Turmeric Usage

Curcumin is a powerful anti-inflammatory in both acute and chronic asthma conditions, and it is believed to work in a variety of biological pathways to reduce inflammation. In some models studied,...

Read more about Asthma and Turmeric.

As noted above, turmeric has been used to treat arthritis (sometimes the cause of low back pain and/or sciatica) in Ayurveda for centuries. Also, through research it has been found that turmeric...

Read more about Low Back Pain and Sciatica and Turmeric.

Turmeric's antioxidant abilities make it a good food preservative, provided that the food is already yellow in color, and it is widely used for this purpose.

Turmeric has been proposed as a treatment for dyspepsia . Dyspepsia is a catchall term that includes a variety of digestive problems, such as stomach discomfort, gas, bloating, belching, appetite loss, and nausea. Although many serious medical conditions can cause digestive distress, the term dyspepsia is most often used when no identifiable medical cause can be detected.

In Europe, dyspepsia is commonly attributed to inadequate bile flow from the gallbladder. While this has not been proven, turmeric does appear to stimulate the gallbladder. ¹ More importantly, one double-blind, placebo-controlled study suggests that turmeric does reduce dyspepsia symptoms. ² Another double-blind, placebo-controlled study suggests that, when taken along with standard medications, curcumin can help maintain remission in people with ulcerative colitis . ³ Other proposed uses of turmeric or curcumin have little supporting evidence. Based on test tube and animal studies , and on human trials too preliminary to provide any meaningful evidence, ⁴ curcumin and turmeric are frequently described as anti-inflammatory drugs and recommended for the treatment of such conditions as osteoarthritis and menstrual pain . Some advocates go so far as to state that curcumin is superior to standard medications in the ibuprofen family, because, at standard doses, it does not appear to harm the stomach. ⁵ However, until turmeric is actually proven to meaningfully reduce pain and inflammation, such a comparison is rather premature. Not only that, high doses of curcumin might in fact increase the risk of ulcers . ⁶ Contrary to some reports, turmeric does not appear to be effective for treatingulcers. ⁷ Animal and test tube studies suggest (but definitely do not prove) that turmeric might help prevent cancer . ^{8 9 10 11 12 13 14} Weak evidence hints that curcumin might help prevent the heart and kidney injury potentially caused by the chemotherapy drug doxorubicin . ¹⁵ Some researchers have reported evidence that curcumin or turmeric might generally help protect the liver from damage. ^{16 17 18} However, other researchers have failed to find any liver protective effects, and there are even some indications that turmeric extracts can damage the liver when taken in high doses or for an extended period. ¹⁹ On the basis of even weaker evidence, curcumin or turmeric have also been recommended for preventing Alzheimer's disease , cataracts , chronic anterior uveitis (an inflammation of the iris of the eye), fungal infections, multiple sclerosis , and treating high cholesterol . ²⁰ One preliminary study failed to find curcumin helpful for lichen planus, a disease of the skin and mucous membranes. ²¹ A 6-month, double-blind, placebo-controlled study of 36 seniors failed to find that consumption of curcumin (at a dose of up to 4 g daily) led to improvements in cholesterol profile . ²²