Free Radic Biol Med. 2007 Dec 4 [Epub ahead of print]

Curcumin treatment alleviates the effects of glutathione depletion in
vitro and in vivo: Therapeutic implications for Parkinson's disease
explained via in silico studies.


Jagatha B, Mythri RB, Vali S, Bharath MM.


Department of Neurochemistry, National Institute of Mental Health and
Neurosciences, 2900, Hosur Road Bangalore 560029, Karnataka, India.


Oxidative stress has been implicated in the degeneration of
dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra (SN) of Parkinson's
disease (PD) patients. An important biochemical feature of
presymptomatic PD is a significant depletion of the thiol antioxidant
glutathione (GSH) in these neurons resulting in oxidative stress,
mitochondrial dysfunction, and ultimately cell death. We have earlier
demonstrated that curcumin, a natural polyphenol obtained from
turmeric, protects against peroxynitrite-mediated mitochondrial
dysfunction both in vitro and in vivo. Here we report that treatment
of dopaminergic neuronal cells and mice with curcumin restores
depletion of GSH levels, protects against protein oxidation, and
preserves mitochondrial complex I activity which normally is impaired
due to GSH loss. Using systems biology and dynamic modeling we have
explained the mechanism of curcumin action in a model of mitochondrial
dysfunction linked to GSH metabolism that corroborates the major
findings of our experimental work. These data suggest that curcumin
has potential therapeutic values for neurodegenerative diseases
involving GSH depletion-mediated oxidative stress.


PMID: 18166164 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

Circumin may raise acetylcholine. I take artane to reduce my acetylcholine, so I'll use circumin if I start to take drugs that increase my L-Dopa.

It's the ratio of dopamine to acetylcholine that's important. If too much acetylcholine vs less dopamine, you get symptoms.

Old thread:

http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/ar...hp/t-2913.html

If there is one wonder drug in the non-pharma world, it is this one.

It is a great anti-inflammatory in addition to the paper above.

There is a paper on Medline where Chinese research showed that it straightened out the stress axis.

And it kills h. pylori.

Those last two points bring warnings-
1) If you are high strung you may need a certain level of stress hormones to avoid depression.
2) Kill off h pylori when you are constipated and you may poison yourself. I have two "funny" fingers on my right hand to remind me of that.

Otherwise...

Yes, and don't forget it reduces BBB permeability!!
I have been taking it now since 2002.
Ron
PS Thanks Olsen for finding this paper

Turmeric is avialable here (Jordan), cheap and can be tasty. Any idea how much Turmeric daily would be good to sypply enough curcumin? 1/2/one tea spoon???

IMark,
The curcumin content of turmeric is quite low, around 3%. So 1 gram of turmeric contains 0.03g or 30 mg of curcumin. So a teaspoon would give you about 100mg curcumin. Curcumin has been shown to be safe up to 8 gms, but of course don't take that much. You can stir turmeric powder into a glass of water to take it.
I take four 500mg curcumin capsules per day, bought from iHerb.
Best wishes
Ron

Thanks Ron for your precise information. It is clear from your reply that I will not obtain enough Curcumine from tumeric but the incentive to take tumeric is still there that there may be some other undiscovered goodies in it !
I generally prefer full herb (diet) to an extract based on this hope, but in this case I am going to order Curcumine extract
By the way, the Arabic name for tumeric is "Curcum" !

Jiang, J et al., Neuroprotective effect of curcumin on focal cerebral ischemic rats by preventing blood–brain barrier damage. European Journal of Pharmacology, Volume April 2007, 561(1-3):54-62.

Jun Jianga, Wei Wanga, Yong Jun Suna, Mei Hua, Fei Lia and Dong Ya Zhu , a, , aDepartment of Pharmacology, School of Pharmacy, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, 210029, China

Abstract

Curcumin, a member of the curcuminoid family of compounds, is a yellow colored phenolic pigment obtained from powdered rhizome of C. longa Linn. Recent studies have demonstrated that curcumin has protective effects against cerebral ischemia/reperfusion injury. However, little is known about its mechanism. Disruption of the blood–brain barrier occurs after stroke. Protection of the blood–brain barrier has become an important target of stroke interventions in experimental therapeutic. The objective of the present study was to determine whether curcumin prevents cerebral ischemia/reperfusion injury by protecting blood–brain barrier integrity. We report that a single injection of curcumin (1 and 2 mg/kg, i.v.) 30 min after focal cerebral ischemia/reperfusion in rats significantly diminished infarct volume, improved neurological deficit, decreased mortality, reduced the water content of the brain and the extravasation of Evans blue dye in ipsilateral hemisphere in a dose-dependent manner. In cultured astrocytes, curcumin significantly inhibited inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) expression and NOx (Nitrites/nitrates contents) production induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS)/tumor necrosis factor α (TNFα). Furthermore, curcumin prevented ONOO− donor SIN-1-induced cerebral capillaries endothelial cells damage. We concluded that curcumin ameliorates cerebral ischemia/reperfusion injury by preventing ONOO− mediated blood–brain barrier damage.

wow! this ones heavy...

John takes 1 500 mg a day of curcumin but am now going to suggest he ups the dose.Compared to other supplements he takes it is cheap. Although the supplements are for the long term benefits, I certainly notice he is worse if he forgets them for a few days.