PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Spice up your memory

2014-11-18
(Press-News.org) Adding just one gram of turmeric to breakfast could help improve the memory of people who are in the very early stages of diabetes and at risk of cognitive impairment.

The finding has particular significance given that the world's ageing population means a rising incidence of conditions that predispose people to diabetes, which in turn is connected to dementia.

Early intervention could help to reduce the burden, whether by halting the disease or reducing its impact, said Emeritus Professor Mark Wahlqvist, from the Monash Asia Institute at Monash University.

Professor Wahlqvist recently led a study in Taiwan that tested the working memory of men and women aged 60 or older who had recently been diagnosed with untreated pre-diabetes.

"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," he said.

"Assessment of working memory is simple and convenient, but it is also very useful in the appraisal of cognition and in predicting future impairment and dementia."

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 to breakfast improved working memory over six hours in older people with pre-diabetes," Professor Wahlqvist said.

Turmeric is widely used in cooking, particularly in Asia. Its characteristic yellow colour is due to curcumin, which accounts for 3 to 6 per cent of turmeric and has been shown by experimental studies to reduce the risk of dementia.

"Our findings with turmeric are consistent with these observations, insofar as they appear to influence cognitive function where there is disordered energy metabolism and insulin resistance," Professor Wahlqvist said.

The study, which was published in the Asia Pacific Journal of Clinical Nutrition, also involved a number of research institutes in Taiwan.

INFORMATION:



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Age matters: Young larvae boost pollen foraging in honey bees

2014-11-18
Toddlers and tweens have very different needs, which influence how parents provide for them. The same is true in honey bees, but instead of communicating their needs via language, honey bee larvae emit chemical signals called pheromones that influence the behavior of their caregivers. As larvae age, the diet they're fed changes. So too do the pheromone signals they emit. In a paper published in the advanced online edition of the journal Animal Behaviour, ASU alumna Kirsten Traynor, a research associate with the University of Maryland, Robert E. Page Jr., ASU university ...

Cocaine users experience abnormal blood flow, risk heart disease

2014-11-18
Cocaine users complaining of chest pain may have abnormal blood flow in the heart's smallest blood vessels that may not be detected in regular testing, putting these patients at risk for heart complications or death, according to research presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2014. "Cocaine use is unfortunately very common, and we see many emergency room admissions because patients experience chest pain following cocaine use," said Varun Kumar, M.D., lead study author and an internist at Mount Sinai Hospital in Chicago. "But there can be a ...

Moms' pre-pregnancy weight impacts risk of dying decades later

2014-11-18
Adults whose mothers were overweight or obese before pregnancy have a dramatically elevated risk of dying from heart disease or stroke, according to a new study presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2014. "Excess weight among young women of childbearing age has important implications not only for their own health, but for that of their children as well," said Michael Mendelson, M.D., S.M., the study's lead author and a research fellow at the Framingham Heart Study, Boston University and the Boston Children's Hospital. Previous studies had ...

Early detectable vascular disease linked to erectile dysfunction

2014-11-18
Men who have asymptomatic subclinical vascular disease are more likely to develop erectile dysfunction than men who don't have early stage vascular disease, according to research presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2014. "Erectile function can be a window into men's cardiovascular and overall health," said David I. Feldman, B.S., lead author and research assistant at the Ciccarone Center for the Prevention of Heart Disease at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, Maryland. "Erectile dysfunction and cardiovascular disease commonly coexist." Researchers ...

Trans fat consumption is linked to diminished memory in working-aged adults

2014-11-18
High trans fat consumption is linked to worse memory among working-age men, according to research presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2014. In a recent study of approximately 1,000 healthy men, those who consumed the most trans fats showed notably worse performance on a word memory test. The strength of the association remained even after taking into consideration things like age, education, ethnicity and depression. "Trans fats were most strongly linked to worse memory, in young and middle-aged men, during their working and career-building ...

Pregnant women with congenital heart disease may have low complication risks during delivery

2014-11-18
Pregnant women with congenital heart disease had very low risks of arrhythmias (irregular heart beat) or other heart-related complications during labor and delivery, according to research presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2014. However, such women were more likely to undergo cesarean section and remain in the hospital longer, researchers said. "We are pleased to find the risk of complications are not as high as expected in women with congenital heart disease," said Robert M. Hayward, M.D., lead study author and a cardiac electrophysiology ...

Protected area expansion target: Is a huge promise lost due to land conversion?

2014-11-18
By expanding the protected area network to 17 percent of land one could triple the present protection levels of terrestrial vertebrates. Globally coordinated protected area network expansion could deliver a result 50 percent more efficient compared to countries looking only at biodiversity within their own area. Land conversion is however fast degrading options for conservation. Protected areas are one of the main tools for halting the ongoing global biodiversity crisis. According to the Aichi Target 11 adopted by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the global ...

Family planning programs involving men, empower women

Family planning programs involving men, empower women
2014-11-18
WASHINGTON - In a society where women often lead very restricted lives and men are the primary household decision makers, new research suggests women are empowered when men are included in family planning programs. A study, from the Institute for Reproductive Health at Georgetown University Medical Center, suggests that addressing the dynamics between husbands and wives can result in women making more financial decisions and having more control over their social interactions, while at the same time meeting their family planning needs. "Our study is one of the first to ...

Avoiding skin graft rejection: It's possible!

2014-11-18
A research team bringing together José Cohen and Philippe Grimbert (Inserm Unit 955/Université Paris Est Créteil [UPEC] and the Centre for Clinical Investigation - Biotherapies 504 [CIC-BT 504]), and their collaborators at Institut Curie and AP-HP (George Pompidou European Hospital) has succeeded in finding a combination of drugs that reduces the risk of rejection following a skin graft. When tested in mice, this treatment seems effective, since no sign of rejection is observed nearly 30 days after transplantation. These results are published in the American ...

New measurement of HDL cholesterol function provides information about cardiovascular risk

New measurement of HDL cholesterol function provides information about cardiovascular risk
2014-11-18
DALLAS - November 18, 2014 - Groundbreaking research from UT Southwestern Medical Center shows that cholesterol efflux capacity (cholesterol efflux), which measures HDL cholesterol function, appears to be a superior indicator of cardiovascular risk and a better target for therapeutic treatments than standard measurements of HDL. Current measurement methods reflect only the circulating levels of HDL and not the functional properties of this lipoprotein. The latest findings appear online today in The New England Journal of Medicine. HDL's key function is the removal of ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Parasitic infection and treatment linked to cancer-related gene activity in the cervix

Over 3 million children died from AMR-related infections in 2022, major study shows

Study estimates proportion of adolescents living with overweight and obesity in England has increased by 50% between 2008 and 2023

Welcome to the First International Conference on Cyborg and Bionic Systems

Breakthrough study identifies promising biomarker for early sepsis detection in neonates, children, and pregnant women

3-year study of tirzepatide shows that most patients only gain 5% or less from their lowest or ‘nadir’ weight

Tirzepatide can produce clinically meaningful weight loss for at least 3 years in adults with overweight or obesity who don’t have diabetes

Common respiratory condition nearly triples the risk of death in adults, new study finds

New research shows evidence of children’s gender biases reflected in their facial emotional expressions

Crustal brines at an oceanic transform fault

The Journal of Nuclear Medicine Ahead-of-Print Tip Sheet: April 11, 2025

A fluid battery that can take any shape

Light that spirals like a nautilus shell

Transforming doors into gateways to the virtual world: the future of mixed reality!

AACR announces recipients of the 2025 AACR June L. Biedler Prize for Cancer Journalism

Human-AI relationships pose ethical issues, psychologists say

Abortion rates remain relatively stable in Canada, while rates spike in UK, Europe, and US

Hundred-year storm tides will occur every few decades in Bangladesh, scientists report

Kidney function following COVID-19 in children and adolescents

Risk factors for severe disease among children hospitalized with RSV

Watch a live catalytic event in real time

Top medical research expert Mark T. Esser named inaugural head of UVA’s Manning Institute

Protein GSK3β offers new angle on overcoming melanoma drug resistance

Mimickers and associated neoplasms of Castleman disease

Preserving and using the deep sea: scientists call for more knowledge to enable sustainable management

Breaking the cycle: unveiling how childhood trauma fuels parenting and abuse

A new era in materials science: antiferromagnetic quasicrystals unveiled

From boring to bursting: a giant black hole awakens

Illuminating the twist: light-driven inversion of supramolecular chirality

Engineered bacteria emit signals that can be spotted from a distance

[Press-News.org] Spice up your memory