Supplement manufacturers can make all kinds of impressive sounding claims, but the only way to evaluate the validity of those claims is to see the specific, technical details of how the studies were carried out - the kind of details that would be published in the "materials and methods" section of a scientific paper. So I would ask, has any such paper been published on this metacurcumin product?
Most brands of curcumin claiming superior bioavailability don't distinguish between free curcumin and curcumin conjugates (such as curcumin glucuronide). To their credit, the makers of Longvida clearly make this distinction and provide human pharmacokinetic data published in scientific journals that measures plasma levels of free (not conjugated) curcumin. For example this study of Longvida: http://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/jf9024807 which states in the introduction
"In prior work, following an 8000 mg dose of 95% curcuminoids, curcumin was detected only as its glucuronide and sulfate conjugates (12). How- ever, a focus on quantifying free versus conjugated (i.e., glucuro- nidated) forms of curcumin in biological fluids represents a heightened focus on translational research, because glucuroni- dated and sulfated forms of curcumin appear to offer low activity, low cell permeability, and short plasma half-life compared to the free form"
and in the materials and methods section "No glucuronidase was used to prepare the samples."
As argued in one blog post on the importance of free curcumin (http://www.aor.ca/en/blog-details/why-free-curcumin-is-the-only-curcumin-that-matters) : "One major flaw in experimental research on curcumin is the testing methodology as reported in the majority of published papers. One can learn a lot about how the materials are handled and measured in the materials and method section of a scientific paper. Supplement companies "cheat" by using some fancy testing process and declaring their blood levels of metabolized curcumin as being the same as free curcumin.
Free Curcumin vs. Glucuronadated Curcumin
When measuring blood levels, most companies take the metabolite and not a free curcumin and subject it to treatment by a bacterial/animal derived enzyme called glucuronidase, which breaks up the bond between the glucuronide group and curcumin and thus falsely claim their blood levels to be equivalent to free curcumin! This smoke and mirror stuff hides what really is being measured, which is the metabolite and not free curcumin! In fact, in 2012, Professor Andreas Gescher of University of Leicester, one of the leading experts in evaluation of curcumin in humans wrote a scathing response to a recent study that used this method prior to testing free curcumin. Gescher states: "Based on current evidence, parent curcumin - rather than its metabolites - is thought to mediate the anti-carcinogenic properties of this agent. Therefore, the claims made in this paper that theracurmin achieves "….improved bioavailability in human subjects...as compared to that observed after unformulated curcumin is unsubstantiated".
Hello. First off, Stephen is a wealth of information, so my response will be nothing compared to his! When I clicked on the link, I immediately had pop ups wanting to help me, and offering all kinds of information, that is not a good thing! My Naturopath, who is Certified in Oncology and is very careful and thorough in what she orders, as the oncologists are always looking, has me on Euro-Medica Cura Pro 750mg. She has me on only 1 capsule per day now and her notes read: "To target inflammatory and nerve pathways in cancer cells. She uses a lot of Life Extension products, but on this one, she preferred the Cura Pro. I actually found it to be the least expensive on Amazon with PRIME. I do not think they sell it off of their website, but they do have the clinical information about the product on there. http://euromedicausa.com/products/viewProduct/34/curapro-750-mg
I googled this Metacurcumin, found a study from the patent owner: http://sci-hub.cc/http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/mnfr.201300724/abstract;jsessionid=1466C1F87762F4B5C0CA60BB07E6C04F.f03t03
"Potential conflict of interest statement: DB is the founder and CEO of AQUANOVA AG, the holder of multiple patents on the micellar solubilization technology, and markets the developed curcumin micelles for profit."
There was some more discussion on this forum: http://www.longecity.org/forum/topic/77203-metacurcumin-is-the-best-super-curcumin-in-the-world-by-revgenetics/
It is said they compared free curcumin, but I don't really understand his answer:
"Question: Did they look at native curcumin in blood, or did they collect all the curcumin metabolites?
Answer: Free Curcumin, not metabolites. Per the absorption study: "Curcuminoids were quantified against external standard curves.
Curcumin (CAS #458-37-7; purity >= 92.2), DMC (CAS #22608-11-13; purity >= 98.3%) and ... BDMC (CAS #24939-16-0; purity >= 99.4%) standards were obtained from Chromadex (Irvie, USA)"
What you need to ask is... what CAS number does Longvida use to determine "Free Curcumin" ? "
And to be clear, I'm not advertising this curcumin :) I'm also using Longvida, just pasting this "study" and discussion.
The real question is whether blood samples are treated with glucuronidase before measuring curcumin. Glucuronidase breaks the bonds between curcumin and glucuronide, thus liberating the curcumin glucuronide conjugate into "free curcumin"
In the materials and methods section 2.4 of the curcumin micelle study it states "To each plasma or urine sample, 100 Lbeta-glucuronidase type H-1 from Helix pomatia"
I won't pass judgement on this study yet as I haven't read it in its entirety, but in the Longvida studies, plasma samples are not treated with glucuronidase.
Also, this study is testing the Aquanova patented curcumin micelles, which is marketed as NovaSOL. http://novasolcurcumin.com/ As somebody asked on the Longecity thread: "1) Does the MetaCurcumin formulation include the NovaSOL® Curcumin manufactured by AquaNova? Is this the same formulation as the one used in the clinical study, if not how the MetaCurcumin formulation differs from the NovaSOL® used in the study?"
This question was from the last post in the thread and wasn't replied to.
As far as I can tell from reading the Schiborr et al study (2014) which was testing the AquaNova product, all plasma and urine samples were treated with "100 microL beta-glucuronidase type H-1 from Helix pomatia", and therefore bioavailability measurements include curcumin artificially liberated from curcumin glucuronides. This method isn't comparable to Longvida studies where plasma samples are not treated with glucuronidase, and therefore curcumin as curcumin glucuronides (conjugated curcumin) are not included in the measurements.
I can't really comment on MetaCurcumin because I haven't seen anything published on it. The scientific paper used in support of MetaCurcumin (Schiborr et al 2014), seems to have been testing a product made by AquaNova and marketed as NovaSOL. The author of the thread on Longecity says "MetaCurcumin uses the exact novasol formulation used in the video below" but I can't tell if this is an accurate statement or not - there is no mention on the RevGenetics MetaCurcumin page that their product uses NovaSol curcumin micelles. https://store.revgenetics.com/collections/metacurcumin-super-curcumin
The most ideal way to choose one product over another would be to have an independent group not affiliated with the makers of the product, to do a head to head comparison, using the same dose, same methods of administration, sample preparation etc of the two or more different products and publish the outcomes.
In the absence of such a head-to-head comparison, it's difficult to compare products because each separate study might be administering the agent under different conditions and using different technical methods.
The question boils down to whether you're looking for a product that gives maximum plasma levels of total curcumin, including curcumin conjugates, or a product that gives maximum levels of free, unconjugated curcumin. Most of the brands I've seen are effectively measuring total curcumin because they use glucuronidase in their sample preparation. If you're more interested in optimizing the absorption of free curcumin, which some studies have shown to be more active than curcumin conjugates, you need to look at studies that are actually measuring only free curcumin in the blood (these studies do not use glucuronidase in their sample preparation). Longvida uses this latter method, while brands such as Meriva and Theracurmin have published total curcumin data as opposed to free curcumin.
Trying to compare studies using these different methods is comparing "apples to oranges" and not a fair comparison. I am partial to Longvida because of their transparency and publication history, their clear distinction between free and conjugated curcumin, and the fact that it was developed by UCLA scientists who were focused on Alzheimers disease and optimizing a product for getting into the brain. If another product came along that surpassed Longvida and published their data to prove it in a convincing way, then I might start recommending a different brand. Products that claim to be superior to every other product, but don't make it clear what they're comparing or whether their methods are comparable, leave a taste of distrust in my mouth.
The Longecity thread states that "MetaCurcumin uses the exact novasol formulation used in the video below", but it's not clear to me whether this is an accurate statement, or what the affiliations are of the author of this post to the company RevGenetics. There is no mention on the Revgenetics MetaCurcumin page that they are using the NovaSol curcumin micelles in their product. More lack of transparency?
Stephen...I guess I had better go look at CuraPro some more. I think my ND may start following this. I did give her the link and told her that you also post only supplements with supporting studies. I have to say that the product in question...not a scientific comment, had way too many pop ups!! Thanks for all you do! ~Kerry
CuraPro (BCM-95) is one of the more well documented brands of curcumin out there. More and more I feel some independent group needs to do a single head-to-head comparative study of all the different competing brands of curcumin out there, or at least a few of the most well known ones like BCM-95, Longvida, Meriva, Theracurmin and the curcumin micelles that we've been discussing. As I said earlier it's difficult to compare all these brands because all the respective studies may have been done using different technical methods of sample preparation and analysis, different doses and conditions of curcumin administration etc.
For the same reason it's difficult to compare different clinical trials that have different eligibility requirements, different patient populations, etc. This is why we have randomized clinical trials, where all conditions are as equal as possible between the two arms except for the treatments under study.
A bit offtopic question...I read curcumin is STAT3 inhibitor. Is there an estimate for % inhibition of STAT3 in brain after usual therapeutic dose ~2000 mg ? Or is this probably close to 0, given poor bioavailability? Thanks :)
There was an interesting study published in 2008 showing effects on peripheral blood mononuclear cells (T-cells, B-cells, NK cells, monocytes) in advanced pancreatic cancer patients after ingesting 8 grams of Sabinsa curcumin.
Curcumin inhibited phosphorylated (activated) STAT3 more effectively than it inhibited COX-2 or the NF-KB protein p65 (also known as RelA). Out of 10 patients, phosphorylated STAT3 in the blood mononuclear cells was reduced to a median of about 40%, (60% inhibition) compared to before curcumin ingestion.
COX-2 was reduced to about 65% (median) or ~35% inhibition, and NF-KB (p65) was reduced to about 85% (median), or ~15% inhibition.
These measurements were done by immunohistochemical stains of the PBMC cells (average of 300 cells counted for each measurement).
I don't believe anyone has ever measured STAT3 inhibition in the human brain after curcumin administration (it has been measured in mice though), as obviously this is a much more invasive procedure than a blood test.
STAT3 can play a leading role in co-ordinating immunosuppressive effects, so STAT3 inhibition in the circulating immune cells could still have benefits for cancer patients.
References Phase II trial of curcumin in patients with advanced pancreatic cancer https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18628464
STATs in cancer inflammation and immunity: a leading role for STAT3 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19851315
Longvida Releases New Research (from September 2017) https://www.naturalproductsinsider.com/news/2017/09/longvida-new-research.aspx
“The high bioavailability of optimized curcumin was established by increased tissue absorption of free rather than glucuronidated or other curcumin metabolites from the gastrointestinal system to the blood stream.”
"Supplemental data compared three commercially available curcumins for their absorption into the brain and red blood cells, resulting in the highest brain concentrations of free curcumin obtained with Longvida® Optimized Curcumin."
It's annoying in the extreme when news articles summarize scientific findings but don't even provide a link to the paper in question.
So here is the paper in question: Retinal amyloid pathology and proof-of-concept imaging trial in Alzheimer's disease https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28814675
Also the news item on the Verdure Sciences website which provided the study title:
This whole subject can make your head spin (we've got enough issues without that). Here's what look to be a good breakdown of the major brands with professional ref(bottom of page). http://bit.ly/2lFhZ2V
As to the "winner" they state:
Unfortunately, the clinical trials conducted by the curcumin supplement companies have several limitations that make answering our question difficult.
First off, none are brave enough to compare their product directly with a competitor’s formula on an apples-to-apples. All use standard curcumin as their control group. Beyond that, they also test different dosages with different sample sizes.
Those who do animal trials are unable to say much about absorption in humans, because of the vast differences between human and rat biology. Also, the size of the dose seems to influence the supplement’s effectiveness, as is the case with basic piperine and Longvida. That said, these studies do paint a picture of how well the different ingredients aid curcumin absorption, so we can get a general idea about which product is the best choice.
"BioPerine, Longvida, Jarrow Formulas, NOW Foods, Doctors Best, Theracurmin, BCM-95, and even generic brands… no matter which you buy, all brands will claim to have the best bioavailable curcumin."
It is interesting, in what form was used curcumin in this study? Does anyone know the details of "micellar curcuminoid"?
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27340742 "Oral treatment with micellar curcuminoids led to quantifiable concentrations of total curcuminoids in glioblastomas and may alter intratumoral energy metabolism."
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26909743 "Highly bioavailable micellar curcuminoids accumulate in blood, are safe and do not reduce blood lipids and inflammation markers in moderately hyperlipidemic individuals."
And another study on increasing the bioavailability of curcumin: 2018 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29302995 Preparation of curcumin self-micelle solid dispersion with enhanced bioavailability and cytotoxic activity by mechanochemistry.
"Further pharmacokinetic study of this SD formulation in rat showed a significant ∼19-fold increase of bioavailability as comparing to free Cur. Thus, Cur SD provide a more potent and efficacious formulation for Cur oral delivery."
Your opinion? Is it possible to repeat this recipe yourself?
"2.2. Preparation of solid dispersion by mechanochemical treatment
The roll mill VM-1 (accelerated speed of 1 g) was used to prepare SD. Briefly, 6.56 g Cur and 15.44 g Na2GA (molar ratio 1/1), or 3.86 g Cur and 18.14 g Na2GA (molar ratio 1/2), or 2.11 g Cur and 19.89 g Na2GA (molar ratio 1/4) were added to 300 mL vial with 660.0 g steel balls (diameter 22 mm) with milling time of 24 h, rotation speed 157 rpm and samples were picked out at 2, 4, 8, 16 h, and 24 h, respectively."
How does one tell that a product is legit?
ReplyDeleteSupplement manufacturers can make all kinds of impressive sounding claims, but the only way to evaluate the validity of those claims is to see the specific, technical details of how the studies were carried out - the kind of details that would be published in the "materials and methods" section of a scientific paper. So I would ask, has any such paper been published on this metacurcumin product?
Most brands of curcumin claiming superior bioavailability don't distinguish between free curcumin and curcumin conjugates (such as curcumin glucuronide). To their credit, the makers of Longvida clearly make this distinction and provide human pharmacokinetic data published in scientific journals that measures plasma levels of free (not conjugated) curcumin. For example this study of Longvida: http://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/jf9024807 which states in the introduction
"In prior work,
following an 8000 mg dose of 95% curcuminoids, curcumin was
detected only as its glucuronide and sulfate conjugates (12). How-
ever, a focus on quantifying free versus conjugated (i.e., glucuro-
nidated) forms of curcumin in biological fluids represents a
heightened focus on translational research, because glucuroni-
dated and sulfated forms of curcumin appear to offer low activity,
low cell permeability, and short plasma half-life compared to the
free form"
and in the materials and methods section "No glucuronidase was
used to prepare the samples."
As argued in one blog post on the importance of free curcumin (http://www.aor.ca/en/blog-details/why-free-curcumin-is-the-only-curcumin-that-matters) :
"One major flaw in experimental research on curcumin is the testing methodology as reported in the majority of published papers. One can learn a lot about how the materials are handled and measured in the materials and method section of a scientific paper. Supplement companies "cheat" by using some fancy testing process and declaring their blood levels of metabolized curcumin as being the same as free curcumin.
Free Curcumin vs. Glucuronadated Curcumin
When measuring blood levels, most companies take the metabolite and not a free curcumin and subject it to treatment by a bacterial/animal derived enzyme called glucuronidase, which breaks up the bond between the glucuronide group and curcumin and thus falsely claim their blood levels to be equivalent to free curcumin! This smoke and mirror stuff hides what really is being measured, which is the metabolite and not free curcumin!
In fact, in 2012, Professor Andreas Gescher of University of Leicester, one of the leading experts in evaluation of curcumin in humans wrote a scathing response to a recent study that used this method prior to testing free curcumin. Gescher states: "Based on current evidence, parent curcumin - rather than its metabolites - is thought to mediate the anti-carcinogenic properties of this agent. Therefore, the claims made in this paper that theracurmin achieves "….improved bioavailability in human subjects...as compared to that observed after unformulated curcumin is unsubstantiated".
Hello. First off, Stephen is a wealth of information, so my response will be nothing compared to his! When I clicked on the link, I immediately had pop ups wanting to help me, and offering all kinds of information, that is not a good thing! My Naturopath, who is Certified in Oncology and is very careful and thorough in what she orders, as the oncologists are always looking, has me on Euro-Medica Cura Pro 750mg. She has me on only 1 capsule per day now and her notes read: "To target inflammatory and nerve pathways in cancer cells. She uses a lot of Life Extension products, but on this one, she preferred the Cura Pro. I actually found it to be the least expensive on Amazon with PRIME. I do not think they sell it off of their website, but they do have the clinical information about the product on there. http://euromedicausa.com/products/viewProduct/34/curapro-750-mg
ReplyDeleteYes the pop-ups on that page are very annoying.
DeleteMy father is using Meriva (by Thorne). Our nutritionist advised it.
ReplyDeleteI googled this Metacurcumin, found a study from the patent owner:
ReplyDeletehttp://sci-hub.cc/http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/mnfr.201300724/abstract;jsessionid=1466C1F87762F4B5C0CA60BB07E6C04F.f03t03
"Potential conflict of interest statement: DB is the founder and
CEO of AQUANOVA AG, the holder of multiple patents on
the micellar solubilization technology, and markets the developed
curcumin micelles for profit."
There was some more discussion on this forum:
http://www.longecity.org/forum/topic/77203-metacurcumin-is-the-best-super-curcumin-in-the-world-by-revgenetics/
It is said they compared free curcumin, but I don't really understand his answer:
"Question: Did they look at native curcumin in blood, or did they collect all the curcumin metabolites?
Answer: Free Curcumin, not metabolites. Per the absorption study: "Curcuminoids were quantified against external standard curves.
Curcumin (CAS #458-37-7; purity >= 92.2),
DMC (CAS #22608-11-13; purity >= 98.3%) and ...
BDMC (CAS #24939-16-0; purity >= 99.4%) standards were obtained from Chromadex (Irvie, USA)"
What you need to ask is... what CAS number does Longvida use to determine "Free Curcumin" ? "
And to be clear, I'm not advertising this curcumin :) I'm also using Longvida, just pasting this "study" and discussion.
Thanks for digging into this deeper Matjaz. The sci-hub link didn't work for me, but the study is open access:
Deletehttp://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/mnfr.201300724/epdf
The real question is whether blood samples are treated with glucuronidase before measuring curcumin. Glucuronidase breaks the bonds between curcumin and glucuronide, thus liberating the curcumin glucuronide conjugate into "free curcumin"
DeleteIn the materials and methods section 2.4 of the curcumin micelle study it states "To each plasma or urine sample, 100 Lbeta-glucuronidase type H-1 from Helix pomatia"
I won't pass judgement on this study yet as I haven't read it in its entirety, but in the Longvida studies, plasma samples are not treated with glucuronidase.
Also, this study is testing the Aquanova patented curcumin micelles, which is marketed as NovaSOL. http://novasolcurcumin.com/
DeleteAs somebody asked on the Longecity thread:
"1) Does the MetaCurcumin formulation include the NovaSOL® Curcumin manufactured by AquaNova? Is this the same formulation as the one used in the clinical study, if not how the MetaCurcumin formulation differs from the NovaSOL® used in the study?"
This question was from the last post in the thread and wasn't replied to.
As far as I can tell from reading the Schiborr et al study (2014) which was testing the AquaNova product, all plasma and urine samples were treated with "100 microL beta-glucuronidase type H-1 from Helix pomatia", and therefore bioavailability measurements include curcumin artificially liberated from curcumin glucuronides. This method isn't comparable to Longvida studies where plasma samples are not treated with glucuronidase, and therefore curcumin as curcumin glucuronides (conjugated curcumin) are not included in the measurements.
DeleteThank you all. So Stephen - what is your takeaway, particularly re this product (and their research) vs Longvida?
ReplyDeleteI can't really comment on MetaCurcumin because I haven't seen anything published on it. The scientific paper used in support of MetaCurcumin (Schiborr et al 2014), seems to have been testing a product made by AquaNova and marketed as NovaSOL. The author of the thread on Longecity says "MetaCurcumin uses the exact novasol formulation used in the video below" but I can't tell if this is an accurate statement or not - there is no mention on the RevGenetics MetaCurcumin page that their product uses NovaSol curcumin micelles.
Deletehttps://store.revgenetics.com/collections/metacurcumin-super-curcumin
The most ideal way to choose one product over another would be to have an independent group not affiliated with the makers of the product, to do a head to head comparison, using the same dose, same methods of administration, sample preparation etc of the two or more different products and publish the outcomes.
In the absence of such a head-to-head comparison, it's difficult to compare products because each separate study might be administering the agent under different conditions and using different technical methods.
The question boils down to whether you're looking for a product that gives maximum plasma levels of total curcumin, including curcumin conjugates, or a product that gives maximum levels of free, unconjugated curcumin. Most of the brands I've seen are effectively measuring total curcumin because they use glucuronidase in their sample preparation. If you're more interested in optimizing the absorption of free curcumin, which some studies have shown to be more active than curcumin conjugates, you need to look at studies that are actually measuring only free curcumin in the blood (these studies do not use glucuronidase in their sample preparation). Longvida uses this latter method, while brands such as Meriva and Theracurmin have published total curcumin data as opposed to free curcumin.
Trying to compare studies using these different methods is comparing "apples to oranges" and not a fair comparison. I am partial to Longvida because of their transparency and publication history, their clear distinction between free and conjugated curcumin, and the fact that it was developed by UCLA scientists who were focused on Alzheimers disease and optimizing a product for getting into the brain. If another product came along that surpassed Longvida and published their data to prove it in a convincing way, then I might start recommending a different brand. Products that claim to be superior to every other product, but don't make it clear what they're comparing or whether their methods are comparable, leave a taste of distrust in my mouth.
I think Stephen is for Longvida - if I understand correctly, Metacurcumin "cheated" with glucuronidase.
ReplyDeleteIf anyone wants some more reading on solid lipid particles (longvida), here are some more studies:
https://mega.nz/#F!YUJCjSBL!AC1R9mwl6iFcL0y4qPbeKw
The Longecity thread states that "MetaCurcumin uses the exact novasol formulation used in the video below", but it's not clear to me whether this is an accurate statement, or what the affiliations are of the author of this post to the company RevGenetics. There is no mention on the Revgenetics MetaCurcumin page that they are using the NovaSol curcumin micelles in their product. More lack of transparency?
DeleteStephen...I guess I had better go look at CuraPro some more. I think my ND may start following this. I did give her the link and told her that you also post only supplements with supporting studies. I have to say that the product in question...not a scientific comment, had way too many pop ups!! Thanks for all you do! ~Kerry
DeleteCuraPro (BCM-95) is one of the more well documented brands of curcumin out there. More and more I feel some independent group needs to do a single head-to-head comparative study of all the different competing brands of curcumin out there, or at least a few of the most well known ones like BCM-95, Longvida, Meriva, Theracurmin and the curcumin micelles that we've been discussing. As I said earlier it's difficult to compare all these brands because all the respective studies may have been done using different technical methods of sample preparation and analysis, different doses and conditions of curcumin administration etc.
DeleteFor the same reason it's difficult to compare different clinical trials that have different eligibility requirements, different patient populations, etc. This is why we have randomized clinical trials, where all conditions are as equal as possible between the two arms except for the treatments under study.
A bit offtopic question...I read curcumin is STAT3 inhibitor. Is there an estimate for % inhibition of STAT3 in brain after usual therapeutic dose ~2000 mg ? Or is this probably close to 0, given poor bioavailability?
ReplyDeleteThanks :)
There was an interesting study published in 2008 showing effects on peripheral blood mononuclear cells (T-cells, B-cells, NK cells, monocytes) in advanced pancreatic cancer patients after ingesting 8 grams of Sabinsa curcumin.
DeleteCurcumin inhibited phosphorylated (activated) STAT3 more effectively than it inhibited COX-2 or the NF-KB protein p65 (also known as RelA). Out of 10 patients, phosphorylated STAT3 in the blood mononuclear cells was reduced to a median of about 40%, (60% inhibition) compared to before curcumin ingestion.
COX-2 was reduced to about 65% (median) or ~35% inhibition, and NF-KB (p65) was reduced to about 85% (median), or ~15% inhibition.
These measurements were done by immunohistochemical stains of the PBMC cells (average of 300 cells counted for each measurement).
I don't believe anyone has ever measured STAT3 inhibition in the human brain after curcumin administration (it has been measured in mice though), as obviously this is a much more invasive procedure than a blood test.
STAT3 can play a leading role in co-ordinating immunosuppressive effects, so STAT3 inhibition in the circulating immune cells could still have benefits for cancer patients.
References
Phase II trial of curcumin in patients with advanced pancreatic cancer
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18628464
STATs in cancer inflammation and immunity: a leading role for STAT3
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19851315
Spamming again... :)
ReplyDeleteLongvida Releases New Research (from September 2017)
https://www.naturalproductsinsider.com/news/2017/09/longvida-new-research.aspx
“The high bioavailability of optimized curcumin was established by increased tissue absorption of free rather than glucuronidated or other curcumin metabolites from the gastrointestinal system to the blood stream.”
"Supplemental data compared three commercially available curcumins for their absorption into the brain and red blood cells, resulting in the highest
brain concentrations of free curcumin obtained with Longvida® Optimized Curcumin."
Though I don't see journal reference.
Thanks Matjaz!
DeleteIt's annoying in the extreme when news articles summarize scientific findings but don't even provide a link to the paper in question.
So here is the paper in question:
Retinal amyloid pathology and proof-of-concept imaging trial in Alzheimer's disease
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28814675
Also the news item on the Verdure Sciences website which provided the study title:
http://info.vs-corp.com/longvida-cross-blood-brain-retinal-barriers
This whole subject can make your head spin (we've got enough issues without that). Here's what look to be a good breakdown of the major brands with professional ref(bottom of page). http://bit.ly/2lFhZ2V
ReplyDeleteAs to the "winner" they state:
Unfortunately, the clinical trials conducted by the curcumin supplement companies have several limitations that make answering our question difficult.
First off, none are brave enough to compare their product directly with a competitor’s formula on an apples-to-apples. All use standard curcumin as their control group. Beyond that, they also test different dosages with different sample sizes.
Those who do animal trials are unable to say much about absorption in humans, because of the vast differences between human and rat biology. Also, the size of the dose seems to influence the supplement’s effectiveness, as is the case with basic piperine and Longvida. That said, these studies do paint a picture of how well the different ingredients aid curcumin absorption, so we can get a general idea about which product is the best choice.
Thanks for the link.
Delete"BioPerine, Longvida, Jarrow Formulas, NOW Foods, Doctors Best, Theracurmin, BCM-95, and even generic brands… no matter which you buy, all brands will claim to have the best bioavailable curcumin."
Too true.
It is interesting, in what form was used curcumin in this study?
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone know the details of "micellar curcuminoid"?
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27340742
"Oral treatment with micellar curcuminoids led to quantifiable concentrations of total curcuminoids in glioblastomas and may alter intratumoral energy metabolism."
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26909743
"Highly bioavailable micellar curcuminoids accumulate in blood, are safe and do not reduce blood lipids and inflammation markers in moderately hyperlipidemic individuals."
And another study on increasing the bioavailability of curcumin:
ReplyDelete2018 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29302995
Preparation of curcumin self-micelle solid dispersion with enhanced bioavailability and cytotoxic activity by mechanochemistry.
"Further pharmacokinetic study of this SD formulation in rat showed a significant ∼19-fold increase of bioavailability as comparing to free Cur. Thus, Cur SD provide a more potent and efficacious formulation for Cur oral delivery."
Your opinion? Is it possible to repeat this recipe yourself?
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10717544.2017.1422298
Delete"2.2. Preparation of solid dispersion by mechanochemical treatment
The roll mill VM-1 (accelerated speed of 1 g) was used to prepare SD. Briefly, 6.56 g Cur and 15.44 g Na2GA (molar ratio 1/1), or 3.86 g Cur and 18.14 g Na2GA (molar ratio 1/2), or 2.11 g Cur and 19.89 g Na2GA (molar ratio 1/4) were added to 300 mL vial with 660.0 g steel balls (diameter 22 mm) with milling time of 24 h, rotation speed 157 rpm and samples were picked out at 2, 4, 8, 16 h, and 24 h, respectively."