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Curcumin and HPA Axis Dysfunction

garcia

Aristocrat Extraordinaire
Messages
976
Location
UK
I break open the curcumin capsule and pour the curcurmin and bioperene into a dessert spoon with virgin olive oil and mix it all together.

Dr Russell Blaylock recommends this as the best way to get the maximum absorption of curcumin.

Thanks liverock, that sounds like a great way to increase absorption. Do you remember where he said that? I have his "Health and Nutrition secrets .." book but couldn't find it in there. Many thanks.
 

IntuneJune

Senior Member
Messages
562
Location
NorthEastern USA
CURCUMIN: GARCIA, LIVEROCK, AND JENNY

Thank you for the information. I have not bought the capsules, was trying to incorporate curcumin in my meals.

Those of you who have purchased and taken the curcumin capsules, do you feel it has helped with inflammation.

In December I had an appointment with my immunologist and asked him if he would check blood work for inflammation as I was feeling more inflamed than usual. He ran a C-Reactive protein and it was slightly elevated beyond the normal values.

Thank you.
June
 

liverock

Senior Member
Messages
748
Location
UK
Thanks liverock, that sounds like a great way to increase absorption. Do you remember where he said that? I have his "Health and Nutrition secrets .." book but couldn't find it in there. Many thanks.

I read it in another of his books "Natural Strategies for Cancer Patients"
Dr Blaylock also recommended that quercetin and Hesperidin be taken the same way.
 

IntuneJune

Senior Member
Messages
562
Location
NorthEastern USA
Olive oil, curcumin and bioperene


Hmmmmmmmm

I went back and re-read through the posts again and one of the posters (sorry cannot remember who) stated these were the ingredients in the capsule s/he was taking.

I am hoping to do this through my diet, but would have no idea how much curcumin I am getting.

June
 

Jenny

Senior Member
Messages
1,388
Location
Dorset
CURCUMIN: GARCIA, LIVEROCK, AND JENNY

Thank you for the information. I have not bought the capsules, was trying to incorporate curcumin in my meals.

Those of you who have purchased and taken the curcumin capsules, do you feel it has helped with inflammation.

In December I had an appointment with my immunologist and asked him if he would check blood work for inflammation as I was feeling more inflamed than usual. He ran a C-Reactive protein and it was slightly elevated beyond the normal values.

Thank you.
June

Hi June

I've taken curcumin for years. Never sure how much to take. When I started with my current severe relapse last October, I upped my dose to about 4 or 5 tabs a day (sorry can't remember the strength). It never seemed to make any difference to any of my symptoms. I've stopped it now and pain and inflammation isn't any worse.

I think with a lot of these supplements knowing what an effective dose is is crucial. But there is so much conflicting opinion. For all I know perhaps I should have been taking 10 times what I did!

Jenny
 

IntuneJune

Senior Member
Messages
562
Location
NorthEastern USA
Thanks Jenny, this is all so confusing. I have bought supplements and then forgotten to take them. Even when I leave the bottles on my computer desk.

Since my diet is so limited, I want to introduce new flavors but I want the ingredients to be beneficial.

June
 

Hysterical Woman

Senior Member
Messages
857
Location
East Coast
Hi June

I've taken curcumin for years. Never sure how much to take. When I started with my current severe relapse last October, I upped my dose to about 4 or 5 tabs a day (sorry can't remember the strength). It never seemed to make any difference to any of my symptoms. I've stopped it now and pain and inflammation isn't any worse.

I think with a lot of these supplements knowing what an effective dose is is crucial. But there is so much conflicting opinion. For all I know perhaps I should have been taking 10 times what I did!

Jenny

Hi Jenny,

It is indeed hard to figure out what dosage might help you. I also believe that what brand you take can be a huge factor.

Good Luck,

Hysterical
 

klutzo

Senior Member
Messages
564
Location
Florida
I have come back to post again and eat my words!

When I posted on this thread the first time, I'd only been taking curcumin for a short while. Now, I have experimented with taking it daily for quite awhile and seeing my pain level skyrocket, though I had changed no other supps. or drugs. So I would go off for a week or two, and the pain would go away in 24 hrs. of stopping it. I went back on it and then off again, 3 times, and have had to conclude, sadly, that it is the most likely cause of my greatly increased fibro-like pain, up to the point of not being able to walk properly from foot pain and stiffness, and being severely short of breath from the exhaustion the pain caused.

Since I have life-threatening MCS, I am guessing I do have a slow Phase I detox. Is that faulty thinking? So, logically, I am thinking maybe the curcumin is causing a Herxheimer reaction by killing something off....maybe a virus? However, other natural anti-virals, like OLE, caused zero Herx at high doses.

I am very confused and sad, because I love that curcumin raises glutathione and that it helps prevent AZD, which I have a high risk of getting.

BTW, my husband, who has a regional pain syndrome due to his work, is still getting about a 40% reduction in his need for narcotics by taking just 500 mgs. of curcumin daily. (He can't take the recommended 3 x daily dose due to being on blood thinners). We use Jarrow 500 mgs. caps, but because there is no Bioprene in them, always take them with our multivitamin, which does have bioprene.

klutzo
 

slayadragon

Senior Member
Messages
1,122
Location
twitpic.com/photos/SlayaDragon
Klutzo, your post brings up a topic that I've been considering recently.

There are a variety of supplements/drugs that increase my own pain level. ALA is one. Antivirals did this. Cholestyramine (which is used to detox mold poison) does this. Antibiotics (natural and prescription) do this.

The pain seems to be a result of trigger point swelling, though sometimes I have to dig way down deep to find them.

What I think now is that this happens whenever my body is needing to expel various debris. Sometimes this is various toxins (biotoxins, chemicals, heavy metals), sometimes it's "dead" viruses or bacteria.

For some reason, this debris seems to get stuck in the trigger points. If I use neural therapy on them, this solves the problem. However, neural therapy is painful and expensive even if you know a doctor who can do it.

A friend of mine, StormySkye (I recently wrote about her in a post in the Methylation section of this board) says that she has found the probiotic ThreeLac to effectively address this problem for her and for a number of others. I've just started taking this, and so far I seem to be benefiting. But I need to do a heavy detox to see if it works.

It doesn't seem entirely inconceivable to us that this probiotic could have an effect. Addressing gut bacteria reduces inflammation throughout the body. At one point, I apparently had candida growing into my inner ear (I had a couple of "respectable" doctors conclude that this was related to a dizziness condition called BPPV), and this was addressed with a good probiotic. So if the fascia is stuck together with yeast, it's possible that a probiotic used in the gut could fix this.

Why it would be that this particular probiotic would help with this problem when others do not, I don't know. That seems to be the reports that we're getting though.

I'd like comments on this phenomenon, because I think it's an important one.

This is all really interesting information about curcumin. I've only used it a couple of times, but I think it's one of the few supplements (along with Wobenzyme-type products) that can be even a tiny bit helpful to me when I've gotten too much biotoxin exposure (which equals inflammation and oxidative stress for me).

I think I will try it more consistently soon and see what happens.

Thanks, Lisa
 

Sasha

Fine, thank you
Messages
17,863
Location
UK
I'm coming very late to this thread but saw elsewhere on the forums that Dr Mikovits (not a clinician, of course, but her opinion must surely be interesting!) mentioned curcurin - and I see on this thread that Dr Cheney has mentioned it too, presumably because it helps with HIV (?).

I'm thinking about trying Enhansa but wondering what sort of dose to try and especially, how long to give it before I decide whether it's working or not.

For those that have found benefit, how long did it take you to see any improvement?
 

Jenny

Senior Member
Messages
1,388
Location
Dorset
Hi Sasha

I tried Enhansa for a couple of months - I did the dosing according to the instructions on the packet and tried to slowly increase. I think it made me worse - lots of sweating and even more weak - so I stopped it. I probably should have experimented a bit more with the dose before giving up though!

I used to take quite high doses of ordinary curcumin but this didn't seem to do anything.

Hope this helps a bit.

Jenny
 

maryb

iherb code TAK122
Messages
3,602
Location
UK
Sasha I too am think ing of trying Enhansa - quite a price isn't it though? I don't know if you tolerate things well but having a cupboard full of supplements I can't take does put me off a little:-(
Jenny - did you have the tablets or the powder - I thought that the powder might be better rather than messing about cutting up capsules - they rec 75mg to start with (half a capsule)
 

Tom

windows exterminator
Messages
94
Hi Folks,
I started enhansa about 6 months ago , with the capsules, followed the instructions re dosage but didn't increase the dosage until after any effects had subsided and I'd been "stable" for 2 or 3 days.
I now take a heaped blue scoop twice a day (powder).
It's made a big difference to me .
Big is subjective , my big may be bigger or smaller than your big.


Tom
 

Sasha

Fine, thank you
Messages
17,863
Location
UK
Hi Jenny - sorry you didn't improve, but it's useful as always to hear about the downs of a treatment as well as the ups!

Hi Mary - yikes, I didn't even look at the price yet!

Hi Tom - glad you've noticed a big difference - and if you think it's a big difference, it's big! I'm looking for any improvement at all. How long did it take you to see any improvement? Did you have to go through some side effects first? It sounds as though you had some initial problems.
 

Tom

windows exterminator
Messages
94
Hi Sasha ,
I started with the smallest capsules and by day 2 I was getting what I think is called herx reactions , nothing too bad but definitely noticeable .
On average these would last 4 to 5 days then would begin again each time I increased the dosage .
As I said , I waited 2 to 3 days after these had stopped before upping the dose to the next amount.
By the time I was taking 2 blue scoops per day (about 6 weeks) I was getting no herx just a very orange tongue.

I've since gone upto 3 blue scoops daily for a month , stopped for 3 weeks , then back to 2 scoops with no herxing .
Take a note , mental or otherwise , of how you are before starting then compare that with how you are on the good days .
Improvements can be noticed very quickly even if herxing is going on . Gognative , fog , things like that , try to look at each part seperately the physical , the mental and the emotional.

Good Luck

Tom
 

Sasha

Fine, thank you
Messages
17,863
Location
UK
Thanks, Tom - it's well worth knowing about the herxing.

How long did it take you to see any improvement, would you say? I know it can be difficult to put a finger on it.
 

Tom

windows exterminator
Messages
94
Sometimes I measure improvements in millimetres Sasha , so -- end of week one.
Definitely end of week 2.

But that was me.

Tom
 

Sasha

Fine, thank you
Messages
17,863
Location
UK
Sometimes I measure improvements in millimetres Sasha , so -- end of week one.
Definitely end of week 2.

But that was me.

Tom

Thanks, Tom - if it's discernible, it's discernible! I really would be happy to be even a few percentage points up.

Did anyone else who found improvement see it that quickly?
 

pamb

Senior Member
Messages
168
Location
Edmonton, AB, Canada
Hi there,

Very interesting thread. Alas, I have a question. Buying more supplements is just not in the family budget, or our ability to keep track of what to take when, but I can buy tumeric at the local market in bulk very cheaply. My husband hates anything spicy, so putting it in food is not going to fly. Would it be helpful to put plain tumeric in capsules and try to figure out how many to take? Or is tumeric just too far from refined curcumin to have that make sense?

Thanks for any feedback.