Curcumin and Heart Health

From powerful heart medications and antibiotics to simple aspirin, many modern pharmaceuticals have been derived directly from ancient plant and fungal sources that exhibit remarkable abilities to improve well being and intervene in disease processes at the molecular level. Scientists continue to discover medically useful plant compounds that demonstrate powerful anti-inflammatory, anticancer, antibiotic, and antiaging properties.

Some of the most intriguing new research on curcumin's potential benefits involves its apparent ability to improve cardiovascular health. As with many of curcumin's protective actions, this ability to improve circulatory system function may be due to its powerful antioxidant activity. Late last year, several reports detailed curcumin's ability to protect test animals against a variety of conditions that model heart disease in humans.

Researchers in Egypt noted that curcumin protected rats from oxidative stress injury following experimentally induced stroke. Stroke is a common result of thrombosis and/or atherosclerosis, which leads to clogging of the arteries that supply the brain with vital oxygen and nutrients. It is believed that such injury, known as ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) insult, is responsible for many of the deficits seen in stroke victims. Researchers concluded that curcumin protected the rats from I/R damage. They noted that when curcumin was administered at the highest levels, injury-related oxidants, believed to be responsible for the majority of I/R damage, were significantly reduced.