Prevent Alzheimer's disease by changing your shampoo.

Back in 1993, the FDA approved a drug called Cognex (tacrine) to treat Alzheimer's disease. Tacrine works by blocking the breakdown of acetylcholine. This is an important brain neurotransmitter that plays a significant role in memory and learning.

Neurotransmitters are substances that allow brain cells to "talk" to one another. As we age, our bodies produce smaller quantities of lots of nutrients--including acetylcholine. We've known for a long time that acetylcholine is low in people with Alzheimer's disease. So if you can keep your acetylcholine levels high, you're going a long way to maintain and even improve your memory.

The year after the FDA approved tacrine, botanist James A. Duke, PhD was so convinced that he had found an answer to Alzheimer's that he actually bet all of his hair that using rosemary shampoo would protect against this dreaded disease as effectively as tactrine.

Does this sound crazy? Let me tell you why it's not.

Dr. Duke is not just an ordinary botanist. He's the botanist who developed the Phytoehemical and Ethnobotanical Databases at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). This is a huge database consisting of scientifically based information about herbs and the chemicals they contain. When he looked for herbs that prevented the breakdown of acetyleholine in this database, Dr. Duke found half a dozen plants that worked. Of them all, rosemary (Rosmarinus officianalis) was the most effective.

Even if rosemary prevented acetylcholine breakdown, why would using a shampoo infused with its oil help preserve memory? Because the aromatic plant chemicals found in rosemary are not only absorbed orally. They're absorbed through the pores in the scalp! Dr. Duke realized that at least some of these phytochemicals would get from the scalp into the bloodstream, and from the bloodstream into the brain.

What's more, he thought that rosemary might work even better than tactrine. While tacrine preserves choline through a single chemical pathway, rosemary contains nearly a dozen different aromatic chemicals that protect against its breakdown.

It's nothing new

Using rosemary to retain cognition isn't something new. People have used this herb to enhance brain and nervous system function at least as far back as the Middle Ages. The ancient Greeks used it to improve their memory. In fact, Greek students wore garlands of rosemary during their examinations to keep their minds sharp. Shakespeare knew all about its effects, as well. Hamlet said to Ophelia, "There's rosemary, that's for remembrance; pray, love, remember."

But using rosemary for memory is more than folklore. Now it looks like rosemary may be just what we need in the 21st century to stave off Alzheimer's disease. What's more, it may not be necessary to take a lot of rosemary supplements. Instead, you may need to use only a different shampoo and drink a few cups of a rosemary herb tea each day. It's safer than using tacrine, which caused liver disease in 25% of Alzheimer's patients. Rosemary has no known side effects.

Follow the pharmaceuticals

Doctors usually base their decisions to use particular drugs on evidence from scientific studies. Researchers frequently conducted these studies on single substances from plants, rather than studying the abilities of the whole plant. After all, the drug companies can't make money by studying plants that they can't patent.

Researchers are testing a number of these single compounds from plants, both synthetic and natural, on Alzheimer's patients. The results of these studies strongly suggest that the herbs can be even more effective--and much safer.

Galantamine is an FDA-approved drug doctors use to treat mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease. The problem is that there are interaction problems between galantamine and more than one hundred different drugs. And this phytochemical can cause side effects from nausea and fainting, to stomach pain. The patented form of galantamine comes from plants with known toxicity. But this same chemical occurs naturally in rosemary, a plant with no known toxicity.

Huperzine A is another drug that doctors give Alzheimer's patients. It's on the market, even though the FDA hasn't approved it. The Huperzine A used in the drug comes from plants that are toxic. Rosemary contains huperzine A, as well.

Drug companies are beginning to use synthetic COX-2 inhibitors (enzymes that reduce inflammation) to prevent Alzheimer's disease. If a synthetic drug can prevent loss of cognition, so can natural substances. Rosemary contains not one, but six known COX-2 inhibitors.

But that's not all.

There's additional evidence of rosemary's effectiveness in protecting memory. Researchers found that the active ingredient in rosemary, called carnosic acid (CA), can protect the brain both from stroke and from degeneration in the brain. This includes Alzheimer's when triggered by free radicals.

Now, CA is an interesting chemical. It becomes activated only when there's free radical damage. Otherwise, it lies dormant. Researchers recently discovered this pathway and reported on it for the very first time in The Journal of Neurochemistry and Nature Reviews Neuroscience. Expect to see drugs based on CA in the future. When you do, just remember that rosemary is non-toxic.

Then there was an animal study conducted in Korea in 2001. When researchers gave mice drinking water with ferulic acid, a substance in rosemary that reduces oxidation and inflammation, their memory improved. So why reach for a synthetic drug when you can use the real thing?

Products with rosemary

Since it's safe and inexpensive, I suggest you use more rosemary, both as a tea and externally. You can find shampoos and skin lotions that already contain this aromatic herb, or you can buy essential oils of rosemary in any health food store or over the Internet. Then simply add 4-10 drops of the oil into your favorite skin-care products.

Add fresh rosemary leaves to your herb tea, as well. This Mediterranean plant grows in many areas of the U.S. Plant some and in a year you'll have enough to use in your teas. If the taste of rosemary tea is too strong or not to your liking, use mint instead, or dilute rosemary with mint. Peppermint, spearmint, and lemon balm all contain many of these same phytochemicals, although in smaller quantities.

Don't wait for the latest drug to prevent Alzheimer's disease. You can begin preventing it today by using safe products with many more of these same ingredients.

Duke, J.A., PhD. "Rosemary, the herb of remembrance for Alzheimer's Disease," Alternative & Complementary Therapies, December 2007.

"Neurological protection from rosemary," Stroke/Neuroprotection News, October 31, 2007.