By Greg Arnold, DC, CSCS, October 13, 2014, abstracted from “Curcumin attenuates adhesion molecules and matrix metalloproteinase expression in hypercholesterolemic rabbits” in the September 16, 2014 issue of Nutrition Research

 

 

Curcumin is an antioxidant found in turmeric. It has shown considerable promise for colon health (1,2), liver health and prostate health (3). A new study (4) suggests a benefit for heart health in relation to atherosclerosis.

Eighteen rabbits received one of the following diets for eight weeks:

  • Regular diet, with no document describing its composition.
  • Regular diet enriched with 1% cholesterol.
  • Regular diet enriched with 1% cholesterol and 0.2% curcumin.

In addition to blood samples after eight weeks, researchers collected blood-vessel samples to measure atherosclerotic lesions.

After eight weeks, the percentage of aortic atherosclerosis was 84.2% lower in the curcumin group than the cholesterol group (37.3 versus 5.9%,
P <0.05
). No changes were observed in cholesterol
HDL
in the curcumin group compared with the other two diets. The other four measures, however, improved significantly:


Diet
Total cholesterol
Triglycerides
LDL cholesterol
Oxidized cholesterol
 p-value
Regular diet 49.8 mg/dL 74.1 mg/dL 10.7 mg/dL 1.0 ng/dL 0.05>
1% Cholesterol 3064.4 mg/dL 909 mg/dL 2865.9 mg/dL 17.5 mg/dL 0.05>
1% Cholesterol
0.2% Curcumin 		2123 mg/dL
(30.8% lower than the 1% cholesterol group) 		533.8 mg/dL
(42.3% lower) 		1995.6 mg/dL
(30.4% lower) 		5.8 ng/dL
(66.9% lower) 		0.05>

Curcumin also reduced three inflammatory proteins:


Diet
 IL-1B TNF-alpha C-reactive protein (CRP) p value
Regular diet 15.92 pg/mL 20.89 pg/mL 0.32 μg/mL 0.05>
1% 
Cholesterol 		22.60 pg/mL 96.04 pg/mL 0.56 μg/mL 0.05>
1% 
Cholesterol
0.2% 
Curcumin 		15.59 pg/mL
(32.1% lower) 		40.5 pg/mL
(47.9% lower) 		0.21 μg/mL
(62.5% lower) 		0.05>

And significantly reduced two clotting proteins:

sVCAM sICAM p value
Regular diet 0.18 ng/mL 13.78 ng/mL 0.05>
1% Cholesterol 0.39 ng/mL 22.98 ng/mL 0.05>
1% Cholesterol
0.2% Curcumin 		0.2 ng/mL
(48.8% lower) 		15.02 ng/mL
(34.7% lower) 		0.05>

The researchers concluded: “These findings provide evidence of curcumin’s protective mechanisms in an experimental atherosclerosis model and demonstrate its potential for treating the resulting damage.”

 

Reference:

1.     Sanchez P. Combination Treatment with Curcumin and Quercetin of Adenomas in Familial Adenomatous Polyposis. Clin Gastroenterol Hepatol 2006 Aug; 4(8):1035-1038

2.     Baghdasaryan A. Curcumin improves sclerosing cholangitis in Mdr2-/- mice by inhibition of cholangiocyte inflammatory respons_e and portal myofibroblast proliferation. Gut, 2010; 59: 521-530

3.     Choi HY. Curcumin interrupts the interaction between the androgen receptor and Wnt/b -catenin signaling pathway in LNCaP prostate cancer cells. Prostate Cancer and Prostatic Diseases advance online publication, 3 August 2010; doi:10.1038/pcan.2010 .26

4.     Curcumin attenuates adhesion molecules and matrix metalloproteinase expression in hypercholesterolemic rabbits. Nutr Res2014 Sep 16. pii: S0271-5317(14)00171-7. doi: 10.1016/j.nutres.2014.09.001. [Epub ahead of print]

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