Curcumin may aid cancer fight

A potentially potent treatment for the most lethal of cancers, pancreatic, may be right under the noses of people eating Indian curry.University of Alabama at Birmingham researchers are exploring the possibility that curcumin, which is found naturally in Indian curry powder, may inhibit the growth of pancreatic cancer and greatly
increase its susceptibility to chemotherapy treatment.But it's a little more complicated than heading out to an Indian restaurant.Mei Wan, a cellular pathologist at UAB, outlined the project this week for the American Cancer Society in Alabama, which is funding much of the work.Wan said the project started by looking at pancreatic cancer cells and noticing that a tumor suppressor called SMAD4 was missing. The main suspect was a protein called JAB1, which they found in excess.So researchers started searching for something to inhibit production
of JAB1, hoping that by eliminating this protein, they would enhance the body's natural ability to fight off cancer with SMAD4.The most effective JAB1 inhibitor was curcumin, which is found in Indian curry powder, which is easy to work with in trials with animals and humans. "It's quite safe and it's not toxic," Wan said.Pancreatic cancer kills 99 percent of patients who have it, most of them within a year of diagnosis. About 35,000 Americans die from it annually. "It is the deadliest among all malignancies, " Wan said.But while curcumin has shown promise in the lab, it's not soluble in water, which makes it difficult to inject, and it has a short half-life, meaning it is expelled from the body before it has a chance to really do its work.Now researchers have developed an experimental drug called PEG-curcumin, which "works really well" in mice, Wan said.Lab tests have shown that PEG-curcumin greatly enhances one of the few existing treatments for pancreatic cancer, the chemotherapy agent gemcitabine, and creates a cocktail that is even more promising than PEG-curcumin alone, Wan said. But it still must be tested in human trials.

Arthiritis risks reduced by Oily fish

Washington: A new study has shown that consumption of oily fish is associated with a reduced risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis (RA), whereas psychosocial work stress and smoking is linked to an elevated risk of the condition.The findings, all taken from a large population-based case-control study in Sweden called EIRA (Epidemiological Investigation of Rheumatoid Arthritis), shed light on the important role of environmental and social factors in the development of RA. For the first time, the intake of oily fish has been demonstrated to have a protective effect against the development of RA, reducing an individual's risk by 20-30pc.
Studying 1,899 subjects with a confirmed diagnosis of RA (fulfilling ACR criteria) and 2,145 controls (randomly selected and matched for age, sex and residential area), investigators concluded that the odds ratio (OR) for developing RA was 0.8 (0.7-1.0) for those who consumed oily fish 1-7 times per week or 1-3 times per month, compared with those who never, or seldom consumed oily fish. Interestingly, no significant association with RA risk was observed for consumption of fish oil supplements. Tobacco smoking is an established risk factor for RA, but the investigators found that there is a dose dependency for the level of smoking (i.e. the number of cigarettes smoked across a given period) on the odds ratio of developing anti-citrulline (anti-CCP) positive RA. The highest odds ratios were seen in those carrying a risk variant of the susceptibility gene PTPN22. In the study, 1,240 cases and 798 controls were identified as smokers from a total group of 1,419 cases and 1,674 controls via an extensive questionnaire regarding lifestyle factors, including smoking habits.
These subjects were then classified into three different groups according to the number of pack years smoked - less then 10, 10-20 or more than 20 pack years (where one pack-year is equivalent to having smoked one pack per day for one year) and genotyped to determine the presence of the PTPN22 risk allele. Psychosocial stress at work, defined as low decision latitude (or low level of control) was found to be associated with a higher risk for RA. Collected via a validated questionnaire, this was demonstrated in both self-reported data and JEM (job exposure matrix)-derived data.These results were only marginally changed when the investigators adjusted the odds ratios for social class and smoking for the 1,221 cases and 1,454 controls who participated in the study.
Mrs Annmarie Wesley of the Institute of Environmental Medicine, Stockholm, Sweden, EIRA investigator and lead author of the oily fish intake study, commented: "The findings from these studies add to an increasing body of evidence to support the assertion that lifestyle modifications can have a significant impact on an individual's risk for developing RA, one of the most common autoimmune diseases, affecting approximately 1pc of adults worldwide.”

Honey - a magic remedy

You have been keeping a hawk's eye on your body weight and are a regular at the gym. You also drink lots of water and fiber-rich diet. You even follow experts' advice on taking care of your hair and skin. But what about those eyes? How do you protect them from the stress that is caused by working long hours before the computer? Well, here's an easy answer to that: Take the traditional route add a little honey to your daily diet.
Yes, whether its your grandmother, or the neighbourhood doctor, everybody will agree to this fact that honey not only helps protect the eyes, but also help improve your eyesight. While there are plenty of home remedies from honey, we bring you a few here: Perry Kharpuri is a researcher based in Shillong, a place well-known for it's large-scale honey production. Perry's advice is , "mix two teaspoons of honey with carrot juice and consume regularly", to improve your eye sight and cure problems such as watering of eyes. In cold, cough and congested chest, two teaspoons of honey with equal quantity of ginger juice should be consumed frequently. This is one of the oldest and most popular remedies that millions of Indians already follow. The other such popular remedy is to take one spoon of fresh honey mixed with the juice of half a lemon in a glass of lukewarm water in order to get cured of constipation, hyperacidity and obesity. Now, Swapan Debnath, a homeopath says that honey can help control your BP as well. According to him, two teaspoons of honey should be mixed with one teaspoon of garlic juice and taken on a regular basis. Maheep Kohli owns a bee farm in Moga, Punjab and she has a few honey-based remedies up her sleep as well. One of them is a mixture of honey, ginger juice and black pepper powder, mixed in equal quantities. When consumed thrice daily helps to relieve symptoms of asthma. However, here are also a few words of caution from Maheep: Always make sure that the honey you are taking is not heated, avoid taking honey when you are exposed to high temperature. And last but least, never ever mix honey with hot and spicy foods and fermented beverages like whisky, rum, brandy, etc. Honey includes nectar of various flowers some of which may be poisonous and when it is mixed with hot and spicy foods, the poisonous properties get enhanced, sometimes to the extent of being fatal.

Diabetes herbal cure and Banaba

Banaba, also known as Crepe Myrtle, Queen's Flower and Pride of India, is a medicinal plant that grows in India, Southeast Asia and the Philippines. Banaba Leaf extract contains a compound known as corosolic acid, that has been reported to safely lower blood sugar levels. By keeping blood sugar and insulin levels in check, Banaba helps control food craving, which is extremely important to diabetics!
In humans with Type 2 diabetes, Banaba extract, taken for 4-8 weeks, has been shown to be effective in reducing blood sugar (5% - 30% reduction) and maintaining tighter control of blood sugar fluctuations. one study, subjects who took the supplement over a twenty-two-week period had a 30% drop in blood sugar levels. They also averaged a weight loss of 3.2 pounds per month without changing their diet. For some people, fluctuations in blood sugar and insulin are related to appetite, hunger and various food cravings - particularly craving for carbohydrates ( eg. bread and sweets). By keeping blood sugar and insulin levels in check, Banaba helps people to lose weight safely and quickly.