Herb-Drug Interaction In Oncology - Proceed With Caution

It is quite common for many cancer patients to combine complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) with the conventional chemotherapy and radiation treatment. However, I've just come across an article which identifies a number of herbal products that are probably capable of causing interactions with anti-cancer drugs, thereby leading to therapeutic failure. The herbal products mentioned in the article are:

St. John's Wort

Kava-kava

Vitamin E

Quercetin

Ginseng

Garlic

B-carotene and

Echinacea

I'm not a medical professional, but I think it's advisable for cancer patients undergoing conventional chemotherapy and radiation treatments to discuss the use of CAM before embarking on the use of these herbal products. For further reading on this subject, please follow the link to http://theoncologist.alphamedpress.org/cgi/content/full/11/7/742

Growing Lemon Grass

Date planted: January 7, 2010

Bought 5 stalks of lemon grass from the neighbourhood mini-market and planted them in a pot. This is in addition to the ones I have growing in the ground just in front of the house.

Photo taken: January 12, 2010

As you can see, it's already sprouting leaves after 5 days. Lemon grass is really very easy to grow - no hassle at all.

Cancer Update From John Hopkins

Just received this email from a friend - this article has probably been circulating on the internet.

After years of telling people chemotherapy is the only way to try to eliminate cancer, John Hopkins is finally starting to tell you that there is an alternative way.

1. Every person has cancer cells in the body. These cancer cells do not show up in the standard tests until they have multiplied to a few billion. When doctors tell cancer patients that there are no more cancer cells in their bodies after treatment, it just means the tests are unable to detect the cancer cells because they have not reached the detectable size.

2. Cancer cells occur between 6 to more than 10 times in a person's lifetime.

3. When the person's immune system is strong the cancer cells will be destroyed and prevented from multiplying and forming tumors.

4. When a person has cancer, it indicates the person has multiple nutritional deficiencies. These could be due to genetic, environmental, food and lifestyle factors.

5. To overcome the multiple nutritional deficiencies, changing diet and including supplements will strengthen the immune system.

6. Chemotherapy involves poisoning the rapidly-growing cancer cells and also destroys rapidly-growing healthy cells in the bone marrow, gastro-intestinal tract, etc and can cause organ damage, such as the liver, kidneys, heart, lungs, etc.

7. Radiation, while destroying cancer cells, also burns, scars and damages healthy cells, tissues and organs.

8. Initial treatment with chemotherapy and radiation will often reduce tumor size. However, prolonged use of chemotherapy and radiation do not result in more tumor destruction.

9. When the body has too much toxic burden from the chemotherapy and radiation, the immune system is either compromised or destroyed, hence the person can succumb to various kinds of infections and complications.

10, Chemotherapy and radiation can cause cancer cells to mutate and become resistant and difficult to destroy. Surgery can also cause the cancer to spread to other sites.

11. An effective way to battle cancer is to starve the cancer cells by not feeding it the foods it need to multiply.

WHAT CANCER CELLS FEED ON.

a. Sugar is a cancer-feeder. By cutting off sugar, it cuts off one important food supply to the cancer cells. Sugar substitutes like Nutrasweet, Equal, Spoonful, etc, are made with Aspartame and is harmful. A better natural substitute would be Manuka honey or molasses, but only in very small amounts. Table salt has a chemical added to make it white in color. Better alternative is Bragg's aminos or sea salt.

b. Milk causes the body to produce mucus, especially in the gastro-intestinal tract. Cancer feeds on mucus. By cutting off milk and substituting with unsweetened soy milk, cancer cells are being starved.

c. Cancer cells thrive in an acid environment. A meat-based diet is acidic and it is best to eat fish, and a little chicken, rather than beef or pork. Meat also contains livestock antibiotics, growth hormones and parasites, which are all harmful, especially to people with cancer.

d. A diet made of 80% fresh vegetables and juice, whole grains, seeds, nuts and a little fruits, help put the body into an alkaline environment. Another 20% can be from cooked food, including beans. Fresh vegetable juices provide live enzymes that are easily absorbed and reach down to cellular levels within 15 minutes to nourish and enhance growth of healthy cells.

To obtain live enzymes for building healthy cells, try and drink fresh vegetable juice (most vegetables, including bean sprouts) and eat some raw vegetables 2-3 times a day. Enzymes are destroyed at temperatures of 104 degrees Fahrenheit (40 degrees Celcius).

e. Avoid coffee, tea and chocolate which are high in caffeine. Green tea is a better alternative and has cancer-fighting properties. Water - best to drink purified water or filtered, to avoid known toxins and heavy metals in tap water. Distilled water is acidic, avoid it.

12. Meat protein is difficult to digest and so requires a lot of digestive enzymes. Undigested meat remaining in the intestines become putrefied and leads to more toxic build-up.

13. Cancer cells have a tough protein covering. By refraining from or eating less meat, it frees more enzymes to attack the protein walls of cancer cells and allows the body's killer cells to destroy the cancer cells.

14. Some supplements build up the immune system ( IP6, Flor-ssence, Essiac, anti-oxidants, vitamins, minerals, EFAs, etc) to enable the body's own killer cells to destroy the cancer cells. Other supplements, like Vitamin E are known to cause apoptosis, or programmed cell death, the body's normal method of disposing damaged, unwanted or unneeded cells.

15. Cancer is a disease of the body, mind and spirit. A proactive and positive spirit will help the cancer warrior be a survivor.

16. Anger, unforgiveness and bitterness put the body into a stressful and acidic environment. Learn to have a loving and forgiving spirit. Learn to relax and enjoy life.

16. Cancer cells cannot thrive in an oxygenated environment. Exercising daily, and deep breathing help to get more oxygen down to the cellular level. Oxygen therapy is another means employed to destroy cancer cells.

Lemon Grass And Cancer Cells

These are the lemon grass plants growing in a little plot of land just outside the front of our house. I started with 3 stalks of store bought lemon grass about 4 months ago, and it has grown into a nice little clump, and still growing. Lemon grass is a hardy herb and grows easily. You can even grow it in a flower pot if space is limited. It doesn't need a lot of TLC, just water and sunshine. Lemon grass is easily available from the wet markets and fresh produce section of supermarkets, and doesn't cost very much.

Lemon grass has a lemony scent and is very commonly used in most Asian cuisines. It can be used fresh, dried or powdered. Usually the white stalk - the white part nearer the root - and seldom the leaves, are used for flavoring curries, soups, stews and in marinades for poultry and meat.

However, apart from its culinary use, research has shown that drinking lemon grass tea can help cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy treatment. Apparently, lemon grass contains citral, an aroma compound which causes cancer cells to self-destruct.

A couple of months back, an article touting the medicinal effects of lemon grass on cancer cells had been going the rounds of the internet, which was emailed to me by a friend.

For the benefit of those who did not receive the email, here's what it says:

Fresh Lemon Grass Drink Causes Apoptosis to Cancer Cells.

By Allison Kaplan Sommer April 02, 2006

Israeli researchers find a way to make cancer cells self-destruct - Ben-Gurion University.

A drink with as little as one gram of lemon grass contains enough citral to prompt cancer cells to commit suicide in the test tube.

At first, Benny Zabidov, an Israeli agriculturalist, who grows greenhouses full of lush spices on a pastoral farm in Kfar Yedidya in the Sharon region, couldn't understand why so many cancer patients from around the country were showing up on his doorstep asking for fresh lemon grass. It turned out that their doctors had sent them. 'They had been told to drink eight glasses of hot water with fresh lemon grass steeped in it on the days that they went for their radiation and chemotherapy treatments,' Zabidov told ISRAEL21c. 'And this is the place you go to in Israel for fresh lemon grass.'

It all began when researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, discovered last year that the lemon aroma in herbs like lemon grass kills cancer cells in vitro, while leaving healthy cells unharmed. The research team was led by Dr. Rivka and Prof. Yakov Weinstein, incumbent of the Albert Katz Chair in Cell-Differentiation and Malignant Diseases, from the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at BGU.

Citral is the key component that gives the lemony aroma and taste in several herbal plants such as lemon grass (Cymbopogon citratus), melissa (Melissa officinalis) and verbena (Verbena officinalis).

According to Ofir, the study found that citral causes cancer cells to 'commit suicide': using apoptosis, a mechanism called 'programmed cell death.' A drink with as little as one gram of lemon grass contains enough citral to prompt the cancer cells to commit suicide in the test tube.

The BGU investigators checked the influence of the citral on cancerous cells by adding them both to cancerous cells and normal cells that were grown in a petri dish. The quantity added in the concentrate was equivalent to the amount contained in a cup of regular tea using one gram of lemon herbs in hot water. While the citral killed the cancerous cells, the normal cells remained unharmed.

The findings were published in the scientific journal Planta Medica, which highlights research on alternative and herbal remedies. Shortly afterwards, the discovery was featured in the Israeli press.

Why does it work? Nobody knows for certain, but the BGU scientists have a theory. 'In each cell in our body, there is a genetic program which causes programmed cell death. When something goes wrong, the cells divide with no control and become cancer cells. In normal cells, when the cell discovers that the control system is not operating correctly - for example, when it recognizes that a cell contains faulty genetic material following cell division - it triggers cell death,' explains Weinstein. ‘This research may explain the medical benefit of these herbs.'

The success of their research led them to the conclusion that herbs containing citral may be consumed as a preventative measure against certain cancerous cells. As they learned of the BGU findings in the press, many physicians in Israel began to believe that, while the research needed to be explored further, in the meantime, it would be advisable for their patients, who were looking for any possible tool to fight their condition, to try and harness the cancer-destroying properties of citral.

That's why Zabidov's farm - the only major grower of fresh lemon grass in Israel - has become a pilgrimage destination for these patients. Luckily, they found themselves in sympathetic hands. Zabidov greets visitors with a large kettle of aromatic lemon grass tea, a plate of cookies, and a supportive attitude. 'My father died of cancer, and my wife's sister died young because of cancer,' said Zabidov. 'So I understand what they are dealing with. And I may not know anything about medicine, but I'm a good listener. And so they tell me about their expensive painful treatments and what they've been through. I would never tell them to stop being treated, but it's great that they are exploring alternatives and drinking the lemon grass tea as well.'

Zabidov knew from a young age that agriculture was his calling. At age 14, he enrolled in the Kfar Hayarok Agricultural high school. After his army service, he joined an idealistic group which headed south, in the Arava desert region, to found a new moshav (agricultural settlement) called Tsofar. 'We were very successful, we raised fruits and vegetables, and,' he notes with a smile, 'we raised some very nice children.'

On a trip to Europe in the mid-80's, he began to become interested in herbs. Israel, at the time, was nothing like the trend-conscious cuisine-oriented country it is today, and the only spices being grown commercially were basics like parsley, dill and coriander. Wandering in the Paris market, looking at the variety of herbs and spices, Zabidov realized that there was a great potential in this niche. He brough samples back home with him, 'which was technically illegal,' he says with a guilty smile, to see how they would grow in his desert greenhouses. Soon, he was growing basil, oregano, tarragon, chives, sage, marjoram and melissa, and mint, just to name a few.

His business began to outgrow his desert facilities, and he decided to move north, settling in the moshav of Kfar Yedidya, an hour and a half north of Tel Aviv. He is now selling 'several hundred kilos' of lemon grass per week, and has signed with a distributor to package and put it in health food stores. Zabidov has taken it upon himself to learn more about the properties of citral, and help his customers learn more, and has invited medical experts to his farm to give lectures about how citral works and why.

He also felt a responsibility to know what to tell his customers about its use. 'When I realized what was happening, I picked up the phone and called Dr. Weinstein at Ben-Gurion University, because these people were asking me exactly the best way to consume citral. He said to put the loose grass in hot water, and drink about eight glasses each day.'

Zabidov is pleased by the findings, not simply because it means business for his farm, but because it might influence his own health. Even before the news of its benefits were demonstrated, he and his family had been drinking the lemon grass in hot water for years, 'just because it tastes good.