Monday, September 24, 2007

Life Extension Super Bio-Curcumin

Life Extension (LEF) recently introduced a new curcumin product called Super Bio-Curcumin, which they claim has "enhanced bioavailability and sustained retention time in the body confirmed by human clinical studies." If true, their 400 mg capsule is "equivalent to 2772 mg of a typical 95% curcumin extract," or almost seven times more potent. However, I found no information supporting their claims, so I filled out a form on their website requesting additional information on the studies that demonstrated this improvement in potency.

Meantime, believing that LEF is a legitimate organization which probably has some basis for its claims, I did order some of the new curcumin and I am already adding it to my protocol, intending to gradually replace four of the sixteen 500-mg capsules that I now take with four of the 400-mg Super Bio-Curcumin capsules. I am not doing this increase all at once because curcumin is very bioactive and can have side effects, but if I am able to get to four of the new capsules in addition to twelve regular ones, that should be the equivalent of about 17 grams of "typical" curcumin extract per day, more than double what I am taking now.

Today I received a written response to my request for information, as follows:

Don,
Thank you for contacting Life Extension. The studies are found in the October 2007 issue of Life Extension magazine. However, this issue is not yet loaded onto our website. You should be receiving your October issue any day now. If for some reason it does not arrive, please e-mail us and we will send you another copy.

Dave Tuttle
Dept. of Correspondence
Life Extension Scientific Information, Inc.



The email also included a long disclaimer, which I can summarize as "We are not your doctor, see your own doctor."

We just re-subscribed to Life Extension Magazine at this house, and have not yet received the October issue. Since we allowed our subscription to be interrupted, we may not get one at all, but I will look for this information on the LEF website. If you, dear reader, receive your copy of the magazine and care to leave a comment about Super Bio-Curcumin, please do so.


Fruity breakfast
Today's breakfast, after the bike ride: Organic oatmeal, organic nonfat milk, banana, kiwi, organic grapes, organic nectarine, blueberries. Estimated Weight Watcher points = 6.

Yummy salad
Today's dinner salad: Organic romaine, organic plum, kiwi, avocado, organic salad beans (mostly under the lettuce), raspberry vinegar. Estimated Weight Watcher points = 4.

Love this dinner
Today's dinner: Alaskan wild catch halibut steak, organic sweet pickle relish, organic winter squash, organic salsa. Estimated Weight Watcher points = 5.

5 comments:

  1. the product probably contains a pepper extract, which like green tea and fats, and other food elements may increase absorption, interestingly enough, one of the major metabolites of curcumin, tetrahydrocurcumin, has been shown to have even higher antioxidant activity than its mother compound curcumin, this may explain many of the benefits of curcumin in that its metabolites or breakdown products are also very bioactive in the body. I use curcumin in a different form than you, I found a beverage that helps with ulcerative colitis, it is curcumin based and called Haldi, I can find it in Whole Foods markets, and they also have a web site. But it doesnt have the mega doses of curcumin you take in, it tastes good and is organic and more bioavailable. Good luck with your condition, it sounds like you have been managing it well.

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  2. The product does not contain pepper extract. It's a new formulation.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Unfortunately, though, the LEF super bio-curcumin doesn't seem to give the results that regular curcumin (with bioperine) does.

    My "study" is unscientific, but several people whose myeloma was stable on regular curcumin saw their myeloma advance with equivalent or larger quantities of the LEF curcumin, then go stable again on regular curcumin. I don't use it any more.

    See this post.

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  4. Very pleased to discover this site.
    It would be very helpful if information was provided about dosage/quantity to take;frequency & duration for the different componds and the success rate in alleviating specific symptoms listed in your messages - haldi; curcumin; its metabolites; LEF super bio-curcumin; tetrahydrocurcumin etc. Otherwise very confusing. I am keen to learn to make informed choices about the way forward for me.
    Thanks

    ReplyDelete
  5. Very pleased to discover this site.
    It would be very helpful if information was provided about dosage/quantity to take;frequency & duration for the different componds and the success rate in alleviating specific symptoms listed in your messages - haldi; curcumin; its metabolites; LEF super bio-curcumin; tetrahydrocurcumin etc. Otherwise very confusing. I am keen to learn to make informed choices about the way forward for me.
    Thanks

    ReplyDelete