I was buying a coffee the other day, and as I handed over a $20 note to pay, the barista glanced down at my fingers, 
and then back up at me with a look of disgust, before rapidly handing me my change and moving onto the next customer. I wondered what I had done to cause such a reaction, then I looked down at my fingers and realised that she was probably reacting to the an interesting yellow glow coming from my hands…. Now I should assure you (and my mother..) that I haven’t developed a 20 pack a day smoking habit, or some kind of strange skin disease, it is in fact a common side effect of working with copious amounts of turmeric.
Turmeric is without question, one of the most amazing natural products that I have ever come across. I work with it on a daily basis, and while it is awesome, it is messy… It will stain your table top, your wooden spoons and of course, when you deal with as much as I do making our Equine Recovery Bars, your fingers! Nothing a good scrubbing brush can’t take care of, but it’s become so normal to me that I barely notice that my hands have a somewhat yellow hue most of the time. If you have never used turmeric on your animals, or yourself for that matter, then you should. It has amazing anti-inflammatory properties and studies have shown it to be an effective anti-depressant and it shows promise in the fight against cancer (find out more here). The primary active ingredient in tumeric is curcumin, and it is this compound that gives turmeric it’s pungent colour – in fact, the intensity of the yellow colour is a good indicator of the concentration of curcumin in the turmeric, which can range from <1% to 5%, and thus the therapeutic potency of the turmeric itself.
My journey with turmeric started with Midnight. After the “curious incident of the gate in the night” Midnight was in a bad way, and even a year into his recovery, he was far from being sound. Then one fateful day, I was trawling through Facebook and came across a group called the ‘Turmeric User Group’ – I started to read these amazing testimonials about how turmeric had helped horses, dogs, cats, even people, with pain from injury and long term issues such as rheumatism and arthritis. So, I thought I would give it a try, and after one week of having Midnight on the combination of turmeric, olive oil and pepper at the heart of our Equine Recovery Bars, he came cantering over for his breakfast for the first time in over a year and a half since the accident.
After having Midnight on turmeric for several months and seeing the improvement in his condition, I decided to try it myself. I had been struggling with a bulging disc and impinged nerve in my lower back for over 6 months, and had been taking panadol osteo throughout the day to just get around – I had had an MRI to confirm the condition, and was saving up the $600 to get an injection to help to relieve the pain. But, before I went down that path, I thought I would give the tumeric a chance first – so I made up some capsules of the same blend of turmeric, olive oil and pepper that I use for the horses and popped one down the hatch one morning with breakfast. My drive to work is a long one (and quite uncomfortable with a bad back) so it took me by surprise when 30 minutes into the drive, I was singing, loudly, and quite frankly felt amazing. Not only did my back feel better, but my mind was clear and my mood was up, which for someone who struggles with depression and anxiety is an excellent side effect! Needless to say, I started taking the turmeric regularly from that day forward and am pleased to say that two years on, I haven’t been back on the panadol osteo, or resorted to the steroid injection to treat the condition, and continue to do well.
So the moral of the story is if you have a horse or a dog who is struggling with inflammation associated with injury, or joint issues such as arthritis, give turmeric a try. Our Equine Recovery Bars and Canine Miracle Bars contain the amazing turmeric paste that helped Midnight and myself, combined with other amazing, natural anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant ingredients (rosehip, msm, crushed linseed) all in a palatable easy to feed bar – no yellow fingers necessary!
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