Curcumin Reduces Muscle Damage and Soreness Following Muscle‐Damaging Exercise
Authors: Jäger Ralf , Caldwell Aaron R , Sanders Elizabeth , Mitchell Joel B , Rogers James , Purpura Martin , Oliver Jonathan M 
Published: November 2023

The training of novice and competitive athletes involves the incorporation of unaccustomed exercise, likely to result in skeletal muscle tissue damage. The initial response, known to result in muscle soreness and swelling, and decreased forced production, is followed by a secondary inflammatory response integral in the skeletal muscle repair and recovery response. Athletes may benefit from a dampening of muscle damage and an accelerated recovery period, to support the performance of consequent bouts at maximal intensity. The antioxidant curcumin is able to counteract the two leading causes of muscle damage, oxidative stress and inflammation, as it interacts with multiple inflammatory pathways. This current study sought to examine the effect of differing doses of a highly bioavailable form of curcumin (CurcuWIN®, OmniActive) on muscle damage and recovery following a bout of muscle damaging exercise by assessing plasma cytokines (IL‐6, IL‐10, and TNF‐alpha), creatine kinase (CK), and perception of muscle soreness (VAS), before, immediately post, 1 hour post, and 24, 48, and 72 hours after a downhill running protocol. Fifty‐nine moderately trained men (n=30; 21±2 years; 173.8±20.0 cm; 79.4±11.0 kg) and women (n=29; 21±2 years; 164.9±6.5 cm; 60.1±8.0 kg) were randomly assigned to ingest 50 mg Curcuminoids (in the form of 250 mg CurcuWIN®), 200 mg Curcuminoids (in the form of 1,000 mg CurcuWIN®), or placebo (PLA) for eight weeks in a double‐blind, randomized, placebo controlled parallel design. Statistical analysis was performed using NCSS (NCSS 10 Statistical Software (2015); NCSS, LLC. Kaysville, Utah, USA). Statistical models specific to the evaluation of each outcome variable were formulated. 200 mg of Curcuminoids significantly reduced VAS pain scores, reflecting a subjects perception of pain in the thigh area, 24 hours post muscle damaging exercise (−1.74, p=0.03), and showed a trend one hour post exercise (−1.44, p=0.07), and non‐significant improvements at 48 (−0.94, p=0.24) and 72 hours (−0.41, p=0.60). Creatine kinase, a marker of muscle damage, increased immediately following the muscle damaging exercise bout and remained elevated for 48 hours post (p<0.001). Curcuminoids supplementation significantly reduced the increase in CK levels over the placebo group when the baseline CK value is held constant at the mean (−19.0 U•L−1, p=0.04 (200mg), and = −27.2 U•L−1, p=0.03 (50mg) respectively), with treatment effects being most pronounced in males. No significant differences were observed between treatments for cytokines at both doses. These data demonstrate curcuminoids reduce muscle damage and improve muscle soreness in healthy young subjects following a bout of muscle damaging exercise. Faster recovery allows for consistent training at competition intensity and might lead to enhanced adaptation rate and performance.

Support or Funding Information

This work was supported by OmniActive Health Technologies Ltd., Mumbai, India.