A recent study has discovered that Turmeric has been found to be an effective treatment for treating excessive stomach acid and general indigestion symptoms.
What is Turmeric / Curcumin?
Curcumin is a naturally occurring compound that is the active ingredient in Turmeric. It has long been used to treat indigestion in southeast Asia, but is has not been clear how it compares to conventional treatment until now. This is largely because there have been no comparable studies conducted until this multi-site double blind, placebo-controlled trial in Thailand.
The trial
The trial involved 206 patients, aged between 18 and 70 years, who were randomly assigned to one of three groups
🔶 Omeprazole (conventional treatment)
🔶 Curcumin
🔶 Omeprazole plus curcumin
The results showed that the curcumin group had a similar beneficial outcome to the omeprazole group.
All the patients in the three groups had comparable Severity of Dyspepsia Assessment (SODA) scores at the start of the trial. These scores were measured again on days 28 and 56. Researchers found that significant improvements were found in all three groups, and that curcumin was safe and well tolerated.
Omeprazole belongs to a group of medicines known as proton pump inhibitors (PPI’s), which are used to treat heartburn and dyspepsia. These medicines are widely prescribed and can be purchased from pharmacies. Long term use of PPI’s has been associated with an increased risk of fractures and reduced bone mineral density, gut infections, and vitamin B12 deficiency.
Although the study was relatively small, it has highlighted a potential option in the treatment and management of dyspepsia, without the long-term use side effects of PPI’s.
Reference:
https://ebm.bmj.com/content/early/2023/07/26/bmjebm-2022-112231
