If you’re not much of a cook, chances are you don’t know a lot about the exotic spice ‘turmeric.’ Derived from the turmeric plant’s roots, it’s a colourful seasoning that’s mostly used to add flavour to curry recipes.
Turmeric isn’t just limited as a key ingredient of Asian food. Its benefits range well beyond flavouring, all the way to its endless natural remedies and countless medicinal properties.
In this article, we’ll describe a list of 19 remarkable health benefits of turmeric’s usage as a supplement to your diet. Let’s get started!
1. Treatment of PTSD and depression symptoms
The biggest issue with the traditional prescription drugs currently in use for treating PTSD and depression patients is that they can cause seriously damaging short-term and long-term side effects. Turmeric, among a few other natural alternatives, is one of the best options to treat these mental illnesses without the risk of side effects.
Turmeric contains curcumin, which has been proven to help reduce depression symptoms. Research also suggests that when used in conjunction with antidepressants, it can help with their effectiveness, and treat trauma-related mental health disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder.
2. Prevention of gallstones
Anyone who has suffered from gallbladder pain knows its severity, and it’s often tricky to treat it safely with medications in the long-term. Turmeric is one of the best natural alternatives for pain relief for gallbladder disease patients.
According to studies, the gallbladder produces more bile through turmeric’s stimulation, helping the gallbladder empty itself. Turmeric’s curcumin also naturally helps in relieving the inflammation and pain caused by gallbladder issues.
3. Liver protection
Turmeric happens to be highly effective in taking care of the well-being of the body’s vital organs. Especially the liver! In studies, turmeric’s antioxidant properties have shown serious promise in preventing toxin damage to the liver.
People taking strong medications for diseases like diabetes may be able to protect their liver from risks related to long-term drug usage, by simply supplementing their diet with turmeric.
4. Treatment of flu symptoms
Turmeric also helps you fight against day-to-day illnesses like the common cold and flu. Apart from drinking honey or eating ginger biscuits, an effective organic remedy to cold is to have warm milk with a teaspoon of turmeric stirred in. This beverage is said to have all the anti-bacterial, anti-viral, and anti-inflammatory forces to easily fight off a cold.
5. Reduction in the build-up of plaque
Turmeric also excels as a natural treasure in the department of dental health! According to one study, it can potentially help prevent gingivitis; a gum disease that can lead to bleeding, swelling, and losing teeth.
The curcumin element of turmeric allows it to remove inflammation, plaque, and bacteria from the gums and teeth just as well as a mouthwash can!
6. Stroke recovery
In recent years, stroke patients have seen a significant silver lining for treatment possibilities, and it surprisingly doesn’t come from the pharmaceutical industry. Instead, it’s a purely organic remedy based on turmeric, as scientific research has found that it can potentially repair stroke-damaged brain cells. Again, it’s the miraculous curcumin inside turmeric that makes this possible by supporting and feeding the mechanisms responsible for regenerating brain cells after stroke.
More research is recommended to exactly determine how turmeric can be used to help future stroke patients, but present studies show substantial positive signs.
7. Relief from IBS symptoms
Apart from aiding digestion, turmeric also helps to treat several digestive problems, including irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). According to research, by adding only a tablespoon of turmeric to one’s daily diet, IBS patients could experience notable relief from symptoms. Moreover, its anti-inflammatory properties can prevent abnormal muscle movements and soothe inflammation.
8. Protects DNA
Environmental factors like ultraviolet radiation in sunlight, along with oxidative stress in the body, can cause significant damage to your DNA. Once damaged, DNA is, unfortunately, tricky to repair—but turmeric healing properties have shown promise in this area as well. In a 2015 study, just a pinch of the spice was shown to be able to undo DNA damage by half!
9. Handling high blood pressure
High blood pressure is one of the most dangerous, yet among the most common health issues that people are diagnosed with. Left unchecked and untreated, it can potentially lead to a heart attack. Most people are unaware that turmeric can prevent high blood pressure!
Turmeric’s antioxidant qualities help in regulating the body’s blood pressure, and also aid in healing the damage caused by high blood pressure to arteries.
10. A natural painkiller
Next time you’re about to pop a pill to deal with pain, consider an all-organic alternative—turmeric! Turmeric is widely used by the pharmaceutical industry as a key ingredient for many types of medicines. Its known anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties can easily promote the body’s healing processes. Some reports even show that it can heal you just as quickly as many prescription drugs—all while staying all-natural!
While there’s insufficient evidence to claim that turmeric assists in weight loss, it has proven to treat inflammation due to obesity. As an indirect benefit, it’s easier for your body to lose weight when it doesn’t need to combat inflammation.
A study held particularly on rats showed that the curcumin element in turmeric can suppress the growth of fat tissue entirely, though such research is yet to be performed on human beings.
12. Skincare uses
Healthy skincare requires time, effort, consistency, and patience! But in today’s urban lifestyle, it’s now more important than ever, as we’re exposed to unprecedented amounts of harmful pollutants and toxins in the air daily. Luckily, taking strong medication isn’t the only option you have for treating skin problems like acne.
Thanks to the anti-inflammatory qualities of turmeric, it targets pores, calms skin irritation, and reduces scarring. There you have it, your best friend for maintaining healthy skin at home!
13. Prevents certain cancers
Sadly, almost all of us will be (or have been) affected by cancer during our lives, in one way or another. It’s necessary to continue researching natural preventions and cures to this deadly disease.
Fortunately, even a life-threatening disease like cancer isn’t safe from turmeric. It’s already being promoted as an organic complementary treatment to cancer, with significant scientific evidence suggesting its applicability in killing cancer cells. Since inflammation is the major cause of some types of cancer, turmeric can play a vital role in preventing cancer cell formation.
14. Natural anti-inflammatory
Apart from cancer, inflammation is the root of many greater evils. It’s linked to numerous disorders and diseases like auto-immune disorders, infection, injury, and heart disease.
Turmeric can help treat the symptoms of inflammation directly, such as redness, pain, and swelling. Turmeric happens to be more effective at the prevention of inflammation rather than its treatment, hence it should be taken regularly as a daily supplement.
15. Improves brain function
If you experience brain fog occasionally and wonder how you could treat it, turmeric could be the answer you’re looking for. According to some studies, it can improve the memory (and even mood!) of older adults.
Curcumin in the spice can protect the brain’s function and help treat Alzheimer’s symptoms; a disease that causes irreversible loss of memory. In one study, individuals who took two doses of curcumin daily demonstrated a 28 percent performance improvement in memory tests.
16. Reduces menopause symptoms
Later on in their lives, all women experience menopause. However, there’s very little reliable information on how its symptoms can be treated. Turmeric has been known as a ‘menopause superfood’ owing to its ability to counter the negative effects of menopause by balancing the body’s oestrogen’s levels.
Turmeric has shown to reduce depression and boost heart health, and both of these are great health benefits for women going through menopause.
17. Helps HIV patients
In some developing countries, HIV is still a major concern, and still is one of the most challenging lifelong diseases to treat. Miraculously, scientists in India put together turmeric’s curcumin with HIV-infected cells in a lab, which caused the virus to stop replicating. The future of organic HIV treatment looks to be highly reliant on turmeric.
18. Helps epilepsy patients
Epilepsy is one of the hardest illnesses to control and manage successfully. Most of the drugs currently prescribed are largely frowned upon due to the side effects associated with them, and that’s where turmeric shines.
Using turmeric tends to reduce the frequency of spontaneous seizures through its neuroprotective, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory properties. Turmeric is also useful for healing damage caused to vital cognitive functions after an epileptic seizure occurs.
According to research, turmeric may bring epilepsy patients an all-natural treatment without the fear of any side effects.
19. Prevention of cystic fibrosis
In a recent research study held on rats, turmeric came out to be effective at improving the survival rate of individuals with a genetic flaw that increases the risk of cystic fibrosis. Following this positive finding, more and more studies are taking place on turmeric’s potential towards the prevention of cystic fibrosis, and the role it could play in ending the disease altogether.
Conclusion
Often labelled as ‘the miracle spice’ owing to its countless wellness applications, it offers a lot to the world of medicine! The internet is filled with people with real-world examples of how the spice miraculously helped heal their health problems, and there’s a significant amount of scientific evidence to support such claims.
If you haven’t experienced the health benefits of turmeric firsthand yet, why not buy some from your local health store or supermarket? Add it to your curry dishes, or if you don’t like the taste, take it as a daily supplement in tablet form.
Turmeric is super cheap to buy, making it a simple, approachable, and risk-free way to organically improve your long-term physical well-being.
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