Friday, January 28, 2011
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Breaking News: Popular Cancer Drug Declared More Harmful Than Helpful
Breaking News: Popular Cancer Drug Declared More Harmful Than Helpful
Posted By Dr. Mercola | January 07 2011 | 8,258 views
The FDA has said that the controversial drug Avastin should be phased out as a treatment for metastatic breast cancer. Recent studies show that its benefits are outweighed by dangerous side effects.
The announcement does not affect Avastin's status as a drug that can be prescribed for lung cancer, kidney cancer, colorectal cancer and brain cancer.
In 2008, the FDA granted Avastin accelerated approval for use to treat metastatic breast cancer. But studies have failed to show that patients getting Avastin lived longer than patients on standard chemotherapies.
According to CNN:
"Along with those disappointing findings, serious side effects became apparent in patients taking Avastin, including high blood pressure, internal bleeding, perforated internal organs, heart failure and heart attacks, and in some cases, even swelling of the brain."
Genentech, which makes Avastin, has a right to appeal the decision.
Folks, the best way of preventing breast cancer isn't a drug at all, and it's free!
Sun exposure may be the single most effective means of reducing breast cancer, thanks to vitamin D, which forms in your body in reaction to sunlight. In a recent study, data collected over a decade from more than 67,000 women showed that women in sunny climes with high vitamin D levels were at a significantly reduced risk of breast cancer!
Sources:
CNN December 16, 2010
Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention December 2, 2010
Dr. Mercola's Comments:
Surgery, drugs and radiation are typically the only solutions offered by conventional physicians to treat cancer, and upon receiving a cancer diagnosis most people are willing to do just about anything to get better. This includes taking dangerous and outrageously expensive medications that offer little, if any, benefit.
Case in point: Avastin.
Popular Breast Cancer Drug Proven More Harmful than Helpful
Avastin, which costs about $8,000 a month and is one of the best-selling cancer drugs in the world, is now being phased out in the US due to lack of effectiveness and dangerous side effects.
As reported by CNN, the FDA has deemed the drug to be more harmful than beneficial based on recent studies, and recommends phasing it out as a treatment for metastatic breast cancer.
The drug will still maintain its status as an approved therapy for lung-, kidney-, colorectal- and brain cancer, however.
The European Medicines Agency is also altering its recommendation, but rather than withdrawing approval entirely, Avastin will now only be prescribed in combination with the drug Paclitaxel for the treatment of breast cancer in the EU.
CNN reports:
"Along with the initial approval, the FDA required Genentech, Avastin's maker, to complete larger studies. The results of those studies were a bitter pill for patients thriving on Avastin and researchers excited by the promise of the early data.
The E2100 study found that for women taking Avastin plus Paclitaxel, the cancer stopped spreading for an average of five-and-a-half months more, compared to those just taking standard chemotherapy.
In the subsequent three larger studies, the benefit was much smaller, ranging from just 24 days to about two months.
None of the studies, including the E2100 study, showed that patients getting Avastin lived longer than patients on standard chemotherapies. "We now have four studies that show no survival benefit," Woodcock said."
Serious side effects from the drug have also become apparent, including:
* High blood pressure
* Internal bleeding
* Perforated internal organs
* Heart failure
* Heart attacks
* Swelling of the brain
Avastin isn't the only popular cancer drug that's come on the chopping block in recent years.
For example, in 2009 it was determined that long-term use of the common breast cancer drug Tamoxifen could increase your risk of developing a deadly second tumor.
Chemotherapy—Cancer Patients' Friend or Foe?
Chemo is another cancer treatment that frequently does more harm than good, although I doubt we'll see recommendations changing on its use anytime soon. As poor a choice as it is, it's one of the most popular treatment strategies conventional medicine has been able to conjure.
But despite its reputation as the gold-standard in cancer treatment, chemotherapy has an average 5-year survival success rate of just over 2 percent for all cancers, according to a study published in the journal Clinical Oncology in December 2004.
Another study, The National Confidential Enquiry into Patient Outcome and Death (NCEPOD), found that more than four in 10 patients who received chemotherapy toward the end of life experienced potentially fatal effects. And after reviewing data from over 600 cancer patients who died within 30 days of receiving treatment, it was found that chemotherapy hastened or caused death in 27 percent of those cases.
It's important to realize that chemotherapy drugs are, by their very nature, extremely toxic and typically do not work with your body to modulate and normalize its response to allow the cancer to resolve normally and they do absolutely nothing to address the cause of the cancer.
Natural approaches, on the other hand, do not have the types of fatal side effects common with cancer drugs because they work by optimizing your body's own natural healing capacities. And, fortunately, there are natural approaches that rival and/or exceed the limited effectiveness of conventional therapies, without the risks.
The caveat, however, is that you must typically use them preventively.
Two of the most important preventive strategies are vitamin D and diet.
Posted By Dr. Mercola | January 07 2011 | 8,258 views
The FDA has said that the controversial drug Avastin should be phased out as a treatment for metastatic breast cancer. Recent studies show that its benefits are outweighed by dangerous side effects.
The announcement does not affect Avastin's status as a drug that can be prescribed for lung cancer, kidney cancer, colorectal cancer and brain cancer.
In 2008, the FDA granted Avastin accelerated approval for use to treat metastatic breast cancer. But studies have failed to show that patients getting Avastin lived longer than patients on standard chemotherapies.
According to CNN:
"Along with those disappointing findings, serious side effects became apparent in patients taking Avastin, including high blood pressure, internal bleeding, perforated internal organs, heart failure and heart attacks, and in some cases, even swelling of the brain."
Genentech, which makes Avastin, has a right to appeal the decision.
Folks, the best way of preventing breast cancer isn't a drug at all, and it's free!
Sun exposure may be the single most effective means of reducing breast cancer, thanks to vitamin D, which forms in your body in reaction to sunlight. In a recent study, data collected over a decade from more than 67,000 women showed that women in sunny climes with high vitamin D levels were at a significantly reduced risk of breast cancer!
Sources:
CNN December 16, 2010
Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention December 2, 2010
Dr. Mercola's Comments:
Surgery, drugs and radiation are typically the only solutions offered by conventional physicians to treat cancer, and upon receiving a cancer diagnosis most people are willing to do just about anything to get better. This includes taking dangerous and outrageously expensive medications that offer little, if any, benefit.
Case in point: Avastin.
Popular Breast Cancer Drug Proven More Harmful than Helpful
Avastin, which costs about $8,000 a month and is one of the best-selling cancer drugs in the world, is now being phased out in the US due to lack of effectiveness and dangerous side effects.
As reported by CNN, the FDA has deemed the drug to be more harmful than beneficial based on recent studies, and recommends phasing it out as a treatment for metastatic breast cancer.
The drug will still maintain its status as an approved therapy for lung-, kidney-, colorectal- and brain cancer, however.
The European Medicines Agency is also altering its recommendation, but rather than withdrawing approval entirely, Avastin will now only be prescribed in combination with the drug Paclitaxel for the treatment of breast cancer in the EU.
CNN reports:
"Along with the initial approval, the FDA required Genentech, Avastin's maker, to complete larger studies. The results of those studies were a bitter pill for patients thriving on Avastin and researchers excited by the promise of the early data.
The E2100 study found that for women taking Avastin plus Paclitaxel, the cancer stopped spreading for an average of five-and-a-half months more, compared to those just taking standard chemotherapy.
In the subsequent three larger studies, the benefit was much smaller, ranging from just 24 days to about two months.
None of the studies, including the E2100 study, showed that patients getting Avastin lived longer than patients on standard chemotherapies. "We now have four studies that show no survival benefit," Woodcock said."
Serious side effects from the drug have also become apparent, including:
* High blood pressure
* Internal bleeding
* Perforated internal organs
* Heart failure
* Heart attacks
* Swelling of the brain
Avastin isn't the only popular cancer drug that's come on the chopping block in recent years.
For example, in 2009 it was determined that long-term use of the common breast cancer drug Tamoxifen could increase your risk of developing a deadly second tumor.
Chemotherapy—Cancer Patients' Friend or Foe?
Chemo is another cancer treatment that frequently does more harm than good, although I doubt we'll see recommendations changing on its use anytime soon. As poor a choice as it is, it's one of the most popular treatment strategies conventional medicine has been able to conjure.
But despite its reputation as the gold-standard in cancer treatment, chemotherapy has an average 5-year survival success rate of just over 2 percent for all cancers, according to a study published in the journal Clinical Oncology in December 2004.
Another study, The National Confidential Enquiry into Patient Outcome and Death (NCEPOD), found that more than four in 10 patients who received chemotherapy toward the end of life experienced potentially fatal effects. And after reviewing data from over 600 cancer patients who died within 30 days of receiving treatment, it was found that chemotherapy hastened or caused death in 27 percent of those cases.
It's important to realize that chemotherapy drugs are, by their very nature, extremely toxic and typically do not work with your body to modulate and normalize its response to allow the cancer to resolve normally and they do absolutely nothing to address the cause of the cancer.
Natural approaches, on the other hand, do not have the types of fatal side effects common with cancer drugs because they work by optimizing your body's own natural healing capacities. And, fortunately, there are natural approaches that rival and/or exceed the limited effectiveness of conventional therapies, without the risks.
The caveat, however, is that you must typically use them preventively.
Two of the most important preventive strategies are vitamin D and diet.
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Understanding How THC Kills Cancer in Humans by Dennis Hill
Understanding How THC Kills Cancer in Humans
First let’s look at what keeps cancer cells alive, then we will come back and examine
how THC unravels cancer’s aliveness.
In every cell there is a family of interconvertible sphingolipids that specically manage the life and death of that cell. is pro le of factors is called the “Sphingolipid Rheostat.” If ceramide (a signaling metabolite of sphingosine-1-phosphate) is high, then cell death (apoptosis) is imminent. If ceramide is low, the cell is strong in its aliveness.
Very simply, when THC connects to the CB1 or CB2 cannabinoid receptor site on the
cancer cell, it causes an increase in ceramide synthesis which drives cell death. A normal healthy cell does not produce ceramide in the presence of THC, thus is not affected by the cannabinoid.
The cancer cell dies, not because of cytotoxic chemicals, but because of a tiny little shift in the mitochondria. Within most cells there is a cell nucleus, numerous
mitochondria (hundreds to thousands), and various other organelles in the cytoplasm. The purpose of the mitochondria is to produce energy (ATP) for cell use. As ceramide starts to accumulate, turning up the Sphingolipid Rheostat, it increases the mitochondrial membrane pore permeability to cytochrome c, a critical protein in energy synthesis. Cytochrome c is pushed out of the mitochondria, killing the source of energy for the cell.
Ceramide also causes genotoxic stress in the cancer cell nucleus generating a protein
called p53, whose job it is to disrupt calcium metabolism in the mitochondria. If this weren’t enough, ceramide disrupts the cellular lysosome, the cell’s digestive system that provides nutrients for all cell functions. Ceramide, and other sphingolipids, actively inhibit pro-survival pathways in the cell leaving no possibility at all of cancer cell survival.
The key to this process is the accumulation of ceramide in the system. is means
taking therapeutic amounts of THC, steadily, over a period of time, keeping metabolic
pressure on this cancer cell death pathway.
How did this pathway come to be? Why is it that the body can take a simple plant
enzyme and use it for profound healing in many di erent physiological systems? is
endocannabinoid system exists in all animals of creation, just waiting for it’s matched exocannabinoid activator.
This is amazing. Our own endocannabinoid system covers all cells and nerves; it is the messenger of information owing between our immune system and the central nervous
system (CNS). It is responsible for neuroprotection, and micro-manages the immune
system. is is the primary control system that maintains homeostasis; our well being.
Just out of curiosity, how does the work get done at the cellular level, and where does the body make the endocannabinoids? Here we see that endocannabinoids have their origin in nerve cells right at the synapse. When the body is compromised through illness or injury it calls desperately to the endocannabinoid system and directs the immune system to bring healing. If these homeostatic systems are weakened, it should be no surprise that exocannabinoids are therapeutic. It helps the body in the most natural way possible.
To see how this works we visualize the cannabinoid as a three dimensional molecule,
where one part of the molecule is configured to fit the nerve or immune cell receptor site just like a key in a lock. There are at least two types of cannabinoid receptor sites, CB1 (CNS) and CB2 (immune). In general CB1 gives us the buzz, and CB2 activates the immune system, but it’s much more complex than this. Both THC and anandamide activate both receptor sites. Other cannabinoids activate one or the other receptor sites. Among the strains of Cannabis, C. sativa tends toward the CB1 receptor, and C. indica tends toward CB2. So sativa is better for buzz, and indica is better for healing. Another factor here is that sativa is dominated by THC cannabinoids, and indica is predominately CBD (cannabidiol).
It is said that THC and CBD are biomimetic to anandamide, that is, the body can use
both interchangeably. Thus, when stress, injury, or illness demand more from endogenous anandamide than can be produced by the body, its mimetic exocannabinoids can rush to the rescue. If the stress is transitory, then the treatment can be transitory. If the demand is sustained, such as in cancer, then treatment needs to provide sustained pressure of the modulating agent on the homeostatic systems.
Typically CBD gravitates to the densely packed CB2 receptors in the spleen, home to
the body’s immune system. From there, immune cells seek out and destroy cancer cells.
Interestingly, it has been shown that THC and CBD cannabinoids have the ability to kill cancer cells directly without going through immune intermediaries. THC and CBD hijack the lipoxygenase pathway to directly inhibit tumor growth. As a side note, it has been discovered that CBD inhibits anandamide reuptake. is means that cannabidiol helps the body preserve its own natural endocannabinoid by inhibiting the enzyme that breaks down anandamide.
This brief survey touches lightly on a few essential concepts. Mostly I would like to
leave you in complete amazement that nature has designed the perfect medicine that ts
exactly with our own immune system of receptors and signaling metabolites to provide
perfect health all the time. It is my hope that my own prostate cancer dies out quickly in the face of intensive cannabis extract treatment currently in progress. The C-T Scan will tell the story next month.
~Dennis Hill
Legal in California
Bibliography
1. http://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/content/65/5/1635.abstract
Sami Sarfaraz, Farrukh Afaq, Vaqar M. Adhami, and Hasan Mukhtar + Author
Affiliations. Department of Dermatology, University of Wisconsin, Madison,
Wisconsin
2. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/pubmed
J Neuroimmunol. 2007 Mar;184(1-2):127-35. Epub 2006 Dec 28.
Immune control by endocannabinoids - new mechanisms of neuroprotection?
Ullrich O, Merker K, Timm J, Tauber S.
Institute of Immunology, Medical Faculty, Otto-von-Guericke-University
Magdeburg, Leipziger Str. 44, 39120 Magdeburg, Germany.
oliver.ullrich@medizine.uni-magdeburg.de
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endocannabinoid_system
Endocannabinoid synthesis & release.
4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabinoids
Cannabinoid receptor type 1.
5. http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/121381780/abstract?
CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0
Journal of Neurochemistry, Volume 104 Issue 4, Pages 1091 - 1100
Published Online: 18 Aug 2008
6. http://leavesofgrass.info/info/Non-Psychoactive-Cannabinoids.pdf
Non-psychotropic plant cannabinoids: new therapeutic opportunities from an
ancient herb.
Angelo A. Izzo, Francesca Borrelli, Raffaele Capasso, Vincenzo Di Marzo, and
Raphael Mechoulam. Department of Experimental Pharmacology, University
of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy. Institute of Biomolecular Chemistry,
National Research Council, Pozzuoli (NA), Italy. Department of Medicinal
Chemistry and Natural Products, Hebrew University Medical Faculty,
Jerusalem, Israel, Endocannabinoid Research Group, Italy
7. http://sciencenews.org/view/feature/id/59872/title/Not_just_a_high
Scientists test medicinal marijuana against MS, inflammation and cancer
By Nathan Seppa June 19th, 2010; Vol.177 #13 (p. 16)
8. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1766198/?tool=pmcentrez
A house divided: ceramide, sphingosine, and sphingosine-1-phosphate in
programmed cell death.
Tarek A. Taha, Thomas D. Mullen, and Lina M. Obeid
Division of General Internal Medicine, Ralph H. Johnson Veterans
Administration Hospital, Charleston, South Carolina 29401; and Department
of Medicine, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, South Carolina
29425
First let’s look at what keeps cancer cells alive, then we will come back and examine
how THC unravels cancer’s aliveness.
In every cell there is a family of interconvertible sphingolipids that specically manage the life and death of that cell. is pro le of factors is called the “Sphingolipid Rheostat.” If ceramide (a signaling metabolite of sphingosine-1-phosphate) is high, then cell death (apoptosis) is imminent. If ceramide is low, the cell is strong in its aliveness.
Very simply, when THC connects to the CB1 or CB2 cannabinoid receptor site on the
cancer cell, it causes an increase in ceramide synthesis which drives cell death. A normal healthy cell does not produce ceramide in the presence of THC, thus is not affected by the cannabinoid.
The cancer cell dies, not because of cytotoxic chemicals, but because of a tiny little shift in the mitochondria. Within most cells there is a cell nucleus, numerous
mitochondria (hundreds to thousands), and various other organelles in the cytoplasm. The purpose of the mitochondria is to produce energy (ATP) for cell use. As ceramide starts to accumulate, turning up the Sphingolipid Rheostat, it increases the mitochondrial membrane pore permeability to cytochrome c, a critical protein in energy synthesis. Cytochrome c is pushed out of the mitochondria, killing the source of energy for the cell.
Ceramide also causes genotoxic stress in the cancer cell nucleus generating a protein
called p53, whose job it is to disrupt calcium metabolism in the mitochondria. If this weren’t enough, ceramide disrupts the cellular lysosome, the cell’s digestive system that provides nutrients for all cell functions. Ceramide, and other sphingolipids, actively inhibit pro-survival pathways in the cell leaving no possibility at all of cancer cell survival.
The key to this process is the accumulation of ceramide in the system. is means
taking therapeutic amounts of THC, steadily, over a period of time, keeping metabolic
pressure on this cancer cell death pathway.
How did this pathway come to be? Why is it that the body can take a simple plant
enzyme and use it for profound healing in many di erent physiological systems? is
endocannabinoid system exists in all animals of creation, just waiting for it’s matched exocannabinoid activator.
This is amazing. Our own endocannabinoid system covers all cells and nerves; it is the messenger of information owing between our immune system and the central nervous
system (CNS). It is responsible for neuroprotection, and micro-manages the immune
system. is is the primary control system that maintains homeostasis; our well being.
Just out of curiosity, how does the work get done at the cellular level, and where does the body make the endocannabinoids? Here we see that endocannabinoids have their origin in nerve cells right at the synapse. When the body is compromised through illness or injury it calls desperately to the endocannabinoid system and directs the immune system to bring healing. If these homeostatic systems are weakened, it should be no surprise that exocannabinoids are therapeutic. It helps the body in the most natural way possible.
To see how this works we visualize the cannabinoid as a three dimensional molecule,
where one part of the molecule is configured to fit the nerve or immune cell receptor site just like a key in a lock. There are at least two types of cannabinoid receptor sites, CB1 (CNS) and CB2 (immune). In general CB1 gives us the buzz, and CB2 activates the immune system, but it’s much more complex than this. Both THC and anandamide activate both receptor sites. Other cannabinoids activate one or the other receptor sites. Among the strains of Cannabis, C. sativa tends toward the CB1 receptor, and C. indica tends toward CB2. So sativa is better for buzz, and indica is better for healing. Another factor here is that sativa is dominated by THC cannabinoids, and indica is predominately CBD (cannabidiol).
It is said that THC and CBD are biomimetic to anandamide, that is, the body can use
both interchangeably. Thus, when stress, injury, or illness demand more from endogenous anandamide than can be produced by the body, its mimetic exocannabinoids can rush to the rescue. If the stress is transitory, then the treatment can be transitory. If the demand is sustained, such as in cancer, then treatment needs to provide sustained pressure of the modulating agent on the homeostatic systems.
Typically CBD gravitates to the densely packed CB2 receptors in the spleen, home to
the body’s immune system. From there, immune cells seek out and destroy cancer cells.
Interestingly, it has been shown that THC and CBD cannabinoids have the ability to kill cancer cells directly without going through immune intermediaries. THC and CBD hijack the lipoxygenase pathway to directly inhibit tumor growth. As a side note, it has been discovered that CBD inhibits anandamide reuptake. is means that cannabidiol helps the body preserve its own natural endocannabinoid by inhibiting the enzyme that breaks down anandamide.
This brief survey touches lightly on a few essential concepts. Mostly I would like to
leave you in complete amazement that nature has designed the perfect medicine that ts
exactly with our own immune system of receptors and signaling metabolites to provide
perfect health all the time. It is my hope that my own prostate cancer dies out quickly in the face of intensive cannabis extract treatment currently in progress. The C-T Scan will tell the story next month.
~Dennis Hill
Legal in California
Bibliography
1. http://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/content/65/5/1635.abstract
Sami Sarfaraz, Farrukh Afaq, Vaqar M. Adhami, and Hasan Mukhtar + Author
Affiliations. Department of Dermatology, University of Wisconsin, Madison,
Wisconsin
2. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/pubmed
J Neuroimmunol. 2007 Mar;184(1-2):127-35. Epub 2006 Dec 28.
Immune control by endocannabinoids - new mechanisms of neuroprotection?
Ullrich O, Merker K, Timm J, Tauber S.
Institute of Immunology, Medical Faculty, Otto-von-Guericke-University
Magdeburg, Leipziger Str. 44, 39120 Magdeburg, Germany.
oliver.ullrich@medizine.uni-magdeburg.de
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endocannabinoid_system
Endocannabinoid synthesis & release.
4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabinoids
Cannabinoid receptor type 1.
5. http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/121381780/abstract?
CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0
Journal of Neurochemistry, Volume 104 Issue 4, Pages 1091 - 1100
Published Online: 18 Aug 2008
6. http://leavesofgrass.info/info/Non-Psychoactive-Cannabinoids.pdf
Non-psychotropic plant cannabinoids: new therapeutic opportunities from an
ancient herb.
Angelo A. Izzo, Francesca Borrelli, Raffaele Capasso, Vincenzo Di Marzo, and
Raphael Mechoulam. Department of Experimental Pharmacology, University
of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy. Institute of Biomolecular Chemistry,
National Research Council, Pozzuoli (NA), Italy. Department of Medicinal
Chemistry and Natural Products, Hebrew University Medical Faculty,
Jerusalem, Israel, Endocannabinoid Research Group, Italy
7. http://sciencenews.org/view/feature/id/59872/title/Not_just_a_high
Scientists test medicinal marijuana against MS, inflammation and cancer
By Nathan Seppa June 19th, 2010; Vol.177 #13 (p. 16)
8. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1766198/?tool=pmcentrez
A house divided: ceramide, sphingosine, and sphingosine-1-phosphate in
programmed cell death.
Tarek A. Taha, Thomas D. Mullen, and Lina M. Obeid
Division of General Internal Medicine, Ralph H. Johnson Veterans
Administration Hospital, Charleston, South Carolina 29401; and Department
of Medicine, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, South Carolina
29425
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Sunday, August 29, 2010
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