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As a nutrition coach, personal trainer, and all-around health and wellness obsessive, curcumin is probably the supplement I’ve recommended more times than any other to friends, family members, colleagues, and clients. I’ve taken a daily dose of curcumin, a natural anti-inflammatory active found in turmeric, for over three years and it’s as important to me as my daily multivitamin. As someone who trains five or six times a week, a large volume of that being running, curcumin helps with joint health, reduces muscle soreness, and aids recovery. If I don’t take it for a few days I start to feel soreness around my knees. I also find it beneficial for gut issues because of its anti-inflammatory properties.
I have recommended it for complaints about back and shoulder pain, swollen feet, colds, bruising, and more generally as a preventative aid for the inevitable inflammation that comes with age. Research on curcumin has also shown that its antioxidant properties can help reduce acne and support a healthy aging process, as well as ease inflammatory diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, and eye disorders. It can help with blood vessel function and brain health while working to tackle diabetes, cognitive decline, mood swings, and depression. Clinical trials have shown that it can play a part in killing cancer cells, so much so that it is promoted as a holistic cancer treatment.
So, what is curcumin?
If this list of benefits sounds familiar, that’s because curcumin provides the same gains as turmeric, its better-known host spice. “Curcumin is the active ingredient found in turmeric—and curcuminoids are the anti-inflammatory components,” explains sports nutritionist Ben Coomber. This is the bright orange/yellow compound found in the turmeric root, and it’s the part that offers the most benefits. By extracting it for use in supplements, you strip out the turmeric that offers fewer health gains.
“Research indicates you need 1500 milligrams of active curcumin per day to improve joint pain, osteoarthritis, and depression,” adds Coomber. “So, if you’re taking 1500 milligrams of turmeric, it’s very unlikely you’re getting anywhere close to the dose recommended by research. Turmeric’s still got curcumin in it, you’ve just got to take a lot of it.” In fact, turmeric only contains between two and six percent curcumin.
Nonetheless, turmeric remains the headline grabber, mainly due to marketing, easier accessibility to the spice itself, and the fact it’s a lot cheaper for supplement companies to produce than using expensive extraction processes, something Coomber, who is also the founder of UK-based Awesome Supplements, found early on. “Curcumin is a premium product. You can buy turmeric for around $12, but we spend that just to make our product.” Despite the costs and risks, Coomber was an early adopter and uses curcumin daily to help him recover from exercise and an inflamed elbow joint. He also added curcumin to the brand’s offering around four years ago. “The data around curcumin was just too strong to ignore, and the number of people that are now suffering with joint-based conditions and the proliferation of depression, two of the major things that curcumin can help with, prompted us to move into that space,” he explains.
Adam Payne, the CEO of supplement brand Ultra Botanica, has been at the center of curcumin research for over ten years. “Curcumin was discovered in the ’70s by epidemiologists studying population trends in different markets,” he explains. “The data showed that populations, like those in India and Okinawa [Japan], had much lower Alzheimer’s, cancer, and diabetes rates than other countries—this was due to their daily intake of two to three grams of turmeric in their food.”
Crushed turmeric is often used in Indian curries, while in Okinawa, it’s a mainstay in milky teas. “They were naturally ingesting massive amounts of curcumin in their diet via their meals and drinks, for years from childhood. In fact, when you do an autopsy on people in these areas, their brains are orange because of all the curcumin,” Payne adds. “This started a whole floor of research—hundreds of papers—and finally they discovered three molecules, called curcumoids, that were responsible for the beneficial action.”
Which curcumin to take?
Another thing to consider when choosing your curcumin supplement is its bioavailability – the amount of curcumin in the product that actually makes it to your cells. This is a common issue when it comes to supplements and healthy foods in general, while we’re all learning more about what’s good for us, we still need more understanding of how these foods and compounds are best transported and absorbed into our cells. Curcumin is notoriously tricky when it comes to both because it is not water-soluble and only soluble in certain fats and oils, so large quantities can pass through the body without being used.
It’s an issue that Payne has spent years trying to rectify; “The lab was telling us that this stuff really works, it stops inflammation in its tracks and really helps to balance blood sugar – but the problem was figuring out a way to deliver those molecules to the affected cells.” Payne is the lead inventor of ProtiSorb technology, which binds the curcumin molecules to soluble proteins, making them easier to digest. This technology is deployed in his UltraCür® curcumin supplements for humans and UltraCür Pets for cats and dogs. (Yes, you should give it to your pets too!)
He explains how the Indians and Okinawans were unknowingly doing this during the cooking process. “They were liberating the curcuminoids by putting [the turmeric root] in hot oil and cooking it, or by boiling it in tea and letting it steep, they’re doing exactly what our patent says, which is binding the curcumin molecules to the proteins that are soluble and floating around in the milk. And then, when your body takes in that complex, the proteins and molecules are liberated.”
Another popular addition to curcumin supplements is piperine or pepper extract. Piperine works by inhibiting a detox enzyme that would normally break down the curcumin before it reaches the bloodstream, it also aids absorption from the intestinal wall into the bloodstream. If pill form is not for you, curcumin also comes in liquid options such as KURK, which was developed by two cancer survivors (one of them a doctor) and gets around the absorption issues by enclosing the curcumin in a water-soluble coating (micelle).
Who should definitely take curcumin?
“According to the research, people with joint conditions, such as osteoarthritis, those suffering from depression, and anyone who exercises a lot,” explains Coomber. “People that exercise increase the amount of oxidation in their tissues and have a higher level of inflammation.”
Payne agrees: “When people take our product for fitness, they experience more than a 50% reduction in recovery time.” But he adds that the benefits of curcumin could be useful to all. “I think it s an everybody, every day product. There’s so much evidence to support that a daily dose of curcumin will really help to mitigate the inflammatory processes of cardiovascular, neurological, and age-related diseases that people accumulate over time.” He goes on to add: “For the last trimester of our lives? I think curcumin is crucial, for 50-plus, it should be obligatory.”
If you are on any medication, speak to your doctor before taking curcumin. People taking blood-thinning medication should avoid it altogether.
