My Detailed Review of CurcuminMD Plus As A Longtime Customer

In this review article I evaluate the ingredients, dosage, & effectiveness of 1MD’s CurcuminMD Plus that my wife & I have taken for over the past 2 years or so.

Formerly known as Advanced Turmeric Curcumin x285, CurcuminMD Plus is formulated differently than many of the turmeric curcumin supplements you’ll come across in the marketplace.

CurcuminMD’s works for me & for other people I know

It has proven itself effective for hundreds (if not thousands) of people, my wife & I included. She took it daily and it kept the pain from an arthritic hip at bay this entire time.

By the way, she has worked in medicine for over 40 years. Started as an R.N. at a major U.S. hospital and now has been involved in running Phase III human clinical research trials since 1999, studies that target cancer & genetic disorders.

On my end – I’ve taken CurcuminMD off & on for a few months at a time over the past couple of years too.

I find it knocks back the pain in my joints — especially elbows & knees — so that I can keep a decent weightlifting & cardio routine going, or work outside on my property without moanin’ & groanin’ about it afterwards.

For me, CurcuminMD takes a couple of weeks for its effectiveness to kick in. I stay on it until the joint pain stops bothering me at all, usually 6-8 weeks, and I’ve found it remains effective for weeks after I’ve paused.

Science resources included

As is my custom here on heydayDo, I will provide links to all of the relevant sports science and medical resources, clinical studies, & nutritional data used in this article.

 

What’s next

A little later on I’ll share the nutrition science research I found regarding the ingredients found in CurcuminMD, & I’ll also provide a Turmeric/Curcumin 101 section if you’re unfamiliar with what the difference is between a legitimate turmeric product & a useless one.

Turmeric/curcumin products of all sorts have swarmed the supplement market lately, but most are ineffective & I’ll show you why.

Armed with the facts you won’t get tricked into wasting your money.

 

CurcuminMD Plus summary

* CurcuminMD Plus is a turmeric curcumin supplement that is based on the unique formula Longvida®, coupled with the clinically-proven anti-arthritic, boswellia serrata.

* Longvida curcumin can help reduce common joint-related stiffness, swelling, & discomfort, and promote overall well-being.

* Boswellia serrata enhances those benefits, helps maintain strong cartilage & reduces oxidative stress.

* 1MD’s CurcuminMD Plus was created by a team of reputable physicians, each with their own medical practice in the Los Angeles area.

Supplement hype vs. facts

A brief reality check if I may, always a good thing when wandering down the health & fitness supplement aisles…

Supplements are regulated far less intensely than are pharmaceuticals by the FDA. (1)

No surprise then that it has become a huge & profitable industry, with an estimated sales of over $123 billion back in 2019 & $olid $ales growth projected over the next $everal year$. (2)

Manufacturers of all stripes are marketing all sorts of concoctions at us, even as research shows that many supplements don’t do a dang thing to improve our health. (3)

 

Due diligence is good for things we swallow

Thus I think it’s real important to parse through as much relevant information as we can when it comes to health & fitness supplements we’re considering taking.

Especially with social-trending products like turmeric curcumin supplements, where marketers make a lot of bold (& sometimes unfounded) statements about the great health benefits that come in their bottle.

Courtesy of Paramount Pictures

 

All this to say I’ll cover a bit of ground in this product review of the 1MD turmeric curcumin supplement, CurcuminMD Plus.

CurcuminMD Plus review topics

Here are some of the areas we’ll be looking at:

• Supplement Facts / Ingredients
• Dosage strength
• Certifications & manufacturing quality
• Pricing vs. competitors
• Buyer reviews
• Company background

 

Advanced Turmeric Curcumin x285…

…is no longer the name for 1MD’s flagship turmeric curcumin supplement.

It was renamed CurcuminMD Plus, which is a lot easier to say & remember than “Advanced Turmeric Curcumin x285”, and the name fits in line with some of the other health products the company sells:

LiverMD – Liver cleanse

GutMD – Digestive tract health

BiomeMD – Probiotics for women

MoveMD – Joint relief

ProstateMD – Prostate health

 

Where to buy Advanced Turmeric Curcumin x285 CurcuminMD Plus

1MD’s product line (over twenty supplements) is sold exclusively on their website 1MD.org or on Amazon, the small exception being the stray online reseller here & there.

Just note that their prices on Amazon are much higher than what 1MD is selling them for on their website, if you buy more than a single bottle or sign up for their auto-ship program.

 

Watch out for old version bottles on Amazon

Although 1MD has changed the name of Advanced Turmeric Curcumin x285 to CurcuminMD Plus, bottles with the old name may still pop up on Amazon through third-party resellers.

My 2¢ opinion: 1MD changed this product’s name to CurcuminMD Plus a couple of years ago. Anyone selling a bottle with the old “Advanced Turm…” name on it is trying to dump stale supplements on you.

 

CurcuminMD Plus buyer ratings

All of 1MD’s products have very good to excellent ratings from their purchasers and CurcuminMD Plus is no exception, with a 4.7 star rating from over 3,000 buyers, 94% of whom gave it a 5 or 4-star review.

 

Know your turmeric supplements well?

We’re about to dive into the meat ‘n potatoes part of the CurcuminMD Plus review, and if you’re brand new to turmeric curcumin extract supplements some of the info I present might be unfamiliar to you.

So…

…down in the last part of this article I’ve prepared a section called Crash Course in Turmeric Supplements, <<< & that’s a link to it.

It has all the essential facts to get anyone who doesn’t know anything about turmeric supplements up to speed in just a couple of minutes, and those blue words will take you there.

When you’re done, there’s a link down there that’ll bring you back up here.

 

CurcuminMD Plus ingredients & doses

Let’s get into what’s in CurcuminMD Plus and how much of each ingredient there is in a daily serving.

Here’s a look at the CurcuminMD Supplement Facts label:

Nice & simple with just these two ingredients:

*Longvida®

This is the patented curcumin formula I mentioned earlier.

If you’re unfamiliar with Longvida, I go into detail about both the science behind it & the clinical research that’s been done on it in my article 4 Best Longvida Optimized Curcumin Brands here on heydayDo.

 

DOSAGE:

A single serving of CurcuminMD Plus delivers 400 mg of Longvida, which provides 80 mg of curcumin.

This might seem on the light side if you’re familiar with the top-quality curcumin supplements on the market today.

A couple of them deliver doses of 1000 mg of enhanced-absorption curcumin, which is well within the dosing range used in successful curcumin clinical trials that are based on turmeric extract formulas made with absorption-enhancing black pepper extract.

Turmeric extract doses from black pepper-enhanced curcumin supplements.

 

However…

Longvida has a completely different mechanism of action than these ‘regular’ turmeric extract formulas, so those curcumin dosage numbers do not apply to Longvida at all.

 

*Boswellia Serrata Extract

This has been standardized to 65% purity strength, which is well within the bounds of a high quality boswellia extract.

 

DOSAGE:

A serving of CurcuminMD Plus has 333 mg of Boswellia extract in it, so when standardized to 65% it delivers about 220 mg per daily dose.

The Arthritis Foundation provides a very wide dosing range for boswellia’s use in treating osteoarthritis &/or rheumatoid arthritis, and CurcuminMD Plus’s 220 mg per day is right in the middle of their acceptable range.

Let’s now go over Boswellia & Longvida in more detail.

 

What is Boswellia Serrata?

This is a tree from which its resins are used to make the aromatic Indian frankincense, which you may recognize from Biblical fame (“We Three Kings”) or from the incense aisle in a herbal store.

The Boswellia Serrata resin has been used in Ayurvedic & other Eastern traditional medicine for centuries. (6)

A Boswellia Serrata tree

 

Boswellia’s healing properties

Boswellia extract has proven itself in recent times too, with clinical studies demonstrating a few health benefits, particularly in the areas of inflammation & osteoarthritis.

My slightly informed guess was that this is why it’s included in 1MD’s CurcuminMD Plus, although on their website’s product page for CurcuminMD Plus 1MD writes that

“its antioxidant powers boost the effects of the curcumin.”

In their comprehensive 2017 book Nutritional Modulators of Pain in the Aging Population, editors concluded:

“There is sufficient evidence to prove the clinical efficacy of Boswellia in patients with osteoarthritis.” (8)

 

So I decided I’d poke around the medical research department and see what’s up.

 

Boswellia helps with osteoarthritis

One of the clinical trials where boswellia’s effectiveness at improving osteoarthritis symptoms was clearly demonstrated was an 8-week study on osteoarthritis of the knee:

“All patients receiving drug treatment reported decrease in knee pain, increased knee flexion and increased walking distance. The frequency of swelling in the knee joint was decreased.” (9)

Here’s a brief overview video on boswellia serrata & its medicinal properties:

 

In the US Library of Medicine database I also came across an article published in Nutrition Journal that provided a review of several Boswellia extract research studies, all dedicated to arthritic pain.

Looks to me like all of the studies showed some benefit occurred from Boswellia supplementation; here’s a table summarizing the results:

If the text is too small to decipher I apologize, so here’s a link to the original article’s table:

Benefits of Antioxidants for Knee Osteoarthritis – Table

 

Ingredient #2

Longvida® Curcumin Extract

I’ll provide a bullet-pointed summary of its main attributes here, but if you’d like a lot more info…

…as I mentioned a bit ago, I go into great detail on the unique curcumin formula Longvida® in my article, 4 Best Longvida Optimized Curcumin Brands here on heydayDo.

Some of the topics I cover there are:

• Longvida’s origins in a UCLA neurology lab;
• how Longvida works;
• human clinical trials testing Longvida;
• background on the company making Longvida;
• sourcing of the curcumin used in Longvida;
• “and a whole lot more” as they say.

 

About Longvida

* Due to Longvida’s one-of-a-kind formula, it has proven in multiple studies that its curcumin is up to 285x more bioavailable than your typical 95% standardized curcumin.

* Bioavailability is a big deal, because curcumin is not absorbed well at all by our bodies.

* The curcumin extract in Longvida has been “wrapped” in phospholipids (a type of fat molecule) which allows it to make it through our digestive system and absorbed into our bloodstream.

* Longvida has had over two dozen clinical research trials conducted on its effect on a variety of health issues.

* There are a handful of brands besides 1MD who’re putting Longvida in their turmeric curcumin supplement — though there’s no Boswellia at work in them — and I discuss the better ones in that Longvida article I mentioned.

 

About 1MD, CurcuminMD Plus’s company

Here’s a little background info on the people behind CurcuminMD Plus.

All four of the gentlemen you see below are practicing physicians in the Southern California area, & they are the ones who have created the clinical formulas found in 1MD supplements, CurcuminMD included.

Who owns 1MD?

1MD is one of the health & beauty brands brand owned by Scale Media, who recently were awarded a spot on Forbes Magazine’s coveted America’s Best Startup Employers list in 2023.

For the 4th year in a row.

Scale Media was co-founded by the innovative entrepreneurial team of Ben Flohr and Ziv Haklili, and manage four other brands besides CurcuminMD. As of today, Sale Media’s companies have 119 products on the market, 1.6 million customers, & nearly 6 million products sold.

 

1MD company goal

“Our mission is simple: helping people live longer, healthier lives through the powerful integration of advanced science and nature.

We’re dedicated to helping you regain your vitality by providing a gateway to health which includes innovative health supplements and access to the latest research news, nutrition, and fitness, so you can lead a stronger, healthier life.”

(from the About page on the 1MD.org website)

 

Over 20 specialized supplements

If I’m counting correctly, 1MD makes a total of 21 supplements including the CurcuminMD Plus we’re looking at in this article.

All of them target specific areas within our bodies:

• Digestive health (8 products)
• Joint health (3)
• Heart health (3)
• Immune health (2)
• Prostate health
• Bone health (2)
• Eye health
• Brain health

As I said way back when, all of the products I looked at on Amazon & 1MD’s site had great buyer feedback & high ⭐ ratings too.

 

Their physicians create the formulas

1MD has four medical doctors who create their patented supplement formulas; I share their names & respective fields of medicine below.

Each of these physicians has their own successful medical practice in the Los Angeles area, and all have solid local reputations.

They put their names, faces, & those professional reputations on the line, front & center with their 1MD supplements.

They’re practicing physicians, not an internet supplement company

My gut feeling is that these physicians, given that they all have active medical practices, do not operate or oversee the day to day e-commerce side of 1MD.

1MD’s four doctors are the ones who have formulated 1MD’s supplements, using their medical experience and expertise to insure the ingredients & the dosages chosen are those used in clinical research trials where benefits were observed.

 

1MD’s physicians have written lots of specific health guides

The four doctors behind 1MD created the supplement formulas to their specifications, and have written dozens of excellent articles on their site that go into great detail over their thought processes on how to treat each of the health conditions their supplement formulas target.

And the articles are written in a way that even a regular non-science dude like me can understand what’s up. 😉

 

Manufacturing quality

1MD’s facilities conform to GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) standards, a U.S. Drug Administration designation indicating that 1MD has taken

“proactive steps to ensure that their products are safe, pure, and effective.” (21)

This standard lets consumers know that the company making their food, drug, or supplement is in full compliance with Federal Law regarding consumer safety.

1MD is also NSF-certified.

NSF (the National Sanitation Foundation) is an accredited, third-party testing organization whose certification verifies that the supplement products 1MD makes & sells meet or exceed all public health & safety standards.

 

1MD’s thoughts on product cost

The makers of CurcuminMD Plus, have this to say regarding cost:

“Our motto is: Cheaper is not better. 

We promise our formulas actually do what they say they do because our products are designed with clinically-studied ingredients at the specified clinical dose which was proven to be effective, delivering to you superior health supplements. 

After all, your health is our mission, so why would we (and YOU) settle for anything less?”  (1MD About page)

 

CurcuminMD is much cheaper on their website vs. Amazon

Note that you can get it for a lot cheaper than their listed Amazon price if you buy directly from their website, BUT ONLY IF you order multiple bottles or sign up for their Subscribe & Save program.

 

When I visited their website for the first time I saw that if I bought just 1 bottle, I’d pay the same price as what Amazon is charging ($44.99).

And as you might expect, the more you order at once the cheaper the price drops: 3 bottles @ $39 each, 6 bottles @ $34.

Currently as I write this, their cheapest price is if you go all in with Subscribe & Save with a 6-month dose shipped to you twice a year: $26.99 per bottle.

Doing a little quick math tells me the Amazon price is 40% higher.

I bought 6 months’ worth for the missus to try & see if 1MD’s Longvida+Boswellia combo would help her hip joint pain issue.

I did this since she didn’t notice any improvement while taking a curcumin product that was using black pepper extract as the absorption enhancer for a number of months.

She felt better within days, which is unusual, and I attribute that to the effectiveness of boswellia at least as much as the Longvida curcumin.

 

I was bombarded during the checkout process

I found the checkout on 1MD’s site kind of a pain-in-the-butt, because they hammered me with “Why don’t you buy this too!” pop-up ads for other products they sell.

Whatever.

I soldiered on through all that crap since I saved over a hundred dollars for the six month supply compared to buying it on Amazon. 😉

 

Bottom line on CurcuminMD Plus

* No doubt (in my mind anyway), CurcuminMD Plus is one of the best curcumin supplements on the market, simply because 1MD is making theirs using Longvida® vs. generic turmeric powder.

* Longvida has sound research demonstrating its potential benefit in key health areas.

* The addition of Boswellia Extract is a welcome ingredient for someone dealing with inflammation or osteoarthritis pain & decreased mobility in their joints, as it’s supported by clinical results too.

FAQ about 1MD, curcumin, & boswellia

Here are answers to a couple of the most common questions about taking curcumin &/or boswellia supplements.

 

Up next: the truth about turmeric supplements

Alrighty then, this next section is the turmeric tutorial I promised you way back at the beginning of the article.

Feel free to skip this section if you are already familiar with:

• turmeric,
• its bioactive compounds (curcuminoids),
• & how certain supplement companies are taking advantage of consumers who aren’t aware of what makes a turmeric product work (or not).

I wrote it up to help anyone not skilled at telling a great turmeric curcumin supplement from one that’ll do nothing for you.

There are plenty of those in the marketplace these days as manufacturers capitalize on turmeric-mania. Just look at the number of products available:

 

Crash course in turmeric supplements

Knowledge is power, and lesson #1 is a one-liner:

Be aware that most turmeric supplements on the market these days are a waste of your money.

 

Synopsis: I figured I’d share a bit of factual information with you, so you can cut through the marketing hype and zero in on the handful of curcumin supplements that are worth paying for.

😉

Curcumin 101

Curcuma longa

The curcuma longa plant is where it all starts, specifically where its rhizomes (underground sideways stems) are growing.

 

Turmeric

Those rhizomes are what we call turmeric, and they’re dried & ground into the well-known orangish yellow powder that’s used as a spice…and now a billion dollar supplement niche too.

NOTE: The word ‘turmeric’ is obviously a common sight on most turmeric products’ Supplement Facts labels.

“What, it’s not on all of them?”

Nope, check it out:

That’s 1MD’s Amazon listing for their CurcuminMD Plus product on top with the Turmeric in the title, and its Supplement Facts label underneath, without any reference to turmeric.

 

Curcumin

Curcumin is the chemical inside turmeric rhizomes & powder that has the health benefits everyone’s clamoring for; it’s what gives turmeric that deep yellow color.

NOTE: This word has to be on the Supplement Facts label of any turmeric product you’re thinking of getting…I’ll tell you why in a sec.

And the word Extract had better always accompany it, and I’ll tell you why in a sec. 😜

 

Curcuminoids

This is the name for the bioactive compounds that have the healing power that’s proven itself effective for treating a few different human health problems.

NOTE: You don’t have to see the word curcuminoids on the Supplement Facts label of a high-quality turmeric curcumin product; check out CurcuminMD Plus’ label above.

 

(In their case it’s because Longvida® is a protected formula, so they don’t have to disclose that.)

 

But the makers of most good curcumin supplements want you to know they have a quality product.

So they’ll have the word curcuminoids on their Supplement Facts label, & it’s often displayed like so:

 

Must-know facts about turmeric supplements

*The amount of curcumin in turmeric root powder is very very little…only 3%. (14)

*Worse still, curcumin is VERY poorly absorbed by our body, as our digestive system just gets rid of it before it can get in our bloodstream. (15)

*The amount of curcumin used in clinical studies where curcumin proved itself is dozens of times greater than the amount found in any turmeric powder supplement.

*So the amount of turmeric root powder in a supplement means almost nothing, even when it’s a big number:

That “big number” – 1350 mg of turmeric root powder – only provides 41 mg of curcumin. (1350 x 3%)

The effective clinical doses of curcumin have been roughly between 1000-1500 mg of curcumin. (15)

Doing the math you easily see that even a lot of turmeric powder is not going to cut it, health benefits-wise.

 

Adequate curcumin requires concentrated extract

The only way to swallow enough curcumin every day to get health benefit is by taking supplements where sufficient curcumin has been concentrated into an extract.

NOTE: It will be most often be listed as a turmeric extract on the Supplement Facts label:

Reminder >> Unique, patented curcumin extract formulas like Longvida® & others sometimes aren’t listed as ‘turmeric extract’.

For example, on the CurcuminMD Plus label 1MD says “Optimized Curcumin Extract (From Curcuma Longa Root)”.

 

Summary

So that’s my quick lesson on turmeric curcumin supplements for you 😊.

Hope it helps you avoid getting bamboozled by a hyped-up marketer with a crappy turmeric product.

If you need to return to where we left off, click this blue link to go back up to the CurcuminMD Plus Ingredients section.

 

Wrapping up

Related turmeric curcumin resources here on heydayDo

I’ve researched the main turmeric curcumin formulas used in clinical trials and many of the brands that use them.

Here are other curcumin articles I’ve published:

Spring Valley Turmeric Curcumin Review

7 Best Curcumin Supplements with the Curcuminoids We Need

All About BCM-95

Theracurmin Review

Solgar Full Spectrum Curcumin

4 Best Longvida Optimized Brands 

CuraMed vs. CuraMin

Primal Force Curcumin Triple Burn

BioSchwartz Turmeric Curcumin Review

Life Extension Super Bio Curcumin

Terry Naturally CuraMed Review

 

I hope that my review article on 1MD’s CurcuminMD Plus turmeric supplement is useful to you, and that the research information on its key ingredients Longvida® & Boswellia extract is helpful too.

I wish you well on your fitness journey.

– greg