3:00 AM
Friday 18 September 2020
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A scientific study revealed that yellow spice may be an effective pain reliever for arthritis.
A randomized clinical trial concluded that turmeric extract was more effective than placebo in reducing knee pain, according to Russia Today.
Turmeric is widely used as a flavor in South Asian cooking, and has been used as a traditional oriental medicine for centuries.
But it is only in recent years that modern science has begun to take spices more seriously as medicine.
Turmeric, a powder ground from the dried root of a plant called Curcuma longa, has been tried in recent years as a treatment for lung disease, Alzheimer’s disease, heart disease and depression.
Mounting evidence indicates that it also has an effect on some types of cancer, and it is believed that this is because cancer cells stop dividing and spreading.
Curcumin – the active ingredient in turmeric – is a polyphenol that has antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antiseptic properties.
In the latest trial, experts at the University of “Tasmania” in Australia assigned 70 patients suffering from symptomatic knee osteoarthritis and swelling inside the knee joint to receive either two capsules a day of turmeric or a placebo for 12 weeks.
The results, published in Annals of Internal Medicine, found that patients who took turmeric supplements reported less pain than those who took a placebo – and without any side effects.
Those taking turmeric also took other pain medications, less than those taking a placebo.
The scans did not reveal any differences in structural features of the knee joint – indicating that the effect was on pain reception, not physical disease.
The researchers said that given that there are no effective treatments for osteoporosis – and pain relievers barely work – it is worth taking the results seriously.
They called for much larger trials to make a final assessment of the clinical significance of their findings.
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