Alternative therapies in cats
| Laetrile Therapy | Homeopathy | Noni juice |
Laetrile (B17) therapy in cats
The purported properties of Laetrile (derived from apricot kernels) as an alternative medicine for treatment of various cancers in humans are yet to be scientifically proven. However, anecdotal evidence suggests that in combination with a radical diet and lifestyle change, it may have some properties at alleviating symptoms of disease.
Contemporary chemotherapy in cats has remission rates of approximately 75%1. In those cases with poor owner compliance using contemporary chemotherapy (due to owner finances or reluctance), or where specifically requested by the animal guardian, this clinic has trialled Laetrile as an alternative on numerous patients (cats and dogs) with mixed results. We will continue to use this vitamin as an adjunct chemotherapeutic agent at client's request.
Dr Jim Euclid has permit approval from AQIS and NRA to import Laetrile (B17) 500mg tablets from the USA for use
only on cats and dogs.
What doses of laetrile are required for maintaining health in animals?
It is suggested that for healthy patients, 1mg of Laetrile per 1 kg body wt is sufficient to prevent cancer in cats and dogs.
In cancer patients, doses of Laetrile far exceed maintenance levels. For metastatic cancers in animals, intravenous doses up to 100mg/kg for 1-2 weeks are recommended, followed by oral maintenance doses of 10mg/kg daily for 2-3 months.
Laetrile therapy must be used in conjunction with a fresh diet that is low in fat, sugar, salts and preservatives (i.e. no commercial diets) together with regular exercise.
Supplementation of diet with additional vitamins (esp antioxidants) and colloidal minerals is recommended.
Animal tests using Laetrile
There have been various animal studies that suggest an anti-cancer effect from Laetrile. The SCIND Laboratories in California conducted several experiments [with Laetrile]. In their second study on carcinoma of rats (Walker 256), with amygdalin in doses of 500 milligrams per kilogram injected intraperitoneally on days one, three and six after [transplanted] tumor take, the mean survival time of the control rats was 23 days. With the amygdalin-treated rats, mean survival time was 38 days, i.e. a 70% increase over the controls. The survival time of every Laetrile-treated animal was greater than that of every control animal.
In 1977, Dr. Vern L. van Breeman of Salisbury State College, Maryland, reported that the addition of apricot kernels [rich in Laetrile] to standard food in pilot experiments with special strains of mice bred to develop breast cancer and leukaemia showed impressive differences both in terns of developing the disease and increased survival times between the animals that [ate] the kernels and those that did not. When he reported his early findings... seven of the animals in the leukaemia control group and five in the breast cancer [control] group had died, while none of the mice on the kernels had. Ultimately only one of the mammary cancer mice developed a slow-growing tumour, and, while the leukaemia results were less impressive in terms of total symptoms, leukaemia-prone mice that ate apricot kernels enjoyed life extensions up to 50% over what would normally be expected.
Veteran cancer researcher Kanematsu Sugiura (who had a 4-volume set of his collected scientific papers published in 1965) performed three sets of experiments between September 1972 and June 1973 "to determine the effects of amygdalin...upon mice with spontaneous mammary tumours." In an internal report to his colleagues at Sloan-Kettering Institute, he said that "The results clearly show that amygdalin significantly inhibits the appearance of lung metastases in mice bearing spontaneous mammary tumours and increases significantly the inhibition of the growth of the primary tumour over the appearance of inhibition in the untreated animals."
These are just some of the Laetrile animal studies yielding positive results, while they hardly prove Laetrile to be a "cure" for cancer (which scientific Laetrile proponents have never claimed it to be), they clearly evidence some anti-cancer effect.
A quick history of Laetrile (B17) therapy
© www.b17.com.au
In 1535 the French explorer Jacques Cartier and his expedition were frozen in the ice off the St. Lawrence river. 25 of the 110 crew were dead from scurvy and the rest were due to follow. At this point a friendly Native American came forward with a potion made from the needles and bark of the white pine, rich in ascorbic acid, or vitamin C. This produced a dramatic recovery.
When Cartier returned to Europe and reported to the medical mandarins they were amused by the 'witch-doctor cures of ignorant savages' and went on with their search for mystery toxins and bugs lurking in the dark hold of the ships. 260 years later, after the British Navy alone had lost over a million men to scurvy, the practice of carrying oranges, lemons and limes on board ship led to the 'limeys' ruling the waves.
Scurvy - vitamin C; pellagra - vitamin B3; night-blindness - vitamin A; rickets - vitamin D; beri beri - vitamin B1; pernicious anemia - vitamin B12. It should have needed no great intellectual leap to suspect that another chronic, metabolic disease - cancer - might also be a vitamin-specific deficiency disease.
The use of certain fruit kernels in the treatment of cancer goes back to the Emperor herbalist Shen Nung in the 28th century BC. 'Bitter almond water' features in the writings of the physicians of ancient Egypt, Arabia, Rome and Greece. Celsus , Galen, Scribonious Largus , Pliny the Elder, Avicenna and Marcellus Empiricus all used preparations based on the seeds of the bitter almond, apricot, peach etc.1
Purified amygdalin was first prepared in 1830 by the French scientists Roubiquet and Bontron-Chariand. In 1837, the German scientists von Liebig and Woehier found that amygdalin can be split by a specific enzyme into hydrogen cyanide, benzaldehyde, and glucose. The first recorded use of Laetrile to treat cancer was reported in 1845 by T. Inosmetzeff, a professor at the Imperial University of Moscow. (6,7)A young male cancer patient of 20 received approximately 46,000 mg of amygdalin over a period of 3 months, and was still alive 3 years later. A women of 48, with extensive metastasis from a primary right ovarian tumor, received varying amounts of amygdalin over a period of years and had survived II years at the time of the report. No sustained pharmacologic harm was seen with these patients. In the modern era Laetrile was "rediscovered" in the 1940s by Ernest Krebs. By the late 1940s - early 1950s, use of Laetrile to treat cancer had spread quietly around the world. Early dosages were extremely modest - only 50 - 100 mg by intravenous injection, with total patient dosage then seldom exceeding 2 gms. By the 1960s the Krebs were recommending 30 gms total Laetrile dosage, spread over a 10-30 day treatment course. (7) By the 1980-90s, intravenous dosages up to 9 gms, with total patient dose reaching 2-300gms, was not uncommon. (8)
Classical Laetrile proponents, such as Krebs, Dean Burk, and P. Binzel, do not consider Laetrile a literal cancer cure, however, anymore than insulin injections are a cure for diabetes. Rather, Laetrile is considered a cancer control which will need to be taken indefinitely, in oral form, after the original cancer crisis is brought under control. This exactly parallels the situation of vitamin deficiency diseases, where intravenous injections may be used to bring a severe vitamin deficiency disease (e.g. pellagra or beri-beri) under control, with higher-than-normal oral doses needed indefinitely thereafter to prevent relapse, The typical oral Laetrile dose used after intravenous injections is 1 to 2 gms/day. (8) Yet Krebs suggested that 50-100 mg of Laetrile/day might suffice to prevent cancer in normal healthy adults. (9)
Laetrile's efficacy in preventing/controlling cancer has come from 3 different sets of data: epidemiological, animal tests, and human clinical use by experienced pro-laetrile doctors. The epidemiological evidence for Laetrile is controversial, like all epidemiological evidence, and provides only strong suggestions, not incontrovertible proof.
Ernst Krebs PhD proposed that cancer was a deficiency disease: the deficiency being the factor linked for so long with cancer therapy. He identified the substance as part of the nitriloside group specifically, amygdaline, a cyanogenic glycoside first isolated, from the bitter almond, prunus amygdalus amara , in 1830 by the French chemists Robiquet and Boutron-Charland . Its chemical structure is D( 1)-mandelonitrile-B-D-glucosido-6-6-B-glucoside, as recorded in the Merck Index, 1976.
Toxicologically, amygdaline falls between Class 1 and Class 2 , 2 which means it is virtually non-toxic. This compares with saccharin, between Class 3 and Class 4 and most 'chemotherapy': Class 6 - super toxic. The Hunzas , a cancer-free society in the Himalayas , consume up to forty apricot kernels as an after-dinner snack. Coupled with the rest of their amygdaline-rich diet this constitutes an ingestion of 50 to 70 milligrams of the substance per day.
According to Krebs: 'There are many of us in the western world who do not ingest this amount in the course of an entire year.'
Traditional Eskimos, the Hopi and Navajo tribes, the Abkhasians of the Caucasus Mountains and other notably cancer-free groups have amygdaline-rich diets. After taking into account the required factors, Krebs allocated his substance the next available number on the vitamin B index: 17. He named his concentrated amygdaline preparation, Laetrile. As many of the world's cancer-free societies are outside of the polluted environment and distinctly advantaged in the quest to remain healthy, a group of Americans began, in the 1950s, to test Krebs' theory:
'For over two decades there has been a steadily-growing group of people who have accepted the vitamin theory of cancer and who have altered their diets accordingly. They represent all walks of life, all ages, both sexes, and reside in almost every advanced nation of the world. It is estimated that there are many thousands in the United States alone. It is significant, therefore, that after starting and maintaining a diet rich in vitamin B17, none of these people have ever been known to contract cancer.'3
Dr. Dean Burk, then head of the NCI, said he had been contacted, during the space of 12 months, by at least 750 people, including many MD physicians most of whom were 'using it (B17) merely with prevention of development of cancer in view.'4
One of the first doctors to use Laetrile in the control of cancer was Dr. Maurice Kowan . This landed him in court in Los Angeles . The prosecutor told the jury: 'This is not a kindly old man. This is the most thoroughly evil person the imagination can concoct...This man has to be stopped. He is very dangerous. The way to stop him is a guilty verdict.'5 Dr Kowan was heavily fined and, at the age of 70, sentenced to two months in prison.
The basis used by the cancer mafia for the attack on Dr. Kowan was a falsified report produced by two doctors, Garland and MacDonald in 1953. The two, who had ideal credentials by way of their being involved in surgery and radiation and in the promotion of cigarettes as a health measure, produced a report which stated that no evidence of anti-cancer changes were observed by the consultants using Laetrile: a report found, later, to be demonstrably fraudulent but which has been quoted religiously by vested cancer interests.
Dr. John A. Richardson began to use B17 in the summer of 1971. His first patient was the sister of one of his nurses: a case of advanced malignant melanoma of the arm. She had been given around six weeks to live with a little longer if she had the arm amputated.
Amygdaline was administered and almost immediately the lesions began to heal. Within two months her arm had returned to normal5
The woman was also a diabetic who, after the treatment, controlled her disease without insulin. When she returned to her original doctor he still wanted to amputate: she declined the offer.
Research on Laetrile
In 1962, Dr. John Morrone reported his results from using Laetrile with 10 patients suffering from "inoperable cancer." The treatments ranged from 4 to 43 weeks in length, and a range of 9 to 133 gms Laetrile was given through intravenous injections. Morrone concluded his report: "The use of Laetrile... in 10 cases of inoperable cancer, all with metastases, provided dramatic relief of pain, discontinuance of narcotics, control of fetor [stench from a tumour], improved appetite, and reduction of adenopathy [swollen lymph nodes]. The results suggest regression of the malignant lesion.... No other side effects [other than transient episodes of low blood pressure] were noted except slight itching and a sensation of heat in the affected areas, which was transitory in all cases."
In 1994, P.E. Binzel published his results from treating cancer patients with Laetrile between 1974 and 1991. He used a combination of intravenous and oral Laetrile. Intravenous doses started with 3 gms and worked up to 9 gms. After a period of months, oral Laetrile, 1 gm at bedtime, was begun in place of the injections. Binzel also used various nutrient supplements and pancreatic enzymes, as well as a low animal-protein, no junk-food diet as part of his regimen. Out of a series of 180 patients with primary cancer (non-metastasised, confined to a single organ or tissue), 138 were still alive in 1991 when he compiled his treatment results. At that time, 58 of the patients had been followed for 2 to 4 years, while 80 had a medical follow-up from 5 to 18 years. Of the 42 patients who had died by 1991, 23 died from their cancers, 12 from unrelated causes, and 7 died of "cause unknown".
Among his metastatic cancer patients, 32 of 108 died from their disease, while 6 died of unrelated causes, and 9 died of "cause unknown". Of his 61 patients still alive in 1991, 30 had a follow-up between 2 and 4 years, while 31 had been followed for 5 to 18 years. Binzel's results are impressive. Some of the individual patients discussed in his book were still alive (and well!) 15-18 years after their initial Laetrile treatment. Binzel also notes that none of the cancer diagnoses were made by him (a small town, "family doctor") - all patients had diagnoses from other physicians. Many had already suffered the ravages of standard "cut-burn-and poison" (surgery/X-ray/chemotherapy) medicine before being given up as hopeless cases by orthodox doctors. Other physicians who have worked with Laetrile have also reported favourable results using it.
Manuel Navarro, M.D., former professor of medicine and surgery at the Univ. of Santo Tomas in Manilla wrote in 1971:
" I have specialized in oncology [the study of tumours] for the past eighteen years. For the same number of years I have been using Laetrile-amygdalin in the treatment of my cancer patients. During this eighteen year period I have treated a total of over five hundred patients with Laetrile-amygdalin by various routes of administration, including the oral and the I.V. The majority of my patients receiving Laetrile-amygdalin have been in a terminal state when treatment with this material commenced. It is my carefully considered clinical judgment, as a practicing oncologist and researcher in this field, that I have obtained most significant and encouraging results with the use of Laetrile-amygdalin in the treatment of terminal cancer patients, and that these results are comparable or superior to the results I have obtained with the use of the more toxic standard cytotoxic agents."
Burton Goldberg Many of the physicians whose anti-cancer programs are detailed in Burton Goldberg's 1116 page Alternative Medicine Definitive Guide to Cancer also report positive Laetrile results as part of their cancer treatment programs.
Robert Atkins, M.D., notes that "Amygdalin appears to neutralize the oxidative cancer-promoting compounds such as free radicals.... It's just one more key component for keeping cancer from growing or spreading. Contrary to what people have said about Laetrile... it should be considered an effective, entirely safe treatment for all types of cancer.
Dr. Emesto Contreras has used Laetrile as a cornerstone of his cancer practice since 1963. He remarks that "For the prevention of cancer and the maintenance of remission, there is nothing as effective as Laetrile.... Its non-toxicity permits its use indefinitely while surgery, radiation and chemotherapy can only be administered for a limited time.... the majority of cancers that occur more frequently, such as cancers of the lung, breast, colon, ovaries, stomach, esophageus, prostate, and the lymphomas, are much helped by Laetrile."
Dr. Michael Schachter, who has used Laetrile for 20 years with cancer patients, remarks that "As part of a comprehensive health-enhancing program, amygdalin is a useful natural; substance for fighting cancer." Dr. Schachter recommends using cysteine (N-acetyl cysteine is a better-absorbed form of cysteine) along with amygdalin, to maximize the body's ability to detoxify any cyanide released from the Laetrile.
Dr. Douglas Brodie also uses Laetrile to treat his cancer patients. "After years of observing patients using amygdalin, we can say with complete assurance that it is neither toxic nor worthless.... Nor do we find it to be a cure or panacea for cancer. The experience of our clinic... is that amygdalin has the ability to improve the patient's sense of well-being, relieve the pain of cancer, and reduce the requirement for pain medicine."
Dr. Hans Nieper is a world famous oncologist and the developer of the standard anti-cancer cytotoxic drug cyclophosphamide. In 1970 he co-authored a brief paper on Laetrile with Dean Burk, in which they stated that "...in the treatment of cancer, the active principle of nitrilosides is to be used mainly in prophylaxis [prevention] and early protective therapy.... On the other hand, the complete
ato xicity [lack of toxicity] of this method of treatment, which is maybe nothing else but a rediscovered natural principle, permits the unlimited use of this substance". (18) In 1972 Nieper told reporters while in the U.S.: "After more than 20 years of such specialized work, I have found the non-toxic Nitrilosides - that is, Laetrile - far superior to any other known cancer treatment or preventive. In my opinion it is the only existing possibility for the ultimate control of cancer". (11)
It should thus be clear that among doctors who have worked with Laetrile, its anti-cancer effect is highly regarded. The combination of epidemiological evidence, animal studies and informed clinical opinion supports the belief that Laetrile has significant anti-cancer effect. This is perhaps why the anti-laetrile medical establishment has focused on scaring people away from Laetrile use through the "great cyanide scare."
Southern Research Institute (Birmingham Alabama), for the NCI, in a majority of 280 BDF1 mice bearing Lewis lung cancers, treated with up to 400 mg Laetrile (Amygdalin MF) per kg body weight, with respect to increased median life span (Dec 3, 1973).
Sloan Kettering (New York) with CD8 F1 mice bearing spontaneous mammary carcinomas, inhibition of formation of lung metastases, inhibition of growth of primary tumours, and greater health and appearance of animal hosts, upon treatment with 1-2 gm Laetrile/per kg body weight/day. (June 13, 1973)
Scind Laboratories, University of San Francisco, 400 rats bearing Walker 256 carcinoma (200 treated with Amygdalin, 200 controls), with 80% increase in life span at optimum dosage. "The data provided by the McNaughton Foundation certainly indicates some activity in animal tumour systems" (emphasis added). [This is a typical medical understatement]
Pasteur Institute (Paris), with human cancer strain maintained in mice, treated at optimal dosage of 500 mg Amygdalin /kg body weight/day, increased life span and delayed tumour growth up to 100% (Dec 6, 1971).
Institute von ardenne (Dresden, Germnay), H strain mice bearing Ehrlich ascites carcinoma treated with bitter almond amygdalin ad libitum in addition to regular chow diet, yielded increased life span and decreased rate of cancer growth, treatment beginning 15 days before cancer inoculation (arch. Geschwulstorsch. 42, 135-7 (1973).
Mode of Action of Laetrile
The use of Amygdalin (Laetrile/Vitamin B17) in the treatment of human cancer dates back at least to 1843, although the ancient Chinese are reported to have used bitter almonds containing significant quantities of it in the treatment of tumors some 3,000 years ago.
Laetrile is not a miracle drug . It is simply a concentrated form of Nitriloside. Amygdalin (Laetrile/ Vitamin B17) is particularly prevalent in the seeds of those fruits in the Prunus Rosacea family (bitter almond, apricot, blackthorn, cherry, nectarine, peach and plum.) IT is found in natural foods which contain nitriloside and has been used and studied extensively for well over 100 years. It is also contained in grasses, maize, sorghum, millet, cassava, linseed, apple seeds, and many other foods that, generally, have been deleted from the menus of modern civilization. Fruit kernels or seeds generally have other nutrients as well, some protein, unsaturated fatty protein, unsaturated fatty acids, and various minerals. The most common source of Laetrile is the apricot kernel and is present in about a 2-3 percent levels of concentration within the seed kernel.
How does Laetrile Kill Cancer ?
Our body has one particular enzyme called Rhodanese which is found in large quantities throughout the body but is not present where ever there are cancer cells. Yet, where ever you find cancer in the body, you find another enzyme called Beta-Glucosidase. So, we have the enzyme Rhodanese found everywhere in the body except at the cancer cells, and we have the enzyme Beta-Glucosidase found in very large quantities only at the cancer cell but not found anywhere else in the body. If there is no cancer in the body there is no enzyme Beta-Glucosidase.
Vitamin B17 is made up of 2 parts glucose, 1 part Hydrogen Cyanide and 1 part Benzaldehyde(analgesic/painkiller). So its very important you understand the following: When B17 is introduced to the body, it is broken down by the enzyme Rhodanese. The Rhodanese breaks the Hydrogen Cyanide and Benzaldehyde down into 2 by-products, Thiocyanate and Benzoic acid which are beneficial in nourishing healthy cells and forms the metabolic pool production for vitamin B12. Any excess of these by-products is expelled in normal fashion from the body via urine. Vitamin B17 passes through your body and does not last longer than 80 minutes inside your body as a result of the Rhodanese breaking it down. (Hydrogen Cyanide has been proven to be chemically inert and non toxic when taken as food or refined pharmaceutical such as laetrile. Sugar has be shown to be 20 times more toxic than B17.
When the B17 comes into contact with cancer cells, there is no Rhodanese to break it down and neutralise it but instead, only the enzyme Beta-Gucosidase is present in very large quantities. When B17 and Beta-Glucosidase come into contact with each other, a chemical reaction occurs and the Hydrogen Cyanide and Benzaldehyde combine synergistically to produce a poison which destroys and kills the cancer cells. This whole process is known as selective toxicity. Only the cancer cells are specifically targeted and destroyed. See the diagram below.
Further reading:
2) Doctors work & research with Vitamin B17
References:
1.
The Cancer Syndrome.
Moss Grove Press 1982
2.
US Reg. of Toxic Effects Chem. Subs. 1976
3.
A
World
Without
Cancer Griffin Amer. Media '80
4.
A
Letter to Congressman Lou Frey 30 5 1972
5.A
Laetrile Case Histories Bantam Books 77
6.
Inoserntzeff, T. (1845) Gazette Medicale de Paris, 13: 577-82.
7.
Inoserntzeff, T. (1846) Jour Chirurgie und Augenheilkunde, 35: 7-28.
8.
Binzel, P.E. Alive and Well. Westlake Village, CA: American Media, 1994
9.
Steffanson, V. Cancer: Disease of Civilization? NYC: Hill and Wang, 1960.
Homeopathic Therapy in Cats
Homeopathy has today evolved as an acceptable, effective and safe method of treatment. Based on the practice of treating "like with like", the word homeopathy is derived from the Greek words homios, meaning like or similar, and italios, meaning suffering.
Homeopathy treats the animal in entirety rather than the illness alone. Homeopathy practitioners consider the patient as a whole, both physically and psychologically, taking into account various factors like physical appearance, nature, temperament and likes and dislikes.
Homeopathy offers a very customised and personalised form of treatment. Often animals suffering from the same illness are treated as absolutely different cases and given different medicines altogether.Homeopathy is based on two principles: "like cures like" and that a substance that causes specific symptoms when taken in its raw form will alleviate those same symptoms when taken in its homeopathic form. Homeopathy is a curative technique that uses energy therapy to cure illnesses. While curing, it strengthens and rejuvenates a weakened electro magnetic field to revive the animal. In homeopathy, a substance taken in small doses can alleviate symptoms similar to those it causes at higher doses. Thus, the two cornerstones of homeopathy are that "likes are cured by likes," and that the remedies are properly diluted to eliminate or minimise their toxic effects. Thus a medicine can cure a sick animal only if it can cause a similar sickness in a healthy animal. As in the case of allopathy, the focus of homeopathy is not the disease or its combat but the natural healing mechanism of the body. Homeopathy encourages and stimulates the body's own healing processes in order to cure illnesses. It is an indisputable fact that all homeopathic medicines are totally free from harmful side effects. The science of homeopathy was developed by German physician and chemist, Dr. Samuel Hahnemann, in the early 19th century. Through numerous experiments, he developed the theory that "likes are cured by likes". Dr. Hahnemann then determined that the effects of the remedies he tested on himself were too toxic at the conventional dosage level. He found that when a remedy is properly diluted, healing is achieved without severe side-effects.
The substances that are used in homeopathic remedies come from various plant, mineral and animal sources. Besides being completely natural, most of the homeopathic remedies are available over the counter. Homeopathic medicines work in a very different way. They are not synthetic and are derived from natural sources. More than 60% of homeopathic remedies are prepared from vegetable or plant materials. Other remedies are also prepared from natural mineral substances, including metals, non-metallic substances, and mineral salts. Homeopathic medicines are made by obtaining the remedy in its most concentrated form, and then, through a long process of dilution, preparing a medicine whose potency is sufficient to effect a treatment. The potency is the measure of the dilution of the remedy and is denoted by the number which follows the name of the medicine itself. The potency indicates the number of times the remedy has been diluted and each dilution increases the strength of the remedy. The strength or potency is measured by an "X" ("D" in Germany), which is a tenfold dilution i.e. 3x (or D3) is a one to one thousand dilution).
Read more at:
http://www.holisticat.com/homeopathy.html
http://www.shirleys-wellness-cafe.com/ahomeo.htm
2) Homeopathy
3) Noni juice
Dr. Ralph Heinicke and Afa Palu are working on the extraction and structure of Proxeronine and Xeronine. (Click here for to see his patent on-line)
Dr. Anne Hirazumi Kim is doing follow-up work on noni and it's effect on Lewis lung carcinoma cells.
Dr. Mian-Ying Wang is working on the first human clinical trial involving TAHITIAN NONI® Juice at the University of Illinois, Rockford. This research is being funded with a grant from Morinda, Inc. The study is on the "Chemopreventative Effect of TAHITIAN NONI Juice in Human Smokers."
Dr E. Furusawa at the University of Hawaii has researched the effect of TAHITIAN NONI® Juice and chemotherapy drugs on the sarcoma 180 line of cancer cells. Individuals have uncovered noni's ability to inhibit the COX-II enzyme while allowing the COX-I enzyme to continue to function. Scientists are also investigating the antibacterial, antifungal, and antiparasistic properties of TAHITIAN NONI® Juice.
Dr. C. Ho at Rutgers University is researching new novel compounds in noni.
Research is being done on the potent antioxidative properties of noni.
Researchers are investigating the toxicological, allergenicity, and genotoxicity of noni.
Antioxidants
The Morinda, Inc. lab tested TAHITIAN NONI® Juice for antioxidant activity, using
a standard test method. They also tested samples of grape seed extract,
pycnogenol, and vitamin C using the same method. Grape seed extract and
pycnogenol are popular antioxidant dietary supplements. Vitamin C is well known as an antioxidant also, especially in the scientific arena. The results concluded
that TAHITIAN NONI® Juice exhibited better antioxidant activity than the others
did.
Anti-inflammation
Over-the-counter anti-inflammatory drugs, called non-steroidal antiinflammatory
drugs (NSAIDs), such as aspirin and ibuprofen, exert their effects by suppressing
a class of enzymes called cylcooxygenases (COX). Two groups of COX are of interest, COX-I and COX-II. COX-I is a constitutive enzyme, meaning that it is
working all the time and is necessary for the proper maintenance of the body. COX-II is an induced enzyme, meaning it turns on when the proper signal is given.
These enzymes make various prostaglandins. When you get an injury that results in swelling and causes pain, you can take aspirin, which will suppress the action
of both COX-I and COX-II. This will result in some relief, but at the cost of suppressing an enzyme that you do not want to suppress, COX-I, which may
cause gastric irritation in some people. Several new drugs have been developed which target COX-II more than COX-I.
The reason for this is that they are safer and easier on the stomach. These are also more expensive than the more common NSAIDs. TAHITIAN NONI® Juice
has also been tested to see if it can suppress the COX system. The results were that TAHITIAN NONI® Juice selectively inhibited COX-II more than COX-I.
Dr Mian-Ying Wang
Dr. Wang, of the University of Illinois, had discovered that TAHITIAN NONI® Juice
can reduce the amount of DNA damage in animals that can occur due to powerful chemical mutagens (chemicals that break the DNA and cause mutations). She
received approval from the university to expand her research into a human clinical
trial, using heavy smokers as the test group. Cigarette smoke contains chemicals
that cause DNA damage and consequently may increase the risk for developing cancer. Dr. Wang's initial findings in these people are positive.
Dr. Ralph Heinicke
Dr. Heinicke has patents for Xeronine. He has stated that noni fruit contains a
precursor for Xeronine, called Proxeronine. Proxeronine is converted to Xeronine
in the body. Xeronine's physiological effect is in the modification of the structure
of proteins. Thus Xeronine can have a wide range of effects. When a protein,
such as an enzyme or cellular transporter, is not in the appropriate structure, it
will not work properly. Xeronine will interact with the protein and cause its to fold
into its proper conformation (shape). Thus the result is a properly functioning protein. Proteins form many parts of the cell. Whenever a problem arises in the
cell due to a protein structural problem, Xeronine will be helpful.
Immune System
Some of the best Morinda citrifolia research was conducted at the University of
Hawaii by Dr. Anne Hirazumi Kim. She demonstrated that noni fruit juice has an
anti-tumor effect in mice against a human tumor cell line, Lewis lung carcinoma.
She discovered that the possible mechanism for this anti-tumor effect was through the immune system. Noni fruit juice stimulated the branch of the immune
system that destroyed tumor cells. She further used isolated whole human bloodto determine if human immune cells would likewise be stimulated. In her
laboratory experiments, the immune cells were stimulated.