More Evidence Curry Ingredient May Fight Cancer 13 March 2003 By Alison McCook NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - An ingredient in the curry spice turmeric may help suppress and destroy a blood cancer, early lab research shows--suggesting yet another health benefit from this long-heralded substance. Turmeric is a common ingredient in Indian food and yellow mustard. Its active ingredient is curcumin, which gives turmeric its yellow color. Adding curcumin to human cells with the blood cancer multiple myeloma, Dr. Bharat B. Aggarwal of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and his colleagues found, stopped the cells from replicating. And the cells that were left died. Although the study did not test the benefits of curcumin in patients, previous research has shown the substance may fight other types of cancers, Aggarwal told Reuters Health. Studies have also shown that curcumin, even in large quantities, does not produce any known side effects in humans, the researcher noted. Based on this evidence, Aggarwal recommended that people with cancer should try to eat more curcumin, if possible. " Whichever way you can take it, as much as possible," he said. Aggarwal added, however, that further research is needed to determine how much curcumin people need to get the most benefits. Previous laboratory research has shown that curcumin may have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, as well as treat and prevent cancer. Studies in the lab and in animals also suggest that the compound might help heal wounds and fight Alzheimer's disease (news - web sites) and multiple sclerosis. Patients with multiple myeloma are in particular need of new treatments, Aggarwal and his colleagues point out in their report in the journal Blood. Once diagnosed with this blood cancer, patients typically live between two and three years. During the current study, the researchers added curcumin to a sample of human cells with multiple myeloma, and observed how the substance influenced the progression of the cancer. In an interview, Aggarwal explained that curcumin appears to block the activity of a "light switch" called nuclear factor kappa-B (NF-kappaB). When turned on, he said, NF-kappaB appears to then turn on many genes linked to cancer. Examining the multiple myeloma cells before adding the curcumin, the authors found that virtually all contained activated forms of NF-kappaB. After adding curcumin, however, NF-kappaB activity was inhibited, the multiple myeloma cells no longer replicated and the remaining cells died, Aggarwal said. Aggarwal explained that it is somewhat difficult to study the effects of curcumin in a large number of patients because these experiments cost a lot of money. Funding for similar research is often provided by a company that stands to benefit if the tested treatment works; however, in the case of curcumin, a natural compound, no company can reap the benefits if turmeric shows itself to be an effective anti-cancer drug, he said. However, Aggarwal said that he hopes the new findings and previous research suggesting curcumin's benefits inspire other researchers to continue investigating its properties. If curcumin is, in fact, an effective and safe treatment for cancer, studying it further can only be a "win-win situation," Aggarwal predicted. SOURCE: Blood 2003;101:1053-1062. --- Garlic and its deadening effect The reason garlic is so toxic, is that the sulphone hydroxylion penetrates the blood-brain barrier, just like DMSO, and is a specific poison for higher-life forms and brain cells. We discovered this, much to our horror, when I (Bob Beck, DSc) was the world's largest manufacturer of ethical EEG feedback equipment. We'd have people come back from lunch that looked clinically dead on an encephalograph, which we used to calibrate their progress. "Well, what happened?" "Well, I went to an Italian restaurant and there was some garlic in my salad dressing!" So we had'em sign things that they wouldn't touch garlic before classes or we were wasting their time, their money and my time. I guess some of you who are pilots or have been in flight tests...I was in flight test engineering in Doc Hallan's group in the 1950's. The flight surgeon would come around every month and remind all of us: "Don't you dare touch any garlic 72 hours before you fly one of our airplanes, because it'll double or triple your reaction time. You're three times slower than you would be if you'd not had a few drops of garlic." Well, we didn't know why for 20 years later, until I owned the Alpha-Metrics Corporation. We were building biofeed-back equipment and found out that garlic usually desynchronises your brain waves. So I funded a study at Stanford and, sure enough, they found that it's a poison. You can rub a clove of garlic on your foot - and you can smell it shortly later on your wrists. So it penetrates the body. This is why DMSO smells a lot like garlic: that sulphone hydroxyl ion penetrates all the barriers including the corpus callosum in the brain. Any of you who are organic gardeners know that if you don't want to use DDT, garlic will kill anything in the way of insects. Now, most people have heard most of their lives garlic is good for you, and we put those people in the same class of ignorance as the mothers who at the turn of the century would buy morphine sulphate in the drugstore and give it to their babies to put'em to sleep. If you have any patients who have low-grade headaches or attention deficit disorder, they can't quite focus on the computer in the after-noon, just do an experiment - you owe it to yourselves. Take these people off garlic and see how much better they get, very very shortly. And then let them eat a little garlic after about three weeks. They'll say "My God, I had no idea that this was the cause of our problems." And this includes the de-skunked garlics, Kyolic, some of the other products. Very unpopular, but I've got to tell you the truth. Stop taking garlic. It kills tens of thousands of brain cells and de-synchronises the left and right brains waves. Source: From a lecture by Dr. Robert C Beck, DSc, given at the Whole Life Expo, Seattle, WA, USA, in March 1996, Nexus Magazine.