Turmeric's Cardiovascular Benefits Found To Be As Powerful As Exercise

Turmeric's Cardiovascular Benefits Found To Be As Powerful As Exercise

Sayer Ji


Activist Post

Nothing can replace exercise, but turmeric extract does a pretty good
job of producing some of the same cardiovascular health benefits, most
notably in women undergoing age-associated adverse changes in arterial
health.

Despite the general lack of interest by conventional medical
practitioners in turmeric's role in preventing heart disease, there is a
robust body of published research on its remarkable cardioprotective
properties, with three dozen study abstracts on the topic available to
view on our database alone: turmeric's cardioprective properties.

Last year, we reported on a study published in the American Journal of Cardiology
that found turmeric extract reduces post-bypass heart attack risk by
56%. Now, we would like to bring attention to a remarkable study
published in the journal Nutrition Research
in 2012 that revealed that curcumin, the primary polyphenol in turmeric
and which gives the spice its golden hue, is as effective in improving
vascular function in postmenopausal women as a moderate aerobic exercise
training regimen. [1]

The 8-week long study involved 32 postmenopausal
women who were assigned into 3 groups: a non-treatment control,
exercise, and curcumin. Researchers ascertained the health of the inner
lining of their blood vessels (known as the endothelium) by using
ultrasound to measure flow-mediated arterial dilation, a well-known
indicator of arterial elasticity and therefore endothelial function.





A disturbance of the endothelial function is considered a key cause of the development of atherosclerosis.[2] Anything, therefore, that can prevent, reduce or reverse endothelial dysfunction therefore may reduce morbidity and mortality associated with cardiovascular disease.

Subjects in the curcumin group received 150 mg turmeric extract per day,
for 8 weeks, supplying 25 mg of collodially dispersed nanoparticle
curcumin. Their diet and exercise habits were unchanged during the study
period.

Subjects in the exercise group underwent aerobic exercise training more
than 3 days per week (2-3 supervised sessions and additional home-based
training). Over the course of the 8 week exercise program involving
cycling and walking, they engaged in between 30-60 minute long sessions,
ranging in intensity from 60% of their individually determined maximal
heart rate in the initial phase of the trial, to 70-75% maximal heart
rate in the latter half.

After eight weeks of intervention, flow-mediated dilation increased
significantly in both curcumin and exercise groups, compared to the
control. The researchers concluded:
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The present study showed that regular ingestion of curcumin or regular
aerobic exercise training significantly improved endothelial function.
The magnitude of improvement in endothelial function to the same extent,
suggesting that curcumin may prevent the age-associated decline in endothelial function in postmenopausal women."</blockquote>

Discussion:


While
this study is encouraging for those who already use turmeric in their
diet, or perhaps take a curcumin supplement to ward off a wide range of
potential ailments (we have indexed over 600 conditions that may benefit from turmeric/curcumin ingestion), it should be clearly noted that exercise shouldn't, and can't be replaced with a supplement. Nor can exercise
necessarily supplant the critical role that turmeric can play in human
health and disease. Of course, if one incorporates plenty of regular
exercise with regular culinary doses of turmeric, the synergy of health
benefits produced would most likely far exceed exercise or turmeric
taken alone. The study didn't look at what would happen if both exercise
and supplements were used, but if we feel the necessity to sit around
waiting for another clinical trial before employing this obviously
optimal strategy, we probably need a healthy dose of commonsense more
than a supplement or exercise program.




Interestingly, another study published by the same research group in 2012 in the ingestion-may-reduce-lv">American Journal of Hypertension
did look at the combined effect of curcumin and exercise in
postmenopausal women in improving heart muscle stress tolerance, finding
that "regular endurance exercise combined with daily curcumin ingestion
may reduce LV [left ventricular] afterload to a greater extent than
monotherapy with either intervention alone in postmenopausal women."
Chronic heightened left ventricular afterload can contribute to
pathological hypertrophy of that region of the heart, and is associated
with elevated blood pressure an aortic valve disease. These findings
clearly indicate that combining exercise with turmeric (or curcumin)
would produce the most benefit.

Another 'side benefit' of using turmeric with exercise is the fact that
it an ideal remedy for reducing exercise-associated pain and
inflammation. It has already been found quite effective in relieving
symptoms associated with osteoarthritis, the details of which are
discussed here: Turmeric Extract Puts Drugs For Knee Osteoarthritis To Shame.

For additional research on the benefits of turmeric and curcumin visit
our research page on the topic, which includes over 1500 study
abstracts: http://www.greenmedinfo.com/substance/curcumin

source:-
http://www.activistpost.com/2013/05/turmerics-cardiovascular-benefits-found.html