Despite the large number of studies, there is not one of them to attest the panacea properties of turmeric.
The bright yellow spice has been fascinating the entire world with its refreshing taste as well as its presumably miraculous health properties. It is a key ingredient in the making of mustards and curries. On the other hand, people have appraised this spice for its protective effects against Alzheimer’s disease and cancer. People are also using it as antioxidant and anti-inflammatory natural remedy. However, a new study has just been published that has something to say about the panacea properties attributed to turmeric.
The new review appeared in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry publication. Its authors focused more on what some think to be the most powerful chemical in turmeric, namely curcumin. This compound is responsible for the bright yellow hue in the popular spice. However, its other attributes that are related to health are not so exact as people think.
The review regards the total of scientific publications that the media uses as real sources of information for the public. While these papers are based on real clinical trials, the team of researchers found something odd about them. The main issue is that news publications fail to translate these documents accordingly.
The co-author of the recent review, namely Michael Walters at the University of Minnesota stated that once media sends word of a new study, the good news attains a viral nature across the web. Once this happens, it is extremely difficult to adjust the false knowledge with the true discoveries. It seems that the media are applauding these studies more than they actually disserve.
Despite a large number of thousands of papers that came up with miraculous effects of the turmeric, the review didn’t reach the same conclusions. The reviewers studied all theis multitude of documents. What they found was that none of them have been conducting the clinical tests the right way. A thorough clinical trial has to include double-blind, placebo-controlled studies to safely reach a true conclusion, which the ones regarding the study of turmeric failed to achieve.
Moreover, many of the papers that were employed as sources by the media had conflicts of interests. This means that the authors of the studies were already the owners of a supplement company that promoted the panacea properties of curcumin. Thus, despite a large number of studies, scientists still know nothing about turmeric. It may have active agents to make it a healthy supplement, but this is not yet attested by any comprehensive study.
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