Turmeric vs. Advil

Some forms of Advil’s inactive ingredients include artifical food coloring made from petroleum, artificial sugars, sodium benzoate, GMO’s, propylene glycol (used in anti-freeze) and parabens. If you are in need of an anti-inflammatory, do you really want to ingest these ingredients? A healthier alternative is turmeric which can be used in pill form, or fresh turmeric root can be juiced. It’s a super powerful anti-inflammatory.

Dr. Andrew Weil shares the following:

Some of the diseases that turmeric has been found to help prevent or alleviate include:

■ Alzheimer’s disease: Duke found more than 50 studies on turmeric’s effects in addressing Alzheimer’s disease. The reports indicate that extracts of turmeric contain a number of natural agents that block the formation of beta-amyloid, the substance responsible for the plaques that slowly obstruct cerebral function in Alzheimer’s disease.

■ Arthritis: Turmeric contains more than two dozen anti-inflammatory compounds, including six different COX-2-inhibitors (the COX-2 enzyme promotes pain, swelling and inflammation; inhibitors selectively block that enzyme). By itself, writes Duke, curcumin – the component in turmeric most often cited for its healthful effects – is a multifaceted anti-inflammatory agent, and studies of the efficacy of curcumin have demonstrated positive changes in arthritic symptoms.

■ Cancer: Duke found more than 200 citations for turmeric and cancer and more than 700 for curcumin and cancer. He noted that in the handbook Phytochemicals: Mechanisms of Action, curcumin and/or turmeric were effective in animal models in prevention and/or treatment of colon cancer, mammary cancer, prostate cancer, murine hepatocarcinogenesis (liver cancer in rats), esophageal cancer, and oral cancer. Duke said that the effectiveness of the herb against these cancers compared favorably with that reported for pharmaceuticals.

If you factor in the many known serious side effects of Advil that include swelling, rapid weight gain, nausea, jaundice, chest pain, problems with vision or balance (the list goes on and on), you may want to seriously take a look at adding a healthy dose of turmeric to your regular diet.