A fresh look at an old supp: Curcumin.

[sunvox]

As always, never try something based on some random comments on the internet. Always do your own research, and discuss anything new you want to try with your personal physician.

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amazon.com/Integrative-Ther...

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Curcumin has long been discussed and taken by PwP. In my never ending quest to find the optimum set of supplements I have focused on those supplements that hold promise of attacking what I believe to be the root cause of PD, namely protein mis-folding of alpha-synuclein. As I have previously discussed, there is a growing base of research that indicates alpha-synuclein is the one common factor amongst all cases of Parkinson's and so any molecule that acts to enhance clearance of mutant proteins and/or reduce aggregation of mutant proteins MAY help slow or better yet stop progression. Also, any molecule that does this can not REPAIR damage so if you have bad symptoms this type of supplement will not make you feel better. What it MAY do is slow progression.

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Why am I bringing this up?

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Because there is a newly published human clinical trial of a more bio-available form of curcumin. What is interesting about this trial is that it not only tested patients with a subjective measure of "memory", the researchers used a relatively new tool to scan for actual Tau aggregates in the brain, and what they found is that patients who got the supplement had fewer bad clumps of protein than patients who got the placebo.

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But, Joe, this trial is in Alzheimers!

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Yes, yes, yes. The common thread here is "protein mis-folding", and that is what curcumin appears to be able to work against. Increasingly researchers are discovering that "protein mis-folding" is a common denominator in many neurological disorders, and the molecules that are effective in one disorder may well help in multiple disorders.

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Researchers Gain Better Insight Into Alpha-Synuclein’s Role in Parkinson’s Disease

parkinsonsnewstoday.com/201...

Alpha Synuclein: New Species

scienceofparkinsons.com/201...

Mathematical Modeling of Protein Misfolding Mechanisms in Neurological Diseases: A Historical Overview

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...

Protein Misfolding and Aggregation as a Therapeutic Target for Polyglutamine Diseases

mdpi.com/2076-3425/7/10/128

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Theracumin just got added to my list of supplements:

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"These findings suggest that daily oral ingestion of a bioavailable and safe form of curcumin improves memory performance over an 18-month period in middle-aged and older non-demented adults. Moreover, such daily oral curcumin consumption may lead to less neuropathological accumulation in the amygdala and hypothalamus."

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This is the new clinical trial that sparked my interest:

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Memory and Brain Amyloid and Tau Effects of a Bioavailable Form of Curcumin in Non-Demented Adults: A Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled 18-Month Trial

sciencedirect.com/science/a...

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and, here is a sample of older but related research:

michaeljfox.org/foundation/...

tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10....

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/290...

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/284...

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/288...

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/273...

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/267...

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/240...

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/282...

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There are a great many additional papers demonstrating the potential of curcumin to aid in treatment of Parkinson's and numerous other neurological disorders, but I will stop here for now.

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Below are other posts I have made on other supplements I feel are interesting, as well as, a post about myself. I do not have PD, but rather a disease called SCA1, but my disease, like PD, has a mutant protein at it's root, and the symptoms are very similar to PD.

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healthunlocked.com/parkinso....

healthunlocked.com/ataxia-u....

healthunlocked.com/parkinso...

healthunlocked.com/ataxia-u....

healthunlocked.com/ataxia-u....

[M_rosew]

This appears to be nothing more that commercial advertising.

[sunvox in reply to M_rosew]

Why because I added a picture to make the post more fun? I find your response to be borderline "trolling". Read my posts. There can be no question about my motivations on this site. I work many hours a week scouring the internet for useful scientific information that may or may not help people, and when I find something of interest I spend quite some time putting together a thoughtful synopsis, and to have someone like you dismiss it out of hand with zero discussion of the science is ludicrous.

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Joe Peck

Pound Ridge, NY

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Why not read about me before you post such a comment:

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healthunlocked.com/ataxia-u...

healthunlocked.com/user/sunvox

[park_bear in reply to sunvox]

That commenter is clearly off base and the rest of us here know better.

Keep up the good work, Joe!

[faridaro]

Joe, very much appreciate your effort and information. Just a quick question: do you think theracurmin is better than meriva and longvida ?

[sunvox in reply to faridaro]

Hi Faridaro -

I have not had an opportunity to research those two items, but you have peaked my interest so I will need to investigate that question for sure. I imagine it is a question of bio-availability. What I can say is that the curcumin supplement to which I linked is the same one used in the clinical trial, and that means Theracumin has real world clinical information on dosage and the resulting serum levels, and THAT is always important when choosing a supplement. That is not to say that meriva and longvida do not also have such information available just that I haven't researched them yet so right now all I have is the data from the Theracumin trial.

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Joe

[Xenos]

Thank you so much Joe. Very interesting post as always.

Have you en opinion on the optimum daily dose of curcumin ? I take a capsule on each meal but never was able to find out a figure about that.

[sunvox in reply to Xenos]

Hi Xenos - The only thing I can say at the moment is that the human trial above that showed a benefit in reducing mutant protein clumps in the brains of Azheimer patients used 1 pill twice daily of Theracumin. There appear to be a great many clinical trials that I have not yet examined so when I learn more about what has been tried in humans I will be sure to report back

Joe

[Lana666]

Here is a link to a good info regarding different formulations.

1stopwellbeing.com/suppleme...

My impression after reading this that Theracumin is worth adding to the list, to supplement but not eliminate Longdvida for couple of reasons. First, Longdvida is formulated with lipids to enhance the BBB penetration. Theracumin is hydrophilic and shows in high concentration in blood serum. I did not search if there were some studies looking at its distribution within different organs, it is clear though that a brain is not a proffered destination for Theracumin. Second limitation that the highest dose is 60 mg in the pill, compare to 500 mg in Longdvida. This particular info claims that Theracumin bio-availability is 27 fold superior than Curcumin, but Logdvida also has enhanced bio-availability and much higher concentration. So, I am inclined to use both.

[sunvox in reply to Lana666]

Thanks for that link Lana! That was a great intro and got me to this paper:

High bioavailability curcumin: an anti-inflammatory and neurosupportive bioactive nutrient for neurodegenerative diseases characterized by chronic neuroinflammation.

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/282...

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I bought the paper and read the information. Long story short, taking both is probably the answer for now as the science is not settled. Longvida did not supply serum data, but Meriva and Theracurmin did. Meriva increased blood serum levels more than twice as high as Theracurmin, BUT research in rat models showed that the nano-particle formulation (which is what Theracurmin is) had a far greater impact on brain processes indicating superior BBB penetration of the nano-particle.

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Looks like more research for me

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Thanks again for the link that got me started!

Joe

[Jackieb301]

Thanks for sharing your research and hard work 👏 by coincidence my naturopath just added curcumind to my supplements. aor.ca/products/curcumind/

[Joanne_Joyce]

I add cumin as seasoning to my cooking. Is it the same thing as curcumin? If so, is it likely to be as effective as the supplement?