Turmeric and its major active ingredient curcumin are among the top most clinically studied spices and herbs today. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) lists 24 studies.

Western science is investigating via double blind placebo human test, animal testing (in vivo) and test tube petri dish culture testing (in vitro) what has been known and practiced for centuries by Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and Ayurvedic Medicine of India: Turmeric is a highly effective anti-inflammatory without adverse side effects.

Turmeric can be taken directly from its plant root or used in foods with powder ground from the roots. Turmeric is used in curries, giving curry its yellow color. Curries are a large part of Indian and Southeast Asian cuisines.

Curcumin extracted from turmeric and placed into capsules offers an inexpensive but intensely therapeutic method of using turmeric's active ingredient.

A recent study

A recent study involved heart bypass operation patients in Thailand. Dr. Wanwarang Wongcharoen led a research team from Chiang Mai University at the University Hospital. They studied 121 consecutive patients who had non-emergency bypass surgery at the hospital between 2009 and 2011.

They were all given one gram pills four times daily, three days before the surgery and five days after. However, half were given sugar pills (placebo group) and the other half was given curcumin capsules. Neither group of patients nor their doctors knew who was taking what. Only the research team knew.

The curcumin group had a 65% lowered risk from post bypass operation heart attacks. That group also showed significantly lower levels of inflammation and oxidative stress markers in their blood. The findings were published in the American Journal of Cardiology.

Turmeric and curcumin applications

Although curcumin capsules are considered ideal for extreme conditions, Dr. Andrew Weil recommends using whole root turmeric powders in food often for preventing inflammatory conditions, considered the root of most coronary, chronic and autoimmune diseases.

Cooking and adding black pepper or mixing the powder with fats like coconut oil helps digest the turmeric's curcumin, which is normally a bit difficult to assimilate. Curcumin capsules should be enteric coated to preserve the curcumin as it passes through digestive juices for assimilation by the small intestines into the blood stream.

Having heart surgery while being injected or fed all sorts of pharmaceuticals provides an intense breeding ground for cardiac inflammation. That's what made the Thailand study so dramatic.

Dr. Dwight Lundell, a retired heart surgeon with 25 years of experience with 5000 surgeries, asserted that inflammation is the root cause of heart disease, not cholesterol or fat. He determined this by actually viewing inflamed inner artery walls.

He explains that inflammation creates atherosclerosis (artery plaque), which occurs from ingesting too much sugar and HFCS (high-fructose corn syrup), toxic processed trans-fats, processed low fat foods, and an omega-3 to omega-6 imbalance.

He further asserts that reducing cholesterol with statin drugs is hazardous to your health, since much of the brain, nervous system, and cell walls throughout the body need cholesterol for their composition (http://www.naturalnews.com).

Turmeric and curcumin have also shown positive effects on preventing and reversing Alzheimer's disease and relieving many types of arthritic conditions (http://www.naturalnews.com/029767_turmeric_alzheimers.html).

Some studies indicate curcumin curbs cancer cell proliferation, even causing some of them to self destruct. There's quite a list of actual positive results from an inexpensive, effective and safe herb or herbal extract.

The fact that coronary disease is still the number one killer in the USA, it would be wise to avoid statin drugs' adverse effects, which includes death by heart failure, while consuming healthy amounts of turmeric powder or curcumin capsules.

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