My Swanson Turmeric Review – Why It Didn’t Work Out For Me
It’s time for my Swanson Turmeric review, a product that I decided to try because of its popularity on Amazon. Though it’s really cheap and has lots of reviews, it also has several drawbacks.
The turmeric inside the pills is darker and there are 2 different versions of this supplement around. Besides, I didn’t manage to find the ingredient list easily, because it wasn’t written anywhere.
So what lies behind this product? Is it a scam or it’s a legit supplement? It’s time to dig deep into it.
Note: This review is based on my experience with this product, so it may or may not agree with other reviews you find. I am not trying to praise/criticize the product or the company, I am simply telling how it worked in my case
So Let’s Get To The Review
Full Name: Turmeric Supplement from Swanson
Quantity : 240 capsules
Best Actual Price: $14.49
Where I Bought It From: Ebay
Worth The Price?: Though it’s really cheap, I didn’t like it. There’s no bioperine and the turmeric they’re using is really dark. It may work only if you have a small pain
My Rating: 3.20/ 10.00
What I Liked About It
- It’s even cheaper than it seems: for $15 you get 240 pills, which is enough for 120 days. This is a really big advantage
- At first sight, it contains a pretty good dose of turmeric (720 mg)
- It decreased some of the swelling from my ankles, which most supplements can’t do
What I Didn’t Like About It
- It only contains one ingredient – turmeric powder. There’s no bioperine or turmeric extract
- There are 2 versions of this supplement, depending on where you buy it from. I bought it from Ebay and received the newer versions, but I saw Amazon still sells the older format (only the label and the bottle are different, from what I read)
- The color of the pills is darker than others. I once read that it’s because the turmeric inside was processed more, but I’m not 100% sure it’s true
- I couldn’t find the ingredient list anywhere. Most websites that I checked out didn’t have it, so I had to look for it a long time
- In terms of pain, it decreased my knee pain from a 7 to a 6 (at most) and it made my hands a bit softer than usual
- I personally would not buy it again, at least not for a chronic pain like mine
The Ingredient List – There’s Only Turmeric
If there’s one thing that really matters about a supplement, it’s surely its ingredient list. And before I decided on this supplement, that’s exactly what I was looking for.
But surprisingly, I couldn’t find Swanson turmeric’s ingredients anywhere. Most supplements have a picture of the back label, but this one didn’t have any. I couldn’t find anything on the official website either, which was extremely frustrating.
After checking out several reviews, I did manage to find an ingredient list.
But unfortunately, it was as I expected. This supplement only contains one thing:
- Turmeric powder (1.44 g) – that would be around 1440 mg per serving, which means that every pill contains about 720 mg. That’s a really good quantity at first sight
Other than that, there are 2 more ingredients: magnesium stearate and gelatin, but they are both inactive ingredients so I wouldn’t count them in.
So at the end of the day, the only thing inside these pills is turmeric powder. The good news is that the dose is very high. The bad news is that all the other essential substances are missing. There’s no turmeric extract, no curcuminoides, no anything.
That’s why I can’t praise its ingredients. But there’s one ingredient I really wish that was on that list. Bioperine.
I Couldn’t Find Any Bioperine On The List
So I could get over the fact that there’s only turmeric powder inside these pills. I wish there also was the extract, but things are fine this way. After all, 1440 mg of turmeric per day is a really good quantity, even for my chronic pain.
But here comes the tricky part – there’s no bioperine.
If you’re used to turmeric supplements, you probably know that our body doesn’t absorb turmeric alone. From 500 mg, it may absorb only about 150-200, nothing more. On the other hand, if there are only 5 mg of bioperine, our body will absorb all those 500 mg of turmeric easily.
So all you need is very little bioperine to make a difference. Otherwise, you’re not making the most of the turmeric you’re taking – it simply can’t do much without bioperine.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any milligram of bioperine in this supplement’s list.
So from those 1440 mg of turmeric that I take daily, my body will only absorb about 400-500. The average dose of turmeric is 1000-1500 mg per day, so I would only be getting 500 mg. That’s not even half.
Now, for someone with a minor pain, that may be enough. Turmeric is an anti-inflammatory, so if you only have one pain, 500 mg will surely treat it. But what happens if you have swollen joints all over your body, like I do? In this case, you really need bioperine if you want some relief.
It Really Can’t Work Without Bioperine
After seeing the ingredient list, it was hard to think that these pills could do anything. 500 mg of turmeric is such a small quantity that it can only treat a pain in a healthy person. So how could it treat the pain for someone with rheumatoid arthritis?
Unfortunately, that’s pretty hard.
Lots of studies showed that turmeric doesn’t get absorbed without bioperine, so it’s pretty useless to take it alone. It’s almost like taking placebo. If you have a temporary pain, it may help.
But if your problem is chronic and intense, don’t waste your time on a supplement without bioperine.
That’s why I didn’t expect much from this supplement, nor from any supplement that doesn’t have bioperine. You don’t always have to try something out to see if it works or not. And when it comes to turmeric supplements, bioperine is usually the best way to see this.
I Noticed There Are 2 Versions Of This Supplement
When I checked out the official site, I couldn’t find too many things about this supplement. The biggest part of its description was very general, talking about the benefits of turmeric. As I said before, I couldn’t even find a picture of the ingredient list.
However, I did find a picture with the bottle. It was hard to see the pills inside, but at least I knew how the bottle looked like.
I then went on Ebay and bought this thing from there, because I found a better price. However, I noticed this one looked different. It had the same ingredients and number of pills, but the label and the brand logo looked completely different.
I also found the first version on Ebay, but there were only one or 2 sellers that had it.
Well, I decided to order the second version and I was really curious to see what I would receive.
I got my package in a few weeks (Ebay takes longer to ship) and I realized I had received the right supplement. It was just like the one from the photo, so they didn’t send me the other version.
But what about the other bottle? Why were there 2?
I found out the answer after browsing around other reviews. According to what I read, the bottle I ordered was the newer version of this supplement and the one I first saw was the older one. So in reality, everyone is getting the new version, but some sellers still have the photo with the older bottle.
I Remember That The Powder Was Darker Than Normal
Once I made sure I got the right thing, it was time to check out the inside. The ingredients were the same as online and so was the number of capsules.
But there was something more. After opening the bottle and taking a look at the pills, I noticed that they weren’t as orange as they should be.
What do I mean? Well, turmeric pills usually have the same color, no matter what brand you’re buying. They’re a deep orange, not close to brown. However, the pills I had just received were much darker than orange.
In fact, they were much darker than any other turmeric pills I have seen.
The capsules were transparent, so you could easily see the real color of the powder. And this one was almost a brown, it was surely not a deep orange. I even compared it with one of the pills I’m regularly using, and the difference was visible.
From what I know, the turmeric powder that has a darker tone isn’t as natural as the regular one. It’s like it’s been more processed, so it’s not as natural as it should be. That’s what gives it this darker color.
I’m not very sure of this, but that’s what I read. And in my opinion, it really makes sense. So I wasn’t extremely satisfied with these pills, even before trying them. They just didn’t look right.
But anyway, it was really time to get to action and stop drawing conclusions based on theory. This time I needed facts, so I started taking these pills.
My Experience With This Supplement
My Initial Pain: I suffered from rheumatoid arthritis so joint pain was a usual part of my life. The most painful parts of my body were my knees and hands (about a 7 on the pain scale). I also had morning stiffness in both of my hands for about an hour after waking up.
In other words, I had the typical symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis. I had already found the proper treatment for my body, so I was using that supplement on a regular basis.
However, I stopped taking the pills a few days before, so that I could see the real effect of Swanson’s turmeric.
Week 1: I started taking 2 pills per day, one after breakfast and one in the evening. In the first days I tried to take the pills before eating, but I always got a really bad stomach pain. So just like most turmeric supplements, it’s better to take this one after eating and with plenty of water.
Regarding my pain, I didn’t notice any big change. My hands were still stiff for one hour, my knees were also painful and I could hardly move at times.
Week 4: For one month, I didn’t get any big improvement. My morning stiffness seemed to decrease, but it would still last for about 40-50 minutes, so the difference wasn’t huge.
However, in the 4th week I did notice that the swelling from my ankles had decreased considerably. They weren’t very painful before, but they used to be pretty swollen so I could hardly take any shoes I wanted. But this time, they looked almost like the ankles of a normal person.
Unfortunately, my knees were still painful and I couldn’t bend down or make any fast movements. The pain may have decreased a bit, but I got to a 6 at most, which isn’t that incredible. In fact, I don’t even think it was a 6, but let’s assume it was.
2 Months Conclusions
I continued to take the pills for another month, just to see if I could get any visible improvement. In fact, I took them for 50 days, which isn’t exactly 2 months. But I guess I had found out enough.
I had already figured out everything I needed to know about this product.
Conclusion #1 – It did almost nothing for my knee pain. It used to be a 7 before and I got to a 6 after one month of treatment. That was still too painful to do anything, so I can’t say there was a big improvement.
Besides, I needed one month to get to that 6, so it didn’t happen very fast. So when it comes to healing pain, I wasn’t really satisfied. At least not for chronic pain.
Conclusion #2 – My hand stiffness decreased with 20 minutes. It would last about an hour before, and after 1 month it started going away after 40 minutes. Compared to my knee pain, that was a really big improvement.
Conclusion #3 – It helped my swollen ankles. That’s an effect I rarely saw before, and it really made me wonder a bit. My ankles were pretty swollen sometimes, but this supplement really kept that swelling under control. I saw this effect after about 3-4 weeks.
My Final Verdict – Is It Worth It?
If you have a temporary inflammation or a minor pain, then yes, this supplement is probably worth it. However, if your pain is chronic or you have an inflammatory condition, I don’t think it’s the best choice. At least for me, it wasn’t.
And I even know why. It only contains turmeric powder and it doesn’t have any bioperine or turmeric extract (curcuminoides). It does have a good dose of turmeric, but that’s only at first sight. As there’s no bioperine, more than 50% of turmeric won’t get absorbed, so it’s that much after all.
Besides, there are a few things I personally didn’t like about these pills: they contain a different powder (way darker than it should be), I had to search a lot after its ingredients and I found 2 versions of the bottle.
It also has advantages, like its price. It’s not the cheapest supplement ever, but it’s pretty affordable for everyone. However, despite being that cheap, I’m not going to buy it again. For me, it simply did not work as I wished.
