Turmeric Benefits: Health Uses & Anti-Inflammatory Properties

In January I was diagnosed with an ovarian cyst, in May with chronic polypoid cystitis of the bladder. I had general discomfort throughout my abdomen, flank and pelvic area- not sure what condition was causing what pain. Also had what I believe was arthritic pain in my hip. Only remedy for polypoid cystitis that doctor recommended was painkillers- I declined- or ibuprofen, which I did not want to take on a regular basis. Did some reserch on natural anti-inflammatories, and found lots of info on turmeric. I just went to my local drug store, and bought turmeric capsules, I think they are 500 mg. I started taking 2 pills 2x a day, for a couple of days, then decreased to 2 pills 1x a day, and after just a week or so I stopped taking them altogether. Amazing, but all of my aches and pains disappearred! No bladder pain- no flank pain- no hip pain! If I feel a twinge of anything, I take 2 turmeric, and that does the trick. I am hooked!

Hi Rsw,

Thank you for the very thoughtful comments!! My main regret is that I was not able to find this combination sooner, but better late than never!

I hope the supplements you chose are helpful for you. I had tried the EGCG and PBE individually before, but not together and not at a high enough dose to be effective. The NOW PBE makes it simple and easy to take both. Back when I first tried them, I still thought that the dose on the label was the most effective dose.......well that was a very long time ago!

If you ever use the turmeric or curcumin for anything topically, it will definitely stain almost everything! As an alternative for topical use, you can use the curcumin derivative tetrahydrocurcuminoids which has similar effects to curcumin, but does not stain. Here is one example:

https://www.swansonvitamins.com/swanson-superior-herbs-advanced-tetrahydrocurcuminoids-95-200-mg-60-veg-caps

I tried it in a topical solution and it did not stain. It is a white powder instead of the deep yellow/gold of curcumin. When I was experimenting with curcumin it seemed like you just had to get close to the curcumin and it would stain you or your clothes. I am now allergic to curcumin and had hoped that I would not be allergic to tetrahydrocurcuminoids, but I reacted to it just as I do to curcumin.

The research for turmeric/curcumin is very impressive, so I am very disappointed not to be able to use it as part of my health chest, but for others who can, it can be very helpful for health!

Art

I am taking one teaspoon of turmeric with one spoon of ginger, quarter spoon of black pepper with one spoon of olive oil 2 times a day for Osteoarthritis. Is this too much to take, doing this for 2 months and it helps.

I completed the turmeric extract I had been making, and would like to add some observations I have learned. Turmeric is the only supplement I have seen in fifteen years that has been shown to stop Lichen Planus, and I was pretty excited to try this. I learned that with oral LP, anything extracted with 40% vodka is not going to sit well with the mouth, even diluted! Secondly, after I evaporated the vodka off by heating it, the 1-1 1/2 T. of whole peppercorns I added for better absorption by the body still will only burn the mouth. It was very hot, and I think much less should have been used. The extract looked good and all things considered, it was a good experience to try this. My doctor told me today, after I commented on the post about turmeric and macular degeneration, that she feels I should not use it anymore, so I will have to think about this.

Art, I have purchased a few of the supplements you have described in your protocol, thinking perhaps the same pathways that cause psoriasis may be a part of LP. I think T-cells may be involved in both. Life is a journey, isn't it?

Thank you to MTM for all her advice and encouragement to us all to try to make our own remedies. I am always amazed at how she can find a way to mitigate so many different challenges that arise, and I always learn something from her posts.

And thank you, Art, for proving that tenacity is a worthwhile endeavor. Your research skills are among the best! I am so happy you have found and shared what you have learned with us, and found a cure for psoriasis! You logically figured out what doctoral researchers failed to do, and no doubt have helped many who had lost faith that they would ever be well!

Thank you, Earth Clinic, for giving us this forum to post what we learn. Best wishes for good health to everyone here.

Dear Rsw,

Thank you for reporting back! Even if this didn't end up being the solution you had hoped for, you have learned something, which is valuable for you and us!

Thank you also for your encouraging words! I appreciate your patient encouragement of others here at EC - I have learned about LDN and other things from your posts. One of the great things about EC is the cumulative body of knowledge from thousands of posters. I have not found another site online that has anything close to this kind of database. Here a little, there a little and next thing you know there is so much information from which to glean.

~Mama to Many~

My daughter started developing painful boils and I started giving her turmeric capsules and it worked like a charm. When she would stop taking them the boils came back. Daily she had to take the turmeric and I know she had hidradenitis suppurativa, an incurable skin disease that hits around puberty characterized by painful boils in areas your body can sweat. This involves the hair follicle and sweat glands. I would highly recommend turmeric to anyone, as it is a powerful anti-inflammatory and really cures boils as well as prevents future boils if taken regularly. These boils are antibiotic resistant also unless they become infected if course. if a boil appears you can also make a poultice with turmeric powder and coconut oil and rub on the area. This forces the boil to heal 3x quicker than it would if left alone. But the trick to avoiding new ones is to take the turmeric on daily basis.

As I get older I notice more joint pain, creaky joints, and I also have arthritis (which I discovered one day stepping on teh cold tile, my foot seized up! Just like used to happen to my moms hands). I found earthclinic that day, and it saved me! I LOVE this site, and the natural, holistic remedies. Thank YOU so much! This is now my favorite go to place!

I discovered turmeric, which is wonderful for aching joints, aches, pains, and arthritis too. I was making my own paste, but did not always have time for that, then I learned that Piperine (active ingredient in black pepper) increases the absorption of the turmeric...

This stuff really works! If I miss a few days, I feel the pain come back.. When I take it, the pain goes away!

I understand that everyone is unique and someone may be adversely affected by anything. I can't recall ever hearing of turmeric causing any harm. My daughter, who is in poor health, diabetic, blind etc. Never took care of herself and took the toxic poisons her doctor prescribed, developed gout in her foot, which turned into osteomyelitis, and MRSA, and gangrene which became life threatening. A doctor who I can't name insisted that part of her foot must be removed or she would die of the infection. I had reached a point of frustraion with the so called medical field that I cannot begin to describe. I literally researched 24-7 for natural remedies and for my daughters specific case, came up with the following. "SOUP"! Any vegetable soup, 1 heaping teaspoon of Turmeric, 1 heaping teaspoon of crushed oregano leaves, 1 medium to large "HEAD" of garlic sliced by hand no more than 1 hour prior to consumption (the allicin loses it's potency rather quickly), 1/8 cup of freshly ground golden flax seed (all organic). This was eaten every day! Along with the soup, she used oil of oregano 4 drops in a little water 3 times a day, (70% carvacrol content). Be careful not to slosh the water around so the oil stays pooled in one place. Drink it down quickly without disturbing the oil, it is very spicy.

We also soaked her foot in hot water with lots of betadine for an hour a day. We fortunately found a doctor who was willing to work with us. A pic line was put in for antibiotic administration. The antibiotics that could be used were limited because my daughter had terrible reactions to many of them. We were told the antibiotic therapy, (if it worked at all), would take six months or longer. Within a month an MRI showed it wasn't gangrene any more but osteomyelitis. A couple of weeks later, it was gout, and MRSA. A month later her white blood cell count had gone down and the pic line was removed. She was on oral antibiotics for another month and then a topical ointment to heal the skin on her foot. As an aside, DON'T SMOKE! Smoking drastically reduces the amount of oxygen in your bloodstream and hampers healing. Most bad bugs are anaerobic and do not survive in the presence of adequate oxygen. No more MRSA, her primary doc stopped lisinopril ( it causes gout). Hope this helps someone. The BIBLE tells us, all plants are for food and for medicine, and it DOESN'T say, no salt.

I have been taking turmeric in water (not the capsules you buy at the health food store, just the simple spice) since February to see if it would help me with allergies. I'd say it took 2 months of taking turmeric in water with some olive oil and twist of black pepper to see results. But my allergies, which always turn into sinus infections this time of the year, are minimal. My skin is clear of blemishes too. Nice side effect!

I had 10 years of disconfort (inflamation like feeling on my testicle (left side)) and discomfort on all body... Due a bad treated STD... Maybe was all the antibiotic I take it for it... and I had a candida infection I dont know! I also had low libido and low energy....

On the last doctor he said he couldnt do nothing and it was all psycological. So at my last try, I started to take Chanca Piedra TEA with 1/2 teaspoon of turmeric...

3 Days later I was almost like new! Chanca piedra helped, I did some experiences with other teas, always with turmeric... And worked too.... So turmeric did the trick... but is best with chanca piedra...

Im on the 10 days... I wont stop... Until I feel im 100%. 95% , wich is realy good. With energy, body relax. Sleeping much better, and happier. (turmeric is used for depression too). Is the most incredible thing I ever used...

Sorry for my English! Good luck for all

I do not take turmeric inside - but use cream: it contains turmeric and other herbs and is very helpful in joint pain relieving.

I had recently found that wheat germ oil is very readily absorbed by the skin and does wonder for your complexion. I decided to mix some tumuric or cucurma (french) into the oil and spread it on an achey thumb and also all over my face and back of hands. Tumeric is supposed to take away colour/age spots so that's why I did that. The pain in my thumb went away quite rapidly so I think the wheatgerm oil is a good carrier. I must start eating the stuff too.

Recently I've experienced to have a clusters of boils which is very painful especially those underneath my butt and armpit, it's really a pain in the ass and a real sucker. Sometime ago, while browsing the internet, Turmeric pop-up and it gives me an idea and I read it, I was amased the benefits of it, so went immediately to the supermarket to look for turmeric, but I can't find it, I live in Paris which is a different language, so turmeric is known here as Curcuma. I bought it right away and drink it 3 times a day, After 1 day I noticed that my boils started to drain and the pain is gone, Before reaching the 4th day my skin glows and skins that experienced boils peeled off automatically, for the meantime my skin changes a lot and for the better, It brings back my self-esteem and confidence, thanks for this wonder herb called TURMERIC...

Turmeric is amazing. It is very anticancer, antifungal, antibacterial, antivirial, plain and simple it's one of the best things you can add to your diet to improve your health. The best way to take turmeric is to put 1 tsp of turmeric in a glass of water about 1 cup. Add the juice of one lemon, freshly squeezed so that you get the anions from the lemon (very important) as this alkalizes you rapidly. Then add 1 tlbspn of unsulphered Blackstrap molasses which is full of minerals. I sweeten this with the Now brand of stevia extract. This stevia is non imflamatory and is the only one I recommend for this drink as it is safe and non toxic, plus it makes the drink taste much better. One more thing that you should add on the side is kelp. Laminaria digitata is the best kelp to use. This is an amazing drink that will change your life. It will energize you and it will heal you. You can and should drink it for once or twice a day for the rest of your life. Their turmeric is high quality and easy on the budget. Good luck and once you feel the energy from this drink, I hope you recommend it to your family and friends to help their health as well.

I have been suffering with pain in my right hip for a few years. It started out being on and off and gradually got be constant. It hurt to get up from a chair, going up and down stairs and just walking. I was developing a limp. Funny though, it actually bothered me less if I was extremely active. I found that turmeric and ginger work like magic. Every morning I have a hot cup of organic green tea to which I add 1 tsp. Virgin coconut oil, 2 tsp. Honey, 1/2 tsp. Turmeric powder, 1/2 tsp. Powdered ginger, a dash of black pepper and about 1/8 tsp. Of cayenne pepper. I read on EARTH CLINIC that those peppers help the efficacy of the spices. It's amazing, I have no pain in my hip. By the way, my daughter cured herself of classic fibromyalgia symptoms by following advice from EARTH CLINIC. This website is invaluable.

Turmeric cured my arthritis pain in my neck and back, and it relieved my chronic puffy eyes too. I started taking 450 mg. capsules of Turmeric 3x a day for the pain from bone spurs in my neck, and it really worked. I was in so much pain, and I was so grateful. But as a bonus, it also seemed to cure my chronic puffy eye problem, which I'd tried to control for the past two years by watching the salt in my diet. Well, there's no mistake about it, the Turmeric has also cured my puffy eyes problem too. I still plan on watching my salt intake, but it is SO nice to look normal, and feel normal again.

The infection is nearly gone!

I wanted to share, as well, that I have very bad seasonal allergies requiring daily anti-histamine treatment, plus eye drops and nasal spray. As a side effect of taking the turmeric capsules (I must assume as nothing else has changed), I do not have allergies today. It is very hot and dry and I was in the garden for hours today... it is the height of allergy season. I realized I had not taken anti-histamines for two days but have no allergies. I really didn't expect that!!!!

I study Ayurvedic Medicine and find it very interesting that there are comments about people noticing that they are sweating alot... This makes total sense as inflammatory responses are liver related and a pitta or fire symptom/response in the body. The tumeric must be reducing the inflammation but the fire has to move somewhere, and so the skin is taking over (probably to help relieve the liver's load as the skin and liver work together and are both channels for the body to detoxify). The fire is moving out the skin in the form of sweat! So I would say, yes it would seem normal to me in a body with excess heat.

I'm so glad I read about turmeric for allergies. It seems too simple, but after trying and failing with ACV and honey, the turmeric worked miracles! Every time I stop taking it, the allergies come back. I'm allergic to our 2 dogs and cat, dust, and practically every plant out there. I was popping pills and snorting drugs daily, so the fact that this works is amazing. Two months pill free -- we'll see when spring hits! At first I was putting it in my drinks and whatever food I could, but now I fill gel capsules with turmeric, and take 2 to 5 a day (up to a tsp worth), depending on how sneezy I am. If I do it regularly, I can get away with only 1 or 2 capsules a day. You can also buy capsules, but they seemed pretty expensive (as long as you don't mind staining your fingers yellow to make your own). Sometimes I take a little extra Vit C too, depending on how I am feeling, but it doesn't seem to matter too much for me. As a side note, if your eyes get itchy, put a wet chamomile tea bag on them. That seems to help too.

In the last four days, I've had an absolutely enormous swelling on my gum - until finally it was about the size of a golf ball, and very painful because stretching the skin. Among the zillion things I tried was some turmeric and water over the gum, which didn't do much, probably because I left it there only half an hour, and the gum was so distorted by that point that it wouldn't really stay on. I also tried lancing it, to no effect, and assumed most of the swelling was inflammation.

Finally, earlier this evening and very miserable, I jumped in a bath with 5 or so heaped tablespoons of turmeric, more to warm myself up than anything. It felt great, and shortly afterwards, the whole thing burst - absurd amounts of pus came out and my face is now back to normal.

I'm not assuming the infection is necessarily completely gone, and I'll be doing a few other things to make sure all is well. But the relief is incredible - pain has stopped completely - and I thought it was interesting that a load of turmeric applied to just about everywhere except my gum seemed to be the thing needed to help my body eject the worst of the infection. A turmeric bath is where I'll start if I get something like this again.