20, November 2014

A gram of turmeric a day could boost your memory

 Adding only a gram of turmeric to one’s breakfast could help improve the memory of people who are in the early stages of diabetes and at risk of developing cognitive impairment, a study indicates. For the study, professor Mark Wahlqvist from the Monash Asia Institute at the Melbourne-based Monash University tested the working memory of men and women, aged 60 or more, who had recently been diagnosed with untreated pre-diabetes in Taiwan.

Working memory is widely thought to be one of the most important mental faculties, critical for cognitive abilities such as planning, problem solving and reasoning. In the placebo-controlled study, subjects were given one gram of turmeric with an otherwise nutritionally bland breakfast of white bread. Their working memory was tested before and some hours after the meal.

‘We found that this modest addition of turmeric to breakfast improved working memory over six hours in older people with pre-diabetes,’ professor Wahlqvist added. Turmeric’s characteristic yellow colour is due to curcumin which accounts for three to six percent of turmeric and has been shown by experimental studies to reduce the risk of dementia. ‘Our findings with turmeric are consistent with earlier observations as they appear to influence cognitive function where there is disordered energy metabolism and insulin resistance,’ Wahlqvist said.

The study was published in the Asia Pacific Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Source: www.thehealthsite.com

20.11.2014

Deficiency of vitamin D could lead to an early death

Vitamin D deficiency is not just bad for your bone health, it can also result in various other diseases leading to an early death, research shows. The study based on examination of genes has established for the first time a causal relationship between low Vitamin D levels and increased mortality, the researchers claimed.

‘We can see that genes associated with low Vitamin D levels involve an increased mortality rate of 30 percent and, more specifically, a 40 percent higher risk of cancer-related deaths,’ said Shoaib Afzal, medical doctor at Herlev Hospital, Copenhagen University Hospital in Denmark. ‘An important factor in our study is that we have established a causal relationship,’ Afzal added.

When the sun shines on our skin, the skin produces Vitamin D. Evidence suggests that sunshine has a positive effect on our health, but sunburns must be avoided as they increase the risk of skin cancer. A diet rich in Vitamin D or the intake of Vitamin D supplements can also cover our need to some extent. The study involved 96,000 people from large-scale population studies in Denmark.

Vitamin D levels were measured using blood samples from the studies, and specific genetic defects were examined. All participants were followed for mortality from 1976 until 2014. ‘Our study shows that low Vitamin D levels do result in higher mortality rates,’ Borge Nordestgaard from University of Copenhagen said.  

Source: www.thehealthsite.com

20.11.2014

To be one and to be united is a great thing.But to respect the right to be different is even greater