by Chris Shugart
The Curcumin Connection
Over 17 million Americans suffer from depression and anxiety, and the drugs used to treat them can be harsh. Could this be a natural remedy?
You know what's depressing? Antidepressant drugs. Common side effects include weight gain, sexual dysfunction, sleep disturbance, nausea, and headaches. It's enough to make anyone, well, sad.
In recent years, many researchers have cast doubt on the "chemical imbalance" theory (disturbances in monoaminergic neurotransmission, particularly around serotonin availability). Some have looked into basic nutritional deficiencies. Correct these common deficiencies and maybe all those drugs aren't needed. Or, at the very least, a smaller dose of those drugs may work if diet is in order.
Other researchers looked at all the biological disturbances we now know are associated with depression. These include:
- Dysregulation in the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis
- Activation of immuno-inflammation pathways
- Increased oxidative and nitrosative stress
- Neuroprogression (repeated depressive episodes cause cumulative damage and alterations in brain physiology)
- Mitochondrial dysfunction
Their goal was to find natural compounds that target these same pathways and biological mechanisms. One of those compounds is curcumin (Buy at Amazon).
The Study
Researchers knew from previous studies that curcumin can lower markers of oxidative stress, modulate immuno-inflammation (by acting as a COX-2 inhibitor), lower pro-inflammatory cytokines, provide significant neuroprotection, modulate HPA activity, and influence monoamine transmission through its effect on serotonergic and dopaminergic activity. But they wanted to test it out on people with major depressive disorder.
The scientists recruited 28 men and women suffering from depression (but not suicidal) for the placebo group and 28 for the curcumin group. One group took a 500 mg capsule of curcumin twice daily. The placebo group took capsules containing inert cellulose. The whole process was randomized and double-blinded.
The subjects filled out two different gold-standard questionnaires a few times during the 8-week study: the IDS-SR for assessing depression and the STAI for anxiety.
What Happened?
For the first four weeks, everyone felt less depressed and anxious, even the placebo takers. Then something interesting happened: the curcumin group continued to feel better and had fewer depressive symptoms, but not the placebo group.
In all studies like this, the researchers expect the placebo group to improve in the first couple of weeks. We even have a name for it: the placebo effect. (Creative!) Typically, the placebo effect fades after two weeks.
During weeks four through eight, however, the curcumin users continued to improve. The researchers noted: "Curcumin was significantly more effective in lowering total depressive symptoms, mood/cognitive depressive symptoms, arousal-related symptoms, and trait anxiety."
Here's What You Need to Know
As always, more research is needed and no one is saying to ditch your meds just yet, but the research is promising. Some scientists even posit that curcumin may help prevent the onset of depression and anxiety to begin with, probably due to its anti-inflammatory effects.
One thing the researchers want to look at is the curcumin dosage. As scientists, they can only say that 500 mg taken twice per day worked well, but they'd like to try different dosages.
Hopefully, they'll investigate high-absorption curcumin. In their study, they used generic curcumin because that's all that was available at the time. But now we have micellar curcumin (Buy at Amazon) using solid lipid curcumin particles (95% more bioavailable). While the researchers did use standardized curcumin, lipidized curcumin produces 95 times more free curcumin in the bloodstream than standardized curcumin with piperine. Maybe the results would have been even better with a micellar formula, or maybe they could've used less curcumin and gotten the same results with the micellar form.
Curcumin is mainly known as a natural inflammation fighter and heart-health supplement, but it appears to help with mood disorders. Whatever your reason for taking it, be sure to use the micellar form for the best results.
Reference
- Lopresti, et al. "Curcumin for the treatment of major depression: a randomised, double-blind, placebo controlled study." J Affect Disord. 2014:167:368-75. DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2014.06.001. Epub 2014 Jun 11.
