Experience of a flu-like illness in the time of COVID-19 and a potential role for turmeric in alleviating symptoms: a case study

Turmeric has been known in India since the time of the writing of the Charaka Samhita as a remedy for a wide range of illnesses, including respiratory illnesses. Laboratory investigations in cultured cells in the past several decades have shown that turmeric and its constituents influence signaling pathways and transcription factor activity, changes that are not incompatible with it having a beneficial effect. However, there are currently no rigorously designed modern investigations into the clinical efficacy of turmeric for respiratory illnesses. Here, the consumption of turmeric together with warm milk is anecdotally reported to have provided acute relief from severe congestion during a recent flu-like illness. Since the safety of turmeric has already been demonstrated by thousands of years of use, this report attempts to motivate the direct testing of its clinical efficacy for moderating the severity of flu-like respiratory illnesses in robustly designed clinical trials. doi: 10.38205/imcr.020119