Wazzup Pilipinas!
Are you a big fan of Indian cuisine? If you are, or you use turmeric as a spice on the regular, then you’re probably going to be happy to hear that it’s actually good for you. A new study shows that turmeric improves memory and boosts mood.
A result like this is good news, especially for students. Students arguably need their memory to be in good shape more than any other members of the population, so if there is a way they can boost it in order to perform better, they’ll be willing to take it.
As it turns out, turmeric for memory seems to be a good prescription, and it’s now backed by science. The research, the results of which were revealed early in 2018, is quite promising and might be part of the reason why people in India, where turmeric is a staple, tend to be so resistant to Alzheimer’s and have better memory, even as they age. But let us not get ahead of ourselves. Let’s talk about the study.
Groundbreaking Study
The study was published in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry and found that a daily dose of curcumin would prevent memory issues from growing with age, as well as boosting mood and cognitive capacity.
Curcumin is a compound found in abundance in turmeric and is responsible for the golden yellow color of curry that has turmeric in it. The research team was led by Gary Small of the University of California at Los Angeles.
In the study, 40 participants whose ages ranged between 50 and 90 received either 90 mg of a curcumin supplement with high bioavailability (easily digestible) or a placebo. The participants were randomized and the study was a double-blind, meaning neither the participants nor the researchers knew who was receiving the curcumin supplement and who was receiving the placebo.
All of the participants had mild issues with their memory, but none of them had Alzheimer’s or any other form of dementia. When the study began, the participants filled out some questionnaires about their mood and depression, took tests on memory and cognition, and underwent brain PET (Positron Emission Tomography) scans to check their concentration of amyloid beta and tau signals. Amyloid beta is the substance formed in brain plaques while tau are tangles in different regions of the brain. Both of them are considered signals of Alzheimer’s as they have been observed to appear up to 15 years before the onset of Alzheimer’s in patients.
These tests were repeated every 6 months over the 18-month period of the study. The participants all took memory and cognition tests, filled out questionnaires on their mood, and underwent scans, to determine if there were any changes over the period.
The results that came back from the test were quite interesting, to say the least. To start with, participants who took the curcumin supplement saw a 28% improvement in their performance on the memory and cognition tests. The control group saw a slight increase in their performance followed by a slight decline. The mood and depression scores of the test group also improved over time.
Brain PET scans also showed that amyloid and tau signals saw a significant decline in the amygdala and hypothalamus.
The amygdala and hypothalamus are two regions of the brain responsible for controlling a wide range of brain functions, including memory, emotions, decision-making, and anxiety.
When you engage in brain-intensive tasks, such as writing a global warming essay, you will use these regions alongside your cerebral cortex. Having them in tip top shape is therefore crucial to your academic performance.
There were mild side effects where 4 of the test participants and 2 of the control participants experienced nausea and mild abdominal pain when taking the curcumin.
For a long time, researchers have observed that people in India that take curcumin regularly have fewer cases of Alzheimer’s disease than their counterparts who don’t take it.
The general de is that it might have something to do with the fact that curcumin is both an antioxidant and has anti-inflammatory properties. However, more research needs to be conducted to determine this and also to find out if the drug might have positive effects on patients suffering from depression, or whether its effectiveness is influenced by the age of the participants and their genetic predisposition to conditions like Alzheimer’s.
What it means for Students
Source: pexels.com
So what does the connection between turmeric and memory mean for students? It means taking curcumin regularly could lead to better memory.
You might think that you can eat curry just once in a while and reap the benefits of curcumin. To be sure, it’s not clear from the study results whether that will help or not. However, it is likely that for you to reap any significant benefits from curcumin, you should take it more regularly, such as once or twice a day. A good idea is to eat more foods with turmeric in them.
Conclusion
You can also help yourself by doing brain training exercises such as playing games and so on. A round of chess, or some other mentally intensive exercise should help you get better over time. Brain supplements are to brain training exercises what good nutrition is to fitness exercises; they complement each other.
Author Bio
Michael Turner is a content writer and researcher with a focus on technology on education. He loves to write about different aspects of human existence and self-improvement in these areas. When he’s not writing, he enjoys jogging and Tai Chi.
Ross is known as the Pambansang Blogger ng Pilipinas - An Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Professional by profession and a Social Media Evangelist by heart.
