Inflammation isn’t one thing. These three work on it from three directions.

Why these three, and why together

The active compounds in turmeric are the curcuminoids, and there is now a substantial body of trial evidence behind them. When researchers want to know whether something is lowering inflammation, they measure three markers in the blood — CRP, IL-6 and TNF-α. Dehzad and colleagues pooled sixty-six randomised trials and found curcumin lowered all three (Cytokine, 2023).

Curcuminoids do need help getting into the blood, and that is a solved problem. Shoba and colleagues showed how in 1998: give curcumin alongside piperine, the compound that makes black pepper sharp, and blood levels go from barely detectable to readily detectable (Planta Medica). Platinum Turmeric is built around that finding — 800mg of turmeric root powder, 100mg of an extract standardised to 95% curcuminoids, and 10mg of BioPerine® to carry it in. Two capsules a day, with a meal containing fat.

EPA and DHA come at the same problem from a different direction. These are the long-chain fats your body builds cell membranes out of, so they become part of the cell itself — and the same fats are the raw material for the signalling molecules involved in resolving inflammation. The difficulty is dietary. Unless you eat oily fish regularly you are unlikely to get much: Papanikolaou and colleagues put average US adult intake at 23mg of EPA and 63mg of DHA a day from food (Nutrition Journal, 2014). One softgel here adds 300mg. Take it with the same meal as the turmeric.

Magnesium is the quiet one. It is a required cofactor in more than three hundred enzyme systems, which is another way of saying that a great deal of ordinary cellular housekeeping runs slowly without enough of it. The NIH Office of Dietary Supplements notes that many people in the United States take in less than the recommended amount from food. We use the glycinate form — magnesium bound to an amino acid — at 275mg of elemental magnesium per three-capsule serving, which is 65% of the Daily Value. Most people take it in the evening.

Three compounds, three different mechanisms, one order. The curcuminoids act on the inflammatory signalling, EPA and DHA build into the cell membranes and feed the pathways that resolve inflammation, and magnesium is the cofactor the enzyme work behind both of them depends on. Three different points in the same system, which is the reason to take them together.

Contains shellfish and fish. The glucosamine and chondroitin in Platinum Turmeric are shellfish-derived, and Vital Omega-3 is fish oil in a gelatin softgel. If you take blood thinners, speak to your doctor first, as both curcumin and omega-3 can affect platelet function.