Evidence Based Efficacy of Turmeric: Man vs Nature

Evidence Based Efficacy of Turmeric: Man vs Nature

The medical industry has moved forward in leaps and bounds with research. It has helped us understand anatomy and all the human systems that we would not have been able to understand without the pioneers involved in those discoveries. Techniques and tools have been developed that make surgeries, once considered dangerous, common place and routine. It would seem that by moving forward we are, somehow, losing ground, forgetting compassion, nurturing and nature, in trade for scientific progress, money and notoriety. But, it wasn’t always that way.

Today, most doctors have gone from being general to specialized, which is both good and bad. In the process, we strayed just a bit too far from the comfort zone we once had.

Once upon a time, the doctor came to our home to see us if we were ill and unable to travel due to whatever the nature was of our illness. They sat with us, examined us, prescribe medicine or home remedies to “cure” us. They pulled their earned expertise from schools of medicine, nature and handed down, tried and true, home remedies. Now, the familiar family doctor is not as approachable as she/he once was. Things are handled by phone, the internet, or by the patient traveling to the doctor’s office to address concerns.

Today, a good, old fashioned doctor, is hard to find if they even exist anymore. Believe it or not though, according to eHow, “folk remedies continue to comprise a significant portion of medical care, though the effectiveness of such techniques is often called into question.” It figures, doesn’t it? Generally, folk medicine is practiced and readily accepted in most cultures outside of the United States. In the U.S. it continues to struggle for acknowledged efficacy, mostly due to Big Pharma control.

Folk medicine consists of the various healing practices and ideas gained through experience, formal and informal observation and experimentation. It is usually passed down to others to be practiced and applied by anyone in need or having prior experience. The use of Turmeric root with origins in Asia, Polynesia and surrounding countries is a perfect example of folk medicine with extreme potential for healing. Unfortunately, ignorance and intellectual arrogance in traditional medicine has impeded its “discovery” until recently.

The United States, which tends to ignore or disregard the observed and experienced results of many miraculous medicinal properties of natural remedies and health approaches, is finally now taking a closer look at the turmeric root.

According to wiki-pedia, Botanical expert Maude Grieve provides the following description of the root itself:

The turmeric root is:

“A perennial plant with roots or tubers oblong, palmate, and deep orange inside; root-leaves about 2 feet long, lanceolate, long, petioled, tapering at each end, smooth, of a uniform green; petioles sheathing spike, erect, central, oblong, green; flowers dull yellow, three or five together surrounded by bracteolae. It is propagated by cuttings from the root, which when dry is in curved cylindrical or oblong tubers 2 or 3 inches in length, and an inch in diameter, pointed or tapering at the end, yellowish externally, with transverse, parallel rings internally deep orange or reddish brown, marked with shining points, dense, solid, short granular fracture, forming a lemon yellow powder. It has a peculiar fragrant odor and a bitterish slightly acrid taste, like ginger, exciting warmth in the mouth and coloring the saliva yellow. It yields its properties to water or alcohol.”

Application

Turmeric has a variety of therapeutic uses. Bear in mind that no one medicine, traditional or alternative, works the same for everyone. The following applications are options one might consider: for safety reasons, please consult experts such as a naturopath, homeopath or a practitioner of Ayurvedic medicine for appropriate mix and application:

1) To improve digestion or intestinal flora (natural probiotic)

2) De-wormer

3) Strengthen and cleanse the gallbladder and liver

4) Relief of arthritis and swelling

5) Topical for sprains, burns, insect bites (antibacterial/antifungal)

6) Soothing action for cough and asthema

7) Ear infections

8) Sinus infections

This is just to name a few of the common health concerns that may plague you. This simple root can be chopped up and eaten raw in a salad, ground and added to soup and many other dishes, and is also purported to have potential curative properties for many serious conditions such as Cancer and Alzheimer’s Disease.

This 6,000 year old, recorded track record of safe use in Ayurvedic medicine is evidence based proof of the value and effectiveness of just this one natural medicine. But…you will more than likely NEVER see it on the pharmacy shelf.

Turmeric’s therapeutic effect on the human body, inside and out, has been proven scientifically. According to studies it is credited with the ability to change, improve or reverse more than 600 conditions, but, it will never be approved by Big Pharma. Why?

It will never be approved by Big Pharma because, like so many other “natural cures”, it’s a remedy that grows freely in many countries. They would never approve it because it has natural curative properties and they make billions by “not finding” cures for Cancer and other diseases with high morbidity rates. Why would they want to? After all, a cure would mean that the CEO’s of cancer research and distribution wouldn’t be able to justify their multimillion dollar salaries if cancer were cured, would they?

FDA would never promote this wondrous root “as is” because it would take Big Pharma and financial fallout others get for testing, formulating, and experimenting on a God given cure, out of the picture. We would benefit, but they would lose billions. They wouldn’t like that. Tweaking nature is the only way they can claim it “legally” as their own property. According to law, you can’t patent what Mother Nature gives you, unless you can “change” it to make it original and take it out of the “natural” arena. Sounds like an oxymoron, doesn’t it?

Do the research. Read the article, Why The Law Forbids The Medicinal Use of Natural Substances, or go to the National Library of Medicine’s bibliographic database known as Medline and see it for yourself…then pass the word.

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