Whether it’s enough to make a difference in your case depends.
Curcumin is a polyphenol that operates at the molecular level to disrupt multiple inflammatory cascades. It achieves this by simultaneously blocking the transcription of inflammatory genes and interrupting the enzymes responsible for generating pain and swelling.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10111629/
I’ve got a couple other examples I’ve come across recently that I can additionally share.
Curcumin has been extensively studied, and a common observation is that it is fantastically bioactive in vitro, but tends to have zero meaningful properties when introduced into the biology of a real human being. Researchers have categorized it as an IMPS (invalid metabolic panacea), i.e. a drug whose chemical properties are an illusion, and has ended up becoming a "black hole" for scientific funding [2] [3].
The part about how it "disrupts multiple inflammatory cascades" and so on sounds terrific until you realize these are behaviours observed in vitro. The fact is that curcumin is unstable and highly reactive, so it gets torn apart and neutralized early during digestion, leading to insanely low bioavailability. Tons of compounds are anti-inflammatory in vitro. Very few actually are in the human body.
[1] https://reeserichardson.blog/2024/01/30/the-king-of-curcumin...
Fair point, though. Good news, lots of others:
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9881416/#S9
https://lpi.oregonstate.edu/mic/dietary-factors/phytochemica...
Also curious how many of those detracting have observed the use of capsules,
or the difference in a person not making proper gut acids / liver function.
Like I get that turmeric is exotic and that a lot of non-Indians take turmeric pills and supplements, but Indian food has tons of turmeric as a normal ingredient. We would go through bottles and bags of the stuff like nothing. I don't understand these supplements and the treatment of turmeric as a medicine. Some supplements even tell you to talk to your doctor before eating turmeric! That's crazy. What next, talk to your therapist before taking garlic?
The average Indian household does not use 60g of turmeric per person per day. More like 1.5-2g per person per day, or ~30mg of curcumin, and without much to improve absorption.
Curcumin can, in fact, interact with anticoagulants and affect iron absorption at high supplemental doses, which is not a concern at culinary amounts.
There are reasons to be skeptical of the clinical evidence for curcumin supplementation, but "the heterogenous population of India isn't experiencing widespread miracle cures from culinary turmeric" is not one of them.
(And yes, garlic extract is also a thing, also extremely concentrated compared to eating whole garlics or seasoning with garlic powder, and has antiplatelet/anticoagulant activity that one should be aware of before taking such supplements)