Yesterday I had my follow-up appointment with Erin. As I’ve said before, Erin is a Nurse Practitioner. She can do pretty much anything an MD can do, but is nicer. So anyway, I’m just going to refer to her as my doctor.

I expected that this post would be about the questions and answers around going on Humira and that was mostly what my appointment was about. Erin was great at explaining how Humira works on Crohn’s and answering my questions about side effects, costs and alternative treatment approaches. But there was one small detail that stood out for me. When I asked her about diet she mentioned that turmeric had been shown to be an effective anti-inflammatory agent.

“What?!?” This took me aback because she has been very much toeing the party line of western medicine. She’s given me straight answers about the body of research around Crohn’s and the treatments for it. So if she would even mention something that you can buy in the health supplement section of HyVee, there must be something to it.

I did some research and it turns out that this little rhizome has some pretty impressive health benefits.

What is turmeric?

Turmeric, the spice, is made from the rhizomes and roots and bulbs of the turmeric plant. turmeric is a relative of ginger and the rhizomes look very similar to ginger rhizomes, but when cut open they are bright warm yellow on the inside. It is a main ingredient of curry and is used in many asian cuisines. It’s what gives the yellow color to curry dishes. It has long been known for it’s medicinal qualities and is a major part of Siddha medicine of Southern India.  Incidentally, my daughter Quinn was WWOOFing at Hale Akua farm on Maui, where the main crop is turmeric. The Hawaiian word for turmeric is ‘olena, which is also the word for yellow.

Curcumin is the compound in turmeric that gives it it’s health benefits. This article from the University of Maryland Medical center is a good list of curcumin’s benefits, from indigestion to heart disease, and the state of research into each.

Needless to say, as soon as I got home from the doctor, I headed over the HyVee and got a bottle of turmeric capsules.