Post-exercise turmeric: a fast-track route for match recovery?

Indeed, thanks to curcumin’s different pharmacological actions and powerful antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity, scientists are currently investigating its potential to treat and prevent a wide array of degenerative and inflammation-related diseases. This includes several pathologies such as cardiovascular and ophthalmic diseases, diabetes, depression, HIV, vitiligo, Alzheimer’s disease, endometriosis, osteoporosis, inflammatory bowel disease, epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, and even cancer (see figure 2)^(9-20).

Figure 2: Diseases and medical conditions where curcumin may be of therapeutic value

Curcumin, muscle soreness and recovery

Part of the muscle recovery process following exercise involves repairing muscle fiber damage and reducing the inflammation that accompanies this damage. A question therefore is whether the consumption of damage and inflammation-fighting curcumin compounds can help accelerate the recovery process and restore muscle function more rapidly? Intuitively, you might think that this is indeed the case.

However, tart cherry juice also contains powerful antioxidant and anti-inflammatory compounds, and is known the reduce post exercise muscle soreness⁽²¹⁾. But a recent study on soccer players showed that cherry juice consumption before and after matches made no difference in recovery when judged in terms of performance (jump height and strength)⁽²²⁾.

Moreover, a large systematic review study on antioxidant supplementation in general and muscle soreness recovery looked at 50 studies on this topic⁽²³⁾. It concluded that high-dose antioxidant supplementation did not result in a significant reduction of muscle soreness after exercise at up to 6 hours or at 24, 48, 72 and 96 hours after exercise, and also that there was little evidence antioxidant improved recovery.

But the curcumin compounds in turmeric are not the same as the polyphenols found in tart cherry juice, and the evidence for the anti-inflammatory effects of curcumin is very robust indeed. For example, one review study investigated whether supplementation with turmeric or curcumin extract can help reduce pain and improve physical function in individuals with chronic and painful knee osteoarthritis⁽²⁴⁾. The researchers also compared the therapeutic response (pain and knee function) of turmeric with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. The key finding was that all ten studies reviewed showed significant improvements in pain and function with turmeric therapy. In the three studies comparing turmeric to NSAIDs, there were no differences in outcome scores - in other words, the turmeric therapy was just as effective as the use of NSAIDs such as Ibuprofen!

New research

To try and provide a clearer picture, a new study by British scientists has investigated the effects of curcumin supplementation on the subjective recovery and performance parameters professional soccer players⁽²⁵⁾. Published, in the International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance, this study was designed as a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, crossover trial (the most scientifically rigorous type of scientific study) and studied 11 players from the under-23 team of an English Premier League club. All the players conducted two trials:

·        Immediately after a 90-minute match, then again 12 hours and 36 later, 500mgs of curcumin extract was consumed.

·        On another occasion where a 90-minute match was played, the same pattern of supplementation (immediately after, 12 hours and 36 later) was followed, but this time using an inert placebo was taken.

To determine what effect the curcumin had (or didn’t have), the players underwent assessment before each match, and then again immediately after the match and at 12 and 36 hours afterwards. These assessments included:

·        Countermovement jump height performance.

·        Reactive strength (a measure of how high an athlete jumps after landing compared to the ground contact time – a good measure of the dynamic strength required in a sports setting).

·        The degree of delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS).

·        Subjective recovery (how recovered the soccer players felt in themselves).

In addition, to these measures, player tracking using GPS devices was used in both matches to ensure total loads were similar and dietary intake was also recorded across the testing period (again to ensure that there were no significant differences pre and post matches.

What they found

Once it was confirmed that the loadings in the two matches and the dietary intakes before and after were not significantly different, the assessment results were analyzed. The key finding to emerge was that, compared to placebo, when curcumin was taken, the expected decline in jump height and reactive strength following a 90-minute match were very significantly reduced at all the time points after the match. In addition, DOMS was significantly reduced at all time points too. Overall, the researchers concluded that in elite soccer players performing at a high level, curcumin supplementation reduces muscle function deficits and muscle soreness, and therefore aids recovery in professional players.

Implications for athletes

Although there have been a number of studies investigating the effects of antioxidant and phytochemical-rich supplements (eg tart cherry extract, beetroot juice etc) on the recovery of field sport players, this is the first study that has looked at curcumin as a nutritional strategy. While this study was small in size, its rigorous design and highly significant findings provide robust evidence that curcumin may be able to succeed in enhancing recovery where other supplements such as tart cherry juice have failed. Having said that, this is just one study and as always, we would ideally like more studies to confirm these very positive findings.

While this study looked at elite soccer players, there’s no reason to believe that the positive effects of curcumin on recovery shouldn’t equally apply to other team sport athletes such as rugby, basketball, football, baseball, hockey etc players. In terms of practical application, the potential benefits of curcumin supplementation in terms of physical performance are most apparent within the first 12-24 hours of recovery after a match. This suggests that curcumin is most likely to benefit players during periods of fixture congestion or knockout tournaments, when matches often have to be played with minimal recovery time.

If you’re a team sport player (or any other kind of athlete for that matter), should you consider using curcumin as a recovery supplement? As mentioned above, we would ideally like to see more data from other studies on curcumin and recovery. In its favor however, curcumin is a very cheap and readily available supplement. On top of that, there are no known health drawbacks of consuming it on a regular basis. Indeed, the reality is quite the opposite as dozens and dozens of studies have demonstrated the numerous health benefits of curcumin. On the current evidence therefore, it seems that athletes have much to gain and little to lose by spicing up their recovery with curcumin!

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