10 Spices That Heal Cancer, Diabetes & MoreORIGINAL POST DATE - 8/16/06
Written by Dr. Sanjeev Sood
There's good reason to season: Doctors and dietitians agree that your spice rack can be just as essential as your medicine cabinet when it comes to preventing and treating disease. Research consistently shows that many spices and herbs have medicinal qualities and can help prevent everything from cancer to the common cold. Here are ten picks, plus easy ways to work them into your diet.
1. Cumin: Prevents Cancer
How it works: It's no surprise to many spice researchers that cancer rates are lower in India, where cumin is a diet staple. Studies show that the curcumin in this spice inhibits the enzymes that help cancer cells invade healthy tissue and also keeps tumours from developing the new blood vessels that help them grow.
Try to get: 6 teaspoons of seeds or 1/2 teaspoon of powder a day.
Use it: Toss a bowl of root veggies, such as sweet potatoes, parsnips, cauliflower, and turnips, with olive oil and 1 teaspoon cumin powder. Bake at 300 degrees for 25 minutes or until tender, and add salt, pepper, and chopped cilantro to taste before serving.
2. Ginger: Calms Nausea
How it works: Chinese medical texts dating back to the fourth century BC taught ginger's anti-nausea properties, and modern clinical studies offer scientific proof that substance in ginger shuts down a nerve receptor in the body that triggers the vomiting reflex.
Try to get: Juice from 1 tablespoon fresh grated ginger or 1/2 teaspoon dried ginger four times a day.
Use it: Add 1/2 teaspoon grated ginger and a few drops of toasted sesame oil to your usual tuna salad recipe for an Asian-style flavour.
3. Basil: Combats Colds
How it works: Basil is rich in antioxidants, which help boost immunity. It's also an antimicrobial, which fights the germs that can cause colds.
Try to get: 1 to 2 tablespoons a day.
Use it: Toss 1 tablespoon chopped basil into a shrimp stir-fry during the last 3 to 5 minutes of cooking. Or slice strawberries, toss with honey, and set aside for 15 minutes until juicy. Then top with a few tablespoons of finely chopped basil.
4. Cinnamon: Fights Diabetes
How it works: People with type-2 diabetes have difficulty processing insulin, the hormone that tells cells to remove excess sugar from the bloodstream. But studies show that cinnamon contains a substance that can help cells respond to insulin. The result? A reduction of blood sugar levels by an average of 18 percent to 29 percent, according to a recent Pakistani study.
Try to get: 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon (or one stick) a day.
Use it: Mix 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon into 2 tablespoons peanut butter, and spread over apple slices.
5. Rosemary: Improves Memory
How it works: “There's rosemary, that's for remembrance,” Ophelia said to Hamlet more than 400 years ago. Today, a variety of studies back up Ophelia's claim. The ursolic acid in rosemary inhibits the breakdown of a neurotransmitter essential for memory.
Try to get: 1 to 2 teaspoons a day. USE IT: Make a rosemary-infused simple syrup by mixing 1 cup water, 1/2 cup sugar, and 2 sprigs rosemary. Bring to a boil so sugar dissolves, and let sit for 10 to 15 minutes. Drizzle over a fall fruit salad of chopped apples, pears, and red grapes. Use 1 cup syrup to 4 cups fruit.
6. Garlic: Reduces Cholesterol
How it works: Although researchers disagree about how effective garlic really is at lowering cholesterol, a review of several studies conducted by the Linus Pauling Institute found that people who took garlic for three months had a 6 percent to 11 percent reduction in total cholesterol. Because garlic is an antioxidant, it may prevent the oxidation of cholesterol in the arteries.
Try to get: 3 to 5 crushed cloves a day.
Use it: Roast up to 5 garlic cloves, and add to homemade hummus before pureeing.
7. Nutmeg: Lowers Blood Pressure
How it works: “Warming spices” like nutmeg can bring blood from the centre of the body to the skin. This helps disperse the blood more evenly throughout the body, reducing overall pressure.
Try to get: 1/2 to 1 teaspoon a day.
Use it: Steam 1 head of broccoli and one potato until soft, and then puree with 1/4 cup butter and 4 to 5 gratings of fresh nutmeg or 1/4 teaspoon of ground nutmeg.
8. Cloves: Helps Arthritis Pain
How it works: According to Chinese medicine, cloves have hot and moving properties that relieve arthritis pain caused by cold and stagnation. Cloves contain a phytochemical that interrupts the pathways of a protein complex in the body that's been linked to inflammatory diseases such as arthritis.
Try to get: 1/2 teaspoon a day.
Use it: Saute 1 cup fresh parsley (finely chopped), 1 clove garlic (crushed), 1 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon pepper, and 1 teaspoon cloves in 1 tablespoon olive oil. After 3 minutes, add 4 cups shredded rhubarb chard, and fry until soft and tender, about 5 minutes. Serve hot with chicken or fish.
9. Turmeric: Curbs Inflammation
How it works: An ancient spice that gives curry its deep golden-orange color, turmeric reduces the inflammation in the body that causes pain. Curcumin, a component in turmeric, inhibits cell enzymes that contribute to inflammation. Try to get: 1/2 to 1 teaspoon a day.
Use it: Add a dash to organic canned soups, such as tomato, lentil, or black bean varieties.
10. Thyme: Eases Cough
How it works: Thyme is an antispasmodic, which helps with bouts of nonstop coughing. Thyme's antiseptic properties also make it very effective against inflammation of the throat, which can cause coughing.
Try to get: 2 to 3 teaspoons a day.
Use it: For a simple vinaigrette, whisk together 1 tablespoon coarsely chopped fresh thyme leaves with 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar, 1 teaspoon honey, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil.
Dr. Sanjeev Sood is Prof. & Head of Panchakarma Department, Dayanand Ayurvedic College, Jalandhar
Today the courts ruled in favor of Abraham Cherrix, the 16 year old young man of courage. Abraham and his family have been fighting unwarranted abuse and attempts of the state to force him to take standard cancer treatments against his will.
Abraham was utilizing the Hoxsey Therapy that most news outlets report as not effective. The truth of the Hoxsey Therapy that you will not read in mainstream
media, or hear from the American Cancer Society, is that it was very effective against cancer.
However, in the 1960s, because it was so effective, the medical mafia forced Hoxsey out of business. His clinic was relocated to Mexico.
Hoxsey Therapy, a proven combination of herbs, has been associated in the death of Steve McQueen. McQueen was appaently using a different nutritional therapy (this therapy is still in use and was proven in a clinical study at a major east coast university based medical school as 83% effective in curing cancer)and had recovered, only to be killed. His death was associated with the natural therapy, and not actual events, in an effort to discredit non-conventional cancer treatment.
Also consider that it has been repeatedly reported outside US media about the excessively low levels of vitamin C in people receiveing chemo for various cancers, yet IV vitamin C therapy for cancer is denigrated.
And they tell us that pregnant women can receive chemo for breast cancer. What we don't hear is the longterm effect on the fetus, and the outcomes once the baby is delivered and as the child grows....
And in other news we learn just how effective chemotherapy is -
Chemo harms more breast cancer patientsfor more information see
By LAURAN NEERGAARD, AP Medical Writer/Tue Aug 15
Younger breast cancer patients seem to suffer more serious side effects from chemotherapy than previously thought. Roughly one in six of those women wind up at the emergency room or hospitalized because of such side effects as infection, low blood counts, dehydration or nausea, researchers reported Tuesday.
Some of the side effects occurred at rates three to four times higher than earlier research had predicted.
Tuesday's study marks the first attempt to assess the real-world risks of chemotherapy for some 35,000 breast cancer patients under age 64 who get the drugs each year.
Most side-effect information comes from clinical trials of medications that can underestimate toxicity. Those trials are designed to prove if the drugs fight cancer and therefore should be sold, and they tend to enroll only the best candidates instead of women who might be particularly sensitive to side effects.
Adding to that conundrum: Many breast cancer patients don't need chemotherapy in the first place; surgery, radiation and hormone treatment are enough. But doctors don't always have an easy way to tell who would benefit from chemo on top of all that.
And for women in the to-treat-or-not gray zone, age sometimes is the deciding factor — because those under 64 are thought to tolerate chemotherapy better than older women.
"We don't believe our study is saying that chemotherapy is not helpful," stressed Dr. Michael Hassett of Boston's Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, who led the research, published in Tuesday's Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
But, "we've been struggling as a professional community to understand which women benefit from chemotherapy," he added.
If a woman knows how often she is likely to be admitted to the hospital, it may help her decide whether to gamble on the drugs or skip them, he explained.
Hassett and colleagues culled a massive database of insurance claims to study how often breast cancer patients under 64 wound up at the hospital in the year after diagnosis, and how often some leading chemotherapy side effects were blamed.
A total of 16 percent of chemo recipients received either emergency room care or hospitalization for those side effects. Most common: infection and fever, afflicting 8 percent of the patients. That's not a high number — but it is four times what previous clinical trials had predicted, the researchers reported.
Moreover, 61 percent of the chemo recipients had an ER visit or hospitalization for some reason — not just a chemotherapy-related side effect — compared with 42 percent of breast cancer patients not on the drugs. The study couldn't explain the difference.
"The study highlights the importance of studying how drugs affect people in everyday medical care" so they can "make informed decisions about the risks and benefits of their treatment options," said Dr. Carolyn Clancy, director of the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, which funded the work.
Better understanding of the risks is especially important for those patients who choose chemo despite a good prognosis, when it may increase their chances of survival by less than 5 percent, Dr. Joseph Lau of the Tufts-New England Medical Center wrote in an accompanying editorial.
The extra care of course meant extra medical bills. Hassett estimated that serious chemo side effects could cost health plans up to $45 million a year.
Also, consider that those people taking radiation are subjected to outcomes that can lead to congestive heart failure, total thyroid ablation, immune system failure and other cancers.
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