Can Curcumin Help in Fighting Cancer?

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UPDATE 2.13.23: There is new evidence that a combination of curcumin and QingDai may reduce the severity of ulcerative colitis, even including remission. Medical News Today reports:

Ulcerative colitis is a chronic condition that damages the lower digestive tract and can cause many unpleasant symptoms.

People with ulcerative colitis can work with doctors and specialists to manage the disease and maintain remission. Researchers are still working to determine the best treatment options and what medications may help control the disorder.

Two recent studies have explored the use of an herbal combination of curcumin and QingDai to help induce remission in people with ulcerative colitis. Researchers shared the results at the Crohn’s and Colitis Congress 2023.

UPDATE 8.5.22: Scientists in India have found possible pain relief effects of using a compound of curcumin and boswellia to treat pain patients. Natural Products Insider reports:

A multi-center randomized controlled trial (RCT) conducted in India and published online in Scholars Journal of Applied Medicine compared a combination of curcumin and boswellia (Boswellia serrata) to placebo in 232 healthy adults with acute musculoskeletal pain (Scholars J App Med. Online ahead of print, March 20, 2022).

Researchers categorized subjects according to the location of their pain (neck, head, lower limb, etc.), and gave them a single dose of 1,000 mg Rhuleave-K (from Arjuna Natural), or a comparable placebo softgel.

Ruleave-K contains extracts of turmeric (Curcuma longa, 26.6% curcuminoids) and boswellia (1% acetyl keto-boswellic acid) in black sesame seed oil; it features the company’s SPEED technology, designed for rapid dispersal of the active botanical compounds for fast action.

Researchers assessed perceptible pain relief (PPR) and meaningful pain relief (MPR) using a double stopwatch method. They found the PPR and MPR at head, neck, upper limb, trunk, lower limb and the general body were all significantly faster, to varying degrees, in the supplement group.

“The pain relief started as early as 40 minutes and complete pain relief was achieved as early as 160 minutes,” they wrote, concluding the botanical combination was a safe alternative to analgesics commonly prescribed for such pain. “In the five major locations of pain, the [supplement] group had above 96% reduction in pain intensity in all the modalities of rest, movement and pressure whereas the placebo group showed negligent change.”

Originally posted May 10, 2018.

In an article titled “Turmeric Extract Strikes To The Root Cause of Cancer Malignancy,” by Sayer Ji at GreenMed Info, Ji notes a new study that “identifies a number of ways in which curcumin provides an ideal CSC-targeting therapy.” He writes:

A turmeric study published in Cancer Letters is paving the way for a revolution in the way that we both understand and treat cancer.

Whereas conventional models of cancer assumed that the majority of the cancer cells within a tumor possess self-renewal capacity to differing degrees, the CSC model proposes that, “[T]he initiation, maintenance, and growth of a tumor is driven by a minor population of cancer cells termed cancer stem cells (CSCs).

Although it was possible to debulk a tumor with surgery, chemotherapy and radiation, CSC populations were often missed or even enriched as a result. When the tumor mass regrew it often became more invasive and treatment-resistant, resulting in the rapid demise and death of the patient — deaths which are often written off inaccurately or disingenuously as non-treatment related.

Given that conventional treatment can drive an intrinsically benign tumor (i.e., so-called indolent tumors) into greater invasiveness through increasing the number of intrinsically resilient cancer stem cells at the very same moment that it kills the less or non-harmful daughter cells, alternative treatment approaches are needed now more than ever.

Turmeric and curcumin extract have been extensively studied for their ability to kill various cancer cell lines. In fact, the literature is so abundant (see: 600 health benefits of turmeric) that it is both surprising and disheartening that so many patients who are in need of safe, effective and affordable treatments are not being given information about it.

The new study identifies a number of ways in which curcumin provides an ideal CSC-targeting therapy,

©January 29th 2014 GreenMedInfo LLC. This work is reproduced and distributed with the permission of GreenMedInfo LLC. Want to learn more from GreenMedInfo? Sign up for the newsletter here https://www.greenmedinfo.com/greenmed/newsletter.