.Re. Turmeric.
 

Thanks Mrs. D,
for your information and response.
I bought this product from WalMart: Spring Valley, Turmeric Curcumin. 500 mg. It comes in gel capsule. Facts,: Turmeric 500 mg (Curcuma longa) (root) Other ingredients: Gelatin,Contains < 2% of Silica, Vegetable, Magnesium Sterate.
__No: gluten Yeast, Wheat,Milk or milk derivatives,Lactose,Sugar,Perservatives,Soy,Artifi cial color, artificial flavor, Sodium,(less than 5 mg per serving.)

I want to ask you if this is an OK Turmeric supplement.
--Thank you

This is not an optimized product.... it is probably just going to stay in your GI tract and be move out with the stool.

The active curcumin is not soluble in water environments... so one has to use an optimized produce like was used in the recent medical studies.

If you type in "optimized curcumin" you'll find those products.

I use CurcuBrain by NOW.... and it is working for me some. Not spectacularly yet, but then that will take time I think. I get mine at Amazon. I don't think many stores have the newer more soluble products yet.

I've been taking MSM powder for a lot of years, heard about it from a person on the roadback group who deals with RA and he takes higher doses of MSM for pain reduction. I take most days 1 tsp three times per day in spring or distilled water. I can feel the pain leave my body as I drink it down.

My neighbor who has very limited funds now reluctantly is injecting with Orencia and pointed to her head where she is losing so much of her beautiful curly hair.

MSM has worked for me for a lot of years and I continue with it....when I start to hurt more I know it's time for a tsp of MSM.

My major issue is Osteoarthritis but recent blood work showed RA factor. C

I intended to post this MSM link with the above, but forgot to.

http://www.webmd.com/arthritis/news/.../arthritis-msm

Rheumatoid arthritis doesn't happen to people because of a lack of turmeric or MSM powder in their diets. RA happens when genetically prone people ingest lectins.

The solution? ......Stop ingesting lectins, along with the carbohydrates which cause undigested foods to enter the bloodstream.

Lectins are extremely sticky proteins which the immune system can react to. Cartilage cells attract lectins from foods like wheat, beans and potatoes. The immune system recognizes the lectins as an infection. The immune system attacks the lectin molecules, and attacks the cartilage they cling to.

The old medical saw which says autoimmune diseases happen when the immune system attacks "self" tissue by mistaking it for "not-self" antigens is simply false. The immune system is far smarter than that. RA represents the immune system performing its job. RA sufferers are simply over-taxing their immune systems.

Veggienft, I am puzzled by your post.

RA is an autoimmune disease with a strong inflammatory component - that is why anti-inflammatory agents are often effective in management of it.

Lectins are proteins which bind oligosaccharides with high specificity - each lectin has a different specificity. Exogenous lectins (mainly found in plant foods) can have local effects in the GI tract if the plant food has not been adequately cooked. If the food has been cooked exogenous lectins will not have local effects and (in just the same way as any other protein) will be broken down into their amino acids by digestive enzymes. I don't know of any evidence that intact exogenous lectins can pass across the gut mucosal boundary and enter the blood stream, where they (potentially) might interact with immune system proteins - do you have evidence which suggests that this is the case?

There are also endogenous lectins, naturally made in the human body. Mannan-binding lectin is an example - it, and others, play important roles in the innate immune system.

"The old medical saw which says autoimmune diseases happen when the immune system attacks "self" tissue by mistaking it for "not-self" antigens is simply false."

This statement will come as a considerable surprise to people (like me) whose professional knowledge includes immunology.

Would you like to justify it, ideally with referenced data?

I find the Lectin issue worth thinking about more. Way back about 20 yrs ago I purchased the blood type book by Dr. Peter D'Adamo...I'm a Type B and my type per D'Adamo's work says I should NOT eat chicken as chicken contains a blood Type B agglutinating lectin in its muscle tissue. For a good while after reading this I was staying away from chicken and eating more turkey, beef and lamb which are more beneficial for type B's. But I've fallen off this practice and have been eating more chicken in the last couple yrs. Now, I'm looking at this again, as my joints have been aching so much more in recent years. Could it be the chicken and the lectin?????

Here is more info on Lectin and a lot of comments from readers at the end.

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/lectins/#axzz42TlQSH8Q

Now my friend who is now challenged with RA has been and still is a big bread eater...she says she LOVES breads and won't give them up. I've brought this to her attention of the carb RA connection but she does not want to hear it. I've stopped
bringing breads into my house about 7 yrs ago. Now for me I guess I better stop bringing chicken into my house. Gotta read more of the book tomorrow. Thanks.

The ABO blood groups are complicated. There is good evidence that inheriting some combination of them can be a risk factor for some diseases - see http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3827391/ for a discussion of this.

"Could it be the chicken and the lectin?????"
I doubt it - chicken is a good source of protein and I don't know of any evidence that alleged chicken lectins can pass across the GI tract and lead to adverse health effects for people with the B blood group or any other for that matter.

"Dr. Peter D'Adamo"
In my opinion D'Adamo is not worth taking seriously - he promotes a fad diet. This link (and links therein) may help NT readers to draw their own conclusions about this; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_type_diet.

Kiwi, there are plenty of people who follow the blood type way of life. I'm one who will look at everything that could help me with my health. I'm going to back off chicken for a while now. Going to do more research on lectins. My opinion is that D'Adamo has valid info. I like wiki for a lot of info but don't believe everything from them.

Different lectins have different heat tolerances, "cooking" can mean many things concerning time, temperature, moisture, and the promulgation of heat to all molecules. Wheat germ agglutinin (WGA) is the lectin in wheat. WGA has a specific affinity for cartilage molecules, the tissue destroyed in rheumatoid arthritis. Glucosamine works to relieve arthritis because glucosamine contains the same molecule-end which cartilage uses to attract WGA. Glucosamine binds WGA which would otherwise be bound by cartilage.

However, a few points.....

1. Degree of specific affinity of any lectin for any tissue can vary with patient genetics, as can the propensity for autoimmune reaction.

2. The propensity of the small intestine to allow lectins such as WGA into the bloodstream, ie defeat of "tight junctions", is itself strongly influenced by lectins like WGA. WGA can act as its own vehicle for entering the bloodstream.

There are symptoms besides cartilage destruction which accompany arthritis. They include skin rash and swelling of the lower legs. These symptoms are less associated with the more-heat-sensitive WGA, but are more associated with less-heat-sensitive lectins like bean concavalin A and potato lectin.

Yes, cartilage destruction is preceded by inflammation. The inflammation is part of the autoimmune process. Inflammation-associated cytokines, usually led by TNF alpha, collect around the lectin attack. Leucocytes follow, and attack the compromised tissue.

I could not fail to notice that you challenged me to prove my case without providing any evidence for your case besides your internet-claimed background. Yes, I'm more than willing to concede that doctors and nurses get trained with the information you are attempting to impart. It's just wrong.

Suppose that the truth is uncertain? Why would you pipe up to say not to try eliminating lectins? "First, do no harm" does not mean, as medical practitioners tend to say "Instead, remove the patient's knee".

http://www.krispin.com/lectin.html