Posted on 08/09/2011 1:45:55 PM PDT by decimon
A derivative of a common culinary spice found in Indian curries could offer a new treatment hope for sufferers of the painful condition tendinitis, an international team of researchers has shown.
In a paper due to be published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, the researchers at The University of Nottingham and Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich have shown that curcumin, which also gives the spice turmeric its trademark bright yellow colouring, can be used to suppress biological mechanisms that spark inflammation in tendon diseases.
Dr Ali Mobasheri of the University’s School of Veterinary Medicine and Science, who co-led the research, said: “Our research is not suggesting that curry, turmeric or curcumin are cures for inflammatory conditions such as tendinitis and arthritis. “However, we believe that it could offer scientists an important new lead in the treatment of these painful conditions through nutrition. Further research into curcumin, and chemically-modified versions of it, should be the subject of future investigations and complementary therapies aimed at reducing the use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, the only drugs currently available for the treatment of tendinitis and various forms of arthritis.”
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More recently, studies have linked curcumin to potential uses in treating arthritis and a range of rheumatic diseases and, potentially, even as an agent to kill cancer cells directly or make them more sensitive to killing by chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
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(Excerpt) Read more at nottingham.ac.uk ...
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MMMMMMM Curry.......
The Spice Girls making a contribution! Awesome! Um... which one was Curry?
LOTs of research using curcumin —the main challenge is bioactivity or absorption, which is quite low.
You have to consume it with bioperine or piperine, and apparently to do so in some type of fat is important.
Curcumin shows positive effects in MANY MANY maladies —too many to mention here.
They’re also looking into expensive nano-adjuvant stuff for boosting absorption.
This is also supposed to help with Alzheimer’s symptoms. My friend started using this with his mom and has noticed some improvement. She no longer asks the same questions over and over throughout the day.
Back in the 70s, they said Red Dye # something would give you cancer. The only thing was that it would have taken several train cars full of it to do any harm. What’s the amount of tumeric would one have to ingest before it did any good?
That’s good, because I LOVE Curry!
An excellent question for which I have not an adequate reply.
Might the beneficial effect be cumulative? Might a daily dose of turmeric, hence curcumin, be preventative of certain maladies? I have no idea but the thought occurs.
Who is old enough to remember the old Mustard Plaster? My dad used it on his back...yellow like curry....
“the old Mustard Plaster?”
You can get similar plasters at a Chinese Herb Doctor. Many types. Not sure if any still use mustard though. They work well!
According to the Wikipedia entry, mustard plasters can be dangerous. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mustard_plaster
I just started taking curcumin a couple of days ago. Warning: take with food. Otherwise, it can be nauseating. I have allergies and thought the anti-inflammatory properties of the curcumin could lessen the symptoms. I think it might help, but I am very prone to benefitting from the placebo effect, so I won’t know for awhile I guess.
Also, I have a pet theory that curcumin may be why so many Indians are smart.
Most of the pre-clinical studies are rat gavaging models, so the amounts of tumeric are HIGH, however:
Only the curcumin sub-component is therapeutic, so if the bulk tumeric is taken down to curcumin it’s 10 times less stuff.
Then if you use the adjuvant it’s not super bad —a teaspoon or so daily, maybe. That’s WITH bioperine, m’kay?
Also if absorbed often it does not circulate for a long time.
However the results are super good, even against Alzheimer’s etc. It’s generating a lot of interest.
My recommendation for cheap use over the long run: get bulk curcumin and bioperine (or piperine) and make your own, in heavy cream.
Or...hey curry is pretty fatty, no why not in that? It’s peppery and spicy and it would go down quite easily.
I have been doing that for three years.
My pubMed search on curcumin generates over 4,000 hits:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=curcumin
This simply says, “Gosh, adding piperine to curcumin suuure helps...” :
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21076901
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