The Harm

Popular Alternative Therapy For Psoriasis Performs No Better Than Placebo

Anecdotal evidence touting the healing power of the Indian spice turmeric for psoriasis received a setback in a prospective study published recently by a leading dermatology journal stating that the low response rate of patients who ingested the active ingredient of the exotic spice was probably a result of the placebo effect.

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine found that despite strong scientific evidence in the laboratory demonstrating the ability of curcumin (the active ingredient in the spice turmeric) to inhibit a critical pathway of psoriasis, the positive response in patients was so low that scientists suggest the placebo effect or the disease’s natural remission might be the reason.

“Alternative and complementary websites and newspapers publish anecdotal reports that the Indian spice has been successfully used to treat psoriasis,” says Joel M. Gelfand, MD, MSCE, of The University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. “However, spontaneous improvements in psoriasis are common, and based on our study, until larger, placebo-controlled trials are conducted, oral curcumin should not be recommended for the treatment of psoriasis given lack of proven efficacy.”

One thing proponents of CAM should realise, anecdotes are not evidence.
Turmeric: use it as a spice not medicine