Turmeric, mistletoe may provide ‘cures’ for liver damage, cancer

Can extracts of turmeric and mistletoe provide the elusive cures for liver damage and cancers?

RESEARCHERS have found that the primary polyphenol in turmeric, curcumin, is able to repair and even regenerate the liver tissues in diabetic rats.

Researchers at the Srinakharinwirot University in Bangkok, Thailand, in a study published last week in the Journal of the Medical Association of Thailand, administered curcumin to rats afflicted with diabetes and whose livers demonstrated the characteristic pathology and destruction of tissues and microvasculature. The curcumin was able to trigger a significant reversal of the condition.

Turmeric is a spice that comes from the root of Curcuma longa, a member of the ginger family, Zingaberaceae. It is called atale pupa in Yoruba; gangamau in Hausa; nwandumo in Ebonyi; ohu boboch in Enugu (Nkanu East); gigir in Tiv; magina in Kaduna; turi in Niger State; onjonigho in Cross River (Meo tribe).

Also, researchers have reported how mistletoe injections cured a man of cancer that should have killed him five years ago. The report published online by the Daily Mail London has reported that the treatment has been widely used in Europe, particularly in Germany. According to the report, the plant may contain compounds that affect leukaemia cells.

Mistletoes depend on other trees to survive. They grow on their branches and trunks from where they obtained moisture, nutrients, shade and support. Mistletoe is a parasitic tree. The African variety is parasitic on many species of trees. They grow on palm tree, avocado, kola nut, neem, oil bean, lemon and guava trees, among others.

Several kinds of mistletoe have been identified. There is the African mistletoe (Loranthus micranthus and bengwensis). American Mistletoe is sometimes called “False Mistletoe” to distinguish it from the European genus, Viscum album.

The Thai research team wrote: “Fascinatingly, liver microvasculature in curcumin treated group developed into regenerate and repair into healthy and normal characteristics. These results optimistically demonstrated the potential use of curcumin as a novel therapeutic agent in liver pathology of diabetic rats.”

The Thai research is just the latest - albeit most promising to date - research showing a treatment link between curcumin and both forms of diabetes, Type I and Type II.

Researchers, who published their results in the journal Diabetes Care in July, said they discovered that over nine months, a daily dose of curcumin - a compound in curry spice - appeared to prevent new cases of diabetes among people with so-called pre-diabetes, or abnormally high blood sugar levels that could eventually progress into full-blown Type II diabetes, which is also linked to obesity.

That study, which was also Thai-based, followed 240 adults with pre-diabetes who were randomly assigned to either take curcumin capsules or a placebo that looked identical but contained no active ingredient, Reuters reported.

After nine months, 19 of the 116 placebo patients had developed Type II diabetes, compared to none of the 119 patients who took the curcumin.

The researchers, led by Dr. Somlak Chuengsamarn of Srinakharinwirot University in Nakornnayok, Thailand, said their findings were an endorsement.

The research team wrote: “Our study showed that the curcumin extract can effectively prevent the prediabetes population from developing type 2 diabetes mellitus. Although we found that the results were quite remarkable, a longer trial may be required to see if the curcumin-treated prediabetes population will eventually develop type 2 diabetes mellitus.”

Meanwhile, with a little help from mistletoe, an international cricketer, John Edrich, is applying the same determination to fighting cancer.

The opening batsman, who played 77 tests for England between 1963 and 1976, has credited the experimental tumour treatment with saving his life.

Edrich was given just seven years to live when he was diagnosed with a rare blood cancer in 2000. His health deteriorated so badly by 2005 that he told his wife Judith he was on the brink of death.

Shortly afterwards, he heard about Stefan Geider, an Aberdeen GP who uses injections of mistletoe extract as a cancer treatment. He has never looked back. The 75-year-old is on the golf course three times a week and says he feels on top of the world.

Speaking from his home in Ballater, Aberdeenshire, Mr Edrich told Daily Mail: “My quality of life was grim. I said to my wife, Judith, ‘This is the end’. I was so tired and lethargic, I couldn’t do anything. Then three or four days later a friend of a friend rang me and said I had to see Dr Geider because his treatment had worked wonders with another patient.”

There is some evidence that compounds found in mistletoe can have an effect on cancer cells, but there is little concrete proof of its value as a treatment at present.

Scientists claim extracts from the plant: stimulate the immune system; kill off cancer cells; and protect healthy cells against harmful effects of radiation and chemotherapy.

The use of mistletoe extract is widespread in Europe, particularly in Germany, but the third mistletoe symposium in that country - reported on in the British Medical Journal - detailed a long list of possible side effects from mistletoe, from nausea to herpes

 CHUKWUMA MUANYA writes.