Michael Edwards – Page 2 – Green Lifestyle Market

Researchers Develop New Method To Inject Turmeric Compound Into Cancer Cells

Mainstream science is now openly trying to inject high-powered curcumin into tumors in order to kill cancer cells. But first they must solve the issue of insolubility…

Curcumin is the extract from turmeric that is studied for its effects on cancer and pain. Anecdotally, one person used high-powered curcumin to reverse their cancer after chemo failed. So it’s not whole turmeric that scientists would use, but its component curcumin.

Researchers think they have solved the problem of getting curcumin into the tumor to kill cancer stem cells and interestingly – they’re using platinum to do it. They think they have stumbled on an ideal anti-cancer drug.

Recommended: How To Use Turmeric To Kill Cancer

From University of Illinois College and Engineering:

In India and other countries in Southeast Asia, curcumin is often used as a spice in cooking, particularly chicken or fish. It is known for its therapeutic effect and as a way to kill germs present in raw meet. Recently, scientists have also discovered that curcumin, a naturally occurring substance isolated from the Curcuma long plant, to be an effective agent for killing cancer cells.

“Until now, however, curcumin is what we call in pharmaceutical science as a ‘false lead’ – it is therapeutic, but the full effect can’t be utilized because it’s poorly soluble in water,” noted Dipanjan Pan, an associate professor of bioengineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign who leads the Laboratory of Materials in Medicine.

“When you try to deliver a drug, it requires solubility in water, otherwise it won’t flow through the bloodstream,” added Santosh Misra, a post-doctoral researcher working with Pan.

Recently, however, Pan’s laboratory collaborated with Peter Stang, the editor-in-chief of the Journal of American Chemical Society, and Distinguished Professor of chemistry at the University of Utah on ways to be able to render curcumin soluble, deliver it to infected tumors, and kill cancer cells. The team has created a sophisticated metallocyclic complex using platinum that has not only enabled curcumin’s solubility, but whose synergy has proven 100 times more effective in treating various cancer types such as melanoma and breast cancer cells than using curcumin and platinum agents separately. They published their results in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

“It’s a combination of clever chemistry and nanoprecipitation utilizing host guest chemistry,” Pan explained. “We know that a drug is going to bind to a certain ‘host molecule’ if the proper pocket is present. We have shown here that a pumpkin-shaped macrocyclic molecule Cucurbituril by virtue of its glycoluril monomeric linkages, that attracts curcumin, which gets bound and comes off once it gets delivered to the cell. That is the key to demonstrating the effectiveness of the therapy and in solving a long-standing problem with curcumin’s insolubility.”

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“In order to make it available to the system, it was necessary to put curcumin in a larger complex where it can be soluble in water,” Misra said. “This complex has a very unique ability to take on different forms of material — from a spherical nanoparticle to longer elongated threads of nanometer size. In both cases, curcumin is present in the system, which what is important for to its medicinal value.”

“We knew platinum is a commonly used cancer therapeutic agent in the clinic,” Pan said in explaining the road to discovery. “We wanted to exploit that property as well in addition to curcumin. Our results demonstrate that curcumin works completely in sync with platinum and exert synergistic effect to show remarkable anticancer properties.”

The team detailed a hierarchical approach to solubilize a hydrophobic anti-cancer drug, curcumin in water via a combination of coordination-driven self-assembly and host-guest interactions.

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Curcumin has shown to prevent the phosphorylation of STAT3, a well-known signaling pathway that triggers the growth of cancer cells and allows them to survive, in in vivo studies. The platinum-curcumin combination kills the cells by fragmenting its DNA.

Although the researchers have only tested the method in delivering curcumin, its contribution to cancer treatment will ultimately also come from the likelihood the method will work with other drugs as well.

“In cancer therapy, one of the measures that constrains a number of the drugs is their poor solubility,” Pan said. “Viability only becomes prominent when the drug becomes soluble in water. So, no matter how the drug is given, intravenously or orally, it needs to eventually be absorbed by the organs in the body.”

Pan’s team also hopes to prove that this method will be effective in killing cancer stem cells, in effect cancer’s root system.

“More and more it is becoming obvious that cancer stem cells are responsible for all these cancers to regrow,” Pan said. “Even if you are killing all the cells in the tumor, there would be a tiny population of cells with ‘stemness’ properties that could enable cancer cells to grow back and spread to other parts of the body. That is why even if a patient has been declared cancer free, doctors continue to monitor to see if cells regrow. However, if we can deliver therapy to cancer stem cells, we can prevent that from happening. As an ongoing research in our laboratory to find agents for stopping the growth of cancer stem cells, we will be looking into using these highly sophisticated self-assembled metallacycles for targeted therapies”

Cherries Improve Gut Health

(Natural Blaze by Heather Callaghan)

Cherries for gout, cherries for gut health. While Montmorency tart cherries have a reputation as both a gout and sleep remedy – it turns out they can actually play a major role in improving gut health.

An international team of scientists has discovered that Montmorency tart cherries – the kind that makes exquisite cherry pies – have a positive impact on the gut microbiome. Microbiome refers to the trillions of bacteria and other microbes living in the intestines. The microbiome is the hottest research trend today because it is now believed that the gut acts as one of the strongest parts of our immune system and impacts our behavior since the microbes among us can act as a “second brain.” It is also offered that the microbiome determines much of heart health, blood sugar control, weight and brain health.

Tart cherries are top fruit for antioxidants – But in a first-of-its kind study, a human trial of nine adults was combined with a parallel laboratory study (Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry) to explore just how much cherries could be a gut-friendly food. The results of the study hold an interesting surprise.

Related: Best Supplements To Kill Candida and Everything Else You Ever Wanted To Know About Fungal Infections

Weber Shandwick Chicago reports:

While previous studies on Montmorency tart cherries have ranged from heart health and exercise recovery to sleep, this is the first study to explore the potential gut health benefits. The researchers speculate that it may be due to the polyphenols (anthocyanins and other flavonoids) in Montmorency tart cherries, the varietal of tart cherries grown in the U.S. Polyphenols in plant-based foods are broken down by microbes to stimulate growth of good bacteria.

“Montmorency tart cherries were a logical food to study due to their unique composition of polyphenols, including chlorogenic acids,” said principal investigator Franck Carbonero, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Food Science at the University of Arkansas. “Our results suggest that the unique polyphenol mixture in tart cherries may help positively shape the gut microbiome, which could potentially have far-reaching health implications.”

Want to know the amazing part? This study was done using tart cherry juice from concentrate!

The report cont.,

…In the human trial, nine healthy adults, 23-30 years old, drank 8 ounces of Montmorency tart cherry juice (from concentrate) daily for five days. These individuals were non-smokers and had not taken antibiotics (which can affect the microbiome) in the 12 weeks prior and during the study. Using stool samples, the participants’ microbiome was analyzed before and after the dietary intervention, and food frequency questionnaires were used to evaluate their overall diet.

The lab study, however, tried to mimic the human digestive process and tested how polyphenols would break down in three different regions of the intestines, such as the colon.

Related: Sugar Leads to Depression – World’s First Trial Proves Gut and Brain are Linked (Protocol Included)

The researchers tested U.S.-grown Montmorency tart cherries, European tart cherries, sweet cherries, apricots and isolated polyphenols in each simulated region of the digestive tract. They analyzed changes in the mix of bacteria and how these bacteria helped digest the polyphenols over time.

The results?

Just five days of drinking the juice significantly increased the good gut bacteria of participants in the trial.

Five days.

But before you waste your money on a supplement – read this!

Everyone’s microbiome is different so the cherry juice affected everyone’s gut health differently.

Those who had the healthiest diets (loaded with vegetables, fruit, complex carbohydrates) received the most benefit from tart cherry concentrate. They could process the polyphenols and their guts showed an increase in Bacteroides and Bifidobacterium, probably due to the specific combination of polysaccharides and polyphenols.

Related: Cherries – The Superfood You Should Know About

Those who had a SAD diet (typical Western foods – fried, sugary, low in fiber, etc.) had a lower ability to metabolize polyphenols and therefore, lower bioavailability of the good stuff. Strangely, “instead of Bifidobacterium, Collinsella were the beneficial polyphenol-degrading bacteria stimulated.”

Best Paleo Recipes for Beginners (Ad)

It sounds like someone would be much better off improving their diet before adding tart cherry concentrate to the mix. Some people like to add these concentrates to sparkling water. If you decide to try it, black cherry and grape taste better than tart cherry when added to carbonated water. Nothing beats eating the fruits themselves. Of course, there’s no harm to the occasional piece of homemade pie, given the power of fruit. There are even amazing paleo recipes you can follow!

Do any of you add cherries to your diet or supplement regimen? If so, what were the results? Sound-off below!

This article (Cherries Improve Gut Health) was created by and appeared first at Natural Blaze. It can be reshared with attribution but MUST include link to homepage, bio, intact links and this message. Image: Cherry Marketing Institute

Heather Callaghan is an Energy Healer, consultant, independent researcher/writer, speaker and food & health freedom advocate. She is the Editor and co-founder of NaturalBlaze as well as a certified Self-Referencing IITM Practitioner. She has written over 1,200 articles and wants readers to empower themselves to take back their health!

Lyme and Candida – Why Both Must Be Addressed To Heal

Why and How the Two Go Together

(Organic Lifestyle Magazine) The human body is colonized by an unfathomable number of different microbial species including bacteria, fungi, and viruses. Candida is a normal member of human gut flora. Virtually all of us have it. When beneficial bacteria is not present Candida can become virulent. Lyme patients often undergo long-term antibiotic therapy. Antibiotics destroy beneficial intestinal bacteria which then allows candida, other fungi, and other pathogens to flourish.

Most pathogens, including candida and Borrelia burgdorferi (Lyme bacteria), need carbohydrates to survive. How they get their carbohydrates differs, but a diet high in sugars and starches literally feed Candida and Lyme as well as other living pathogens both directly and indirectly.

Since virtually all of us have Candida, those with Lyme are especially susceptible. Even without antibiotic treatments, a weak immune system allows Candida to flourish, grow hyphae, and colonize all around the body.

Some people are not susceptible to Lyme disease. Scientists think that genes and overall health determine susceptibility, but the presence of virulent Candida is probably one of the best measures of the health of a person. As mentioned, we all (or nearly all) have candida, but healthy bodies do not have virulent candida. Candida overgrowth is what happens in a compromised immune system. In other words, even if someone has not been treated with antibiotics, it stands to reason that virulent candida, and many other pathogens are present in the body of someone who is susceptible to Lyme.

Why Lyme Is Becoming More Prevalent

Ticks can’t survive in very cold climates. Warmer climates help ticks reproduce and survive longer, proliferate earlier, and live farther north. And yes, our climate is warming. We can argue that this is caused by man-made pollution or the reversal of our polarity, or the ebb and flow of the planet’s ecosystem, or even intentional geoengineering, but the climate is, without a doubt, getting warmer. Even a minor adjustment in average temperatures can have massive effects on the ecosystem. Warmer winters are also expanding the geographic range of animals associated with Lyme, helping to explain the spread of the disease in northern climates like Canada.

In addition, we have more deer. Deer were nearly extinct at the turn of the 20th century. Hunters decimated deer populations and Lyme disease is believed to be most often contracted by deer ticks. Over the last century, deer have obviously made a comeback.

It’s not just the deer, forty to 90 percent of white-footed mice carry Borrelia burgdorferi, and these mice are also proliferating and expanding their territories lately. There are other creatures that carry the ticks, and other parasites that carry the disease as well.

Some researchers estimate that global warming has doubled tick populations in the US, and increased populations by up to five fold in Canada.

Why Candida Is So Common

Our modern world’s continued fervor for irradicating germs, mostly bacteria, live us to deal with antibiotic-resistant bacteria and fungi. Our sugar and starch consumption is also increasing while our diet diversity is decreasing, and consequently, our gut’s ecosystem diversity is also decreasing. Fungal infections are becoming increasingly prevalent in the human population. Candida albicans incredibly opportunistic and is the most common fungal pathogen found in humans worldwide.

Even the fruit we consume has far more sugar than what our ancestors were accustomed too. Check out the difference between our modern hybridized bananas and the wild ones:

Try looking into other fruit as well and you’ll see that we used to have to work a lot harder for that sugar.

Why You Have To Address Address Both Lyme and Candida

Candida overgrowth opens up the gut. There little tiny holes that are only supposed to allow digested, completely broken down foods. When Candida becomes virulent it makes the gut much too permeable, consequently, pathogens including parasites, undigested proteins, and sugars get into the bloodstream radically overwhelming the immune system. The body is not capable of handling Lyme under such stress. The immune system already has its work cut out for itself under healthy conditions. And, in case you haven’t heard yet, your immune system is only as good as your gut health.

Have you ever heard the phrase “feed a cold, starve a fever?” There is some truth to it, but its incomplete. The phrase should be, “feed a virus, starve bacteria and fungal infections.” But Lyme and Candida take a long time to get rid of, and fasting for months is not a good idea. But we can still starve them by restricting sugars and starches, and we can speed up their demise with supplements.

For more information on Candida, along with a protocol including recommended supplements and diet, check out my article Best Supplements To Kill Candida and Everything Else You Ever Wanted To Know About Fungal Infections.

I also wrote, Best Supplements To Kill Lyme and Everything Else You Ever Wanted To Know About Lyme Disease, but I recommend starting with Candida.

Sources:

Ireland Will Be The First Country to Fully Divest From Fossil Fuels

First, the Church of England fleshes out plans for fossil fuel divestment. That was amazing news. But now Ireland has passed a bill that will have the country sell their more than €300m shares of fossil fuel investments including coal, oil, peat, and gas ‘as soon as practicable’.

The Guardian reports that Ireland passed the fossil fuel divestment bill in the lower house of parliament and the bill is expected to pass the upper house easily. When the law goes into effect the government will be obligated to sell all investments in fossil fuels.

The fossil fuel divestment movement has picked up steam and is growing at a reassuring pace. The Guardian reports that trillions of dollars of investment funds have been divested, including large pension funds and insurers, cities such as New York, churches, and universities. While there is evidence that divestment can have unintended consequences, with the multitude of institutions divesting, as Sami Grover at Treehugger puts it, “I feel like we are close to reaching a critical mass where divestment is just seen as sound, fiscal management.”

The [divestment] movement is highlighting the need to stop investing in the expansion of a global industry which must be brought into managed decline if catastrophic climate change is to be averted. Ireland by divesting is sending a clear message that the Irish public and the international community are ready to think and act beyond narrow short-term vested interests.” – Thomas Pringle, independent member of parliament who introduced the bill.

Governments will not meet their obligations under the Paris agreement on climate change if they continue to financially sustain the fossil fuel industry. Countries the world over must now urgently follow Ireland’s lead and divest from fossil fuels.” – Gerry Liston at Global Legal Action Network, who drafted the bill

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hThOpH9Xrdc

Nutritional Deficiencies and Other Potential Causes of Candida Overgrowth

Mineral deficiencies are more likely to lead to Candida overgrowth, though the most virulent cases almost always seem to come sometime shortly after prescription antibiotic usage. These deficiencies do not seem to cause Candida, but they do exacerbate the problem, and Candida overgrowth does lead to mineral deficiencies. Low stomach acid can also lead to mineral deficiencies with calcium, magnesium, phosphorous, iron, copper, and zinc.

Iron or folic deficiency may facilitate an invasion of Candida albicans in some individuals, but studies don’t show a significant enough correlation to indicate that these deficiencies will cause Candida overgrowth, at least not alone.

This article is an excerpt from Best Supplements To Kill Candida and Everything Else You Ever Wanted To Know About Fungal Infections

Magnesium and molybdenum break down the toxic metabolites of Candida albicans. Acetaldehyde is the most well known of these toxins. With a magnesium or a molybdenum deficiency, our body is unable to remove acetaldehyde from the body. The toxins promote cell decay which feeds the Candida lifecycle (pathogens love two things: sugar and decaying or dead cells).

Candida can also prevent us from assimilating minerals. With a gut filled with fungi and other pathogens, the proper breaking down of minerals (and proteins and other nutrients) does not happen. Obviously, this opens the door to an extensive list of autoimmune diseases.

B vitamins, including pantethine (B5) and biotin (B7), are often cited as supplements that inhibit Candida growth, but there are also studies that indicate Fungi feeds off of these and other nutrients. To supplement with such specific nutrition when the gut is in such disarray is a fool’s errand.

A deficiency in calcium and magnesium, can lead to and exacerbate sugar cravings. Supplementing with these minerals can help. Though we are rarely deficient in glutamine, supplementation with it does help eliminate sugar cravings.

Copper has a fungicidal value in the body’s tissues. Copper compounds are used commercially as sprays on vegetables, as algicides in swimming pools, etc. Having too much copper or not enough copper in the body can disrupt gut flora and other nutrient balance.

Improper fat digestion or a diet lacking in healthy fats can also help Candida to flourish. Short-chain fatty acids have fungicidal properties. A healthy body synthesizes appropriate protective fatty acid compounds.

Heavy Metals, Hormones, Pharmaceuticals, GMOs, Pesticides, Antibacterial Soil, and Other Toxins

Toxic compounds kill beneficial bacteria if for no other reason than that they’re toxic. Pesticides, herbicides, and GMOs designed to kill microbes will do the same thing inside humans once digested. Inhaled steroids used to treat asthma have also been shown to cause oral candidiasis, which makes one wonder what happens in the gut with steroid use.

People with mercury fillings are often subject to Candida outbreaks. Tiny particles break free, and mercury vapor is released that we then inhale and swallow. The body doesn’t just slough off the mercury. Its molecular structure is so similar to selenium, which the body needs, the cells snap it up as if it were a beneficial mineral. In the gut, mercury creates an environment that is not friendly for beneficial bacteria. An overgrowth of “bad bacteria” and Candida results.

The majority of fungal conditions or chronic infections should be considered a conscious adaptation of the immune system to an otherwise lethal environment by heavy metals. Mercury suffocates the mechanism and can cause respiratory intracellular cell death. So the immune system reaches a compromise: Grow bacteria and yeasts that can bind large amounts of toxic metals.” – Dr Dietrich Klinghardt

Some doctors specializing in Candida treatment have reported that they have discovered clinically that 98% of their patients with chronic Candida also had mercury toxicity.” – Dr. John P. Trowbridge

Mercury vapors from dental fillings play havoc on the body through a host of means, the least of which is to feed the bacteria, fungi, and yeasts that thrive on mercury. Mercury will promote the growth of Candida, though as it absorbs the mercury, it thereby protects the system to a certain extent from its toxicity – until they are saturated then they begin to re-release the mercury in organic form. Mercury fed Candida become more and more virulent and eventually penetrates the intestinal walls and invades the cells. These fungal microorganisms become quite at home in the cell, and can easily be considered a principle characteristic of cancer.” – Dr. Mark Sircus

Endocrine disrupters interrupt hormones in ways that Candida find beneficial. Candida binds to certain hormones, altering their shape so they’re no longer able to fit into their target receptors, making these hormones inactive. Candida likes estrogen. Too much estrogen helps support Candida in a variety of ways. Candida also produces a waste product that, in the human body, mimics estrogen. With enough Candida in the body, the endocrine system can lower the acidity of the digestive tract, the urinary tract, and the reproductive systems. Candida can effectively raise the pH level in parts of the body to make it more alkaline the way Candida likes it, creating a feedback loop. Other areas of the body quickly get too acidic, promoting more disease.

Antidepressants alter gut function. Antidepressants that influence the neurotransmitter serotonin are particularly egregious. NSAIDs can damage the entire intestinal tract. NSAIDs often damage the mucosal lining of the stomach (causing ulcers) and the small intestine.⁵

Toxic compounds don’t have to reach the gut to cause problems. Toxins damage our cells just like they damage microbes when we breathe toxins in or absorb the compounds through our skin. The pathogens will come to feed off of the damage. We could go on endlessly about how all of the most talked-about toxic compounds reak havoc in the gut and the immune system, but it’s all the same. They do damage to the body and they strain the immune system which puts the body out of balance and leads to infection. Think of infection as the garbage men. It’s their job to consume the garbage, the damage, the decay of our bodies. If we have a lot of damage to feed infection (or too much sugar), the infection takes over the body, and the damage its presence ensues helps to feed its own cycle.

Author: Michael Edwards