Spice up your life with some curry

If you find a spicy curry too hot to handle, you may want to reconsider as new research has revealed a common culinary spice found in Indian curries could offer a new treatment hope for sufferers of the painful condition tendinitis.

Researchers at the University of Nottingham and Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich have shown that curcumin, which also gives the spice turmeric its trademark bright yellow colouring, may be used to suppress biological mechanisms that spark inflammation in tendon diseases.

Dr Ali Mobasheri of the University’s School of Veterinary Medicine and Science, who co-led the research, said although the research suggested curry, turmeric or curcumin are not cures for inflammatory conditions such as tendinitis and arthriti; they believe it could offer scientists an important new lead in the treatment of these conditions.

Researchers said further research into curcumin, and chemically-modified versions of it, should be the subject of future investigations and complementary therapies aimed at reducing the use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs; the only drugs currently available for the treatment of tendinitis and various forms of arthritis.

Tendons, the tough cords of fibrous connective tissue that join muscles to bones, are essential for movement because they transfer the force of muscle contraction to bones. However, they are prone to injury, particularly in athletes who may overstretch themselves and overuse their joints. Tendinitis (or tendonitis) is a form of tendon inflammation, which causes pain and tenderness near to joints and is particularly common in shoulders, elbows, knees, hips, heels or wrists. Other examples of common tendon disease include tennis and golfer’s elbow and Achilles tendinitis.

Researchers suggested the global incidence of tendinitis was on the increase in line with the rise in ageing and inflammatory diseases.

The only treatment is to relieve pain and reduce inflammation, and the only medicines which are effective in treating tendinitis are said to be non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS), such as aspirin or ibuprofen. In more serious cases of tendon injury, steroid injections can be given directly into the tendon sheath to control pain and enable physical therapy to start – but this can come with severe side-effects.

Used for centuries in traditional Indian medicine as an anti-inflammatory agent and remedy for symptoms related to irritable bowel syndrome and other disorders, the use of curcumin is promising, according to researchers.

More recently, studies have linked curcumin to potential uses in treating arthritis and a range of rheumatic diseases and, potentially, even as an agent to kill cancer cells directly or make them more sensitive to killing by chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

The main objective of the Nottingham-Munich study was to observe the effects curcumin had on the inflammatory and degenerative properties induced by signalling molecules called interleukins. Interleukins are a type of small cell-signalling protein molecules called cytokines that can activate a whole series of inflammatory genes by triggering a dangerous ‘switch’ called NF-κB.

The results showed that introducing curcumin in the culture system inhibits NF-κB and prevents it from switching on and promoting further inflammation.