11/28/2016 2 Comments What I know about turmericOkay, so if you have me on Snapchat you've probably heard me talk about turmeric before and why I'm obsessed with it. I was introduced to it my sophomore year in college by my Mom when I was starting a research project and I needed a topic. To cut to the chase, here's a run down on everything I found during my research and what I talk frequently about on social media! :)
What is Turmeric? What is Curcumin? What does it do? Turmeric is a traditional Chinese medicinal herb that has been used in the past to treat chronic inflammatory conditions because of its main component curcumin. Curcumin controls inflammation, cell growth, apoptosis (programmed cell death), and has minimal side effects. Along with the minimal side effects, curcumin has been shown to alleviate inflammation, oxidative stress, and enhance the body's natural anti-inflammatory and anti-oxdidation defenses. So not only does it do work for the body but it makes the body work better on its own. Inflammation Inflammation is something that I don't think a lot of people fully understand. It's a great thing when you're hurt and your body is trying to heal; however, having it all throughout your body all the time is exhausting and can cause a lot of damage. A lot of autoimmunity related diseases are correlated with some sort of inflammation. Whether it be diabetes, multiple sclerosis, leaky gut syndrome, or any disease where the body is essentially attacking itself there is some sort of inflammation as well. Turmeric (Curcumin) & Inflammation Your gut is the first thing exposed to nutrients and it is here that starts the events leading up to inflammation. Did you know that 70% of your entire immune system is withing your gut?! Think of what you expose the majority of your immune system to when you eat a typical day's worth of food. Turmeric enhances our body's natural mechanism for fighting off inflammation. It does this by increasing the functionality of certain enzymes which play vital roles in the anti-inflammatory mechanism. Oxidative stress So oxidative stress in a nut shell is when there are oxygen molecules (aka "free radicals"). These free radical oxygens simply have unpaired electrons which makes them unbalanced. Their harmful effects can be neutralized by the body by using antioxidants. Imagine how exhausting it is combating those harmful effects 24/7 during a typical day of the Western diet. So this oxidative "stress" comes from there being too many free radical oxygens and a weakened antioxidant defense mechanism to fight it off. Turmeric (Curcumin) & Oxidation So turmeric's role in oxidation regulation is fairly complex but super neat. There's an enzyme in the body that works in a natural antioxidant and anti-inflammatory mechanism (like the one mentioned above). Turmeric causes up-regulation (increasing a cellular component) of this enzyme making it work harder which is what we want! I want Turmeric and I want it now! But wait....you should know something first: Unfortunately, out of the many awesome things turmeric does one thing it doesn't do very well is get absorbed (this is also called bio-availability). To solve this, research has shown that consuming turmeric with fat (oils, avocado etc.) and black pepper (yes, like salt and pepper without the salt) helps tremendously! In fact, a study showed that these things increased turmeric's ability to be absorbed by 22.6 times the normal amount! crazy huh? Well guys, hope you enjoyed this and I appreciate any feedback you may have! you can leave comments below, snap me (@katieweykampfit), send me a message on instagram (@katie_weykamp_fit), or you can contact me via email. Let me know if you have any questions! xoxo, Katie
2 Comments
Hope Cruser
1/13/2017 08:04:27 am
This was awesome info. Thank you!! I was recently diagnosed with diverticulitis and was wondering if maybe turmeric would help. I'm grateful to know it probably will, and the best way to make sure it's absorbed. Is there a certain ratio of fat/pepper/turmeric to aim for? Thank you!!
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