Schisandra: China's Most Potent Medicinal Berry

Schisandra berries have become one of the newest superfoods, even if their main use is medicinal. Grown in China's mountain regions, the wild red berry...

May 8, 2017

Story at-a-glance-

• Grown primarily in China’s Upper Yangtze region, the small, red schisandra berry has been used for centuries in traditional Chinese medicine and is becoming well known worldwide for its many health benefits
• Clinical studies show schisandra berries may be useful for improving cognitive function, enhancing libido, reducing stress, enhancing athletic performance, improving heart function and possibly fighting cancer
• Researchers showed villagers how future schisandra berry yields depended on harvesting only the bottom two-thirds of the vines so birds and other wildlife could continue “seeding” the mountain forests
• Several entities worked together to create the FairWild Standard, a verification system to improve environmental conditions and labor practices, possibly saving the schisandra berry and other rare, wild plants used for food and medicine

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While it may sound like a fantasy planet or a new prescription drug, schisandra is neither, but may end up affecting the reliance some have on the latter.

That’s because schisandra, a berry that grows on woody, climbing vines in the cool subtropical forests of China’s Upper Yangtze region and parts of Russia, is now a bona fide superfood. Known as a traditional curative for chronic coughs, incontinence, night sweats and insomnia for 2,000 years, the berry is gaining new attention.

Modern-day restaurants in China offer alcohol with a base of saturated schisandra (Schisandra chinensis) berries, which patrons top up from tall glass containers, like lemonade at an American picnic. But the flavor is not for the faint of heart. Amazingly, schisandra berries (sometimes spelled with a “z”) feature all five of the taste senses at once, each denoting its own medicinal application, which experts at Learning Herbs1 say can be determined by the flavor:

• Sweet — Sweet herbs, such as chai, an herb used to make a popular tea, help restore energy and balance your immune system
• Salty — High in minerals, an example of a salty herb is nettle, used to nourish, even as it exerts diuretic effects
• Sour — A perfect model for the sour taste, lemon water is prized for its ability to promote digestion and build strength and stamina
• Bitter — As herbs, “bitters” are used to stimulate digestion, treat inflammation and exert an oddly cooling, draining effect on your body, akin to drinking coffee
• Pungent — This taste is savory and spicy; cayenne is a good example

The main function for the “five-flavored berry,” or Wu Wei Zi, is medicinal, even though it’s been used as a base for everything from jams to juice. But as the Medicine Hunter2 quips, unlike goji or acai berries, “Nobody eats this stuff with yogurt.”

A Berry With Mental and Physical Benefits

Therapeutically speaking, the schisandra berry is especially revered in Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) because of its astounding health benefits. However, it first gained recognition in Russia in the 1960s after 20 years of studies helped place it in the National Pharmacopoeia of the USSR and in the State Register of Drugs.

Its initial notoriety was as an adaptogen, which the Global Healing Center3 describes as a natural substance that helps your body adapt to stress. A Swedish study reports:

“Pharmacological studies on animals have shown that Schizandra [sic] increases physical working capacity and affords a stress-protective effect against a broad spectrum of harmful factors including heat shock, skin burn, cooling, frostbite, immobilization, swimming under load in an atmosphere with decreased air pressure, aseptic inflammation, irradiation and heavy metal intoxication.

The phytoadaptogen exerts an effect on the central nervous, sympathetic, endocrine, immune, respiratory, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal systems, on the development of experimental atherosclerosis, on blood sugar and acid-base balance, and on uterus myotonic (atrophying) activity.”4

Medicine Hunter5 lists several of the physical and mental effects provided by the schisandra berry, as studies have indicated:

Slow signs of aging	Increase energy	Enhance athletic performance	Prevent mental fatigue
Reduce stress	Enhance your libido	Promote endurance	Improve concentration
Improve mental health	Maintain healthy cells	Sharpen memory	Prolong life

Learning Herbs cites studies that indicate the schisandra berry also helps promote sleep, relieve anxiety, ease digestive troubles such as chronic diarrhea and support your immune system, even in cases of severe hepatitis B.

Illnesses and Conditions Improved by Schisandra Berries

The list of diseases, disorders and conditions this little red berry is said to treat successfully is truly remarkable. Many of them are based in its potency as an antioxidant, Livestrong6 reports, listing four of the most dramatic:

•Cancer protection — The International Journal of Molecular Medicine7 published a study that revealed schisandrin C, a phytochemical found in schisandra berry, as a “promising” anticancer agent, as it inhibited human leukemia cell growth.

•Improved heart function — While the drug adriamycin is used to stop breast cancer cell proliferation, it can cause cardiotoxicity, decreased heart function, abnormal accumulation of fluid in the abdominal cavity and congested liver.

The active ingredients in schisandra berry, however, reportedly have beneficial effects on cardiotoxicity in rats due to free radicals, which are unstable molecules that can damage healthy cells. Further, it “significantly reduced oxidation of lipids, increased the activities of antioxidants and decreased mortality in rats.”8

•Helps prevent liver damage — A study in the journal Food and Chemical Toxicology noted that Schisandra chinensis protects against liver injury from the cancer-causing agent carbon tetrachloride.

Mice were treated with carbon tetrachloride to induce liver injury, then treated with a schisandra pollen extract. Results showed elevated antioxidant activity, preventing increased liver enzymes (higher levels of liver enzymes indicate liver disease) and lowered free radical formation in the animals’ livers.

•Anti-inflammatory advantages — One study9 indicated that adding schisandra berries to your diet may protect you from inflammation and that supplementation may be useful for preventing inflammatory diseases.

The attention on the plant that produces the tiny, bright red berry represents more than just its medicinal importance. The schisandra berry’s home is known as one of the most biodiverse areas on the planet, which is now undergoing a “dramatic new approach to conservation,” according to the Food and Environment Reporting Network (FERN).10

How to Save an Ecosystem and the ‘Gatherers’ Who Serve the World

“Once upon a time there was a forest …” a story might begin. Not so long ago, a sad ending for the schisandra vine looked imminent. In China, portions of farmland are allotted to families. In the Upper Yangtze, farmers began pooling their resources to grow crops on the mountain slopes to sell for extra cash. As forests were logged out to make way for more farmlands, mudslides began decimating the mountains and forests, destroying many of the rare medicinal plants.

Commercial harvest of magnolia bulbs (used for indigestion, inflammation, anxiety, stroke and asthma, according to WebMD11), and angelica roots (aka dong quai, popular as an aphrodisiac and a balancing agent for hormones, Herb Wisdom reports12), were destroyed, as well as the fragile habitat for the endangered giant panda.

Eventually, the 1990s brought government bans on the hillside timber harvest, then on the farm operation on the mountain slopes in an initiative they called “Grain for Green,” but it backfired. The problem escalated rather than being resolved, according to FERN:

“It was salvation for the forests, but the farmers had to scramble to replace the lost income. Families started gathering more wild plants than ever, ripping entire schisandra vines from trees to get as many berries as possible. This not only killed the plants, but also spread the foragers’ human scent, scaring panda mothers who then abandoned their babies.”13

It looked like the end of the story for the schisandra berry, and a new period of trouble for the villagers, until Josef Brinckmann, an ethnobotanist and research fellow in medicinal plants at Traditional Medicinals tea company, arrived in 2008. His remedy for the situation was to encourage wild harvest, not prohibit it.

Wild Plant Gathering: A New Chapter for Schisandra Berries

According to a report from Kew Gardens’ State of the World’s Plants, one-fifth of the world’s wild plant species is nearing extinction, and one-third is threatened due to unsustainable farming practices. As Brinckmann put it, “The biggest threat to biodiversity is farming and development, not over-harvesting wild plants.”

Brinckmann was on a team that included members of the World Wildlife Federation and the Swiss and German governments in the creation of the FairWild Standard, the first verification system in the native plant industry to focus on improving both environmental conditions and labor practices.

FairWild’s investment in overseeing sustainable practices of the Upper Yangtze villagers impacted whole communities and possibly saved not only schisandra berry, but other natural, plant-based foods and medicines. As a result, FERN continues:

“Around the world, 19 plant species in 10 countries are now certified under FairWild, and at least 1,000 households in Central Europe and Asia are involved. That amounts to about 300 tons of plant material each year, with Roma collectors in Hungary and Bosnia filling sacks with rose hips and nettles, while families in Kazakhstan dig for licorice roots.”14

Something else occurred that turned villagers’ receding incomes into a national crisis: a massive earthquake that hit the Upper Yangtze in 2008 and not only killed 69,000 people, but left nearly 5 million homeless. At that point, harvesting wild plants became a national priority.

How Schisandra Berry Harvest Practices Became ‘Sustainable’

Rather than tearing out every schisandra berry vine they could find, Brinckmann and fellow researchers explained to villagers how imperative it was for future yields to harvest only the bottom two-thirds of the vines so that birds and other wildlife could continue “seeding” the mountain forests.

At the same time, collectors also learned that giant panda breeding areas should be avoided. After a 17 percent rise in the panda population, experts cheerfully reported their effort “seems to be working,” as the beloved animal’s status moved upward from “endangered” to “threatened.”

Indigenous groups around the world are still being trained under FairWild in sustainable harvesting techniques. As contractors, they’re now able to sell their products for what they’re worth. Further, villagers are compensated for protecting the land — and as keepers of the local, botanical expertise, that’s often as ancient as their native cultures.

Some of the contractors are elderly, as well as women and children who would struggle to survive otherwise, and they take responsibility for many rare plants that around 80 percent of the world relies on for food and medicine.

The schisandra berry project alone is now a cooperative between 23 villages, involving buyer contracts that give families a 30 percent profit above market rate. Additionally, when one wants to add new plants to the FairWild list, they’re responsible for designing not only a plan to manage its harvest, but also the entire microecosystem in which it grows.

Schisandra Berry Supplementation

From all the above information, it’s easy to see why this little berry is becoming so well known in the West and so desirable as a supplement. As Medicine Hunter notes:

“You can find Schisandra in a couple of forms. In Chinese groceries and medicine shops, you can find dried Schisandra berries. Just a few dried berries daily will impart the benefits described there. Or, you can also find Schisandra supplements. Look for ones that are standardized to the schisandrins, which are active compounds.”15

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2017/05/08/schisandra-berry.aspx

Can crowdfunding really cure cancer?

Alexander Masters investigates a pioneering new project 

Writer Alexander Masters started crowd-funding cancer trial project, 

iCancer Credit: Pal Hansen 

Alexander Masters

2 July 2016 • 6:00am

The first person in the world  to receive the only crowd-funded cancer drug in history will be Jan Smørlung, a village fire inspector, who doesn’t mind us pointing our camera lens at his groin.   ‘Yes, thank you. I am happy to assist the world,’ he says.

A plump, healthy-looking man with a fresh haircut, wearing a white T-shirt, he looks like someone who rows out into misty forest lakes to catch a fish for breakfast. He has two children, six grandchildren and not much time.

For over a decade, Jan’s consultant, world famous clinician Kjell Öberg, has held back the inevitable with every treatment so far known to medicine, from chemotherapy to small  radioactive balls dribbled into Jan’s blood.

Alexander Master's best friend, Dido Davies: '[Dido] was dying of NETs that had begun in her  pancreas – the same disease that killed Steve Jobs – and for 18 months I’d been hunting through the web, trying to find new treatments for her'

Neuroendocrine tumours (NETs) such as his are slow-growing, but unless completely removed by surgery they generally get you in the end. (They usually occur in the intestine, but they are also found in the pancreas, lung and other parts of the body.)

A few months ago, Jan’s tumours lost patience with the shilly-shallying and began to expand unstoppably.    The new crowd-funded drug, financed by 2,000 people living in 40 countries, plus one supremely generous oilman from Geneva, is called AdVince. In a few hours, a timorous  dose will be pumped into a tube between Jan’s legs, along the hepatic artery and into his tumour-infested liver.

First ever crowd-funded cancer drug trial Play! 01:51

Cancer trials proceed with agonising slowness. To the patient they can have the feel of a nightmare. These opening doses (known as Phase One of the trial) are to test the safety of the drug, and seem all but homeopathic. They are diluted to be hundreds of times lower than the expected effective dose.

It will be well into next year before Phase Two of the process begins, when Jan will get to try potentially useful quantities of the new drug. ‘Shadows good, shoot straight on the bed,’ mutters Dave, our cameraman, brushing past Öberg, as if the professor were no more than a tea boy.

‘We could pull the curtain round, let’s see how stable the light is …’  ‘Do you know why the drug is called AdVince?’ asks Liz, who is prepping Jan for a website video to celebrate the start of the trial. Jan shakes his head contentedly.

'If I raise the money, will you put my friend Dido on the trial?’ I asked. It was a question that was perhaps ethically abhorrent and quite  possibly illegal

‘Vince was the oilman. He paid three-quarters of the money needed for this trial, on the condition that he would also be allowed to join it. What do you think of that?’ ‘Did he pay for three-quarters of me, too?’ ‘For everyone. But his condition was that he be included, too.’ ‘I thank him with all my heart. He is a good man.’

There are four and a half of us fluffy-headed media types who have flown out here to Uppsala University Hospital, in Sweden, to gawp at Jan’s middle bits: Liz Scarff who, with her partner David Carter, runs a strategic creative consultancy called Fieldcraft Studios; Dominic Nutt, a communications expert (who has just contracted a cold, gone red in the face and disappeared back to our hotel); me, a biographer,  and Stella (daughter of Liz), aged 11 months. None of us knows a thing about medicine.  

Yet without us, Jan wouldn’t be lying here. We are the ones who discovered AdVince lying neglected in Uppsala’s research-lab freezer, formed a campaign group called iCancer and, together with the 2,001 other donors around the world whom Jan has never met and who have never heard of him, raised £2 million to get the drug defrosted and infused into the  top of his thigh. 

We are also here because, during the process, we think we discovered a radical new way to raise money for the vast numbers  of potential medications currently neglected  in laboratories around the world. It is such a  simple idea that it’s astonishing no one has thought of it before.  Jan is taking part in Phase One not just of AdVince, but also of what we’ve dubbed the Plutocratic Proposal.

AdVince is a genetically modified oncolytic adenovirus. In medical parlance, it’s ‘an advanced biologic’. In campaigner talk, it’s a cancer-eating bug. It has been engineered from a virus that causes flu. It is mutant sniffles.    I first heard about AdVince (or Ad5[CgA-E1A-miR122]PTD, as it was then called) four years ago and 5,000 miles away from Jan’s village on the Swedish coast.

I was sitting in my  girlfriend’s apartment in New York, watching a YouTube video about diseased Canadian pigs. My best friend, the biographer Dido Davies, was dying of NETs that had begun in her  pancreas – the same disease that killed Steve Jobs – and for 18 months I’d been hunting through the web, trying to find new treatments for her.

Dido’s tumours had come back. They had seeded in her blood and were crowded  in her liver. The YouTube lecture had been up for three years, had recorded a total of 48 views, and the man presenting the talk claimed his biotech company (whose name he forgot to mention) had discovered a virus in diseased pigs that killed NET cells in humans.

The drug had been approved for clinical tests by the FDA (the Food and Drug Administration – America’s all- powerful and perfectionist medical approval body) and two human trials were under way. I spotted an address on a poster behind the lectern, froze the film, enlarged the picture until I could read the name Neotropix, and rang the company up. No answer. It had gone bust two years earlier.

After AdVince enters Jan’s body, it will swarm down his hepatic artery, confined inside the catheter until the final second, and be released into his tumour-infested liver

 The venture capitalists backing the research hadn’t seen a quick enough return, so had abandoned everything: the company, the drug, the hospitals running the trials, even the patients whose tumours were starting to disappear. It turns out this is  a common situation. But the failure put me on the right track.

A link on the company’s defunct website led me to a series of articles in internationally respected journals by Professor Magnus Essand and Dr Justyna Leja at Uppsala University. They had also developed a virus that specifically  targeted neuroendocrine cancer cells, and  had been forced to abandon their promising work for lack of funds. But they were still answering the phone.

 ‘If I raise the money you need to get this drug back into clinical research, will you promise to put my friend Dido on the trial?’ I asked. It was a question that showed absolutely no understanding of accepted medical practice, was perhaps ethically abhorrent and quite  possibly illegal.

‘Yes,’ said Professor Essand. The first thing I did was the only thing a  part-time hack like me could think of doing: write an article and send it to The Sunday Telegraph, where I’d once published some travel pieces: ‘A virus that kills cancer: a cure that’s waiting in the cold.’ Then I waited.

Monday passed, Tuesday… the article went, appropriately, viral, but my phone stayed silent. Wednesday, Thursday… Two Sundays later, I got a beautifully written response: another article in the Telegraph, by Dominic Nutt.  ‘Would I take an untested cancer treatment myself? Hell, yes!’

He had recently had a neuro-endocrine tumour removed, and said that if he’d had the £2 million I needed, he’d give it to me; only, he didn’t have it.     It felt as though we were characters in a Sherlock Holmes story, calling to each other through the columns of a newspaper.

Cancer trials proceed with agonising slowness. To the patient they can have the feel of a nightmare Credit: Michael Kirkham

The next day, I met Dom on the balcony of the Wetherspoons pub in Victoria station. He  introduced me to his friends Liz and Dave, whose award-winning company specialises in social media campaigns, and over beer and lemonade we set up iCancer.   Eight months later, the money raised from crowd-funding online was on Professor Essand and Dr Leja’s lab bench.

Beyond the window of Jan’s room there are enormous building works. Cranes hum and clank as they lift concrete hoppers high into the air, then reel them down again at speed to be disgorged  into the sprawling foundations. Uppsala is extending its oncology, radiotherapy and surgery departments with a nine-floor new building costing 2 billion Skr (£165 million).

The Swedish population is growing fast, and cancer is booming. The fact that certain viruses successfully attack cancer cells has been known since the 1890s. What’s taken 130 years to figure out is  a) how to make the effect last longer than a few weeks and b) how not to kill the patient in the process.

Jan is in there because 2,000 people in 40 different countries paid for him to have this chance. That will never cease to amaze meLiz Scarff

When modern scientists began to investigate the field, genetically engineered examples such as AdVince were treated with the same caution as Ebola. One fear was that these modifications of a sneeze might break out of the labs and infect the fuel in aeroplane tanks: regulators actually believed it would make Boeing 747s drop out of the sky.

The film I Am Legend is about an artificially modified cancer-eating measles virus that takes over the world by killing 90 per cent of the population. The film is set in 2012, the same year that our campaign group, iCancer, handed over the money to the University of Uppsala. These days the panic has died down.

After AdVince enters Jan’s body, it will swarm down his hepatic artery, confined inside the catheter until the final second, and be released into his tumour-infested liver.  The reason for the catheter is not to protect Jan from the virus, but the virus from Jan. Professor Essand and Dr Leja’s main concern is that Jan’s immune system will eliminate the drug before it has a chance to attack his tumours.

However, AdVince is a self- amplifying drug: the viruses work by replicating themselves inside the tumour cell until it bursts. So there is just a chance something might happen even in the early, timid doses of a Phase One trial. A nurse knocks on Jan’s door and strides in carrying a metal tray of implements, flustered by the squash and squeeze in the room. Before Jan can receive his innocuous dose he needs to be washed and checked ‘for vital signs’.

‘This is a very big chance for me,’ says Jan merrily, swinging off the bed and beginning  to undress.

‘We are pretty sure he is alive, but it is good to check,’ jokes Professor Öberg, as we leave the room.
‘Essentially what Dave and I do for a living is tell stories on a huge scale,’ says Liz.

‘And  this is just such a brilliant story: here in Sweden is a potential treatment that could help save thousands of people’s lives. Why would you not donate £5, £10, £15? I never for a minute thought we wouldn’t raise the money for the trial.’

According to the Financial Times, the crowdfunding part of our campaign, which Liz set up and ran, is the most successful of its type in web history. Of the final amount, she and Dave raised £700,000 this way.  Yet Liz has not charged iCancer a penny for her work. I have sometimes wondered about this. Why did she choose to join iCancer?

There are dozens of good stories of neglected drugs not  being developed for want of a few pounds.  ‘Aren’t there also inheritable forms of the  disease?’ Liz asks Professor Öberg in the corridor, as we’re waiting for Jan’s injection to begin.

This is unexpected, because Liz usually insists she knows nothing about the illness,  so when she adds, bafflingly, ‘Men to be?’ it sounds as though she’s talking about another sci-fi film in which all the men of the future die, this time of neuroendocrine cancer.

‘Yes,’ says Öberg, also surprised.

VIDEO: Steve Jobs on beating liver cancer Play! 01:47

‘MEN-1, MEN-2a and MEN-2b are all genetic variants that can be inherited. Why?’ For a second Liz does not reply.  She returns to her notepad and jots down a few marks. ‘My mother has it,’ she says. Half an hour later, the tube penetrates Jan and six years of research, two years of neglect and eight months of fundraising flow into his diseased liver.

Liz sat up sharply when the light above the door into the operating room turned from green to red. ‘Jan is in there because 2,000 people in 40 different countries paid for him,’ she repeated.  ‘They paid for him to have this chance.  That will never cease to amaze me.’  She was close  to tears.

Now that Jan is dosed up and the new drug is getting the testing it needs to see if it’s any good, there’s no longer any reason for us to go on with our work. Dido died three years ago. Vince died eight months after making his extraordinary donation. From my point of view, the money was raised in the hopes of  getting them on this trial.

Dozens of promising new cancer treatments are thrown out. There is nothing wrong with these drugs: they have been developed in leading laboratories by respected scientists

Neither lived long enough to claim the prize. We found AdVince and began our fundraising too late.  These days what worries Dom most is his diabetes, not his cancer. But iCancer will continue. We want now to show that Uppsala wasn’t a fluke: that the fundraising approach which we accidentally developed is a good way to get other neglected drugs out of their freezers and into clinical trials.

Generalise our tactic in a way that does not promote quackery and you have, we believe, the chance to raise billions of pounds of new money for peer-reviewed,  quality medical research.

I call it the Plutocratic Proposal, and I can sum up the idea in three words: ‘sell’ trial places. It’s effectively what I wanted Professor Essand to do for Dido when I first rang him in 2011. It’s what Vince was after, when he made his extraordinary donation.

The trick is to do it sooner, quicker, not towards the end of a patient’s life, but at the point of diagnosis, at the start of a disease. Everything honourable and judicious about the idea depends on those quotation marks around the word ‘sell’.  

'There are four and a half of us who have flown out to Uppsala University Hospital, in Sweden. Liz Scarff, David Carter, Dominic Nutt, me and Stella (daughter of Liz), aged 11 months' Credit: Michael Kirkham

It’s not a standard sale. What the plutocrat who provides this new type of funding is saying is: ‘I will finance this neglected drug (that otherwise would not  stand a chance of being developed) to be tested in all the poorer patients on a trial. All I ask in return, is that I be allowed to tag along.’

Every year, dozens of promising new cancer treatments are thrown out. There is nothing wrong with these drugs and interventions: they have been developed in leading laboratories by respected scientists around the world.  In pre-clinical studies they have shown remarkable potential to lessen suffering and prolong thousands of lives.

Why are they discarded? Because the researchers have run  out of money.  How much money?    Around £2 million, or roughly just under one half of one per cent of what Sir Philip Green creamed off BHS. The Plutocratic Proposal is venture capitalism with a socialist step.

Unlike ordinary  venture capitalism, the return is not money, but another shot at health, and the investors are shackled to beneficence. The plutocrat can’t skulk off with everybody’s cash to buy a  third superyacht. The Plutocratic Proposal should appeal to both Jeremy Corbyn and Donald Trump.

Last year we published a thonking 11,000- word article on the subject in the Wellcome Trust’s emagazine, Mosaic. It won the 2015 Investigative Science Journalism Award. Oxford University has asked us to write an  ethical analysis of the idea for the Journal of Medical Ethics.  

On our last night in Uppsala, Professor Essand got out his guitar and held a rock concert. It was not a big party. It was in the virotherapy lab canteen, and Professor Essand’s delightful, generous team of international  students jiggled embarrassedly in a circle. Dave and Liz had to return to the hotel to look after Stella and sort out the plentiful footage of  Jan. Dom was still sick in bed. Dr Leja couldn’t join in because she is eight months pregnant.

So I danced with Vince’s widow, Mona. We were wild, flinging out our arms and legs while Professor Essand and his band bellowed. I don’t know why we danced so vigorously. It was wonderful to celebrate the arrival of a new potential medication; it was good to think we might have an idea that could save other neglected drugs; but both the people we had fought for had died.

Go to icancer.org.uk to find out more and watch the film of Alexander Masters’ visit to Uppsala

CANCER BREAKTHROUGHS: A TIMELINE

A history of discoveries that have brought us closer to curing cancer

• 1923

  Radiotherapy first used to treat cervical cancer

• 1935

  First link made between sun and skin cancer

• 1954

  Proof of a link between smoking and lung cancer first published

• 1956

  First chemotherapy drug, methotrexate, used to treat a rare tumor called choriocarcinoma

• 1963

  Discovery of the first human cancer virus

• 1972

  First drug for testicular cancer developed, now 95 per cent of men with it survive

• 1986

  The first ‘monoclonal antibody’ or targeted therapy approved by the Federal Drug Administration (later examples include Herceptin for breast cancer and Avastin for colorectal, lung and othercancers)

• 1994-95

  The first breast cancer genes BRAC-1 and BRAC-2 discovered

• 2008

  The cervical cancer vaccine immunisation programme begins in the UK

• 2010

  Trials show ‘flexi-scope’ screening could prevent a third of bowel cancers

• 2011

  International Cancer Genome Consortium formed to map the genetic faults behind 50 types of cancer.

• 2013

  Trial finds taking the drug anastrazole daily could halve the risk of breast cancer in high risk older women

• 2016

  Scientists build nanoparticles that act as 'Trojan Horse' vessels that ferry chemotherapy drugs direct to cancers. Two breast cancer drugs are shown to shrink or eliminate tumours in 11 days. Professor Swanton's research shows how our own immune cells can be used to cure 'hopeless case' secondary or metastasised cancers

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/health/can-crowdfunding-really-cure-cancer-alexander-masters-investigat/

How Awesome Is Ashwagandha?

Very quickly gaining in popularity in the U.S. as an “incredibly healthy” herb with centuries-old medicinal qualities, ashwagandha has a long list of attributes to its credit. One of the best known is its use as an adaptogen, meaning that it helps you manage stress.

June 13, 2016 

Story at-a-glance

• Originating in India, ashwagandha has been used in the natural healing art, Ayurveda, for 3,000 years, with its earliest uses for stress, inflammation, improved libido and overall well-being
• Modern clinical trials have designated ashwagandha as an adaptogenic herb, as it helps your body better handle stress and relieves depression and anxiety
• Two active compounds in ashwagandha are glutathione, a powerful antioxidant, and withanolides
• Numerous studies have shown that ashwagandha may be helpful for dozens of other health issues, from low thyroid to hormonal problems and the potential prevention and treatment of a number of cancers

By Dr. Mercola

Very quickly gaining in popularity in the U.S. as an “incredibly healthy” herb with centuries-old medicinal qualities, ashwagandha has a long list of attributes to its credit. One of the best known is its use as an adaptogen, meaning that it helps you manage stress.

Ashwagandha is translated in Sanskrit as “smell of the horse,” possibly as a double meaning: the herb exudes the peculiar odor of a horse, and it’s also known for its ability to increase strength and promote health when used regularly.

Other names include winter cherry and Indian ginseng, along with its botanical moniker Withania somnifera. Originating in the region of Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka, ashwagandha has been used by East Indian cultures for thousands of years, based on the 3,000-year-old alternative East Indian medicine known as Ayurveda.   

It’s only been in the last 50 years that this member of the nightshade family of plants (Solanaceae) has emerged in the West as a potent healing herb, with growing popularity.

Actual Asian ginseng (botanical name Panax ginseng), also an adaptagenic herb, is one of the most sought-after herbal supplements in the U.S. and has several things in common with ashwagandha.

Besides easing fatigue in cancer patients and improving Alzheimer’s, they share a similar effect on infertility and emotional disorders.

Perhaps less well known and not quite as powerful as ginseng, ashwagandha currently sells for $12 to $15 per pound, while ginseng can sometimes go for $100 for the same amount. Nevertheless, ashwagandha has its following of people who value it for its many health advantages.

Originating in India and Northern Africa, the ashwagandha plant is a small shrub bearing small yellow flowers and teardrop-shaped leaves. It’s the leaves that hold the key to the health benefits. Dried and reduced to a powder, compounds called withanolides are possibly the most active ingredients.

Ashwagandha Shown to Fight Many Types of Cancer

Ashwagandha trials have demonstrated numerous and dramatic healing properties for many diseases and presented encouraging prospects in others. Possibly, its most zealously tested benefits are in regard to its ability to combat inflammation and tumor growth.1

In one animal study “using chemically induced and oncogene-driven rodent cancer models,” new cancer cell growth was inhibited:

“The plants used in Ayurvedic medicine, which has been practiced in India for thousands of years for the treatment of a variety of disorders, are rich in chemicals potentially useful for prevention and treatment of cancer.

Withania somnifera (commonly known as ashwagandha in Ayurvedic medicine) is one such medicinal plant whose anticancer value was realized over four decades ago after isolation of a crystalline steroidal compound (withaferin A) from the leaves of this shrub.”2

Cancer cell apoptosis, or programmed cell death, is one of the ways ashwagandha is thought to exert cancer-resistant effects. It may also have an ability to generatereactive oxygen species (ROS) to kill cancer cells without harming normal cells.3

Researchers concluded after trials that ashwagandha may be valuable for combating lung,4 breast,5 colon,6 and a particularly aggressive brain cancer called glioblastoma multiforme, or GBM.7

In another study, mice with ovarian tumors were treated with ashwagandha in combination with an anticancer drug. Besides reporting a 70 percent to 80 percent decrease in tumor growth, metastasis, or the spread of tumor cell growth, was also obstructed.8

Ashwagandha Affects Insulin, Blood Sugar Levels and Inflammation

One valuable use for this herb is in relation to lowering blood sugar levels, as evidenced by a study showing its dual actions of increasing insulin secretion along with muscle cell sensitivity.9

In trials on people with schizophrenia, scientists found subjects to have reduced fasting blood sugar after four weeks.10 Similar results were recorded in another assessment, which showed effectiveness comparable to an oral diabetes drug.11

Chronic inflammation threatens individuals suffering from diabetes, as well as heart disease, obesity and cancer. The best defense against inflammation and the pain associated with it is in your diet, as multiple studies have demonstrated.

Ashwagandha can be added to the many healing herbs and spices shown to improve this condition.

Oxidative stress has been described as “an imbalance between the production of free radicals and the ability of the body to counteract or detoxify their harmful effects through neutralization by antioxidants.”12

Ashwagandha has exhibited reduced oxidative stress and inflammation in multiple studies and may be helpful for arthritis symptoms, as well.13

Ashwagandha Can Help Decrease Depression, Stress, Anxiety and Insomnia

There’s no denying that the rest of your body reacts to stress. One of the attributes of ashwagandha is its ability to induce calmness and clarity by regulating neurotransmitters such as serotonin and the stress hormone cortisol.

Your adrenal glands release cortisol when your blood sugar level drops too low and also when you’re stressed. When cortisol levels get too high, it can wreak havoc on your blood sugar, blood pressure and cholesterol levels, your hormone balance, immune system, and may even increase fat storage.

The good news is research has shown that consuming ashwagandha may not only reduce cortisol levels but also, as an adaptagen, can “substantially” reduce chronic stress14 to help your body adapt to and alleviate the stomach-churning anxiety stress can cause.

In one interesting study, anxiety test scores among 75 participants with moderate to severe anxiety were placed in two groups. Those treated with ashwagandha were shown to have “significantly decreased” symptoms as opposed to those undergoing more conventional interventions.15

Another review was undertaken to seek evidence of ashwagandha use in regard to gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), an inhibitory neurotransmitter significantly involved in regulating physiological and psychological processes signaling:

“Our results provide evidence indicating that key constituents in WS [ashwagandha] may have an important role in the development of pharmacological treatments for neurological disorders associated with GABAergic signaling dysfunction such as general anxiety disorders, sleep disturbances, muscle spasms, and seizures.”16

Research indicates there’s a likelihood that ashwagandha may be useful for helping patients in opioid withdrawal as well as reducing or eliminating dependence on benzodiazapene drugs such as Xanax and Valium.

Infertility Alleviated, Muscle Strength Increased by Compounds in Ashwagandha

Stress can cause many seemingly unrelated ailments and conditions, including infertility — or perhaps the infertility causes the stress. In one study, ashwagandha supplements were given to 120 infertile men, while placebos were given to another 60 men classified as fertile.

“Treatment resulted in a decrease in stress, improved the level of antioxidants and improved overall semen quality in a significant number of individuals. The treatment resulted in pregnancy in the partners of 14 percent of the patients.”17

Researchers also found that groups treated with this Indian herb showed dramatically increased muscle strength and muscle mass, as well muscle recovery after injury in several different bench press exercises after being treated with ashwagandha supplements for eight weeks.18

Further, participants taking ashwagandha in that study experienced more than double the percentage of body fat loss in comparison to those taking placebos. Interestingly, ashwagandha is also used in Ayurveda to stimulate libido in women, soothe painful periods and strengthen the uteruses of those who’ve had miscarriages.

Learning, Memory, Improvement of Neurodegenerative Diseases and More

One of the traditional uses for this herb was to improve memory and sharpen brain function, the age of the individual notwithstanding. That continues to hold true:

“In modern research, ashwagandha has been found to boost an important antioxidant in the brain called glutathione. Glutathione is an essential component for cell development, enzymatic activity, and for clearing toxins from the body.”19

Numerous studies indicate there’s also hope for patients suffering from devastating disorders such as Alzheimer’s, Huntington’s and Parkinson’s disease. Scientists believe this ability comes through inhibited amyloid plaque that forms on the brain. It may also be useful for a neurological disorder called restless leg syndrome.

In people with underactive thyroid, in which the thyroid gland fails to produce the hormones needed, ashwagandha extracts have been found to significantly increase the hormone levels of patients with hypothyroidism. Scientists believe that, taken over time, this herb may also help with adrenal gland imbalances.

Natural Medicine — Much More in Line With Your Best Health Interests

Finding a plant that has as many uses as ashwagandha in regard to healing your body and mind makes it all the more clear that natural and alternative health care is so much more effective and less threatening to your body than what is pushed through today’s conventional medical practices.

In spite of many medical associations’ claims, natural medicine is one way you can take control of your health. Arm yourself with the facts about disease, what causes it and how to prevent it, rather than caving to the current medication-driven forum for “treating” disease and “managing” illness.

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2016/06/13/ashwagandha-medicinal-uses.aspx