The dark side of curcumin

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Teezer
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The dark side of curcumin

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The dark side of curcumin

Everything has a dark side, it seems. This is a paper by some curcumin skeptics.

The following paragraph is the summary at the end of the paper, which is several pages long.
It is unfortunate that curcumin is regarded in the scientific
literature as efficient and safe when its efficiency and
safety have not yet been proven. The fact that curcumin is a
common dietary constituent is not enough to prove its safety,
as other common dietary constituents have shown toxicity
when used as dietary supplements. The fact that no major
toxicity has been found in short-term studies in humans is not
a proof of curcumin safety either. For a drug to be safe, it
must also be devoid of long-term toxicity, and the most complete
long-term toxicity study conducted to date raises concern
about curcumin safety. In addition, the effectiveness of a
drug is usually established by randomized, placebo-controlled,
double-blind clinical trials, and no such trials have shown curcumin
to be effective so far. Finally, the fact that the number
of studies showing positive effects of curcumin is much higher
than that showing negative effects does not necessarily mean
that the benefit-risk ratio of curcumin is shifted towards the
benefit; it may just indicate that there are more researchers
evaluating the beneficial effects of curcumin than evaluating its
toxicity. It is the opinion of the authors that future research is
needed to establish the benefit-risk profile of curcumin. In the
meantime, we believe that it is important to acknowledge the
negative properties of curcumin so that the use of curcumin is
not based on unbalanced information.
It's weird how I'm constantly surprised by the passage of time when it's literally the most predictable thing in the universe. -- xkcd
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Re: The dark side of curcumin

Post by ApropoE4 »

There are several hundred millions (if not a billion) who consume curcumin in supplement-like quantities on a near daily basis. While this doesn't establish efficacy, it certainly gives us a hint regarding safety.
Average dietary intake of turmeric in the Indian population may range between 2 to 2.5 grams, corresponding to 60 to 200 milligrams of curcumin daily.
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Re: The dark side of curcumin

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I agree regarding the safety of ingesting 60-200 mg daily as a component of turmeric. The study did cause me to reevaluate the wisdom of consuming 875 mg daily in a 95% curcuminoids supplement pill.
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Re: The dark side of curcumin

Post by GenePoole0304 »

By now there should at least be some drugs reaction reports?

Maybe they are smiling more

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18766332
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Re: The dark side of curcumin

Post by ApropoE4 »

merouleau wrote:I agree regarding the safety of ingesting 60-200 mg daily as a component of turmeric. The study did cause me to reevaluate the wisdom of consuming 875 mg daily in a 95% curcuminoids supplement pill.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22407780

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23832433

I'm sure the benefits claimed by many are overstated, but given the poor absorption profile it'd be surprising if high dosages caused anything but an upset stomach (doesn't mean those dosages are necessary).
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Re: The dark side of curcumin

Post by tesslo »

I have been using curcumin in cooking making curry and a cauliflower roasted with coconut oil 1 tbsp of curcumin , 1 tsp of ginger mixed in 1tbsp of coconut oil melted drizzled over the cauliflower and roasted in a covered dish @ 400 degrees for 30min tossing occasionally, then I use ground black pepper and shredded coconut on top!
It is really tough to clean up so I figured there were more benefits and many use for skincare also in soaps and scrubs.
One warning: I read someone stated that it turns grey hair back dark and that is my experience....I was dissappointed because I love my white hair
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Re: The dark side of curcumin

Post by JulieAnnie »

Nutrahacker analysis of my 23andMe genetic raw data warns me to avoid curcumin due to MOA-A and MOA-B variants. Also, I've seen data that Indians have one of the lowest rates of APOE-4 so it makes me wonder if curcumin is the right way to go for APOE-4's :roll:
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Re: The dark side of curcumin

Post by ABrain4Me »

JulieAnnie wrote:Nutrahacker analysis of my 23andMe genetic raw data warns me to avoid curcumin due to MOA-A and MOA-B variants. Also, I've seen data that Indians have one of the lowest rates of APOE-4 so it makes me wonder if curcumin is the right way to go for APOE-4's :roll:
Interesting-- I've always had what I presumed to be a major allergy to turmeric-- it causes major insomnia for me and gives me massive brain fog. I've had to not eat Indian food for years due to this. I recently indulged in Turmeric Tonic drink, served at local restaurant, thinking if I had it at lunch, I would sleep that night and had a major negative reaction (hopefully learned my lesson ?).

According to my NutraHacker report, I should avoid curcumin due to heterozygous mutation in CYP1A2 gene (Quote: CYP1A2*11 allele with approximately 5% activity of that of the CYP1A2 wild type). SNP is rs72547513. Also to avoid: cumin and grapefruit.
Also have mutation in rs762551, which also says to avoid curcumin.
Also have the MAO-A homozygous mutation, with NutraHacker recommending to avoid curcumin.

Always interesting to learn that what you thought was an allergy, is caused by a genetic defect :).
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Re: The dark side of curcumin

Post by Ski »

ABrain4Me wrote:Interesting-- I've always had what I presumed to be a major allergy to turmeric-- it causes major insomnia for me and gives me massive brain fog.
Thats interesting AB4Me. Curious, what were your brain fog symptoms like?
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Re: The dark side of curcumin

Post by ABrain4Me »

Turmeric brain fog is worse than my usual brain fog: inability to focus, can't concentrate, feel somewhat hyper, but exhausted at the same time, anxiety levels go up. Turmeric basically wrecks me for about 24 hours :)

So... I just looked up to see if there's any treatments for the MAO-A deficiency and learned that this genetic defect is associated with criminal behavior in Dutch men. Real nice-- guess I'm lucky that genes aren't necessarily your destiny, and that decent child-rearing overcomes this! There's also no current treatment. Will be interesting to see how the study protocol handles this one.
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