New Case Study Links Turmeric to Liver Disease

[danieltx]

**broken link removed**

Article has a lot more general turmeric info, I'm only sharing the case study part here:

It’s easy to assume that turmeric, like many herbal supplements, is pretty harmless. But according to a new case report, it may have some unexpected effects on your body—especially your liver.

The report, published earlier this month in BMJ Case Reports, details how a 71-year-old woman developed autoimmune hepatitis (i.e. liver disease) after taking turmeric supplements for her heart health.

Eight months after she began taking the supplements, a blood test revealed that she had elevated levels of liver enzymes, which usually suggest that there’s a problem with the liver. She was diagnosed with autoimmune hepatitis, a condition indicating that the liver is inflamed, but her doctors didn’t know what was causing it.

They monitored her for three months before she told her doctor that she stopped taking turmeric supplements after reading online that they could cause liver problems. (She didn’t tell her doctors about the supplements before this point, the report says.) After she stopped the supplements, her liver enzymes went down, suggesting the supplements were to blame.

“Since the symptoms began with start of turmeric and ended when turmeric stopped, with all other medications being unchanged, it is pretty clearly related to the use of turmeric,” report co-author Janet Funk, M.D., a professor at The University of Arizona, tells SELF.

“Also, when we actually looked at the damaged liver tissue, we could see something in the damaged areas that looked like turmeric," she says, "although we could not prove this with absolute certainty.” Curcumin, the active ingredient in turmeric supplements, is fluorescent, she explains, and inflammatory cells in the woman's liver biopsy that digest foreign material "contained fluorescent material with fluorescent properties consistent with curcumin."

 

[little slice]

POST HOC, ERGO PROPTER HOC

 

[LK3]

well that was one of the most conclusive and concise studies to date! holey shit!

wow!

 

[little slice]

next it will be


'woman blames liver cancer on substance that she took about 40 years ago...


..but she doesn't remember what it was, where she took it, or why she took it... but expects to be believed, and expects there to be massive investment into investigative research surrounding the mysterious compound - which she isn't sure actually exists. '

 

[MyNameIsJeff]

REMINDER: 83% of M.D.s are functionally retarded.

 

[machinemind]

Case Studies are n=1, not much power

 

[liv2pb]

I recently did a case study on little slice and concluded that he was indeed a feminist. Maybe this turmeric study does have some merit.

 

[aphextwin]

Wow- I'm throwing away all my Turmeric....LOL

 

[buck]

I have been taking turmeric for years and my liver enzyme levels are in the same range as they were before I started taking turmeric. The article brings up more questions then answers for me.

 

[Reload]

I recently did a case study on little slice and concluded that he was indeed a feminist.

More like an angry gay feminist.

 

[Leggo my Ego]

next it will be


'woman blames liver cancer on substance that she took about 40 years ago...


..but she doesn't remember what it was, where she took it, or why she took it... but expects to be believed, and expects there to be massive investment into investigative research surrounding the mysterious compound - which she isn't sure actually exists. '

LOL!!!!!! Awesome.

 

[machinemind]

I have been taking turmeric for years and my liver enzyme levels are in the same range as they were before I started taking turmeric. The article brings up more questions then answers for me.

The answer is "a genetic unicorn"

 

[johnjuanb1]

So this must mean everyone in India has liver disease.