Flame On, Inflame Off

It is good to know that many good things in life are available and can be found in nature. All we need to do is pluck it off, and cook.

CULINARY aficionados relish the wonders of their kitchens. The varieties of the spices they can get their hands on can be exhilarating to the person who loves nothing but cooking food.

But only recently did scientists come to appreciate more the health benefits of these herbs.

One of these is turmeric (either the Curcuma longa, or the C. domestica species). It is often used in powdered form as ingredient in curry and mustard. You can identify it through its characteristic yellow to light yellow-orange color. Its active ingredient is called “curcumin,” or more scientifically precise, “curcuminoids.”

A recent review of all studies on curcumin confirmed its effectiveness against inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). Rebecca Taylor and Mandy Leonard reported in the Alternative Medical Review this year that a study on IBD showed significant improvements after two months.

IBD is a long-standing disorder of human immune responses, an overactive immune response in fact, directed against the lining of the intestines. Thus it results in abdominal pain, cramping, diarrhea, urgency, rectal bleeding, nausea, fever and weight loss.

There are two major categories, though: the ulcerative colitis (called ulcerative proctitis (UC), or UP (when inflammation is confined in the rectal area) and Crohn’s disease (CD).

In a pilot study, researchers Holt, Katz and Kirschoff reported in the Digestive Disease Science (2005) doses both for UP and CD, which succeeded in treating most of the patients involved.

Patients with UC took... [Read more.]

This article appears on SunStar Cebu Daily on 3 August 2011.

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