Hi all,
My apologies if there is an answer to this somewhere on the blog here.
My ND recommends BCM-95 Curcumin. But I see most people use Longvida. I'm trying to figure out which is better for crossing the BBB. I know there is a Curcumin folder but I'm having a hard time accessing anything online right now.
So, thoughts, experiences, etc. with BCM-95? She says it's the one most researched.
Also, is there need to worry about curcumin causing the tumor to adapt? I've gotten a few studies to open and it seems to impact the tumor in a number of ways. Could this pose a risk?
Thank you.
Maria
I prefer Longvida for two reasons: many brands say that their product is 100-fold (or something to that effect) more bioavailable than unformulated curcumin. Most studies of that type don't distinguish between curcumin and conjugated metabolites of curcumin such as curcumin glucuronide. For example, after high dosing of one popular brand of bioavailable curcumin (Meriva), there was no free, unconjugated curcumin in any of the plasma samples of the sujects - it was all conjugated. There's little reason to assume that conjugated curcumin would have similar activity to free unconjugated curcumin, and most of the studies on the effects of curcumin in the lab are done with non-conjugated curcumin. Studies with Longvida have specifically looked at plasma levels of free curcumin.
ReplyDelete"We found that the effects of curcumin glucuronide are weaker than those of curcumin and that this difference is related to relative absorption rates of curcumin and curcumin glucuronide into HepG2 cells."
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24423511
The above is one of the only studies I've seen comparing activity of curcumin versus conjugated curcumin.
The second reason I prefer Longvida, is that it was specifically designed by UCLA scientists to treat Alzheimers, and therefore for superior blood-brain barrier penetration.
By now there may be even better brands than Longvida out there, but having more literature or research behind it (BCM-95), doesn't necessarily mean it's a better product, it may have just been around longer. BCM-95 was "next generation" in 2007
http://www.lifeextension.com/magazine/2007/10/report_curcumin/page-01
Thank you.
DeleteThis is a related comment, so wanted to get some help - we were told this morning by our radiation oncologist NOT to use curcumin because it is an antioxidant and hasn't been shown to help in a human study. Does anyone know of a study I may ask them to review, or any rebuttal to this? I am frustrated after doing hours of research - it seems to be the most critical supplement to try - as an anti-inflammatory.
ReplyDeleteThat is the standard line you'll hear - avoid anything lumped under the label "ANTIOXIDANT". Ben Williams has written a mini-book in this controversy last updated in 2014.
Deletehttp://virtualtrials.com/pdf/williamssupplements2014.pdf
In reality every "antioxidant" is different, and many of the nutraceutical supplements have many other potential mechanisms of action, some of which might be more important than their antioxidant activity.
As for "not helping in a human study" I would have to know which study in order to comment on that. Curcumin was shown to significantly reduce STAT3 expression in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (T-cells, natural killer cells, monocytes) of cancer patients, and this could have beneficial effects on the immune response.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18628464
Then there are mouse studies such as this: Traditional Chinese Medicine Curcumin Sensitizes Human Colon Cancer to Radiation by Altering the Expression of DNA Repair-related Genes "Combined treatment of curcumin and irradiation resulted in a significantly greater tumor-growth inhibition and apoptosis compared to irradiation treatment alone (p<0.01)"
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29277765
Whether or not curcumin would show efficacy in a clinical trial would depend on the dose, formulation, cancer type, disease status, whether it was being combined with other agents with synergistic interactions in mind...
In a small glioblastoma clinical study, one out of a small group of patients seemed to have a minor response to a special solubilised curcumin formulation.
http://www.egms.de/static/en/meetings/dgnc2015/15dgnc456.shtml
At the very least curcumin is deserving of further clinical study, especially in modern, more bioavailable formulations.