Natural Pesticide Defense
Certain pesticides wreak havoc on your physical, mental, and reproductive health. Here's how to fight back.
If we could only choose one natural compound for overall body and brain health, it would be curcumin. Hardly a week goes by without new research revealing how this polyphenolic molecule boosts health, performance, or longevity.
That makes sense. Curcumin, if you can absorb enough of it, is a potent anti-inflammatory and antioxidant, and just about everything that wrecks your body and brain is related to inflammation. Now, a new study shows that micellar curcumin (Buy at Amazon) also combats the nasty effects of pesticides.
The Study
Chlorpyrifos is an organophosphorus pesticide known to cause toxicity in the reproductive system by inducing oxidative stress and inflammation. And it's still being used on 11 crops in parts of the US.
In this study, researchers exposed female rats to chlorpyrifos, then gave them plain curcumin, micellar curcumin, or a placebo for 30 days. After the treatment period, brain, ovary, and uterus tissues were collected to measure the destruction.
In a nutshell, the rats receiving the placebo suffered all the ill effects of the pesticide: damage in the uterus, ovary, and brain, characterized by increased oxidative markers and inflammatory responses. Both standard and micellar curcumin reduced this damage. However, micellar curcumin outperformed ordinary curcumin, demonstrating significantly greater reductions in oxidative damage and inflammatory markers across all tested tissues.
The researchers concluded that micellar curcumin could be used as a therapeutic agent for mitigating and counteracting pesticide-related harm.
How to Use This Info
It's tough to avoid pesticides. Sure, you can buy only organic foods, but pesticides are still used on lawns, golf courses, and even clothing materials like cotton. Taking micellar curcumin counteracts pesticide damage and, of course, has a host of other benefits, from body composition improvement to athletic performance.
Why micellar? It's the kind you absorb. It's at least 95 times more bioavailable than curcumin with piperine, and 185 times more bioavailable than native curcumin (plain turmeric products). Biotest Micellar Curcumin (Buy at Amazon) contains 400 mg of micellar curcumin per capsule.
Reference
- Nazarian M, et al. Protective Effects of Curcumin and Nanomicelle Curcumin on Chlorpyrifos-induced Oxidative Damage and Inflammation in the Uterus, Ovary and Brain of Rats. Curr Pharm Biotechnol. 2025;26(4):490-496. PMID: 38561608.