Curcumin might be useful in the prevention or treatment of neurodegenerative disease, including Parkinson’s
Curcumin (the primary active agent in turmeric) protected dopamine producing cells, at least in part by inhibiting NF-kB.
The destruction of dopamine producing cells in Parkinson’s disease, and the consequent shortage of dopamine in the brain, is what results results in most of the symptoms commonly associated with Parkinson’s.
Curcumen is a natural inhibitor of NF-kB. As such, it has been found effective in the treatment of many other ailments.
This is consistent with the theory that NF-kB is the Master Switch and that the fundamental problem in most inflammation-related conditions is over activation of NF-kB.
On close examination, that excessive activation will generally be found to result from a genetic defect or vulnerability in NF-kB inhibition. In other words, it’s not that NF-kB is too frequently or too excessively turned on – it’s that NF-kB cannot turn off (at least not soon enough and/or not often enough.)
Specific to Parkinson’s disease, consider for example the role of “Nurr1.” Rare mutations in Nurr1 are associated with familial Parkinson’s disease. While the relation of Nurr1 to Parkinson’s was previously unknown, a recent study has established that “Nurr1 functions to inhibit expression of pro-inflammatory neurotoxic mediators in both microglia and astrocytes…. by docking to NF-kappaB-p65 … (ultimately) resulting in clearance of NF-kappaB-p65 and transcriptional repression.”
In simple terms, Nurr1 turns off NF-kB. Hence, when it’s ‘broken’ the result is sustained, excess NF-kB activation leading to neurotoxicity: the dopamine producing cells die.
Of course defective Nurr1 accounts for only a small subset of Parkinson’s cases. But there are no doubt many other such mechanisms, some of which have yet to be discovered.
In any case, if the problem is excess activation of NF-kB, the solution may be to supplement NF-kB inhibitors (e.g. curcumin.) The disease might not be ‘cured’, but at least the severity of symptoms and speed of progression might be favorably impacted.
Natural NF-kB inhibitors such as curcumin have the advantage of being widely available and inexpensive. They come with a 1,000+ year history of safe use and no significant drug interactions have been reportedst. Curcumin and other natural NF-kB inhibitors might therefore be used to augment or ‘complement’ standard therapy (check with your doctor.)
Curcumin has only one ‘problem’, which is its limited bioavailability when administered orally.
Therefore, rather than administering curcumin orally (e.g. as a tablet,) one possibility is to administer it trans-mucosally (e.g. via a lozenge which is held in the mouth until dissolved.) And since curcumin is but one of many natural NF-kB inhibitors, better effect might be obtained by combining several natural NF-kB inhibitors in a single lozenge. That, in simple terms, is the rationale behind Banjo.
Banjo is not intended as a treatment for Parkinson’s. It is a natural anti-inflammatory medication that is proposed to work by inhibiting NF-kB. While that might be of special value in certain other conditions, the intention is to treat migraine and osteoarthritis, both of which respond remarkably well to Banjo.
The publication:
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Neurochem Res. 2008 Oct;33(10):2044-53. Epub 2008 Mar 27.
Curcumin protects dopaminergic neuron against LPS induced neurotoxicity in primary rat neuron/glia culture.
Yang S, Zhang D, Yang Z, Hu X, Qian S, Liu J, Wilson B, Block M, Hong JS.
Laboratory of Pharmacology and Chemistry, National Institute of Environmental, Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health, PO Box 12233, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709, USA.
Summary of the abstract
Using a rat model of Parkinson’s disease (PD), the effects of curcumin were tested.
Curcumin has well-known anti-inflammation effects, the effect of curcumin on dopamine producing neurons was tested.
Curcumin pretreatment reduced neurotoxicity in this model. Curcumin post-treatment also showed protective effect.
Results revealed that curcumin treatment decreased the activation of NF-kB and activator protein-1 (AP-1).
Taken together, our study implicated that curcumin might be a potential preventive and therapeutic strategy for inflammation-related neurodegenerative diseases.
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