Image from Kapruka.com

Turmeric is a golden orange spice that is obtained from the root of Curcuma longa. Once tasted turmeric gives a warm bitter taste and it has been used in cooking for hundreds of years. It’s used in Ayurvedic and other forms of traditional medicine in China and India. Turmeric should not be confused with Javanese turmeric root or tree turmeric and don’t get confused with zedoary or goldenseal which are unrelated plants sometimes called turmeric.

Here are the benefits of turmeric:

• Taking turmeric by mouth reduces hay fever symptoms such as sneezing, itching, runny nose, and congestion.
• It is shown in research that curcumin, a chemical found in turmeric, can reduce depressive symptoms so it acts like an antidepressant.
• Oral ingestion of turmeric can also reduce blood fats called triglycerides.
• It helps reduce inflammation and oral mucositis (mouth sores).
• It improves the function of the endothelium which is the lining of your blood vessels. If it were to dysfunction, then heart disease occurs so therefore it is able to help reverse heart disease.
• There is evidence that turmeric can prevent cancer as a 30-day study showed that 44 men with lesions in the colon turned cancerous. The scientists used turmeric 4 grams a day and reduced the number of lesions by 40%
• Curcumin can help reverse the progression of Alzheimer’s disease by destroying protein tangles called amyloid plaques.
• Turmeric also helps recover from arthritis.

References

Kathy W. Warwick. (2021). 10 Proven Health Benefits of Turmeric and Curcumin. Healthline.

Mary-Eve Brown. (2020). Turmeric Benefits. Hopkinsmedicine.

WebMD. (2020). Turmeric – Uses, Side Effects, and More.