Turmeric’s main active ingredient is curcumin, which is responsible for the powder’s bright yellow color. Below, we’ll examine the potential benefits of Turmeric supplements and some of the studies that point to curcumin’s useful properties for human health.
1. Turmeric Has Anti-Inflammatory Properties
When something harms your body—whether it’s an infection, toxin, or injury—your body responds to heal itself. This response includes increased blood flow and the release of proteins and antibodies to the affected area. We call this response inflammation.
Acute inflammation—short-term inflammation in response to something like a cut finger or a common cold—is crucial for ongoing health. However, when this type of response overstays its welcome, it can be detrimental.
Chronic inflammation—when inflammation lingers—leaves your body in a constant state of alert. This results in symptoms like fatigue, depression, body pain, and gastrointestinal complications. Research into chronic inflammation has shown it plays a role in many serious conditions like cancer and strokes.
The main active ingredient of turmeric—curcumin—is a natural anti-inflammatory, and arguably turmeric’s strongest benefit. The reduction of chronic low-level inflammation is considered to play an important role in the treatment of several degenerative disorders and conditions like heart disease.
However, curcumin has low bioavailability, which essentially means it isn’t absorbed into the body particularly well. Supplements that combine curcumin with active components such as piperine—which can boost bioavailability by up to 2000%—increase the potential medical benefits of turmeric.
2. It’s a Strong Antioxidant
Your body produces free radicals—molecules with unpaired electrons—as part of normal cell metabolisms. Because free radicals have an uneven number of electrons, they easily react with other molecules in your body—often setting up powerful chemical chain reactions. These reactions are called oxidation, which can be either beneficial or harmful.
Free radicals can also be created by outside forces—such as exposure to radiation, pollution, pesticides, and cigarette smoke. Too many free radicals can lead to oxidative stress—an imbalance with several serious potential consequences such as high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. It’s also linked with aging.
Antioxidants such as curcumin donate an electron to free radicals in the body, making them less reactive and more stable. So, ensuring your body gets enough antioxidants can help keep free radicals at bay—minimizing or eliminating oxidative stress.
3. Turmeric Combats Heart Disease
As well as its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, it’s thought that curcumin can help improve the function of your blood vessels. This is important because dysfunction in the blood vessels can lead to clotting and poor regulation of blood pressure—strong drivers of heart disease.
Curcumin may even be able to reverse stages of heart disease. Studies of people who have undergone coronary artery bypass surgery showed a significantly decreased risk of a heart attack in those who took curcumin for a few days before and after the surgery.
4. May Prevent the Onset of Alzheimer’s Disease
Alzheimer’s disease makes up the majority of dementia cases. As there is currently no cure for it, prevention is the best medicine. Curcumin’s antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties can be particularly helpful as oxidative damage and inflammation play a role in Alzheimer’s disease.
Curcumin crosses the blood-brain barrier, meaning it’s one of the better options for treating inflammation and oxidative damage in the brain. It’s also thought that the build-up of amyloid plaques in the brain is a significant factor in Alzheimer’s disease—curcumin can assist in clearing these plaques.
These studies don’t prove that curcumin can prevent the onset of Alzheimer’s, but they do show the active ingredient in turmeric has properties that may help. More research is required.
5. Promotes the Life of Neurons in the Brain
Throughout your life, the neurons in your brain are capable of making new connections. In some areas of the brain, neurons can continue to multiply. We now know that one of the driving factors in this is brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF)—a protein-creating gene that promotes the life of neurons.
BDNF is found in areas of the brain responsible for eating, drinking, memory, and learning. A link has also been discovered between many common brain disorders like Alzheimer’s disease and depression and low levels of BDNF.
Animal studies have shown that an increased intake of curcumin has correlated with an increase in the levels of BDNF. This could mean curcumin—and by extension turmeric—can help to delay or reverse these brain diseases.
However, as clinical studies on the effects of increased curcumin intake on BDNF in humans are yet to be performed, this remains a potential benefit rather than a proven one.
6. Benefits for Those with Depression
Depression remains a relatively poorly understood medical problem. It’s often treated with antidepressant medicine fluoxetine (Prozac), which prevents the brain from reabsorbing naturally-occurring serotonin—a chemical messenger believed to act as a mood stabilizer.
A 6-week controlled study of 60 people being treated for depression found that taking curcumin had a significant positive effect. The best results came from participants who took a combination of Prozac and curcumin. However, this is just a single study, so more research is required.
As discussed above, curcumin has the potential to increase BDNF. As reduced levels of BDNF have been linked with depression, turmeric supplements may provide benefits for those suffering from the disorder. Curcumin has also been shown to potentially boost dopamine and serotonin, both important in the treatment of depression.
7. Helps in the Treatment of Arthritis
Arthritis is a term used to cover over 100 types of joint pain and disease. It’s mostly caused by the inflammation or degeneration of your joints and is especially common in older people.
As previously mentioned, the main active ingredient in turmeric supplements is a potent anti-inflammatory compound, so it makes sense that you can take them to treat arthritis symptoms.
Indeed, one study showed various symptoms of arthritis were lessened by curcumin. A study on rheumatoid arthritis found curcumin to be even more effective than an anti-inflammatory drug.
8. Turmeric May Help Prevent Cancer
All cancers are characterized by unchecked cell growth. It’s normal for cells to grow and divide, but cancerous cells grow and divide uncontrollably, spreading to other parts of your body.
There are more than 200 types of cancer, with no cure for any of them. There are various treatments—from chemotherapy to surgery—but cancer is a particularly insidious disease that can return even after treatment.
Curcumin has been shown to reduce the growth and development of cancer. It increases the death of cancerous cells, reduces the spread of the disease, and limits the growth of new blood vessels in tumors.
Turmeric may stop cancer from developing altogether. Cancers of the digestive system are where we see the biggest benefit. For example, lesions in the colon sometimes turn cancerous. A study showed that men who took 4 grams of curcumin daily—over 30 days—saw a 40% reduction in these lesions.
However, curcumin is not a “miracle cure” for cancer. The low absorption of curcumin by the body means it’s not particularly potent. More research is required on how to safely boost the bioavailability of curcumin, but its properties for cancer prevention are attractive.
Conclusion
As an antioxidant, curcumin may offer significant protection against cancer, heart disease, and high blood pressure. Its anti-inflammatory properties have just as wide-reaching implications, with the potential to prevent and treat heart conditions, degenerative conditions, and arthritis.
Curcumin’s Achilles’ heel is its low bioavailability. While it has attractive properties for human health, it’s not absorbed well into the body. But when it’s paired with compounds that increase its bioavailability, curcumin may be an excellent anti-inflammatory and antioxidant supplement to consider.
