Turmeric This magic ingredient

Why did Terre de Mars include turmeric powder in its Luminance Scrub?

For thousands of years, people around the world have associated turmeric with its healing properties and cosmetic benefits. Turmeric is the spice that gives curry its yellow color. It has been used in India for thousands of years as a spice and medicinal herb. Recently, science has confirmed what Indians have long claimed… turmeric does indeed contain compounds with formidable medicinal properties. These compounds are called curcuminoids, the most important of which is curcumin: the main active ingredient in turmeric. It has powerful anti-inflammatory effects and is a very strong antioxidant. This bright yellow-orange spice is a cousin of ginger. Modern scientific research is just beginning to investigate the positive impact of turmeric, confirming the many beneficial properties of this spice on the skin.

Indian Saffron and its benefits applied directly to the skin:

Turmeric contains antioxidants and anti-inflammatory components. These properties give the skin a glow and radiance. It revives your skin by bringing out its natural radiance.

– Curcumin from turmeric helps wounds heal by reducing inflammation and oxidation. It also decreases the body's response time to skin wounds. This leads to faster wound healing. Studies have shown that turmeric positively affects epidermal tissue and collagen. The journal Life Sciences recommends applying curcumin as an optimized formula for better work on skin wounds.

– Turmeric protects skin from sun damage. In a 2009 study, researchers applied turmeric extract to skin damaged by long-term low-dose ultraviolet radiation. They found that it protected the skin from UV rays, prevented wrinkles, helped maintain skin elasticity, and reduced the appearance of dark spots.

– Curcumin reduces the risk of skin cancer. Numerous studies show that this natural ingredient helps slow the growth of cancer cells and even shrinks tumors.

– Turmeric helps heal wounds, it has a long history as a healer. Whether you were the victim of a bruise, an insect bite, or an infected wound, turmeric was the solution. Modern research has confirmed this. A 2005 study found that turmeric was just as effective as honey in wound healing, helping the skin heal faster than it would without the application of either substance. An earlier 1999 study compared turmeric with coconut oil and proved that turmeric was more effective at helping the wound close and heal.

– Thanks to its powerful antioxidants, turmeric delays the appearance of skin aging by protecting cells from free radical destruction. In a 2014 study, researchers reported that curcumin protected cells from oxidative damage. An earlier 2010 study also reported that curcumin could be a formidable anti-aging substance. Not only does it potentially reduce the risk of many of today's deadly diseases, including heart disease, cancer, and Alzheimer's disease, but it can improve the health of older adults due to its powerful anti-inflammatory properties.We now know that inflammation is behind many of our modern diseases, and that anti-inflammation can improve and prolong life. “Curcumin can counteract the pro-inflammatory state,” the researchers wrote, “which is suspected to be involved in many age-related diseases.” It makes sense that applying turmeric might also help delay the appearance of aging on the skin.

– Turmeric helps fade age spots and treat melasma. The spice appears to be able to affect melanin, which is the substance in the skin responsible for pigmentation. If you have melasma, you have too much melanin on your cheeks, chin, and forehead. Age spots are also created by too much melanin in one area. The curcumin in turmeric appears to block the activation of proteins that increase and regulate melanin production. In a 2009 study mentioned earlier, researchers found that curcumin extract not only protects against UV rays, but also prevents the formation of pigmentation caused by UV radiation.

– Turmeric’s antioxidant and anti-inflammatory qualities can reduce psoriasis by controlling flare-ups and other symptoms.

– Turmeric can help reduce acne and the resulting scars. The anti-inflammatory qualities target pores and calm the skin. Turmeric is also known to reduce scarring. This combination of uses helps the face free itself from acne breakouts.

– Turmeric is used for the treatment of scabies. In a study conducted in India, a combination of turmeric and neem, a plant native to India, was effective in treating scabies. This disease is caused by microscopic mites that leave a rash. Turmeric can also treat other skin conditions such as eczema, alopecia, lichen planus, and other skin problems.

Turmeric is also a very effective nutritional supplement. Numerous high-quality studies show that it has major benefits for the body and brain..

Health benefits of turmeric:

– Curcumin is a natural anti-inflammatory compound. It helps the body fight off foreign invaders and also plays a role in damage repair. Without inflammation, pathogens like bacteria could easily take over our bodies and kill us. While acute (short-term) inflammation is beneficial, it can become a major problem when it is chronic (long-term) and inappropriately deployed against the body's own tissues. Chronic, low-level inflammation is now believed to play a major role in nearly all chronic Western diseases. This includes heart disease, cancer, metabolic syndrome, Alzheimer's disease, and various degenerative conditions. Therefore, anything that can help combat chronic inflammation is of paramount importance in the prevention and even treatment of these diseases.

It turns out that curcumin is powerfully anti-inflammatory—so powerful that it rivals the effectiveness of some anti-inflammatory drugs. Curcumin actually targets multiple steps in the inflammatory pathway at the molecular level. Curcumin blocks NF-κB, a molecule that travels into cell nuclei and activates genes associated with inflammation. NF-κB is thought to play a major role in many chronic diseases. Without going into too much detail, the key here is that curcumin is a bioactive substance that fights inflammation at the molecular level.

In several studies, its potency compares favorably to pharmaceutical anti-inflammatory drugs… except without the side effects.

– Turmeric significantly increases the body's antioxidant capacity. Oxidative damage is considered one of the mechanisms of aging and many diseases. It involves free radicals, highly reactive molecules with unpaired electrons. Free radicals tend to react with important organic substances, such as fatty acids, proteins, or DNA. The main reason antioxidants are so beneficial is that they protect our bodies from free radicals. Curcumin is a powerful antioxidant capable of neutralizing free radicals due to its chemical structure. But curcumin also stimulates the activity of the body's antioxidant enzymes. In this way, curcumin fights free radicals. It directly blocks them and then stimulates the body's antioxidant mechanisms.

– Curcumin stimulates brain-derived neurotrophic factor, improving brain function and reducing brain diseases. It was once believed that neurons were unable to divide and multiply after infancy. This is now known to be false. Neurons are capable of forming new connections, but in certain areas of the brain, they can also multiply and increase in number.

One of the main drivers of this process is brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), a type of growth hormone that functions in the brain. Many common brain disorders have been linked to decreased levels of this hormone. These include depression and Alzheimer's disease.

Curcumin can increase BDNF levels in the brain. In doing so, it may be effective in delaying or even reversing many brain diseases and age-related declines in brain function. There is also the possibility that it could help improve memory.

– Curcumin leads to various improvements that reduce the risk of heart disease. Curcumin can help reverse many stages of the heart disease process. The main benefit of curcumin regarding heart disease is the improvement of the function of the endothelium, which is the lining of blood vessels. It is well known that endothelial dysfunction is a major factor in heart disease and involves an inability of the endothelium to regulate blood pressure, blood clotting, and various other factors. Several studies suggest that curcumin leads to improvements in endothelial function. One study shows it to be as effective as exercise, another shows it works as well as certain medications. But curcumin also reduces inflammation and oxidation (as explained above), which are also important factors in heart disease.

– Turmeric may also help prevent (and possibly even treat) cancer. This terrible disease is characterized by uncontrolled cell growth. There are many different forms of cancer, but they have several commonalities, some of which appear to be affected by curcumin supplementation. Researchers have studied curcumin as a beneficial herb in cancer treatment. It can affect the growth, development, and spread of cancer at the molecular level.Studies have shown that it can reduce angiogenesis (growth of new blood vessels in tumors), metastasis (spread of cancer), as well as contribute to the death of cancer cells.

Numerous studies have shown that curcumin can reduce the growth of cancer cells in the laboratory and inhibit tumor growth.

– Curcumin may also be useful in the prevention and treatment of Alzheimer's disease. This disease is the most common neurodegenerative disorder in the world and a leading cause of dementia. Unfortunately, no effective treatment is currently available. Therefore, preventing it from occurring is of the utmost importance. Curcumin has been shown to cross the blood-brain barrier. Inflammation and oxidative damage are known to play a role in Alzheimer's disease. As we know, curcumin has beneficial effects on both. But a key feature of Alzheimer's disease is a buildup of protein tangles called amyloid plaques. Studies show that curcumin can help clear these plaques.

– Arthritis is a common problem in Western countries. It comes in several different types, but most involve some sort of inflammation in the joints. Since curcumin is a powerful anti-inflammatory, it makes sense that it might help with arthritis. Several studies show this: in one study of patients with rheumatoid arthritis, curcumin was even more effective than an anti-inflammatory drug. Many other studies have examined the effects of curcumin on arthritis and noted improvements in various symptoms.

– Other studies show that curcumin has incredible benefits against depression. Curcumin has shown promise in treating depression. In a controlled trial, 60 patients were randomized into three groups (45). One group took Prozac, another group took one gram of curcumin, and the third group took Prozac and curcumin. After 6 weeks, curcumin led to improvements similar to those of Prozac. The group that took both Prozac and curcumin fared better. According to this study, curcumin is as effective as an antidepressant. Depression is also linked to reduced levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor and shrinkage of the hippocampus, an area of the brain involved in learning and memory. Curcumin increases BNDF levels, which may reverse some of these changes. There is also some evidence that curcumin can stimulate the brain neurotransmitters serotonin and dopamine.

– Finally, curcumin may help delay aging and fight age-related chronic diseases. If curcumin can truly help prevent heart disease, cancer, and Alzheimer's disease... it would have obvious longevity benefits. For this reason, curcumin has become very popular as an anti-aging ingredient. But since oxidation and inflammation play a role in aging, curcumin may have effects that go far beyond simple disease prevention.