Investigators at Johns Hopkins Institute have revealed after a small clinical trial that a pill combining chemicals found in turmeric (commonly used spice in curries) and onion reduce the size and number of precancerous lesions in the human intestinal tract, thereby lowering the risk of Colon Cancer. Turmeric contains Curcumin and Onion has Quercetin, an antioxidant. Familial adenomatous polyposis is a disorder that runs in families and is characterized by the development of hundreds of colorectal adenomas (polyps) and eventual colon cancer.



In the study, published in the August issue of Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, five patients with an inherited form of precancerous polyps in the lower bowel known as familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP) were treated with regular doses of curcumin (the chemical found in turmeric) and quercetin, an antioxidant in onions, over an average of six months. The average number of polyps dropped 60.4 percent, and the average size dropped by 50.9 percent, according to a team led by Francis M. Giardiello, M.D., at the Division of Gastroenterology, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and Marcia Cruz-Correa, M.D., Ph.D., at Johns Hopkins and the University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine.



The best part of this treatment is that the patients develop minimal side effects such as slight nausea and mild diarrhea. The Curcumin treatment is efficacious in decreasing the number of polyps in patients.



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