Milk Thistle

Tissue with wound-like conditions allows tumors to grow and spread. In mouse lung cancer cells, treatment with silibinin, a major component of milk thistle, removed the molecular billboards that signal these wound-like conditions and so stopped the spread of these lung cancers, according to a recent studypublished in the journal Molecular Carcinogenesis. Though the natural extract has been used for more than 2,000 years, mostly to treat disorders of the liver and gallbladder, this is one of the first carefully controlled and reported studies to find benefit.

Here is how it works:

Basically, in a cell there can be a chain of signals, one leading to the next, to the next, and eventually to an end product. And so if you would like to eliminate an end product, you may look to break a link in the signaling chain that leads to it. The end products COX2 and iNOS are enzymes involved with the inflammatory response to perceived wounds – both can aid tumor growth. Far upstream in the signaling chain that leads to these unwanted enzymes are STAT1 and STAT3. These transcription factors allow the blueprint of DNA to bind with proteins that continue the signal cascade, eventually leading to the production of harmful COX2 and iNOS.

Stop STAT1 and STAT3 and you break the chain that leads to COX2 and iNOS – and the growth of lung tumors along with them.

“This relatively nontoxic substance – a derivative of milk thistle, called silibinin – was able to inhibit the upstream signals that lead to the expression of COX2 and iNOS,” says Alpna Tyagi, PhD, of the University of Colorado Skaggs School of Pharmacy. Tyagi works in the lab of  University of Colorado Cancer Center investigator Rajesh Agarwal, PhD.

In addition, Tyagi and collaborators compared the effects of silibinin to drugs currently in clinical trials for lung cancer. Would drugs that target other signaling pathways – other linked chains – similarly cut into the production of COX2 and iNOS?

It turned out that inhibiting the chains of JAK1/2 and MEK in combination and also inhibiting the signaling pathways of EGFR and NF-kB in combination blocked the ability of STAT1 and STAT3 to trap the energy they needed to eventually signal COX2 and iNOS production.

Compared to these multi-million dollar drugs, naturally-occurring silibinin blocked not only the expression of COX2 and iNOS, but also the migration of existing lung cancer cells.

“What we showed is that STAT1 and STAT3 may be promising therapeutic targets in the treatment of lung cancer, no matter how you target them,” Tyagi says. “And also that naturally-derived products like silibinin may be as effective as today’s best treatments.”

http://www.coloradocancerblogs.org/news/milk-thistle-stops-lung-cancer-in-mice
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/mc.20851/abstract

Petty spurge

According to a team of researchers at the University of Queensland in Australia, a common weed named Euphorbia Peplus (aka Petty Spurge, Cancer Weed, or Radium Weed) traditionally used in folk medicine for treatment of conditions such as warts and asthma has been found effective in treating non-melanoma skin cancers.  Their research consisted of 36 patients with a total of 48 lesions; including basal, squamous, and intraepidermal carcinomas.

The results of this study were remarkable.  With one treatment per day for three consecutive days, applying enough plant sap to cover the lesions, 41 of the 48 cancers had disappeared….gone!  For patients with remaining cancers, a second treatment was offered.  After approximately 15 months, two-thirds of study participants still maintained a full response. These results were released in the British Journal of Dermatology on January 27, 2011.

Side effects were minimal, with only 14% experiencing moderate pain. The cosmetic appearance following successful treatments was also quite good.

Scientists believe the active ingredient, ingenol mebutate, is responsible for the benefit; this has been shown to destroy cancer cells in previous studies.

Kimberley Carter of the British Association of Dermatologists said:

“This is a very small test group so it will be interesting to see what larger studies and the development of the active ingredient in E. peplus sap will reveal. Whilst it would not provide an alternative to surgery for the more invasive skin cancers or melanoma, in the future it might become a useful addition to the treatments available to patients for superficial, non-melanoma skin cancers. Any advances that could lead to new therapies for patients where surgery is not an option are definitely worth investigating.

“It is also very important to note that this is definitely not a treatment people should be trying out at home. Exposure of the sap to mucous producing surfaces, such as the eyes, results in extreme inflammation and can lead to hospitalization. The concentration of the active ingredients in the sap also varies between different plants, with high doses able to cause very severe and excessive inflammatory responses.”

More info:

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2133.2010.10184.x/abstract

By feeding sodium chloride (salt) to lab rats to the point of dehydration, and following that with exposure to stress, Dr. Eric Krause and his research team found the rats with elevated sodium to have lower secretion levels of stress hormones and a smaller increase in heart rate and blood pressure – in comparison to a control group of rodents.  Increased activity levels of oxytocin were also noted.  Oxytocin is an anti-stress hormone also known to increase in humans while petting animals like dogs and cats (oxytocin also increases in the pets!).  This study also presents some interesting data for autism research as well.

This falls right inline with what we’ve preached for years.  Salt is good for you. The human body MUST have salt. The problem is the form of salt most people are consuming. Refined food salt is, for all intents and purposes, poisonous. It burdens the body because it has been altered and stripped of any beneficial value.  Even modern sea salt is questionable….which sea does it come from?  We always recommend natural Himalayan salt as the best replacement for dietary salt.  It is mined from large veins located in the Himalayan foothills of Pakistan, formed from cataclysm and upheaval over 250 millions years ago.