Scientific research on the properties of the golden spice turmeric continues to reveal its extraordinary medicinal properties. Findings suggest the active ingredient curcumin may slow down liver damage in people with cirrhosis.
Cirrhosis of the Liver
Cirrhosis of the liver is a condition where this filtering organ slowly deteriorates and malfunctions due to chronic injury. Scar tissue replaces healthy liver tissue, partially blocking the flow of blood through the liver. Scarring also impairs the liver’s ability to:
- control infections
- remove bacteria and toxins from the blood
- process nutrients, hormones, and drugs
- make proteins that regulate blood clotting
- produce bile to help absorb fats, including cholesterol and fat-soluble vitamins
A healthy liver can regenerate most of its own cells if they become damaged, yet with advanced, end-stage cirrhosis, the liver no longer effectively replaces damaged cells. Heavy alcohol consumption and chronic hepatitis C are the most common causes of cirrhosis although obesity is becoming a common cause.
Other causes of cirrhosis include hepatitis B, hepatitis D, and autoimmune hepatitis; diseases that damage or destroy bile ducts, inherited diseases, and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease; and drugs, toxins, and infections. In the early stages of cirrhosis, people usually don’t exhibit any symptoms. Yet as the disease progresses, patients may experience weakness, fatigue, loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, weight loss, abdominal pain and bloating, itching, and spiderlike blood vessels on the skin.
Turmeric – Curcumin: Nature's Beneficial Anti-Everything
Turmeric, a deep yellow-orange spice grown in India, Indonesia, China, the Philippines, Taiwan, Haiti and Jamaica, contains the flavonoid curcumin. Curcumin has been used for 5,000 years as a condiment, textile dye, and for a variety of medicinal purposes, particularly in Indian Ayurvedic medicine. Curry powder, which is extensively used in Indian cuisine, is largely made of turmeric and other spices such as coriander and fenugreek.
This broad spectrum medicinal plant possesses an impressive array of protective properties including: anti-inflammatory, analgesic, anti-bacterial, anti-tumor, anti-allergic, anti-oxidant, antiseptic, anti-spasmodic, astringent, carminative, cholagogue, digestive, diuretic and as a stimulant. Curcumin also reduces homocysteine levels, regulates immune cells and can reduce harmful pro-inflammatory substances which contribute to the formation of cancer cells. Curcumin has extraordinary potential to promote health through modulation of numerous molecular targets, including treatment for a number of gastrointestinal disorders such as Crohn's and ulcerative colitis.
According to the Worlds Healthiest Foods website, “six hundred and eighty-eight studies, more than 400 of them published within the last four years, confirm curcumin's remarkable anticarcinogenic, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant properties.”
Turmeric Delays Cirrhosis of the Liver
Curcumin functions as a liver cleanser by increasing bile flow and rejuvenating liver cells. In addition to improving the liver’s capability to break down toxins, curcumin prevents alcohol and other toxins from being converted into compounds that may harm the liver.
In a 2010 study published in Gut, a specialist journal of the British Medical Association, scientists found that turmeric may delay damage caused by progressive inflammatory conditions of the liver, including primary sclerosing cholangitis and primary biliary cirrhosis.
Both conditions which can be triggered by genetic faults or autoimmune disease, cause the liver's plumbing system of bile ducts to become inflamed, scarred, and blocked. This leads to extensive tissue damage and irreversible and ultimately fatal liver cirrhosis.
The scientists in the study added curcumin to the diet of mice with chronic liver inflammation for a period of four or eight weeks. Adding curcumin to animals' diet researchers found, significantly reduced bile duct blockage and slowed down liver cell (hepatocyte) damage and scarring (fibrosis) by interfering with several chemical signaling pathways involved in the inflammatory process.
"Targeting these pathways may be a promising therapeutic approach," says Michael Trauner, a lead author on the study and professor of internal medicine at Medical University in Graz, Austria.
The current treatment for inflammatory liver disease involves ursodeoxycholic acid or in severe cases, a liver transplant. Curcumin could provide a safe alternative or an adjunct to traditional medication to patients with cirrhosis of the liver.
Sources:
Anna Baghdasaryan, Thierry Claudel, Astrid Kosters, Judith Gumhold, Dagmar Silbert, Andrea Thüringer, Katharina Leski, Peter Fickert, Saul J Karpen, Michael Trauner. “Curcumin improves sclerosing cholangitis in Mdr2-/- mice by inhibition of cholangiocyte inflammatory response and portal myofibroblast proliferation,” Gut, 2010.
The National Digestive Diseases Information Clearinghouse (NDDIC), NIH Publication No. 09–1134. December 2008. Accessed, April 25th, 2010.
“Turmeric May Fight Multiple Sclerosis,”Accessed, April 25th, 2010. http://www.whfoods.com
“Turmeric spices protects liver: expert,” ninemsn.com, March 25, 2010.
Laura Owens - Laura Owens has a B.S. in Psychology from Rollins College & U of FL. She is a freelance writer with expertise in motivation & wellness.
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