This Is How Turmeric Helps People With Heart Ailments, Study

There are a plethora of things that one can do to maintain a healthy heart free from diseases, which includes maintaining a healthy weight, morning walks, yoga sessions, and paying close attention to diet, caloric and food intake. These simple measures can help you have a positive effect on your heart. There is a list of certain foods that one must include in their diet to ensure smooth and healthy functioning of their heart, and one of the foods from that list is turmeric. The ancient Indian spice is gaining quite some attention across the world and there are reasons aplenty. Why turmeric, you ask? It is because of the presence of curcumin in turmeric. Turmeric is one of the most ancient spices hailing from Indian subcontinent. According to the study published in the Journal of Applied Physiology, curcumin - the active compound in turmeric - may repair exercise intolerance faced by patients with heart failure. People with heart failure have a reduced function of the left ventricle - the chamber of the heart that pumps blood out to the rest of the body - called reduced ejection fraction. This is linked to decreased ability to exercise.

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The findings showed that curcumin treatment improved muscle function and exercise capacity in mice with heart failure. Curcumin, a chemical that comes from the turmeric plant, has been used as a traditional Asian medicine for centuries, primarily to treat gastrointestinal ailments and skin wounds. Researchers from the University of Nebraska in the US, theorised that a reduction in the normal signalling of a protein Nrf2 may play a role in the impaired expression of antioxidant enzymes. The antioxidant enzymes both prevent and repair damage from oxidative stress as well as improve exercise performance.

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For the study, the team gave one group of mice with heart failure daily doses of curcumin, which is known to promote activation of Nrf2, for 12 weeks, while another group did not receive treatment. The results showed that the expression of Nrf2 increased and levels of antioxidant enzymes improved in the animals with heart failure that were given curcumin. In addition, both groups that received curcumin - even the animals without heart failure - had improved exercise capacity when compared with the untreated groups.

"This data suggests that activation of Nrf2 in skeletal muscle may represent a novel therapeutic strategy to improve ... quality of life" in people with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction, the researchers noted.

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It is always advisable to consult your doctor before making any drastic changes in your diet. Do check for allergies before you make turmeric a common affair in your daily diet.

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