Berry Good News – A Promising Cancer Cure
If you haven’t yet read about the news on blackberries, I’m sure in short time, you will. The black raspberry is proving itself to be an even bigger anti-inflammatory agent than the long attested blueberry.
Scientists from Ohio State and Kentucky Universities jointly conducted a study on 20 patients with pre-cancerous oral lesions using only freeze-dried blackberries and KY jelly. They had the patients apply it to the lesions four times a day for six weeks. Several of the patients reversed their condition and more than half showed significant improvement.
This would be a real break-through given that most patients who are diagnosed with oral cancers, approximately 80 diagnosis a day in the U.S. according to the American Cancer Society, usually end up looking disfigured even after plastic surgery with the current treatments that are available.
A Kentucky Company, Four Tigers, that grows blackberries thinks it would certainly be a twist if Kentucky goes from a state that relied heavily on it’s tobacco products for income producing, to one that produces a crop that fights cancer.
A preliminary test on colon cancer cells was also done by Russell Mumper, vice chair and associate professor of pharmaceutical sciences at UK. A blackberry extract was introduced into colonies of colon cancer cells in vitro. Normally. these types of cells, almost double on a daily basis. It was found that the extract stopped the growth of these colon cancer cells.
The same berry solution also showed promise of slowing down the growth of skin cancer in mice.
A larger trial is planned involving several different cancer centers and a gel product is going through final stage approvals with the possibility of being available in stores in one to two years.
If the preliminaries are any indication of things to come regarding blackberries, I see this as just one more natural product that should be added to your list of cancer fighting agents that everyone should include in their diets. This is one that would definitely not be hard to swallow!
