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There is no doubt that turmeric has hit mainstream medicine and for good reason. Over 8,000 research citations are available on the National Library of Medicine regarding turmeric. That’s a lot of research! But way before there was research, there was thousands of years of use of turmeric as medicine.
Turmeric is among the tens of thousands of natural products produced by plants as natural defense mechanisms against disease and infection. For these reasons, plant medicine such as turmeric makes a lot of sense for helping prevent and treat inflammatory diseases.
In this post, learn about the vast benefits of turmeric, how to use turmeric, potential side effects, and some highly absorbable brands of turmeric.
Table of Contents
What Makes Turmeric Special?
Containing over 100 potent compounds, turmeric’s benefits are related to its curcumin, zingiberene, β-sesquiphellandrene, zedoaronediol, and curlone among many other healing components. Complex plants like turmeric have synergistic effects because of their complex makeup. Many turmeric supplements are curcumin extracts because of its well-known anti-inflammatory effects.
Is Curcumin Better Than Turmeric?
One of the main compounds in turmeric is curcumin. Many research studies use curcumin and for this reason, it’s hard to know if one is better than the other. Supplement manufacturers are using curcumin in different formulations to enhance its absorption. Things that enhance curcumin’s absorption include black pepper (Bioperine), and emulsions with fat or phospholipids. There are a lot of fancy names for these formulations that increase the absorption of curcumin but they essentially all enhance absorption. This includes nanoformulations, micelles, microemulsions, nanoemulsions, solid dispersions, and micronization.
Having turmeric with ginger creates a synergistic effect, which means that combined, they work better than either do separately. The same goes for turmeric and boswellia; they enhance each other.
The 16 Benefits of Turmeric
The benefits of turmeric extend to the whole body. Here are some highlights of what turmeric can do.
Alleviates Arthritis: A review of 16 clinical trials concludes that turmeric reduces knee osteoarthritis as well as ibuprofen and other NSAIDS with less side effects. For arthritis in general, pain reduction equivalent to pain medication resulted and was equivalent pain relief for people with arthritis to pain medication without the risks of pain medications.
Helps with Colitis: 7 clinical studies including 380 patients demonstrated that a combination of curcumin and conventional treatment improved chances of clinical remission by almost 3-fold over placebo and reduced colitis symptoms quite significantly. The curcumin therapy increased the abundance of butyrate-producing bacteria, which led to increased fecal butyrate levels. Several compilation studies have demonstrated the same thing-that curcumin helps improve remission rates in people with ulcerative colitis. As a bonus, turmeric relaxes the muscles of the small intestine, thereby reducing pain and discomfort with colitis.
Improves gallbladder health: turmeric may help reduce the formation of gallstones because it helps increase bile flow from the gallbladder.
Reduces muscle fatigue and reduces muscle soreness in young athletes by reducing inflammation. In fact, a review of 14 clinical studies concluded that turmeric reduces muscle damage, muscle soreness, inflammation levels and increases range of motion.
Heart benefits: turmeric helps cardiovascular health by reducing blood pressure, decreasing inflammation, increasing antioxidants, and improving blood vessel health. It also has metabolic benefits because it helps to lower blood glucose, reduce insulin resistance, and may help with treatment of type 2 diabetes.
Gout: many early research studies indicate that turmeric may reduce symptoms of gout by reducing inflammation but more research in humans is needed to prove this out.
Reduces polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) symptoms: turmeric helps to regulate the menstrual cycle and improve ovarian health in women, especially those with PCOS. It does so in numerous ways, but especially because it helps regulate insulin and glucose levels in the body.
Helps PMS and painful periods: Turmeric helps keep women’s menstrual periods more manageable according to a compilation study of 5 clinical research evaluations.
Nerve pain: many clinical and preclinical research studies indicated that turmeric can help prevent and possibly help treat nerve pain.
Inflammatory eye diseases-turmeric may help protect against corneal, uveal, retinal, optic nerve, and orbital inflammatory disorders. By reducing inflammation, turmeric also helps manage dry eye symptoms.
Improves Memory: a systematic review of clinical trials demonstrated that turmeric helps improve memory in people without dementia, and in those people who are metabolically impaired, cognitively impaired, mood impaired, and chemotherapy impaired individuals.
Liver health benefits: a meta-analysis of 31 clinical trials concluded that turmeric helps improve liver function tests. Turmeric helps improve liver detoxification of toxins as well. However, if you have a history of genetic liver injury, turmeric may cause liver damage according to a few case reports.
May help prevent kidney issues: turmeric reduces inflammation naturally so it is a tool that helps improve kidney function numbers in people with inflammatory conditions such as arthritis according to a review of 14 studies. Turmeric also reduces loss of protein in the urine called proteinuria so it may benefit people with chronic kidney disease.
Lung Health: by reducing inflammation, turmeric may help improve lung function, but more research is needed.
Depression: a meta-analysis of 9 clinical trials concluded that turmeric reduces symptoms of depression and anxiety.
Cancer risk reduction: many clinical trials demonstrate curcumin’s effectiveness in helping prevent and manage several cancer types, including chronic myeloid leukemia, breast cancer, lung, multiple myeloma, brain cancers, prostate cancer, colon cancer, gastric cancer, endometrial carcinoma, and head and neck cancer types.
How to Use Turmeric
Turmeric is a great spice to use in recipes of many kinds. From sweet to savory dishes, turmeric is a wonderful add-on to many recipes. It tastes great in soups, curries, rice, stews, stir fry dishes, and more. Additionally, you can use it medicinally by taking turmeric capsules, teas, or tinctures.
Turmeric Side Effects
Used for thousands of years as a spice and natural medicine, turmeric is generally recognized as safe. Doses as high as 8 grams daily have been used over 2-3 month periods in research. Most people find that lower doses are effective. Occasionally, people feel digestive issues with turmeric such as nausea or diarrhea at higher doses. For curcumin in enhanced absorption forms, doses are generally 500-600 mg per day are used.
If you have a history of genetic liver injury related to the HLA-B*35:01 gene you should avoid taking turmeric supplements. If you are pregnant, turmeric is safe to use in cooking but little is known about supplementation so it is best to avoid supplements. There is also a case report of kidney stones with turmeric use, but this appears to be very rare. Always make sure to ask your healthcare provider before starting turmeric supplements.
Turmeric Brands
Several reputable brands of turmeric supplements are formulated for optimal absorption and get great ratings.
Fullscript has the most affordable options including Thorne Curcumin Phytosome and Integrative Therapeutics Theracurmin
Happy Saffron Plus contains a potent blend of saffron and turmeric as Longvida® form
Body Health Relief contains high-potency extracts of Turmeric, Boswellia, and Ginger
Amazon Options:
- Sports Research Turmeric Curcumin C3 Complex
- THORNE Curcumin Phytosome
- Integrative Therapeutics Theracurmin HP
