카레의 비밀, 커큐민(Curcumin)

The Benefits of Curcumin in Cancer Treatment

 

카레의 비밀, 커큐민(Curcumin)

 

카레의 비밀.
인도를 대표하는 음식 카레는 독특한 향 때문에 호불호가 갈린다. 그러나 카레의 비밀을 알고나면 안 좋아하곤 못 배길 것 같다.

카레의 비밀이란 뭘까. 바로 건강에 이로운 음식이란 점이다.미국 과학논문 소개 사이트 유레칼러트 등에서도 이런 카레의 비밀을 소개한 바 있다.

 

카레의 대표적인 효능은 항산화 작용, 식욕 증진, 암 예방과 면역력 증가, 치매 예방 및 기억력 향상, 비만 예방 등이 있다. 그 중 카레 특유의 노란 성분인 커큐민이 알츠하이머병에 효과적인 치료제가 될 수 있다는 연구결과가 있다.  스웨덴 링코핑 대학의 페르 함마스트롬 교수 연구팀에 따르면 인도 노인들의 치매 비율이 동년배의 서구인들보다 현저히 낮은 것은 카레를 꾸준히 먹기 때문이라고 설명했다. 특정 인도 마을의 경우 65세 이상 노인들 중에서 단 1%만이 알츠하이머병에 걸렸다는 결과도 나와 있다.  

 

 

 

 

 

커큐민은 강황의 뿌리에서 추출한 성분으로 오랫동안 치료약으로 쓰였다. 소화를 촉진하고, 전염병을 막아주며, 심장마비도 예방해준다. 최근에는 통증, 혈전증, 암 등에도 시험을 하고 있다. 영국 노팅엄 대학교와 독일 뮌헨 대학교 연구팀도 커큐민에 주목해 이 성분이 힘줄 염증을 억제하는 데 효과적이라는 사실을 발견했다.

 

힘줄은 근육을 뼈에 붙이는 역할을 하는 섬유 조직으로 '건(腱)'이라고 불리기도 한다. 힘줄염증은 힘줄에 힘이 너무 많이 가해져 생긴다. 사람에게 가장 많이 알려진 힘줄염증은 아킬레스건 염증이다. 최근에는 하이힐을 신는 여성들이 늘어나면서 아킬레스건 염증 환자들이 급증하는 추세를 보이고 있다.

 

연구팀은 커큐민이 들어있는 카레를 이용해 식이요법을 하면 아킬레스건 염증 환자들의 통증을 줄일 수 있다고 보고 있다. 또 커큐민에 대한 연구를 발전시키면 새로운 힘줄염증 치료제를 개발할 수 있다는 의견도 내놓았다. 또 카레는 지방 분해를 촉진하고 갈색 지방세포의 에너지 생성을 활성화하여 비만 예방에 도움을 주는 여러 역할을 하는 것으로 알려졌다.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Benefits of Curcumin in Cancer Treatment

 

By Dr. Mercola

Cancer is one of the leading causes of death. What if there was a safe, natural herb that could work for nearly every type of cancer?  

According to Dr. William LaValley, who focuses most of his clinical work on the treatment of cancer, curcumin—a derivative of turmeric, and the pigment that gives the curry spice turmeric its yellow-orange color—may fit the bill. It's a natural compound that has been extensively researched, and has been found to have numerous health applications.

 

Like me, Dr. LaValley was trained in general medicine, but he's devoted a considerable amount of time to understanding the biochemical pathways that can support health nutritionally.

In 1982, he participated in an exchange program to the People's Republic of China, where he got first-hand experience with the ancient practices of traditional Chinese medicine and acupuncture.

 

one of the important messages that I learned there was that natural products, natural molecules, from plants and animals that are already available in nature, have been used by the Chinese for at least hundreds, probably thousands of years. That deeply changed my perspective in the world of medicine," he says.

"I came back to medical school, and thereafter, looked at how I could integrate the perspective of conventional pharmaceutical administration as well as natural extract, natural product administration."

Curcumin Has Potent Anti-Cancer Activity

In 2005, he took a 75 percent sabbatical from clinical practice to immerse himself in the science of molecular biology, specifically the molecular biology of cancer. He also devoted approximately 9,000-9,500 hours building a relational database from the PubMed literature about the molecular biology of cancer.

 

One important lesson he learned through that venture is that the understanding of molecular biology can be applied across a range of diseases and symptoms described in the scientific literature. That knowledge can be applied by searching PubMed and other related databases, looking at the relevant molecular pathways involved.

 

"In learning the molecular biology of cancer pathways, and in learning that what the evidence actually shows for the effect of natural product extracts on various relevant molecular targets in various cancers,

We see that there's actually quite a large amount of evidence that supports using various molecules, natural products, and pharmaceuticals that are already approved and that have been around for a long time to affect anti-cancer activity along that pathway at that target. That's called molecularly targeted anti-cancer treatment, and it's widely practiced in oncology today.

What's not widely practiced is the use of the natural products for the molecularly targeted anti-cancer activity. I provide that for my patients because the evidence base suggests and supports the use of these treatment recommendations."

Curcumin—A 'Universal' Cancer Treatment?

Interestingly, curcumin appears to be universally useful for just about every type of cancer, which is really odd since cancer consists of a wide variety of different molecular pathologies. You wouldn't necessarily suspect that there would be one herb that would work for most of them. Dr. LaValley explains how he came to this conclusion:

 

"I went back to the literature and looked at how I can support the decision-making process and the recommendations that I'm making for treatment from the scientific literature, including literature that goes from the treatment of humans with oral products like pharmaceuticals or natural products.

 

This is where I learned about this molecule called curcumin, all the way down to its use in animals and then its use in test tubes or petri dish... one of the amazing things about curcumin is that this molecule has some profound anti-inflammatory activity and has activity in many molecular targets.

 

There are molecules that are in the cells, and those molecules interact with each other along certain pathways or tracks. The traffic of that interaction, the signals that are transferred in that trafficking of information in the molecules, presents many different targets or molecular-specific complexes."

 

As explained by Dr. LaValley, whether the curcumin molecule causes an increase in traffic or activity of a particular molecular target, or a decrease/inhibition of activity, studies repeatedly show that the end result is a potent anti-cancer activity. Furthermore, curcumin does not adversely affect healthy cells, suggesting it selectively targets cancer cells. Research has also shown that it works synergistically with certain chemotherapy drugs, enhancing the elimination of cancer cells.

Curcumin Destroys Cancer in Multiple Ways

Curcumin has the most evidence-based literature¹ supporting its use against cancer of any nutrient, including vitamin D, which also has a robust base. Interestingly, this also includes the metabolite of curcumin and its derivatives, which are also anti-cancerous.

Curcumin has the ability to modulate genetic activity and ｅxpression—both by destroying cancer cells and by promoting healthy cell function. It also promotes anti-angiogenesis, meaning it helps prevent the development of additional blood supply necessary for cancer cell growth. As for its effect on molecular pathways, curcumin can affect more than 100 of them, once it gets into the cell. More specifically, curcumin has been found to:

 

Inhibit the proliferation of tumor cells	Decrease inflammation
Inhibit the transformation of cells from normal to tumor	Inhibit the synthesis of a protein thought to be instrumental in tumor formation
Help your body destroy mutated cancer cells so they cannot spread throughout your body	Help prevent the development of additional blood supply necessary for cancer cell growth (angiogenesis)

Why Whole Turmeric Is Ineffective

Unfortunately, while there's some curcumin in whole turmeric, there's not enough in the regular spice to achieve clinically relevant results. The turmeric root itself contains only about three percent curcumin concentration. Another major limitation of curcumin as a therapeutic agent is that it is poorly absorbed. When taken in its raw form, you're only absorbing about one percent of the available curcumin.

 

"The natural product industry has developed a standard of a 95-percent concentration of curcumin," Dr. LaValle explains. "Initially, years ago, that was what we had available for patients. Even at that, taking a 95-percent concentration orally in a capsule, only one percent of that could be absorbed. In order to get amounts of curcumin in the bloodstream that are reasonable to have therapeutic effect, people had to take large amounts of curcumin...

 

In searching the literature, I found that a way to change that, to dramatically increase the bioavailability, is actually a very simple process of bringing water to a boil, putting those capsules or some dry powder (I use it by the teaspoon), and boiling it for 10 to 12 minutes. That increases the amount of curcumin dissolved in water from that one-percent amount up to 12 percent or so. That amount is a vast number of curcumin molecules that are now in a bioavailable or absorbable form."

 

However, while this is certainly doable, it's really inconvenient, and great care must be taken to prevent staining your clothes and kitchen surfaces. It's a significant enough problem to have been dubbed "yellow kitchen syndrome," as it's virtually impossible to get the stains out. Turmeric is in fact an excellent dyeing agent for fabrics, rendering them a yellow-orange color.

 

Convenience and efficiency has driven many of the changes in the forms of curcumin in later years. Because it's a fat-loving or lipophilic molecule, many newer preparations now include some sort of oil or fat, which improves its absorbability and bioavailability. Such preparations typically have seven to eight times higher absorption than the raw, unprocessed 95-percent-concentration of dry powder. There are also newer sustained release preparations, which Dr. LaValley prefers and recommends.

The Connection Between Cancer and Insulin Resistance

If you are overweight, or have high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and/or diabetes, then in all likelihood insulin and leptin resistance is a factor. Insulin and leptin resistance is also a very common factor among cancer patients. From my perspective, a ketogenic diet (with or without intermittent fasting) would be a prudent treatment strategy to resolve that underlying problem. once you've normalized your insulin and leptin, you don't necessarily need to maintain a ketogenic diet, if you find it too restrictive.

"I agree with you that a ketogenic diet is really appropriate in many cases, probably the significant majority of cases," Dr. LaValley says. "It's been known for probably 80 years or longer that solid tumors, and some of the blood cancers, are sugar-loving. Another term is that they are addicted to sugar.

 

I use [a] PET scan to demonstrate to patients that here is objective proof that the tumors you have in your body are sugar-avid. They're taking up sugar at a rate much higher than the other regular healthy cells. I want to drive home that message, so that they are motivated to alter their diet to have a low, low carb intake, causing their body to generate additional nutrient supply molecules called ketones...

 

What that means is that we're trying to provide an anti-cancer antagonistic pressure on the cancer cells by reducing the amount of sugar that's readily available for uptake by reducing the easily available sugar in the diet and compensating for the nutrient reduction and sugar [reduction] by increasing healthy fats."

Cutting Down on Protein May Be Particularly Useful for Cancer Patients

It would also be prudent to assess your protein intake. Many Americans eat far more protein than required for optimal health. The reason for this is because your body can actually use excess protein (you do need some) to stimulate carbohydrate production. Excess protein also stimulates the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathways, which are useful for building muscles but can be detrimental when treating cancer, as mTOR is a pathway that increases cellular proliferation. (Interestingly, the pharmaceutical drug Metformin, which has anti-cancer activity, also inhibits mTOR, and it turns out that curcumin has a very similar effect.)

 

The formula I recommend for assessing how much protein you might need in your diet is from Dr. Rosedale, which calls for one gram of high-quality protein per kilogram of lean body mass, or about half a gram per pound of lean body mass.

As an example, if your body fat mass is 20 percent, your lean mass is 80 percent of your total body weight. So, if your total weight is 200 pounds; you would then divide 160 by 2.2 to convert pounds to kilograms and come up with 72.7 grams of protein. If you are doing vigorous exercises or are pregnant, you can add up to another 25 percent or another 18 grams in this illustration to increase your total to 90 grams per day.

More Information

Dr. LaValley is available for consultation on a wide variety of health challenges, including cancer, and he's licensed to practice medicine in the US and Canada. His medical clinic is located in Chester, Nova Scotia, where he sees patients. Americans can fly there either through Chicago or Newark. His office number is 902-275-4555. He also spends time in Austin, Texas, where he conducts research. When there, he's available to consult for other physicians and their patients.

 

"For instance, if a patient has pancreatic cancer and the physician wants to implement one of the protocols that I provide, I will do a consultation with that physician's patient and then make recommendations to that physician for implementation,"  he explains. "In that way, patients are able to get it locally without having to travel to Nova Scotia...

 

It's a challenge right now because there's so much information that's not readily known by so many physicians that they become afraid. I think one of the biggest issues, certainly in US and Canada, is that when a physician wants to administer one of these natural products, or several of them, as well as some of the off-label pharmaceuticals for their anti-cancer usage, they are afraid of recriminations or disciplinary actions.

 

That is, I think, very unfortunate, because the evidence base does exist for it, and it's consistent with the way that other types of conventional medicine or practice using off-label pharmaceuticals as well. I think that the most important movement that needs to occur is for the patients to recognize their own value in the decision-making process and demand that they have access to these therapeutic choices because they're available, they're supported in the evidence base, and they have the right to ask for them rather than to just accept whatever the physician is otherwise offering in the conventional realm."