aggarwal at the University of Texas-
Houston. But he says the growing file on curry includes compelling
evidence gleaned from animal and human studies.
The findings from Western science fit with what traditional Indian
healers have long said about turmeric. "They call it the spice of
life," says P. Murali Doraiswamy, an Alzheimer's expert at Duke
University in Durham, N.C.
For centuries, doctors trained in Ayurvedic medicine, a traditional
medical system in India, have turned to turmeric to treat
inflammatory diseases such as arthritis, says Janet Funk, a
researcher at the University of Kansas. In the USA, many people with
arthritis take over-the-counter supplements that contain curcumin,
the active ingredient in turmeric.
In the November study, Funk and her colleagues gave rats that were
bred to develop rheumatoid arthritis injections of turmeric. "The
turmeric almost completely prevented the onset of arthritis," Funk
says. The spice also seemed to help stop joint destruction in rats
that had already started to develop the disease, she says.
Curry also may offer some protection against cancer. "Indians eat
from 100 to 200 milligrams of curry every day, and that might be
enough to prevent cancer," says Aggarwal of the M.D. Anderson Cancer
Center at the University of Texas.
The curcumin in curry seems to shut down genes that trigger the
development and the spread of breast cancer, animal studies in
Aggarwal's lab suggest. And a preliminary human study suggests
curcumin supplements might -- in a handful of cases -- be able to
stabilize pancreatic cancer, he says.
Epidemiology studies in humans also have linked frequent use of
turmeric spice to lower rates of breast, prostate and colon cancer,
he says.
Large clinical studies still needed
Other research suggests curry might shield the brain from
Alzheimer's, Cole says.
The studies on curry and Alzheimer's include:
*A test-tube study by researchers at UCLA in October showed that
curcumin could help clear the human brain of toxic protein deposits
thought to cause the memory loss and confusion of Alzheimer's.
*A study of more than 1,000 older men in Singapore last year found
that those who ate lots of curry-spiced food did better on memory
tests than those who rarely ate the spice.
The findings from Singapore suggest curry may help keep the aging
brain in top shape. But to get the proof that curcumin fights cancer
or Alzheimer's or arthritis, researchers will have to conduct large
clinical trials, Cole says, and those studies will be expensive and
take years to complete.
Americans don't need to wait for the proof on curry to enjoy a diet
that includes more of this spice, says Alamelu Vairavan, co-author of
the book Healthy South Indian Cooking. "You don't need to gulp
supplements," she says, adding that cooks can find turmeric in Indian
specialty shops and in most grocery stores.
Americans should give Indian food a try, Vairavan says. "This kind of
food is very tasty and satisfying."
Eating more Indian food has worked for Jayne, who lives with her
family in a small town outside Milwaukee. A family physician who
recently retired because of disabling arthritis pain, Jayne says she
knows there's no hard evidence of curry's health benefits. But that
won't stop her from enjoying a lunch of tuna masala or an Indian stir-
fry for dinner. She says the food seems to warm her joints and helps
keep her in a size 8 dress.
"You can't argue with success," she says.
Story from REDORBIT NEWS:
http://www.redorbit.com/news/display/?id=792236
Published: 2007/01/08 06:00:00 CST
© RedOrbit 2005
