Curcumin for the weak at heart

If you were to think of a single organ in the human body that symbolized our very life force, what would it be? Undoubtedly, at this point, your mind would have conjured up an image of a pulsating human heart, complete with its four chambers and protruding veins and arteries. The heart is responsible for pumping blood and it is the reason that we can feel the blood rushing through our veins right now.

Being at the centre of the circulatory system, the heart faces a great deal of stress. When we feel fearful or anxious, our heartbeats increase in frequency, making it work harder than before. At some point, the heart may get exhausted and it may need to take a break. This could lead to disastrous consequences for its owner. In recent times, with the rising stress at work, pollution levels and junk-food diets, terms like 'myocardial infarction' and 'coronary heart diseases' have become eerily commonplace.

To combat these problems, a dozen cures have been proposed. Regular exercise and yoga are believed to be good for heart health. Eating healthy is another path to a healthy heart. A bland, low fat diet is the first step for any heart patient. But recent developments in cardiology research show that they need not remove all the flavour from their curries.

Curcumin, a component of the Indian spice, Turmeric, has been brought under the microscope lately. It has shown promise in fighting cancer and arthritis, killing infectious microbes, reducing cholesterol levels and, now, in protecting the heart as well. Research has shown that eating Curcumin may dramatically reduce the chances of getting a heart attack. Curcumin curbs the inflammation of the heart's muscles and returns it to normal. Curcumin also lowers the level of bad cholesterol in the blood stream of people who consume it.

Irrespective of age, gender or ethnicity, large hearts are at a greater risk for heart failure later in life. Researchers in Canada found that when Curcumin was administered orally to mice with enlarged hearts (known technically as cardiac hypertrophy), it prevented and even reversed the ill-impact of having a large heart. Not only that, it also restored heart function and reduced the formation of scars later on. These results are particularly important since they shed light on the dominant signaling pathways leading to cardiac hypertrophy, inflammation, and fibrosis in response to hypertrophic stimuli.

A group of Japanese researchers also tested the effects of Curcumin on heart failure in a study involving rats. This study involved two conditions: one with heart disease associated with high blood pressure in rats sensitive to salt, and another with surgically-induced myocardial infarction in rats. In both cases, they reported that Curcumin prevented increases in the thickness of the heart muscle wall occurring after heart failure. The believed that Curcumin might provide a novel therapeutic strategy against heart failure as it targets nuclear signaling pathways in cardiomyocytes.

Curcumin may thwart the development of atherosclerosis, or clogged arteries, which is a crucial risk factor in heart attacks and strokes. Researchers in France fed one group of mice a Curcumin-supplemented diet and another group was fed a comparison diet that was not supplemented with Curcumin. After a few weeks, mice fed on the Curcumin-based diet showed a 26% reduction in fatty deposits in their arteries as compared to the other group. In addition, Curcumin appeared to alter the genetic signaling involved in plaque buildup at the molecular level.

Researchers in Egypt noted that Curcumin protected rats from oxidative stress injury following experimentally induced stroke. Stroke is a common result of thrombosis and/or atherosclerosis, which leads to clogging of the arteries that supply the brain with vital oxygen and nutrients. Curcumin is a powerful antioxidant and many of its beneficial effects may be directly related to this ability.

If these results are verified for human subjects, Curcumin could be the ray of hope that a gazillion heart patients have been waiting for for centuries. Curcumin is not the first naturally-occuring ingredient to be recommended as a cure, and will certainly not be the last. The problem with most natural remedies is that their effects are limited at best. Curcumin shines through since it works directly in the cell nucleus by preventing the abnormal unraveling of the chromosome under conditions of stress, and preventing excessive abnormal protein production. Curcumin's ability to affect the chromosome source directly, where the enlargement and scarring genes are being turned on, has been deemed impressive.

Practitioners recommend that consumers wishing to make the most of Curcumin, take it in the form of a supplement, rather than eating more curry. This is because curries tend to be high in fat and increasing curry-intake may actually have counter-productive effects.

Curcumin has already been approved by the FDA as a safe, non-toxic dietary additive. It is a naturally occurring polyphenolic compound that is easily accessible and inexpensive. All said and done, Curcumin is an ideal remedy for the weak at heart.