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Some interesting speculations ftrom a creative scientist

But some of Ms. Beresford-Kroeger’s claims for the health effects of trees reach far outside the mainstream.

Although some compounds found in trees do have medicinal properties and are the subject of research and treatment, she jumps beyond the evidence to say they also affect human health in their natural forms. The black walnut, for example, contains limonene, which is found in citrus fruit and elsewhere and has been shown to have anticancer effects in some studies of laboratory animals.

Ms. Beresford-Kroeger has suggested, without evidence, that limonene inhaled in aerosol form by humans will help prevent cancer.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/12/science/12prof.html?em

 

Nasty bug; said to have been hitching a ride with us for thousands of years

Its time it paid the rent!

Prevention: Stomach Cancer and a Common Germ

 

By NICHOLAS BAKALAR

Published: August 11, 2008

 

Eradicating a common bacterium after stomach cancer surgery may reduce the risk that the cancer will recur, a new study reports. The germ, Helicobacter pylori, is also a cause of peptic ulcer.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/12/health/12prev.html?_r=1&ref=health&oref=login

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Not really a cure, more of a prevention:

 

Granite Countertops a Recipe for Danger?

 

They are beautiful and durable, but do those pricey granite kitchen countertops so popular with home builders and renovators also pose a health risk?

 

Some researchers say they might, but a group representing the granite industry counters that those claims are “alarmist” and that their studies are little more than “junk science.”

 

At issue is whether some granite countertops emit dangerous levels of radiation, especially the gas radon, which is the second leading cause of lung cancer after smoking.

 

Experts agree that most granite countertops emit some radon and even other types of radiation. The question is whether they do so at levels that can impact cancer risk.

 

New York State Health Department research scientist Michael Kitto, PhD, says only a small fraction of the granite samples he has tested have emitted radon at levels that were over those considered safe.

 

But he added that a few of his samples showed levels that were high enough to alarm him.

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Black Raspberries Slow Cancer By Altering Hundreds Of Genes

ScienceDaily (Aug. 29, 2008) — New research strongly suggests that a mix of preventative agents, such as those found in concentrated black raspberries, may more effectively inhibit cancer development than single agents aimed at shutting down a particular gene.

Black Raspberries Slow Cancer By Altering Hundreds Of Genes

What are "Black Raspberries" please?

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What are "Black Raspberries" please?

 

Raspberries that are black... :)

 

 

But seriously:

How do you tell the difference between a blackberry and black raspberry?

The most obvious difference is that a black raspberry is hollow -- the core of the fruit stays on the plant when it is picked, while the core stays in a blackberry. Black raspberry fruit are also smaller, less shiny. and have a bluish waxy coating between the sections of the berry.

 

The North American Bramble Growers Association

 

Black raspberry

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Thankyou.

I can't grow raspberries in my climate. Melbourne ad Tasmania -cheap as chips- here about $100 a kilo.

I have found a native Raspberry. I might give that ago next season

 

Very new, as yet tentative, reserch from the NEJM

Analyses of Cancer Data from Three Ezetimibe Trials

NEJM -- Analyses of Cancer Data from Three Ezetimibe Trials

Ezetimibe and Cancer — An Uncertain Association

NEJM -- Ezetimibe and Cancer -- An Uncertain Association

Funny name. Would it have come from a herb?

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Vitamin C has been found to help the absorption rate of other drugs as well....the other drugs being physically too large to go through the "whatever" wall, and the vitamin C helped break them down to an absorbable (is that a word?) size.

 

 

i guess its all true...if gramma said so, it is so! eat your damn vegetables and vitamin c!

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Vitamin C has been found to help the absorption rate of other drugs as well....the other drugs being physically too large to go through the "whatever" wall, and the vitamin C helped break them down to an absorbable (is that a word?) size.

 

 

i guess its all true...if gramma said so, it is so! eat your damn vegetables and vitamin c!

Australian Aboriginies ate aberry with 10,00 times the Vit C of oranges!!

Squirrels may know a cure for cancer!

 

Published: Thursday, 18-Sep-2008

- Squirrels may know a cure for cancer!

 

 

Scientists in the United States believe they have discovered a previously unknown anti-cancer mechanism in some rodents.

 

Biologists at the University of Rochester have found that small-bodied rodents with long lifespans have evolved a previously unknown anti-cancer mechanism that appears to be different from any anti-cancer mechanisms employed by humans or other large mammals.

 

They believe understanding how this mechanism works may help prevent cancer in humans because many human cancers originate from stem cells and similar mechanisms may regulate stem cell division.

 

The leading principal investigator of the study, assistant professor of biology Vera Gorbunova, says this anti-cancer mechanism has not been seen before because it doesn't exist in the two species most often used for cancer research - mice and humans.

 

Professor Gorbunova says mice are short-lived and humans are large-bodied and this mechanism appears to only exist in small, long-living animals.

 

Professor Gorbunova believes that the cells of long-living, small-bodied rodents are hypersensitive to cues from the surrounding tissue and if the cells sense that conditions are inappropriate for growth, they slow down cell division - this would arrest tumour growth and prevent metastases

Squirrels may know a cure for cancer!.

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The 'Wee beasties' at it again:-

Bacteria May Help Protect Against Esophageal Cancer

helicobacter pyloriSome bacteria may help protect against the development of a type of esophageal cancer, known as adenocarcinoma, according to a new review of the medical literature.

These bacteria, which are called Helicobacter pylori, live in the stomachs of humans.

 

The review, published in the October issue of Cancer Prevention Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, found that people who had H. pylori strains carrying a gene called CagA were almost half as likely to get adenocarcinoma of the esophagus, a cancer that develops in the tube that passes food from the throat to the stomach.

 

"CagA- positive strains of H. pylori may decrease the risk of adenocarcinoma by reducing acid production in the stomach and, therefore, reducing acid reflux to the esophagus," said study co-author Farin Kamangar, M.D., Ph.D., a research fellow at the National Cancer Institute.

"It may also work by decreasing the production of the hormone ghrelin, which is secreted from the stomach to stimulate appetite. A reduction in the level of ghrelin may lead to lower rates of obesity, an important risk factor for adenocarcinoma."

Bacteria May Help Protect Against Esophageal Cancer

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Better habits key to cutting cancer toll

 

Adam Cresswell, Health editor | October 11, 2008

 

A consultancy firm that crunched the numbers on the impact of the disease in Australia -- which currently sees 106,000 new cases of cancer diagnosed each year -- found that individual behavioural changes held by far the greatest promise, with potential to reduce the cancer burden by 45 per cent.

 

The most important lifestyle changes that would create this reduction were cutting tobacco and alcohol use, improving exercise, obesity and diet, avoiding sunlight and other sources of ultraviolet radiation, occupational carcinogens and unsafe sex.

 

Screening programs for breast, cervical, colo-rectal and liver cancers could cut a further 4 per cent from the nation's cancer burden, the report by consultants Pacific Strategy Partners found.

 

Australia already has screening programs for breast cancer and cervical cancer, and a more limited colorectal screening program which cancer experts have already criticised as inadequate. There is currently no screening program for liver cancer.

 

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare's more recent report on cancer, published last year, estimated there were 39,200 deaths from all types of cancer in 2006.

 

. . . It said the cost of cancer in terms of disability-adjusted life years -- a statistical measure used to put a value on disability -- was $81 billion annually.

 

PSP director Ian Clarke says while a full 49 per cent reduction in cancer is unrealistic, a 20 per cent reduction by 2020 is achievable and would also reduce other diseases.

 

"There are significant misconceptions about what causes cancer," Clarke said. "We need to debunk myths that dark forces like pollution, pesticides and mobile phones are risky. It's actually individual choices about nutrition, exercise, tobacco and alcohol consumption that are the major risk factors, and those choices are in our hands.

 

"Our report suggests that five programs to change behaviour and increase screening, requiring an annual investment of $1 billion between now and 2020, could reduce the annual cancer burden by 20 per cent.

 

"This would result in a benefit of around $7.2 billion a year to the Australian community from that year onwards."

 

The analysis shows a number of factors that confer a high or medium risk of cancer, but which at the same time are barely recognised as such by the public.

 

These include physical inactivity, alcohol and insufficient wholegrain intake, none of which are perceived by the public as cancer risks to any real degree.

 

Eating red meat also has minimal public perception of there being a cancer risk, but the activity itself elevates the cancer risk only slightly. On the other hand, obesity, passive smoking and not eating enough fruit and vegetables are perceived to some extent as potentially causing cancer, but the perception does not reflect the high degree of risk in any of these cases.

.

Better habits key to cutting cancer toll | The Australian

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Asprin

 

Asprin was originally developed from meadowsweet (old botanic name Aspireria odorata), not White Willow bark as popularly supposed. Willow also contains salicylates which have some fascinating uses in plants helping promote root growth and maybe preventing pain ad shock !

 

 

Lots is being written about Asprin/Aspro tm etc but as it is no longer protected by copyright (If it ever was the Brits/US? pinched it from the Germans during the war)

this article will lead to to a number of other articles on how aspirin is used for cancer treatment and prevention.

 

Aspirin Discovery May Improve Cancer Treatments

 

ScienceDaily (Apr. 6, 2007) — Salicylates, including aspirin, are used to treat a range of inflammatory conditions and can be used to prevent diseases such as cancer,

Aspirin Discovery May Improve Cancer Treatments

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Long-term Use Of Adult-strength Aspirin Linked To A Moderate Decreased Cancer Risk (Apr. 18, 2007) — A daily dose of adult-strength aspirin may modestly reduce cancer risk in populations with high rates of colorectal, prostate, and breast cancer if taken for at least five ... > read more

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Meadowsweet often seen growing wild in pretty drifts in damp/boggy English hedgerows. Interesting that willow also likes the damp. early herbalists associated "the damp" with arthritis .

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This is ad eligfully written, ligthearted, funny, inserting, clear article on the potential uses of bacteria in man's future.

4) Cure cancer

 

The thing people forget is that killing cancer is easy. Radiation, drugs, heat, cold, thumping it with lasers or ultrasonics or a baseball bast, it's just another cell and those things can't put up much of a fight against SCIENCE. The problem isn't wiping out the tumours, it's the NOT killing everything they're attached to - healthy human cells which are unfortunately even more fragile. People have this vision of cancer as a multi-headed chimeric hydra, a diabolical monster rearing over a small doctor armed only with a scalpel. The reality is a lumberjack trying to kill one red ant among a thousand black ones he can't touch, and he's only got a sledgehammer, napalm and an ICBM missile to do it with.

 

Which is where clostridia step in. A cell-sized secret agent, the bacteria can be injected into a patient armed with cancer-fighting genes.

As an anaerobic organism it will only replicate in low-oxygen environments - like the clumps of dead tissue found in tumors. There they begin replicating and target the cancerous cells with the therapeutic genes engineered into them by the scientists at of Maastricht University. Even better, these replication locations are the very sites where more conventional chemo- and radiation-therapy are least effective.

Whether this boon from the bacteria is coincidence, or an attempt by the single-cell samaritan to make up for it's antisocial clostridian cousins which cause tetanus and botulism, isn't known.

"Super Cells" that Eat Radiation, Generate Electricity & Cure Cancer -A Galaxy Classic

 

today's science show

I haven't listened to it yet

Bacteria used to treat skin tumours

 

listen now | download audio

 

An American surgeon, William Coley (1862-1936) found patients with fever or bacterial infection would lose their skin tumours. He suspected the tumours were susceptible to immune activation. Later he inoculated these patients with bacteria and noticed some remarkable results. The tumours are destroyed in a bystander effect. This research was not pursued as chemotherapy developed. Now, the idea has again gained attention. The thought is you can excite the immune system by introducing bacteria and have it attack a tumour.

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/scienceshow/stories/2008/2426408.htm
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To Fight Cancer, Ovarian Cells Eat Themselves

 

cannibalSome cells take the mantra “you are what you eat” quite literally. In a process known as autophagy, cells form internal sacs of digestive enzymes—like extra stomachs—and cannibalize parts of themselves. This usually occurs in times of starvation when a cell needs to recycle bits of itself or get rid of intracellular pathogens. But new research shows that cellular self-cannibalization can also play a role in fighting cancer.

 

Researchers at the University of Texas M.D.

To Fight Cancer, Ovarian Cells Eat Themselves | Discoblog | Discover Magazine

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Evaluation of Antitumor Activity of Peptide Extracts from Medicinal Plants on the Model of Transplanted Breast Cancer in CBRB-Rb(8.17)1Iem Mice.

 

Posted:

Related Articles

 

Evaluation of Antitumor Activity of Peptide Extracts from Medicinal Plants on the Model of Transplanted Breast Cancer in CBRB-Rb(8.17)1Iem Mice.

 

Bull Exp Biol Med. 2008 Apr;145(4):464-6

 

Authors: Tepkeeva II, Moiseeva EV, Chaadaeva AV, Zhavoronkova EV, Kessler YV, Semushina SG, Demushkin VP

 

We studied antitumor effects of peptide extracts from plants on slowly growing mammary adenocarcinoma in CBRB-Rb(8.17)1Iem mice used as a model of breast cancer in humans. The antitumor effect of a single injection of the test peptides was evaluated by the delay of the appearance and growth of palpable breast cancer in mice over 4 weeks. Peptides from Hypericum perforatum and a mixture of Chelidonium majus L., Inula helenium L., Equisetum arvense L., and Inonotus obliquus exhibited maximum activity.

 

Peptide extracts from Frangula alnuc Mill. and Laurus nobilis L. were less active. No antitumor effect of Camelia sinesis Kuntze was detected.

 

PMID: 19110595 [PubMed - in process]

Chelidonium majus is Celandine. A wild herb in much of Europe. The yellow juice from the leaves is an effective wart remedy

Interestingly James Duke reckons we should be investigating all old wart remedies for anti-cancer activity.

 

Inula helenium = Elecampane

Don't know much about this. I have never grown it.

Equisetum arvense =Horsetail (s?) a weed in many areas . very high silica content.

 

Hypericum perforatum= St John's Wort.

June 26, 2007 : Hypericum perforatum

 

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Botany Photo of the Day: Hypericum perforatum

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