Health and Wellness with Supplements Part 7: Turmeric

Turmeric is one of my favorite spices. Now I don’t use it much in cooking but I sure do like it for it’s many health benefits. I have seen Turmeric supplements (or curcumin, the active ingredient) everywhere and have heard of its many benefits. So I decided to dig a little deeper and see what scientific research I could find.

In the little bit of research I read, I found support for fat reduction, improvement of diabetes, mild antidepressant properties, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory. Most people take turmeric for its anti-inflammatory properties. Both my husband and I take it to manage pain associated with exercise and arthritis. I was turned on to turmeric first for my older horse (he’s over 30 now). While he’s retired and hangs out doing nothing but eating, I could tell he was slowing down. He didn’t event chase cats or dogs in the pasture anymore. My friend who is a horse trainer mentioned she put her older horse on turmeric and he started moving around a lot more. So I purchased it in bulk from Missy’s Spice Shop and joined the Turmeric Users Group on Facebook for advice (just search for it and request to join). I started feeding it with a little black pepper and flax seed. The flax and the pepper are supposed to increase bioavailablity of the curcumin. I actually saw the old man running around the field for the first time in a long time! I was sold and we started taking it too.

Turmeric is one of the most researched and widely used spices in the world. A lot of the research is performed in countries like China and India because they spend more time researching natural supplements. In the US, it doesn’t pay to research anything that can’t make you much money or competes with pharmaceuticals.

I found a couple of articles that discussed the health benefits other than anti-inflammatory in turmeric. The most interesting research looked at how turmeric assisted in metabolism support. It was actually shown to prevent adipogenesis (fat development) by increasing fatty acid oxidation. Who can’t use a little help preventing fat accumulation! Another interesting study showed that turmeric supplementation slowed the progression of diabetes with 9 months of treatment by reducing insulin resistance.

Besides helping with metabolic health, there was another study examining the effects of curcumin on the neurotransmitters that affect mental health, especially those involved in depression, serotonin (improves mood) and dopamine (helps motivation and reward response). They found that curcumin increased 5-HTP levels when used with piperine (active ingredient in black pepper). 5-HTP is the precursor to serotonin so the hope is that by increasing the availability of the precursor will improve serotonin levels. Dopamine was less affected by curcumin and only showed minor increases at high doses.

I have found that adding a high quality supplement of curcumin to the diet is extremely helpful.

Resources

Kulkarni, S. Bhutani, M. K., & Bishnoi, M. (2008). Antidepressant activity of curcumin: involvement of serotonin and dopamine system. Psychopharmacology. 435-442. DOI: 10.1007/s00213-008-1300-y

Ejaz, A. Wu, D., Kwan, P., & Meydani, M. (2009). Curcumin inhibits adipogenesis in 3T3-L1 adipocytes and angiogenesis and obesity in C57/BL mice. The Journal of Nutrition. (139). 919-925.

Chuengsmarn, S., Rattanmongkolgul, S., Luechapudiporn, R., Phisalaphong, C. & Jirwatnotai, S. (2012). Curcumin extract for prevention of type 2 diabetes. Diabetes Care (35). 2121-2127.