Turmeric Is Better Than Curcumin

Turmeric has been part of the repertoire of Far Eastern folk medicine for many centuries. The isolated curcumin, on the other hand, has only been available as a dietary supplement for a few years. 

Turmeric Is Better Than Curcumin

Curcumin is considered the active ingredient in turmeric. Texan researchers now wondered whether curcumin is really the active ingredient in turmeric, or perhaps just one of many.

Turmeric contains more than 300 substances. In a corresponding study it was shown that turmeric works much better against cancer cells than the isolated curcumin.

Better turmeric than curcumin?

Supplements often fall into the same trap as drug companies. It is believed that it is necessary to isolate a single specific substance from a natural food or a plant and to pack it into a capsule in a highly concentrated manner.

The higher the dose then the substance is present in the capsule, the more effective this capsule must then be. Sometimes that may be true, but apparently not always.

Curcumin, for example, is considered the active ingredient in turmeric - the yellow root from the Far East , which is also an important ingredient in curry . Turmeric contains more than 300 different substances.

Why should curcumin, which is only 2 to 5 percent contained in turmeric, be responsible for the beneficial effects of the root?

Although there are now many studies that were performed alone with curcumin and also brought really satisfactory results.

Yet almost never in one and the same study was the effect of turmeric compared with that of the whole turmeric root. But that would have been interesting, because turmeric may be more effective than curcumin.

Curcuperin

Why a single substance can never work as well as the natural combination of many different substances

In September 2013, researchers from the University of Texas wrote in the journal Molecular Nutrition & Food Research that curcumin has the same effects as turmeric in some areas, but only turmeric has an effect in other areas, but not curcumin.

That does not surprise. Turmeric contains turmeric, turmeronol, turmerone, curion, acoran, bergamotane, bisacuron, germacron, dehydrozingerone, furanodiene, elemen and many more besides curcumin.

Each of these fabrics now has its own individual properties. Also not to be forgotten is the synergistic effect, which only comes about through the combination of different substances and which a single substance can never reach.

Turmeric also contains small amounts of oil that can increase the bioavailability of other substances, including curcumin.

Consequently, there are studies devoted solely to the effects of turmeric. Cell experiments have shown that the root or the turmeric powder has an antimicrobial effect, protects the healthy cell from mutations and ionizing radiation and has anti-cancer properties .

Clinical studies have shown that turmeric can be helpful in inflammatory diseases, cancer, acne , fibrosis, lupus nephritis, diabetes and irritable bowel syndrome .

In comparison, turmeric has a better effect on cancer cells than curcumin

In one of the few comparative studies, researchers from the Anderson Cancer Center in Texas investigated the effects of curcumin and turmeric on seven different human cancer cell lines. Details are in the video of Dr. med. Michal Greger to see and hear.

In this study, it was found that curcumin was good at fighting breast cancer cells, for example (the ability to kill cancer cells (= cytotoxicity) was 30 percent), but the whole turmeric root powder had a much better effect. Here, the level of cytotoxicity was over 60 percent.

The situation was similar in pancreatic cancer cells. Curcumin reached 15 percent, turmeric 30 percent. For bowel cancer cells it was 10 percent for curcumin, 25 percent for turmeric and so on.

It is therefore clear that in the turmeric root completely different active ingredients - especially anti-cancer substances - are included and not just curcumin.

Curcumin-free turmeric also works against cancer and inflammation

There are even studies that show that turmeric extracted from curcumin is also anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer - at the same or even higher levels than curcumin-containing curcuma preparations.

For example, turmeric in turmeric has been found to have very good anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer effects. Another substance in turmeric is Elemen, which has long been used in China in the treatment of cancer.

All these substances, however, are no longer contained in pure curcumin preparations and of course can no longer work there.

Dr. Greger closes his video - stunned - with the words:

"I assumed that the researchers in question would now advise against recommending curcumin, but simply give turmeric to people. Instead, they suggest making dietary supplements from every single ingredient ... "

The best combination: turmeric and curcumin

But why should one - especially in case of illness - not just combine both?

At times (eg 4 to 6 weeks) you can take curcumin supplements (because the results of the study so far are quite convincing) and at the same time turmeric is integrated into the daily diet - in soups, vegetables, shakes and many more dishes .

Maybe you feel insecure and do not know exactly how to cook with turmeric, how to best dose it and in which dishes the yellow powder fits very well.

We at the Health Center have published our colorful turmeric cookbook a few weeks ago. You will find 35 illustrated main meals with turmeric and a seven-day turmeric cure with another 15 recipes.

The peculiarity of the turmeric cure is that during the course of the cure, the daily turmeric dose is continuously increased to 8 grams (divided among the three main meals) and thus reaches the effective range.

For studies with turmeric usually showed the desired effects only from higher doses.