Posted on 07/28/2013 11:19:21 AM PDT by neverdem
Chester, NJ—A recent clinical trial published in Phytotherapy Research indicated that a high-absorption curcumin (BCM-95 from Dolcas Biotech, based here) had similar effects as a generic form of Prozac (fluoxetine) on depression, sans the adverse effects.
“It is a novel and surprising application for this natural medicine,” said Ajay Goel, Ph.D., Baylor Research Institute and Charles A Sammons Cancer Center, Baylor University Medical Center and study co-author. “People with depression have higher levels of inflammation in the brain. Also, people with depression have lower levels of neurogenesis in the brain, meaning they make fewer new brain cells than people with no history of depression. Curcumin is both a potent anti-inflammatory agent and a powerful stimulator for neurogenesis.”
The three-pronged study included 60 volunteers diagnosed with major depressive disorder, with 20 people taking either BCM-95 Curcumin (500 mg capsules twice daily); 20 people taking fluoxetine 20 mg daily; or 20 people taking a combination of BCM-95 Curcumin twice daily with fluoxetine once daily. Their level of depression was assessed using the clinically validated Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HAM-D17), which is used to evaluate one’s mood, feelings of guilt, feelings of suicide and other symptoms.
After six weeks, the research showed that curcumin was well tolerated by all of the subjects. The proportion of responders with improved depression symptoms was higher in the combination group (77.8%) than in the fluoxetine (64.7%) and the curcumin (62.5%) groups. However, the data also showed that BCM-95 Curcumin worked as well as fluoxetine in terms of changes in the HAM-D17 score from baseline through six weeks of treatment.
The study was the first human clinical indication that Curcumin can be used as an effective and safe treatment for patients with depression, though it cannot be considered a medical treatment at this time.
Published in WholeFoods Magazine, October 2013 (online 7/24/13)
Hat tip yefragetuwrabrumuy!
Excellent. Believe me, curcumin is good for a million other things too. Everyone should cook with turmeric, and supplementing with capsules would not hurt.
The word on the street is that Curcumin is going to double in price.
Yeah, sure. Some hippie organic food magazine makes another claim. Remember St. John’s Wort? People who don’t know what real depression is should keep their traps shut.
I’m a big believer in tumeric and curcumin. I’m also hearing good things about anatabine (sold as anatabloc). Any thoughts on the latter anybody?
It’s an interesting medical condition.
The doctors don’t completely know what causes it — and aren’t quite sure how the medications work.
An unknown cause being treated with guesswork medications.
Completely agree.
TAKE TURMERIC CAPSULES!!
you will know you are taking enough when you start to have a craving for ordinary table pepper (instead of salt)
It makes you feel great, and I stopped needing reading glasses
There appears to be a peculiar connection somehow, between liver function, mood disorders and cancer. Curcuminoids aid liver function, are beneficial with certain forms of cancer, and are helpful with depression. It’s a powerful natural anti-inflammatory. It also benefits individuals with Alzheimers. Very high dosages have to be administered for therapeutic effect however, and bioavailability is not good at all via the digestive tract.
SAM-e also is helpful with liver function and mood disorders. Bioavailability is not such an issue. It’s even prescribed for liver support over the course of treatments that can pose difficulties with liver function, such as chemotherapy.
What does this mean? No idea. Could be sheer coincidence. Interesting possibilities spring to mind though.
This isn't a claim being made by "some hippie organic food magazine." The work behind this article was done by researchers at the Baylor Research Institute of Baylor University Medical School, which is not some fly-by-night outfit. The paper originally appeared in a peer-reviewed scholarly medical journal and the study patients had been diagnosed already with MDD. So, um, yeah, this could be worth paying attention to, as a supplement to prescription anti-depressants if nothing else. Can't hurt.
I’ve tried St. John’s Wort. It was superficially helpful, energy levels improved. But over time it began to feel sort of “speedy,” and I experienced anxiety attacks for the first and only time in my life. Also got an odd metallic taste in my mouth.
Turmeric capsules led to a sort of warm pleasant feeling of well-being, fairly immediately. There can be digestive upset from high dosage. Very high dosage can lead to yellowing. I use a fair amount of curry in my food now, so I stopped supplementing. You can feel it in sore joints, they warm up and ache less.
SAM-e was very good. Over a period of weeks I just felt better, very subtle, more energy but not jittery or speedy. It’s a little pricey though. No problems from stopping use of it once I felt better. I’d take it again if the need appeared to be there.
How much do you take a day?
See ottbmare’s comment regarding the particular matter at hand.
However, I’d not be so dismissive about things coming out of Whole Foods: the company has well-heeled superannuated hippies as a target market, but it’s a very well run corporation and its CEO actually proposed real market-based reforms to the health care system that Congress could have adopted and actually made thing better instead of worse by going the statist route with Obamacare. Corporate reputation being hard won, I don’t think they’ll hawk anything unsound in their house publications.
(They’re overpriced, but there are things I buy there when I get to a Whole Foods because you can’t get them at any of our local groceries — e.g. Campo del Montelban cheese, Bulgarian yogurt — along with sale items on which the price
is reasonable, since their product quality is very good.)
Great excuse to make curry a part of my regular diet.
I read an interesting study from a mainstream medical source showing it help slow oral cancer, was being tested on patients leading up to surgery for that.
It’s very difficult to get sufficient dosage into the bloodstream for therapeutic benefit. Transdermal patches have ben tried, very messy, pronounced yellowing. Sublingual liquid might be helpful being that it was oral cancer. State of the art appears to be liposomal curcuminoids but not certain if even that surmounts the problem of bioavailability.
Dried St. John’s Wort is weaker than a fresh plant tincture. But no one responsibly recommends it for serious depressive states. Like the majority of herbal remedies it works best on sub-pathological conditions.
I was self-medicating with what I could find, I was without medical coverage and my business was failing, no income, living off of savings. Prayer was the ultimate resolution of my depression. SAM-e was very helpful. Turmeric had some minor, temporary benefit. St. John’s Wort was like a drug, unpleasant with continued useage. It was dried in gelcaps.
St. John’s Wort can cause light sensitivity in high doses as well. If it doesn’t provide a benefit at the recommended dose it should just be abandoned not increased. Again, dried St. John’s Wort herb is not the best. My BiL swears by it. I showed him how to tincture his own about 20 yrs ago.
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