Antioxidants such as Green Tea Catechins are taken to neutralize free radicals. Free radicals
encompass bleaching and oxidizing agents such as hydrogen peroxide, in disease states these are
commonly generated by the immune system. These free radicals contribute greatly to inflammation
and tissue destruction, and they cause severe and worsening damage in many disease states. In
diabetes, free radical damage is recognized as a major contributing factor for the developent
of the many severe complications of late stages of the disease. In diabetes, these free radicals
greatly contribute to the destruction of the blood vessels (hardening of the arteries and coronary
artery disease), nerve damage (peripheral neuropathy), eye damage (diabetic cataracts and diabetic
retinopathy), kidey damage, and damage to the brain commonly seen in avancing diabetes.
Green Tea Extract high in the various catechins such as EGCG protected the erythrocytes (red blood
cells) of diabetics caused by inflammatory chemicals. The Green Tea Extract was actually more active
in the diseased blood cells versus the blood from normal and healthy individuals indicating greater
protection when the body is under greater assault. EGCG was the strongest, most protective Green Tea
catechin (the strongest Green Tea Polyphenols) for the diabetics. These researchers feel that Green
Tea type catechins if taken by diabetics, will offer some protection from the development of long-term
complications in diabetes. The study is published in the January-February 2005 issue of the journal
Clinical and Experimental Pharmacology and Physiology.
Feverfew May Change the Way Leukemia is Treated
Parthenolide, an active component of the Feverfew plant may have potent activity against human
leukemia, so potent that the National Cancer Institute has put parthenolide on its rapid access
program - a fast track for taking promising experimental compounds from the lab to human studies.
Feverfew, the parent herb, has been used for centuries to treat migraine patients.
Malignant (cancer causing) stem cells are central to the initiation, growth, and relapse of acute
and chronic myelogenous leukemia (AML and CML). Malignant stem cells actually give rise to, or create
the active cancerous cells. Leukemia stem cells are rare and distinct and they are an abvious
critical target for treatig leukemia. However, to date, very few agents have been shown to directly
target leukemia stem cells.
Researchers in the Division of Hematolgy/ Oncology and the Center for Human Genetics and Molecular
Pediatrics Disease at the University of Rochester Medical School (and from the Division of Hematology/Oncology,
University of Kentucky Medical Center) exposed human leukemia cells to parthenolide for 18 hours and the
results were breathtaking: the parthenolide killed leukemia stem cells, the cells that give rise to leukemia
cancer cells. Whats more, parthenolide robustly killed the leukemia stem cells without harming normal-healthy
blood cells. Parthenolide seems to be a potent anti-leukemia agent that is nontoxic.
When the researchers compared parthenolide to the chemotherapeutic drug cytarabine, a drug commonly used to
treat leukemia, the parthenolide was better than the chemotherapy. The cytarabine had modest toxicity against
the human leukemia cells but had relatively high toxicity to the normal-healthy blood cells. The parthenolide
is much more specific to leukemia cells.
Additionally, because the parthenolide worked against leukemia stem cells it got at the heart of the disease
where as other treatments for leukemia are like pulling out weeds but leaving the roots intact.
Furthermore, the researchers say the parthenolide may make the cancer cells more sensitive to other
cancer-fighting agents. The study is published in the February 1st, 2005 issue of the journal
Blood.
