Turmeric may help offer treatments for colon cancer, psoriasis, alzheimer's

Good morning friends. Maybe many don’t know that Turmeric may help offer treatments for colon cancer, psoriasis, alzheimer. But indeed it help.

Curcumin, an ingredient commonly found in yellow curry, is being viewed as a promising disease-fighter. Scientists are working on developing nano-sized capsules containing the curry ingredient in an effort to improve its absorption and effectiveness in the body.

Curcumin is a potent antioxidant found in the Indian spice called turmeric.

The research team is developing nano-size capsule that would boost the body's uptake of curcumin and help fight several diseases.

Trials are underway to test its safety and effectiveness in fighting colon cancer, psoriasis, and alzheimer's disease.

The digestive juice in the gastrointestinal tract quickly destroys curcumin so that little actually gets into the blood.

It is already known that encapsulating insulin and certain other drugs into structures called liposomes can boost absorption.

The scientists prepared the liposomes encapsulating curcumin and fed them to laboratory rats.
They found that encapsulating more than quadrupled absorption of curcumin, and also boosted antioxidant levels in the blood.

The researchers said that encapsulating process could be an answer to the problem of increasing curcumin's absorption in the digestive environment of the gastrointestinal tract.

The study appears in ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, a bi-weekly publication. – Indian Express

Tomatoes can Help Treat Endometriosis

An antioxidant present in tomatoes can help treat common causes of abdominal pain such as internal scarring after surgery and endometriosis, a study has shown.

Endometriosis is a common medical condition characterised by growth beyond or outside the uterus of tissue resembling endometrium, the tissue that normally lines the uterus.

According to a study of cells in culture, lycopene, the bright red pigment that gives tomatoes their characteristic colour, can inhibit proteins that are linked to the formation of abnormal patches of tissue called adhesions, reports Times Online.

Although the findings are very preliminary, the research hints that a diet rich in tomatoes and tomato products, or supplements containing lycopene, might be a promising way of controlling adhesions. Adhesions are basically patches of scar tissue or fibrous strands that form on internal surfaces in the abdomen, often connecting two organs or parts of organs together.

Besides being a common side effect of surgery, they also occur in endometriosis, a condition in which tissue that normally lines the womb grows in other parts of the abdomen. These growths can cause pain, bowel obstructions, bladder problems and infertility.

Tarek Dbouk, of Wayne State University in Detroit, investigated lycopene because of its antioxidant properties. The chemical, which is particularly abundant in cooked tomato products such as ketchup and pasta sauces, is already thought to have protective effects against cadiovascular disease and some cancers.

To reach the conclusion, Dr Dbouk exposed human cells to lycopene in the laboratory, and measured its effect on proteins that serve as markers for adhesion formation. Levels of these proteins were substantially reduced, by as much as 80 to 90 per cent.

Dr Dbouk said the results suggest that lycopene – and tomatoes that contain it – could be useful for treating post-surgical adhesions and other conditions such as endometriosis and uterine fibroids.