FAQ About Curcumin
The Basics:
What is curcumin? Curcumin is the phenomenal antioxidant compound that is responsible for the yellow color of Indian curries, and is found in our prepared foods such as pickles and mustard. Curcumin is the primary compound found in most standardized extracts from turmeric (Curcuma longa) root.
What is Longvida® Optimized Curcumin? Longvida® is a proprietary formula containing the natural antioxidant curcumin, and is optimized for maximum targeting of curcumin into blood and tissues. It was developed over several years by an elite group of university neuroscientists and Verdure Sciences, market leaders in quality botanical manufacturing. Longvida® took years to develop and perfect, and is now being used in several ongoing clinical trials. Longvida® is a mixture of ‘generally recognized as safe’ (GRAS) food ingredients and is based on natural ingredients found in the food chain.
How is Longvida® different from regular 'turmeric 95%'? Longvida® addresses the key problem of proper absorption: why 'generic' curcumin shows great things in the test tube and in animals, but only insignificant positive trends in clinical trials. Patent-pending SLCP™ Technology ensures a safe, natural composition that promotes absorption into the bloodstream and various organs. And because it is about how much curcumin is absorbed, not what is consumed, high amounts of curcumin are no longer needed, thus reducing the chance for gastrointestinal irritation.
Who are you working with to research it? Longvida® is patent pending and exclusively licensed by Verdure Sciences from UCLA. Several universities and medical centers around the globe are now evaluating the effects of Longvida®."
Is it safe? The curcumin found in Longvida® is a 100% natural, generally recognized as safe (GRAS) food additive, and has been used in traditional medicine and food for thousands of years. In clinical studies, curcumin showed a positive safety profile at doses of 8-12 grams (8,000-12,000 milligrams) per day.(7,22) Longvida® is reported to have an excellent safety profile, and showed no acute high-dose toxicity at the highest dose tested, a dose equivalent to 1000 times the recommended dose.
Is Longvida okay for people with dietary restrictions? Longvida® contains all ingredients found in our food chain, contains no animal products, and is gluten-free. Longvida® may contain ingredients made from corn and soy. Longvida is made using natural turmeric extract made and perfected in India.
What precautions should be taken when using Longvida®? Since each individual has different medical needs, we recommend that you speak with your healthcare practitioner about Longvida®. Use during chemotherapy should only be performed under the direct supervision of a qualified medical professional. Curcumin may enhance the action of anti-platelet drugs, high doses of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, or warfarin. Do not take if you have a biliary tract obstruction or are taking a steroidal anti-inflammatory such as prednisone.
How long is it stable for? Longvida® is shelf stable and has an expiration date of at least two years in dark, dry, room temperature conditions. Be sure to keep it out of direct light as curcumin may degrade over time from exposure to UV radiation.
Other Good Questions:
How is Longvida® made? Cutting-edge Solid-Lipid Curcumin Particle (SLCP™) technology (patent pending) is responsible for the ‘magic’ of Longvida®. Simply, curcumin is processed in a way that stabilizes and coats it with the ideal absorption-promoting system that facilitates steady, extended transfer of curcumin across biological membranes, especially those entering the bloodstream and target tissues. Longvida® is also processed under Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP), in such a way to ensure identity, purity, activity, and consistency of Longvida’s benefits and Quality Control.
What is Longvida® good for? Curcumin has been studied for various health applications, including the promotion of longevity and cognitive health. As of January 2010, more than 3100 publications on curcumin were available through the NIH medical database and in ongoing human trials. Many have reported that Longvida® may help promote joint health and flexibility, and help to modulate inflammatory responses already within the normal range. Curcumin is also a potent antioxidant and is used in skin products as an anti-microbial and healing agent. Universities and medical centers are looking at Longvida® for a variety of areas that curcumin has shown beneficial effects.
How is it different from other ‘bioavailable’ turmeric extracts? Longvida® is unique because it is university-developed, researched in humans, and has shown great promise in several studies. Longvida is made using expensive, top-quality ingredients including natural high-curcumin turmeric extract. Precise attention to detail, and the accuracy of facts and results, is the hallmark of Longvida®, and the mission of Verdure Sciences.
Can I get the same benefits from eating curry or mixing curcumin with various oils or fats? During the years of development of Longvida®, many formulas were tested using those mixing with various oils, fats and other ingredients. Test formulas using high amounts of purified curcumin with lipids often showed a small bioavailability advantage, but none of the test formulas were able to provide blood levels high enough to reach the target concentration. The average serving of curry contains about 6 milligrams of curcumin, which may help promote health, however it is likely that such a small amount of curcumin may not make a significant impact on their health.
Longvida® is no substitute for -- but is part of -- a sensible, healthy lifestyle that includes exercise and a balanced diet filled with fruits and vegetables (and spices, of course!)
Who are you working with to research it? Longvida is patent pending and based on innovations developed by the University of California - Los Angeles (UCLA), a prestigious research institution, and several universities and medical centers around the globe are focusing on the effects of Longvida®.
What's in Longvida?
How much curcumin/curcuminoids does Longvida® contain? Remember, its not about how much curcumin you consume, its about the curcumin you absorb. Longvida® actually contains significantly less curcumin than 95% curcuminoids extract, because a large quantity of curcumin is simply unnecessary. And because you don't have to take as much, there is less chance for stomach and gastrointestinal irritation that may accompany high doses of curcumin.
Does it contain black pepper or piperine? NO. Longvida® does not contain piperine or any other compounds known to significantly interfere with the body’s natural detoxification systems.
Does Longvida contain any essential oils from the turmeric root? NO. Longvida® does not contain essential oils from turmeric, since these components have not been evaluated for safety or efficacy, and currently do not have accurate testing methodology available for their quantitative measurement.
Are heavy metals a concern? Longvida® is made with the most stringent Quality Control parameters, and its quality is ensured with traceability and paper trails from the source. In fact, Longvida® meets or exceeds California Proposition 65 for heavy metal content, which is among the highest standards for heavy metals.
Does Longvida® contain ethylene dichloride? 1,2 dicholorethane, (Ethylene dichloride, or EDC) is a harmful solvent used to inexpensively extract curcumin from turmeric root. The curcumin in Longvida® is not extracted using EDC unlike many standardized turmeric extracts found on the market, and conforms to USP/ICH standards for residual solvents.
Does Longvida® contain nimesulide or other adulterants? Longvida® does NOT contain intentional adulterants such as nimesulide. Each batch of Longvida® is rigorously tested for impurities. Strict control, traceability and paper trails are enforced throughout the procurement and manufacturing processes.
What other questions should I ask when looking for a turmeric supplement?
1. Does it reach efficacious concentrations in target tissues such as the brain? You may know that curcumin must get into the bloodstream in order to do anything. But getting into blood is not enough. It must reach a concentration high enough in order to penetrate target tissues, such as the brain. Longvida® is a pioneer in the field of reaching target curcumin concentrations in the blood and target tissues.
2. Is the supplement standardized for its bioactivity? It is well established that it is not how much curcumin you consume, it is about how much you absorb. An intricate standardization system, including micro-visualization of the SLCP™, along with an array of physical and chemical analyses using High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC), Tandem Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (LC/MS/MS), Nuclear Magnetic Resonance imaging (NMR), Ultraviolet Spectrometry, Inductively-Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP/MS) and other instrumentation are used to standardize and ensure the activity, potency, and consistency of Longvida®.
3. Was the product primarily developed by a prestigious university, or by a company in the dietary supplement industry? It may be no surprise that university researchers are most often motivated to find what truly works, while industry researchers are most often motivated by what they can sell at the highest margins with little real scientific investment. Longvida® Optimized Curcumin is the result of years of trial and error, guided by not what is easy to make but by what works in the lab and in people.
4. What was the analytical methodology used to detect curcumin in biological samples such as blood? Analyzing curcumin in blood or biological specimens is not as easy as it sounds. There are often ‘false peaks’ that are assumed to be curcumin which appear when rigorous validation is not performed. Curcumin is a sticky compound and can have what they call ‘carryover effects’, which falsely inflate values. Curcumin and its glucuronide are also unstable in blood after it is taken from the body to be tested. Further, interindividual variability of curcumin metabolism is high, therefore several subjects (instead of just one or two subjects) should be tested in any study, and applicable statistics applied to the data. Therefore, only the most experienced scientists with the most up-to-date instrumentation can reliably measure curcumin in blood. In fact, LC/MS/MS is the preferred instrumentation of university scientists who determined the bioavailability of Longvida™, compared to the inferior analytical instruments often used for unoptimized curcumin.
5. In bioavailability studies, was curcumin counted as curcumin glucuronide? The body metabolizes curcumin into a different compound (mainly curcumin glucuronide), which has very low brain permeability and biological activity compared to curcumin in its free form (free curcumin). Often, a curcumin value in blood or plasma includes glucuronidated curcumin, so it can appear to be a very high number. But this number does not represent how much curcumin is truly free and active in the bloodstream. Longvida bioavailability is determined by measuring free curcumin, not glucuronidated curcumin.
6. Is it made using a gentle process and all generally recognized as safe (GRAS) food additive ingredients? Longvida® contains no ethylene dichloride (EDC) which is often used to cheaply extract curcumin from turmeric root. Longvida® contains no piperine, a glucuronidation inhibitor that enhances the bioavailability of both nutrients as well as potential toxins. Longvida® also contains no unstable volatile oils from turmeric root, since these components have not been evaluated for safety or efficacy, and currently do not have accurate testing methodology available for their quantitative measurement. Further, Longvida™ is not processed in a way that may create new molecules or chemical bonds which are foreign to the food chain or our bodies. A strong safety profile is partially what makes Longvida® the premier choice of clinicians and universities worldwide.
Since 1997, Verdure Sciences has manufactured the highest-quality, clinically researched ingredients for supplement manufacturers, and now after overwhelming interest, we are extending our capabilities factory-direct to the top tier of quality-conscious consumers.
Significant investment has been made to ensure you are getting truly Optimized Curcumin, and our mission is to make sure no corners are cut in our mission to enhance the health of people worldwide.
Clinical Trial References:(6,7,9-11,12,15,18-21,25,26,28,30)
*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.
Please consult your healthcare practitioner before taking any medication or health supplements.
