Can Turmeric Prevent or Cure Disease?

By

Lee Falin, PhD,

Everyday Einstein

September 27, 2014

Episode #117

A few days ago, a friend gushed about the amazing curative properties of turmeric.

If you’ve ever eaten Indian cuisine, you’ve most likely eaten turmeric. It's a yellowish-brown spice that comes from (not surprisingly) the turmeric plant - more precisely from the rhizome of the turmeric plant, the thick root-like portion of the stem that remains underground.

Sponsor: Want to save more, invest for the future, but don't have time to be a full-on investor? Betterment.com helps you build a customized, low-cost portfolio that suits your goals. Learn more.

But did you know that there are scientists all over the world researching the curative powers of turmeric? This isn’t just some hokey folk medicine, this is like, real science and stuff. But before you start pouring teaspoonfuls of turmeric into your morning smoothie, you might want to hear a little more about the current state of research.

In the Beginning...

Turmeric has been used in India and China for a long time for various illnesses, mostly for stomach and liver problems, as well as an antiseptic. Nobody is one hundred percent sure what the active ingredient in turmeric is, but most scientists believe it is curcumin, a type of polyphenol.

Before you turn your nose up at yet another plant-derived folk medicine being touted as a “wonder drug,” remember the history of aspirin, which The New York Times has called the 2,000-year-old wonder drug. When it was first discovered, aspirin was originally derived from the bark of a willow tree before German scientists managed to synthesize it in the lab.

But What Does it Do?

One of the oldest uses of turmeric was in the treatment of liver disease. Recent studies on rats have shown that curcumin does in fact help prevent liver injury and in some cases can even reverse liver damage.

Another promising aspect of curcumin is in the prevention and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. In fact, scientists in the UCLA department of neurology are carrying out a clinical trial to see how well curcumin helps to prevent Alzheimer’s. Curcumin has also been shown to help prevent depression in mice.

Another big area of focus for the curcumin in turmeric is its ability to help prevent and fight cancer in rats, especially colon cancer.

Curcumin (when combined with a compound from olive oil) has even been shown to help combat some forms of arthritis in guinea pigs.
Unfortunately, you might have noticed that all of these studies deal with rats, mice, and guinea pigs.
There are a couple of issues related to studying turmeric’s (and curcumin’s) effects on humans.
he Bad NewsFirst, there is a difference between how much turmeric you eat, and how much ends up
floating around in your blood ready to fight off cancer and Alzheimer’s (this is called bioavailability).
There is some evidence that using turmeric in cooking may actually increase its bioavailability.
Another issue is that the amount of curcumin being used in these studies on rodents is considerably higher than the amount you’d get eating curry. While there is no evidence that curcumin is bad for you in the short term, it may have long term toxic effects if taken in excess.
Another issue related to curcumin is that it interferes with the part of your metabolism that handles other drugs, which can cause unforeseen side effects. There have also been some studies showing that high doses of curcumin may increase the chances of lung cancer in some individuals.
The final issue is that nobody knows what a “high dose” of curcumin is. Is a teaspoon every day for 5 years too much? Will 2 teaspoons a day cause long-term health issues? Is a teaspoon even enough to have any affect on your health? Is turmeric safe for everyone, or are there some genetic conditions which can render it harmful? At this point, there isn’t enough data to answer any of those questions.

Conclusion

So now you know more about the wonderful properties of the spice turmeric and what most people believe to be its most important chemical component, curcumin.While the jury is still out on the long term effects of curcumin and how much is too much, there is no denying the fact that India has a considerably lower rate of both colorectal cancers and Alzheimer’s disease. Unfortunately, there isn’t an easy way to tell if this is due to diet, genetics, lifestyle, or a combination.

If you have a question that you’d like to see on a future episode, send me an email at everydayeinstein@quickanddirtytips.com. If you liked today’s episode, you can become a fan of Everyday Einstein on Facebook or follow me on Twitter, where I’m @QDTeinstein.
Turmeric image from Morguefile.com. Guinea pig image from Shutterstock.

Alimentos Regionais Brasileiros

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - Há 13 minutos

From: Profa. *Cristianne Maria Famer Rocha* [image: Alimentos Regionais Brasileiros] *TÍTULO:*Alimentos Regionais Brasileiros*TIPO DE DOCUMENTO:*Livro*AUTOR:*Ministério da Saúde*ANO:*2015*EDITORA:*Ministério da Saúde*PALAVRAS-CHAVE:*Politica Nacional de Alimentação e Nutrição; Frutas; Hortaliças; Leguminosas*CATEGORIA E SUB CATEGORIA:*Promoção da Alimentação Adequada; Educação Alimentar Nutricional *ACESSO AO DOCUMENTO:*Clique aqui para realizar o download*LINK PRA BVS:*- *REFERÊNCIA:*Brasil. Ministério da Saúde. Secretaria de Atenção à Saúde. Departamento de Atenção Básica. Alimentos... mais »

KURZWEIL Newsletter

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - Há 10 horas

*KURZWEIL NEWSLETTER* [image: Ask Ray | Question about molecular assembler]

Família Achutti, primeiro encontro em 1985

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR EXTENSION - Há um dia

Com a ajuda da *Sonia Chiarlo*, filha de meu saudoseo primo* João Rechden*, identificamos parentes em foto de mais de 3 décadas, durante o 1o. encontro da Família ACHUTTI, realizado aqui em Porto Alegre Foi na antiga sede da Sociedade Libanesa em 16 de março de 1985, e minha irmã Lia que identificou a Soninha na foto. sonia ciarlo 11:16 (Há 7 minutos) *Oi Aloyzio* *Que foto linda! Mas não tenho nem idéia de onde estou com esta criançada. Mas reconheço alguns sim, a menina de saia xadrez, à minha frente, é a Fernanda (hoje com 34 anos), e a de sainha verde é a Carla (hoje com 37), mi... mais »

Richard III e Thomas More

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - Há um dia

[image: Torin Weston, 4, in Leicester, England, on Thursday.]WORLD | LEICESTER JOURNALRichard III Gets a Kingly Burial, on Second Try By JOHN F. BURNS The archbishop of Canterbury presided over the service on Thursday, but critics said the notorious monarch should not have been given such honors.

factor XII-driven contact system in AD

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - Há um dia

Changes in a blood-based molecular pathway identified in Alzheimer’s disease [image: Changes in a blood-based molecular pathway identified in Alzheimer’s diseaseBy the time most people receive a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease — based on clinical signs of mental decline — their brains have already suffered a decade or more of damage. But although the mechanisms that spur the destruction of neurons in Alzheimer’s disease are not yet fully understood, two well-documented signs of the condition are accumulation of the amyloid-β peptide (the main component of plaques found in Alzheimer’... mais »

Complexity

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - Há um dia

Science 27 March 2015: Vol. 347 no. 6229 p. 1426 DOI: 10.1126/science.aaa5153 - BOOKS ET AL. COMPLEXITY Seeing the forest for the trees 1. Sybil Derrible The Art of Insight in Science and Engineering: Mastering Complexity *Sanjoy Mahajan* MIT Press, 2014. 408 pp. 1. The reviewer is at the Complex and Sustainable Urban Networks (CSUN) Laboratory, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL 60607, USA. 1. E-mail: derrible@uic.edu [image: Figure] View larger version: - In this page - In a new window - Download PowerPoint Slide for Teaching We now... mais »

Declaração do Panamá

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - Há 2 dias

26 Governments Sign 'Declaration of Panama' to Eliminate Health Inequalities in Latin America & Caribbean - *SM2015 among the international agencies signing the Declaration* *Panama City (10 Sept. 2013). - *26 Ministers of Health from Latin America and the Caribbean and seven international partners –the Salud Mesoamérica 2015 Initiative (SM2015) among them– signed the ‘Declaration of Panama’, a pledge to end all preventable child and maternal deaths by 2035. The Declaration of Panama, signed during the ‘ Promise Renewed for the Americas conference, is a call-to-action for... mais »

POA 243

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - Há 2 dias

Porto Alegre faz 243 anos: veja como artistas retratam a cidadeGaleria virtual criada por Zero Hora apresenta trabalhos de poetas, fotógrafos e artistas visuais sobre Porto Alegre, que completa 243 anos nesta quinta-feira por Francisco Dalcol 26/03/2015 | 08h34 [image: Porto Alegre faz 243 anos: veja como artistas retratam a cidade Reprodução/Reprodução] Foto de Fernanda ChemaleFoto: Reprodução / Reprodução *Qual é o seu olhar sobre Porto Alegre?* Provocados por essa pergunta, poetas, fotógrafos e artistas visuais contemporâneos foram convidados pelo 2º Caderno de ZH a apresentar trab... mais »

zeptoseconds and yoctoseconds Delanceyplace.com

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - Há 2 dias

Comprei o livro pela Amazon Today's *encore* selection -- from *The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science by Natalie Angier*. Fractions of a second: "What happens ... in subsections of seconds? In a tenth of a second, we find the proverbial 'blink of an eye' for that's how long the act takes. In a hundredth of a second, a hummingbird can beat its wings once. ... A millisecond, 10-3 seconds is thetime it takes a typical camera strobe to flash. Five-thousandths of a second is also the time it takes ... a Mexican salamander ... to snag its prey./.../

Global Agewatch

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - Há 2 dias

http://www.helpage.org/global-agewatch/Infographic [image: Click to view full Global AgeWatch Index 2014 infographic]

Global Footprint Network

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - Há 2 dias

*2015 National Footprint Accounts Launch* Earlier this month, Global Footprint Network released the 2015 Edition of the National Footprint Accounts with several methodological improvements; a new, more open licensing structure; and country risk data for the finance community. Global Footprint is excited to offer the 2015 National Footprint Accounts for non-commercial use through a free, easily downloadable "Public Data Package," which features the latest (2011) Footprint and biocapacity results per capita by land type for 182 countries in a highly sortable spreadsheet. Based on calc... mais »

Hubble 25 years old

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - Há 2 dias

Hubble Telescope at 25 [image: Picture of the Pillars of Creation] Hubble’s Greatest HitsPictures from the space telescope have dazzled us for 25 years. By Timothy Ferris Photograph above by NASA; ESA; Hubble Heritage Team, STScI/AURA. Colorized Composite/Mosaic It didn’t amount to much at first. Launched into orbit aboard the space shuttle *Discovery* on April 24, 1990, amid flurries of hope and hype, the Hubble Space Telescope promptly faltered. Rather than remaining locked on its celestial targets, it trembled and shook, quaking like a photophobic vampire whenever sunlight struck it... mais »

Universe Extra Dimensions

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - Há 2 dias

Physics Letters B Volume 743, 9 April 2015, Pages 295–300 [image: Cover image] Absence of black holes at LHC due to gravity's rainbow - Ahmed Farag Alia, b, c, , , - Mir Faizald, , - Mohammed M. Khalile, , Open Access funded by SCOAP³ - Sponsoring Consortium for Open Access Publishing in Particle PhysicsUnder a Creative Commons license Show more Open Access ------------------------------ Abstract In this paper, we investigate the effect of Planckian deformation of quantum gravity on the production of black holes at colliders using the framework of gravity's rainbow. ... mais »

Salt a World History

Aloyzio AchuttiemAMICOR - Há 3 dias

Salt, the state, and the private sector -- 3/25/15 [image: delanceyplace | www.delanceyplace.com]Today's selection -- from *Salt* by Mark Kurlansky. Until very recently, salt was one of civilization's rarest and most precious commodities. Wars were fought to gain access to salt mines, it was sometimes used as money, and states often formed salt monopolies as the underpinning of their economies. This first occurred with the Emperor Qin of China in the third century BC, and with it began the perennial debate regarding the role of the state versus the private sector: "[In the third ... mais »