Excerpted from The Food Revolution Network article by Sayer Ji, founder of Greenmedinfo.com
There is a new study which shows that ginger contains a compound that could be 10,000 times more effective in targeting cancer stem cells which are at the root of cancer malignancy.
A new study published in PLoS reveals a pungent compound in ginger known as 6-shogaol, which is superior to conventional chemotherapy in targeting the root cause of breast cancer malignancy, the breast cancer stem cells.
Cancer stem cells are at the root of a wide range of cancers, not just breast cancer, and are sometimes referred to as “mother cells”, because they are responsible for producing all the “daughter” cell types that make up the tumor colony. Cancer stem cells constitute 1% or less the number of cells within any tumor, they have the ability to self renew, are capable of continuous differentiation, are resistant to conventional chemotherapy, and are tumorigenic, that is capable of splitting off to create new tumor colonies. Cancer stem cells within a tumor must be destroyed if the cancer treatment is to have a lasting cure.
The new study identified powerful anti-cancer stem cell activity in 6-shaogaol, a constituent of ginger produced when the root is dried or cooked. The cancer destroying effects occurred at concentrations that were non-toxic to non-cancerous cells, a crucial difference from conventional cancer treatments, that do not exhibit this kind of selective cytotoxicity and therefore can do great harm to the patient.
Ultimately, this new study adds to a growing body of research indicating that cancer stem cell targeting approaches using natural substances present in the human diet for thousands of years are far superior to chemotherapy and radiation, both of which actually increases the relative populations of cancer stem cells versus non-tumorigenic ones. There is a ginger research database for further reading on ginger’s anti-cancer properties.You can also use the cancer research health guide for thousands of studies and articles about natural healing approaches for cancer
