Turmeric is a very ancient herb with 4000-5000 years of history with both the Chinese culture as well as the Ayurvedic medicine in India. Today, as an average person reading all of this information, you have to be very cautious to recognize that a lot of this information claiming to be testing turmeric, which is a whole plant and a whole food, many are making isolates.

Once, one enters the field of isolates, the supportive structures of the plant are no longer there and like many other isolates, toxicity occurs and one has to watch carefully how much one consumes before one reaches the toxic levels. This is why so many people are always promoting whole foods, whole herbs, and not isolates.

You will now start noticing reports that turmeric has potential toxicities and you can automatically assume that when you read the details in these scientific reports, that you will find an isolate being used rather than the whole food.

Like many other articles that I have written about white sugar and white Stevia sugar, these sugars are harmful to the body because they are isolates. Yet, sugar cane and Stevia plant are highly nutritious, extremely health beneficial in their wholesome state.

So the moral of the story is, make sure that you are buying WHOLE FOOD. This is why I ferment turmeric with additional organic and inorganic trace minerals so that the unfortunate naturally occurring mineral deficiencies does not lower the medicinal properties that are (Cathy, we are looking for a word that would mean present from the beginning.) inheritent in turmeric.

Here is a wonderful article on Turmeric and its benefits I hope you will enjoy.

TURMERIC – BY JACQUELINE STRAX

Turmeric, also called curcumin, has been used in Asian cookery for thousands of years. Powder ground from the dried root is an ingredient in curry. Turmeric is one of the cheaper spices and makes a vivid splash of color, so it gets heaped into low-market curry blends as fill. Not such a bad idea.

Turmeric holds a high place in Ayurvedic medicine as a “cleanser of the body” and today science is finding a growing list of diseased conditions which turmeric’s active ingredient heals. Broad interest in curcumin’s antiinflammatory effects is increasing.

Researchers are examining curcumin as a possible immunsystem stimulator that can modulate the activation of T cells, B cells, macrophages, neutrophils, natural killer cells, and dendritic cells; downregulate various proinflammatory cytokines and chemokines, and enhance antibody responses. This acivity, write M. D. Anderson researchers G. C. Jaggetia and B.B. Aggerwal, suggests “that curcumin’s reported beneficial effects in arthritis, allergy, asthma, atherosclerosis, heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, and cancer might be due in part to its ability to modulate the immune system. Together, these findings warrant further consideration of curcumin as a therapy for immune disorders. (J Clin Immunol. 2007 Jan;27(1):19-35).

A Little Dab

Most North Americans consume only miniscule traces of turmeric, say, by way of mustard lavished on meats of iffy provenance. Bright yellow mustards like French’s “classic American” contain, labels say, “no more than 2 per cent” turmeric, paprika and other spices (as if more would adulterate the product). Mustard itself is medicinal. But that gaudy, store-bought, hot-dog-stand glow comes from curcumin, the intense yellow pigment in turmeric. And curcumin protects the stomach against tainted foods. According to University of Chicago scientists, curcumin inhibits a cancer-provoking bacteria (H. pylori) associated with gastric and colon cancer (Magad GB, Anticancer Res. 2002 Nov-Dec;22(6C):4179-81).

On the margins, so some biologists say, eco-diversity sprouts. Today curcumin is on a margin between ancient food customs and cutting-edge medicine. In suburban cuisine it can brighten and glorify nutritious foods (cauliflower, white fish). At ballpark, beach and food mall a dab of “hidden” curcumin helps carnivore bellies lower risks from gorging on over-handled broiled oddments. In Asia the root and powder are used in cooking, home remedies and medicine: to gild and help preserve festive dishes and in drinks, ointments and poultices to treat sore throat, sprains, inflammation and wounds. In the lab, scientists are dosing rats with curcumin to measure its effects on cancer.

Prostate Cancer Patients Go For the Gold

Turmeric lore in recent decades drifted outwards from Asian diaspora communities in European cities like Leicester, UK. Local researchers and cancer patients listened up.

Clusters of men on Internet prostate cancer support groups (notably Don Cooley’s lists) began seriously experimenting with turmeric to cope with a troublesome side-effect of androgen-suppression therapy, gynecomastia (sore swollen breasts). Most men who take antiandrogen drugs like Flutamide (Eulexin) or Casodex experience this breast swelling, which can be painful. Gynecomastia can occur also with use of finasteride(Proscar), prescribed for BPH (benign growth of the prostate) and now under discussion as a chemo-preventive for prostate cancer. Before starting Casodex some patients opt to receive a brief course of radiation to the breasts. Others have tried low-dose tamoxifen, which raises levels of circulating estradiol. Then there are the turmeric warriors, who report that dietary intake of turmeric (in salads, soups and sandwiches made with fresh root) and use of curcumin paste externally brings some relief.

Still more intriguingly, University of Leicester began investigating dietary agents including curcumin, genistein, and the vitamin A analogue 13-cis retinoic acid for tumor-suppressing properties (Br J Clin Pharmacol 1998 Jan;45(1):1-12;update Toxicol Lett 2000 Mar 15;112-113:499-505). They observed that curcumin slows the rate at which hormone-responsive prostate cancer cells become resistant to hormonal therapy.

Antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-carcinogenic properties of turmeric and curcumin are undergoing intense research. Tests in Germany, reported July 2003,found that “All fractions of the turmeric extract preparation exhibited pronounced antioxidant activity….” Turmeric extract tested more potent than garlic, devil’s claw, and salmon oil [ J Pharm Pharmacol. 2003 Jul;55(7):981-6].

Biochemists in China reported January 2007 that month that curcumin “downregulates homeobox gene NKX3.1 in prostate cancer cell LNCaP” and could also dampen the androgen receptor’s sensitivity to this gene. Independent studies have found that the Nkx3.1 homeobox gene has a key role in the prostate and may be implicated in startup of prostate cancer.

 

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