Better Nutrition Spice up your life (and health) with turmeric.

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Spice up your life (and health) with turmeric. Author/s: Liz BrownIssue: May, 2000

If you chow down on curry dishes regularly, give yourself a pat on the back (or tummy). You probably gobble the spicy stuff because it's delicious, but here's another good reason to load curry sauce on your veggies: turmeric, the main ingredient in curry, is proving to have numerous health benefits.

Turmeric, or Curcuma longa, has been used traditionally in Indian Ayurvedic medicine to strengthen overall energy, relieve gas, relieve arthritis and improve digestion, among other uses. It's more commonly known as a spice in Eastern cooking. The same yellow pigment that stains your wooden spoons - curcumin - is the powerful compound in turmeric that's been the focus of most recent research. Investigators are finding that curcumin has antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-carcinogenic (or anti-cancer) properties. Here's the lowdown on some of the most promising research to date.

Cancer

Numerous studies have found that curcumin suppresses the proliferation of cancer cells.

* In one recent study on hamsters with chemically induced tumors, subjects receiving topically applied and orally ingested turmeric and/or curcumin developed significantly less tumors than the control group. Researchers concluded that turmeric or curcumin may have a chemopreventive effect on precancerous lesions of the mouth.

* A second study found that daily turmeric intake for 9 months contributed to regression of precancerous lesions in the mouths of humans. Thus, curcumin may be especially beneficial for smokers.

* Curcumin supplementation inhibited carcinogenesis in the stomach and colon, in mice, in another study.

* Other research showed that curcumin inhibited the growth of estrogenpositive, human breast cancer cells. The researchers asserted that including turmeric in the diet might help prevent hormone-related cancers resulting from environmental pesticide exposure. There's more than one theory on how curcumin protects against cancer. It may encourage apoptosis of cancer cells - in other words, getting the nasty cells to kill themselves off. Curcumin's powerful antioxidant ability is also attributed with the compound's anti-tumor activity. This makes sense, considering that antioxidants scavenge harmful free radicals that can lead to cancer-cell proliferation.

AIDS

* Curcumin and its derivatives have been shown to inhibit a protein secreted by HIV1-infected cells that may encourage the pathogenesis of AIDS. In a controlled clinical study, 18 HIV-positive patients who took 2,000 mg of curcumin daily had increased counts of CD4 immune cells. Pending studies should clarify the potential benefits of curcumin in AIDS patients.

Cholesterol/heart disease

* Turmeric extract may help manage heart disease by decreasing cholesterol levels and other disease risk factors. Animals supplemented with turmeric extract had lower total cholesterol than controls. In a similar study, diabetic rats fed curcumin for 8 weeks experienced decreases in LDL cholesterol, blood triglycerides and phospholipid levels., A higher rate of cholesterol breakdown in curcumin-supplemented rats may help explain the cholesterol-lowering effects.

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