Topic: "Common Spice Kills C.Difficile in Lab Dish"
sammy
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 13952
posted
I thought you all might be interested in this article I read on Medscape.
Common Spice Kills C. Difficile in Lab Dish
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) Oct 20 - The spice that lends its brilliant yellow-orange color to mustard, curry powder and other foods could ward off potentially life-threatening infections with Clostridium difficile, according to research presented this week at the American College of Gastroenterology's annual meeting in San Antonio.
"For the last 2000 years people have been using curcumin and we haven't found bacteria resistant to it," Dr. Rattan Patel of the Cedars Sinai Medical Center/VA Medical Center in Los Angeles, who conducted the study, told Reuters Health. Curcumin is found in turmeric, a spice commonly used in Indian cuisine; it's also a U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved food coloring agent.
Dr. Patel and his team found that extracts of regular grocery-store turmeric inhibited the growth of C. difficile in vitro, at concentrations that would be easily obtained in the colon by adding the spice to food or consuming it in capsule form.
C. difficile is resistant to many commonly used antibiotics; one treatment approach now being tested involves transplanting feces from a healthy person into the ill person's colon in order to restore normal bacterial balance. But the new study suggests that turmeric could help prevent these infections in the first place.
Dr. Patel said in an interview that he undertook his study after researchers from Singapore reported that Indian patients had the lowest rates of C. difficile infection.
Working in the laboratory of Dr. Sydney Finegold, Dr. Patel and his colleagues tested different formulations and concentrations of curcumin against 21 strains of C. difficile. Growth of all of the strains was inhibited by curcumin at a concentration of 128 mcg/mL.
By giving people up to 4 g/day of curcumin, Dr. Patel said, it's possible to obtain a concentration of curcumin in the stool well above the concentrations that inhibited C. difficile growth. In regions where curcumin is a regular dietary ingredient, he added, people typically consume 2 to 4 g/day, and up to 12 g/day can be safely consumed.
Dr. Patel said he is now working with UCLA to develop a clinical trial to test curcumin for preventing C. difficile infection. He expects he would need about 500 patients for each arm of the study, which would mean collaborating with other hospitals to find enough patients.
Key questions that still must be resolved, he added, include figuring out whether curcumin affects the absorption of other medications, and whether it would be best to use the spice in capsules or as a food additive.
Posts: 5237 | From here | Registered: Nov 2007
| IP: Logged |
posted
Where do you buy capsules? I have been meaning to try this for inflammation and now that I know it helps prevent c. difficile, even better!
Posts: 618 | From NC | Registered: Oct 2009
| IP: Logged |
posted
UCLA has a curcumin that they invented with a different delivery system. They did a 10 year long study on it and had clinical studies done on their Alzhiemer, Down's, and neuro inflammatory patients. They had great results. The name of it is Longvida.
Posts: 871 | From orange county, ca. | Registered: Jan 2006
| IP: Logged |
D Bergy
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 9984
posted
There really is no reason not to take Turmeric. The list of benefits is probably longer than any other food product out there. So long, I cannot even remember them all.
Lyme or not, I think everyone should consider using Turmeric in cooking, and/or capsules on a regular basis.
Dan
Posts: 2919 | From Minnesota | Registered: Aug 2006
| IP: Logged |
Keebler
Honored Contributor (25K+ posts)
Member # 12673
. . . Turmeric root is bitter in taste and warming in action. It strongly reduces inflammation and mucus in all parts of the body, protects the liver, lungs and intestines . . . .
� . . . If you have bile duct obstruction, gall stones, or stomach ulcers: due to mucin-reducing effects, do not use the concentrated extract (curcumin) or oil in high doses. Use turmeric as a spice freely. . . .
. . . full article at link above.
From �The One Earth Herbal Sourcebook� (Tilltoson, et.al.)
A recently published study investigated the effects of curcumin, a constituent of the botanical turmeric, on changes in cognition and memory caused by stress. . . .
In this new study, researchers investigated the effect of curcumin supplementation on stress-induced learning defects in mice. . . .
The results of the study showed that curcumin reversed memory deficits in a dose dependent manner, meaning increasing dosages of curcumin provided increasingly improved memory in the mice.
In addition, curcumin reversed the stress-induced increase in the levels of serum corticosterone, the primary hormone secreted during the stress response.
The researchers also found that the effectiveness of curcumin was similar to the effects of a tri-cyclic antidepressant.
. . . inhibited changes due to corticosterone-induced toxicity including preserving nerve cell connections, and inhibiting the corticosterone-induced activation of the enzyme calcium/calmodulin kinase II and stimulated glutamate receptor expression, which play a role in neurotransmitter secretion and certain kinds of memory and learning.
The researchers concluded, �Thus, curcumin may be an effective therapeutic for learning and memory disturbances as was seen within these stress models, and
its neuroprotective effect was mediated in part by normalizing the corticosterone response, resulting in down-regulating of the phosphorylated calcium/calmodulin kinase II and glutamate receptor levels.� -
Posts: 48021 | From Tree House | Registered: Jul 2007
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by jwall: Where do you buy capsules? I have been meaning to try this for inflammation and now that I know it helps prevent c. difficile, even better! [/QB]
You can get them at any health food store or online.
I just bought some a few weeks ago at Vitamin World.. double strength. 1000 mg each. I take two a day.
-------------------- --Lymetutu-- Opinions, not medical advice! Posts: 96222 | From Texas | Registered: Feb 2001
| IP: Logged |
nefferdun
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 20157
posted
That is good to know. 4 grams is a lot so capsules would probably be the best way to get enough. I am already taking so many capsules I don't think I could swallow any more. But I will try to put more of it on my food. I had curried chicken the last two nights before I read this.
-------------------- old joke: idiopathic means the patient is pathological and the the doctor is an idiot Posts: 4676 | From western Montana | Registered: Apr 2009
| IP: Logged |
The Lyme Disease Network is a non-profit organization funded by individual donations. If you would like to support the Network and the LymeNet system of Web services, please send your donations to:
The
Lyme Disease Network of New Jersey 907 Pebble Creek Court,
Pennington,
NJ08534USA http://www.lymenet.org/
UBBFriend: Email this page to someone!
Printer-friendly view of this topic