This video discusses the benefits of turmeric as a natural anti inflammatory and antioxidant herb.  Turmeric has been used in India and throughout the East for thousands of years.  Most people know of turmeric as the spice used in Indian cooking or curry.  It is what gives curry its yellow color.

However  is used to treat lots of diseases and it is such an amazing herb for maintaining health & fitness. Two important qualities of turmeric are its anti inflammatory function and antioxidant effect.

As one of the top anti inflammatory spices, it is a common ingredient in Ayurvedic formulas for pain relief and reducing inflammation associated with injury or degenerative joint disease. It is commonly used as one of the important anti inflammatory herbs and pain reliever immediately after injuries and for arthritis.   One of the active ingredients curcumin

Helps immune system as one of the most potent antioxidant foods. It is many times more powerful than Vitamin E and C, and one of the important sources of antioxidants to fight against damaging effects of free radicals.

Hope you enjoyed this video.  Click on the link to check out more  info on turmeric.

Tweetables:

How the Turmeric is one of the World’s Healthiest Foods  [Click To Tweet]
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Transcript…

Hi everyone!  This is Manu Kalia.  I’m a physical therapist and Ayurveda herbalist.  Today I want to talk to you guys about an ayurvedic herb, also used as a spice in majority of Indian cooking which is very effective for addressing all sorts of health problems and just maintaining overall health.  There has been a lot of research on this specific herb in the last few years and lots of talk about it also.  In fact a lot of my patients have been asking about this herb for quite a while now and whether they should use it regularly or it should be used to address certain health conditions.

The herb we are going to talk about is called turmeric.  Turmeric is something that gives Indian cooking or the curry more specifically that yellow color.  It’s used as a spice but it has tons of therapeutic benefits also.  Once again, it has been used for thousands of years throughout India, China and Southeast Asia and that entire region.  In fact even in Europe it has been used for over 700 years brought over by the traders, European traders, in 1200 or around that point.  So it has a long history of usage with great benefit to it.  I just want to highlight some of the important benefits of it although it has tons of beneficial effects.

Turmeric has a potent natural antiinflammatory effect.  In fact it’s part of many ayurvedic herbal formulations to reduce inflammation and pain associated with arthritis or other types of joint pains and also post injury recovery.  In fact in India after an acute injury or immediately after an injury turmeric is often given boiled in milk to somebody to internally affect the inflammatory process.  Externally also it is applied whether in sauté, heated oil or some other substances and then the paste is applied locally where it acts as an antiinflammatory.

Turmeric is also a potent antiseptic and antibiotic agent.  So it has multiple actions and its antiinflammatory effects are because it reduces the production of inflammatory chemicals like cytokines and also increases the production of chemicals that reduce inflammation.

So for regular consumption I take it regularly and I also often recommend my patients to take it for recovering after injuries or just to prevent inflammation and pain associated with that.

Turmeric is a powerful antioxidant and it helps fight free radical damage.  What are free radicals?  Free radicals are basically any substance or molecule that has an unpaired electron which causes damage to other tissues and even to the DNA.  It is a highly reactive molecule and so we are constantly exposed to these environments. Overtime this exposure results in excessive wear and tear of the system and also premature aging.  Turmeric being a very potent antioxidant agent, possibly many times more powerful than vitamin E and vitamin C; it can be quite effective when regularly consumed and acts as an antiaging agent.  So that’s another beneficial effect of taking turmeric.

The other thing for which it’s used quite often in ayurvedic medicine is as a potent liver and blood cleanser.  As it cleanses the liver and blood, it can be very effective and helpful for regulating blood sugar levels and also for reducing cholesterol or just fat in the body.  In addition to all sorts of other health benefits it also gives you clear, beautiful and supple skin and so it’s used in lots of ayurvedic beauty products, and also because it cleanses the blood and the liver so it is quite effective for that also.

In fact there is a lot of research being done on Turmeric’s effectiveness even for Alzheimer’s.  It has been shown to prevent plaque formations that take place in Alzheimer’s, and anticancer properties such as suppressing the growth of tumors.  It might be part of the reason why Indians have low rates of certain types of cancers and even possibly low rates of Alzheimer’s because they are regularly consuming turmeric as a part of their diet; so basically they are getting some dosage of it in every meal.  I think it is very effective and also it can be a part of regular diet and provide great benefit to most of us and even just in terms of prevention and maintenance.

I brought a couple of actual samples.  This is the raw form of turmeric.  It looks kind of like ginger root, kind of the same family but not quite.  It’s a little bit darker in color.  If I just break it off and show you guys, you can see the distinctive deep yellowish color that it has.  This is a raw root, turmeric root.  You can of course consume it in raw form also and in powder form which is more easily accessible.  It has deep saffron or yellowish color and you can see this color right here, which can be added to your cooking, it can be added also or can be taken with little bit of warm water, can also be consumed in milk as it is quite often done in India.  It is boiled in milk and consumed that way also.

Turmeric has lots of benefits and these are just some of the main one I have just discussed.

I hope you find this video helpful and if you have any questions please leave a comment and also make sure to click on the link below and that will take you to my website where you can get lots of information of not just turmeric but lots of other herbs and natural fitness solutions also.  Make sure you subscribe to my channel and I look forward to sharing new information with you guys in the future.

Thank you.

This article is for educational purposes only. Please consult with your physician, physical therapist or medical practitioner before starting any exercise program or trying any of the herbal products/recommendations mentioned in this video/article.