Curcumin Treats Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Curcumin Treats Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Reduced Inflammatory Cytokines, Oxidative Stress in Mouse CFS Model

Chronic fatigue syndrome is a variable disorder, often with severe mental and physical exhaustion, and frequently associated with muscle and joint pain. The cause of the syndrome is not understood, but CFS is often preceded by some type of infection or assault on the immune system. Treatment with various forms of psychological therapy, graded exercise, pain killers, diet, etc. have produced variable results.
CFS Shows Inflammatory Cytokines and Oxidative Stress

Chronic fatigue syndrome is characterized as an inflammatory disease, partly because its central symptom, physical fatigue, is associated with inflammatory cytokines and oxidative stress. TNF is one of the three common inflammatory hormones produced by cells of the immune system, and its original name, cachexin, reflects its role in the wasting symptoms, cachexia, and exhaustion of terminal illness or abuse of methamphetamines. Increased levels of TNF are also typical for CFS and partially explain some of the symptoms of the disease.
Animal Models of CFS Used to Search for Therapeutic Drugs

Treatments that provide chronic elevation of TNF are used as mouse models of CFS. Some bacteria and bacterial components, such as lipopolysaccharides (LPS) from bacterial cell walls, can reliably elevate TNF in mice. Treated mice also exhibit reduced stamina in swimming tests, and thus show the mouse equivalent of fatigue. These mice also show a heightened sensitivity to pain.

Another symptom of CFS, oxidation stress, results in several types of molecular damage. For example, membrane lipids are oxidized by reactive oxygen species (ROS) and oxidation products can be measured. Nitric oxide is another typical product of inflammation and it can be detected by measuring its breakdown product, nitrate. Glutathione is the primary cellular protection against ROS, and therefore glutathione is typically monitored to detect oxidative stress. Mice treated with LPS display inflammatory responses by all of these measures of oxidation stress.
A New Study Shows Immunologically-Induced Fatigue Is Treated with Curcumin

Turmeric is a common spice and a traditional herbal treatment for many inflammatory diseases. The major active component of turmeric is curcumin. Curcumin has recently been recognized as one of the most potent anti-inflammatory molecules, because it is both an anti-oxidant that neutralizes ROS and a blocker of the central inflammatory transcription factor, NFkB, that controls the expression of all of the inflammatory genes. It seemed obvious to determine if curcumin could be used to treat CFS and the first step was testing in the mouse CFS model system.

A recent report in the biomedical research journal Immunobiology (January, 2009) showed that curcumin was a powerful treatment in the mouse CFS model. Mice treated with LPS and subsequently administered curcumin displayed renewed stamina. Relief from fatigue was also shown in the cellular and physiological measurements. Curcumin reduced oxidative stress and normalized many of the parameters measured. These results were very encouraging for similar trials in humans and provide promise for a natural CFS treatment.
Reference:

Gupta A, Vij G, Sharma S, Tirkey N, Rishi P, Chopra K. 2009. Curcumin, a polyphenolic antioxidant, attenuates chronic fatigue syndrome in murine water immersion stress model. Immunobiology.;214(1):33-9

cpio - Nice info, thanks!