Do you love a good curry? It may be good for your colon, and not just your taste buds! Curry includes a spice called turmeric, which gets its yellow pigment from a chemical called curcumin.
A recent small clinical trial looked at certain food chemicals — like curcumin — and their ability to fight precancerous growths in the digestive tract. These growths (or polyps) can lead to colon cancer, if left untreated.
The people in the trial had an inherited genetic condition that leads to the growth of these polyps in the intestines. Due to this rare inherited condition, precancerous polyps almost always become cancerous if left untreated. The study participants were given a combination of curcumin and quercetin — an antioxidant found in onions, green tea, and red wine. Quercetin has been shown to inhibit the growth of cancer cells in both rats and humans.
For six months, the five people in the study took 480 milligrams of curcumin and 20 milligrams of quercetin three times daily for six months. After six months, the average number of polyps was reduced by sixty percent! The polyps decreased in size by an average of fifty percent.
Just eating more curry may not have quite as dramatic an effect. The amounts of curcumin given in the study are far higher than what a person might eat under regular circumstances. But researchers do believe that the curcumin was the key ingredient in reducing the number and size of precancerous polyps. The twenty milligrams of quercetin is approximately the amount of the antioxidant that a person would get in a normal day.
Although observational studies have looked at the effects of curry on colon health previously, this is the first study to actually show results like this. Further (and larger) studies are planned to explore the benefits of curry — and specifically curcumin — for your colon.