Spice Up Your Life for Lowering Inflammation

Spice Up Your Life for Lowering Inflammation

A Few Suggested Anti-Inflammatory Herbs and Spices

A wholesome dose of curry may do more than add spice to your life. Although curry has been used extensively in Eastern cuisine and has been a staple of Ayurvedic medicine for centuries, we now recognize the active ingredient in it that is responsible for its potent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects: curcumin.

Research in the last fifty years has repeatedly shown the ability of curcumin to
suppress the COX-2 and LOX enzymes and to inhibit metastasis, or tumor spread
(Aggarwal et al. 2006). For example, in a mouse study of breast cancer, 68 percent
of the mice that received curcumin showed no or very few lung metastases. Among
the animals that did not receive curcumin, 83 percent showed extensive metastases
(Bachmeier et al. 2007).

Curcumin has shown such power as an anti-inflammatory, anti-metastatic, and
apoptosis-inducing agent that it has been the subject of several clinical trials at MD
Anderson Cancer Center (see, for example, Aggarwal et al. 2005). Not bad for a
kitchen spice!

Boswellia, a powerful herb known as frankincense to our ancestors, is a premier
natural LOX inhibitor. And ginger, yet another powerful LOX inhibitor, is also
useful in lowering levels of the inflammatory substance PGE2 (Grzanna, Lindmark,
and Frondoza 2005). Its power as an antioxidant adds yet another credential to its
portfolio of anticancer activity.

While space restricts us from providing a detailed explanation of all the herbs
and spices that can offset inflammation, there are dozens, if not hundreds, of
botanical compounds that do exactly that. Use the following chart as a starting place
to help you remember what to pick at the grocery, the farmers market, or, ideally,
your own garden.

Look at Table = A Few Suggested Anti-Inflammatory Herbs and Spices

Note: Herbs can exert a variety of effects. Although generally regarded as safe,
some herbs are contraindicated in pregnancy, some may cause allergic reactions in
sensitive individuals, and others may need to be avoided due to interactions with
pharmaceutical medications. Be sure to check with a knowledgeable practitioner
before loading up on herbal supplements.

Exercise

While activity throughout your lifetime is important, activity at any age can help
lower breast-cancer risk. Exercise does more than help you maintain a healthy
weight: a 2002 study from the Emory University School of Medicine (Abramson
and Vaccarino) found that people aged forty and older who exercised four to
twenty-one times a month also experienced decreased levels of CRP.