Could getting spicy aid your treatment of cancer

Cancer is a terminal disease which manifests through abnormal cells spreading through one's body, destroying the surrounding tissue. Sometimes, cancer may spread onto other organs, which is an even more dangerous variant of this disease. Fortunately, recent research has discovered great potential in certain types of food, helping people deal with cancer, beating it through proper nutrition.

Curcumin vs Cancer

Curcumin is a plant also known as turmeric. It is the ingredient which colors curry in its specific yellow. Curcumin is a very powerful antioxidant which can help greatly in one's battle against cancer, being quite effective against other disease as well. In fact, cultures which consume curry regularly have shown far less cases of cancer than the rest of the world. This remarkable data gives us proof of the incredible power of curcumin.

The Effect of Curcumin

Basically, curcumin blocks a key pathway necessary for melanoma to develop and progress. Moreover, it has the same effect on other forms of cancer. The tests were performed on samples of melanoma strains in laboratories. The results showed that curcumin triggered programmed cell suicide of cancerous tissue cells, regardless if the doses of this medicine were smaller over a longer time of treatment or larger over a shorter timespan.

In 2002 another research was carried out on mice, where these animals were given curcumin extracts for 15 weeks. These mice experienced a 40% reduction in benign tumors they had, mostly visible on those mice which were given larger amounts of curcumin. Similar tests done on mice injected with human prostate cancer cells showed a significant decrease in tumor sizes in comparison to the mice treated with a placebo.

A Cure Holding Great Promise

As for treating breast cancer, curcumin was involved in yet another mice research, where the animals were injected with human breast cancer cells. Then, the cancerous cells were surgically removed and the mice were divided into 4 groups. One group was treated with placebo, the other one with curcumin, the third one with Taxol and the last one with both curcumin and Taxol. After 5 weeks, 50% of the curcumin group had their cancer spread onto their lungs, while the curcumin and Taxol group experienced this negative change in only 22% of cases. Yet, the Taxol treated group had cancer complications in 70% of cases while the placebo group was left with 95% of cancer cells spreading onto the lungs.

All these results present a great driving force for future solutions. Numerous treatments hold promise and, with every step forward, a future with a cure for cancer is nearer.