January 8 2008 post. Today the BioCurcumax experiment officially begins. BioCurcumax is, allegedly, a more bioavailable form of curcumin manufactured by an Indian company called Arjuna (you can read a bit more about it on my Bioavailability page). It’s basically curcumin mixed with essential oil of turmeric (curcumin mixed with a fat).
Quercetin capsules with bromelain: 1.5 grams, 10 minutes (if possible) before taking curcumin.
BioCurcumax capsules: 8 grams, divided into two doses, on a empty stomach.
Black cumin oil (nigella sativa): 1 gram total. Taken at same time as two above substances.
Vitamin D drops, cholecalciferol, oil-based preparation: 2000 IU per week, equal to 56 drops of the brand I use (“Dibase”).
A multivitamin on occasion, with mostly B vitamins. In Italian, it’s called “Energistar.” You can read about it here: http://www.stardea.com/8.html (Italian website IN Italian).
Next tests in early March. We shall see!
Update: well, this experiment failed miserably, both for Sherlock and yours truly. I have a detailed update in my March 18th 2008 post. Too bad! I had high hopes for this one…
can you tell me if essential oil of turmeric is toxic on cats? I read that phenols or hydrosols are dangerous to cats, but i do not know wether turmeric essential oil might be harmful to cats. Thanks
The fact that curcumin’s anti-cancer action is dose dependent may explain your negative results with BCM-95.
In-vitro studies have found that at very high doses curcumin may cause DNA damage to normal cells. This raises the risk of cancer.
See http://toxsci.oxfordjournals.org/content/91/2/476.full
Using 8 grams daily of BCM-95, based on absorption studies which show that BCM-95 passes much more efficiently into the blood stream you were then taking the equivalent of about 6 to 7 times your 8 gram dose of C3 complex + piperine. This means you and Sherlock were taking the equivalent of approximately 48 to 56 grams of your usual curcumin extract, a huge dose. No study has ever been done on humans at such a high dose.
A more reasonable level of 2 grams of BCM-95 per day (equivalent to 12 to 14 grams of your usual extract) would very probably not have caused those terrible results.