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FRIDAY, Oct. 27 (HealthDay News) -- Curcumin, a component of curry and turmeric, seems to help the immune system get rid of amyloid beta -- the protein that builds up to form damaging plaques in the brains of Alzheimer's patients.

The findings build on previous research linking curry consumption to reduced Alzheimer's risk, including one study that found that only 1 percent of elderly Indians developed the disease -- a quarter of the rate seen in the United States.

Now, preliminary findings from the University of California, Los Angeles, suggest that curcumin comes to the aid of immune system cells called macrophages to clear away amyloid beta.

"We know that macrophages aren't working properly in Alzheimer's patients, since they seem to be defective in cleaning amyloid-beta from brain slices", explained lead researcher Dr. Milan Fiala, a researcher with the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and the VA Greater Los Angeles Health Care System.

"We have found that curcumin can help some macrophages to function properly in a test tube," Fiala said. He said more work is needed to see if the spice works similarly in the human brain, however.

Curcumin is already known for its anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. Earlier research by another UCLA team found that curcumin-fed mice with Alzheimer's plaques experienced a decrease in inflammation and reduced plaque formation.

The new findings are in current issue of the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease.

In the study, the UCLA researchers obtained blood samples from six Alzheimer's patients and three healthy controls. They next isolated macrophages and treated them with a curcumin solution for 24 hours, then added amyloid beta.

Macrophages from three of the Alzheimer's patients were observed to start ingesting the plaque-forming proteins.

Over the past five years, Fiala's team has studied the immune function of over 100 Alzheimer's patients. Last June, the team helped establish the immune system's key role in Alzheimer's disease.

"Our research has helped to identify why the brain isn't being cleared of amyloid beta in Alzheimer's disease patients," Fiala said. "The immune system can attack and remove amyloid-beta from the brain, but the job is not done properly in Alzheimer's patients."

Fiala said macrophages may be as important for Alzheimer's disease as insulin is for diabetes. "If we can improve the immune system, we can help the body's natural ability to clear damaging plaques," he said.

"In terms of treatment implications, it's very interesting that curcumin seems to help the brain clear away beta amyloid," noted Dr. Sam Gandy, chair of the medical and scientific advisory council at the Alzheimer's Association.

"The study also shows an additional mechanism [besides curcumin's anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant properties] that looks at the actual clean-up of plaques," said Gandy, who is also director of the Farber Institute for Neurosciences at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia.

Fiala believes his team's research into the role of macrophages in Alzheimer's disease patients may one day point to new approaches for diagnosing -- and even treating -- the illness.

Testing immune-cell response may also offer other researchers a novel way to assess the effectiveness of drugs in clearing amyloid beta from the brain. It might also help doctors individualize treatment, Fiala said.

Curcumin appears to have few side effects, if any, he added. "We can only say what we see in test tubes, but we don't see any toxic effects with curcumin, even administered in high doses," Fiala said.

Curcumin's health benefits may extend beyond Alzheimer's disease. One recent six-month study, carried out by researchers at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, found that daily doses of the spice were associated with a nearly 60 percent lower risk for colon polyps, a known precursor to colon cancer.

So, experts say, while it may be too early to recommend a dish of curry to help stave off cancer or Alzheimer's, it nonetheless appears healthy -- and tasty -- to add curry powder to your spice rack.

More information

Find out more about the curry-Alzheimer's connection at the Alzheimer's Association  .

WEDNESDAY, Nov. 1 (HealthDay News) -- Exercise can reduce the risk of developing a more severe form of age-related eye trouble by 70 percent, researchers say.

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a condition in which the light-sensitive cells in the macula at the back of the eye stop working. There are two types of AMD, dry and wet. Wet AMD is more highly linked to serious vision loss.

"We found that people who were more physically active had a reduced risk of developing late-stage AMD," said study author Michael Knudtson, a biostatistician in the department of ophthalmology and visual sciences at the University of Wisconsin's School of Medicine and Public Health.

"This is just an association," Knudtson cautioned. It's not clear whether this association is causal or coincidental, he noted.

The report was published in the Oct. 31 online issue of the British Journal of Ophthalmology.

Starting in 1988, Knudtson and colleagues collected data on nearly 3,900 men and women, aged 43 to 86, in Beaver Dam, Wis. The patients underwent eye exams and were asked about the amount of exercise they got. They were then tracked every five years for 15 years.

The researchers found that one in four of the individuals maintained an active lifestyle, and almost one in four climbed more than six flights of stairs a day. About one in eight walked more than 12 blocks a day.

Knudtson's group found that people with an active lifestyle were 70 percent less likely to develop the more serious wet AMD, compared with those who had a sedentary lifestyle. In addition, people who walked regularly were 30 percent less likely to develop wet AMD, they found.

Knudtson noted that other factors, such as diet, may also explain the findings. Yet physical activity is known to reduce inflammation, which is thought to play a part in AMD.

People who are physically active are also likely to be "biologically younger" than those with a sedentary lifestyle, which could also be important, since AMD is associated with aging, the researchers said.

Knudtson was cautious in interpreting the findings. Exercise is a good thing, he said. "But we don't want people to exercise and then get upset that they [still] get this disease," he said. "We can't prove in any way, shape or form that there is a causal relationship," he added.

One expert believes the findings need to be replicated before the relationship between exercise and AMD is proven.

"Exercise doesn't seem to affect your risk of getting AMD," said Dr. Marco Zarbin, professor and chairman of the Institute of Ophthalmology and Visual Science at New Jersey Medical School. "It seems to affect your risk of getting a particular complication of it."

Zarbin said that if the finding is confirmed in other studies, that would be important, however.

"It's the second behavioral modification, after not smoking, that I know of that would reduce your risk of getting the wet form of the disease," he said.

More information

There's more on AMD at the U.S. National Eye Institute.

MONDAY, Oct. 30 (HealthDay News) -- Studies in mice are shedding light on how depression helps eat away at human bone.

Scientists have longed noted links between depression and lowered bone mass. In fact, the bone density of depressed people is up to 15 percent less than that of happier folk.

Now, researchers from Jerusalem and Hungary say they slowed bone loss in "depressed" mice by giving the rodents an antidepressant. Their study is providing clues to how depression weakens bones, as well as new ways to stop it.

The study is published in the Nov. 7 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academies of Science.

The findings may help in the fight against the osteoporosis, said one expert who's done similar work.

"These results are a nice complement to our research," said Ricardo Battaglino, assistant member of the staff in the department of cytokine biology at the Forsyth Institute in Boston.

In the study, a team led by Raz Yirmiya of Hebrew University of Jerusalem, first induced depression in mice by exposing them to chronic stress. They then gave them the antidepressant imipramine (Tofranil).

The drug improved both the rodents' behavior and their bones, the researchers said.

Battaglino wasn't surprised by the finding, since his own group had found that the antidepressant drug Prozac increased bone mass in adult mice.

Battaglino said he tried the drug after noticing serotonin receptors on the surface of bone cells. Serotonin receptors regulate the entry of serotonin, a molecule that facilitates communication between brain cells and is implicated in anxiety and depression. Prozac is one of a group of drugs known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) that act on this receptor.

Battaglino's team decided to see if the Prozac could influence bone cells and bone mass. They found that it did. His team is publishing the results in the Journal of Cellular Biochemistry.

Yirmiya and his colleagues gave the mice imiprimaine and found that some responded by a reversal in bone loss. "Imipramine is a tricyclic antidepressant that acts on both the norepinephrine (also called noradrenaline) and serotonin reuptake systems," Battaglino explained.

Yirmiya found that the animals' bone loss was associated with an increase in the neurotransmitter norepinephrine. So, they decided to treat the animals with a drug known as a beta blocker, propranolol (Inderal), which works by inhibiting norepinephrine.

They found the drug reduced bone loss without affecting the rodents' behavior.

"They found a new mediator for depression-induced bone loss, norepinephrine," Battaglino said.

Bone remodeling is a constant process of new bone formation and bone degradation. If not enough new bone is made or too much existing bone is degraded, the net result is low bone mass.

Battaglino said his research, as well as the results of this new study, both suggest that depression most likely affects the bone-forming cells, the osteoblasts, rather than the bone-degrading cells, the osteoclasts.

While there is no immediate reward for patients stemming from the new research, Battaglino said, "I think it's important to raise awareness that these drugs could potentially be used as drugs to increase bone formation."

What is not yet known, he said, is whether the drugs would work better than the current bone-building drugs or if they should be used in combination with them.

More information

To learn more about bone health, visit the National Osteoporosis Foundation  .

FRIDAY, Oct. 27 (HealthDay News) -- Following clinical guidelines for preventing deep-vein blood clots in the legs lowers the risk of such clots for elderly patients, a new study finds.

The blockages, called "deep vein thrombosis" (DVT), involve the formation of a blood clot in a deep vein, usually in the lower leg or the thigh. The clots can move into the lungs and cause an often fatal condition called pulmonary embolism. DVTs have come to public attention over the past few years after airline passengers on cramped, long-haul flights developed them in what some have called "economy-class syndrome."

Older adults and hospital patients are at increased risk for deep vein thrombosis (DVT). That risk can be lowered through the use of medications and compression stockings.

This study, by French researchers at Joseph Fourier University in Grenoble, included 1,373 patients, age 65 or older, who were treated at 33 post-acute care facilities. The patients were evaluated for DVT before and after evidence-based DVT prevention guidelines.

The guidelines recommended that preventive medicines be given to certain patients, such as those who recently had major surgery or previously had DVT. Compression stockings, physical therapy, and other preventive measures were recommended for other patients.

Nurses and doctors were given educational sessions about the guidelines, along with plastic cards and posters as reminders to treat via the recommendations.

Before the guidelines were implemented, about 13 percent of patients developed DVT, compared with around 8 percent after the guidelines were in place. After the guidelines were established, patients were more likely to use compression stockings and less likely to take medications not recommend under the guidelines, the study found.

More information

The U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute has more about DVT.