In today's post I will be covering some of the latest curcumin research.
As most readers probably know, bone density is commonly affected in patients with multiple myeloma with an increased risk of fractures. Patients with precursor disease, ie MGUS or SMM, can also have a lower bone density with an increase in the risk of fractures.
The first exciting bit of research I would like to let you know about is a literature review article by a group of researchers in Iran. They looked at the effects on bones of 5 herbal medicines ie curcumin, black seed, ginger, cinnamon, and flaxseed oil. The article provides quite a bit of detail but what is clear from the literature review is that in human studies, curcumin significantly increased femoral neck bone mineral density (BMD) and total hip bone mineral density which could mean a lower risk of fractures when taking curcumin. You can view the research here:
Another promising study comes from a group of Indonesian researchers. They show in a small group (n=35) of myeloma patients that curcumin addition to patients taking melphalan and prednisone (MP) improves the remission status of these patients. This study can be found here:
Finally, I would like to let you readers know about the upcoming Nutrivention studies to be carried out by Dr Urvi Shah from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre in New York. The following link will provide info on these exciting upcoming studies: