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The low incidence of bowel cancer in India is often attributed
to natural antioxidants such as curcumin, the yellow pigment in the
spice turmeric, used in curry powder. However, it is important to remember
that the benefits of a diet are seldom produced by a single ingredient
in that diet. For example, diets rich in beta-carotene lower the risk of
tobacco-related cancers, but beta-carotene pills do not. That doesn’t
stop researchers from trying, though.
Back in 2001, in a last ditch attempt to save the lives of 15
patients with advanced colorectal cancer that didn’t respond to any of
the standard chemotherapy agents or radiation, researchers started them
on a turmeric extract. The extract appeared
to help stall the disease in a third (5 out of 15) of the patients,
suggesting that turmeric extract may clinically benefit at least some
patients with advanced refractory colorectal cancer.
If we were talking about some new kind of chemotherapy, and it only
helped one in three, we’d have to weigh the benefits against chemo side
effects, such as losing our hair, the sloughing of our guts, intractable
vomiting, maybe being bed-ridden. Therefore, a drug scenario, a one in
three benefit may not sound particularly appealing. But when we’re
talking about plant extract proven to be remarkably safe, it would be
worth considering even if it just helped 1 in a 100. With no serious
downsides, a one in three benefit for end-stage cancer is pretty
exciting.
To see if colon cancer could be prevented, five years later,
researchers at Cleveland Clinic and John Hopkins School of Medicine tested
two phytochemicals, curcumin (from turmeric) and quercitin, (found in
fruits and vegetables such as red onions and grapes) in people with
familial adenomatous polyposis, an inherited form of colon cancer in
which individuals develop hundreds of polyps that may become cancerous
unless prophylactically removed. Researchers gave supplements of
curcumin and quercetin to five such patients who already had their
colons removed, but still had either polyps in their rectum or in a
little intestinal pouch. Each patient had between 5 and 45 polyps each,
but after six months on the supplement they ended
up with on average fewer than half the polyps, and the ones that were
left had shrunk in half. One patient got rid of all polyps by month
three, but then they seemed to come back. The researchers asked the
patient what’s what, and it turned out that the patient stopped taking
the supplements. So researchers put the patient back on the
phytonutrient supplements for another three months, and the polyps came
back down with virtually no adverse events and no blood test
abnormalities.
By studying people at high risk for colon cancer, the researchers
were able to show noticeable effects within just months. But polyposis
is a rare disease; they were only able to recruit five people for the
study. Thankfully, smokers are a dime a dozen. After another five years,
researchers put 44 smokers on turmeric curcumin supplements alone for a
month and measured
changes in their colorectal aberrant crypt foci, which may act like the
precursors to polyps, which are the precursors to cancer. After just
one month there was a significant drop
in the number of these abnormal crypt foci in the high dose supplement
group but no change in the low dose group. There were also no
dose-limiting side effects (although the stools in the participants did
turn yellow).
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