Curcumin: Widely-Studied for Pain & Disease

Volumes of scientific research papers confirm that curcumin, which is an active phytochemical found in turmeric, is a powerful antioxidant with exceptional anti-inflammatory properties. In fact, curcumin is the most widely-studied phytochemical today, and the topic of no less than three-million published studies. So everyone should learn a little bit about it!

If you like Indian food, you are familiar with curry, the golden yellow powder that is a common ingredient in Indian cuisine. Curry is made from the large-leafed turmeric rhizome (a plant stem that grows underground). You probably have turmeric in your kitchen’s spice cabinet, and while it is healthy and delicious to use turmeric and curry in your cooking, you would have to consume mountains of the stuff every day to see any healing benefit.

Curcumin in its common form is not very absorbable by the human body. New procedures now allow manufacturers to process curcumin and make it up to ten times more bioavailable. There are several brands on the market, each using different proprietary methods, but producing the same result: curcumin with superior absorption and blood retention. (Be wary of cheap turmeric supplements that only contain 2% – 5% curcumin.)

Since oxidative damage and inflammation are the cause of both acute and chronic disease, curcumin is a promising non-pharmaceutical. Pain is the warning signal that inflammation is present, and I often recommend curcumin for pain relief. Unlike a synthetic drug that poisons your body and only alleviates symptoms, curcumin works with your body’s systems to restore natural function.

While pharmaceutical pain-relievers typically work along a single inflammation pathway, all-natural curcumin reduces inflammation by inhibiting or down-regulating five pain producing body enzymes or gene products. But the benefits of curcumin go far beyond pain relief.

Curcumin has been shown to stop cancer initiation, promotion, and progression by stopping the changes that cause normal cells to become cancerous. Published studies have found that it can suppress breast, prostate, liver, skin, colon and lung cancers. It has also been shown to increase the activity of cancer drugs and decrease drug resistance in cells from the toxic effects of chemotherapy drugs and radiation treatments.

As the most-studied phytochemical in the world today, researchers also find curcumin shows promise in treating heart disease, bronchitis, depression, Alzheimer’s disease, rheumatoid arthritis, irritable  bowels, diabetes, leukemia, cirrhosis, psoriasis, asthma, arthritis, and fatigue.

If that all seems a little far-fetched to you, I encourage you to read over the curcumin studies yourself. You can find them on science.naturalnews.com, a free website that is a tremendous resource and one that I use frequently. Users can quickly and easily explore millions of reputable scientific studies available on nutrition, herbs, and supplements.

For most people, their introduction to curcumin begins with a quest to defeat chronic pain and inflammation with an all-natural approach. But according to the research, folks who take curcumin for pain may be getting an even greater benefit than they ever hoped for. The better curcumin supplements on the market come with a full money-back guarantee, so you have nothing to lose but disease and discomfort.