Turmeric may be the most effective nutritional supplement that you can come across. Most studies show that turmeric brings major benefits to both your body and brain. The main active ingredient that brings these health benefits is curcumin. This bright orange spice is more than just an ingredient in curry.
It has several health benefits, which makes it suitable for you. Apart from health benefits, this orange spice also influences the taste, color, and nature of any food you combine it with. Its anti-inflammatory properties have made this tropical plant receive a lot of press coverage.
Here are some of the potential health benefits of turmeric and curcumin:
Turmeric May Protect You Against Heart Disease
Curcumin improves the health of the thin membrane that covers the inside of your heart and blood vessels. This membrane helps in regulating blood pressure in your body. Curcumin also improves endothelial function as low endothelial may increase the risk of heart disease.
This makes curcumin protect you against age-related problems, resulting from low endothelial, hence reducing your chances of developing heart disease. Both curcumin and aerobic exercise help improve endothelial function. Curcumin can effectively improve your endothelial function if you have type 2 diabetes.
Curcumin Helps to Ease Arthritis Symptoms
Turmeric curcumin has strong anti-inflammatory properties, which helps it ease inflammation and swelling in people with arthritis. It helps to reduce painful symptoms in people with arthritis. Curcumin is also effective in reducing pain in people suffering from osteoarthritis.
So if you’re suffering from osteoarthritis and looking for safe and effective long-term treatment, then try out turmeric and curcumin. Just taking 50 mg curcumin per kg in your body will help you slow the progression of osteoarthritis. A topical curcumin treatment may also provide pain relief.
Turmeric Helps Prevent Alzheimer’s Disease
While researchers are still looking for the exact cause of Alzheimer’s disease, turmeric can prevent this complication. Your body might contain antioxidants that can cause Alzheimer’s disease. However, turmeric antioxidants might prevent the damage, reducing Alzheimer’s disease.
Turmeric increases the levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor, a protein in the brain and spinal cord that help in keeping your nerve cells healthy. The neurotrophic factor also regulates communication between nerve cells, which is crucial for learning and memory. And that’s where turmeric curcumin comes in to help in delaying and even reversing brain degeneration. However, you need to wait for more research to confirm the effectiveness of turmeric in preventing and treating common brain diseases.
Turmeric Plays a Role in Treating Depression
Just like Alzheimer’s, depression is also associated with lower levels of BDNF. But thanks to the introduction of turmeric curcumin. This spice can act as an effective antidepressant. For example, when doing research, people were randomized into three groups. The first group took Prozac, the other group took 1 gram of curcumin, and the last group took both curcumin and Prozac.
After several weeks, a group that took both Prozac and curcumin became the best. And that’s where curcumin became an effective antidepressant. It’s also evident that curcumin can boost your brain’s neurotransmitters, serotonin, and dopamine.
Prevent Eye Degeneration
People over the age of 60 years may experience blindness due to an eye condition called glaucoma. In some instances, you cannot restore your vision once it is gone. But thanks to topical curcumin, you can protect your eyes against degeneration without incurring a lot of expenses.
For example, the researchers tried the curcumin solution on two rats twice per day for about three weeks. At the end of their study, the untreated rats experienced a lower percentage in reducing retinal cells. This wasn’t the case with the treated rats. The findings look impressive; you need to do more research to determine if this spice effectively prevents eye degeneration.
You May Use Turmeric and Curcumin as an Anti-Aging Supplement
Even though there is no evidence showing that curcumin can directly influence longevity, it can still protect your body against several elements. Turmeric curcumin supplement boasts the ability to fight inflammation and protect your body against free radicals. The spice also can delay brain degeneration and any other age-related diseases. It’s also a great joint pain relief.
This makes it an effective anti-aging supplement. Despite having some negative side effects, especially if you take it in large quantities, turmeric curcumin is the safest spice that you can ever have.
The spice can Protect Your Body from Free Radicals
Thanks to antioxidants, you don’t have to worry about any damage caused by free radicals. Free radicals are highly reactive that generates from your body. These free radicals also come from environmental pollutants such as cigarette smoke and industrial chemicals.
Exposing yourself to these free radicals can mess with fats, proteins, and DNA in your body, leading to several common diseases and health conditions. Some common disorders that free radicals might cause include arthritis, cancer, Alzheimer’s, and heart disease.
That said, antioxidant-rich spices such as turmeric and curcumin may help in protecting your body from free radical damage. Turmeric is capable of scavenging different types of free radicals. The spice can also control enzymes that neutralize free radicals. The spice also prevents some enzymes from creating free radical types.
Turmeric May Improve Your Skin Health
Turmeric boasts of having various properties, ranging from anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, and antioxidant. This makes turmeric effectively treat various skin conditions, including eczema, acne, photoaging, and psoriasis. However, it still needs some robust research to cement this finding.
Some studies show that it’s effective and safe to use oral curcumin to treat psoriasis, a chronic inflammatory skin disease. But you need to take in more studies before considering any recommendations. On the other hand, topical curcumin can be useful in treating skin disorders and pain relief. Even taking topical curcumin in higher doses can help you deal with skin disorders.
However, bright yellow-orange color curcumin may not be suitable for topical skin treatment. A poor soluble and poor stability at a high pH may also be an unappealing topical skin treatment.
Prevent and Even Treat Cancer
Inflammation is highly linked to tumor growth. This makes compounds such as curcumin play a role in treating and preventing various types of cancer. There are many different forms of cancer, including pancreatic, prostate, breast, colorectal and gastric cancers.
Curcumin is a beneficial supplement that can affect cancer growth and development. Curcumin can contribute to the death of cancerous cells. It also helps to reduce the growth of new blood vessels in the tumor. The spice can also reduce the spread of cancer.
It doesn’t matter which amount you take, but any absorption enhancer like piperine can help you treat cancer. Curcumin may also prevent cancer from occurring in the first place, especially colorectal cancer. However, the study is still ongoing to validate these studies.
Prevent and Treat Diabetes
Turmeric curcumin supplement may help treat and even prevent diabetes and diabetes disorders such as diabetic nephropathy. Curcumin supplements can treat both type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes.
Thanks to anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties, curcumin may help prevent diabetes. Turmeric curcumin may also improve many factors that can lead to diabetes, such as insulin resistance, high blood pressure, and hyperlipidemia.
Turmeric May Support Your Immune System
Curcumin may act as an immune modulator that helps to influence important immune cells. Those immune cells include T cells, Natural Killer cells, and B cells. Curcumin also helps to down-regulate pro-inflammatory compounds. This supplement may also enhance your antibody response. It also helps your body fight off infection, plus controlling allergies.
The Bottom Line
Turmeric curcumin is scientifically proven to have plenty of health benefits. Its anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties boast several health benefits. The benefits range from improved heart health, cancer treatment, joint pain relief, and help improve symptoms of depression and arthritis.