Turmeric pils are not a miracle anti-inflammatory solution.
I know, I know. Every "Anti-Inflammatory 101" blog post tells you to run to the health store and buy a $40 bottle of Turmeric. It’s the "holy grail," right?
Wrong. For most of you, it’s doing absolutely nothing for your inflammation.
Here’s the science most brands won’t tell you: Curcumin (the active part of turmeric) has terrible bioavailability. Your body is designed to flush it out before it ever hits your bloodstream. Unless you’re taking a hyper-specific, lipid-bound formula with black pepper, and even then, it’s like trying to put out a forest fire with a squirt gun.
We are "Supplementing" a lifestyle that is still on fire. I see people taking 3 Turmeric pills a day while they: sleep 5 hours a night, eat processed snacks and refined seed oils and live in a state of high cortisol/stress.
You cannot out-supplement a pro-inflammatory lifestyle. One 20-minute walk or a consistent 8-hour sleep schedule will lower your C-reactive protein (CRP) levels more than a year’s supply of turmeric capsules ever could.