The best way to beat Alzheimer’s

As you age, your chances of Alzheimer’s disease wiping out your memory grows. But researchers at the Mayo Clinic have discovered what they say is the root of the condition and it’s a development that allows you to lower your risk.

After analyzing the pathology in the brains of more than 3,600 people who had died with Alzheimer’s, the researchers say that the main destructive element that wipes out memory is a substance called tau protein. Medical researchers had thought that a toxic protein called amyloid, which also accumulates when you have Alzheimer’s, was the cause of the disease’s destructiveness.

“The majority of the Alzheimer’s research field has really focused on amyloid over the last 25 years,” says researcher Melissa Murray, a neuroscientist. “Initially, patients who were discovered to have mutations or changes in the amyloid gene were found to have severe Alzheimer’s pathology — particularly in increased levels of amyloid. Brain scans performed over the last decade revealed that amyloid accumulated as people progressed, so most Alzheimer’s models were based on amyloid toxicity. In this way, the Alzheimer’s field became myopic.”

According to Murray, distortions in tau are what sets in motion the dysfunction of neurons that leads to personality changes along with memory gaps and difficulties relating to your surroundings.

“Tau can be compared to railroad ties that stabilize a train track that brain cells use to transport food, messages and other vital cargo throughout neurons,” Murray says. “In Alzheimer’s, changes in the tau protein cause the tracks to become unstable in neurons of the hippocampus, the center of memory. The abnormal tau builds up in neurons, which eventually leads to the death of these neurons.”

If you want to reduce your risk of Alzheimer’s disease, one of the best ways is to use the spice turmeric on your food or take a turmeric supplement. Research shows that substances in turmeric can help the brain defend against harmful changes in tau.

A study in Asia showed that that having a gram of turmeric with your breakfast can improve your memory – particularly if you are pre-diabetic, a condition that increases your chances of memory difficulties.

Turmeric is easy to find, and easy to prepare. Most health food stores carry the dried root, and the root powder. Turmeric has a slightly spicy and peppery taste, so an easy way to offset that is to use something sweet.

In fact, one of the best ways to get turmeric into your breakfast is to blend it into some coconut milk and slightly sweeten it with something low on the glycemic index, like yacon. Yacon is good for diabetics because it has fructooligosaccharides. The body can’t digest these sugars, so they don’t affect blood sugar.