Curcumin's fight against obesity

Obesity has reached epidemic proportions today. Half of Europe and a little over half of America have been deemed overweight. Is it any wonder then that the major chunk of pop medicine and self-help articles (not to mention spam emails), preach weight-loss or at least, weight-maintenance?

A few years earlier, the term "healthy" was used as a euphemism for fat, out of kindness to overweight people. This terminology could not be more misleading. Obesity is a horrible disease in that it creeps up on you and lays the ground for many other, deadlier ailments. As a person's weight goes up, his life span is seriously reduced. A careful examination of the world's population will show that chronic diseases such as coronary heart disease, diabetes, and strokes are undoubtedly more common in the heavier fraction of the population.

Exercise is the most common recourse for our larger counterparts. But treadmills and sit-ups can only take you so far. If you wish to lose weight, dietary changes are unavoidable, a fact that the money-minded diet-food industry has not only realised but, sadly, also exploited. The estimated worth of this industry, as of today, stands at seven billion dollars (approximately five million pounds) globally.

One needs to exercise a degree of caution when selecting a product to invest in since some of these "health foods" may actually do more harm than good. The slimming ingredients available in the market today work by either burning fat, or suppressing one's appetite, or inhibiting protein breakdown. Some work to regulate moods related to food consumption. The list of slimming foods products, which contains protein bars and skimmed milk, has now expanded to include turmeric.

A research carried out at Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University (USDA HNRCA) showed that Curcumin, the active ingredient in turmeric, appears to reduce weight gain and suppress the growth of fat tissue. Weight gain results from the growth and expansion of fat tissue, which depends on the formation of new blood vessels, a process known as angiogenesis. Accumulation of lipids in fat cells also contributes to fat tissue growth. Curcumin's suppression of angiogenesis in adipose tissue together with its effect on lipid metabolism in adipocytes may contribute to lower body fat and body weight gain.

In a study done on mice, Curcumin appeared to suppress angiogenic activity in the fat tissue of mice fed high-fat diets. The scientists fed mice on a diet that was high on fat for 12 weeks. One group also received a Curcumin supplement from turmeric during this period, while another group did not. Both groups ate the same amount of food, which showed that the Curcumin didn't change the appetite of the mice. However, the rodents fed the Curcumin supplemented diet did not gain as much weight as the mice that did not consume any Curcumin. Thus, the phytochemical, Curcumin, appeared to be responsible for total lower body fat and reduced weight gain in the group that received supplementation.

So how does Curcumin work? In the affected mice, a suppression of micro vessel density was observed in the fat tissue. This is a sign of less blood vessel growth, which leads to less expansion of fat. The experiment yielded other significant points of difference between the two groups. The Curcumin-supplemented mice evinced lower blood cholesterol levels and fat in the livers. The researchers also investigated cell cultures incubated with Curcumin where similar results were found. Curcumin suppressed the growth of fat tissue in both the lab animals and in cell models. And, according to the published study, their data suggests Curcumin has the ability to interfere with the expression of two genes which contribute to angiogenesis progression in both cell and rodent models.

Human trials have not yet been conducted to confirm the effects of Curcumin on the fat tissues of human beings. The mechanism by which Curcumin affects fat tissue is yet to be investigated in a clinical trial involving human participants using random selection. Yet there is reason to believe that Curcumin will be effective in the human body too. For one, its Curcumin's beneficial effects have been documented against a number of diseases including cancer. Curcumin is a type of phytochemical known as a polyphenol. Research findings suggest that phytochemicals, which are the chemicals found in plants, appear to help prevent disease. As the bioactive component of turmeric, Curcumin is readily absorbed for use by the body.

Over a billion of the world's people are overweight, and 300 million are clinically obese. It is a clear that we need to remedy this situation, and soon. With the majority of the world leaning towards organic cures, we could see Curcumin rising as a purely natural alternative to the diet pills of the mushrooming weight loss industry.