Hehe, I love it. Curcumin, the disciplinarian! According to yesterday’s Science Daily newsletter (see http://tinyurl.com/cgxhcp), a recent study shows how curcumin actually works inside the body, at the cell membrane level. Extraordinary. Curcumin actually gets inside our cell membranes, making them more orderly, thus improving the cells’ resistance to infection and malignancy. It acts like a disciplinarian: “behave or else…!!!”

My favourite quote from the article: The [cell] membrane goes from being crazy and floppy to being more disciplined and ordered, so that information flow through it can be controlled […]. Amazing, huh? 

Interesting titbit: the lead scientist in this project, Prof. Ramamoorthy, As a child in India, […] was given turmeric-laced milk to drink when he had a cold, and […] breathed steam infused with turmeric to relieve congestion.

I asked Sherlock if she could get her hands on the full study, but a quick glance at the abstract (http://tinyurl.com/atknp7) tells me that it may be way over my head. I will give it a whirl, though. One important excerpt from the abstract: curcumin has a strong effect on membrane structure at low concentrations. At low concentrations…hmmm, this might help explain a few things…