Spices aren’t used just for taste, but also have health benefits. Each spice has its own unique set of compounds which can be used for healing, in much the same way as we use herbs. But one of the most important spices you should be using and which has been studied in hundreds of scientific studies, and is considered one of the most divine spices in all of Ayurveda is turmeric.
It is an antioxidant, an anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, antimicrobial and an immunomodulator. It helps with liver detox and restores the intelligence to both the superficial and the deeper areas of the liver.
It can prevent diabetes, high cholesterol, senile dementia and Alzheimer’s and is used for many skin problems.
Deep within the turmeric root are a family of extremely powerful compounds known as curcuminoids that can block an enzyme that causes inflammation and at the same time can combat free radical damage throughout all the vital organs, including the heart and brain.
However, we want to resist the temptation to reduce this important spice to a collection of chemical components, and isolate out the curcumin — if we do this we are asking for complications and side effects.
We are in the habit in Western medicine to isolate out active ingredients. Pharmaceuticals isolate the active ingredients in herbs and give them at a much higher dose than is found in nature. We do the same thing with nutraceuticals — once we discovered that food has very small amounts of various vitamins, minerals and amino acids, we began isolating them out of context with the food and manufacturing them as vitamin and mineral supplements at much higher doses than found in the original food.
And we pay a price for doing that. All of these remedies have a benefit in the body. But they also come riddled with side effects and toxicity. We have to remember that we’re looking for alternative solutions using natural medicine. And natural means just that. That it grew in nature and it wasn’t isolated out of the food or spice in this very unnatural way.
To make matters worse, solvents must be used to separate the curcumin from the turmeric, which include hexane, ethylacetate, acetone and methanol. These chemicals kill the prana, the delicate life force which brings intelligence to our cells to help them perform all their functions.
And even worse is the fact that ultrasound and microwaves are the most commonly employed methods used to extract the curcumin from the turmeric. These EMF’s also will kill the intelligence in the original turmeric. Constant use of dumb and dead nutrients like this could bring some severe consequences to our health as the intelligence in our cells becomes dumbed down as well, causing misinformation at a deep level of the cellular system. The last thing we want is for our cells to lose their intelligence. This is how serious diseases develop.
We always want to make sure we take organic turmeric that has been ground into a powder, and avoid the raw turmeric root as it creates too much heat in the liver. Also keep in mind that many Indian markets sometimes carry inferior versions of turmeric which could be worthless or even toxic. This is especially true of some low quality turmeric which, while it might be very inexpensive, is nothing more than a white chalk with a yellow dye sprayed on it.
If you’re not used to cooking with turmeric start using only pinches at first and then over time you can slowly increase the amount.
Since all the cell walls in your body are made of cholesterol it is best to cook turmeric in some kind of a fat which will carry it across the cell wall into the inside of the cell. For example, you could simmer it into milk or melt some ghee and saute the turmeric in the ghee to cook it before adding the other ingredients.
Here are a few medicinal uses of turmeric:
First, if you have a sore throat you can try gargling with 1 cup warm water, 1/2 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp turmeric. Both the salt and the turmeric will kill any infection in the throat, preventing it from going into the lungs.
You could mix it with sesame oil and apply it to your gums to prevent gingivitis or inflammation or infection in the gum line.
In my practice we use an oil which has turmeric cured into it which is applied to the whole body, left on for 20 minutes and then washed off. This oil is great for any skin condition, such as eczema, psoriasis and dermatitis.
If you have come down with a cold or flu or even Covid, you could melt 1 Tbs of ghee, add 1 tsp turmeric and saute the turmeric in the ghee for a minute over a low heat and then pour that on your food twice a day. During the early stages of a cold or flu you should eat extra turmeric in your diet to shorten the duration of the illness.
My very first introduction to Ayurveda came in 1984 when the first wave of Vaidyas travelled to America from India to begin training us. They gave us all-day seminars and during the breaks I walked up to one of their wives who was drinking a beautiful steaming hot cup of golden milk made with turmeric.
I asked her why she was drinking milk with turmeric and she said it made her skin beautiful and blemish-free — and now we know how it helps the liver in its efforts to clean the blood. And if your liver and blood are clean, it will be reflected in clear beautiful skin.
In fact, my teacher and mentor, Vaidya Rama Kant Mishra, used to tell me that turmeric was the “best friend to the liver.” But he also cautioned that if you take too much, which many people are doing who are swallowing capsules of it, then the inherent heat in the turmeric will “torture” the liver, as he put it. This is why it is best to use it in cooking and don’t try to take capsules of turmeric, or worse, curcumin.
This milk with turmeric simmered into it is becoming really popular in the Western cultures. You could bring a cup of milk to a boil with 2 cardamom pods to help you digest the protein in the milk, a piece of a cinnamon stick to help you digest the sugar in the milk and a pinch or two of organic turmeric. Simmer for a few minutes, strain out the spices and let it cool slightly.
Here are 10 benefits of drinking turmeric milk:
It is loaded with antioxidants
May help reduce inflammation and joint pain
May improve memory and brain function
May improve your mood and reduce the symptoms of depression
May protect against heart disease
May lower blood sugar levels
May reduce your risk of cancer
Has antibacterial, antiviral and anti fungal properties
May improve digestion
May strengthen bones
And just as a sidenote: when you boil milk it forms tryptophan, which makes you sleepy. Try this warm turmeric milk recipe before bed if you have a hard time falling asleep at night.
Researchers are wondering why there is a much lower rate of Alzheimer’s disease amongst Asian populations that have diets high in turmeric. They are beginning to investigate a possible connection between brain health and turmeric. Researchers in Japan have studied some cases where turmeric was shown to relieve both dementia symptoms and improve overall cognitive function.They actually studied some Alzheimer’s patients for over a year and found that the use of turmeric relieved their severe irritability, agitation, anxiety and apathy.
There is mounting evidence that turmeric might protect the brain from both the onset as well as the progression of Alzheimer’s. It seems that some of the benefits of turmeric could be from its anti-inflammatory effects on the brain as well as its capability of breaking down the plaque formation in the brain seen in Alzheimer’s patients.
I remember when I had first met Vaidya Mishra and he had started to train me in my office, I asked him about possible treatments for Alzheimer’s. He had just come to America from India and he told me he had never heard of Alzheimer’s. He also told me that turmeric is used from very early childhood, just about every day in the diet.
Maybe this could be one of the reasons for the lack of Alzheimer’s in India? I also know several people from India who tell me they hardly ever get a cold or flu, and they attribute this to eating turmeric nearly every day of their life. Vaidya was surprised to find that the only source of turmeric in the American diet was found in mustard. He made it a point to teach as many people as he could about the importance of including turmeric in the diet often throughout the week, if not every day.
I recently read an article entitled, “Why India has the world’s lowest rate of Alzheimer’s Disease.” The authors were emphatic in stating that the reason is definitely because of the extensive use of turmeric in the diet.
Fortunately, lots of research is being done on the benefits of turmeric — but again, don’t be tempted to think that if a little of something is good for you, then more must be better. It won’t work in this case, I can assure you.
But I can also assure you that if you take good quality turmeric in the way nature intended, cooked into the diet and not just sprinkled on top of foods or in a capsule form, you will be well on your way to preventing some very serious diseases.
Thank you.