Can The Turmeric Cure Inflammatory Diseases Like Cancer?
Turmeric is used in kitchens of all South Asian countries including India & Pakistan. But is turmeric only used for flavor or can it improve our health and prevent cancer?
You will find thousands of such articles explaining how can turmeric treat serious ailments like heartburn indigestion depression diabetes Alzheimer,s. It can even cure cancer.
The Thousands of studies have been done on
Experiments on mice have shown that largest amounts of curcumin have-been shown to prevent many types of cancer from growing in them. But turmeric contains 2 to 3 percent curcumin & when we eat it our body doesn't absorb that amount. However studies on turmeric have rarely reported a normal amount of turmeric in diet.
So can constant consumption of a-small amount of turmeric improve our health or should we use turmeric good supplements or curcumin to keep away from diseases.
How was turmeric research done?
To find out we reviewed research in the UK United Kingdom on health effects of turmeric.
We started a study with Newcastle University. The experiment involved 100 volunteers. These people were divided in to 3 groups.
1st group was given a teaspoon of turmeric every day. The other group was given same amount of turmeric as a supplement. The 3rd group was called turmeric & given something else.
We did 3 tests on his blood sample. The 1st test looked at how blood cells of a person eating turmeric resisted inflammation & showed how healthy his immune system was.
This may help determine if turmeric can reduce inflammation enough to affect chronic diseases such as diabetes. The test was developed by the PB Bioscience at the Newcastle University. This is called oxidative stress test.
In the second round of tests white blood-cells were counted. The results were needed 4 a DNA test. But its analysis also gives us an idea of the state of immune system of people involved in the study.
The 3rd test was developed united kingdom by University College London. It detected methylation of DNA. This research was done to know the anti cancer properties of turmeric.
The oxidative stress test was developed at New castle University . According to him levels of oxidative stress are equal in all 3 groups of people involved in the study.
Climate change affects our immune system. Sunburn increases oxidative stress. In 6 weeks all 3 groups of people saw such a change.
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White blood-cell counts showed a decrease in immune cells in all 3 groups. It is equally low in all groups.
There was no-difference in DNA methylation between those who took turmeric & those who took turmeric supplements. But those who were using turmeric in their diet had different methylation patterns.
UCL researchers observed a dramatic change in a gene. & this gene was linked to asthma anxiety eczema & cancer risk. activity of this gene has changed.
What are the results?
It is too early to say whether it has a positive or a negative effect but turmeric canbe beneficial 4 this mutation in gene activity.
But 1 thing must be mentioned here. The researchers did not analyze the levels of curcumin & other compounds related to turmeric in blood-samples of people involved in the study.
1 reason may be that people who used to use turmeric in cooking have changed their diet. This changed methylation. Although it was-nothing the effect of turmeric.
What is the difference between using turmeric & turmeric supplements in food?
It is believed that use of turmeric in food preparation determines level of absorption of curcumin in our body. Curcumin is lipophilic. This means it is bound to grease. So when we use-cooking oils curcumin sticks to the oil & is easily absorbed into our stomach. Pepper can do just that. A compound called piperine can do just that. It helps our body absorb more curcumin. There fore cooking with turmeric pepper & oil can be a good combination.
There was a lot of excitement about research because it was done to find-out how turmeric is affecting the behavior of our genes & its role in our health.
These studies suggest that more researchs could be done on ( turmeric )as a cancer prevention agent. That is it may have potential to stop the growth of cancer.
The Turmeric plant
Turmeric can be beneficial for health.
However it is difficult to find a way to reduce the risk of developing long term illnesses such as cancer or heart-disease . Therefore any test that gives an accurate early warning of these diseases or is sensitive enough to detect even slight changes in associated risk.
Research has also shown that regular consumption of small Mini amounts of turmeric has a positive-effect on our bodies This research is still in its early stages. But it can be said that turmeric can help-protect you from many chronic diseases. So using turmeric in food can improve your health.
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