Aspirin, Salicylates, Turmeric and Curries in Cancer-Prevention

 

 

A senior consultant ENT surgeon friend of mine recently sent me a short WhatsApp note on neck cancer and mentioned about the benefits of aspirin in the prevention of cancer.

Here’s my extended explanation.

More than 30 years ago I already knew that the incidence of colorectal cancer (CRC) among Scots in Scotland whose diet is high in meat and lamb (mutton) were more than 5 times higher than south Indians in India who eat a lot of curries. The same here in Malaysia where the incidence of CRC among Chinese who eat a lot of meat, less vegetables and almost no curry at all is more than 4 times that of local Indians and  is some 3 times higher than the Malays who eat some curry but less curries  than the Malaysian Indians.

Twenty  years later I told this to a few doctors in the Cancer Institute at Kuala Lumpur Hospital and they were surprised. They didn’t even know this. They then checked this up themselves and they were very surprised by what I told them. But they were doctors working in a cancer institute. I supposed they were more concerned about treatment of cancer than in cancer prevention.

As a nutritionist, my recommendation is to follow a dietary regimen like the Indians, high in curry with lots of vegetables. Additionally, it may also be CRC preventive by taking a low dose (100 mg daily) of aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid) daily since aspirin is both cardioprotective as well as CRC preventive.  An aspirin tablet is presented as a 300 mg dose, and hence half an aspirin daily after meals would suffice.

The incidence of colon cancer is the highest among all cancers in Malaysia, highest among Chinese, much lower among the Malays and least among the Indians.

However, incidence of CRC among Malaysian Indians is higher than those southern Indians in India. This is probably because Malaysia is a multiracial country where food habits and dietary patterns are often shared across the races. For instance, Malaysian Indian families often go to Chinese restaurants in large groups to eat Chinese food instead of consuming their wholly southern Indian curries like in their native India.

Here’s an interesting video on cancer prevention using anti-inflammatory drugs such as NSAID, especially the use of simple aspirin.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlLgg50t_F4

Also, in a paper by Tanuja Rastogi, Susan Devesa, Punam Mangtani, Aleyamma Mathew, Nicola Cooper, Roy Kao, Rashmi Sinha on the cancer incidence rates among South Asians in four geographic regions: India, Singapore, UK and US published in the International Journal of Epidemiology, Volume 37, Issue 1, February 2008, Pages 147–160, the authors observed the lowest total cancer incidence rates in India (111 and 116 per 100 000 among males and females, respectively, age-standardized to the 1960 world population) and the highest among US whites (362 and 296). Cancer incidence rates among Indians residing outside of India were intermediate in Singapore (102 and 132), UK (173 and 179) and US ranges 152–176 and 142–164. A similar pattern was observed for cancers of the colorectum, prostate, thyroid, pancreas, lung, breast and non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

Following what I wrote about aspirin, another friend asked me this question:

Why the drug aspirin? How about spices instead?  What about turmeric supplements that are also easily available these days or even cayenne pepper or paprika?

My answer to this gentleman’s question is this:

I think turmeric is a better choice than purely aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid) in the prevention of colorectal cancers (CRC) because turmeric along with curry powder, chilli, cayenne pepper, ginger, cinnamon, onions, are all rich in the natural form of salicylates rather than the synthetic aspirin.

Besides pure salicylates as in aspirin, turmeric also contains a lot of natural phytochemical compounds such as diarylheptanoids, including numerous curcuminoids, such as curcumin, demethoxycurcumin, and bisdemethoxycurcumin. Curcumin constitutes up to 3.14% of assayed commercial samples of turmeric powder (the average was 1.51%),

In contrast, curry powder, which is a mixture of many spices, contains much less salicylates (an average of 0.29%). Some 34 essential oils are present in turmeric, among them are turmerone, germacrenes, atlantone, and zingiberene. 1–6% of turmeric powder are curcuminoids and curcumin that gives turmeric the yellow colour. They all work together in synergism at low doses as a family. This synergistic action is prophylactically more effective and safer than aspirin working in isolation at higher doses.

Turmeric and curcumin have been studied in numerous clinical trials for various human diseases and conditions. The studies do show health-protective benefits but not strong evidence. For instance, there is no strong scientific evidence that curcumin reduces inflammation as previously thought, though there is weak evidence that turmeric extracts may be useful for relieving symptoms of knee osteoarthritis, as well as for easing pain and muscle damage following physical exercise.

The salicylate content of blood and urine was shown to increase following consumption of the meal containing salicylates, indicating that dietary source of salicylic acid was bioavailable.

In a study in India, the serum salicylic acid concentrations taken from villagers in southern India were compared with those of Europe. It was found that the salicylic acid levels in the serum from rural Indians were significantly (median almost 3-fold) higher than values previously measured in Western vegetarians. This may explain the low incidence of cancer in rural India where turmeric, curry powder, spices and a traditional vegetarian diet is consumed.

Aspirin is rapidly hydrolysed to salicylic acid and salicylates which are the natural compounds of turmeric, curries and spices.  

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