Skip Navigation



American Journal of Epidemiology Advance Access published online on July 26, 2006
American Journal of Epidemiology, doi:10.1093/aje/kwj267
This Article
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
164/9/898    most recent
kwj267v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Disclaimer
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Ng, T.-P.
Right arrow Articles by Kua, E.-H.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Ng, T.-P.
Right arrow Articles by Kua, E.-H.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

American Journal of Epidemiology Copyright © 2006 by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health All rights reserved; printed in U.S.A.
Received July 6, 2005
Accepted April 5, 2006

ORIGINAL CONTRIBUTIONS

Curry Consumption and Cognitive Function in the Elderly

Tze-Pin Ng 1 *, Peak-Chiang Chiam 2, Theresa Lee 2, Hong-Choon Chua 2, Leslie Lim 3, and Ee-Heok Kua 1

1 Department of Psychological Medicine, National University of Singapore, Republic of Singapore
2 Institute of Mental Health, Ministry of Health, Republic of Singapore
3 Department of Behavioural Medicine, Singapore General Hospital, Republic of Singapore

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Tze-Pin Ng, E-mail: pcmngtp{at}nus.edu.sg


  Abstract

Curcumin, from the curry spice, tumeric, has been shown to possess potent antioxidant and antiinflammatory properties and to reduce {beta}-amyloid and plaque burden in experimental studies, but epidemiologic evidence is lacking. The authors investigated the association between usual curry consumption level and cognitive function in elderly Asians. In a population-based cohort (n = 1,010) of nondemented elderly Asian subjects aged 60-93 years in 2003, the authors compared Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) scores for three categories of regular curry consumption, taking into account known sociodemographic, health, and behavioral correlates of MMSE performance. Those who consumed curry "occasionally" and "often or very often" had significantly better MMSE scores than did subjects who "never or rarely" consumed curry. The authors reported tentative evidence of better cognitive performance from curry consumption in nondemented elderly Asians, which should be confirmed in future studies.

Keywords: cognition; Curcuma; curcumin; dementia.
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.