A magazine assignment and a minor injury are colliding this week.
I’m writing about natural remedies while hobbling around as the result of tendinitis (self-diagnosed) in my right foot. I’m not a doctor but I play one on my laptop.
A source for the story suggested using turmeric to help with inflammation. Separately, a friend told me about the many supposed powers of the spice made from the turmeric root so I bought a small container to try it.
Turmeric is a relative of ginger and is found in curry dishes and mustard. It’s been used for thousands of years but of course the people who study such things haven’t decided yet whether it’s perfectly fine or not.
The University of Maryland Medical Center website says this: “Studies show that turmeric may help fight infections and some cancers, reduce inflammation, and treat digestive problems, and it has gotten a lot of press lately.”
Have y’all ever tried the turmeric cure? We’d love to hear from you.
Sorry, doll. This is one crazy thing I haven’t tried. But think of it this way, if it’s good for countless food applications, it couldn’t be bad to just take it…though I’d do it on a full stomach so as not to invite bounce-back. If you feel better, it might be you discover a new weapon in the arsenal against inflammation. Always a good thing.
I have tried it on my son and I keep it around because it works. He was the 2nd worse case of Eczema that his pediatrician had, from the time he was almost a year old. We tried every steroid prescription cream and ointment you can imagine just trying to control it and keep him from scarring. Like you, I did internet research trying to find anything that might help. He was 4 years old when I started dumping Turmeric in his bath water (it temporarily turns the tub yellow, but it will bleach out). Within minutes, he was no longer scratching and digging into his skin. (Just lukewarm bathwater was enough to irritate the rashes and incite the clawing.)
After a while, I noticed that the Eczema was clearing up and by the time he was 5 we had little to no flare-ups. Eczema runs in both sides of our families, and no one ever “out grew” it. I told his pediatrician about it, and while we can never prove that it was definitely the Turmeric, the coincidence is hard to deny. He said to use it if I feel that it’s working. He confirmed that it’s long been understood that it has natural anti-inflammatory properties.
I was just diagnosed with tendinitis in my elbow. I never thought to try it, but you can bet I will now.
Btw, he’s almost 10 now, and we still rarely have flareups. When we do, I use it and it clears up nicely.