The spices of life

Is it time to trade that aspirin tablet for a teaspoon of turmeric?

Kim Ridley | March 2008 issue

By the middle of the afternoon, Ellen Ryan was out of steam. A community organizer in central Maine, Ryan says her energy crashed every afternoon. To get through the rest of the day, she’d grab a chocolate bar or a handful of candy kisses. “But I’m 52,” Ryan says, “and those explosions of calories are becoming harder to work off.”

When a friend said cinnamon helped alleviate another health problem, Ryan decided to give it a try by taking two 500-milligram capsules in the morning. “I immediately noticed a difference,” Ryan says. “My chocolate cravings went away and I no longer have that crashing feeling in the afternoon. I haven’t talked to a doctor; all I know is that cinnamon is inexpensive, easy to take and it stops the crash.”

Clinical studies support Ryan’s experience. Just half a teaspoon of cinnamon a day lowered blood sugar levels in adults with type 2 diabetes, according to a study of 60 subjects carried out at NWFP Agricultural University in Peshawar, Pakistan, and published in Diabetes Care in 2003. The same study found that cinnamon also lowered cholesterol.

People around the world have been using spice cures for centuries, but now scientists are finding that spices can ease inflammation, activate the immune system, kill bacteria and viruses and even cause cancer cells to self-destruct. Although most studies are preliminary, some research suggests that compounds in spices might help fight everything from Alzheimer’s disease and cancer to depression and diabetes. Here’s an overview of the potential medicines lurking in your spice rack. ›››

Turmeric: Asia’s aspirin

This bright yellow-orange powder, common in Indian curries, may pack more healing power than any other spice. Turmeric is the aspirin of Asia, where it has been used for centuries in Ayurvedic medicine to heal wounds and treat inflammatory illnesses like arthritis as well as at least a dozen other health problems. Made from the powdered root of a tropical plant closely related to ginger, turmeric contains curcumin, a compound that is both a powerful anti-inflammatory and an antioxidant. It’s also non-toxic.

Today, scientists are finding tantalizing clues that suggest curcumin might help prevent and treat Alzheimer’s disease and cancer. Investigators at the University of California at Los Angeles, studying a mouse model of Alzheimer’s, reported that the brains of animals fed curcumin had up to 80 percent fewer of the protein plaques associated with the disease than those of mice given a normal diet. The abnormal clumping of proteins in the plaques is thought to cause Alzheimer’s. Teams at UCLA, Harvard and in Japan subsequently discovered that curcumin might fight Alzheimer’s in several ways. First, curcumin forms a powerful bond with the amyloid beta protein associated with Alzheimer’s that prevents the protein from clumping into plaques in the brain. Second, this bonding capacity enables curcumin to dissolve these plaques. Third, curcumin reduces oxidative damage and brain inflammation that contribute to the disease process.

It’s still too soon to know whether curcumin can prevent or treat Alzheimer’s in humans, says Sally Frautschy of UCLA’s Alzheimer’s Research Lab, where many of the studies are being carried out. “The animal models are not precise models of Alzheimer’s, so these studies need to be replicated in humans,” she says. Frautschy adds that a UCLA team led by John Ringman and Jeffrey Cummings has just completed a pilot clinical trial and researchers are now analyzing results.

Another challenge is finding a form of curcumin that’s absorbed by the body, because it doesn’t readily dissolve in water. Still, people in India have been getting their curcumin for centuries by cooking turmeric in ghee (clarified butter), which, like any fat, enables this compound to be absorbed. Indians also have some of the lowest rates of Alzheimer’s disease ever reported, according to a 2001 study led by Vijay Chandra of the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health.

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