Curcuma powder

I begin and end my day taking a mixture of baking soda and maple syrup. But, for good measure, I mix in a pinch of curcumin powder and a sprinkle of ginger powder.  Both the curcumin and ginger have any cancer fighting properties. Its amazing too how cinnimon powder makes a good substitute for sugar when sprinkled on your morning grapefruit.

Here's some information on curcumin.

Clin Biochem Nutr. 2010.
Geranylgeranoic acid (GGA) is one of the most potent cancer-preventive acyclic retinoids. GGA has been shown to induce cell death in human hepatoma-derived HuH-7 cells. We have recently reported the natural occurrence of GGA and its related compounds in several medicinal herbs such as turmeric, basil, rosehip, cinnamon and others. In the present study, we performed oral administration of turmeric tablets to healthy volunteers in order to investigate bioavailability of natural GGA. With healthy volunteers, plasma GGA was detected prior to the tablet intake and its concentrations were increased at 2 h after its intake and maintained at higher level until 4 h, suggesting an efficient bioavailability of preformed GGA in the turmeric tablets through oral administration. These results indicated that GGA in the turmeric tablet was absorbed as an intact form from intestinal mucosa.

Bharat Aggarwal of the Department of Experimental Therapeutics at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, says. "What's exciting about this agent is that it seems to have both chemopreventive and therapeutic properties. If we can demonstrate that it is efficacious in humans, it could be of tremendous value, but we're a long way from being able to make any recommendations yet". Bharat Aggarwal injected mice with human breast cancer cells -- a batch of cells grown from a patient whose cancer had spread to the lungs. The resulting tumors were allowed to grow, and then surgically removed, to simulate a mastectomy. Then the mice either got no additional treatment; curcumin alone; the cancer drug paclitaxel, which is sold under the brand name Taxol; or curcumin plus Taxol. Half the mice in the curcumin -only group and 22 percent of those in the curcumin plus Taxol group had evidence of breast cancer that had spread to the lungs. But 75 percent of animals that got Taxol alone and 95 percent of those that got no treatment developed lung tumors. Earlier studies suggest that people who eat diets rich in turmeric have lower rates of breast cancer, prostate cancer, lung cancer and colon cancer. His team would like to try giving turmeric to women with a high risk of breast cancer -- such as those who have a mother or sister with the disease. No drug company is likely to develop a natural product that cannot be patented, he said. "There are no companies behind it so our only source of funding is either the National Institutes of Health or the Department of Defense," he said. This study was funded by the U.S. Department of Defense's Breast Cancer Research Program.

Skin cancer
Curcumin interferes with melanoma cells. Tests in laboratory dishes show that it made melanoma skin cancer cells more likely to self-destruct in a process known as apoptosis. The same research team has found that turmeric helped stop the spread of breast cancer tumor cells to the lungs of mice. The turmeric suppressed two proteins that tumor cells use to keep themselves immortal. People who eat plenty of turmeric have lower rates of some cancers.

Heart health
Protective effects of Curcuma longa on ischemia-reperfusion induced myocardial injuries and their mechanisms.
Department of Pharmacology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Ansari Nagar, New Delhi, India. Life Sci. 2004.
 Wistar rats were divided into three groups and received saline orally (sham, control I/R group) and Turmeric 100 mg/kg respectively for one month. On the 31st day, rats of the control I/R and turmeric treated groups were subjected to 45 min of occlusion of the LAD coronary artery and were thereafter reperfused for 1 h. I/R resulted in significant cardiac necrosis, depression in left ventricular function, decline in antioxidant status and elevation in lipid perodixation in the control I/R group as compared to sham control. Myocardial infarction produced after I/R was significantly reduced in the turmeric treated group. Cardioprotective effect of turmeric likely results from the suppression of oxidative stress and correlates with the improved ventricular function.

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