How to Use Curcumin Effectively

The benefits of curcumin are not limited to supporting remission from cancer, enhancing brain health, protecting the heart, and lowering iron levels. Curcumin has also been found to be helpful in conditions as diverse as diabetes and brain aneurysms.

Continuing the list, the benefits of curcumin include:

• As mentioned above, protecting against brain aneurysms. Higher levels of curcumin in the bloodstream are associated with higher production of an enzyme called plasma catalase. This enzyme protects against the formation of potentially fatal aneurysms in the brain. I am extremely familiar with this effect. I have a brain aneurysm myself. It has been stable since I have been taking curcumin.
• Curcumin helps the body fight infections of bacteria that have tough outer walls, such as staph and strep.
• Curcumin creams help lighten age spots and smooth out wrinkles. It's important to buy a product that is packaged in a tube, not a jar, so the antioxidant power of the curcumin in the cream is not spent fighting oxidation from exposure to the air.
• Curcumin lowers the production of another enzyme in saliva called amylase. This enzyme breaks down starch into sugar. When you have less amylase in your saliva, you have less sugar in your mouth. Your digestive tract has to work just a little harder to release it from starchy foods, your blood sugar levels don't go up and then down as abruptly, and you may have just a little less risk of tooth decay.
• Curcumin reduces inflammation. It helps relieve joint pain. It also slightly relieves accumulation of fluid in fatty tissue, maybe enough to make a difference of a pound or two (up to about 1 kilo) in your weight.

It simply helps your body finish the job of healing that your own good health practices, your own good diet, and medical intervention start. Moreover, not every curcumin product is appropriate for every health goal. Here are some important distintions.

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• If you are especially interested in using curcumin for brain health, you will get the best results from a kind of curcumin sold commercially as Longvida. Developed by doctors at Ohio State University, this product bonds curcumin to a fatty acid. The fatty acid helps it slip past the liver and keeps the curcumin in its original, natural form. It is much easier for the brain to absorb curcumin when it hasn't been chemically changed by the liver. Longvida is found in product sold in the EU under the brand name Nutrivene and in the US under the brand name NOW Foods.
• Curcumin is not a good idea if you suffer iron-deficiency anemia. That is because it activates a gene that codes a protein that literally sucks iron out of the bloodstream. For many people, lowering iron levels is actually a good thing. People who have hereditary chromatosis or beta-thalassemia may find that curcumin is a useful alternative to much more expensive chelation therapies and blood donation. However, if you are anemic, don't take curcumin or turmeric.
• Curcumin is useful in almost every situation a cancer patient may face, except in advanced colon cancer. Curcumin does not cure cancer, but there is solid evidence from clinical trials at Baylor Medical School that it prolongs survival, and it may make it possible to beat cancer with fewer toxic drugs.