Thank you for having devoted so much of your work to investigating ME/CFS. It is very much appreciated by those who seem to have little voice in the medical field at large.
You have no idea how much your channel was needed. I was in a really bad car accident. I kept going to my doctor, seemed like on a weekly basis, with some kind of new symptom. I finally went in and broke down crying and said, "I think I'm slowly dying and I don't know why." That was in 2008. I've spent hours on the computer since then trying to find some kind of help or someone who knew what they were talking about. Of course, it was the chiropractors who always thought they knew what caused it. Fifteen years later and I still suffer. Except now, I also have ITP, lichen planus and oral lichen planus. It's so sad to just sit around and watch your life pass you by. Didn't mean to get into my whole ordeal lol, but than you for the channel, the work you do and keeping us informed. Means more than you know!
I took turmeric for four years straight, got busy and stopped taking it for a couple months I didn’t even realize that all the pains I was experiencing was from that I had stopped taking it. Shoulder pain lower back pain you name it, I had it all. Now back on the Miracle stuff (turmeric)
My daughter with ME/cfs has used curcumin for some months and it helped her to get rid of quite severe inflammations and pain in her feet/legs, but it’s important to know that it prevents the body to absorb the iron in the food. So she got very week due to lack of iron after some weeks. She had to take quite strong iron supplements for some time. But the curcumin is working.
YES. I got a 10% or more improvement. I now also try to do a small chore or garden work almost every day to improve my endurance now that I can recover from the day's exertion after sleeping at night. I also add CoQ10, Spirulina and Chlorella algae, and Marmite.
I'm not a doctor, so take this as just an informed patient response. There is more than one kind of fatigue associated with ME/CFS and fibromyalgia (which are also different and can have different fatigue causes). PEM, for example, is different than fatigue caused by losing sleep due to pain. I have a lot of intestinal problems, for instance, and lose sleep but also am lacking in nutrition, another potential cause of fatigue. It's not just one thing causing fatigue.
@@heelerjustheeler879 Actually I meant the PEM fatigue. In my opinion the typical ME fatigue is the PEM fatigue. I don't know about you but I can clearly feel a difference between just being tired of sleep deprivation or pain etc. or the feeling of a PEM fatigue. The PEM fatigue clearly occurs when boundaries are crossed.
Good question. I do think some with ME/CFS have a mitochrondrial issue, while others have primarily a neuroinflammatory issue. But it is true that mitochondrial issues can be driven by abnormal inflammatory issues. It is an interesting point about PEM specfically. - Jarred Younger
@@youngerlab Thank you for your answer 🙏 Can you tell me if there is currently any research taking place on the link between PEM and mitochondrial dysfunction?
Open Medicine Foundation has seen that the mitochondria is normal in severly ill patients - BUT there is a problem in Krebbs cycle. Krebbs cycle is a complex chemical process as is nessesary for the mitochondria to do it's "job", in producing ATP (energy), Q10 and prognenolone. The mitochondria organell is healthy, though. OMF is researching this, and have a really interesting theory on what is wrong in Krebbs cycle. If that theory is correct they deserve a Nobel Prize! It's Micelangelo of medicine! But it's complex and complicated, and research takes time! We just have to wait and see... and hold our thumbs! 😊 (English is not my native language, sorry if spelling/grammar is wrong here and there...) 😊🌸
Dear Mr. Younger, your research tested curcumin on just 10 people with Gulf War Ilness, a disease that's likely caused by nerve gas. How is it that you think the results will be the same for people with ME/cfs or fibromalgya? Also, you recommend taking curcumin with piperine (black pepper). But your research didn't use that, it used Pure Encapsulations CurcumaSorb (without piperine). This seems confusing to me?
Good questions, which are answered in the paper if you read past the abstract. GWI is hypothesised to be (at least in part) neuroinflammatory, and the CurcumaSorb comes with the Meriva phytosome, which does the same job as pepper in this context, but more reliably so for research.
Dr have you ever thought that fibromyalgia could be cause by a defect on one of the genes that regulates pain? I have fibro and I will start curcumin and I hope it helps me as I am really struggling with pain all over body face and ringing sound coming from the brain that does not seem to be tinnitus in my opinion. My pain is horrible muscle skeletal pain. I also have hemochromatosis and I was wonder if I could take it. My liver is healthy and the hemochromatosis is controlled. I was diagnosed at early stages so it did not caused much problems with my liver.
Hi doctor - i suffer from chronic fatigue and for 10 years I had to live with with frequent headaches that requires me taking paracetamol often. Since I started taking a high quality sport grade turmeric supplement daily 1g the headaches have GONE!! I can’t thank you enough!!! It still does not solve the problem with the energy but one big symptom is gone thanks to you :) Happy to be contacted for a testimonial :)
Hi Dr. Younger! Have you looked at high dose intravenous vitamin C? It seems like at high enough doses, it does cross the blood brain barrier. I am a long time fibro, ME/CFS, and Lyme patient, and I do get iv C regularly.
Thanks very much for making these videos. I've tried Theracurmin HP & Meriva - didn't notice anything with Meriva, noticed some benefit from Theracurmin, but had side effects (more on that later). Surprisingly, I experienced the greatest & most rapid effect from Numi Golden Tonic Turmeric Tea, which also includes lemon verbena and 'desert lime' (dried lime). For fibrocystic breast symptoms, I notice a reduction in pain & swelling within an hour. Unfortunately, the tea also sometimes causes excessive bleeding (but note I also regularly take fish oil and vitamin E) & turmeric can cause my skin to itch (slightly allergic). As for the Theracurmin side effects - it seemed to cause shoulder pain. I noticed it was similar to what I experienced with Cipro so I searched the literature & found a study reporting that curcumin can increase levels of topoisomerase II-mediated DNA cleavage (same MoA as Cipro).
Interesting. I agree that whole turmeric may be a better approach than isolated curcumin for some people and conditions. In western medicine and science, we really like to isolate the "active ingredient", when it may be best in many cases to keep the whole plant. I remember the topoisomerase II-mediated DNA cleavage issue of curcumin from 10 or so years ago, but I haven't seen work done recently. I can't remember if any research was done in organisms or was in vitro work. I'll take a look and see what the current thoughts are around that issue. Thanks. - Jarred Younger
Thank you so much for doing this! Everytime when I hear you speak I am in awe! Thank you for your work, for your kindness, for your time and for your caring!
Thanks a lot for this tip, Dr. Younger. I will definitely give it a try. Also, perhaps you could share your opinion on Ashwagandha? It is supposed to have anti-inflammatory properties as well and several other benefits. Many greetings from Denmark. 👋🙂👍
Ashwagandha is on my short list of things to test. It is an intriguing herb, but I don't have any direct experience with it. I don't think there are any ongoing clinical trials of it on inflammatiory pain or fatigue. Using it for things like ME/CFS and fibromyalgia is experimental, but I am keeping my eye on it. - Jarred Younger
My gf has found that a turmeric/black pepper supplement has improved her fibromyalgia condition to the extent she just STOPPED TAKING Pregabalin, and hasn't looked back. She always takes this with food, and this is of course anectodal. Make of it what you will, but I will say that spices and foods are much less of a risk to anyone than a synthetic chemical. I should add for clarity, she still needs painkillers, but these have dropped to 2 doses of 30/500 cocodamol from 4. A massive difference however you look at it.
Excellent thinking. I have data. From a N=1 study re long term unresolving standard ME/CFS. Not good that much with fatigue, especially physical fatigue, but does help with brain fog and cognition. It does seem to be able to get through the blood brain barrier. The more bioavailable concentrate supplements are more effective, however, one has to use it to a limited degree. It seems to me that the neuroinflammation is happening for a self protective reason in the brain with ME/CFS driving the brain fog and poor memory symptoms. So one needs to use it to moderate symptoms, not cure. One can overdose and add detriment, and possibly brain harm. For bioavailable supplements, about 80mg of actual Curcumin compound seems therapeutic. Also take breaks with it as a supplement. Your caution to check for sensitivity reaction is important.
Hi, Thanks for this video. I have found that it has had a positive affect! I've been taking 1000mg a day for about 3 months. Can I carry on? Is there a certain amount of time I should take this or can I carry on indefinitely?
Found curcumin helpful for post exertional malaise. However I wonder how effective it could be when it is known to have problems crossing the blood brain barrier? Several patented formulations are hyped as being able to do this, but it’s challenging to make sense of all the hype. Any thoughts?
Thank you very much, Dr. Younger! 🙂 I personally don't notice any benefit for my ME/CFS fatigue taking curcumin (500 mg or 1,000 mg/day, I've been on it for many months), but as with the many things I'm taking, I'm wary to stop it in case it's actually doing something. Now trialing EPA (omega 3) at over 2 g/day, so maybe I should stop taking curcumin. How long will the fatigue survey be open? I wanted to help, but 60 min is too much for me and haven't answered it yet, even if you said we could take it in chunks. I'm sure for many it's the same, but I still want to answer. So I'm wondering if you will extend the deadline or if you already have all the replies you needed 🙂 About the sleep apnea video, I forgot to ask: I sleep with a scarf tied around my mouth so I don't breathe with my mouth at night (otherwise I'd wake up with a sore throat every day); so it would be something like taping. Would an app monitoring snoring, as you recommended for those of us without a partner, still be effective to see if we have sleep apnea? Not sure it would record any noise. Again, many thanks for your videos, help, support, etc.!! 😊
Hello. I am guessing that curcumin will help around 20% of ME/CFS sufferers. It is a fairly expensive supplement, so if you haven't noticed anything after a few months, it may be best to wind that down and focus on something else. But you are right that sometimes we don't know how much something is working until we take it away. I have definitely seen that in my research with different treatments when the benefits are slow to develop. We don't have a hard close date for the survey. We will keep it open over February for sure, and very likely through March. uab.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_cJ8XAyPtbWHqI6i Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if the scarf blocks the sounds of snoring - it may depend on how quiet your room is otherwise. But if the scarf is working and truly causing you to breathe through your nose, that could help to reduce apnea. Mouth breathing carries a higher risk of apnea than nose breathing. - Jarred Younger
This might sound like an odd question, but is there a way to nebulize curcumin? I currently nebulize Reduced L-Glutathione by breaking open the capsules and mixing with 3ml of pure saline. I was thinking if I could do something similar with curcumin it might provide greater bioavailability.
I've never used a nebulizer before, how are your results with nebulizing Reduced L-Glutathione? Does nebulizing it help get more to the brain, and did you figure out if you could nebulize curcumin? Really interesting stuff, thanks for sharing Dannya, it would be cool if Dr. Jarred Younger could reply to your question.👍
I have tried several formulations of curcumin to treat/alleviate the inflammation from my systemic onset Still disease and LEF Curcumin Elite and TheraBio Curcurouge are the most efficient I have tried so far. For my regular course of action I take curcurouge as it last longer than the LEF formula, along with my main treatment, kineret, between each uptake of it.
@@jccarter19 The formulations I took are already made to be highly bioavailable so no, i don't take pepper. Especially as it might not be very good for intestinal permeability and for people that have autoimmune condition like me.
What is the latest with the brain neuroinflammation research please? Is there any definite proof yet of neuroinflammation in ME/CFS? Your last presentation was 4 years ago on here so I wondered what the latest is.
I’m not sure where the research has gone, but I know that at stanfords chronic fatigue clinic they treat it as neuroinflammation. From their studies that’s what they have determined.
Buy turmeric roots, grind them up, boil them with bay leaves, black pepper, cinnamon, star anise. Strain, cool and put in bottles. Drink diluted as needed.
That suggestion requires preparation and cooking, unfortunately. Which makes it unachievable for many here - not everyone has people to do this for them.
Thankyou so much for the information about the liver. I have been on Curcumin Meriva for a few year but recently have been having problems with my liver. I will speak to my doctor about it and stop taking it for now.
That sounds wise. Despite the fact there are some published studies suggesting curcumin can help liver function, I have seen liver enzymes elevated by curcumin in some individuals. If your physician agrees, it might be informative to stop the curcumin and then retest the liver enzymes after a few weeks. - Jarred Younger
Finally, someone that knows what I am going through last 22 years. Can you help me. I'm 71 y.o. much worse last 2 years. I've tried turmeric, ginger , magnesium, E, D3 , I also have gut issues, strokes, migraine, INFLAMMATION, NOW WEAKNESS, POOR balance. Confusion, I buy from Piping Rock(clean supplements, have no quality Of life .
I tried curcumin and black pepper for 6 months for my fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue. Initially, I thought it had some effect, but now I no longer experience any pain reduction anymore. I have also been prescribed low dosis naltrexone between 0.75 to 6 mg per day for 6 months. Sorry, but no pain relief either. I have severe and debilitating pain all over 24/7.
Interesting. That is way outside of my area so I can't suggest anything. But I know that dogs suffer from many of the same inflammatory issues as humans do. I just don't know how the dog GI system handles curcumin, and other differences from humans. - Jarred Younger
That is definitely a case for physician guidance. Curcumin can reduce platelet formation, which would theoretically help this issue, but using curcumin has to be considered in the context of other medications being used. The concern would be that the blood could be thinned too much if curcumin is combined with a pharmaceutical blood thinner. I'm not sure what a physician would recommend in this case -- I imagine many would not want to add curcumin. Turmeric is less likely to cause blood thinning because the curcumin concentration is so low. So, golden milk with pepper would probably be a safer way to start. Check with the doc, but I think a daily golden milk could give some beneficial effects without adding risks of blood thinning. - Jarred Younger
@@youngerlab Thank you so much for your entire reply. This has been so useful. I appreciate it...and I am looking forward for your next research milestones.
I have seen a handful of studies suggesting that curcumin can help NAFLD (a link to one is below), but I don't know the literature well enough. I think the answer is inconclusive at this point and would consider taking curcumin with NAFLD experimental. It could actually help, but it is possible that live enzymes could be increased, especially if too much curcumin is consumed. I would suggest taking it cautiously, and have the physician track enzymes before and a little after starting something like curcumin. - Jarred Younger www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0965229922000450#:~:text=Curcumin%20is%20acknowledged%20as%20a%20powerful%20antioxidant%20and%20anti%2Dinflammatory%20agent.&text=Curcumin%20is%20given%20through%20an,cholesterol7%20among%20NAFLD%20patients.
I've been taking about 1500-200 mg of curcumin daily for about a year. If I take it during the day, I'm sleepy. I haven't noticed any effects. However I also upped my resveratrol dose forom 750mg-100mg to 2500 to 3000mg and I seem to have less fatigue as well as less miserable when cold or handling frozen food or dishwashing in hot water. My acid reflux seems to have also relented with the resveratrol.
That makes sense -- quite a few people have issues with turmeric and curcumin. I think the minority of individuals will get great benefit from it. But some will, and I'll just keep throwing out good possibilities until eventually we, hopefully, get everyone covered. - Jarred Younger
@@youngerlab Thanks for the reply Jared. I wish you luck in your future research! So far the only thing I have found to work longterm for pain (and with no obvious side effects) is kratom. All NSAIDS prevent my blood from clotting and give no pain relief whatsoever. We really need more options!
Always distinguish between ME and CFS as the effects will not be the same. A key symptom of ME is exhaustion, not fatigue, so depending on the method addressing fatigue may actually cause problems. Further, in general dosages should be smaller for female patients.
