Turmeric May Fight Diabetes and Obesity

Columbia Medical School researchers at the Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center have found that the common Asian cooking spice turmeric may help prevent diabetes.

Drew Tortoriello, MD, research scientist at the center, along with pediatric resident Stuart Weisberg, MD, PhD, and Rudolph Leibel, MD, co-director of the Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center, together studied the effect of this spice on diabetic mice. Turmeric has long been known to be an anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant agent used to reduce inflammation, relieve pain, and heal wounds. It is also believed that inflammation plays a role in the onset of Type 2 diabetes and obesity.

To study a possible beneficial effect, researchers gave high doses of turmeric to two types of mice: “high-fat-diet-fed male mice and leptin-deficient obese female mice, with lean wild-type mice that were fed low-fat diets used as controls.”

Findings suggested that turmeric’s active ingredient curcumin may be able to reverse the metabolic and inflammatory problems related with obesity. It also appeared to improve blood-sugar control in the mice with type 2 diabetes.

The research is still in the early stages; whether increasing dietary curcumin intake among obese and diabetic patients would be beneficial has yet to be determined.

“Although the daily intake of curcumin one might have to consume as a primary diabetes treatment is likely impractical, it is entirely possible that lower dosages of curcumin could nicely complement our traditional therapies as a natural and safe treatment,” said Dr. Tortoriello in a recent press release.