Hi everyone!
Our discussion Monday had me thinking… what’s the deal with curcumin? Yeah, sure, we read an article raving about the wonders of the compound, but I was still not convinced of curcumin’s lofty guarantees. And so began my search for peer-reviewed evidence.
Before this semester, I thought curcumin’s health benefits were scraping the bare bottom of the legitimacy jar. So I was completely awed when I had to click and scroll through hundreds of curcumin-related PubMed search results. There is no shortage of science reviews and basic articles about the topic, so I encourage you all to look through PubMed if our class article on curcumin left you as perplexed as it left me.
The point is, though, that I found the Holy Grail of class-relevant curcumin articles. Look at the title!
“Active spice-derived components can inhibit inflammatory responses of adipose tissue in obesity by suppressing inflammatory actions of macrophages and release of monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 from adipocytes.” (Woo et al.)
“Active spice-derived components can inhibit inflammatory responses of adipose tissue in obesity by suppressing inflammatory actions of macrophages and release of monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 from adipocytes.” (Woo et al.)
This article links two articles we read in class: Byron Richards’ article about curcumin AND the review about macrophage tissue infiltration written by Bourlier & Bouloumie. Because we all know a little bit about both subjects through Monday’s discussion, I figured I would show you guys this article so that you can weld your knowledge together and place a final verdict on the curcumin mystery.
As we all know, macrophages migration into adipose tissue is an underlying cause of inflammation in obese individuals. These macrophages release proinflammatory mediators into the body and chronic inflammation ensues. Woo’s experiment treated adipose tissue from obese rats with curcumin (among other spice-derived compounds) and measured the extent of macrophage infiltration and activation.
Woo’s study showed that curcumin limits the release of MCP-1 (monocyte chemoattractant protein-1). This inhibitory effect could be responsible for their observation that macrophage migration was thwarted upon treatment with the compound. If you remember from Monday, Bourlier & Bouloumie’s article suggested that macrophage migration into adipose tissue plays a huge role in obesity-induced inflammation. Woo’s article shows that curcumin has the potential to reduce these effects. Production of TNF-a and nitric oxide (pro-inflammatory mediators) was significantly impaired after curcumin treatment as well.
Unfortunately, a huge limitation to this study is that it was not performed on humans. A huge gap of knowledge still obviously exists on the subject of curcumin and inflammation, but won’t you all sleep better tonight knowing that maybe eating that gallon of delicious Indian curry last week wasn’t an act of gluttony, but potential inflammation mediation instead?
References:
Woo HM, Kang JH, Kawada T, Yoo H, Sung MK, Yu R. "Active spice-derived components can inhibit inflammatory responses of adipose tissue in obesity by suppressing inflammatory actions of macrophages and release of monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 from adipocytes." Life Sci. 2007 Feb 13;80(10):926-31. Epub 2006 Nov 23.
Bourlier V, Bouloumie A. "Role of macrophage tissue infiltration in obesity and insulin resistance. Diabetes." Metab (2009), doi:10.1016/j.diabet.2009.05.001
Richards, Byron. "Curcumin: Linking Leptin, Obesity, Joint Problems, and Inflammation." News and Views. Wellness Resources, 24 May 2010. Web. 8 Feb 2011. <http://www.wellnessresources.com/main/printable/curcumin_linking_lept>.
I have to say that before this class I do not think that I have ever heard of curcumin which is supprising since I eat a lot of different kinds of food that would contain this. But it is pretty intersting to see that there are so many studies that are out there that have to do with curcumin and inflamation. While there are some that show promising results like you said they are done in animal studdies, this is a problem for many studies that are going on now. Since there are good results with the animals it would be interesting to see how much of that would translate to human models. Well I guess there is a chance that in the future we will start to see these type of studies/results.^_^
ReplyDeleteI've read that turmeric, the plant from which curcumin is derived, in is used in Ayurvedic medicine. While there are many issues with this "branch" of medicine such as the use of heavy metals, it is interesting to note that many of the other plants used by ayurvedic doctors have antioxidant properties, perhaps lending credibility to some of their treatments.
ReplyDeleteOf course the fact that curcumin (as turmeric) has been used for ages to treat various illnesses doesn't mean that it'll stand the scrutiny of modern science but here is hoping :)