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Disclaimer…
I am not a doctor, have no formal medical training, and I am not intending
to give any advice here; it's merely an opinion of a laymen individual.
The research and information referenced here is open to public
domain. I am not liable, either expressly or in an implied manner,
nor claim any responsibility for any emotional or physical problems that
may occur directly or indirectly from reading this page. Consult
your healthcare practitioner before taking any medication or health
supplements.
Background
On July 10, 2011, I noticed some inflammation around me left knee. The previous day I had been out in the mountains doing some climbing and sustained what I think was the reinjury of a hamstring that was initially torn at the end of 2007.
When I first injured it in 2007, I went on a prescribed round of NSAIDS
(Naproxen) to deal with the inflammation. Although they helped, they had the side-effect of causing me serious stomach problems, despite taking them with
food, and I had to quit even though the inflammation still remained. In searching for an alternative I came across AOR’s Curcumin 95, which I took until the inflammation completely cleared
up - and truly left me nothing short of amazed.
So when I was faced with the new injury in 2011 and no improvement in the level of inflammation after thirty-four days
- in fact, it had been progressively worsening - I decided to try AOR’s Curcumin Active with Longvida® to
try and deal with it.
If you study curcumin, you'll know that
it suffers from poor bio-availability. They claim that Curcumin Active
formulation is at least twelve-times more bio-available than the older
formulation which I took previously. Check out their website for more
details,
AOR’s Curcumin Active
webpage, as well as the links I've provided at the end of this page.
Notes and Measuring the Results
My dose of Curcumin Active was two pills per day, one at 8am and one at 8pm, without food.
This dosage is much lower than the recommended dose. I arrived at it by
reading the research behind the formulation of curcumin contained in the
product as applied to inflammation referenced in the background section
above.
A couple things to note about measuring the results:
I tried to figure out how to objectively measure progress, like by measuring my knee size, but these all proved far too difficult to be of any use.
I realized that the best measure, although arguably quite subjective, was the flexibility of the knee and it’s “feel” (tightness when attempting to bend it and how it is inhibiting your normal stride when trying to walk) – after having inflammation for a few months, you get really tuned-in to the volume of inflammation present and how it’s changing day to day.
Visible changes were only useful in seeing the major improvements and really undetectable in the shorter term. Even with noticeable improvements in the “feel” and mechanics of the knee, visible change was usually quite minimal.
The Results
For the first ten days, I didn’t notice any improvement. However, it's
noteworthy that the day before I began the Curcumin Active, I also started mild exercise of the hamstring as well as some light cardio on the Elliptical for physiotherapy. I suspect that this was triggering more inflammation. In fact, on the 9th day the tightness of the knee from the volume of inflammation seemed to be near its worst
ever since the initial injury.
However, on the morning of the 11th day of taking Curcumin Active, there was a noticeable improvement. The knee felt more flexible and although there was only minimal visible reduction in inflammation, it felt much less tight. It had not felt that good in a month.
To my relief, this improvement remained into the coming days but it once again seemed to have plateaued at that level with little further reduction in inflammation, although I did feel the knee getting progressively stronger as I continued on with my physiotherapy.
Then on the 23rd day of taking Curcumin Active, I once again awoke to a very noticeable improvement in the inflammation level. Although there was little visible change, I could bend the knee noticeably further and there was less tightness.
On the 27th day I felt that I could bend the knee full, even though there
was still tightness. I still could not fully straighten the leg enough to
solidly engage my quadriceps.
For the next two weeks, I
once again felt that things had plateaued, but by day 42 (August 22, 2011)
I felt that I'd
once again reached a new level of rehabilitation. I could straighten the
leg near completely allowing me to fully engage my quadriceps and also
bend it fully, however there was still a feeling of tightness due to
inflammation when in these positions. The inflammation was also still
visible, but I could visually see that it was improving. I was walking
with a normal gait and no longer limping.
Conclusion
Although this was far from a scientific experiment, I can say the following:
Just as with NSAIDS, there was reduction of inflammation while taking
AOR's Curcumin Active (and AOR’s Curcumin 95, previously).
It did take some time after
beginning Curcumin Active before there was any detectable improvement (in
this case, I felt it was about eleven days). So the claim on the box for
"Fast Relief" was a bit over-stated in my case, but to be fair
the dosage listed on the box is nine capsules per day when my dose was
only two pills per day - which has been experimentally shown to provide a
level of curcumin that begins to be effective. One can only wonder if
increasing dose to three capsules (delivering the upper range suggested by
the study) might have provided speedier relief?
While NSAIDS had the side-effect of creating serious stomach issues, with
curcumin there were no detectable side effects related to the stomach or otherwise.
Now, some might pose the
theory that the reduction in inflammation was simply due to natural
healing. Of course, this is tough to refute completely, how do we know?
But we must consider that this statement could be made if one was taking
an alternate therapy, such as NSAIDs, as well, right? It's certainly all
very hard to measure.
I think another of the best
indicators I can go by in this case is by asking the questions:
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If
I was faced with a similar situation in the future, do I feel that I would
once again
reach for Curcumin Active?
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With
how much conviction do I give the above answer?
My
answers: Yes. Absolutely.
I strongly feel that curcumin has been of tremendous benefit to me: I
healed - and without creating other health problems for myself due to side-effects.
I think it’s extremely unfortunate that
curcumin is not a well-known alternative to NSAIDs. Perhaps with this latest formulation
of Longvida® made available through AOR’s Curcumin Active that will finally change for the better.
If you have experience with Curcumin Active or other product containing
Longvida®, please share your experience in the comments section below.
Interesting links:
Research
at UCLA
Longvida®
(the active ingredient in AOR's Curcumin Active product)
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