The powerful little chemical in turmeric called, ‘curcumin’, is what gives this root that deep yellow color and pungent flavor, which is also the secret to its long list of health benefits.
Scientists, online articles, journals, and the like have always said nothing but good things about turmeric, since its discovery in the early 1990s. But you will hardly find anyone who has ever discussed its darker side or potential ill-effects, other than how hard it is to scrub its yellow stains off from clothes.
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1. Questioning The Yellow Spice
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However, a seeming pioneer in question of turmeric’s benefits would be, Michael Walters, an author who has been doing his own review on turmeric. He stated that, “curcumin is a cautionary tale,” and his findings have even been published as a report in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, where he claimed that turmeric has no therapeutic benefits whatsoever. 1
Strange isn’t it, considering that this places a giant question mark on the millions of studies conducted previously on how the ‘curcumin’ in turmeric may help us fight inflammation, boost our immune systems, repair damaged brain cells, beat pharmaceutical drugs, and even be a possible cancer-fighting agent.
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In awe of this claim, scientific investigators have carried out around 120 clinical trials on the effects of turmeric’s curcumin.
Which makes us wonder, has everything we have been hearing about turmeric’s magical effects actually fact or fiction?
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2. Testing Turmeric’s Deep Rooted Truths
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For centuries, ancient civilizations such as India, Persia, and some in Southeast Asia have used turmeric as a traditional remedy to treat coughs, stomach problems, and even major ailments like arthritis. In fact, in the year 2014, curcumin has even shown its remedying qualities in reducing the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and even shrinking the size of cancerous tumors or at least slowing their growth.
But from what the American Cancer Society has said, curcumin has shown its prowess in killing cancer cell, BUT only in their laboratory Petri dishes. Actual real-life clinical trial results are yet to be published or show for this.
A chemical biologist named Bill Zuercher who works at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill said that turmeric’s curcumin does have beneficial effects, but presenting actual anatomical evidence on how it does so in people’s bodies, would a long and complex scientific journey ahead.
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