Turmeric (Curcuma longa) is the yellow spice most familiar in Indian cooking and American prepared mustard. I recommend it for all inflammatory disorders and for autoimmune conditions, including MS. As you may know, MS begins with localized inflammatory damage to the myelin sheaths surrounding nerve fibers, due to an attack by the immune system. I recommend both turmeric and ginger, also a natural anti-inflammatory, for treatment of the inflammation that people with MS experience. Interesting results of laboratory research published in the June 15, 2002 issue of the Journal of Immunology suggest that turmeric may have more far-reaching effects for MS patients.
The researcher who directed the study noted that in India and China, where people eat more spicy foods and more yellow compounds like curcumin, MS is a very rare disease. The amounts of curcumin the mice received were about the same as humans would consume in a typical Indian diet. No one knows how curcumin might block progression of MS. But these intriguing results suggest that eating foods flavored with turmeric might help. As an alternative, you can take turmeric extracts, such as New Chapter's Turmericforce. peter
