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Curry Spice and Skin Cancer

By Henry J. Fishman, M.D.
ConsumerAffairs.com

July 30, 2005

Dr. Henry Fishman • New This Week • Previous Topics • About Henry Fishman • Radio Features

Holy holistic! Curcumin, the yellow pigment found in the spice tumeric kills melanoma cells in the laboratory, according to an article published in the journal Cancer.

Melanomas as you probably know, are the deadliest and toughest to treat skin cancers. Apparently curcumin may help fight them.

Researchers looked at how the chemical affected three different cell lines of melanoma. They studied different dose durations of treatment to see what worked the best.

The curry spice killed cancer cells and stopped the growth of all cell lines, though a few cancer cells did survive.

The higher the dose and the longer the treatment the better it worked. Now, this is good news because other than cutting them out, we don't have much in the way of melanoma therapy.

Although curcumin needs a lot more research, it could someday be turned into a potent treatment for melanoma. Since it has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties it could fight other illnesses as well.

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