Turmeric, the orange-colored, natural spice is commonly used by cooks for seasoning rice or bean dishes, soups, stews, sauces and even making cakes.
It has been claimed to improve health in a variety of ways including managing metabolic syndrome, inflammatory conditions, joint pain, arthritis, high levels of bad fats in the blood, and other disorders due to its bioactive compound curcumin.
Now, researchers in Thailand say it can be as effective as omeprazole – a drug used to reduce excess stomach acid – for treating indigestion symptoms.
They have just published the first study of its kind in the journal BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine under the title “Curcumin and proton pump inhibitors for functional dyspepsia: A randomized, double-blind controlled trial.”
Dyspepsia is a common disorder, for which patients usually try behavioral and diet modifications and over-the-counter drugs before seeing a physician, who will probably prescribe omeprazole. This drug is a proton pump inhibitor (PPI) used to treat functional dyspepsia, the symptoms of which include feeling excessively full after food (postprandial fullness), feeling full after only a little food (early satiety), and pain and/or burning sensation in the stomach and/or food pipe (epigastric pain).
Turmeric as medicine
However long-term use of PPIs has been linked to an increased risk of bone fractures, inadequate micronutrients, and a heightened risk of infections.
Seventeen Thai researchers participated, but Prof. Krit Pongpirul at the Center of Excellence in Preventive and Integrative Medicine and at Chulalongkorn University’s Faculty of Medicine was the corresponding author.
