Right before our eyes

By BEN NELMS
bnelms@TheCitizenNews.com

There is some interesting information beginning to hit the news services on some recent findings in cancer research. The research will be announced officially in the Aug. 15 issue of the journal Cancer. What will be discussed there is one of a number of recent findings that may impact one or more types of cancer. This one, however, will not put smiles on the faces of the pharmaceutical giants since it happens to involve a component of a well known spice used in Indian, Thai and other southeast Asian dishes. Researchers from University of Texas (UT) have found some previously unknown attributes of curcumin, a member of the ginger family and the ingredient in curry and tumeric that gives the spices their yellow color.

Long used as a folk medicine to cleanse the body, curcumin also acts as an anti-inflammatory and has been studied for 20 years as an agent to prevent cancer. Now some studies, specifically those at UT’s Department of Experimental Therapeutics, are focusing on the use of curcumin as a cancer treatment. Researchers found that large doses of curcumin not only blocked the growth of skin cancer cells but actually caused the cancer cells to kill themselves, the equivalent of suicide on a cellular level.

“The antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-carcinogenic properties of curcumin derived from tumeric are undergoing intense research here and at other places worldwide,” UT’s Dr. Bharat Aggarwal said. He noted that the rates of the top four cancers in the United States- colon, lung, breast and prostate- are 10 times lower in India, where curcumin is traditionally used.

Curcumin is just one of a large number of natural foods that continue to be examined by researchers. A 40-day study by Tufts University last year of 60 people in Pakistan with Type 2 diabetes found that consuming a quarter-teaspoon of cinnamon twice daily significantly lowered blood sugar, triglycerides and LDL (bad) cholesterol. Of interest was the finding that the beneficial effects of cinnamon, unlike laboratory-derived drugs, lasted for at least 20 days after people stopped taking it. Researchers advised moderation in scarfing down the spice given that large doses of cinnamon is believed to be toxic.

Also of interest was the finding of Taiwanese scientists reported in the July 14, 2004 issue of the Agriculture and Food Chemistry journal. They found that cinnamon oil was more effective at killing mosquito larvae than some pesticides and mosquito repellants.

It is really no mystery these days that so many of the drugs currently in use got their start as plants. To me, it is fascinating that tasty little food ingredients like curcumin and cinnamon are dirt cheap, readily available and, if proven over time, might throw a monkey-wrench in the ability of the large, multinational pharmaceutical companies, operating like individual nation-states, to cash in as they usually do. Like nation-states, these multinationals have legions of emissaries (their drug reps) providing perks to doctors and numerous ambassadors (lobbyists) to convince the U.S. and other governments to engage in cooperative treaty agreements (legislation) that benefits their national (corporate) coffers.

Cancer research, and that of other human diseases, is very big business. It is practically beyond the realm of possibility today that the prevention of disease and illness could be accomplished without the pharmaceutical companies making billions. Yet many of the answers to the riddle of human diseases will continue to be found in the little plants found all around us. Caught in the mind-bending complexity of our technologically adept world, we have forgotten what our ancestors knew. The preventative for some of humanity’s ills could be found in these little healing plants. They have been there all along, right before our eyes.