Curry spice turmeric boosts memory by nearly 30%, eases depression, study finds • Hacker News Board

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

#231

Post by dahidahi1 » Thu, Jan 25, 2018, 5:35 AM UTC

lgessler wrote: post #191

dahidahi1 wrote: post #45

Turmeric has been used in India since ancient times. There are many references to it in Ayurveda - the Indian/Hindu medical sciences. Ayurveda believes in using food as medicine to non only prevent a large majority of human diseases, but also to cure several of them — all with almost zero side effects. Turmeric is just one such extremely powerful & healthy food item that Western science seems to be playing catch up o…

Ayurvedic medicine is far from infallible. Take this for instance, a selection from a reasonably popular Ayurvedic text ( https://www.amazon.in/Bhojan-Chikitsa-1-Ganesh-Narayan-Chauh... ) that is aimed at a general audience and purports to explain the health benefits of various common foods (my translation follows): > कैंसर: कैंसर में पहले तीन दिन रोगी को उपवास कराएं, फिर अंगूर सेवन कराना आरम्भ करें। कभी-कभी एनिमा लग…

I did not claim it to be infallible, nobody does. It is a science, on equal footing with any other science. It followed the same rigorous trial & error procedures that is required of all sciences. And science does gets things wrong. Ayurveda roughly translates to the knowledge / science of health. Just because it is from India & it follows Hindu traditions does not disqualify it from anything.

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

#232

Post by andrewjl » Thu, Jan 25, 2018, 5:47 AM UTC

sov wrote: post #220

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 clin…

What prevents researchers from running studies like these on the order of thousands of individuals, as opposed to 40 or 100?

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

#233

Post by piracy1 » Thu, Jan 25, 2018, 5:54 AM UTC

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.

It's possible, but I think (not that I'm an expert) that this is not the first piece of evidence to suggest this. A year or two was recently speaking with a researcher who studies Alzheimer's and he had told me about how in cultures where more curry and turmeric was consumed there was significantly less Alzherimer's. I'll try to find a source for this and update my comment.

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

#234

Post by maxxxxx » Thu, Jan 25, 2018, 5:59 AM UTC

smt88 wrote: post #228

maxxxxx wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Turmeric has helped me quite a bit with my inflamed joints after learning about it at a yoga ashram. Now I cook a lot with it. What i have noticed though is that supplements do nothing for me. I only feel a difference when it's fresh powder or even better ground from a root. I have done several experiments where I stopped taking it. Every time my joints got worse and then better after resuming cooking with Turmeric.…

It's almost guaranteed that some of your experience is the placebo effect, but it's impossible to know how much.

As I wrote before I have tried a few times back and forth with consistent results. Maybe it's placebo but it works reliably for me. As long as it works I am happy.

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

#235

Post by shanedrgn » Thu, Jan 25, 2018, 6:01 AM UTC

andrewjl wrote: post #232

sov wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 clin…

What prevents researchers from running studies like these on the order of thousands of individuals, as opposed to 40 or 100?

Funding

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

#236

Post by sov » Thu, Jan 25, 2018, 6:01 AM UTC

andrewjl wrote: post #232

sov wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 clin…

What prevents researchers from running studies like these on the order of thousands of individuals, as opposed to 40 or 100?

A lot of things that basically boil down to budget, optimization and space available. If you have a drug that you believe you can show a strong effect with the effect group at ~15 people, maybe you run the trial with 40 (15 e.g., 15 control, plus wiggle room for drop-outs over the 18-month course and extra certainty).

Check the last few paragraphs--"The authors thank Shayna Greenberg, Dev Darshan Khalsa, and Anya Rosensteel for help in recruitment, data management, and study coordination; John Williams, University of California, Los Angeles, Nuclear Medicine Clinic, for performing the PET scans; and Vladimir Kepe, Cleveland Clinic, for developing the FDDNP-PET analysis procedures for proteinopathies in patients with neurodegenerative diseases." Add all that to the effort involved in the actual chemical extraction of the bioavailable curcumin analogue and it just doesn't make sense to add any more people than you need.

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

#237

Post by Elrac » Thu, Jan 25, 2018, 6:02 AM UTC

olympus wrote: post #146

mkempe wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you say you don't call people who are 50 "decrepit" -- but do you call people in their middle age or in their 50s "elderly"?

I didn't make that comment. However, I would say that people in their fifties have started to experience age-related decline in numerous areas (memory included). Showing a memory improvement in people 50-80 should be more accurately described as "restoring" their memory rather than "boosting" it, which implies that they now have supranormal memory.

Am in my late 50s, can confirm. Memory, concentration, attention, and a bunch of other faculties, both mental and physical, are trending disgustingly downward.

I know there are things I could do to fight it, but motivation is another one of those things going down. f--- it, f--- everything.

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

#238

Post by donquichotte » Thu, Jan 25, 2018, 6:03 AM UTC

andrewjl wrote: post #232

sov wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 clin…

What prevents researchers from running studies like these on the order of thousands of individuals, as opposed to 40 or 100?

Money.

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

#239

Post by perlpimp » Thu, Jan 25, 2018, 6:07 AM UTC

lgessler wrote: post #191

dahidahi1 wrote: post #45

Turmeric has been used in India since ancient times. There are many references to it in Ayurveda - the Indian/Hindu medical sciences. Ayurveda believes in using food as medicine to non only prevent a large majority of human diseases, but also to cure several of them — all with almost zero side effects. Turmeric is just one such extremely powerful & healthy food item that Western science seems to be playing catch up o…

Ayurvedic medicine is far from infallible. Take this for instance, a selection from a reasonably popular Ayurvedic text ( https://www.amazon.in/Bhojan-Chikitsa-1-Ganesh-Narayan-Chauh... ) that is aimed at a general audience and purports to explain the health benefits of various common foods (my translation follows): > कैंसर: कैंसर में पहले तीन दिन रोगी को उपवास कराएं, फिर अंगूर सेवन कराना आरम्भ करें। कभी-कभी एनिमा लग…

thats how Steve Jobs went he foregone real treatment for a holistic one. Math is pretty evident there. http://osxdaily.com/2011/10/20/steve-jobs-refused-early-canc...

Before you say a word about your cancer treating poop juice remind you taking chances with someone else's life.

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

#240

Post by szemet » Thu, Jan 25, 2018, 6:07 AM UTC

dahidahi1 wrote: post #231

lgessler wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ayurvedic medicine is far from infallible. Take this for instance, a selection from a reasonably popular Ayurvedic text ( https://www.amazon.in/Bhojan-Chikitsa-1-Ganesh-Narayan-Chauh... ) that is aimed at a general audience and purports to explain the health benefits of various common foods (my translation follows): > कैंसर: कैंसर में पहले तीन दिन रोगी को उपवास कराएं, फिर अंगूर सेवन कराना आरम्भ करें। कभी-कभी एनिमा लग…

I did not claim it to be infallible, nobody does. It is a science, on equal footing with any other science. It followed the same rigorous trial & error procedures that is required of all sciences. And science does gets things wrong. Ayurveda roughly translates to the knowledge / science of health. Just because it is from India & it follows Hindu traditions does not disqualify it from anything.

Ayurvedic theory (5 elements etc...) is usless compared to modern science, so much that I dare to say it is wrong...

Does it have predictive (and thus real explanatory) power? Imagine a test (other similar tests can be imagined):

give some powder to a western chemist/biologist and an ayurvedic to examine its "elements". You are not allowed to feed it to any human or animal. Decide if it is poisonous! Who will be more successful?

Ayurveda knows nothing about modern chemisrty or biology (real elements, cells,...), its theory part is rubish (from the perspective of natural science not from social science perspective (history, philosophy...) of course).

You may trust its experimental results, but that is not science in itself just a tradition...