Nutrients Protect from Cigarette Toxin

Nicotine is a major tobacco alkaloid that has proven genotoxic activity (genotoxic - damaging to DNA causing harmful mutations or cancer). In this study, researchers tested nutrients to evaluate their effectiveness in blocking nicotine's ability to combine with and damage DNA, and therefore inhibiting the cancer process. The following offered great protection from nicotine's possible carcinogenic effect and the higher the concentration of a nutrient the greater the protection it offered. Grape Seed extract had the strongest protective effect, but higher doses of the following matched its protective effect: Green Tea Polyphenols, Curcumin (Turmeric), Vitamin C, and Vitamin E. Garlic also helped significantly protect the DNA from changes that could lead to cancer, but was slightly weaker than the other nutrients. The study was published in the June 2003 issue of the journal Food and Chemical Toxicology, an international journal of the British Industrial Biological Research Association.

Human Papilloma Virus Causes Cancer - Turmeric Helps Repair this Event

The human papillomavirus (HPV) family is a group of viruses that cause warts including genital warts. Some of these viruses have a strong ability to cause precancerous changes and greatly increase the risk of developing cancer including cancer of the mouth and cervical cancer. HPV16 and HPV18 are two strains of human papilloma virus that cause cervical cancer. These viruses affect DNA in such a way that certain controlling influences decrease and negative activity increases in the cervix causing changes ranging from mild cervical dysplasia up to and including invasive cervical cancer. The changes noted with HPV18 infection are steadily increasing levels of C-FOS, and the eventual disappearance of FRA-1. An increase in levels of one (C-FOS) with a corresponding decrease in the other (FRA-1) exactly mirrors the worsening stages of cervical tissue all the way to invasive cervical cancer. Adding Turmeric to the HPV18 infected cervical cancer tissue reversed these changes back to the balance found in precancerous and even in normal-healthy cervical tissue. The study is published in the October 28th 2004 issue of the International Journal of Cancer.