Dear Friends,
Curcumin can be a confusing topic because of the many forms claiming to be the best, and how it differs from turmeric.
Today we’re going to quickly review what curcumin is, why it’s valuable as a supplement, and discuss why we think BCM-95 is the best curcumin to take.
You may be familiar with the bright yellow turmeric spice, which is from the root, or more accurately, the rhizome of a plant in the ginger family.
In addition to being a popular culinary spice, turmeric has been used for centuries in traditional medicine in India and Eastern Asia.
Turmeric has many nutritional compounds along with essential oils that can help our bodies.
Scientists believe the strongest of these compounds (with the most bioactivity) are 3 polyphenols that give turmeric its rich yellow color.
These 3 compounds are curcuminoids, which are collectively referred to as curcumin.
What Does Curcumin Do?
Curcumin works in the body through several mechanisms, with the most important being how it supports a healthy inflammation response.
This is its main property – and a very important one.
Maintaining a healthy inflammation response is often associated with joint health, but it pretty much impacts all the key functions and systems in our body as we age, which is why many consider curcumin such a valuable supplement.
Although curcumin was first isolated from turmeric over 200 years ago in 1815, it’s only in the last 30 years or so, that research with curcumin as a dietary supplement has taken off.
Since turmeric only contains about 5% of the powerful curcumin compounds, the thought was that if it’s isolated, and made into a supplement, it would be an easier and more convenient way to ingest meaningful amounts of curcumin.
Well, sometimes we forget how smart Mother Nature is at designing plants.
The Curcumin Absorption Challenge
It turns out when you strip curcumin from turmeric, our bodies don’t digest it as well and the rate of absorption and bioavailability goes way down.
So you’re paying for and taking all of this curcumin, but only a small fraction is making it into the bloodstream, where we need it.
This was the catalyst for what a friend of mine coined the “curcumin wars” as numerous companies rushed to develop delivery systems to enhance curcumin absorption.
The cleanest, and in our view the best solution, came from the makers of BCM-95, which is made by a company called Arjuna Natural.
They discovered that by reuniting curcumin with essential oil from turmeric (called AR-turmerone), the absorption of curcumin increased as much as 700%, on average.
I believe one study found it took about 2,500mg of regular curcumin to reach the same blood levels from just 400mg of BCM-95 – which is quite an improvement.
And the beauty of this approach is everything is from the turmeric plant – you’re not introducing outside additives or bio-enhancers, which may have drawbacks.
By using just curcumin and essential oils from turmeric, it’s as clean and natural as you can get, in our opinion.
BCM-95 has over 50 patents worldwide to protect this innovation. This means other curcumin suppliers had to find a different method.
How Does BCM-95 Stack Up to Curcumin with Black Pepper Extract?
You may be familiar with another way of enhancing curcumin absorption using black pepper extract (piperine).
The purpose today is not to bash black pepper extract as a bio-enhancer, but something to be aware of is it can also affect the metabolism of medications and other supplement ingredients you ingest – speeding up or decreasing absorption.
This concern becomes magnified if you’re taking multiple products with black pepper extract, so it’s something we urge folks to consider.
Since head-to-head testing indicates BCM-95 appears to be absorbed better than curcumin with piperine, to us it makes sense to eliminate this concern altogether and just use the all-turmeric approach of BCM-95.
It’s also noteworthy that BCM-95 was the first, and perhaps still the only enhanced curcumin to go through comprehensive safety and toxicology testing, the results of which were published in the journal Molecular Medicine Reports.
Also important, BCM-95 has been the subject of over 90 studies and research papers examining potential benefits, as well as safety. This is more than any other enhanced curcumin ingredient – and the library of published research grows each year.
Quality Starts on the Farm
As you can see, the makers of BCM-95, have invested a lot to make it the premium choice for curcumin supplements, and this quality commitment starts with how they source the turmeric and extract the curcumin.
The ideal conditions for growing turmeric is a frost free climate that gets plenty of rain, but in soil that drains rapidly.
You’ll find these conditions in Northeast India – which is why this region is known for producing the finest turmeric plants. The turmeric for BCM-95 comes from this region.
Since turmeric is such an important crop to the region, the locals use eco-friendly and sustainable practices, which they’ve been using for many generations. The local farmers are very careful about the organic farming techniques they use.
You won’t find pesticides or harsh chemical fertilizers on the farms used to make BCM-95. Instead, they strictly use natural fertilizers like animal manure and repurposed turmeric roots, rhizomes and leaves.
And most of this work is done by hand with little machinery.
Arjuna, the maker of BCM-95, is committed to paying these farmers reasonable, competitive prices for the crops.
We’re sometimes asked why BCM-95 isn’t certified organic, and the reality is it would be very hard and financially challenging to ask all these small farms to get USDA Certified organic certification, even though they do all the right things and use organic practices.
Extremely Low Heavy Metal Levels
To illustrate the purity of the BCM-95 powder, consider the extremely low heavy metal content.
The lead and heavy metal content of curcumin and other herbal ingredients is a concern for many consumers and rightly so.
Each batch of BCM-95 is tested for heavy metals using lab equipment that can detect even minute quantities of heavy metal substances like lead, arsenic, cadmium, and mercury.
Typically, the levels of these substances in BCM-95 is so low they are barely detectable by this sophisticated equipment. Another plus for using BCM-95.
In my next letter, I’ll review some of the key scientific findings from the research with BCM-95, and the benefits you may experience from using the BCM-95.
To find more in the meantime, you can check out our TrueCurcumin product page.
TrueCurcumin has been made with BCM-95 since we first introduced TrueCurcumin about 16 years ago.
Yours for Good Health,
Carl Pradelli
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