5 ms·
Cinnamon can reverse changes in the brains of mice with Parkinsons
- alexholehouse 12y agoOriginal article http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11481-014-9552-2 http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11481-014-9552-2 (paywalled)
- Scitr 12y agohttp://scitr.com/a14 http://scitr.com/a14
- Havoc 12y agoI'm starting to think I should munch a mix of powders every morning. Cinnamon, tummeric, garlic etc.
- ajju 12y agoOr just eat a lot of Indian food :)
- tachyonbeam 12y agoThe bioavailability of curcumin (found in turmeric) is much better when taken along with piperine (found in black pepper). Also, welcome to the club: http://www.reddit.com/r/supplements http://www.reddit.com/r/supplements
- pstuart 12y agoDon't forget examine.com: http://examine.com/supplements/Cinnamon/ http://examine.com/supplements/Cinnamon/
- mark_l_watson 12y agoI was just going to comment on this, then saw your post. When we cook, our muscle memory is to add black ground pepper when adding turmeric. We also favor cinnamon because it is anecdotally supposed to be a good anti-inflammatory agent - if this is not true, at least it tastes good with many foods.
- epaladin 12y agoI've been mixing cinnamon, ginger, and tumeric in oatmeal and juice blends every morning for a while, but hadn't heard about the interaction with piperine. Looks like that information was primarily based on one study in 1998, but it probably can't heard too much. Added black pepper this morning. Thanks for the tip.
- imgabe 12y agoIf you don't have Parkinson's, and the associated brain changes that this is reversing, what would be the point?
- Havoc 12y ago>>If you don't have Parkinson's, and the associated brain changes that this is reversing, what would be the point? The point...hedging my bets. I don't know whether I've got Parkisons...not will I until its too late. So as long as its backed by something resembling science I'm OK with integrating minor changes into my life on the off chance that it might work. e.g. Right now I'm throwing a decent dose of tummeric into most of my cooking. Tastes fine, costs near zero and might help somewhere along the line. Worse case scenario is that nothing happens and I'm 0.1 USD poorer per month. Hell I suspect I'll receive more positive benefit from believing I might gain a benefit...some difference really.
- DanBC 12y agoWell, worst case scenario is the (very rare) chance of getting contaminated product through international spice adulteration and counterfeiting - and that contamination giving you some unpleasant food poisoning that gives you kidney disease leading you to either need a transplant or to live on dialysis for years. I just did a web search for contaminated spoces and there are some recent US cases of imported turmeric that was high in lead. So worst case is that you very slowly give yourself lead poisoning.
- alanfalcon 12y agoOr you can buy turmeric + BioPerine from a reputable US based company with extensive metal testing to make sure there's no contamination, like DrVita (where I happen to be employed and can confirm an obsession with testing for heavy metals)
- rotten 12y agoYou can grow your own tumeric in your garden fairly easily.
- rodedwards 12y agoMake yourself a really weird smoothie!
- saraid216 12y agoYeah, that's called a curry. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curry_powder#Ingredients http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curry_powder#Ingredients
- option_greek 12y agoMay be you should just have some Indian curry or spicy biryani. Both are loaded with all of those.
- concernedctzn 12y agoThe spice must flow
- usumoio 12y agoHe who controls the SPICE! Controls the UNIVERSE!!!
- enraged_camel 12y agoDownvotes make me sad. HN has no sense of humor.
- omnibrain 12y agoLet's not turn this site into reddit.
- ignostic 12y agoSure we do. Plenty of top comments are funny, but they're just topical, relevant, and - most importantly - include some actual original thought. Posting the same old tired references just isn't funny to this crowd.
- 46PxlpKu53k 12y agoHN comments include tons of interesting, original thoughts; However in all the time I have been lurking here, there has been no top comment that has elicited nary a chortle from me.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- dnautics 12y agoFor US HN'ers, "cinnamon" that is commonly used as a flavorant in the US is Cassia; Ceylon cinnamon has a milder taste that is slightly different and may be a little bit unusual for American tongues.
- driverdan 12y agoIf you want the really good stuff try Vietnamese cinnamon (also known as Saigon). It has the highest essential oil content and is very aromatic.
- fragsworth 12y agoIt's sort of gimmicky to say that Cinnamon does this, because it's known to be sodium benzoate that causes this effect. In 2012 they discovered that sodium benzoate has an effect on Parkinson's disease proteins: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21701815 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21701815. This new study is, at least, a confirmation of the older study, and is also an attempt to use it to treat the disease.
- mojobot 12y agoI don't think it's gimmicky. Cinnamon is cheap and easy to make and easy to deliver to the patient. Those practical implications are lost if it's only referred to as sodium benzoate. I don't know if this research is done with the same grants as the MS/Cinnamon study from the NIH, but it sounds like it: http://www.rush.edu/webapps/MEDREL/servlet/NewsRelease?id=1503 http://www.rush.edu/webapps/MEDREL/servlet/NewsRelease?id=15...
- pcrh 12y agoI doubt that cinnamon is cheaper than sodium benzoate.
- cbsmith 12y agoHey, we can use actually data for this! http://www.alibaba.com/showroom/price-of-sodium-benzoate.html http://www.alibaba.com/showroom/price-of-sodium-benzoate.htm... http://www.alibaba.com/showroom/cinnamon-price.html http://www.alibaba.com/showroom/cinnamon-price.html Looks like the prices are surprisingly similar, though cinnamon is, if anything, more expensive. Additionally, I'd imagine that if sodium benzoate is the active ingredient, you'd need less of it to get the job done.
- topbanana 12y agoDo Alibaba also have prices for apples and oranges?
- mendoncakr 12y agoYOLO
- mendoncakr 12y agohaters gon' hate
- AnonymousGriper 12y agoTo get a better perspective here, I wish there was discussion around ... I dunno ... the full text of the actual study discussing dosage levels, etc. Also some knowledge of gram-per-gram conversion of cinnamon to sodium benzoate through its hepatic metabolism might be informative. But, sigh, let's just rant and call each other names.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- bagosm 12y agoAlthough the challenge will be to actually get the spoon inside his mouth... Now I feel bad about both of us :(
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- jzymbaluk 12y agoMy mom was kind of a health nut when we were a kid, she was getting organic food way before it was in vogue to do so, and I remember when she got us Cinnamon capsules to take in the morning with our other vitamins. I always thought it was silly to take a caplet full of cinammon, but I guess maybe there was something to it
- Someone1234 12y agoAre you seriously suggesting that people should go buy a bunch of junk from the organic food shops just in case one of them turns out to be good for you in the future? Adversely, what happens if one of them turns out to be a carcinogen or otherwise something that adversely affects health? Your mom isn't wise, she just threw enough unproven stuff down her kid's throats so that it was inevitable that one of them one day might prove useful. I wonder how many damaging things (or potentially damaging) you also consumed?
- nyrulez 12y agoAre you saying organic food is carcinogenic ? not sure what your point is. Or are you saying one shouldn't consume random stuff ? In that case, cinnamon is not random. It's a spice in use for thousands of years with many benefits already written about in traditional medicine, like turmeric. Unless you are anti-traditional medicine....in which case suddenly a lot of the wisdom over the ages must become suspect, and even rejected.
- matznerd 12y agoThis is a really offensive comment... Plants create compounds to battle pests and radiation from the sun. A lot of these compounds such as anthocyanins and phenols are extremely beneficial to healthy humans. Definitive science is actually still catching up. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthocyanin http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthocyanin http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenol http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenol
- DiabloD3 12y agoWhat he said isn't offensive at all. The mothers that make their kids eat all sorts of unproven remedies, trying to stay ahead of proven science, are just as bad as the ones that refuse injections, trying to stay behind proven science. Down vote me all you want, but there is a reason why science exists and has rigorous testing methodologies.
- realrocker 12y agoNaive comment: Indian food is loaded with cinnamon. Especially sweets. So why is India host to second largest population of Parkinsons afflicted[1]? Or maybe people are not served cinnamon rich food as they grow older because they are also rich in fat and sugar? I guess orthogonal studies like these don't have much value. There are obviously several other factors at work here. 1. http://www.epda.eu.com/en/parkinsons/life-with-parkinsons/part-3/the-number-of-people-with-parkinsons-in-the-most-populous-nations-2005-through-2030/ http://www.epda.eu.com/en/parkinsons/life-with-parkinsons/pa... Edit: Explicit naivety Edit 2: Hold on. Just glossed over the fact that we also have the second largest population on earth. In that case, there might be a correlation after all.
- hangonhn 12y agoDon't underestimate the value of "naivety". Gives people a fresh set of perspectives.
- pedroo 12y agoWas just going to comment prior to your edit, but we really should compare rates of occurrance rather than population size.
- SoftwareMaven 12y agoThe real question is why is the US so high? Our rates are almost as high as India's, with 1/3 the population. I have a feeling it is likely diet related, and possibly due to either the "low fat" craze not providing building blocks in the brain or the industrial fats (in particular trans fats but maybe the massive quantities of n-6 fats) causing structures to be built incorrectly or causing excess inflammation. So, that's my hypothesis based on having done a lot of nutrition research but no Parkinson's research. Does anybody have any real info about why the US rates are so high?
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- mrfusion 12y agoI've read cinnamon might help with diabetes too? Would that be the same mechanism?
- rosser 12y agoThe mechanism here appears to be the metabolism of compounds in cinnamon into sodium benzoate, which we already knew was helpful with Parkinson's. The mechanism behind cinnamon's effects on blood glucose, OTOH, seems not to be terribly well-studied, given a few minutes' searching. One paper I found says, "cinnamon enhances glucose uptake by activating the insulin receptor kinase activity, auto-phosphorylation of the insulin receptor, and glycogen synthase activity." [1] Otherwise, the literature seems all to be, "We observed this effect..." EDIT: Pointers to better sources welcome. [1] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3326760/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3326760/
- wilhil 12y agoGlozell is never getting Parkinsons! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cyk7utV_D2I http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cyk7utV_D2I
- JetSpiegel 12y agoI knew that using Linux Mint was good for my health!
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- bagrow 12y agoGood grief, maybe I'm getting old, but is up with that font size?
- bignaj 12y agoI'm 23 and I agree, it's tiny.
- lvs 12y agoBecause it's clear there isn't a lot of expertise in this thread, I'd like to make clear that nobody should be doing the cinnamon challenge based on these results, or the results of the authors' previous study on the topic. So far, the authors have some interesting data from cell lines and now a mouse model of PD. Specifically, the mouse model is generated by chemical intoxication with a molecule called MPTP, which results in damage to dopaminergic cells in the substantia nigra, the region of the brain whose degeneration is predominantly implicated in the etiology of PD. There is good reason to be skeptical about whether this animal model of the disease is clinically relevant to sporadic PD seen in patients. Furthermore, dramatic results seen in a very obscure journal (i.e. not a mainline journal for neurodegenerative research) should generally result in knee-jerk skepticism until others repeat the work and a more significant review process has taken place. It should go without saying that there have been many compounds in the past two decades to show some interesting results at a preclinical stage that have not passed muster when moving to real patients.
- autokad 12y agoi dont care what you say, i see this as a green light to eat more cinnabuns.
- f4stjack 12y agoDammit, I first understood this as the Desktop Manager and awkwardly asked "How can a software change the... oh!" Need to take a vacation it seems XD
- dheer01 12y agoYou can read up all of this science and keep adjusting your diet - or you can just shift to Indian food - recent medical research is ceiling its place as the healthiest diets on plant earth.
- hajderr 12y agoNatural products rules!
- return0 12y agoMice don't even get Parkinson's. The misleading title is not even in the university's press release of the mouse model study: "Cinnamon May Be Used to Halt the Progression of Parkinson’s disease"
- lsiebert 12y agobest window manager ever ;-)
- blisterpeanuts 12y agoCool, I wonder if I can try it on OpenSuSE (although I'm pretty well married to KDE). Who knew that an article on Parkinson's would lead to learning about another window manager!
- caycep 12y agoOnce they figure out the dosing, etc, it'd be amusing if the effect size of the human trial is better than Azilect, which gets trumpeted a lot by marketing, but doesn't do that much and has a $400-$700/month copay for patients...
- lazyant 12y agoReminds me of http://www.phdcomics.com/comics.php?n=1174 http://www.phdcomics.com/comics.php?n=1174
- batmansbelt 12y agoCinnamon can also reverse changes in the brains of people with Unity.