We are having a family dinner tonight. My aunt, cousins, their partners and my cousin’s little boy (an adorable four-year-old who speaks both English and Italian) will be here in about fifteen minutes, and we have been cooking up a storm almost all afternoon. We haven’t seen them since Xmas, it’s one of those things, we all have busy lives etc., so it’s a celebration when we manage to get together all in one place. They actually don’t live too far from here, only about a half hour outside of Florence, in a beautifully-restored former mill built in the Middle Ages. When you think of the Tuscan countryside and have a vision of hills and cypresses and green valleys and bubbling streams, well, that’s the area where my aunt and cousins live. Yep, it’s beautiful out there. I will have to go visit them and take some photos for my blog, even though it’s prettier there in the springtime. Anyway, as a result of this dinner, I have done almost no research today. Tomorrow!
New Generation Curcumin. A myeloma list member brought a new product to my attention, and even though I don’t like to publicize brands, I am curious to know if any of my readers takes it. It is the new Life Extension Foundation Super Bio-Curcumin, and more info can be had here: http://tinyurl.com/2aarkp Here is an excerpt from the LEF web page: The 100% natural curcuminoids complex in Super Bio-Curcumin ® is a patent-pending synergistic blend of curcuminoids and sesquiterpenoids with enhanced bioavailability and sustained retention time in the body confirmed by human clinical studies. Super Bio-Curcumin ® is a ‘next generation’ in delivery of curcumin compounds that no longer requires high doses of curcumin to reach sustainable levels of curcumin in the blood plasma. Each 400 mg capsule of Super Bio-Curcumin ® is equivalent to 2772 mg of a typical 95% curcumin extract. I take 15 capsules of curcumin a day. The new LEF product would cut down that number considerably (where is my calculator when I need it? 😉 ). Wowie zowie. Of course, I now have in my possession enough regular curcumin to last me for one entire year. Typical! Anyway, I thought it was worth mentioning. And I hope this product is the first in a series!
I do not think there is a “New Generation” curcumin that is as good as the old generation. This stuff from LEF is an advertising gimmick, bordering on fraud, in my opinion, because it is not even as effective as the other curcumin that LEF sells, which contains Bioperine. They claim that for their new product #00407 each 400 mg capsule of Super Bio-Curcumin ® is equivalent to 2772 mg of a typical 95% curcumin extract. So it is 6.9 times as effective as “a typical curcumin extract”. Well their old generation Super Curcumin with Bioperine (product #00912) is about 30 times as effective as “a typical curcumin extract”, according to the Bioperine web site which report results of their trials: http://www.bioperine.com/BioWithCur.htm
So LEF introduces the new generation of curcumin and charges $26.25 for a bottle of 60 capsules, 400 mg each, whereas their old generation curcumin with Bioperine they sell 60 capsules, 800 mg each for $15.56. RIPOFF!! 4 times the cost. My prior view of LEF was that they are a reputable outfit. I am rethinking that view.
To me this is not a new generation, this is a new form of rip-off. Until they show me tests that it is superior to their old generation with Bioperine I would keep my money in my pocket. In fact I am writing their president William Faloon to tell him what I think of their sleight of hand.
They identify the product as BCM-95 Bio Curcumin, which are brand names of Dolcas Biotech, LLC, which is a subsidiary of Tishcon Corp, a large corp. which sells other neutriceuticals, in particular CoQ-Gel, which is a bioavailability enhanced Co-Q10. I have always viewed Tishcon as a company that can’t be trusted. But Tishcon was smart enough to find the original BCM-95 that was first brandnamed and developed by Arjuna Natural Extracts Ltd. of Kerala, India. They produce curcumin and many other extracts of plants and sell in bulk. You can get a 25 kg drum of BCM-95 Biocurcumax from them if you want some good, inexpensive curcumin. Maybe we ought to form a buyers coop and buy a drum and split it up among us curcumin users, then add our own Bioperine.
Apparently Tishcon made some deal with Arjuna and use their brand name in U.S. and probably just buy the curcumax powder from Arjuna. Then LEF gets into the act by using the same powder and give it their own brand name and jack up the price. So we see how slippery the neutriceutical companies are. Caveat emptor.
Anyhow, Arjuna did find an original way to improve the bioavailability of curcumin by mixing back a certain amount of turmeric oil into the crystallized curcumin powder and that is what they sell as BCM-95 Curcumax. The oil is normally removed in the solvent extraction process using ethanol or other solvent, which is needed to separate the curcumin itself from the ground and dried curcuma longa root (turmeric). Mother Nature put both the curcumin and turmeric oil in the plant rhizome, so it seems plain turmeric works better than the extracted and crystallized curcumin we buy (the “typical curcumin extract”). But still not as good as when Bioperine is added, apparently. And by the way, Mother Nature also gave us curcumin with the “synergistic blend of curcuminoids and sesquiterpenoids” that LEF claims to give us (see http://pubs.acs.org/cgi-bin/abstract.cgi/jafcau/2005/53/i04/abs/jf0483873.html)
Keep on doing what you are doing Margaret and don’t throw away your stockpile of “old” curcumin.
Wally
Hello Margaret,
I wanted to let you know that curcumin is probably responsible for the miracle turnaround for my cat, Bella. She has Idiopathic Myelofibrosis. She was born behind a gas station. Not too much of a mystery on how she got it. In late winter, she had 2 emergency transfusions and finally, was sent home to die. The last chance was Procrit and her body started rejecting it. Before she rejected it, I was giving her doses of curcumin and she was flourishing. In late July, I took her off the Procrit when her body started the rejection. She worsened to the point where I thought she only had days to live. It took about 3 weeks to rid her of the antibodies. I remembered how curcumin seemed to help her, so I started her on it again. It was a Hail Mary pass. She began to pull out of her anemia as evidenced by her white nose being replaced with a very pink one. It took her to the Vet and he did a PCV blood test. It was a 33%! He was baffled. I had previously given him articles about curcumin, but he had discarded them. He suddenly is very interested now.
My worry is now I am afraid I might be giving Bella to much curcumin. There is a new curcumin gel capsule out there that I plan to start giving her as it supposedly had a greater bioavailability (8x). This way I hope to just give it to her once every 12 hours.
I crossed your site doing research about curcumin. I just wanted to let you know you are doing a great job! While Bella is just a cat, it mean’t a lot to me to see her get better. Being empty nesters probably has something to do with it.
I plan to write up something and put it on a web page and possibly submit a detailed article to a pet magazine.
Thank you,
Vince
Hi Margaret,
It has been a while since I corresponded with you regarding my wife’s MM. You got us started on curcumin and it has been very effective for her. I have just ordered the new curcumin from LE and we will be giving it a try. Will let you know if there are any changes in her numbers.
Ken
Dear Margaret,
I just stumbled across your website – currently researching MGUS and MM for my mother. I realise that you do not usually endorse any particular brand – but I am desperate to find something suitable.
I live in Germany, and therefore ordering anything outside the EU usually requires some form of customs’ clearance. Therefore, I am looking for a source in the EU (I found http://www.docmorris.de (curcumin 650 mg plus 10 mg piperin) – produced by Mercusan).
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
TB