We Indians love our spices, and none more than turmeric. This essential yellow ingredient, in most Indian recipes, was discovered by Ayurveda, adopted by the West and now has come home once again in the form of alternative medicine, or even mainstream medicine, as doctors have started prescribing it. This is all because of a fascinating chemical that Turmeric contains – Curcumin. This molecule is making waves across the world and is being touted as a panacea of sorts that can heal almost anything you can think of – arthritis, diabetes, aches, pains, sore throats, baldness, obesity, heart disease and even cancer. But does curcumin work? If it does, will eating turmeric have the same effect? What are the side effects of turmeric? Is it medicine yet or still in the realm of alternative or complementary medicine?

We are getting to the bottom of this today.

Citations and Further Reading

Articles:
https://medium.com/@gidmk/the-bitter-truth-about-turmeric-8cf9256e73c5
https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/turmeric-tasty-in-curry-questionable-as-medicine/
https://theness.com/neurologicablog/index.php/curcumin-hype-vs-reality/
https://skeptoid.com/blog/2016/06/02/turmeric-what-is-it-good-for/
https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2017/01/12/curcumin-will-waste-your-time
https://examine.com/supplements/curcumin/#summary
https://respectfulinsolence.com/2017/08/14/the-death-of-jade-erick-from-intravenous-curcumin-mystery-solved/
https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/naturopathic-death-from-iv-turmeric/

Papers:
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-10/cmaj-ocs102318.php
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.jmedchem.6b00975
https://academic.oup.com/rheumatology/article/42/5/652/1784589
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6073929/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3857752/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5664031/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5003001/

Intro and outro music: Don't Stop performed by Nothing More, from their album, The Stories We Tell Ourselves. The sound clips have been used with their permission.

Questions, suggestions or just want to get in touch? Find me on Instagram and Twitter @berationable and on Facebook @Rationable. Join the conversation on the Rationable Conversations Facebook group and email me at [email protected]. For more content like this, visit www.berationable.com.