Is it safe to take Curcumin during a flare?

Yes, it is definitely safe to take during a flare. Whether it helps or not is another question. You are correct that the study only seemed to be done for people who were already in remission. I don't know why there is not a study for those while flaring but it is safe to take during a flare. Most people on here who have success with it take an extremely high dose of around 4-6 grams per day,sometimes more.

Actually, I have been amazed at all the legitimate scientific studies that have been done on alternative supplements in regards to UC. To be honest, I'm not much of a believer in hyped up alternatives marketed by the supplement companies who are trying to sell their stuff to the anti big pharma people. I think with many diseases these people are preying on the chronically ill to line their own pockets and most of them don't work. But, there have been a number of these legitimate studies in regards to UC. I don't know why that is, maybe because there are several that actually do work for UC. Has your partner been taking any high dose probiotics, like 50 billion or more CFU's per day? Also, by the way, I took a product called Inflaguard once which had both Boswellia and Curcumin in it plus one other ingredient. It didn't seem to help me much but I didn't take it at the megadoses that some on here claim to have success with.

As you said it has never been tested to see if it will induce remission. It is a blood thinner..maybe that's bad.

"It is arguably one of the most studied agents in medicine,"

Ridiculous.

It showed some promise in test tubes on UC and cancer. No preliminary clinical trials have shown a positive outcome for any medical problem. Some creditable people think it might be promising hypothetically.Clinical trials were on the way then nothing. Every vitamin peddler on the planet thinks it is great. It is depressing but there is sort of a pattern of preliminary lab work for supplements/vitamins that look great then nothing panning out.

I took it for years. Nothing bad happened. I did pretty well but I was on RX drugs and doing a bunch of other stuff. I stopped and nothing happened. I don't think it will harm him to try but unlike tumeric, it hasn't been consumed for years by millions.It is mostly used as a dye. Might work. I am sticking to healthy eating, probiotic foods and RX drugs as long as they work.

I wouldn't expect any supplement or diet change to work quickly or dramatically. Most people seem to expect results in weeks. Not going to happen.

Curcumin got me out of a moderately severe flare. I'd been taking 2 or 3 grams a day. When I bumped up to 6 grams per day, my symptoms improved significantly within a week.

That, hydrocortisone enemas, and 5 tbsps per day of Bob's Red Mill potato starch - a source of resistant starch- got me off 40 mg of Pred. in less than 40 days.

Even my GI was convinced the curcumin worked.

Of course, everyone is different so what worked for me may not work for others.

Your partner should start with one or two capsules to make sure curcumin agrees with him. That's true for anything you take to fight UC.

I take Doctor's Best brand exclusively. I tried Vitacost's brand and don't think it worked as well.

Good luck.

I'd been flaring for 6 weeks when I decided to increase the dosage based on what I read on this site: 1) a person's success at 12 grams per day and, 2) a research article posted here (can't find it!) that gave a formula for curcumin dose based on weight. It's an article in a journal I'd never heard of with authors from India, I think.

For what it's worth, I weigh 150 lbs.

Yes, I'd been taking 2-3 grams per day for about a year before the flare. That dose had helped me recover from a previous flare but it took me 7 months to get off the Pred. I was much sicker, and hospitalized, with that flare.

Good luck!

AZYooper said...
As you said it has never been tested to see if it will induce remission. It is a blood thinner..maybe that's bad.

"It is arguably one of the most studied agents in medicine,"

Ridiculous.

It showed some promise in test tubes on UC and cancer. No preliminary clinical trials have shown a positive outcome for any medical problem. Some creditable people think it might be promising hypothetically.Clinical trials were on the way then nothing. Every vitamin peddler on the planet thinks it is great. It is depressing but there is sort of a pattern of preliminary lab work for supplements/vitamins that look great then nothing panning out.

I took it for years. Nothing bad happened. I did pretty well but I was on RX drugs and doing a bunch of other stuff. I stopped and nothing happened. I don't think it will harm him to try but unlike tumeric, it hasn't been consumed for years by millions.It is mostly used as a dye. Might work. I am sticking to healthy eating, probiotic foods and RX drugs as long as they work.

I wouldn't expect any supplement or diet change to work quickly or dramatically. Most people seem to expect results in weeks. Not going to happen.

I was going to ignore this post, but you clearly did not go through the human effect matrix in that examine link. The trial data is all there in the scientific consensus column. The double blinded clinical trials showed curcumin benefiting everything from osteoarithritis to IBD.

Here's what you will be able to pull up for ulcerative colitis. It is found by clicking on the studies link in the inflammation row:

Curcumin maintenance therapy for ulcerative colitis: randomized, multicenter, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial

Notes for this Study:
Curcumin, at a dose of 2g daily (split into two doses of 1g with meals) was used in conjunction with standard UC treatment (sulfasalazine or mesalamine) whereas the placebo group just had standard UC treatment.

There were significantly less replases in the curcumin group compared against placebo (2 vs. 8); however, 6 months after therapy ended the differences seen were not different (suggesting acute benefit, not long term curing)

Activity was improved as well as the endoscopic index.

And I agree with just taking turmeric and find it works better than curcumin. Still, I will not deny the benefit of curcumin, especially when the evidence is overwhelming.