The Health Benefits of Turmeric - Its Ability to Lower Cholesterol

What if I told you that one of the health benefits of turmeric is its ability to lower cholesterol! If you're not familiar with turmeric, it's a yellow colored powder used as a spice in a variety of foods. But we're not going to talk about cooking, we'll be looking at how turmeric health benefits our cholesterol levels.

Turmeric is actually a perennial plant which belongs to the ginger family. Used for centuries in Chinese medicine to treat: infections, inflammation, various gastrointestinal ailments, and more; however, turmeric (for a long time) has been known for its medicinal properties found in its active ingredient called curcumin. Currently, turmeric is most noted for its antioxidant, anticancer and anti-inflammatory properties, but in this article we'll examine the ability to lower cholesterol as part of the health benefits of turmeric.

How Does Turmeric Lower Cholesterol?

The cholesterol lowering effects of turmeric are the result of its active ingredient curcumin. Research reveals that the curcumin acts as a messaging molecule which communicates with genes in liver cells directing them to increase production of messenger proteins that direct the creation of LDL receptors (bad cholesterol receptors). What does this mean? With more LDL receptors, the liver cells are able to clear more bad cholesterol (LDL) production from the body.

In one study, it was concluded that LDL cholesterol was lowered anywhere "between one-half and one-third of those subjects consuming turmeric" in comparison to those not receiving turmeric.

Here's a practical tip you can use to help increase your liver's ability to clear the bad cholesterol (LDL) -- use turmeric, not just on your fish, meat or lentils, but spice up those healthy vegetables. But, choose turmeric rather than prepared curry blends. Why? Because it was shown in a study that pure turmeric powder had higher concentration of curcumin (averaging 3.14% by weight) as apposed to curry powder which contained very small amounts of curcumin.

So, be sure for the most curcumin use turmeric rather than curry powder.

The are many more health benefits of turmeric not just the ability to lower cholesterol and you don't even have to lace your food with it! The best and most popular way of making sure you're getting the recommended amount of pure turmeric in your diet is in the form of a health supplement.

Saying that, if you are considering turmeric as a healthy alternative to pharmaceutical drugs, just be aware that it's advisable to take turmeric extract as part of a quality multi supplement because the many ingredients work synergistically with each other.

This is the easiest way to include curcumin as part of a diet healthy lifestyle. The health benefits of turmeric are many, so I hope you go do more research on turmeric and supplements that contain turmeric to improve the quality of your health now and to continue living a long, healthy life.

If you would like to learn more about turmeric health benefits and the healthy active supplements, which I personally take, visit my website now.

Zoey Hilton is a dedicated researcher and passionate advocate of nutritional supplements. If you don't know the kind of nutritional supplement you should include as part of your daily health protocol to live a long, healthy life visit http://www.active-supplements.info now to learn about the supplement line Zoey personally recommends.