Possible Alzheimer's treament from traditional Indian Herb

Brahmi (Bacopa monniera) is an aquatic indian herb that has been used in traditional ayurvedic medicine for thousands of years to enhance cognition and mental performance. Now western medicine is catching on to the herbs potential powers with the hope it may provide benefits for Alzheimer's disease and dementia sufferers.

With the incidence of Alzheimer's and dementia projected to rise rapidly in coming years the hunt is on not just for conventional treatments but also within the field of complementary medicine. This includes the many traditional therapies and remedies currently in use but with limited scientific backing. Brahmi has been shown in previous double blind trials to improve cognitive performance and memory in healthy individuals. More recently another double blind study tested 300mg of brahmi extract per day on 54 individuals over the age of 65 without any dementia symptoms. They took the brahmi extract or a placebo for 12 weeks at which tests on cognition, anxiety and depression were performed. Results showed that people taking the brahmi extract has significantly improved scores on tests for memory recall and ignoring irrelevant information compared to controls. The group taking the brahmi extract also were less depressed, anxious and had slower heart rates after the twelve week study. This supports the use of brahmi in the elderly but will it help people suffering Alzheimer's or dementia?

No studies have been done yet in Alzheimer's or dementia patients. However several animals studies show promise. One study in mice with an Alzheimer's disease model showed that brahmi extract given over 2 to 8 months could reduce damaging beta-amyloid proteins in brains by up to 60% while also reversing certain cognitive deficits caused by the disease. A more recent study of an Alzheimer's disease model in rats administered the bramhi extract 2 weeks before and 1 week after inducing the Alzheimer's model in rats. Rats given the brahmi extract had improved performance in a water maze test. Autopsies of the rat brains also showed reduced loss of neurons in the brain as a whole but particularly in regions associated with memory and learning.

So although brahmi as a strategy for Alzheimer's and dementia is not a certainty without some human studies it would appear to be very promising and as an added benefit is has an impeccable safety record.