Turmeric: Doctors Say This Spice

Turmeric: Doctors Say This Spice 
Is a Brain Health Miracle

Discover the Simple Natural Solution to Lifelong Cognitive Health

Are you concerned about maintaining the health of your brain as you age? You're not alone. Losing one's memory and mental abilities to cognitive decline is something we all fear, and the current statistics on the prevalence of cognitive decline in this country are not pretty. By age 65, sadly 1 in 8 Americans will suffer from severe cognitive decline, and by age 80, an astonishing 1 in 2 will.^[1] 

Researchers have been working for years to develop an effective treatment. But one "miracle" drug after another has failed to live up to its promises, and it's becoming more and more apparent thatpharmaceuticals are not the solution. Unfortunately, the medical establishment is so narrowly focused on finding an elusive "cure" that scientifically proven prevention strategies are often ignored. 

I'm Joshua Corn, Editor-in-Chief of Live in the Now, one of the fastest growing natural health publications in the nation. My passion for natural health drives me to seek the truth about the causes of health problems and to educate people on alternative solutions that are both safe and effective. 

Please keep reading, because I'll tell you about an amazingly effective way to protect your brain from the ravages of cognitive decline and boost your thinking and memory abilities quickly, naturally and safely.

Nature's Brain-Protecting Miracle

There are a number of natural brain protectors out there, but did you know that one herb has shown more promise when it comes to supporting your neurological system than any other medical finding to date? It's a scientific fact that curcumin, an antioxidant compound found in the root of the turmeric plant, is one of the most powerful natural brain protecting substances on the planet! It continues to amaze scientists with its remarkable cognitive health benefits. 

You may be familiar with turmeric as the bright yellow spice that is commonly found in curry powder. Turmeric has a long history as a healing herb and culinary spice in India. Interestingly, India has the highest per capita consumption of turmeric AND the lowest incidence of cognitive decline worldwide!^[2]

Your Brain on Curcumin

The hallmark process associated with certain types of cognitive decline is the formation in the brain of abnormal protein structures. Normally when malformed proteins are formed with the brain, the immune system sends out cells known as macrophages, which engulf and destroy the proteins. If this ordinary function fails, defective proteins accumulate in the brain and cognitive decline can follow. 

That's why I was excited to read that recent research is showing that curcumin encourages the immune system to send macrophages to the brain. A landmark clinical trial involving people with severe cognitive decline measured the effects of curcumin. Amazingly, the participants taking curcumin had significantly higher levels of dissolved abnormal proteins in their blood compared to those in the placebo group. 

This study showed that curcumin has the ability to effectively pass into the brain, bind to beta-amyloid plaques and assist the body in their breakdown.^[3] Curcumin is one of the only substances known to have such a profound protective effect on the brain. 

Curcumin Combats Dangerous Inflammation

You may have heard about the dangers of "silent" chronic inflammation. It's been discussed by Dr. Oz and has made headlines in publications such as Newsweek and Time. It's important for you to know that low-grade inflammation is rapidly becoming recognized as the root cause of the development of cognitive decline, as well as a wide range of serious health problems.^[4]

The dangers of "silent" inflammation have been discussed by Dr. Oz and has made headlines in publications such asNewsweek and Time.

Unfortunately, most people don't do anything until the initial symptoms, such as muscle aches and joint discomfort, appear. When this happens, their gut reaction often is to go see a doctor, who is unlikely to correctly diagnose the problem, and more than likely will prescribe drugs that are far from safe and only provide short-term benefits.

But the initial symptoms of pain are just the beginning. If left unchecked, chronic inflammation can damage your body in many ways. One of the worst examples of this is cognitive decline, which can ravage your memory and severely impact your quality of life in what should be your golden years.

Cutting-edge science is showing that curcumin is one of the most powerful, natural anti-inflammatories ever studied. Curcumin is so effective because it is a potent inhibitor of the body's most powerful inflammation-causing chemical, called Nf-kappa beta. Miraculously, curcumin has been shown in numerous studies to tame joint pain and muscle soreness, protect the brain, support cardiovascular health, bolster immunity and more.^[5,6,7,8,9] If you have a lingering health problem that no doctor can resolve, you may be suffering from chronic inflammation and curcumin may be just the natural solution you've been looking for.

How to Get the Most Out of Curcumin

Although you may be able to find high quality turmeric powder at your local market, it's very difficult to verify its purity and potency. Plus, it's almost impossible to incorporate therapeutic amounts of curcumin into your diet on a daily basis as a spice. So, to put it simply, a high-quality curcumin supplement is your best bet! 

However, not all curcumin supplements are created equal. Unfortunately, most supplements out there don't have the necessary doses and components to get the job done. If you take the wrong supplement, you'll end up not only wasting money, but missing out on an incredible opportunity to protect your brain and keep harmful inflammation at bay. 

There are 3 major factors to consider when deciding on a curcumin supplement:

1. Standardization and Dose: Standardization is the process by which the active ingredients in a plant are concentrated and brought to a consistent level. The active ingredients of turmeric are called curcuminoids, and there are actually three components: curcumin, demethoxycurcumin and bisdemethoxycurcumin. Any good curcumin supplement should include all 3 of these curcuminoids and be standardized to at least 75%. Otherwise, what you're getting could be little more than a pill filled with powdered turmeric root. Also, the minimum recommended daily dose is 1,000 mg per day.

2.	Absorption: One problem with curcumin is that it's not easily absorbed. However, it was discovered that an extract of black pepper, called piperine, significantly enhances absorption of curcumin. In fact, one study found that the addition of a piperine increased bioavailablity by 2,000%![10] So make sure that any curcumin supplement you take contains this important extract. .
3.	Price: Some people mistakenly believe if you pay more you get better quality. My advice is that you don't need to pay more than $30 for a one month supply. Many companies are taking advantage of the hype surrounding curcumin and charging more than double this.

 

A former white collar employee harvests success from turmeric

M. J. Prabu

About 17 tonnes of fresh turmeric was harvested from an acre

Mr. Muhammed Busthani, from Koduvally in Kozhikode district of Kerala, does not claim to be an experienced farmer, but a casual chat with him can make one realise that the man’s knowledge in the subject is quite deep rooted.

His interest, particularly in turmeric, is surprising when he asserts: “Among all crops turmeric is the least affected by pests and infestations.”

NO CLUE

On return to his home town after leaving a private sector job in New Delhi, Mr. Busthani was planning to venture into business.

But he was totally clueless on where to start. His friends floated many ideas, but he was all the more confused.

It was a meeting with an expert at the Indian Institute of Spices Research, Kozhikode, and an old acquaintance, which helped him to realize that agriculture was his next calling.

In February 2011, he, along with his five friends, attended a three-day seminar and technology showcasing conducted at the Institute under the aegis of National Agricultural Innovation Project (NAIP) of ICAR.

That was a turning point in the life of Mr. Busthani and his friends.

“After attending various sessions in the seminar and hearing the success stories of farmer participants, we decided to grow turmeric,” he recalls.

Initially, they booked one tonne of seeds of Prathibha turmeric variety from a farmer delegate in the seminar. The friends formed a trust and took one acre land on lease at Sultan Bathery, Wayanad, and thus Bucca Farms was born.

From that one acre plot the team harvested around 17 tonnes of fresh turmeric in January 2012.

“We dried about 100 kg of Prathibha turmeric and powdered it for domestic use. After that, the home made dishes were all in a different taste. When my wife pointed out the superiority of turmeric powder, I thought of cultivating it on commercial scale,” he recalls.

EXPLORING OPTIONS

He took the appreciation seriously and explored the opinions of the neighbouring housewives — a sort of survey study.

All the neighbours who used Prathibha turmeric for cooking endorsed the ‘magic’ of Prathibha turmeric powder.

This year, the friends leased out around 18 acres of land at Pazhayangadi near Vellamunda in Wayanad district of Kerala and the entire area was planted with the remaining Parthiba seeds.

Today, Bucca Farms may be the largest farm growing a single variety of turmeric in Kerala. The farmers adopt the production packages recommended by IISR.

The operations including the fertilizer applications are targeted to get a yield of 320 tonnes. IISR scientists’ team has developed specific fertilizer recommendations to obtain a fixed yield from a unit area of land, known as ‘targeted yield’.

As the crop is showing good health and uniform growth, the farmers are expecting a yield somewhere near the targeted levels.

TONNES PER HECTARE

“Maturing in 225 days under rainfed conditions, Prathibha gives an average yield of 39.12 tonnes per hectare. Relatively higher levels of curcumin (6.25per cent), oleoresin (16.2per cent) and essential oil (6.2 per cent) make this variety a hot choice for industrial, medicinal, and culinary purposes.

“The variety is proven to give 6 to 7 per cent of curcumin under Kerala conditions,” says Dr. B Sasikumar, Principal Scientist of the institute who developed it more than 10 years back.

“The Prathibha variety, which was released in the year 1996, has proved to be more adaptable to different states of India like Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab etc, owing to its better phenotypic plasticity and other favourable conditions,” says Dr. M Anandaraj, Director, Indian Institute of Spices Research.

With his two years of experience of turmeric cultivation, Mr. Busthani is now aware of the problems of farming in the state — labour shortage and high labour costs.

REMEDY

And he has a remedy too for this malady — farm mechanization. In fact, one of the major labour requirements for turmeric in the state is for bed-making for planting. With the help of local skilled workers, he converted a tractor mounted disc plough into a bed maker.

“Though the topography of the area was undulating; we could make uniform beds for planting turmeric in the entire 18 acres land using the bed-maker. It helped us to save about 300 labourers’ work,” he adds.

The farmer is also contemplating going in for available modern techniques in other farm operations so as to bring down the cost of production.

“We are working on a tractor mountable device to harvest the crop in the coming season,” he adds.

He was also one of the farmers identified for scientific cultivation of ginger (varada) under the institutes’ NAIP project on multi-enterprise farming models to address the agrarian crisis of Wayanad, Kerala in 2011.

For more details contact Mr. Muhamed Busthani, Thotathil House, Elettil PO, Koduvally, Kozhikode, Mob: 09946041946.

Haldi – A Victim of Bio-Piracy

The rich Traditional medical knowledge of the Indian sub-continent, has always been subjected to victimization and exploitation. Time and again many patents are registered abroad by firms and researchers alike, claiming to have ‘invented’ something which has been around for ages.

The most well-known controversy is the patent obtained for the ‘wound healing’ properties of our very own haldi [turmeric], by researchers associated with University of Missisippi Medical Center. They fraudulently obtained patents on turmeric, making use of the big loopholes of American patent laws.

Turmeric has been an indispensible part of Indian cuisine & also has religious significance. Bridal beautification ceremonies are never complete without turmeric. And our women use it as a natural epilator to get rid of the superfluous hair & stained themselves with it to keep tan at bay. This association with haldi, runs really deep. Thus, it was no wonder that these patents made our blood to boil.

The patents were finally declared null and void, on March 1995, but only after a lot of campaigning and intervention by [CSIR Council of Scientific & industrial research]. This issue became a matter of national pride and created quite a furore among the masses.

Adding insult to injury, Neem & basmati, our traditional treasures, were also shrouded by patent controversy soon thereafter.

Ricetec, Inc, a texas based firm, patented breeding crosses involving 22 farmer-bred basmati varieties from India & Pakistan. This aromatic rice with slender grains and a unique fragrance is known as the ‘crown jewel’ of South-Asian Rice. These patents, though technically applied only within the United States, threatened Indian basmati exports in the international market.

Another patent was granted for a neem-based pesticide, to W.R. Grace & Co. This Maryland based firm claimed to have developed a process, to isolate a stable form of Azadirachtin. The European patent office [EPO], finally ruled in India’s favour on March 2005, accepting the bare truth that the practice has been in use in India for more than 2000 years.

These incidents garnered sufficient global attraction. Opposition against this ‘Corporate colonialism’ gathered momentum as more than 200 organizations, from 35 nations, raised their voice in the global arena.

How can a product of natural origin, which has been in practice since time immemorial, be patented? Isn’t this immoral and un-ethical? Turning public-goods into a private commodity is crass-commercialization at its inhumane worst.

But these Bio-piracy incidents have exposed some chinks in our armour. In its appeal to EPO, W.R.Grace & Co, alleged that ‘Prior Art’ about the product was never published in any scientific journal.

To stem out such threats to our native treasures, it becomes highly essential to educate the farmer-fraternity about our knowledge resources and make them aware of the available folk-wisdom.

Patents for natural products should never be granted if they clashed with traditional knowledge systems. If not, the Multinational Companies, who have huge funds at their disposal, may procure basic raw materials like neem in large scale. Such a scenario, in due course of time, will escalate the prices of unprocessed raw materials, pushing them far beyond the reach of farmers.

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