Turmeric may be a key to reversing damages caused by strokes

A certain spice, turmeric, known to provide several health benefits and used for many centuries in ancient traditional Ayuvervdic medicine, has been found to contain a substance called curcumin that may be able to restore the brain from damages caused after having a stroke.

Until the recent study, there was no way that curcumin could cross the blood brain barrier. But, U.S. researchers came up with an innovative version of curcumin, CNB-001, that can now be able to cross the blood brain barrier.

The drug was tested on rabbits and proved to have accessed the brain cells and showed beneficial effects on muscular activity. Further tests established that the duration of the drug’s effectiveness might last up to three hours after the onset of stroke in humans.

Strokes cause a chain of reaction that expands the region of damaged cells within the brain. With CNB-001, four so-called “signaling pathways” that are responsible for further destruction of brain cells are evidently repaired.

Dr. Sharlin Ahmed, a doctor from The Stroke Association, stated that this study is spearheading the first significant research on the positive effects of turmeric to stroke patients by inhibiting further cell brain death or by even generating new brain cells.

With this new evidence, researchers of the study are planning to pursue human trials. However, potential treatment options are still far out.