Curcumin: A BIG Medicine

[Guest guest]

Curcumin: A BIG Medicine

By Kilham

Long ago in another period of my life, I lived in a communal household. My

housemates and I practiced yoga together, ate natural foods, and learned how to

cook, plant an organic garden and make bread together. We had a greenhouse, and

we milked our own goats. For a while, I even learned to tend bee hives and

collect honey. It was a lively and mind-opening experience. In that household, I

learned to use spices and seasonings of all kinds. One of the spices we cooked

with regularly was turmeric – the bright yellow spice that is commonly used to

season curries. I can still smell the turmeric cooking in oil, and I can vividly

remember the bright stains I occasionally got on my shirts when I used the spice

incautiously.

Since the time I lived in that commune, a lot has happened. As relates to

turmeric, science has investigated this humble root and has discovered in it a

powerful compound called curcumin. This simple material has the power to turn

modern medicine on its proverbial ear.

Traditionally, turmeric, or Curcuma longa, has been widely used for food,

cosmetic, and medicinal purposes. Turmeric provides the distinctive yellow color

to curry, and is used to color butter, cheese and other foods. In India’s

5,000-year-old traditional system of Ayurveda, turmeric enjoys a long history of

use for the treatment of respiratory conditions including asthma and allergy,

coughs, sinusitis, for liver disorders, for rheumatism and to treat diabetic

wounds.

The compound in turmeric most responsible for its broad uses is curcumin. This

yellow colored material demonstrates antioxidant and anti-in & #64258;ammatory

effects, anti-carcinogenic and antimicrobial activity, liver-protective,

heart-protective and anti-arthritic benefits. Whole turmeric root and

concentrated curcumin are also very safe. No studies in animals or humans have

discovered any toxicity associated with the use of either, even at very high

doses.

Additional studies suggest that curcumin may also offer significant

cognitive-enhancing and anti-depressant benefits. This effect appears primarily

due to curcumin’s capacity to promote the activity of neuroprotective factors in

the brain, and to regulate certain neurotransmitters.

Despite the broad benefits described above, curcumin’s greatest health property

may be its capacity to relieve pain by relieving inflammation. The role of

inflammation in pain is pretty straightforward. Various injuries can cause

inflammation in the tissues of our bodies. External injuries like burns, bites,

scrapes, stings, cuts and bruises cause skin tissue to swell as protective

fluids pour into damaged tissue between cells. Nerves may also be directly hurt.

All of this activity is accompanied by pain. This is also the case with internal

injuries that may be diet-related or the result of wear and tear. Aging joints

and ligaments can become occasionally or chronically inflamed, resulting in

pain. Stop the inflammation; stop the pain.

Like the popular anti-inflammatory drugs ibuprofen and acetaminophen, curcumin

inhibits the COX2 enzyme. But unlike these drugs, curcumin additionally affects

the activity of other key factors in pain and inflammation, including NF-kappaB,

PPAR Gamma transcription factors, and 5-LOX. By inhibiting the activity of all

these factors of inflammation, curcumin delivers far superior anti-inflammatory

and pain-relieving activity than most drugs.

If you can relieve pain and do so naturally and safely, if you can lift the veil

of darkness that chronic pain engenders, then you can transform people’s

understanding of the benefits of natural remedies through positive experience. I

believe that curcumin does this remarkably well.

Additionally, curcumin also delivers other benefits to heart, liver, brain and

immune system described here earlier.

Natural, plant-based remedies are the most widely employed medicines on earth,

more than over-the-counter and prescription drugs. Today we are able to blend

the very finely developed body of traditional medicinal knowledge, with modern

technology and science. As a result we have access to safe, effective natural

remedies like curcumin, to enhance people’s health, and open up the doors to

greater vitality through the restorative and healing powers of nature’s

bountiful pharmacy.

Recommendation: While I do not often direct readers to specific products, every

once in a while I make exceptions for those that are unusually effective. In my

estimation the branded product Curamin, made by Wisconsin-based EuroPharma, is a

superior curcumin supplement.

Kilham is a medicine hunter who researches natural remedies all over the

world, from the Amazon to Siberia. He teaches ethnobotany at the University of

Massachusetts Amherst, where he is Explorer in Residence. advises herbal,

cosmetic and pharmaceutical companies and is a regular guest on radio and TV

programs worldwide. His field research is largely sponsored by Naturex of

Avignon, France. Read more at www.MedicineHunter.com

Read more:

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2010/12/06/curcumin-big-medicine/#ixzz18EXSDlEk