From: The New Straits Times

      TUMERIC is a very important in Ayurvedic medicine, the 5,000- year-old Indian healing system. It has been used through the ages as an “herbal aspirin” and “herbal steroid” to relieve swelling and pain.

      The Materia Medica, a standard Ayurdevic reference, cites dozens of conditions in which turmeric can be helpful as an add on therapy for many ailments, including tissue injury and pain.

      According to Mark Blumenthal, executive director of the American Botanical Council based in Austin, Texas, “The high degree of reverence for turmeric is evidenced by the fact that it is used in nearly all Asian cultures”.

      Turmeric is a very powerful, anti-inflammatory agent. It would be useful for any condition that is accompanied by pain and swelling. Taken orally, turmeric inhibits the response of the body to inflammation and pain causing agents both directly and indirectly.

      It stimulates the production of natural steroid (corticosteroids) from the adrenal glands. They also make the cortisone receptor sites on cells more sensitive and prevent the breakdown of cortisol (the body’s own natural steroid). This has a powerful effect on reducing swelling and reducing pain.

      In fact, curcumin (one of the active molecules of turmeric) has been found to be every bit as effective as the pharmaceutical drugs cortisone, indometacin and phenylbutazone in clinical trials.

      The anti-inflammatory effects are comparable in effectiveness to pharmaceutical drugs (such as phenylbutazone and indomethacin) but without the serious side effects.

      Turmeric extracts prevented the synthesis of inflammatory chemicals in the body in a clinical trial of patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

      Turmeric lowered concentration of the hormone-like substances responsible for the inflammation in arthritis and lessened the severity of morning stiffness, joint pain, and walking difficulty.

      Despite all this good news, there is one very big tragedy with turmeric. It is poorly absorbed. In fact, less than one per cent of the oral dose actually gets into the blood.

      “Nearly, all the effect of turmeric are on the walls of the intestines as hardly anything gets absorbed,” said Dr Gulam Nabi Qazi, director of the Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine.

      However, new extraction technology and the use of an oligosaccharide molecule now makes it possible for the turmeric extracts to be absorbed by up to 1,000 times.

      The new technology increases solubility. This makes it possible to obtain fast action on inflammatory symptoms by guaranteeing bio equivalence of 1,200 mg/day (therapeutic daily dosage).

      The new high blood levels of turmeric represents an advance over steroids, analgesics (paracetamol), non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and painful Intra articular injection with steroids, and hyaluronic acids.

      Sufficient dose levels can now be introduced into the blood. This allows for high level of composition in curcuminoids – vital to the anti-inflammatory effects. The new turmeric extract has an activity comparable to non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs without any side effects.

      More importantly, it helps prevent cartilage degeneration – the cost of long term pain, disability and disfigurement in arthritis.

      The Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration allows a claim of “may be used for the treatment of acute and chronic arthritic pain”.

      Professor Yves Henrotin, who is the Director of the Bone and Cartilage Research Unit at the University of Liege, Belgium sees this as a big new possibility, especially since there has been no real new innovation in the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug market globally.

      The professor, who is in Malaysia now to meet opinion leaders and deliver a series of public lectures, said the turmeric extract delivers complete inflammatory mediators inhibition in the following ways and comparable to the most sophisticated pharmaceutical drugs:

* Inhibition of Cyclooxygenase and PE 2 production
* No inhibition of prostacyclines
* Inhibition of NO (Oxidative stress)
* Inhibition of pro-inflammatory cytokine
* Datuk Dr Rajen M. is a pharmacist with a doctorate in holistic medicine

Editor’s Note:
      Curcumin has such potent therapeutic properties that even the miniscule absorption of whole tumeric, such as that used in the patented oral hair loss treatment, “Capsures” (Resveratrol Curcumin combination) was found to have hair growth promoting effects. This hair growth promoting effect, while not definitively known, is likely due to the release of Substance P.

      Most commercially available preparations of curcumin have very poor bioavailability, impairing their ability to confer hair growth properties. Scientists have recently discovered a novel curcumin preparation with exceptional bioavailability. In a human study, this advanced curcumin preparation—termed BCM-95®—delivered up to seven times more curcumin to the bloodstream than a standard curcumin product. This increased bioavailability should greatly enhance curcumin’s benefits.

      At MPB Research we utilize BCM-95, called “Super Bio-Curcumin” mentioned above , which results in higher and longer sustained blood levels. In fact each 400 mg capsule contians the equivilant of 2772 mg of commercially available 95% Curcumin extracts.

      Capsures, the patented Resveratrol/Curcumin combo from Italy uses 82.4mg of a 95% Extract of Curcumin per capsule, 4 times a day, for a total of 350mg. Super Bio-Curcumin gives you their equivilant of 2772mg , which gives more benefits and is far more cost effective.