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Curry spice turmeric boosts memory by nearly 30%, eases depression, study finds

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Re: Curry spice turmeric boosts memory by nearly 30%, eases depression, study finds

#211

Post by ShabbosGoy »

piyh wrote: post #201
hannob wrote: post #152

Small study, probably not preregistered (didn't find anything about it in the description). Likely Publication Bias or p-hacking. I'm starting to get interested when it's been independently replicated.

If every study on tumeric, tea, chocolate, and coffee was fully accurate we'd all be immortal by now.

Aren’t we? People are living longer than ever before. The issue is in determining effect size. I’m sure some amount of all those things you mentioned is “good” in some sense, but in what quantity and for how long?

Re: Curry spice turmeric boosts memory by nearly 30%, eases depression, study finds

#212

Post by comstock »

pjmorris wrote: post #150
dumbneurologist wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am a neurologist. this is actually the exact opposite of what you should care about, which is "does it work to treat ___" In this trial, and 99% of other trials, there is no mechanism provided by the study, only a measurement of causality (which is the same thing as effectiveness). The authors may think they know based on other, prior, basic science research (as they are postulating here), but it does not affect th…

I am having trouble accepting your argument. Judea Pearl presents [0] the debate over whether smoking causes cancer as an illustration for why correlation is not sufficient. Two plausible, contradictory, models ('smoking causes cancer', 'no it doesn't, something else does') could not be settled by observing correlations. The debate was resolved through the addition of an explanatory mechanism, and a test of the mecha…

Unfortunately, we don’t understand the exact mechanism for many (most?) available medication.

Correlation != causation. Which is why you need to do randomized testing and try and account for other causative factors. But if you give a bunch of people a medication and they stop dying, you can pretty much say this is valuable and start giving it to people.

Re: Curry spice turmeric boosts memory by nearly 30%, eases depression, study finds

#213

Post by losteric »

mkempe wrote: post #179
losteric wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being in your prime refers to mental and physical fitness, not happiness. It's easily measured by digging holes or studying books. The context of this thread is fitness - 50 year olds are definitely less fit than their younger selves. It's part of the human condition.

If you think humans flourish only in terms of physical prowess or memory retrieval, you have very poor standards. To call someone who is middle-aged "elderly" does fit with your criteria, and with reports of ageism in tech companies. I hope you're not involved in any way in hiring decisions, or in other activities that involve evaluating people's abilities, performance, achievements, or potential.

> If you think humans flourish only in terms of physical prowess or memory retrieval, you have very poor standards.

Nope, I just think you have poor reading comprehension - you are replying to a comment that said exactly the same thing. Flourishing (vibrant, active, enjoying life) != being in one's prime (peak performance).

Nothing wrong with that. My parents are 60+ and flourishing past their prime - their decades of experience are invaluable.

Re: Curry spice turmeric boosts memory by nearly 30%, eases depression, study finds

#214

Post by happybit »

blambljoob wrote: post #14

The wikipedia for curcumin suggests that it is not bioavailable. The results of this study are attributed to the supplement Theracurmin, which is a bioavailable form of curcumin. So maybe don't bother increasing your turmeric intake based on this study. Lots of people won't realize that though, and by the time this research gets through the news cycle people will be buying turmeric in bulk. Good time to buy stocks in…

Combining curcumin with piperine (from black pepper) increases curcumin’s bioavailability by 2000%, something many studies on curcumin fail to take into account. Cultures with a history of turmeric consumption often combine it with black pepper. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/9619120/

Re: Curry spice turmeric boosts memory by nearly 30%, eases depression, study finds

#216

Post by luka-birsa »

gopalv wrote: post #115
Karupan wrote: post #41

Personal anecdote: was born and brought up in south India and my grandma used to make me drink turmeric + ground black pepper milk every night. It was a standard practice to serve it with black pepper, even though I’m sure they didn’t really know about bioavailability. Kids were forced to drink it when they have the flu. Used to hate it as a kid, but of late I’ve been looking to replace one coffee/tea with turmeric m…

> was born and brought up in south India and my grandma used to make me drink turmeric + ground black pepper milk every night I grew up in a part of South India with a fairly high natural background radiation (thorium, mostly) and I did wonder if the practice boosted survival via accidental cancer protection from an alpha decay environment. Natural selection is weird because the goal of taking turmeric might have not…

Not sure if high natural background radiation really means more cancer.

I tried searching but I cant find a study where apartment builings in Japan were inadvertently built using steel laced with radioactive elements.

People (10000) were living in them for decades. Statistical analysis on them showed lower affinity for cancer related deaseses.

Re: Curry spice turmeric boosts memory by nearly 30%, eases depression, study finds

#217

Post by intrasight »

swapsmagic wrote: post #66
blacksmith_tb wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I buy bulk 95% powder, pop a piperine tablet, and dump 3/4 tsp of powder in my mouth - eating something with it to get it down. I experimented with mixing it with various things, but it's hydrophobic and stains everything bright yellow, so the quicker the better. I was mostly interested in the anti-inflammatory properties, my family is full of arthritis, and between climbing and typing, I started noticing some in my…

Instead of taking tablets, try adding as an ingredient into your daily food. I think that will make it much easier to eat. Try cooking any Indian curries and turmeric is 90% of time default spice.

I put it in my daily smoothie

Re: Curry spice turmeric boosts memory by nearly 30%, eases depression, study finds

#218

Post by [deleted] »

Karupan wrote: post #41

Personal anecdote: was born and brought up in south India and my grandma used to make me drink turmeric + ground black pepper milk every night. It was a standard practice to serve it with black pepper, even though I’m sure they didn’t really know about bioavailability. Kids were forced to drink it when they have the flu. Used to hate it as a kid, but of late I’ve been looking to replace one coffee/tea with turmeric m…

[deleted]

Re: Curry spice turmeric boosts memory by nearly 30%, eases depression, study finds

#219

Post by happybit »

xutopia wrote: post #55
blambljoob wrote: post #14

The wikipedia for curcumin suggests that it is not bioavailable. The results of this study are attributed to the supplement Theracurmin, which is a bioavailable form of curcumin. So maybe don't bother increasing your turmeric intake based on this study. Lots of people won't realize that though, and by the time this research gets through the news cycle people will be buying turmeric in bulk. Good time to buy stocks in…

There isn't very much curcumin in turmeric. About 2% by weight. It would take 4.5grams of dried turmeric to get the same dose from the study. Admittedly it doesn't talk about bioavailability of turmeric powder.

Sorry to leave two comments in the same thread, but while I’m here... A tablespoon of turmeric weighs about 8 grams, so I don’t see why 4.5 would be an unrealistic amount to consume per day.

Coffee is only about 1.8% caffeine by weight, but it gets the job done.

Re: Curry spice turmeric boosts memory by nearly 30%, eases depression, study finds

#220

Post by sov »

hannob wrote: post #152

Small study, probably not preregistered (didn't find anything about it in the description). Likely Publication Bias or p-hacking. I'm starting to get interested when it's been independently replicated.

> Small study

Almost entirely irrelevant, provided it's properly powered--and based on the effect size and p-values, it is. Furthermore, for an 18 month trial, 40 people is larger than most.

> probably not preregistered

I mean, true, and we should definitely promote pre-reg, but, 1. so few are preregistered that I'm not sure it's prudent to disregard a study based on this and 2. it's an academic study, neither a clinical trial nor a public-health decree--not a typical study type that necessitates pre-registration.

> Likely Publication Bias or p-hacking.

What? You're arrived at this conclusion based on... the fact that it's "small" and you couldn't find preregistration about it?

> I'm starting to get interested when it's been independently replicated.

Yeah, if only there were another trial that showed a positive cognitive effect of bioavailable curcumin... https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25277322

I mean, the title of this post is by far the most wrong thing about this article, as...

1. it's not turmeric, it's curcumin, which is about 2% of turmeric by mass (so, you'd need to eat ~4.5g turmeric daily to match study doses).

2. curcumin doesn't even have any reasonable bioavilability by itself, so they're using a bioavailable analogue.

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