Health Benefits of Turmeric
Hi, thank you for coming back for the latest edition of Beyond Primary Care’s blog- Health Benefits of Turmeric. In Beyond Primary Care blogs we highlight healthcare news, advice for medical conditions, and how membership for care works! Beyond Primary Care is an insurance free, membership based family medicine clinic. Beyond Primary Care is the highest rated Direct Primary Care clinic serving patients in Ann Arbor and throughout Washtenaw, Livingston, and Wayne counties giving families and employers peace of mind about healthcare costs by providing affordable and accessible primary care services.
In this blog post, we wanted to give our patients and prospective patients updates on effective and affordable Turmeric Supplements.
What is Turmeric
Turmeric is a plant in the ginger family, native to Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent. It is actually quite a large plant, going 5-6 feet high in those regions.The underground stem is fragrant and flavor-wise has a sharp, bitter taste. It is the stems or roots that are used in medicine and food. Historically, turmeric was used in traditional Indian medical systems, as well as Eastern Asian medical systems.
Curcumin is a major component of turmeric, it’s gives curry its flavor and gives turmeric its yellow color. Curcumin is a powerful antioxidant. Antioxidants eliminate molecules in our body called free radicals, which damage other cells, alter DNA, and may result in cell aging and death. Additionally, cur cumin lowers levels of enzymes that cause inflammation in the body.
Health Benefits of Turmeric
Turmeric has numerous roles and range of benefits in the body. These include:
Helps arthritis through reduction in inflammation
Helps improve digestive disorders through stimulation of gallbladder for bile production.
Helps prevent heart disease through reduced risk of atherosclerosis.
Helps improve respiratory infections
Helps improve liver disease
Helps mental health such as depression
How Much Turmeric We Need
Turmeric is generally safe for all adults to take but has some known negative side effects such as:
Diarrhea
Nausea
Headache
Turmeric supplements also have anti-coagulant properties which may be advantageous to some people but dangerous to others.
There are no standard established doses of turmeric to take daily, however most research into turmeric advises doses varying between 500 and 2,000 milligrams a day depending on what is being treated.
Turmeric Optimization
The way to optimize the health benefits of turmeric involves the way you consume it. Combining turmeric with black pepper has been shown to increase curcumin absorption by close to 2000%. With just 1/20 teaspoon or more of black pepper, the bioavailability of turmeric is greatly improved. Additionally, since turmeric is fat-soluble you want to take the supplement around the time you have a meal that includes a healthy fat, such as coconut oil, avocados, nuts, fish, etc.
Turmeric Supplements
There are lots of ways to use turmeric. One simple way is incorporating turmeric into recipes for foods you make. The problem with this is only around 3 percent of turmeric’s total weight contains curcumin, versus the turmeric extracts found in supplements that are higher. Another way is to mix a turmeric power with a liquid, such as a smoothie. Turmeric is also have as supplements and can be ideal for people who don’t have the resources to prepare daily meals containing turmeric or are put off thy the flavor of turmeric.
Thank you for reading
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