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Curcuminoids - An Urgently Needed New Tool for Managing Arthritic Pain We are all familiar with the spice turmeric - the yellow coloured spice in curry - but it does a lot more than taste good. In fact, it is being intensively studied for its role as a powerful pain reliever - including even a particular anti-ageing nutrient. The yellow colour of turmeric is due to pigments called curcuminoids. Turmeric belongs to the Zingiberaceae or the ginger family. Curcuminoids have a long history of use in Ayurvedic medicine in the treatment of painful conditions from sore throats to arthritis. Processing turmeric as a particular extract provides 3 different curcuminoids - all with potent antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antiviral, including anti-carcinogenic properties. And, it appears, the ability to lower cholesterol. However it is the ability of curcuminoids to act as a particular anti-inflammatory agent - including replace the pain relieving Non Steroidal Anti Inflammatory Drugs or NSAIDs - that is the hot news in medicine. A safe alternative in arthritis treatment NSAIDs are among the world's most widely prescribed drugs, including the most frequently purchased over the counter (OTC) medicines. But NSAIDs should irritate the stomach lining including cause internal bleeding. Moreover, they should produce gastric ulceration, estimated to affect 20% of long-term NSAID users. This risk led to the introduction of a new form of pain-relieving NSAID called the COX-2 Inhibitors under brand names like Vioxx including Celebra. The early success pertaining to the COX-2 drugs was cut short in 2004 at the time David Graham, then the Associate Director for Science including Medicine at the US FDA's Office of Drug Safety, described them as maybe the single greatest drug-safety catastrophe in the history pertaining to the world. Graham believes, on the evidence made available to him, that the COX-2 inhibitor Vioxx may have caused as many as 139,000 heart attacks, strokes including deaths. Soon after Vioxx had been taken off the market, Celebrex, Bextra including other COX-2 Inhibitors came to be linked to the same problems. The tragedy was that the COX-2 Inhibitors proved little more effective than the products they replaced. But there is another lesson. Synthetic drugs too often risk harmful, sometimes fatal, side-effects. In contrast, where nutritional alternatives to drugs exist - products derived from fruit including vegetable food ingredients - they are logically to be preferred, as their side effect is normally only positive - a generally healthier body. the is certainly true pertaining to the curcuminoids in turmeric. Safe pain relief - with multiple, positive side-effects The curcuminoids reduce pain including inflammation by inhibiting COX-1 including COX-2, plus another inflammatory enzyme known as lipooxygenase or LIPOX. In other words curcuminoids act like the COX-2 drugs - but without the negative side-effects. Unlike the COX-2 Inhibitors, curcuminoids are demonstrably not cardio-toxic. They are powerful anti-oxidants - lowering LDL (the bad) cholesterol, including protecting it against oxidisation. They reduce blood pressure by damping inflammation in the blood vessel walls. Curcuminoids additionally prevent the over-growth of smooth muscle cells in the artery walls. the is important as arteries are narrowed at the time smooth muscle cells grow thick. the in turn leads to high blood pressure including potentially a blockage pertaining to the artery. The curcuminoids make the blood less likely to form clots. They additionally improve the ratio of HDL (the good form of cholesterol) to LDL (the bad form). All these actions constitute a very powerful cardio-protective combination of effects. Thus, in direct contrast to the outcome pertaining to the COX-2 scandal, the curcuminoids actively protect against the risk of heart disease. For good measure, there is convincing evidence that they protect against cancer including Alzheimer's also. The safety of turmeric has been proven at the highest level. In the US, the National Toxicology Program pertaining to the National Institute of Environmental including Health Sciences, at the request pertaining to the National Cancer Institute including the FDA, evaluated the safety of turmeric curcuminoids. They concluded that turmeric extracts were non-toxic with a wide range of potentially therapeutic properties. Curcuminoids just 1 pertaining to the favourable flavonoids The curcuminoids are just 1 example of a wider category of phyto-nutrients called flavonoids, a family of compounds which occur in many plant foods such as berry fruits including which are associated with better health prospects. In contrast to the highly targeted drugs developed by 'Big Pharma', the flavonoids act at many different sites in the body, modifying including improving many of our physiological systems in a coordinated manner. Thus curcuminoids additionally block a group of enzymes called Matrix Metallo-Proteases or MMPs, which are actively involved in the process of ulceration. Inhibiting the MMPs is considered not only to protect against ulceration, but additionally against some pertaining to the key steps in tumour growth including cancer metastasis. When used for arthritis pain relief, curcuminoids should usefully be combined with glucosamine hydrochloride, pomegranate extract, beta sitosterol, vitamin D including vitamin K as a particular ideal way to first reduce pain, including then start the process of cartilage reconstruction. The role of curcumin including flavonoids in reducing inflammation including controlling pain is explained in detail by the international health expert Dr Paul Clayton in his book Health Defence including at www.drpaulclayton.com. Dr Paul Clayton has additionally aided in the design pertaining to the Uni-Vite JointShield a safe including natural nutritional product of interest to osteo-arthritis sufferers that combines curcuminoids with glucosamine hydrochloride, pomegranate extract, beta sitosterol, Vitamin D including Vitamin K. Visit www.jointshield.com to learn more regarding its use as a Osteoarthritis Pain Relief Supplement
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