Health Benefits of Tumeric
 

Made some Tumeric tea this morning using coconut milk as the base. It is pretty good. I had heard a lot about turmeric being a very healthy item to ingest. Here's the info on turmeric and the recipe for the tea:

http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?t...dspice&dbid=78

http://www.meghantelpner.com/blog/te...with-turmeric/

Re: Health Benefits of Tumeric
 

It was pointed out to me by one of our members that the use of Tumeric may increase your level of Estrogen so for those of you especially who have ER or PR+ this might not be something you would want to use.

Re: Health Benefits of Tumeric
 

Debbie,
Sounds like a good recipe but I wanted to make a correction. Tumeric actually blocks the estrogen receptor it does not increase estogren, who ever made that statement must have been confused. It is a good herb for er+

Re: Health Benefits of Tumeric
 

Well, I'm confused now. I have to say I looked on the internet and found sites that said it increased estrogen and others that said it reduced estrogen. One said it reduced estrogen as much as tamoxifen so it is pretty confusing.

Re: Health Benefits of Tumeric
 

It's probably on account of this study, Debbie Kay:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20798532

Not so worrisome considering this study that cites the study above:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24639774

A bigger concern might be the effect of curcumin on Cytochrome P450 enzymes, specifically, those that metabolize tamoxifen (CYP2D6 and CYP3A4), but even that seems to be no big deal:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17433521

What happens in the lab doesn't always or even often translate well into real life.

I take whole turmeric gels (New Chapter) in the evening, and BCM-95 in the morning. I actually take it because it's a weak MAO-I, but I'm appreciative of the other benefits. I used to make my own turmeric paste for golden milk and also just to consume (about a half teaspoon a day) in a glass of water. The pills are easier but I think whole turmeric is more effective, even if it's kind of messy to prepare the paste.

Edited to add: This is a good site for up-to-date information. You have to accept the terms, but no login is required:

http://www.mskcc.org/cancer-care/herb/turmeric

Re: Health Benefits of Tumeric
 

I'm the one who said turmeric increased or produced estrogen because I'd read it somewhere. I asked my oncologist today and she said it was fine - and even good - to take with ER+ cancers, just probably not while you're on chemo because it's considered an antioxidant and they tell you to steer clear of those (in powder form) during chemo.

Re: Health Benefits of Tumeric
 

I have also heard it is good to take but must be taken with food or can hurt your stomach. Vitamin D is another one that gets a good write up for us and especially good in the winter when we aren't out in the sun as much.

Re: Health Benefits of Tumeric
 

I saw my oncologist again today and she changed her opinion on turmeric. She said she did more research on it after my last visit and said it's okay to have on/in food but not to take as a supplement with ER+ cancers.

Re: Health Benefits of Tumeric
 

Hi Lucy,
could you ask for her for the information she's basing this on, it would be helpful to us since most of us have heard it's good. However the supplement manufacturers have been liars and cheats and often they don't even put what they say it is in the pills. shameful and hopefully this will become regulated properly.

Re: Health Benefits of Tumeric
 

Don't be fooled by the New York State Attorney General. He's posturing. DNA barcoding is not an appropriate method to determine the components in a supplement. The American Botanical Council has more information about this stupidity.

NatureMade is verified by USP. Other impacted products have been evaluated by independent labs. This whole to-do is just a careless man's bid for a headline.

Edited to add links to American Botanical Council press releases:

http://cms.herbalgram.org/press/2015...70ffe2c168895a

http://abc.herbalgram.org/site/Messa...&em_id=34262.0

Re: Health Benefits of Tumeric
 

Sarah,

To be honest I was just looking for a yes/no answer as to whether it was okay to take a supplement of turmeric with ER+ cancers so if she gave specific reasons why it was bad, it didn't register. Having said that, I do recall her saying that there were conflicting studies on it so it may have just been a "better safe than sorry" answer telling me I shouldn't take it.

Re: Health Benefits of Tumeric
 

some articles about what's in the stuff:
http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/diet...05-1376ec.html

and
http://rt.com/usa/228979-herbal-walm...e-supplements/

there are lots. I think it will be good if they are finally regulated and we can know what's in them really.

Re: Health Benefits of Tumeric
 

Hi Sarah,

Yes, both articles refer to the brouhaha the New York State Attorney General has started. The bottom line is that the media went along because it's a headline that incites, but from a technical point of view, it was wrongly done. To add to the problems with barcode testing, the individual who did the tests lacks expertise in the area of supplement testing. See the links I added to my earlier post.

I subscribe to ConsumerLab, an independent entity that performs regular analysis of many supplements. (I do not like the way it operates for several reasons, but I do not believe those issues have any effect on the reports I receive.) ConsumerLab does not rely on barcode scanning; it tests the supplements in a properly staffed and equipped lab. The American Botanical Council also keeps up in this area because it has a vested interest in herbal purity. USP and NSF do independent testing, and if you find their label on a supplement, it means the supplement has gone through stringent testing. There are others but I don't have time to look for them all right now.

It boggles the mind that the Attorney General ignored their analyses in favor of a substandard test by a non-expert. Some of the companies targeted have been respected manufacturers for longer than I've been using supplements, and they've all been spot checked many times over the years. Schneiderman has made life inconvenient for NY supplement users, but they can still purchase all these supplements if they head to New Jersey (or any other state), because none of the other states have followed suit.

Re: Health Benefits of Tumeric
 

yes consumerlabs is a good site but we would all appreciate it knowing what's in things. I don't live in the US so I don't belong to consumer lab but if I lived there, I would so that I could find out who's honest and who isn't. Some supplements have toxic materials in them. Let's face it, anything (serious drugs included) that goes through china is likely not to contain what it says and possibly be dangerous and we don't know what does but you can bet if it's cheap, it does.

Re: Health Benefits of Tumeric
 

Everything you ever wanted to know about curcumin:

Curcumin: The Indian Solid Gold

Presented by:

Bharat B. Aggarwal, Ph.D./M.D. Anderson

I understand him to be in the forefront of curcumin research, so this site should be able to address all questions for which answers are currently known.

Re: Health Benefits of Tumeric
 

thanks Rhonda for this.
sarah

Re: Health Benefits of Tumeric
 

Rhonda, so would you say it is fine to take Tumeric with Tamoxifen?

Thanks

Re: Health Benefits of Tumeric
 

I don't know if it's fine.

I've read a bunch of studies, and I didn't think any of them contained convincing evidence that I should not take it. On the other hand, it seems to have a lot of benefits. What I know for sure is that I feel better when I take it than when I don't.

Some sites warn against it when taking tamoxifen (Komen, Food for Breast Cancer, although the latter site highly recommends it for everyone else). There are just so many conflicting studies that no one seems equipped to sort them out. A more recent study (2013) says curcumin induces cell death and restores tamoxifen sensitivity in certain anti-estrogen resistant cell lines.

I've cut out every other possible phytoestrogen from my diet and supplement regimen, but I'm not giving up curcumin. I would hesitate, though, to tell another tamoxifen user that it's safe to take.

If you're looking for something to enhance the tamoxifen, consider melatonin. The researchers who are studying it haven't managed to come up with an optimal dose, but there is speculation about a formulation that combines tamox and melatonin. It's that good. (I stopped taking it for a time, but I plan to restart it as soon as I can figure out how to remind myself to take it at a time of day that won't make me too tired in the evening or too groggy to wake up as early as I like. That's only an issue because I take 10-20 mg. A lower dose would not create the same problem.)

Re: Health Benefits of Tumeric
 

Honestly for good authentic turmeric I would shop a reputable East Indian grocery store. It is such a common ingredient used in their culture, they would probably stock the best quality.

Re: Health Benefits of Tumeric
 

You would think that, but spice jar turmeric contains a lot of insect parts not found in extracts. ConsumerLab included that information in a recent analysis of turmeric/curcumin. (Note: If you check what the FDA allows, we eat a fair number of insect parts daily, so this is not a big deal.) The real problem is that composition is not uniform, depending on origin, soil quality and the weather. You have no way to determine the potency from batch to batch.

On the other hand, some of what you can do with turmeric is pretty yummy.