Turmeric Extract Puts Drugs For Knee Osteoarthritis To Shame

Written By: 

Sayer Ji, Founder

Millions take non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) daily for arthritis and related inflammatory conditions, but are completely unaware that far safer, and at least as effective, natural alternatives already exist -- and are as easily accessible and inexpensive as the spices found in your kitchen cupboard.

Human research on the health benefits of turmeric is sparse, mainly due to the lack of capital available to fund expensive clinical trials.[i] Despite many decades of investigation as a lead drug compound, and the availability of thousands of preclinical studies indicating turmeric's therapeutic value, few yet realize that this common kitchen spice may provide a suitable drug alternative for common health conditions.

The latest human study to clinically confirm turmeric's medicinal value was published in the Indonesian Journal of Internal Medicine in April, 2012 and found the curcuminoid extract of turmeric was able to reduce inflammation in patients suffering from knee osteoarthritis.

Researchers compared the effect of a curcuminoid extract to the NSAID drug diclofenac sodium in reducing cycloxygenase -2  (COX-2) secretion by synovial fluid's monocytes in two, randomly divided, groups suffering with knee osteoarthritis.

The synovial fluid is an egg yolk-like liquid within the cavities of the synovial joints, which serves to reduce friction between articular cartilage during movement.  In knee osteoarthritis, a condition that afflicts 1 in 2 people by the age of 85 years, the immune cells known as monocytes express increased inflammatory COX-2 enzyme activity within the synovial fluid.

In the study, subjects were given either 30 mg 3 times daily of turmeric extract (curcuminoid) or 25 mg 3 times daily of diclofenac sodium for 4 weeks. After the treatment period, aspiration of the joint as performed and the secretion of cycloxygenase-2 enzyme by synovial fluid's monocytes was evaluated.

Results were reported as follows:

In curcuminoid group the average scores were 1.84±0.37 and 1.15±0.28 respectively (p<0.001). In diclofenac group the average scores were 1.79±0.38 and 1.12±0.27 respectively (p<0.001). In curcuminoid group the decreasing score of cycloxygenase-2 secretion was 0.70±0.51 while in diclofenac group was 0.67±0.45. There was no significant difference in decreasing the score of cycloxygenase enzyme secretion between both treatment groups (p=0.89).

In summary, both curcuminoid and diclofenac sodium were capable of significantly decreasing the secretion of the inflammatory COX-2 enzyme, with nearly identical potency.

Discussion

This is not the first human study to confirm turmeric is at least as effective as an NSAID drug in reducing the symptoms associated with knee osteoarthritis. A 2010 study published in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine found 2,000 mg of turmeric extract was as effective as 800 mg of ibuprofen in reducing symptoms of pain and inflammation.[ii]

What is most remarkable about the more recent study is not that turmeric curcuminoids have potent anti-inflammatory properties – there are already hundreds of studies confirming its COX-2 reducing and otherwise anti-inflammary effects -- but rather how much safer they are relative to NSAID drugs like diclofenac, which like most pharmaceutical anti-inflammatory drugs have been linked to adverse health effects such as increased cardiac mortality, miscarriage and seizure.

One way to assess the relative toxicity of these two compounds is to compare the primary polyphenol in turmeric, curcumin, with diclofenac sodium through their respective Material Safety Data Sheets, which contain detailed information on the toxicity of these substances.

Diclofenac Sodium: The LD50 for mice is 95 mg/kg, meaning that it only takes 95 mg/kg of mouse to acutely kill 50% of an exposed group.  

Curcumin: The LD50 for mice is >2,000 mg/kg, meaning that it would take more than 2,000  mg/kg of mouse to acutely kill 50% of an exposed group.  

In order to get perspective on how toxic an LD50 of 95 mg/kg is, let's first calculate how much of this chemical it would take in milligrams to kill an average sized mouse. Mice are between 15-27 grams, depending on their age, strain and diet. If we take the average between the two, at 21 grams, our mouse would weigh 0.021 kilograms. This means that it only takes 1.9 milligrams to acutely kill 50% of the mice given such a dose.

Extrapolating to humans, an average 150 lb adult weighs 68.03 kilograms, it would only take 6462 milligrams, or 6.46 grams to kill 50% of the humans given the dose. This is less than the weight of three pennies (7.5 grams).  Compare this to the LD50 of curcumin (2,000 mg/kg), where it would take more than 136,000 mgs (4.86 ounces) to kill 50% of the humans given it – and even this estimation is doubtful, since it is likely that it would simply be vomited up, or expelled through the gastrointestinal tract, and other organs of elimination, before reaching lethal levels in the body.  Also, remember that it only took 90 mg a day in the aforementioned study to reduce inflammation as effectively as diclofenac sodium.  The difference between the 90 mg required to produce an effective response, and a (theoretical) 136,000 mg threshold for lethal toxicity, is four orders of magnitude.

In practical terms, the chance of you hurting yourself with a drug like diclofenac sodium -- ironically, in an attempt to reduce pain -- as compared to a simple kitchen spice like turmeric, is infinitely higher. Consider too, that there are over 100 known adverse health effects associated with this chemical class of drugs, whereas turmeric (and curcumin) has been linked to over 600 beneficial ones -- not exactly a hard choice to make, when it comes to risk-benefit analysis.

For additional research on natural alternatives to common NSAID drugs like aspirin and ibuprofen, read the following articles:

Is There A Natural Alternative To Aspirin?

Ibuprofen Kills More Than Pain, So What Is The Alternative?

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Resources

• [i] GreenMedInfo.com, Why The Law Forbids The Medicinal Use of Natural Substances Feb. 26th, 2012

• [ii] Vilai Kuptniratsaikul, Sunee Thanakhumtorn, Pornsiri Chinswangwatanakul, Luksamee Wattanamongkonsil, Visanu Thamlikitkul. Efficacy and safety of Curcuma domestica extracts in patients with knee osteoarthritis. Int J Mol Med. 2010 May;25(5):729-34. PMID: 19678780

Sayer Ji is founder of Greenmedinfo.com, a reviewer at the International Journal of Human Nutrition and Functional Medicine, Co-founder and CEO of Systome Biomed, Vice Chairman of the Board of the National Health Federation, Steering Committee Member of the Global Non-GMO Foundation.

Magnesium Chloride Health Benefits

Magnesium Chloride Benefits

For purposes of cellular detoxification and tissue purification, the most effective form of magnesium is magnesium chloride, which has a strong excretory effect on toxins and stagnant energies stuck in the tissues of the body, drawing them out through the pores of the skin. Chloride is required to produce a large quantity of gastric acid each day and is also needed to stimulate starch-digesting enzymes.

According to Daniel Reid, author of The Tao of Detox, magnesium sulfate, commonly known as Epsom salts, is rapidly excreted through the kidneys and therefore difficult to assimilate. This would explain in part why the effects from Epsom salt baths do not last long and why you need more magnesium sulfate in a bath than magnesium chloride to get similar results. Magnesium chloride is easily assimilated and metabolized in the human body.

Magnesium Chloride Flakes

In addition to its functions as an electrolyte, chloride combines with hydrogen in the stomach to make hydrochloric acid, a powerful digestive enzyme that is responsible for the breakdown of proteins, absorption of other metallic minerals, and activation of intrinsic factor, which in turn absorbs vitamin B12.

Using other magnesium salts is less advantageous because these have to be converted into chlorides in the body anyway. We may use magnesium as oxide or carbonate but then we need to produce additional hydrochloric acid to absorb them. Many aging individuals, especially with chronic diseases who desperately need more magnesium, cannot produce sufficient hydrochloric acid and thus cannot absorb the oxide or carbonate.

Chloride is a highly important and vital mineral required for both human and animal life. Without chloride, the human body would be unable to maintain fluids in blood vessels, conduct nerve transmissions, move muscles, or maintain proper kidney function. As a major electrolyte mineral of the body, chloride performs many roles, and is rapidly excreted from the body.

Magnesium chloride solution was not only harmless for tissues, but it had also a great effect over leucocytic activity and phagocytosis; so it was perfect for treatment of external wounds. – Dr. Jean Durlach

Dr. Jean Durlach et al., at the Université P. M. Curie, Paris, wrote a paper about the relative toxicities between magnesium sulfate and magnesium chloride. They write, “The reason for the toxicity of pharmacological doses of magnesium using the sulfate anion rather than the chloride anion may perhaps arise from the respective chemical structures of both the two magnesium salts. Chemically, both MgSO4 and MgCl2 are hexa-aqueous complexes. However MgCl2 crystals consist of dianions with magnesium coordinated to the six water molecules as a complex, [Mg(H2O)6]2+ and two independent chloride anions, Cl-. In MgSO4, a seventh water molecule is associated with the sulphate anion, [Mg(H2O)6]2 +[SO4. H2O]. Consequently, the more hydrated MgSO4 molecule may have chemical interactions with paracellular components rather than with cellular components, presumably potentiating toxic manifestations while reducing therapeutic effect.”

MgSO4 is not always the appropriate salt in clinical therapeutics. MgCl2 seems the better anion-cation association to be used in many clinical and pharmacological indications.[1] -Dr. Jean Durlach et al.

Researchers studying the ionic fluxes in the two directions between the mother and the fetus found that there was a greater positive effect when MgCl2 was used and that MgSO4 could not guarantee the fetal needs in sodium and potassium exchange like MgCl2 could. They also found that MgCl2 interacts with all the exchangers in the cell membrane, while the effect of MgSO4 is limited to paracellular components without interaction with cellular components. Dr. Durlach summarized saying, “MgCl2 interacts with all exchangers while the interaction of MgSO4 is limited to paracellular exchangers, and MgCl2 increases the flux ratio between mother and fetus while MgSO4 decreases it.”

High-dosage, tocolytic magnesium sulfate (MgSO4) administered to pregnant women during preterm labor can be toxic and sometimes lethal for their newborns.[2]

Chloride vs. Chlorine

The mineral supplement chloride is very different from the gas chlorine. Elemental chlorine is a dangerous gas that does not exist in the free elemental state in nature because of its reactivity, although it is widely distributed in combination with other elements. Chloride is related to chlorine however, as one of the most common chlorine compounds is common salt, NaCl. Chloride is a by-product of the reaction between chlorine and an electrolyte, such as potassium, magnesium, or sodium, which are essential for human metabolism. Chloride salts are essential for sustaining human metabolism and have none of the effects of isolated chlorine gas.

Magnesium Chloride, Bromide & Iodine

Dr. David Brownstein promotes the use of magnesium chloride as a supplement “synergistic” to treatment with iodine. Chloride competes with bromide at the renal level and increases the renal clearance of bromide,[3] thus magnesium chloride is ideal for magnesium supplementation. Some patients require up to two years of iodine therapy to bring post loading urine bromide levels below 10 mg/24 hr, if chloride load is not included in the bromine detoxification program. Dr. Brownstein says, “As with using any nutritional supplement, a comprehensive holistic treatment plan provides the best results. Magnesium is an important part of the iodine treatment plan. Magnesium deficiency is very common. Magnesium is nature’s relaxing agent. Magnesium levels (via red blood cell magnesium levels) should be assessed and supplementation instituted. Magnesium supplementation will likely ensure optimal results with iodine.”[4]

Dr. Mark SircusAC., OMD, DM (P)

Director International Medical Veritas Association
Doctor of Oriental and Pastoral Medicine