Turmeric

hello I'm dr. ken Linda thanks for watching let's talk about turmeric turmeric or Indian saffron it comes from a plant known as curcuma they're more than a hundred different species of the plant so we have Curcuma longa that's the best known cook in the aromatic of human doméstica all related to ginger they grow perennial e throughout India and Bangladesh and Myanmar and China and Nigeria seems they also grow in Central America grows where the area's tropical in nature temperature averages 70 to 90 degrees lots of annual rainfall sales and turmeric supplements are booming worldwide 50% of the sales are here in the United States one of the fastest growing dietary supplements increased in sales by about seven fold over just a decade ago it's made from the turmeric root so if we look at the turmeric we tore the rhizome what do we find well we find the poly phenolic compound known as curcumin but curcumin which counts for anywhere between about one and six percent of the root has a bunch of other similar related compounds so we don't really call it just curcumin we call it the curcuma noise so there are at least three different major components then in addition to the curcuma noise the rhizome also has the essential oils that are volatile that gives it the flavor that's about three to seven percent of the content then we have fiber accounting for two to seven percent minerals count for three to seven percent the protein accounts for six to eight percent and then we have the fat that accounts for five to ten percent none of this is active moisture six to 13 percent and then we have carbohydrates but the only medicinal component appears to be the curcuma noise of which curcumin is the most important now in Indian Thailand we have more than 40 different species in each country of this plant plant typically grows to about 3 to 5 feet tall has oblong leave that are though yellow colored flowers we have the route the route is yellowish in color externally but if we cut it and look internally it seems to be a deep orangish reddish-brown color well the rhizomes are collected and they're cleaved and they're boiled and they're dried then they're extracted then they're sold as capsules and tablets and teas and extracts and powders that can be made into pastes for skin conditions used for mouth washes and enemas those are the medicinal and the food preparation products that come from the turmeric will the Javanese turmeric that's a completely different plant different properties so it appears that turmeric is on the generally regarded as safe list it's common use for cooking over the period of many centuries it's a flavor it's major ingredient in curry powder and mustard and other products gives the warm and the bitter taste as a yellow color and the yellow color is frequently used to make cheese yellow and the macaroni and cheese yellow and butter yellow we have people over a period of the past 20 years or so willing to sell you curcumin in the form of tablets for a list of ailments that are longer than anyone's arm from Alzheimer's disease to upset stomach it's good for whatever ails you however curcumin has never been shown to be conclusively effective for any medical condition it's used in ayurvedic medicine traditional Indian medicine for many centuries for many different conditions it's used for asthma and allergies and liver disease and sprains and rheumatism it's used for wounds and cough and sinusitis used for abdominal pain and heart related disorders and now people are using it as dietary supplement and the dietary supplements are being hocked as anti-inflammatory components equivalent to ibuprofen in osteoarthritis used for a variety of stomach and skin and liver and gallbladder ailments intestinal gas used to prevent or to treat cancer used to improve your memory or treat infections and kidney stones decrease cholesterol take care of itch due to kidney failure improve anxiety and depression in insect bites and burns and chicken pox and inflammatory bowel disease Crohn's disease ulcerative colitis it prevents supposedly fatty liver treats inflammation inside the mouth inside the ID uveitis reduces the likelihood of cataracts treats erectile dysfunction baldness it's a fertility booster treats hangovers actually is contraceptive to boot well supposedly it decreases the growth of a variety of cancerous tumors not only does it prevent them it treats them so supposedly improves prostate cancer breast cancer liver cancer leukemia a variety of intestinal cancer and supposedly it also can alter the bacteria of the intestine the microbiota and that can lead to a decrease in peptic ulcer disease inflammatory bowel disease colitis supposedly if you suffer from some sort of an ailment and you're losing weight you have cachexia supposedly helps that too so the spice is generally considered to be safe at a dose of up to about 20 milligrams per serving and that's based on the essential oil the oleoresin that happens to be in turmeric but if we look in the laboratory at the way curcumin which is the medicinal portion supposedly let's see how it operates in the laboratory well it falls into the category of what we've known as the pan assay interference compounds that means it interferes with the readout of an enormous variety of laboratory tests it doesn't do that through specific interaction with the target it just changes the laboratory assay the reading that we get and that gives us false information it also fits into the Imps category the Imps categories invalid metabolic panacea they're about a hundred different compounds that we know of that interfere with a variety of reactions in the laboratory so this particular substance curcumin seems to participate in every undesirable behavior that's possible in the laboratory and that's what leads to so much of the supposed benefit it's poorly absorbed through the intestine it's used in Indian cooking when they heat it in fat to increase the absorption supposedly but it binds to iron in the gastrointestinal tract and because it binds to iron it prevents the absorption and that leads to the potential for iron deficiency anemia it's rapidly metabolized in both the liver and the intestine if it happens to get there goes through extensive first pass metabolism so that would mean that you have to have about 4,000 milligrams or more than four grams of the substance that you consume in order to find any in the plasma well supposedly if you add a little bit of black pepper that's going to be able to increase the absorption so it's often sold with some black pepper and a ratio of a hundred parts curcumin to 20 parts to one part of the black pepper and how'd they get that idea well it was an Indian company that sells the spices that came up with the idea and they supposedly did some laboratory tests they did some laboratory tests and and that's what they found Wow supposedly the black pepper works by increasing the intestinal absorption and decreasing the liver metabolism of curcumin well the substance is known as piperine the piperine is the product in the pepper that supposedly gives us this miraculous benefit anyway so they're trying to find other substances that might increase the absorption so they're looking at liposomal encapsulation and nano particles and making certain emotions and sustained release form and complexing it with this uhrin and the phospholipids all to get more of the substance in the body but right now it doesn't seem to be very much that can be absorbed well what could be the potential side effects of taking the curcumin or the turmeric well there could be a lot of potential side effects so nausea an upset stomach and diarrhea are not that uncommon some people if they get it on the skin can get a contact urticaria or eczema suppose they can decrease the testosterone decrease the sperm motility and some people causes difficulty breathing allergen reaction with swelling in the face and the tongue and the lips can increase the oxalic level in the system and if you have too much of oxalate that can lead to the formation of kidney stones but probably most importantly it can decrease the iron absorption and if it decreases the iron absorption it may predispose to anemia of iron deficiency and it's associated with at times either a hepatitis or a change in the conduction system of the heart well drug-induced liver injury zlote all that uncommon in cases are reported from turmeric or from the curcumin and it can seemingly decrease the effectiveness certain kind of chemotherapy in treating breast cancer so that's obviously an important factor if it prevents the breast cancer cells from dying and it also seems that it interferes with certain kind of chemotherapy like cytoxan and doxorubicin and arena tea can can interfere with tacrolimus that's used as medicine to prevent organ rejection and people have transplant increases the level more side-effects increases the toxicity from taxol taxall is a medicine that's routinely used for cancer chemotherapy well it can cause it cause more liver damage now it's often sold as an herbal supplement and unfortunately it doesn't have any specific manufacturing regulations or standards so that means some of the supplements are going to contain metals toxic metals and it could potentially lead to an increase in bleeding especially if you combine it with the nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs or aspirin or certain other kind of products so it suggested that if you're taking the turmeric are there curcumin that you stopped at a couple weeks before you have some dental work or surgery and also probably not a good idea to take it with other compounds that might lead to increased bleeding maybe like some evening primrose oil or a garlic or ginger or gingko or even saw palmetto and it seems that the substance the curcumin might inhibit certain drug metabolizing enzymes so even if it could get into the body it might cause other drugs that you take to build up in the system because they can't be metabolized correctly so that's obviously a very important issue since about 50% of all of the medicines are metabolized through those liver enzymes that might be impacted by the curcumin and it can also lead to an increase in the concentration of versed or verapamil in your system for pregnancy and lactation we don't have any information on whether it's safe or not but there are reports where curcumin has been used as an abortifacient and stimulates uterine contraction so probably not a good substance to take at medicinal level flavor level spice levels probably okay now we have problem where people are getting a little bit ahead of the game here on what they're using the turmeric for so there was just recently a case where a young San Diego woman who had eczema went to see her naturopath and the naturopath injected her intravenously with turmeric and she died of cardiopulmonary arrest well the naturopaths claimed that IV turmeric can be an efficient use for certain kind of medicines effective use efficient use for inflammatory bowel disease and diabetes and Alzheimer's disease and blood disorders and cancer in fact they're advertising a one-hour infusion of turmeric for $200 after you go through an initial evaluation that cost about 200 to 400 dollars they say it's safe and tolerable and it's non-toxic even at high doses obviously all false well if you go by a supplement chances are it's gonna be about 500 milligrams take it one to three times a day you think of with or without food does it work hmm probably not it's been tried at doses up to 8,000 milligrams every day now we've got to remember that most of the substance that supposedly is going to be medicinally active is going to be there curcumin now have any tests been done with the curcumin yes some have and they found that 1,500 milligrams of curcumin and 15 milligrams of black pepper supposedly was as good as ibuprofen it a dose of 1200 milligrams a day or glucosamine for pain pain of osteoarthritis or muscle soreness after exercise post-operative pain dental pain after you had your moles removed hmm doubtful on that one an interesting study was done at multiple different institutions it looked at about 600 patients who were having elective surgery for a under aorta and what they found was that supplementing people with turmeric there curcumin didn't provide any benefits as far as heart attacks after surgery or kidney injury or death was concerned and just recently an article was published in molecular nutrition and food research in May of 2018 they looked at 87 unique turmeric dietary supplements and they found that about 60% didn't meet the USP criteria for turmeric derivatives they found that there was a suggestion that synthetic curcumin was being used they found lead in one of the products they found residues of toxic class 1 class 2 solvents and more than 70% of the products that's important because those are the substances that can lead the injury and unfortunately cancer at two high doses over too long a period of time they found that about 50% of the products that they examined had chemicals added that supposedly enhanced the bioavailability the piperine that's the stuff from the black peppers that was in back 25% of the product but the variation was 13 fold in other words there was about a 1,300 percent variation of the product no matter the piperine and they found that most of the products that had the piperine weren't even labeled as having it well they also found those solvents solvents were detected in basically all of the products a median number of solvents was 2 per product and 1 in 7 product contained more than 4 solvents now these solvents are carcinogenic class one or toxic class 2 solvents they were in 70% toluene was in 70% that's in paint thinners and glue and cement and permanent markers that substance can lead to tiredness and confusion and weakness and memory loss in nausea it also found about 50% of the products contained the class 3 solvent ethyl acetate so the researchers find that LED levels are present in the turmeric supplements about 500 fold more than the natural limits seems that people had led to turmeric so the way they found that out was a researcher from Stanford University went over to Bangladesh and evaluated the product from seven of nine distributors evaluated nine distributors and found that in the seven of the nine distributors the turmeric had added lead-based yellow pigment and that yellow pigment with the LED is toxic to the brain decreases the IQ direct disrupts normal development since 2011 about twelve or more brands of turmeric from Bangladesh and India been recalled because of excessive lead but remember they're not routinely examined not routinely evaluated by any governmental organization so that means that more than twelve products were just tested at random that means that they're probably missing the majority of product why do they add the lead they add the lead because it's yellow and there's a consumer demand for yellow compounds so led-based yellow or chromate pigment is used as an adulterant in seven of the nine distributors and they added during the polishing things that that practice began only about thirty years ago and that was a way to take some of the poor quality route and increase the profit the individuals who were adding it is there poor people who are uneducated and they add the product they don't even know that the lead is a neurotoxin they just satisfied the wholesalers now one in six of the products with curcumin has more than 90% of curcumin rather than just the curcuma noise but we know that the curcumin only accounts for about 50 to 60 percent of the content of the curcuma noise so what's that mean that means that in a significant number of products that you buy they use synthetic curcumin so synthetic curcumin because the concentration isn't exactly correct so what does that mean as far as bioequivalence what does that mean as far as you're taking it what's that mean as far as it being healthy or not healthy there's no information about the synthetic curcumin whether it's good for you or not once it gets into the body supposedly the metabolism is terrible it's going to go out and about half a minute that's the half life of the product remember the bioavailability is less than 1% can't measure it in most people's bloodstream when they're taking their curcumin we know it's distributed variably in the body it seems to relate more to the preparation that those in the extraction method that's used but remember any absorbed product is going to go out extraordinary rapidly especially in the feces more so than in the urine so the chemical is practically insoluble in water at room temperature and a neutral pH going to degrade by exposure to light auto it oxidizes itself and unfortunately it's chemically unstable so the interesting story about the cancer with the curcumin goes back to stories that came out in 2016 the Houston Chronicle they had articles about a prominent Houston scientist who was under investigation at MD Anderson Cancer Center why was he under investigation because of alleged manipulation of research doubt of this gentleman published more than 500 papers in the Medical seven of them were cited more than a thousand times but then a whistleblower alleged the doctor brought a growl he manipulated the data on the anti-cancer properties of the plant derived chemicals especially curcumin that was in 65 publications so one journal the biochemical pharmacology in February of 2016 they retracted seven of his articles that was after another journal Ruth ejected or retracted rather several of the articles two expressed concern multiple Corrections and different journals will dr. agro retired from MD Anderson in 2015 but continues to be active first human subject and clinical trials for curcumin goes back only to 1937 if you go to clinical trials.gov those are all of the trials that are legitimate basically that are being done in a country and we find that curcumin is being done in 170 different trials 14 or complete information not available in most of them turmeric and forty three trials three of them are complete they overlap significantly between the turmeric and curcumin studies the studies are generally small the results where they are published not particularly encouraging no curcumin trial has ever reported any convincing positive results consumers reports in October of 2019 tested turmeric and echinacea and they said that they had concerns over at least one third of the products especially the CVS health turmeric curcumin said higher levels of lead and see that none Consumer Reports standards higher level of bacteria supplements are not held to the same high level as pharmaceutical drugs you can make almost any health claim about these substances Marketing of turmeric is based on small and basically unblinded studies studies where vested interests are involved you talk about well it's a natural product so natural product must be okay tobacco's natural soz arsenic so there's a rattlesnake bite or the bite of a brown recluse spider so natural doesn't necessarily mean healthy well the organization of the natural National Institutes of Health that studies these complimentary substances are these supplements called the NCC IH National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health they say we don't have sufficient reliable information to recommend turmeric or curcumin for any condition the dietary supplement and Education Act 1994 they left the oversight of all these products to the manufacturer they said the FDA should in effect butt out so if you're going to go buy any of the products the least you can do is look for label that smart consumers lab or USP or NSF so at least somebody has done some kind of testing and be aware that the cheaper the product cheaper the turmeric product the more likely it is to contain synthetic curcumin and again we don't know how safe these products are because they contain solvents that are in the class one category that can lead theoretically to cancer they contain lead a little bit of turmeric sprinkled on your latte or in the smoothie well that's probably okay but more a little cautious so turmeric and curcumin more properly the humanoids do we have sufficient information on them to say that they're beneficial yes if we're talking about flavor but does it really improve your health at present it's all hype there is no good scientific information that shows that turmeric or curcumin is beneficial to humans and worse yet it can interfere with certain medicines that you take can cause iron deficiency anemia can cause unwanted bleeding so turf so turmeric and curcumin I think we can say that they're just not ready for primetime anyway thanks for watching do you enjoyed the show please tell a friend consider subscribing so you'll be notified as we post new videos I appreciate your interest I'm dr. ken landau [Music] [Music] [Music]

Channel: wellnowdoctor

Views: 4,367

Rating: 4.6578946 out of 5

Keywords: Turmeric, curcumin, dietary supplement, herbal supplement, iron deficiency, lead contamination, black pepper, cancer treatment or prevention

Id: VT4v_nAastc

Length: 27min 36sec (1656 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 19 2020