Posted on 07/11/2005 1:19:41 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
The University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, the epitome of the conventional cancer establishment, is reporting promising test results on an unconventional weapon: a common spice used in Indian cooking.
In a host of studies, M.D. Anderson researchers are showing that curcumin, the pungent yellow spice in both turmeric and curry powders, has potent anti-cancer properties. They say it may prove effective for both prevention and treatment.
"Curcumin's promise is enormous," said Bharat B. Aggarwal, a professor of cancer medicine in M.D. Anderson's department of experimental therapeutics.
"It appears to inhibit multiple pathways by which cancer grows, and we know it's nontoxic."
Aggarwal added that "in a day when Vioxx and Bextra are off the table, curcumin may be one of the best new hopes on the table" — a reference to popular painkillers (Cox-2 inhibitors) taken off the market after reports they increased the risk of heart disease. Cox-2 inhibitors were considered potential cancer prevention agents because they'd been shown to inhibit tumor growth.
The latest study on curcumin is available today on the journal Cancer's Web site.
In it, M.D. Anderson researchers demonstrate in the laboratory how curcumin stops melanoma cells from proliferating along two key pathways and induces them to essentially commit suicide. The cells were taken from patients.
A month ago, the same researchers reported that in mice, curcumin helped stop the spread of breast cancer to the lungs. It outperformed the cancer drug Taxol in the study, though the best results came with a combination of curcumin and Taxol.
Putting it to the test The results of those studies have led to ongoing Phase I human trials at M.D. Anderson testing curcumin's ability to stop the growth of pancreatic cancer and multiple myeloma.
Still to come are a human trial for breast cancer and an animal trial for melanoma.
Elsewhere, researchers are studying curcumin with lung, colon, head and neck, oral and prostate cancers.
Aggarwal said the thing distinguishing curcumin from other natural products touted for their medicinal properties is the science behind it.
Herbs such as garlic, saw palmetto and gingko may receive more ink, but there have been about 2,000 studies on curcumin, says Aggarwal, easily more than any other natural product.
It is rich in antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anticarcinogenic properties.
Most intriguing, the rate of colon, breast, prostate and lung cancer is 10 times lower in India than in the United States.
Financial obstacles In the melanoma study, the M.D. Anderson team found curcumin shut down nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-kB), a powerful protein known to promote an abnormal inflammatory response that leads to a variety of disorders, including arthritis and cancer; the protein known as IKK that switches NF-kB "on;" and STAT3, another pathway involved in the spread of tumors.
Aggarwal noted that the greatest obstacle to further study of curcumin is financial. No pharmaceutical company is likely to develop a natural product that can't be patented so the only sources of funding are government agencies.
Curcumin is available in capsule form at health food stores, though the purity of some brands may be in question because herbs aren't regulated. Aggarwal's team worked with a 96 percent pure product.
"Curcumin's efficacy for treating cancer is still to be proven," Aggarwal said. "But I would recommend it for prevention right now, based on animal studies. People have been eating it for thousands of years so we know it's safe."
• Ground from the root of the Curcuma longa plant, curcumin is a member of the ginger family.
• It has long had multiple uses in India and other Asian nations: food preservative, folk medicine, coloring agent, body cleanser and food flavorer (2 to 5 percent of turmeric is curcumin, for instance).
todd.ackerman@chron.com
There is a world of difference between vegetarians who eat milk products, and vegans. Vegans are nutcases who ruin their health.
I have been a milk product eating vegetarian for 35 yrs, raised two kids on the diet who have stuck with it even into adulthood, and they are healthy beautiful women.
It is the lack of milk products which destroy the health of vegans, or those whackjobs who eat only raw food.
It can be called "karma" (though most people misunderstand the meaning of the word), or destiny. I've seen two friends, one a very, very dear friend, live very healthy lives with good diets and habits, and succumb to cancer at 28 and a young 50.
What really matters is not how long we walk the earth, but what our destination is after we leave. What lessons we learn here.
I've had some severe illnesses in my time, and they have taught me lessons I value like treasures.
Soldiers call it "seeing the elephant," and there are many ways to do this.
Hmm - could you explain "seeing the elephant"?
Carolyn
Facing death.
I was 31 at the time, and the richness of ironies still rankles, a little. In all the tests they ran, they never x-rayed her head-- she had been born with it. Or so the pathologist claimed. If she had not had her neck broken in a wreck ( which, among many other things, caused chronically low [ 60/40 ] blood pressure ) it probably would have burst long before that, since prior to becoming handicapped, she was quite the athlete. Archer, runner, swimmer, horsewoman.
No question about it...cinnamon is an essential part of my family's daily diet. Cancer treatment is one issue, but a cure? Never happen.
I can't imagine how hard that must have been for both of you.
Carolyn
You are absolutely correct. Many cancers are the result of a poor diet (soda, fast food, and other nutritionally bankrupt "foods"). Chemo destroys the very immune system that your body needs to fight the cancers.
Bingo.
The surgeon himself told me that at first they thought they had removed the wrong lobe. The tumor was obvious in an X-ray they took the day before the surgery.
I don't pretend to have all the answers but I do believe that the diet alone, along with prayer of course, might reverse cancers that are considered inoperable or badly metastasized.
Carolyn
Mmmmm...Tikka Masala.
I don't think the medical researchers will find a cure for cancer but from what I've been reading, there are natural cures out there. If you can keep your body alkaline, they say you can't get cancer. It can't exist in a body that's alkaline. An acid body catches all kinds of diseases. I wish they'd look more into that. Diet is an important part of staying and getting healthy.
Ecclesiastes tells us that there is a time to live and a time to die. I, too, believe we are here for a time, a season, and when it's time, it's time.
Amen. I feel the same way.
I, too, have heard of different teas. One of them is 'casie's tea' or essiac. You can get it in health food stores.
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