Skip to main content

Turmeric May Protect Your Eyesight

We are all familiar with the golden yellow spice called turmeric (haldi), which is  used in everyday cooking by almost all families in India. It's for sure a  miracle healer from the kitchen.

Turmeric is used in a wide variety of therapeutic preparations for both prevention and treatment of many ailments.The presence of an active substance called curcumin in turmeric imparts it with several medicinal properties.

For instance, there is this Turmeric Milk / Turmeric Latte or the quintessential Haldi Doodh that is used as a remedy for sore throat, colds and coughs and is known to most people all over India.

Turmeric milk is a highly potent beverage and its efficacy is unmatchable to OTC medicines for the same ailments.   Do check for more medicinal uses and home remedies with turmeric in this post.

Turmeric, with its antiseptic and antibacterial properties is widely used in skin care, to treat acne, hyperpigmentation etc. Read all about it in Turmeric as a beauty aid.

Turmeric Extract May Protect Your Eyesight

 

New research says that turmeric could offer hope for millions of people battling the common eye condition glaucoma.

Glaucoma is a complex disease in which damage to the optic nerve leads to progressive, irreversible vision loss. It  is the second leading cause of blindness.and mainly involves the loss of retinal ganglion cells, located near the surface of the retina.

Stopping the loss of these cells early on has not yet been achieved, so it is a key focus of glaucoma research. The condition strikes 60 million people across the world, estimates suggest, and is most prevalent among the elderly.

Most people with glaucoma have no early symptoms or pain. That's why it's necessary to see your ophthalmologist regularly so he / she can diagnose and treat glaucoma before long-term visual loss happens.[Source]

Curcumin Eye Drops For Glaucoma

 

Turmeric May Protect Your Eyesight

 


The new study has found that a derivative of turmeric used in curry - curcumin - can be used  in eye drops to halt vision loss effectively. The chief ingredient in turmeric administered as eye drops actually helps in early stages of glaucoma. Now isn't that great news!

Excerpts:
Evidence already exists to show curcumin can protect retinal ganglion cells from dying off, when taken as a tablet.

But the compound has poor solubility, meaning it does not dissolve easily and can take a long time to enter the bloodstream.

The new British study delved in to other ways of delivering curcumin, in hope of finding a more reliable method.
They claim their findings, based on human cells and rats, pave the way for a more reliable method to deliver curcumin to patients.

Eye drops are the main treatment for glaucoma, according to the NHS. They all work by reducing the build-up of pressure in patients' eyes.

Delivering curcumin as eye drops increases the compound's solubility factor by almost 400,000 times.
And it localises the curcumin in the eyes instead of throughout the body, meaning it can get to work almost immediately.

Professor Francesca Cordeiro, who led the study, described curcumin as an 'exciting' compound.

The study was first conducted on retinal ganglion cells in the lab, before moving onto testing the eye drops in rats.

Rodents given the eye drops twice daily for three weeks had much lower levels of retinal ganglion cell loss than their counterparts.

No side effects, including irritation or inflammation, were noted by the team of researchers.

Having found an effective way to deliver curcumin, the researchers are hopeful that it could also be used to diagnose Alzheimer's disease, as curcumin is known to bind to the amyloid beta protein deposits implicated in Alzheimer's, and can be detected in the retina with fluorescence to highlight the malignant proteins.


So besides its role in preventing Alzheimer's disease and certain tumours, turmeric has also proved to be beneficial for eye health. It's indeed a wonder spice with its excellent healing capabilities.

No wonder, our ancients had advised us to use it in curries and other gravies on a regular basis.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Highly Effective Indian Home remedies For Delayed Periods

Delayed periods or Irregular menstrual periods have become very common these days for a lot of women in their reproductive age and they suffer great agonies when their period does not come on time. A delay of 4-5 days may be fine but if it exceeds 8 days, then it's certainly a cause for concern. In this post, I'll be sharing highly effective Indian home remedies for your delayed periods . I'd been a long sufferer of irregular periods during my teenage to early twenties. I've tried most of the recipes here, along with Kapalabhati pranayama, yoga poses, mudras and other lifestyle habits. Now my periods are extremely regular like clockwork; not a day less or more than 28. When I look back, I'm surprised how I managed those years of anxiety and fear about my late periods. 

11 things you can do with olive oil

Besides lemon , milk , sugar , aloe , turmeric , sandalwood and honey , olive oil is another household item that has multifarious uses as a beauty aid. It is a mild, non-irritant, antibacterial oil that is rich in antioxidants; hence is ideal for the skin. Here are a few things that you could do with olive oil .

Home remedies for sleeplessness

The day dawns beautifully for those who have had a night of good sleep. But the same day drags on for those who have spent a disturbing, sleepless night. Sleep is a biological necessity even as eating and drinking are. Sufficient sleep renders a person normally sociable, lively and high-spirited. It’s a nature’s way of rejuvenating the person for the next day. Realize all this, and make sleep a physiological habit. The consequences of long time sleep deprivation can be very grave. Lack of sleep takes its toll on the skin and hair. It causes acne-breakouts and makes one look aged and haggard beyond years. Experts opine that during sleep as our metabolic rate falls, blood goes to those areas which need the most repairing. This also steps up the production of collagen and keratin, which aid the regeneration of skin cells and help resist premature ageing. So for a younger looking and a problem free skin you need to have a good quality of sleep every night.

Get rid of head lice with these home remedies

Lice infestation is such a bothersome, distracting and embarrassing problem. Surely everyone harbors them at one time or the other. It is usually common among school children but soon spreads to other members of the family. Contrary to popular belief, it is not a sign of poor hygiene, as lice are not fussy whether they lay their eggs in clean or dirty hair. But yes, a dirty scalp can well serve as a perfect breeding ground for these tiresome creatures. Lice get transferred easily from child to child owing to the close contact of heads, during play, while sitting together or by sharing caps. Though there are many chemical and herbal over-the-counter preparations to remove lice, it is better to refrain from using them for they might also remove a good bit of your hair, while others could have a drying effect on the hair.  There are many home-remedies which do work well but the age-old method of regular combing with a close-toothed comb on all counts, is the most eff...

Kapalabhati Pranayam for wrinkle-free, radiant complexion

Did you know that Kapalabhati Pranayam / kriya can also be used to enhance your beauty and ward off skin aging? Done the right way,  Kapalabhati Pranayam can be used as a beauty aid - it can give you a wrinkle-free, luminous forehead and radiant complexion. Kapalabhati For Beauty   ‘Kapalabhati’ Pranayam breathing exercise is an excellent way of maintaining good health and fighting diseases. ‘Kapala’ means ‘skull’ (and ‘forehead’ also) and ‘bhati’ means ‘shining’. By doing kapalabhati, the ‘nadis’(nerves) of the brain get good exercise. This is achieved by exercising the diaphragm. There will be a glow on the forehead. After the age of 25, the tell-tale signs of ageing start making their appearance in the form of fine lines on the forehead. A regular practice of Kapalabhati for 10-15 minutes everyday will give you a tight forehead sans wrinkles for many years to come. Avoid Botox, try Kapalabhati Why resort to Botox   and other expensive chemical or surgica...