Curcumin slays cancer cells in their tracks

by PF Louis 

(NaturalNews) Curcumin is the active anti-inflammatory ingredient of turmeric. It has been used traditionally for centuries by Ayurveda and Chinese medicine. Currently, it may be western medicine's most researched ancient medicinal herb.

Curcumin has been under scrutiny in clinical and epidemiological (statistical survey) studies by several researchers for arthritis relief, cardiac conditions, and other inflammatory based diseases. It's even getting serious consideration for curing cancer these days.

Outstanding discoveries by even mainstream cancer researchers

On April 21, 2011, the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, top Western medicine abandoned it's normal research for new toxic chemo solutions for cancer to release a surprising paper on their curcumin research.

The researchers were amazed at curcumin's ability to differentiate cancer cells from normal cells and create apoptosis (cell death) in cancer cells only, while actually promoting better cellular health in non-cancerous cells.

The MD Anderson Cancer Center was very interested in how curcumin and other natural compounds affected adverse epigenetic influences from free radical damage due to pollutants and other sources.

When adverse epigenetic influences begin, DNA damage occurs more rapidly than it can heal itself resulting in a chain reaction of gene activation or inactivation that create cell mutations - or cancer cells.

The researchers concluded that curcumin (diferuloylmethane) exerts its biological influence through epigenetic modulation, a process that continues downstream staying one step ahead of adverse genetic influences. Very heady stuff indeed.

More recently, a study from Zheijian Provincial People's Hospital in Zheijiang, China indicates that curcumin is capable of inducing apoptosis (cell death) within triple negative breast cancer cells. Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a type of cancer that defies conventional therapy.

A breast cancer chemotherapy drug, Tamoxifen, targets estrogen receptors. This makes the toxic drug less invasive to surrounding healthier cells. But TNBC doesn't have estrogen and progesterone receptors to target, thus requiring non-targeting and more toxic chemo drugs.

The Triple Breast Cancer Foundation flashes pink like their sister charity Susan G. Koman and raises money that pays their solid salaries with some trickle down cash for dead-end research to Big Pharma's never ending quest for high priced toxic ineffective chemicals.

Meanwhile, they ignore real prevention and natural, safe and inexpensive solutions for cancer. Here's a reference for a list of several research papers on curcumin, many on cancer. (http://www.greenmedinfo.com/substance/curcumin)

There have been many positive studies on curcumin for cancer and other diseases. The good news is a lot has been from mainstream researchers. The two focused on here are simply the most recent and spectacular discoveries.

Even PubMed acknowledges curcumin's anti-cancer capabilities for several different types of cancer.

Natural foods rich in flavanols, especially epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) found in green tea, has also been explored to be used in tandem with curcumin's diferuloylmethane as a one-two punch for cancer. EGCG inhibits excessive angeogenesis, or excessive blood vessel creation.

We all have some free floating cancer cells. When excess angeogenesis occurs, it helps coagulate cancer cell colonies to use the new blood vessels and thrive as tumors.

Using curcumin properly

Heating turmeric powder in milk and coconut oil with a dash of black pepper will give you a healthy tonic that you can use daily to mollify chronic inflammation and help prevent cancer. This combination mimics traditional Indian cuisine and is necessary to get maximum absorption of turmeric's curcumin.

For more acute issues, high dose curcumin is also available in enteric coated capsules with piperine, the active ingredient of black pepper that enhances nutritional absorption.

Enteric coating keeps the capsules from breaking apart and exposing their fragile curcumin to stomach acids. This allows the curcumin to get into the small intestines and into the blood. If you Google bioperine (piperine) enteric coated curcumin, you'll find several suppliers.

Sources for this article include:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18462866

http://www.greenmedinfo.com