Curcumin Supplements

About Curcumin Supplements

Curcumin supplements have been steadily gaining popularity as the benefits of Turmeric Root become more relevant to our health needs. Curcumin is a polyphenol found in Turmeric Root that naturally has a poor bioavailability. This means that very little of it is absorbed, with most of it ending up passing through the large intestine and colon, and finally as waste. However, black pepper has been demonstrated to increase absorption of this polyphenol by a factor of twenty times.

The piperine found in black pepper interferes with liver and intestinal glucuronidation pathways, which reduces curcumin breakdown. This makes supplementation with curcumin highly advantageous, as more of the active compound finds its way to the body’s tissues, such as the joints and muscles. Though some curcumin preparations are enriched with black pepper to boost absorption, others use curcumin-phospholipid complexes, which are also highly effective over Turmeric Root alone.

Curcumin has many benefits for the human body, not only for support with various health maladies, but also as a general tonic to support well-being. Curcumin has been shown to be helpful for anxiety, depression, metabolic syndrome and even muscle soreness after exercise. This last effect is not surprising given that curcumin is a powerful natural anti-inflammatory, and that during delayed muscle soreness, markers of muscle and nerve inflammation are elevated.

Curcumin is a safe and natural compound to take for inflammatory conditions, such as arthritis and sports injuries. It has a strong antioxidant effect, helping to protect cells from free-radical damage. It has even been demonstrated in clinical trials to assist with normalising blood lipids, such as triglycerides and LDL cholesterol. 

Research published by the European Review for Medical and Pharmacological Sciences in 2015 indicated that curucmin positively impacts weight management in overweight people. This effect may be due to the powerful anti-inflammatory nature of Turmeric root, or perhaps due to some other mechanism.