Is Curcumin Safe to Take Daily? Every Day and Long Term

For most adults, curcumin is safe to take every day at a label dose with meals, because daily is how every trial gave it: 500 to 1,500 mg of curcuminoids a day for 4 to 12 weeks in the knee osteoarthritis trials, nine months in the largest long trial, and 6 g a day for 4 to 7 weeks in safety studies, with stomach upset the main complaint and no organ toxicity reported in the trials.^{1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6} No trial has run for years, so "long term" means reviewing at 12 weeks and continuing only for a reason you can measure. And a rare, idiosyncratic liver reaction has been reported with turmeric supplements, typically one to four months in, seen with high-dose, high-absorption products in an Italian series, and generally resolving on stopping.^{7, 6, 8}

Sources checked on 1 November 2026.

Gallstones, liver disease, anticoagulants, liver-processed medicines, pregnancy and iron tablets are the specific reasons for advice first. This is the daily-use spoke of the Wellgard turmeric guide.

Is it safe to take turmeric every day?

In food, yes: a teaspoon of powder carries roughly 95 to 125 mg of curcumin at the average measured in pure powders, and the UK Committee on Toxicity found a teaspoon a day of the powders it surveyed stays within the acceptable daily intake.^{9, 10} The 367-person Thai trial gave a turmeric extract daily for four weeks, the Tasmanian placebo trial for twelve, and the pooled 23 trials of 2,175 people found about half the odds of adverse reactions seen on anti-inflammatory painkillers.^{1, 2, 3} The largest long trial, 240 Thai adults with prediabetes, gave curcumin capsules daily for nine months with only very minor adverse effects reported.⁴

What happens to your body when you take turmeric every day?

In the first days, stools may turn yellower and some people notice indigestion, wind or looser stools; in trials these effects are usually mild and about as common as on placebo.¹¹ The knee trials measured less pain at two and four weeks against the starting score and a difference from placebo at 12 weeks (how to take turmeric for inflammation has the numbers); blood markers such as C-reactive protein fell slightly across 66 trials.^{1, 2, 12} Healthy-adult trials are few: six small trials of 289 people found a small improvement in memory scores in older adults, and we found none on sleep or immunity.¹³ Does turmeric change the colour of your urine separates a yellower colour from the dark urine that matters.

Is curcumin safe long-term?

Barely tested beyond nine months, which is not the same as unsafe. UK forum threads include people who have taken capsules for two to five years; that is experience, not evidence, since nobody measured their liver enzymes. The published long-term signal is the liver reaction below: reported cases typically appeared one to four months in, but in four published cases turmeric had been taken for three to ten months, so passing four months is not an all-clear.^{6, 11} The practical rule: review at 12 weeks against a score you kept, continue only if the score says so, and tell your pharmacist whenever a medicine is added; the interactions that matter are with medicines, not time. How long does turmeric take to work sets out the 12-week method.

How much curcumin should I take daily?

Three figures. A teaspoon of turmeric powder holds roughly 95 to 125 mg of curcumin: a food amount.⁹ The European food safety authority's acceptable daily intake for curcumin as a food colour is 3 mg per kilogram of body weight, about 210 mg a day for a 70 kg adult: a lifetime figure that the UK Committee on Toxicity doubts fits supplements; 2 of 15 UK supplements it surveyed would exceed it at the label dose.^{14, 10} The trials that found less knee pain used 500 to 1,500 mg of curcuminoids a day as a standardised extract, and doses of 1,000 mg or more did not help more.^{1, 15} A trial dose therefore sits two to seven times above the food-colour figure: a fact to weigh, and the reason for a label dose over a defined trial rather than the highest strength indefinitely. How much turmeric a day explains the label units.

Why is curcumin usually taken twice a day?

Because it leaves quickly. Curcumin is poorly absorbed, rapidly metabolised and rapidly eliminated, so blood levels after a single dose peak and fall the same day.^{16, 17} The trials answered that by giving two or three doses a day,^{18, 19} which is why labels often say "two a day": a better reason than "results are short-lived", since the knee trials measured outcomes over weeks, not hours. How to take turmeric covers food, fat and timing.

Who should have liver tests, and what are the warning signs?

The liver reaction is the one serious thing to know. Italy recorded seven cases of acute hepatitis in Tuscany to 2019, all with high-dose, high-absorption products, and Italy's national health institute judged a contaminant an unlikely cause; the US liver-injury network adjudicated ten, mostly women, one death, with turmeric confirmed in all seven products tested and piperine in three, and seven of the ten carrying the immune gene variant HLA-B*35:01, which makes up about 6% of gene copies in the general population.^{8, 10, 7} In a 2025 series of 11 cases, six people had abnormal liver tests before any symptom and liver tests normalised in every case after stopping; one Spanish case occurred at 60 mg of curcumin with 10 mg of black pepper twice a day.^{20, 21} Australia's medicines regulator, the Therapeutic Goods Administration, had received 18 reports of liver problems in people taking turmeric or curcumin products up to 29 June 2023; in four of them no other ingredient was likely to have contributed, and two of those four were severe, one fatal. It judged the risk rare, possibly higher with enhanced-absorption or higher-dose products, and not apparent with turmeric eaten in typical food amounts.²² The UK Committee on Toxicity concluded in December 2024 that there is reasonable evidence for a link, including in rare people at intakes below the acceptable daily intake.¹⁰ Against that, trials have not reported liver toxicity, and in fatty liver disease one analysis of 15 trials found curcumin lowered the enzymes ALT and AST slightly, while another of 15 trials found lower AST but no change in ALT.^{6, 23, 24}

Ask for liver tests if you take methotrexate or another medicine processed by the liver and want to add turmeric; if you have fatty liver, primary biliary cholangitis or any liver condition, where NHS Wales's medicines advice service advises avoiding turmeric and curcumin; and whenever a medicine changes.¹¹ Stop and see a GP the same day for dark urine, pale stools, yellow skin or eyes, itching, nausea or pain under the right ribs. A suspected reaction to a food supplement is reported to your local authority's food safety team, which works with the Food Standards Agency.²⁵

Why should you not take turmeric every day?

Some people should not, as a supplement, for specific reasons. Gallstones or bile-duct disease: curcumin contracts the gallbladder at doses as small as 20 mg, and NHS Wales's medicines advice service advises avoiding turmeric with gallstones or any biliary disease.^{26, 11} Anticoagulants and antiplatelets: curcumin reduces platelet clumping in the laboratory, though ten days of a formulation did not change INR or bleeding time in an uncontrolled human study; tell your clinic, and stop medicinal turmeric at least two weeks before planned surgery.^{27, 11} Iron-deficiency anaemia: one case at about 3.2 g of extract a day; tell your GP.²⁸ Calcium-oxalate kidney stones: turmeric's oxalate is mostly the soluble kind and raised urinary oxalate in healthy adults, so ask before taking powder as a supplement.²⁹ Pregnancy and breastfeeding: curcumin's pregnancy studies are in animals only, so supplement doses have no human safety data; the spice in food is normal.³⁰ Regular medicines, especially with a pepper product: the medicine-by-medicine table in UK generic names is on who should not take turmeric; the stomach, kidneys and iron are on what are the side effects of turmeric.

What we don't know

• Use beyond nine months: no trial has run longer than the nine-month prediabetes trial.⁴
• Who will react: the liver reaction is idiosyncratic and nobody can know in advance whether they are prone to it.¹⁰
• Whether the intake figure fits supplements: the UK committee doubts it does for absorption-enhanced products, and no supplement-specific figure exists.^{10, 31}

Frequently asked questions

Can you take turmeric daily forever?

Nobody has tested forever. Most trials ran 4 to 12 weeks and the largest long one nine months; review at 12 weeks, keep a reason you can measure, and tell your pharmacist when a medicine changes.^{1, 4}

What happens when you first start taking turmeric?

Yellower stools, perhaps some indigestion or looser stools, usually mild; the knee trials measured less pain from two weeks.^{11, 1}

What happens if you drink warm turmeric water every morning for 7 days on an empty stomach?

Very little: a teaspoon in water is a food amount, curcumin is poorly absorbed, and seven days is too short for any trial outcome.¹⁶

Are turmeric tablets safe to take?

For most adults at a label dose with meals, yes, with the exceptions above and a pharmacist's check if you take any regular medicine.^{3, 7}

Sources

1. Kuptniratsaikul V, et al. Efficacy and safety of Curcuma domestica extracts compared with ibuprofen in patients with knee osteoarthritis: a multicenter study. Clinical Interventions in Aging, 2014. Randomised non-inferiority trial, 367 people, 4 weeks; funding not stated on PubMed. PubMed 24672232.
2. Wang Z, et al. Effectiveness of Curcuma longa extract for the treatment of symptoms and effusion-synovitis of knee osteoarthritis: a randomized trial. Annals of Internal Medicine, 2020. Randomised placebo-controlled trial, 70 people, 12 weeks; funded by the University of Tasmania and the extract's manufacturer. PubMed 32926799.
3. Zhao J, et al. Efficacy and safety of curcumin therapy for knee osteoarthritis: a Bayesian network meta-analysis. Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 2024. Network meta-analysis, 23 trials, 2,175 people; no competing interests declared, funding not stated on PubMed. PubMed 38036015.
4. Chuengsamarn S, et al. Curcumin extract for prevention of type 2 diabetes. Diabetes Care, 2012. Randomised placebo-controlled trial, 240 adults with prediabetes, 9 months; funding not stated on PubMed. PubMed 22773702.
5. Soleimani V, Sahebkar A, Hosseinzadeh H. Turmeric (Curcuma longa) and its major constituent (curcumin) as nontoxic and safe substances: review. Phytotherapy Research, 2018. Narrative safety review; funding not stated on PubMed. PubMed 29480523.
6. Akhtar N, et al. Rarely reported cases of hepatotoxicity associated with turmeric- and curcuminoid-containing dietary supplements: a comprehensive review by USP. Pharmaceutical Biology, 2026. Expert committee safety review (US Pharmacopeia); no conflicts declared. PubMed 42364655.
7. Halegoua-DeMarzio D, et al. Liver injury associated with turmeric, a growing problem: ten cases from the Drug-Induced Liver Injury Network. American Journal of Medicine, 2023. Case series, 10 people, US network cases 2004 to 2022; US National Institutes of Health funding. PubMed 36252717.
8. Lombardi N, et al. Acute liver injury following turmeric use in Tuscany: an analysis of the Italian Phytovigilance database and systematic review of case reports. British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, 2021. Case analysis, 7 people, and systematic review of 23 published cases; funding not stated on PubMed. PubMed 32656820.
9. Tayyem RF, Heath DD, Al-Delaimy WK, Rock CL. Curcumin content of turmeric and curry powders. Nutrition and Cancer, 2006. Laboratory analysis of 28 spice products; funding not stated on PubMed. PubMed 17044766.
10. Committee on Toxicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment. Statement on the potential risk to human health of turmeric and curcumin supplements (COT/2024/07), summary and conclusions, December 2024. Expert committee statement, including a 2021 survey of 15 UK supplements; read in the UK Government Web Archive, as the committee's own site has withdrawn the page. webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk.
11. Welsh Medicines Advice Service (NHS Wales). Turmeric: potential adverse effects. Professional guidance, published 22 October 2024. wmic.wales.nhs.uk.
12. Dehzad MJ, et al. Antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects of curcumin/turmeric supplementation in adults: a GRADE-assessed systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis. Cytokine, 2023. Meta-analysis, 66 randomised trials; no competing interests declared, funding not stated on PubMed. PubMed 36804260.
13. Zhu LN, et al. Curcumin intervention for cognitive function in different types of people: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Phytotherapy Research, 2019. Meta-analysis, 6 trials, 289 people; Chinese provincial research funding. PubMed 30575152.
14. EFSA Panel on Food Additives and Nutrient Sources added to Food. Scientific opinion on the re-evaluation of curcumin (E 100) as a food additive. EFSA Journal, 2010. Regulatory safety opinion. doi.org/10.2903/j.efsa.2010.1679.
15. Hsiao AF, et al. The efficacy of high- and low-dose curcumin in knee osteoarthritis: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Complementary Therapies in Medicine, 2021. Meta-analysis, 11 trials, 1,258 people; funding not stated on PubMed. PubMed 34537344.
16. Anand P, et al. Bioavailability of curcumin: problems and promises. Molecular Pharmaceutics, 2007. Narrative review; funding not stated on PubMed. PubMed 17999464.
17. Shoba G, et al. Influence of piperine on the pharmacokinetics of curcumin in animals and human volunteers. Planta Medica, 1998. Pharmacokinetic study in rats and healthy volunteers, single doses; funding not stated on PubMed. PubMed 9619120.
18. Shep D, et al. Safety and efficacy of curcumin versus diclofenac in knee osteoarthritis: a randomized open-label parallel-arm study. Trials, 2019. Randomised open-label trial, 139 people, 28 days; no competing interests declared. PubMed 30975196.
19. Lopresti AL, Drummond PD. Efficacy of curcumin, and a saffron/curcumin combination for the treatment of major depression: a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled study. Journal of Affective Disorders, 2017. Randomised placebo-controlled trial, 123 people, 12 weeks; funding not stated on PubMed. PubMed 27723543.
20. Papke DJ, et al. Turmeric supplement-associated hepatitis: a clinicopathological series of 11 cases. Histopathology, 2025. Case series, 11 people; funding not stated on PubMed. PubMed 39381846.
21. Garaizabal Azkue IJ, et al. Turmeric associated liver injury (DILI) with susceptible HLA. Revista Española de Enfermedades Digestivas, 2024. Case report, 1 person; funding not stated on PubMed. PubMed 39297606.
22. Therapeutic Goods Administration (Australia). Medicines containing turmeric or curcumin: risk of liver injury. Regulator alert (safety advisory), published 15 August 2023, covering reports received up to 29 June 2023. tga.gov.au.
23. Vajdi M, et al. Curcumin supplementation effect on liver enzymes in patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease: a GRADE-assessed systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis. Nutrition Reviews, 2025. Meta-analysis, 15 trials, 905 people; university research funding. PubMed 38213188.
24. Aragón-Vela J, et al. Does curcumin improve liver enzymes levels in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease? A systematic review, meta-analysis, and meta-regression. Phytotherapy Research, 2024. Meta-analysis, 15 trials, 835 people; Spanish government research funding. PubMed 38965866.
25. Food Standards Agency. How to report a food safety or hygiene issue for members of the public. Official guidance, updated 5 August 2026. gov.uk.
26. Rasyid A, et al. Effect of different curcumin dosages on human gall bladder. Asia Pacific Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2002. Randomised single-blind crossover trial, 12 healthy volunteers, single doses; funding not stated on PubMed. PubMed 12495265.
27. Hu S, et al. Interaction study between antiplatelet agents, anticoagulants, thyroid replacement therapy and a bioavailable formulation of curcumin. European Review for Medical and Pharmacological Sciences, 2018. Uncontrolled before-and-after study in patients on each medicine, 10 to 15 days; funding not stated on PubMed. PubMed 30070343.
28. Smith TJ, Ashar BH. Iron deficiency anemia due to high-dose turmeric. Cureus, 2019. Case report, 1 person; no competing interests declared. PubMed 30899609.
29. Tang M, Larson-Meyer DE, Liebman M. Effect of cinnamon and turmeric on urinary oxalate excretion, plasma lipids, and plasma glucose in healthy subjects. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2008. Randomised crossover trial, 11 healthy adults, two 4-week periods; funding not stated on PubMed. PubMed 18469248.
30. Tossetta G, et al. The multifaced actions of curcumin in pregnancy outcome. Antioxidants, 2021. Narrative review; pregnancy studies in animals only; no conflicts declared. PubMed 33477354.
31. Committee on Toxicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment. Novel formulations of supplement compounds designed to increase oral bioavailability. December 2025. Expert committee review. gov.uk.

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General information, not medical advice. Ask your pharmacist or GP before a turmeric supplement if you take regular medicines, have gallstones or a liver condition, or are pregnant or breastfeeding; never stop or change a prescribed medicine on the strength of one.