My Spring Valley Turmeric & Curcumin Review – Why It’s Not Worth It

It’s time for my Spring Valley Turmeric & Curcumin review, a supplement I bought for 1 reason – popularity.

I heard a lot of things about it, so I was really curious to see what it can do. Besides, it wasn’t very expensive.

But price is the only good thing about it:

• The ingredients are very poor
• It lacks an essential substance
• It didn’t help me much overall

I had big hopes from it, but all I got was a minimal improvement in my pain. 

So let me show you the truth behind this supplement – some real facts that most reviews don’t mention.

Note: This review is based on my personal experience with this supplement, so it’s not about general info. I am not trying to praise/criticize the product or the company, I am simply telling how it worked for me.

 

So Let’s Get To The Review

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Full Name: Turmeric Curcumin Complex from Spring Valley

Dosage: 500 mg

Best Actual Price: $19.95

Where I Bought It From: Ebay

Designed For: Inflammation and pain caused by inflammation. Turmeric is the #1 herb for swelling, so it can make miracles for some form of arthritis (psoriatic or rheumatoid).

Now, I’m talking about turmeric in general – not about this supplement. 

On the other hand, turmeric doesn’t work amazingly in osteoarthritis. There’s little inflammation in OA – cartilage damage is the #1 problem. So you need something that rebuilds cartilages – like this product.

My Rating: 2.00 / 10.00

Worth The Price?: Definitely not – and here’s why I say this:

• basic ingredients
• very low doses
• there’s no bioperine

So you’re not getting the whole dose of turmeric – since there’s no bioperine. At almost $20 per bottle, it’s definitely not worth it.

Besides, I tried to increase the dose by taking more pills, but all I got was a bad diarrhea.

So I am definitely not going to spend my money on it again, if I can get something much better for a similar price

 

 

What I Liked About It

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• You only have to take 1 pill per day, which is really comfortable
• Average price
• Available in a lot of online shops (maybe even in regular stores, I didn’t try)
• It contains 90 capsules, so one bottle is enough for a long time
• Overall, the price is really good for the quantity you’re getting

 

What I Didn’t Like About It

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• Really low doses from each ingredient (under the average from the market)
• No bioperine, so your body will absorb less turmeric than it’s on the label (less than 50%)
• I got some diarrhea when I increased the dose. When I stopped taking the pills, the diarrhea stopped too
• Really expensive for the ingredients it has inside
• Overall I’m never going to buy it again because it was totally useless for me. If you have arthritis or chronic pain, I don’t recommend it to you either

 

 

 

The Ingredients – Super Basic For $20

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The first thing I look for in every supplement is its ingredient list. That’s what tells me if it could work or not. 

Well, my first impression about this product was far from good. Obviously – because of the ingredients.

So let’s take them by turn:

 – Turmeric root (400 mg) – that’s actually the turmeric powder, which is the basic ingredient for any supplement of this kind. The average dose is somewhere between 1000-1500 mg per day, so these 500 mg don’t look very promising

 – Turmeric Extract (50 mg) – this is a really good ingredient, because studies showed that it’s a lot more powerful than turmeric powder itself. But unfortunately, this dose is pretty low too, so I’m not sure if it can do much

 – Organic Ginger Powder (50 mg) – ginger is a natural anti-inflammatory that had pretty good results in studies. But no matter how organic it is, 50 mg isn’t enough to decrease a chronic pain

And that’s pretty much it. There are some other inactive ingredients, but they’re not worth mentioning.

So in my opinion, this ingredient list is one of the weakest I’ve seen. And I can tell you exactly why:

• Turmeric powder dose – extremely low per day. It might work for a temporary toothache, but it’s way too small for a permanent pain.
• 50 mg of turmeric extract – this again very little. It’s an ingredient that I really appreciate, but at this dose, I doubt it can change anything. 

The dose of ginger powder isn’t huge either – but that’s not so essential. Most supplements use ginger as an additional ingredient, so you will rarely see it in high doses.

It’s not as strong as turmeric – that’s why it’s not in the focus in most products.

So this supplement is pretty bad at this chapter – ingredients. 

 

 

My Experience With This Supplement

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My Initial Pain: I was suffering from rheumatoid arthritis for more than 10 years. In the last years, turmeric was my biggest helper among herbs. 

Here’s how I would described my RA:

• The pain was worse in my hands and elbows
• On an average, it was about a 7.5
• The other parts of my body weren’t that affected

As I said, I tried this Spring Valley’s supplement many years ago – it was pretty popular back then.

I was expecting much from it, but it really disappointed me. 

Week 1: In the first days I was taking one pill per day after meal, with lots of water. Well, in that week I felt absolutely no change:

• My pain was at the same level
• I had constant stiffness in the morning
• I had trouble sleeping because of pain

Week 2: I continued taking one pill per day, but there was no improvement even after 2 weeks.

That’s when I thought about increasing the dose. Otherwise, I would probably go on like this forever, without any improvement. 

I knew that 2 pills could also bring more some adverse reactions, but I was ready to risk. 

Week 3: In the first days with 2 pills, not much changed:

• My arthritis pain was as bad as before
• My morning stiffness still lasted about an hour
• I couldn’t move any better than I used to

But I continued with 2 pills, and at the end of the week, I was feeling a bit better. I went maybe from a 7.5 to a 7 on the pain scale. 

That’s not too much, is it? I mean, there are many supplements that reach these numbers in a few days…

Don’t imagine I was really happy, but at least it was an improvement, despite being really small. But that was pretty much it.

 

 

2 Pills = Diarrhea 

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Week 4: I couldn’t enjoy that small improvement for long, because I started having severe diarrhea:

• It started after I increased the dose
• It wasn’t very severe, so I didn’t care much about it

I was suspecting it was because of the increased dose, because turmeric can cause that.

But I had taken 1500 mg of turmeric before and I had no problem. However, that was a totally different brand and a totally different source. 

Well, my diarrhea was getting worse everyday, so I had to give the pills up. It stopped pretty fast, so it’s clear that these supplements were causing it. 

But I wanted to give them a second chance.

Week 5: I restarted the treatment but now I was only taking 1 pill per day. I was hoping that it would be different from the start, when I go not relief. Well, it wasn’t. 

2 weeks later and there was still no improvement. I still had enough pills to continue, but there was no point.

Considering the ingredients, these pills wouldn’t improve my pain even if I took them forever. 

 

 

 

 

PRO #1 – Only 1 Pill Per Day

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That’s probably the thing I liked most about Spring Valley’s supplement. But it was only a first time impression.

So I have a long experience with turmeric pills:

• most need to be taken 2-3 times per day
• you can take them either together or space them out

So what I’m saying is that it’s pretty hard to find a product with only one pill per day. That’s because there aren’t too many.

But it seems that Spring Valley’s supplement is one of the exceptions. So from this point of view, it’s extremely comfortable:

• You only have to take the pill once per day
• You take the whole daily dose at once
• There’s a lower risk to forget about one of the pills

So when it comes to how to take it, I really loved Spring Valley’s product. But unfortunately, there’s also a bad part.

The doses per pill are very small, compared to the average. So as you’re taking only one per day, the effect can’t be major (but I’ll tell you more on that below).

 

 

PRO #2 – 90 Capsules Is A Lot, On Paper

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This advantage has to do with the fact that you only need one pill per day. 

So normally, a supplement with 90 pills wouldn’t surprise me.

As I said before, most supplements require taking 2-3 pills per day, so that would mean that a bottle lasts around 1 months. That’s the average.

However, Spring Valley’s product has a great advantage at this chapter:

• you only need one pill per day
• this means one bottle is meant to last for 3 months
• considering it costs about $20, that’s super cheap

So a first sight, it seems like it’s a great deal.

But you need to consider the fact that you might need more than one pill per day: 

• The doses of turmeric are really low
• I couldn’t see any change after one pill per day
• The effects came up only when I started taking 2 pills

So one bottle may only last for a month. But anyway, I will tell you more on that straight away. 

The point is that 90 capsules seems a lot on paper, but in reality it might not be that much.

 

 

CON #1 – Very Low Dose 

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Compared to most supplements from the market, Spring Valley’s product seems like a joke.

But this time I’m only talking about the turmeric powder:

• The average dose of turmeric is between 1000-1200 mg (what most supplements contain)
• Spring Valley’s supplement only contains 400 mg per pill.

I think you can tell the difference yourself, because there’s a huge one. 400 mg per pill won’t do much, believe me.

For someone with arthritis or chronic pain, this dose is pretty useless. 

Besides, they recommend taking only one pill per day. Obviously, nothing prevents you from taking 2 or 3 pills every day, but I wouldn’t recommend you that. 

I tried a lot of times to take more than the recommended dose and I ended up with nausea or diarrhea. So don’t do that!

Overall, this supplement won’t bring you any major relief, believe me. It’s clear from the start, you only have to look at its ingredients. 

But the low dose of turmeric isn’t even the worst thing.

 

 

CON #2 – No Bioperine

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If you’re familiar you are with turmeric and curcumine supplements, you probably know about bioperine and how essential it is:

• Our body doesn’t absorb turmeric alone
• The absorption increases with 2000% when there’s bioperine – the extract of black pepper.

So at this point, most supplements from the market combine turmeric with bioperine. 

Well, guess how many bioperine contains Spring Valley’s supplement?

• Absolutely no milligram

So besides having a very low dose of turmeric, it also doesn’t have any bioperine. 

What does this mean? Well, from those 400 mg of curcumin per pill, our body will absorb less than 200 mg. If 400 mg is very little, 200 mg is almost insignificant. 

So for me, that’s the best proof why Spring Valley’s supplement could’t do much. The quantity of curcumin that my body actually received was way too low.

That’s why I really don’t recommend them. 

 

 

CON #3 – Diarrhea After Increasing The Dose

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At first sight, taking 2 pills instead of 1 sounds like a great thing to do. You would get 800 mg instead of 400, in theory. 

But keep in mind 2 things:

• there’s no bioperine in these pills
• from those 800 mg, your body will absorb less than 400

So we’re back to the beginning.

Anyway, I told you what happened to me when I increased the dose. I got a really bad diarrhea eventually.

It wasn’t any big deal at first, but it kept getting worse so at one point, I had to stop the pills.

And it wasn’t the first time I got diarrhea from a turmeric product. The previous times it was the very same scenario – I had increased the dose because I saw no effect. 

So here are my conclusions:

• 2 pills really work better than one – in terms of effect
• 2 pills also bring a lot more side effects

And I’m pretty sure that’s available for everyone, not just for me. 

Therefore, either take 1 pill of this supplement or don’t take it at all. It’s not worth suffering the consequences, in my opinion.

 

 

 

3 Reasons Why I Don’t Recommend It

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Reason #1 – Too Little Turmeric

Spring Valley’s supplement does contain the right substance for inflammation, turmeric (curcumin). 

But at this dose, not even the strong turmeric can do anything. So if they wanted to change something about this product, that would be a must. 

Unless you have a minimal pain, you won’t get any visible improvement, that’s something I’m so sure about. 

Reason #2 – No Bioperine

That’s the worst thing about this supplement, in my opinion. So from the 400 mg of curcumin you take, your body will absorb less than 250.

So at this dose, turmeric can do even less:

• It can’t decrease the inflammation properly
• It can’t reduce the pain
• Last but not least, it can’t help the joints too much.

When it comes to bioperine, you wouldn’t need a high quantity. That’s the irony. For a 400 mg of curcumin, even 3 mg of bioperine would do. The difference would be huge and you could feel an improvement in your overall pain.

Reason #3 – Weak Ingredients Overall

So Spring Valley’s curcumin isn’t on my favorites list, and that’s also because of its ingredients:

• They’re not very strong
• Have pretty low doses
• They’re pretty basic overall

They might even help you if you have a minor pain. But for chronic pain, I don’t think they could make any change. At least in my case, they couldn’t.

 

 

 

 

My Final Verdict – Is It Worth $20?

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Short answer: Definitely not. I have 2 major reason why I don’t recommend it:

• It has very low doses of each ingredient
• It lacks bioperine.

For those of you who don’t know it, without bioperine you’re getting less than 50% of the initial dose of turmeric.

So I don’t really think this supplement is worth $20 – you can get something way better for almost the same money.

Would I buy it again?: Definitely not. For $20 all I got was a basic dose of turmeric powder and a few curcuminoides. And it was totally useless, for real. 

So is this product a scam? Not really, I can’t call it a scam just because it doesn’t work. But it’s not something I would recommend either:

• The dose of curcumin is way too low to work
• There’s no bioperine that would increase its absorption
• So the quantity of curcumin you get is less than 200 mg – that’s almost insignificant
• And most importantly, my pain didn’t go away at all

When I tried to increase the dose, I got a really bad diarrhea. So I couldn’t possibly recommend a product like this. I know I can get a much better thing for these money. 

 

 

Have you ever tried Spring Valley’s turmeric? Did it bring you any relief? Let me know your answer in a comment.