Turmeric, also known as Indian saffron, is a plant related to ginger, and is grown throughout India, other parts of Asia, and Central America. Turmeric is a common spice and a major ingredient in curry powder. The part of the turmeric plant that is used in cooking, as a dye in clothing, food and cosmetics, and in healing, is the rhizome. A “rhizome” is an underground stem that resembles a plant’s root. It typically grows horizontally and branches off in many directions. The finely ground turmeric powder is processed from the turmeric rhizome. This part of the plant is boiled, then dried. Next, the rhizome is ground into a fine spice. The turmeric rhizome is a dark orange color. After it is processed into a spice, the powder is slightly brighter in color. For healing, turmeric’s underground stems are dried and made into capsules, tablets, teas, or extracts. Turmeric powder is also made into a paste for skin conditions.
As with many other plants, the colour is the source of the active compound or phytochemical that contains properties that are beneficial to our health. Different colours provide different health benefits. The source of turmeric’s yellow/orange colour is a group of compounds known as curcuminoids. Although the words curcumin and turmeric are often used interchangeably, they describe two different things. Turmeric is the plant, whereas curcumin is the naturally occurring chemical compound found in turmeric.
Historically, turmeric has been used in Ayurvedic medicine, primarily in South Asia, for many conditions, including breathing problems, skin diseases, rheumatism, pain, and fatigue. It is also traditionally used for supporting the blood, liver, joints, immune system, and digestive tract.
Unlike a lot of other compounds found in plants, turmeric has been studied extensively by scientists to determine whether its reported health benefits can be validated. Over 6,000 scientific articles have been written proving the benefits of turmeric and its healing compound, curcumin. It has been stated that it is probably the most powerful herb on the planet at fighting and potentially reversing disease. Often when turmeric is compared to conventional medicines, its benefits equal that of many pharmaceutical medications, and without the potential hazardous side effects. And, in fact, a number of studies have reported that using curcumin is more advantageous than certain prescription drugs.
The curcumins in turmeric have been found to be powerful antioxidants. They may help in reducing damage to cells and DNA caused by free radical molecules, known as oxidative stress. This is advantageous in preventing many of the diseases caused by the aging process. Free radical damage happens over a lifetime, with its effects becoming more evident as people get older, with diseases such as arthritis, damage to blood vessels, cancer, inflammatory joint disease, asthma, diabetes, dementia, and degenerative eye disease. Also, because of the damage to the blood vessels, cholesterol begins to build up to patch up the damaged areas, which leads to high levels of LDL (bad) cholesterol.
As curcumins are also strong anti-inflammatories, they not only reduce arthritis symptoms, but prevent many of the illnesses that are associated with high levels of inflammation in the body. Chronic inflammation can last for months or years as a result of failure to eliminate the cause and repeated exposure to things such as a poor diet, stress, a sedentary lifestyle, environmental toxins, and more. The diseases caused by ongoing inflammation include colitis, asthma, arthritis, Crohn’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels and Parkinson’s disease. Many of the diseases caused by free radical damage and chronic inflammation are the same. Modern medicine focuses on treating symptoms instead of addressing the root cause of an illness. Using supplements such as curcumin minimizes inflammation and prevents disease from happening. With rising health care costs, prevention of disease is now becoming more popular in medicine.
Curcumins also have benefits in cognitive health. They have been effective in treating mild depression. They have benefits in cardiovascular health by acting as blood thinners, and in lowering cholesterol. In diabetes, curcumins can lower blood sugar. They also help with bowel health. Curcumin preparations were found to be more effective than aspirin and ibuprofen on pain. Preparations of curcumin ointments are useful in treating skin conditions and in the healing of wounds. Curcumin brings cholesterol levels down.
Of all the various topics scientists have tackled in regards to the curcumin and disease reversal, cancer (of various types) is one of the most thoroughly researched topics A number of laboratory studies on cancer cells have shown that curcumin does have anti-cancer effects. It has the best effects on breast, bowel, stomach, and skin cancer cells.
Turmeric is being extensively studied as an additive to chemotherapy agents in fighting cancer. Studies have shown that turmeric has properties that prevent cancer cell development, growth, and spread. It can shrink the size of tumours and actually kill cancer cells. However, the challenge is in figuring out how to introduce the amounts of turmeric into the body that is needed for it to provide its cancer-fighting benefits. Oral use of curcumin in cancer treatments cannot provide the amounts needed to be effective. Nanoparticle technology is being looked at as a way to allow large amounts of curcumin to be absorbed. Combining curcumin with other phytochemicals such as reservatrol (from red grapes) also increases it absorption and positive health effects. The formulation and delivery systems need to be further improved in order to make curcumin into an effective anti-cancer drug; this is the next step in research into curcumin’s role in fighting cancer.
The list of health benefits from curcumin are long and exhaustive. Study abstracts from the National Library of Medicine’s database shows over 600 potential health benefits of turmeric, and/or curcumin. Because many of the health benefits have been proven through extensive research studies, curcumin should always be considered when trying to treat various diseases and illnesses.
As more and more research demonstrates the benefits of curcumin in the diet, supplement companies have created an entire industry around this compound. When we talk about the effectiveness of supplements, we use the word “bioavailability”. This indicates the proportion of a drug or other substance that enters the circulation when introduced into the body and so is able to have an active effect.
A significant flaw that researchers have determined with curcumin is that it is very poorly absorbed into the body from the gut when taken by mouth. In fact, most conventional curcumin powders and supplements can be so poorly absorbed that no curcumin is actually found in the bloodstream in testing, thus having no appreciable benefit to the brain and body. The potential health benefits of curcumin are limited by its poor water solubility, low absorption from the gut, rapid metabolism into less effective metabolytes, and rapid elimination from the body. The other challenge is that supplements are not regulated by the government in terms of ensuring they contain what they claim to contain on the packaging. Research done by labs show that more than 20% of curcumin supplements deliver less than 15% of the advertised amount of the compounds. With many of the cheaper supplements of curcumin, the amount absorbed is so negligible that the health benefits are not realized, and the money used in purchasing the supplement is wasted.
The other challenge in taking supplements labelled as turmeric, is that the curcumin content of turmeric is low. It is around 3%, by weight. Most of the studies on this herb are using turmeric extracts that contain mostly curcumin itself, with dosages usually exceeding 1 gram per day. It would be very difficult to reach these levels just using the turmeric spice in your foods. Therefore, if you want to experience the full effects, then you need to take an extract that contains significant amounts of curcumin and that is capable of being absorbed by the body in adequate amounts to provide health benefits. Several companies have been adding special patented ingredients to their supplements to improve absorption.
However, despite the challenges of supplementing with curcumin, there is one interesting fact to consider. The United States has an Alzheimer’s/dementia death rate which is the 2nd worst in the world (2nd only to Finland). Finland is 53.77 people per 100,000 the US isn’t much better at 45.58 people. Now compare those numbers to 0.46 per 100,000 for India. Does India’s high dietary usage of turmeric have anything to do with that? If so, then it is being accomplished without any special patented ingredients for increasing absorption. Therefore, eating more turmeric in your diet is probably a good idea.