Health Benefits

Curcumin for Capecitabine-Induced Hand-Foot Syndrome

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BENEFITS OF CURCUMIN AND TRIPLE CURC

• Super Anti-Inflammatory properties that reduces pain and inflammation associated with arthritis
• Powerful antioxidant that enhances the body’s resistance to free radicals
• Supports the cardiovascular system by balancing cholesterol levels
• Aids in cancer prevention and treatment
• Promotes healthy bones and prevents osteoporosis
• Promotes brain health, preventative of Alzheimer’s disease
• Diabetes care and healthy blood sugar levels in the body
• Supports liver detoxification
• Beneficial for digestive system disorders
• Boosts the body’s wound healing ability
• Regulates metabolic processes to promote weight loss

ANTI-INFLAMMATORY:
Curcumin is effective in relieving pain/inflammation associated with arthritis, bunions, bursitis, tendinitis, carpal tunnel syndrome (inflammation of the wrist), gout, headaches of all sorts, geographic tongue (tongue inflammation), etc.

Curcumin/Turmeric is a COX 2 inhibitor, that is, it inhibits the action of an enzyme called cyclooxygenase-2 which is partly responsible for the pain of arthritis, so it can be used as an effective substitute for arthritis drugs. The active ingredient curcumin which decreases amounts of prostaglandins (involved in the transmission of pain signals) and stimulates the adrenal glands to release natural cortisone, also reduces inflammation.

Studies show it inhibits prostaglandin production and stimulates the creation of cortisol which relieves inflammation. Studies concluded that curcuminoids significantly suppress TPA-induced oxidative stress via both interference with infiltration of leukocytes into the inflammatory regions and inhibition of their activation. Studies conducted found that curcuminoid extract inhibits activation of NF-KB suggesting that curcumin shares the same mechanism of action as anti-arthritic pharmaceuticals under development that target NF-KB.

In fact, curcumin has proven to be almost as effective as cortisone in the treatment of some kinds of inflammation. In short, it’s a safe and effective pain killer.

A Nottingham-Munich study, published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, used a culture model of human tendon inflammation to study the anti-inflammatory effects of curcumin on tendon cells. The main objective of the study was to observe the effects that curcumin had on the inflammatory and degenerative properties induced by molecules called interleukins. The results showed that curcumin prevents interleukins from promoting inflammation.

ANTI-OXIDANT:
Antioxidants protect healthy cells from free radical damage. Free radicals are unstable molecules that damage cells and cause aging.
Curcumin is one of the most potent antioxidant nutrients, as a member of the bioflavonoid family. As an antioxidant, curcumin benefits include its function as an effective scavenger of free radicals. It may also function indirectly as an antioxidant by reducing the activity of inflammatory enzymes and by enhancing your body’s production of glutathione, one of your most important intracellular antioxidants.
An Ohio State University study supports the curcumin antioxidant properties in humans.

CARDIO-VASCULAR:
Curcumin helps to maintain a healthy heart due to its anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties.

The build-up of plaque in the arteries that lead to athersclerosis was found to be drastically reduced with the use of curcumin in some clinical trials. It also aids in preventing blood clots by thinning blood thus reducing the chances of having a heart attack, stroke, thrombosis or any other cardiovascular diseases.

It also helps to maintain a normal level of cholesterol in the body. The compound that gives Curcumin its yellowish color may protect arteries from fatty buildup, new research in mice shows. In addition, curcumin appeared to alter the genetic signaling involved in plaque buildup at the molecular level.

One study found that Curcumin can prevent the progression of degenerative diseases such as atherosclerosis. Atherosclerosis is characterized by oxidative damage which affects lipoproteins, the walls of blood vessels and subcellular membranes. Thus the ethanol water extract of Curcuma longa (containing curcuminoids), is potentially useful in the prevention of atherosclerosis.

Previous studies in rats showed that curcumin had the power to prevent heart failure. Studies suggest curcumin may thwart the development of atherosclerosis, or clogged arteries, a key risk factor for heart attacks and strokes.

Researchers in France fed 20 mice a diet supplemented with curcumin or a comparison diet not supplemented with curcumin. After 16 weeks, mice fed on the curcumin-based diet had a 26% reduction in fatty deposits in their arteries compared to mice on the comparison diet.

CANCER:
There are literally hundreds of studies on the effectiveness of curcumin in treating and preventing cancer. Curcumin has been studied by the US National Cancer Institute (NCI) and academic investigators around the world as a potent anti-carcinogen. It has both a low toxicity and great efficacy in multiple in vitro and in vivo cancer models.

Researchers at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston reported that curcumin stops laboratory strains of melanoma from proliferating and causes the cancer cells to commit suicide. The findings were so dramatic that human clinical trials began for breast and lung cancer, all with positive results.

So far, the researchers have found that curcumin has had a positive effect on every tumor market they have tried.

OSTEOPOROSIS:
Aging and hormone disruptions may lead to an imbalance between bone resorption and formation, causing bone mass to decrease. This will eventually lead to osteoporosis that increases susceptibility to fracture. About 8 million women and 2 million men in the United States have osteoporosis

There are two main types of osteoporosis. Primary osteoporosis occurs spontaneously while secondary osteoporosis is caused by another disease which occurs in less than 5% of people who have osteoporosis. Among the diseases that may cause secondary osteoporosis are chronic kidney failure and hormonal disorders. Meanwhile, according to Merck Manual of Medical Information, drugs such as Corticosteroids, Barbiturates and Anticonvulsants may also cause secondary osteoporosis.

Curcumin as has been found beneficial in overall bone health. It can help to prevent and benefit patients with osteoporosis, and specifically the regulation of bone remodeling in a number of research studies.

One study involved removing the ovaries form female rats. This produces hormonal changes similar to those in post-menopausal women–specifically, estrogen production drops off. Since estrogen is necessary for bone health, the rats developed osteoporosis. The researchers then tried supplementing a similar group of rats with Curcumin, and their bone density increased. They concluded “Curcumin produces beneficial changes in bone turnover and increases in bone strength using the ovariectomized mature rat model of postmenopausal osteoporosis.”

A study by Dr. Funk shows that curcuminoids blocked the pathway that affects bone resorption. Noting that bone loss associated with osteoporosis in women typically begins before the onset of menopause, she has begun work on another NIH-funded study to determine whether Curcumin taken as a dietary supplement during perimenopause can prevent bone loss and osteoporosis. Both of the studies are supported by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) and the Office of Dietary Supplements (ODS), both of the NIH.

Recently, Yang et al. (2011) found that curcumin can prevent further deterioration of the bone structure and produce beneficial changes in bone turnover thus improving the overall bone health.

Although the research sighted on the subject of curcumin ability to inhibit bone resorptions and improve overall bone health are still in the initial stages, we can conclude that curcumin has the potential in osteoporosis prevention and treatment.

ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE AND MEMORY PERFORMANCE:
Curcumin has been studied in several models for Alzheimer’s disease and found that it not only reduces oxidative damage and inflammation (as expected), but also reduces amyloid accumulation and synaptic marker loss and promotes amyloid phagocytosis and clearance. Curcumin worked to prevent synaptic marker and cognitive deficits caused by amyloid peptide infusion and abeta oligomer toxicity in vitro. Research on curcumin indicates that curcumin stimulates immune cells to clear Alzheimer’s plaque. UCLA/VA Researchers found that curcumin may help the immune system clear the brain of amyloid beta, which form the plaques found in Alzheimer’s disease.

Both black pepper and Curcumin show benefits in helping to protect against cognitive impairment and may help improve memory in Alzheimer’s disease. Male Wistar rats given Piperine from black pepper over a two-week period showed a significant improvement in memory impairment, according to a study published in the March 2010 issue of “Food and Chemical Toxicology. Curcumin in turmeric may help reduce memory loss in Alzheimer’s patients. One study on mice with the human Alzheimer’s disease gene fed mice a no-dose curcumin diet, low-dose curcumin diet or a high-dose curcumin diet over six months, according to a review published in the April 2005 issue of “Current Alzheimer Research. Both the low-dose and high-dose curcumin-fed mice showed reduced genetic factors of age-related memory loss. Further research is needed in human Alzheimer’s disease patients to provide conclusive results.

DIABETES:
Curcumin helps the body to use insulin more efficiently, making it beneficial to use for both type #1 and type #2 diabetes. Nearly 26 million adults have diabetes in the United States, while as many as 79 million adults are estimated to have prediabetes, according to the National Diabetes Education Program.

Curcumin could help to keep diabetes at bay among people most at risk, a small new study shows. The research, published in the journal Diabetes Care, found that people with prediabetes who took capsules containing curcumin — a compound found in the curry spice turmeric — were less likely to go on to develop Type 2 diabetes, compared with people who didn’t take the curcumin capsules, Reuters reported.

“This study demonstrated that the curcumin intervention in a prediabetes population may be beneficial,” Thai researchers wrote in the study. The study included 240 people who all had prediabetes. They were assigned to take either the curcumin capsules or a placebo for nine months. The researchers followed up with them after three, six and nine months. At the end of the nine-month period, 16.4 percent of people who took the placebo developed Type 2 diabetes. However, no one in the group that took curcumin developed diabetes.

But still, Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics spokesperson Constance Brown-Riggs, who is also a certified diabetes educator, told Reuters that she would continue to recommend a healthy diet and exercise to patients as a way to prevent diabetes.

In 2008, a study published in the journal Endocrinology showed that mice were less likely to develop Type 2 diabetes if they were given turmeric.

A mouse model of diabetes was used to test the effects of Curcumin on various variables and significant improvements were reported for insulin resistance and glucose tolerance, reported the scientists from Sunchon National University and Kyungpook Natuional University in Korea, and Columbia University in the USA

LIVER DETOXIFICATION:
For the millions of Americans living with some form of chronic liver disease, preventing the progression of liver inflammation and damage is an absolute priority. Whether the liver is infected with a virus, injured by chemicals, suffocated by excessive fat accumulation or under attack from the immune system, the threat of each condition is singular – that the liver will become so damaged that it can no longer sustain life.

The liver has many essential roles, including:

• Helping fight infections
• Cleaning the blood of toxins
• Aiding food digestion
• Storing energy for when it is needed
• Manufacturing necessary chemicals

While a healthy liver can grow new cells after it has been damaged, those with chronic liver disease may be unable to regenerate new cells. If a person with liver disease suffers from repeated liver cell injury, his or her liver’s ability to perform its functions (and thus support life) can deteriorate quickly. In addition, obstructions in the liver’s bile duct can cause a backup of bile and waste products in the liver – contributing to congestion and liver damage. Thus, anything that helps ward off liver damage or that upholds the liver’s ability to function optimally can help those with liver disease maintain their health.

Curcumin has been proven to increase the solubility of bile, that is, it makes it dissolve more easily. Bile is a fluid produced by the liver that helps you digest fats, but when the liver or gall bladder becomes congested, this fluid can harden, forming gall stones. Taking curcumin daily has been shown to eliminate up to 80% of gall stones in just a few weeks. It will also help prevent them from forming in the first place.

Outside of the U.S., scientific progress has recently demonstrated curcumin’s value to those with liver disease. Published in the April 2010 edition of the journal Gut, researchers from Austria found that feeding curcumin to mice reduced the types of inflammation that can cause liver cell damage, blockage and scarring.

In their effort to evaluate curcumin’s efficacy at delaying liver disease progression, the research team led by Michael Trauner of the Gastroenterology and Hepatology division at the Medical University Graz in Austria, analyzed tissue and blood samples from mice with chronic liver inflammation before and after adding curcumin to their diet for four or eight weeks. They found that mice on a curcumin-containing diet:

Had significantly reduced bile duct blockage
Had less liver cell damage and scarring

The researchers concluded these effects were due to curcumin interfering with the chemical signaling pathways involved in inflammation. We are still waiting for confirmation about curcumin’s value to the liver in well-constructed, human studies.

DIGESTIVE DISORDERS:
Curcumin is a biologically active substance present in turmeric and has pharmacological actions that might benefit patients with digestive disorders, such as ulcerative colitis and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

In an October 2009 review article appearing in “Molecular Nutrition and Food Research,” the authors evaluated current research into the use of curcumin and other dietary constituents on inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract. They report that there is good evidence indicating anti-inflammatory actions of curcumin at relatively high dosages to attenuate certain types of colitis in experimental animal models.

The January 2009 issue of the “British Journal of Nutrition” published an article detailing the efficacy of curcumin on the pathogenesis of IBD. The authors report that curcumin has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, but the specific mechanisms of this compound in unclear. They conducted an experiment using multi-drug resistant mice, which develop inflammation of the intestine similar to IBD, to study diet/gene interactions and potential effects of curcumin. They found that curcumin significantly reduced histological signs of colonic inflammation, and analyses suggest that the effect of dietary curcumin on colon inflammation could be via an up-regulation of xenobiotic metabolism, such as drugs foreign to an organism’s normal biochemistry, and a down-regulation of pro-inflammatory pathways. These results indicate the potential of gene expression and pathway analyses to better understand the effect of foods on colonic inflammation.

A study published in the December 2006 issue of “Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology” assessed the efficacy of curcumin as a therapy for patients with ulcerative colitis, which is an inflammation of the colon. The researchers selected patients for a randomized trial and created two groups: one was treated with anti-inflammatory medication and curcumin twice a day for six months, where the second group received the same medications and a placebo in place of the curcumin. They found that less than 5 percent of the experimental group had a recurrence of the condition compared to more than 20 percent of the control group receiving the placebo. They concluded that curcumin seems to be a promising and safe medication for maintaining remission in patients with ulcerative colitis, but cautioned that further studies need to be conducted to reinforce these findings.

WEIGHT LOSS:
Although there’s no substitute for diet and exercise when it comes to weight loss, there’s growing evidence that Curcumin may slightly increase the rate at which fat is burned, according to a recent study published in the Journal of Nutrition.

In a study entitled, “Curcumin Effects on Weight Loss” mice were fed a high fat diet for twelve weeks while being supplemented with curcumin. The researchers were surprised to find that although the mice ate the same amount of food while on the curcumin supplement, they lost both weight and body fat. It was also observed that levels of a growth factor known as vascular endothelial growth factor needed for the growth of fat tissue was decreased by the curcumin supplementation. As an aside, the mice were noted to have a decrease in their cholesterol levels at the end of the twelve week period. At least according to this study, curcumin for weight loss appears to have potential, although these curcumin effects need to be confirmed in humans.

It is unclear what accounted for curcumin’s effect on weight loss in this study. It’s thought that it may interfere with one of the enzymes needed for building fat tissue. Some studies have also shown that curcumin lowers insulin resistance, thereby decreasing the risk of type 2 diabetes. The ability to lower insulin resistance may also partially account for its ability to promote fat loss.

WOUND HEALING:
Curcumin has been traditionally used in wound healing. Tissue repair and wound healing are complex processes that involve a series of structural changes in the tissue. These include inflammation, granulation, and remodeling of the tissue. The effect of curcumin on wound healing was studied and found to heal more rapidly as compared to untreated controls. Several areas within the dermis showed extensive development of new blood vessels, and greater collagen deposition in curcumin-treated wounds.