Is Tumeric as effective as 14 medicines?

A friend asked me about an article that was suggesting Tumeric was as effective as 14 medicines. It also made a lot of other claims.

My response:

Stuff like this (and other things claiming such and such an item is 10,000 times stronger than such and such a drug) have circulated the internet for years. It's a bunch of hype. While there is often some grain of truth in the stories, it's surrounded by so much bullshit that it's often hard for most to sort that out.

The article makes an appeal to longevity and ancient wisdom citing Ayurvedic Medicine. Ayurvedic medicine is considered psuedoscientific. It's at least 5000 years old. Of course just because something has been around for a long time doesn't mean it's good. In medicine we have to know if it works. This just does not fit the bill. It is part herbalism and part religion. Some parts of the herbalism do have a bit of medicinal value, but when compared to modern medical practices they fall incredibly short.

It is also prone to contamination. Since you are dealing with herbs, you cannot get the pure substances that are actually medicinal. You end up with a lot of filler material, which is ironic as the article advises to avoid medicine with filler. Ironically a study that looked at ayurvedic medicine sold on the internet contained high levels of lead, mercury and arsenic. ( https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2755247/ )

The article states that Tumeric has some anti-inflammation and anti-biotic properties. This is true. The amount though that you would have to consume would probably be a lot and that can cause some nasty side effects like vomiting, indigestion, liver problems and much more. Also most of the studies have been in vitro (in a petri dish) and in animals. Very few clinical studies on humans have been done. While its properties are interesting and worth looking into, making unsubstantiated claims about its effectiveness is unethical and dangerous in some cases as it can cause some people to believe misleading information and forego live-saving proven treatments.

“According to Ayurveda there are seven layers of tissues: plasma, blood, muscles, fat, bones, nervous tissue and reproductive tissue. Each tissue is nourished in sequential order based on how well food is digested, absorbed and assimilated. If you want the benefits of turmeric to touch all your tissues, a capsule just won’t cut it.”
This is just complete nonsense based on a belief system and not based on fact.

The article also states to make sure your spices are free of chemicals. This is complete idiocy as everything is a chemical! You can't consume chemical-free food. It doesn't exist.
Check out my apple meme from 3 years ago https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151729476902547&set=a.254588942546.149996.581407546&type=3&theater

To find a more indepth look at this article's claim, check out this article by my friend Harriet Hall
https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/turmeric-tasty-in-curry-questionable-as-medicine/