Thursday, December 21, 2006

Herbs and Nutrients with Anti-cancer Activity Abound

Here I go again: More natural substances that have research as being effective in cancer in a number of ways:
  • Promoting apoptosis (cell death)
  • Inhibiting the known pathways that cancers use to develop ie... VEG-F or NF kappa B, MMPs (and that many new cancer drugs work on)
  • Decreasing the side effects of toxic cancer drugs.
So here are a few I came across in the last day:

Inhibitory effect of a mixture containing ascorbic acid, lysine, proline and green tea extract on critical parameters in angiogenesis.

This research is based on off the shelf nutrients available in probably any health food store.

The apoptotic effect of cordycepin on human OEC-M1 oral cancer cell line.

cordycepin is an extracted component of the chinese herb Cordyceps. I use it in my practice frequently to improve lung function.

Antiproliferative and apoptotic effects of silibinin in rat prostate cancer cells.

silibinin is an extracted component of Milk Thistle.

Baicalein induces apoptosis through ROS-mediated mitochondrial dysfunction pathway in HL-60 cells.

Baicalein is the exracted component of the chinese herb scutellaria huang qin. I use this herb frequently for many conditions.

If you click through to the links in the pubmed you will see numerous studies for each of the herbs and nutrients I have listed. The point is that there are many natural ways to prevent and treat cancer. This kind of stuff abounds. The use of these substances in the preventitive approach is relatively simple because everything listed here is non-toxic. How they may interact with on-going conventional therapy is another matter entirely that needs examination on a case by case basis.