There is a lot of anecdotal evidence suggesting that the Indian spice, turmeric, is helpful in reducing the symptoms of psoriasis.
30 May, 2008
However a new study, published in the June edition of the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, has found that the spice, when taken orally, had no better effect on reducing psoriatic symptoms than a placebo.
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine found that despite strong scientific evidence in the laboratory demonstrating the ability of curcumin (the active ingredient in the spice turmeric) to inhibit the cause and symptoms of psoriasis, the results of the new study left them no choice but to conclude that the placebo effect or the disease's natural remission periods might be the reason for the laboratory results rather than any real prohibitive effectiveness from turmeric.
Although the researchers recognised that for a small percentage of subjects (12 patients), treatment with oral turmeric did have a positive effect and therefore may be effective for a small minority of psoriasis sufferers, they concluded that until wider studies had proved otherwise, oral turmeric should not be recommended to the treatment of psoriasis given the lack of any solid, wide-scale evidence that it works.
