Turmeric: Spice or Remedy?

You cannot turn anywhere these days on social media, in the shops or a friend of a friend without hearing the magical curing properties of turmeric. Starting out as a spice, to a remedy to a drink ingredient for hipsters, turmeric is a widely used substance. But is it all it has cracked up to be?

Today, still in eastern culture, it is applied readily to wounds and is used as a ‘cure’ for chicken pox (even though they go away on their own). Over in the western world people take it as a supplement to help with almost any ailment known to humankind, including:

• Anti-inflammatory
• Assist weight loss
• Can be used as an antibacterial to disinfect
• Prevent cancer
• Reduce leukaemia risk
• Natural liver detoxifier
• Slows multiple sclerosis
• Prevent myeloma
• Delays liver damage
• Decrease chance of Alzheimer’s
• Remodels damaged skin
• Detoxification of skin
• Prevent prostate cancer and stop prostate tumour growth
• Help with cognitive ability
• Erectile Dysfunction
• Fertility booster
• Antioxidants

Sadly, there are many more to add to this list, but you get the gist. It cures a lot. Saying that, all of that list and I am sat here thinking ‘why does your liver need de-toxifying’? Thankfully, over here in the UK, the law requires a product to undergo vigorous testing before making health claims on products. So, you will not see your local Holland and Barrett advertising this crap as the above list of ailment cures. However, it does still sell it with the implication that it does actually have medicinal properties, so it is not a 100% win for now.

Does it cure?

Hypothesise this: If it worked on curing all the above. We cure cancer, we stop organ damage and we can prevent the chances of some of the worlds most researched diseases occurring. Surely, then this would be much bigger than naturopaths and hipsters consuming this stuff, right? Surely, if it worked, it would be advertised more as beneficial and the UK license laws would allow advertising of such medical claims on their packaging? Doctors would be prescribing it and people would be consuming it like there is no tomorrow. 

There is one simple reason as to why none of this is happening. No, not because we are in the pocket of big pharma and we need to keep them going (because that’s just not a thing). No, it is that this just simply does not work. Proponents of the turmeric cures all society we live in state that because it contains curcumin, it is a natural cure-all. But does that have enough evidence to tout about the inhibition of cancers and diseases?

 

Curcumin

Curcumin is widely known in ‘Ayurveda medicine’ – meaning ‘life medicine’. Essentially another way of indirectly saying ‘pseudo-medicine’ – because that makes it sound like it is made up. There is an interesting article on eastern medicine explaining the practice of Ayurveda medicine here. Mostly, curcumin is used as a food colouring, in cosmetic products as pigmentation and dietary supplements. So, why is it so special? What makes curcumin the know all chemical that cures all? 

Well, nothing. Many clinical studies have been undertaken to assess the medical properties of this compound. Very little in the way of evidence has been produced. And you should know by now, very little is all proponents need. I’m not going to focus and take down individual studies as there is literally no need. Earlier this year, a review article was published in the journal of Medicinal Chemistry titled: The Essential Medicinal Chemistry of Curcumin. This is an open access paper and can be read here for free. It brilliantly takes 120 studies and shows that out of those 120 clinical trials, not one has been successful in proving any cure. They conclude with:

"Unfortunately, no form of curcumin, or its closely related analogues, appears to possess the properties required for a good drug candidate (chemical stability, high water solubility, potent and selective target activity, high bioavailability, broad tissue distribution, stable metabolism, and low toxicity). The in vitro interference properties of curcumin do, however, offer many traps that can trick unprepared researchers into misinterpreting the results of their investigations…. This manuscript reviews the essential medicinal chemistry of curcumin and provides evidence that curcumin is an unstable, reactive, nonbioavailable compound and, therefore, a highly improbable lead."

Other studies proving a link between curcumin and cancer reduction have been previously classed as fraudulent and retracted from the papers. In fact, studies have been repeated to show that this information that was published, was fundamentally not true.

But what about this healing drink?

A blog wouldn’t be a blog without me getting a dig in at someone. This time I have chosen The Food Babe (again). Of course, she jumps on the avenue of turmeric cures all, why wouldn’t she? It has all the attractions a quack requires, it’s got availability; naturality; an array of weak studies behind it that says the medicinal properties are real and it can be added bottled and sold onto unsuspecting gullible people. 

Vani shows us this week how to make a Healing Iced Turmeric Latte. The biggest ever anecdotal evidence, that proves everything, she has witnessed is her own. What is amazing about Vani is that she always has an anecdote for her tall tales of ailment cures. It’s a wonder she didn’t die before became all natural and organic. She states that whenever she has an ailment, she turns to turmeric. I imagine she wouldn’t have the same view with a broken leg or a stab wound. Then again, we are talking about someone who blogged about how she wanted pure oxygen on planes. In this drink, we have all-natural cinnamon, milk, honey, coconut and the fat-soluble turmeric. I have no idea why she makes the point of saying that turmeric is fat soluble. She does hyperlink that word to something, but I am too afraid to click it in case I have an aneurysm at the stupidity of the reason. However, the reason I am including her here is one sentence that annoys the hell out of me:

If you can’t find fresh turmeric, go ahead and use organic ground turmeric from the spice aisle. Keep in mind that most spices are irradiated and grown with conventional pesticides, if not organic.

Organic uses pesticides. She knows this, she has been repeatedly told this. I think this just goes in the way of showing how ignorant this woman actually is. She will do anything to make money, directly underneath it is advertising spice products. Funny, I didn’t see one checkout store on the scientific papers when I was reading actual scientific facts about turmeric.

Posts may contain affiliate links for products Food Babe has approved and researched herself.

Researched? I think not.

Conclusion

Turmeric does nothing other than create flavour. There is no evidence it cures anything, acts as an anti-inflammatory or prevents cancer. Stop adding it to drinks to make them ‘healthy’, they just taste vile. Many of the studies are pre-clinical, meaning you cannot really conclude anything from them. You need to put these studies into action with clinical studies using actual humans before making scientific decisions on medical care. When I discussed this a few days ago I was told the world’s most stupid sentence ‘the absence of evidence isn’t evidence of absence’. Meaning that because there are no medicinal properties proved, doesn’t mean there are none. 

Well, there is evidence to say there is no evidence that there are any medicinal properties. Meaning that; there is evidence that defies medicinal properties. It’s like me saying ‘I can spit fire, prove I can’t. You can’t prove it, so with that absence of evidence, it means I can’.

Ergo, there is evidence that turmeric as a medicine does not work.