OVERVIEW
Ginger is the thickened, pungent, aromatic rhizome of the plant Zingiber officinale. It has a long history of medicinal use. Chinese and Japanese people use ginger to treat varied human ailments, including stomach upset, diarrhea and nausea. There is some evidence suggesting that ginger root shows cancer preventive activity in experimental carcinogenesis. If you have cancer, speak with your doctor before using ginger supplements.
COLON CANCER
Ginger has attracted a great deal of interest because of its perceived ability to act as a chemopreventive agent. Ginger extract contains a number of biologically active substances, some of which have displayed anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer effects in many types of cells and animal models. Gingerol, the active component of ginger, has been shown to inhibit cell proliferation and have potent cancer chemopreventive effects in rat models of colon carcinogenesis, reports the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.
LUNG CANCER
In a study led by W. Tuntiwechapikul, a professor of biochemistry at Chiang Mai University in Thailand, ginger was shown to down-regulate telomerase activity in A549 lung cancer cells. Telomerase is an enzyme that catalyzes the formation of DNA and RNA and plays a major role in the development of nearly all human cancers. The results, published in December 2010 in "Journal of Medicinal Food," showed that ginger exerts an anti-proliferative action through inhibition of multiple cell signaling pathways, including human telomerase reverse transcriptase, or hTERT, and c-Myc.
OVARIAN CANCER
Ginger root is a valuable source of biologically active compounds; some of these compounds may help prevent ovarian cancer, according to the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer center. Unlike normal cells, cancer cells are resistant to standard cancer treatments. It also appears that cancer cells can repair themselves more efficiently than normal cells. This is especially disturbing when radiation therapy and chemotherapy are the only means of cancer treatment. Laboratory and animal studies reviewed by the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Research Center have shown that ginger can selectively kill ovarian cancer cells that cannot be destroyed by conventional chemotherapy agents.
CHEMOTHERAPY SIDE EFFECTS
Studies conducted by researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Center suggest that ginger helps alleviate side effects in patients undergoing chemotherapy. One study found that ginger improved chemotherapy-induced nausea by 40 percent, reports Julie L. Ryan, Ph.D., an assistant professor of dermatology and radiation oncology at Rochester's James P. Wilmot Cancer Center. A placebo-controlled, double-blinded study of 644 cancer patients reported that those who consumed ginger in addition to taking anti-nausea medication had fewer attacks of nausea than the group of people who received only medication.
REFERENCES
- University of Michigan Health System: Ginger Causes Ovarian Cancer Cells to Die, U-M Researchers Find; Nicole Fawcett; April 4, 2006
- University of Rochester Medical Center: Ginger Quells Cancer Patients' Nausea From Chemotherapy; May 15, 2009
- University of Maryland Medical Center: Ginger; Steven D. Ehrlich; November 17, 2008
- "Journal of Medicinal Food": Ginger Extract Inhibits Human Telomerase Reverse Transcriptase and C-Myc Expression in A549 Lung Cancer Cells; W. Tuntiwechapikul Dec. 2010
- U.S. Department of Health & Human Services: Ginger Extract: Bioavailability Study and Lung Cancer Preventive Effect
Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/article/463337-does-ginger-root-fight-cancer/#ixzz1b0cuCK7u
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