Summary: In a trial in type 2 diabetic patients at elevated cardiovascular risk, curcumin added to standard care lowered blood pressure, LDL cholesterol, and inflammatory and oxidative markers and improved ASCVD risk classification, but did not significantly change HbA1c, fasting glucose, total cholesterol, or triglycerides.
PICO Summary
| Element | Detail |
|---|---|
| Population | 72 patients with type 2 diabetes and an ASCVD risk score ≥5%; Egypt. |
| Intervention | Turmeric curcumin 500 mg three times daily plus conventional therapy. |
| Comparison | Conventional therapy alone. |
| Outcome | Curcumin reduced SBP and DBP (p≤0.001, 0.020), improved ASCVD risk classification (p=0.004), lowered LDL-C (p=0.024), TNF-α (p=0.044), and MDA (p=0.028), and raised HDL-C (p=0.024). No significant change in HbA1c, fasting glucose, total cholesterol, or triglycerides. Mild GI effects. |
Curcumin in diabetes with ASCVD risk
RCT · type 2 diabetes · 14 weeks
Adjunctive curcumin lowered SBP, DBP and LDL-C and improved ASCVD risk class versus conventional therapy alone. Glycaemic measures (HbA1c, fasting glucose) were unchanged.
Expert Commentary
Curcumin is one of the more biologically plausible nutraceuticals, with credible anti-inflammatory and antioxidant mechanisms, and this trial does show a coherent pattern, lower blood pressure, lower LDL, reduced TNF-alpha and MDA, and an improved risk classification. But honesty about the result requires correcting the earlier framing: it did not improve glycaemia. HbA1c, fasting glucose, total cholesterol, and triglycerides were all unchanged, so describing curcumin as improving glycaemic control overstates what was found. What it plausibly touched were inflammatory and lipid-oxidative pathways, not glucose. The deeper caveat is the one common to this whole field: these are surrogate markers over a short period, with no cardiovascular event data, a modest sample, and a literature prone to publication bias favouring positive curcumin studies. Curcumin is also poorly absorbed, so formulation matters. Can I use this with my patients? Only as a clearly secondary adjunct. For a motivated patient already on optimised statin, antihypertensive, and diabetes therapy who wishes to add curcumin, it is reasonable and low-risk, with a caution about GI effects and possible anticoagulant interaction. I would not let it substitute for proven therapy, nor imply it lowers blood sugar.
References
El-Rakabawy OM, Elkholy AA, Mahfouz AA, Abdelsalam MM, El Wakeel LM. Curcumin supplementation improves the clinical outcomes of patients with diabetes and atherosclerotic cardiovascular risk. Sci Rep. 2025;15(1):28358. doi:10.1038/s41598-025-09783-5