Curcumin Precautions

This yellow powder can work wonders in your health. But if you know nothing else, that wonder may turn into nightmares.

THE wonders of curcumin, the active ingredient in kitchen spice turmeric (Curcumin longa), work not only on stews but also in combating inflammatory bowel diseases.

In a previous issue, Breakthroughs gave you the experimental doses that scientists use in their study on curcumin treatments for ulcerative proctitis (ulcer-causing inflammation of the rectum) and Crohn’s disease.

Commercial curcumin, the yellow powders you find packed alone or mixed in powdered curries and mustards, contains 77 percent diferuloymethane (curcumin I), 17 percent demethoxycurcumin (curcumin II), three percent bisdemethoxycurcumin (curcumin III), and a still unknown level of the newly discovered cyclocurcumin.

As promised in that earlier article (i.e. important precautions and contraindications), this week Breakthroughs will cover certain side effects of curcumin that merit the precautionary use of the powder.

In 1999, researchers Rasyid and Lelo noted that a dose of 20 mg constricts the... [Read more.]

This article appears in SunStar Cebu newspaper on 7 September 2011.

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