Turmeric - A Curry Spice with Magical Curative Properties

Indians have been using numerous herbs and spices for thousands of years. It was not all about taste, but the research of the holistic medicine scholars, who developed the Indian recipes that included cures for different health related disorders. I am not going to write about the growing popularity of Indian/Pakistani dishes here, as that is not the topic; but it always makes me feel kind of proud, when I see any new research mentioning the immense medicinal value of one of the spice used in Indian/Pakistani curry. Curry is popular in other parts of the world as well, but the number of spices used in South East Asia is incomparable. Our kitchens literally look like a holistic medicine pharmacy.

Turmeric is the yellow pigment which gives Indian dishes its yellowish color. Recently; many researchers have come up proving its medicinal properties with respect to numerous medical disorders, some of which mentioned below:

Cancer

Turmeric contains a chemical that fights cancer cells. The potential is so great that the scientists are considering making anti-cancer medications form Turmeric. Turmeric contains an ingredient known as 'Curcumin', which triggers the natural process of death in cancer cells called apoptosis. The cancer fighting property is effective in many forms of cancer from breast to skin cancer and especially of the digestive tract. You may find many studies performed in this regard over the Internet.

Alzheimer Disease

A chemical found in Turmeric seed oils ‘curcuminoids’ called ‘bisdemethoxycurcumin’ is found to be helpful in getting rid of the Alzheimer’s brain plaque protein called amyloid beta. They already knew that Alzheimer's makes it hard for immune system cells called macrophages to get rid of amyloid beta. The curry spice chemical helped overcome that problem in the lab tests. The study was done by researchers that included ‘Milan Fiala’, MD, who works at the medical school of the University of California at Los Angles and at the Greater Los Angles Veterans Affairs Medical Center. http://www.webmd.com/alzheimers/news/20070716/curry-spice-may-counter-alzheimers

Heart

An experiment carried out on rats showed that curcumin, an ingredient of the Turmeric spice significantly helped in reducing the risk of heart failure and even inflammation of the heart. Also, in one of the studies, the researchers saw signs that curcumin treatment reversed heart enlargement. The other study didn't include that experiment. Together, the studies suggest that curcumin short-circuited the heart enlargement process, though it's not clear how it did that. http://www.webmd.com/heart-disease/heart-failure/news/20080226/curry-spice-may-thwart-heart-failure

Diabetes

Recent research out of Thailand that was published in Diabetes Care suggested that supplementing curcumin--the active ingredient in the bright yellow, anti-inflammatory spice turmeric--may be protective against diabetes among people with pre-diabetes.

http://news.yahoo.com/stop-diabetes-starting-135240559.html

Depression

In a recent scientific study, curcumin is also found effective in the Depression. It is so effective that scientists compare it with the famous anti-depression drug 'Prozac".

http://health.yahoo.net/experts/dayinhealth/golden-spice-life-brings-health-and-happiness

Skin

The Japanese study proves that Turmeric not only is good for the health of your skin, but also helps delay aging effects and carcinogenic radiation effects.

http://www.naturalnews.com/042908_turmeric_skin_health_radiation_damage.html#