Turmeric is an amazing herb. There is research showing that it can help everything from inflammation to digestive problems to cancer. Turmeric on its own is not very well utilized. When taking turmeric, it’s important that it’s organic and that you take it with some fresh ground black pepper and something that contains fat such as an avocado, extra virgin coconut oil, or another good oil such as olive, avocado or sesame. Heating it slightly also makes it more absorbable.

To make tumeric paste: take a quarter of a cup of organic tumeric powder and add it to a half cup of water in a pan. Stir the mixture constantly for about 7 minutes. You will now have a paste. This paste can be stored in a glass container in the refrigerator for about two weeks. Take a teaspoon of this paste and mix it with about a cup of a nondairy milk such as coconut, almond, hemp, or oat. You can add a teaspoon of oil and a sweetener (if you like) such as grade B organic Maple syrup or Stevia. Adding about a quarter teaspoon of oil will enhance its effectiveness. Adding a few shakes of fresh ground black pepper makes it even more effective. This is called golden milk.

Drinking this every day will give you the best bang for your buck when it comes to turmeric. You can also use the paste when cooking soups, stews, stir fry, or any other savory dish that you like. If you are taking a turmeric capsule, be sure to take it with something that contains fat and if you eat something that has black pepper in it at the same time, all the better.

Along with supplementing with turmeric, I would suggest you avoid alcohol, meat (especially grilled meat), sugar, dairy, coffee, soda and artificial sweetener. You need to eat more raw veggies and just a little fruit. There are certain supplements that might help. I would start with Dr Joe’s Super Greens and Dr Joe’s Essential Source, but I don’t like to make any more supplement suggestions until I know more about the patient.

Nutrition is important to help reduce inflammation and give the body the nutrients it needs to heal, but in order to fully obtain and maintain good health, you need to also have a normally functioning nervous system and a normally functioning digestive system. 90% of your nerves don’t feel pain, so you can have a malfunctioning nerve(s) and not know it. That’s why I like to check, just to make sure.

If you have a specific health or pain related issue and you would like to set up a no charge, private consultation with me to evaluate your skeletal system to see if you have pinched nerves that might be adversely affecting your health, please feel free to contact my office at 770-427-7387. At that time we can also do a screening of your digestive system to see how it is doing, and we can discuss diet and the possible use of supplements as well.

If we determine that this is something that I think we can work with, I’ll let you know. If you have issues that I don’t feel I can help, I can give you some other recommendations. I prefer to get to the cause of health issues and not just treat the symptoms. Also, if you’d like to bring a friend or family member with you, the consultation for them is also no charge.

Treatment in our office is covered by most insurance, including Medicare, and we do the billing for you. If you don’t have insurance, we have affordable cash plans available. If needed, we can usually get you an appointment within 48 hours. We have offices in Marietta, Stockbridge and Duluth.

If it is not practical for you to come see me personally, or if you just want to talk about nutrition, you can set up just a nutritional consultation so I can look at your diet and see if I would suggest any dietary change and/or supplements, please go to my web site, drjoeesposito.com, go to the bottom of the home page and print out the forms from the link on the bottom of the page called “diet diary” and “symptom survey”. List everything you eat for the next 7 days on the diet diary and on the symptom survey, circle and of the symptoms listed that you have experienced in the past 6 months.

If you have not experienced the symptom in the past 6 months, just skip it.

Then either fax all the forms to me (fax number 770-426-1491) or scan and e-mail them back to me with way for me to contact you and we can do a phone consultation to see if I would suggest any diet changes and/or supplements.

The cost for the consultation is $100 and then if I suggest supplements, there would be an additional charge, but you can decide if you want to order the supplements that that time, there is no obligation to order any supplements.

I look forward to helping you obtain and maintain good health.

Dr Joe

(Note: if you are taking blood thinners, talk to me first before you take Dr Joe’s Super Greens and Dr Joe’s Essential Source.)