It’s Mother Nature’s gift to good health. Tan Bee Hong is amazed at the many benefits to be reaped from natural palm oil
WHILE the words oil and fats can make the health-conscious cringe with fear, here’s something that may change their minds.
How about an oil with so many health benefits it can blow your mind? Yes, there is such an oil. And it’s all natural.
Palm oil, produced from the fruit of the oil palm (Elaeis guineensis), contains a variety of fats, vitamins and nutrients, with no unhealthy trans-fatty acids that is mainly found in hydrogenated oils.
It has anti-cancer effects, reduces incidences of carcinogen-induced mammary tumours and helps in the reduction in the risk of arterial thrombosis and atherosclerosis, inhibition of cholesterol biosynthesis and platelet aggregation, and reduction in blood pressure. (Zhang et al. 1997)
In his book, The Palm Oil Miracle, Dr Bruce Fife wrote that the benefits of palm oil include, apart from the above, better eye health, immunity boost, better blood circulation, improved nutrient absorption, strengthens bones and teeth, and protects against mental deterioration.
Indeed, palm oil is free of artery-clogging trans-fats as it is made up of a mixture of fatty acids and contains valuable vitamins and nutrition that our bodies need. It is rich in phytonutrients such as natural carotenes, tocotrienols and tocopherols (Vitamin E) and co-enzyme Q10.
TABS ON TOCOTRIENOLS
Professor Yuen Kah Hay of Universiti Sains Malaysia has been conducting studies to assess the neuro-protective, anti-atherogenic and hepatoprotective properties of tocotrienols (palm vitamin E) supplementation as determined by white matter lesion load on serial magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), carotid artery magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) and liver ultrasound (US) as well as lipid profile analysis.
He said: “The results are very encouraging. This is the first study to show that in humans.
Tocotrienols is a supplement, not a drug, so it can be taken as a daily dietary supplement for neuroprotection.”
He and his team found that there was regression of white matter lesion load in terms of numbers and size in the brain (time frame: 1-2 years). Secondary results include regression of the carotid artery stenoses in terms of percentage and an improvement in liver echogenicity.
US STUDY
Meanwhile, in the United States, Dr Paul Sylvester, Professor of Pharmacology and director of Graduate Studies and Research at the College of Pharmacy, University of Louisiana, conducted studies that demonstrated the anti-cancer effects of dietary palm oil (Sylvester et al., Cancer Research 46:757, 1986).
After intense studies and research on the health benefits of tocotrienols for nearly 25 years, Dr Sylvester reported: “In these studies, we investigated the effects of different types of high fat diets on mammary tumour development and discovered that nearly all of the different high fat diets were found to stimulate tumour development regardless of whether the diets were formulated with different animal versus vegetable fats or saturated versus unsaturated fats.
“The notable exception to this finding was the observation that high dietary intake of palm oil suppressed carcinogen-induced mammary tumourigenesis in experimental animals. Palm oil differs from other animal and vegetable fats in that it naturally contains high levels of tocotrienols.”
TUMOUR TEST
The findings were also confirmed in subsequent studies which showed that carcinogen-induced mammary tumour incidence was lower in rats fed high palm oil diets as compared to rats fed diets high in other dietary fats.
Dr Sylvester also conducted studies with palm oil diets stripped of tocotrienols and found that this enhances mammary tumourigenesis in rats. There’s no denying the massive amounts of evidence that further characterises the anti cancer action of palm tocotrienols.
It is now well established that tocotrienols, in contrast to tocopherols (the more common form of vitamin E), display potent antiproliferative and cytotoxic activity against a wide range of cancers at treatment doses that have little or no effect on normal cell growth and function.
In his studies, Dr Sylvester also established that combined treatment of palm tocotrienol with other traditional chemotherapies very often results in a synergistic inhibition in cancer cell growth and viability.
Since combination therapy of tocotrienol with other chemotherapeutic agents requires significantly lower treatment doses to suppress cancer cell growth and survival, an additional benefit can also be realised in a corresponding reduction in adverse side effects and toxicity characteristically associated with high dose chemotherapy.
Recent studies in the areas of tocotrienol kinetics have provided essential information required for understanding the therapeutic limitations of oral administration of tocotrienols.
TOCOTRIENOLS NATURALLY
LOWERS CHOLESTEROL
Tocotrienols which are naturally occurring in palm oil have been shown to suppress lower plasma cholesterol in humans. It inhibits cholesterol production in the liver, thereby lowering total blood cholesterol. Alpha tocotrienol suppresses hepatic HMG-CoA reductase activity that results in the lowering of LDL cholesterol levels.
LOWER BLOOD PRESSURE
In a test on rats, palm gamma-tocotrienol showed the ability to prevent development of increased blood pressure in Spontaneously Hypertensive Rats (SHR) after three months of supplementation.
ANTI-CANCER AND TUMOUR SUPPRESSIVE
A study found that palm oil tocotrienols can inhibit human breast cancer cells. Delta-tocotrienol was found to be the most effective tocotrienols in inducing apoptosis (cell death) in human breast cancer cells and Gamma-tocotrienol is three times more potent in inhibiting growth of human breast cancer cultured cells than Tamoxifen.
REVERSES ARTERIOSCLEROSIS
When they consume 240mg of palm based tocotrienols per day for 18-36 months, patients with confirmed carotid arteriosclerosis showed a decrease in the amount of cholesterol plaque in their carotid artery. On the other hand, those receiving a placebo did not show such an effect.
NATURAL ANTIOXIDANT
Alpha-tocotrienol has been shown to be 40-60 times more potent than alpha-tocopherol as an antioxidant.
http://www.nst.com.my/life-times/health/green-gold-1.398151
