Researcher Michal Heger answers 8 questions about curcumin
It is in curry powder, curries and vanilla custard. And almost magical powers are attributed to this spice. Turmeric is said to reduce your risk of cancer and other diseases. What is true of that? Healthnet asked Michal Heger. He has been researching turmeric and cancer at the AMC for years.
1. What is the active ingredient?
“The root is called turmeric. It contains three active substances: curcumin, demethoxycurcumin and bis-demethoxycurcumin. These substances are only found in the Curcuma longa and provide the characteristic yellow color. There are also other types of turmeric plants, but none exist. curcumin in it and their roots are just white.”
2. How does curcumin behave in your body?
“In cells cultured in the laboratory, curcumin counteracts cancer. For example, it stimulates tumor cells to die. If you get turmeric through your diet, the amount of curcumin in your bloodstream is too small to sufficiently kill cancer cells. There are millions of cells, each cell has to ‘take in’ curcumin and then die, for which you need more curcumin in your blood than there is after eating curcumin.
Your body sees curcumin as a toxic substance and wants to get rid of it. It can withstand your stomach acid, but cells in the gut transform it into a form that you quickly pee out. It then goes through blood vessels in the intestines to the liver, our largest filter. Only then does it spread through your body. The blood that you take with pricks is therefore filtered twice: first through the intestines and then through the liver.
As a result, you lose a large amount of curcumin soon after ingestion. It can certainly still have an effect, but what effect and to what extent exactly, that is not yet known as far as cancer is concerned.”
3. Against which diseases can turmeric theoretically protect you?
“It’s a strong antioxidant. It also inhibits inflammatory reactions. It could lower your risk of diseases that arise from chronic inflammation, such as cancer. Turmeric stays behind in your gut and may also help with intestinal problems. A colleague of mine has Curcumin has been shown to boost your immune system.
It may also work against protein folding diseases in the brain, such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Huntington’s. In these disorders proteins no longer behave properly: they want to clump together and that causes a lot of trouble. Curcumin theoretically prevents that clumping, but the curcumin then has to cross the blood-brain barrier.
However, whether curcumin actually has positive effects in humans in cancer and protein folding disorders has not yet been demonstrated in long-term, placebo-controlled studies.”
4. Do you get (enough) curcumin through food?
“What could be better than just getting enough curcumin through a curry meal! That would be ideal. That’s why I’m testing it. I have a local shop make curry, which mainly consists of turmeric. I serve it to healthy volunteers. I then take some blood from the test subjects to see how much curcumin ends up in their blood. I don’t know exactly how much curcumin remains in your blood. I will only analyze the blood samples when this research is complete. “
5. Does curcumin have side effects?
“Most side effects were found in studies with high doses. Then you have to think of 8 to 12 grams per day. Most subjects had no problems, but some became nauseous or had intestinal complaints. Suppose you use turmeric in a treatment against cancer. , then these side effects are of course not too bad compared to the side effects of chemotherapy.”
6. Can everyone use turmeric?
“I have not been able to find any contraindications, in principle, unless you take certain medicines. People have been using it for thousands of years without being bothered by it. Only if you take blood thinners, I would not experiment with it myself. Same thing. applies to chemotherapy. Turmeric could cause clotting problems and we do not know enough how it behaves in combination with chemotherapy. So it is better to first consult with your doctor. Usually doctors know too little about curcumin, but they can generally assess whether you can use it safely.”
7. Is it smart to eat curry more often?
“If you like it: fine. But yes, the dishes that I order at the toko, such as ‘butter chicken’, do have a high fat content because the curry is fat-soluble. You get a mountain of rice and the curry consists of chicken and hardly any vegetables, whether that’s healthy… It’s tasty, so if you eat a varied diet, it’s okay once in a while, but you shouldn’t fatten yourself with curries.
In India they eat a lot of curry. And there are fewer residents with cancer there. But is that because of that curry? Or because they fry less, eat little meat and drink hardly any alcohol, just to name a few things? For the time being, you cannot state one-on-one that eating turmeric is accompanied by a protective effect.”
8. And what about supplements?
“Curcumin supplements contain the same active ingredient as turmeric foods. But curry also contains other spices that may have health effects, such as cumin. Some cancer patients say they benefit from curcumin pills, but whether that is due to the placebo effect, other medication or because of the curcumin, no idea. In any case, it does improve quality of life. For certain patients with depression, intestinal inflammation, arthritis, metabolic syndrome (high fat content), diabetes, and menstrual complaints it does work. demonstrated in double-blind, placebo-controlled studies.
It is also questionable what curcumin does for you if you are already healthy. Do you notice anything if you’re not wrong? Don’t underestimate what your body can handle. You basically get everything you need from your diet. Exercise stimulates processes that fight disease. If you eat healthy, deal with stress, exercise and sleep, you can hardly go wrong. Unless you have a lot of bad luck, or, for example, a genetic predisposition to develop certain disorders.
If you eat turmeric and eat a varied diet, do you stay healthy because of the turmeric or because of the variety? That’s so hard to figure out. And that’s why I’m researching that.”
dr. Michal Heger is a researcher at the Experimental Surgery department of the Amsterdam Medical Center (AMC). He is currently studying what our body does with curcumin and whether there is a formulation that is absorbed well. According to him, he will test patients whether that formulation works in diseases. He shares the latest news about curcumin on his Facebook page.
