Category: News

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Cancer-blocking herb to be taken off shelves in Europe

A herb used in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) can block cancer growth, researchers have discovered this week – and it’s about to disappear from stores throughout Europe.

The herb, thunder god vine (lei gong teng), has been used for centuries by TCM as a remedy for rheumatoid arthritis.  But researchers from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine say it can also stop tumour growth.  Its active ingredient, triptolide, is an anti-inflammatory, an immunosuppressant, contraceptive – and anti-tumour agent, says Jun Liu, professor of pharmacology and molecular sciences.

Yet, on May 1, it will disappear from the shelves around Europe under an EU directive that will dramatically reduce the range of herbal remedies we can buy.  Every single remedy from TCM, Ayurvedic and Amazonian medical traditions will disappear under the EU’s Traditional Herbal Medicinal Products Directive.  Of the hundreds of remedies currently available, just 79 will survive – and a pharmaceutical company manufactures a third of these.

In laboratory tests, low doses of thunder god vine blocked cell growth in 60 different types of cancer, and even killed off some cancers.

(Source: Nature Chemical Biology, 2011; 7: 182).


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Nobel scientist discovers scientific basis of homeopathy

In the week that doctors have described homeopathy as ‘nonsense on stilts’, a Nobel prize-winning scientist has made a discovery about the nature of water that suggests the therapy does have a scientific basis.

Professor Luc Montagnier, a French virologist who won the Nobel prize for discovering a link between HIV and AIDS, has shocked fellow Nobel prize-winners by telling them that water has a memory that continues even after many dilutions. The idea is one of the foundations of homeopathy, which maintains that the potency of a substance is increased with its dilution.

Montagnier has discovered that solutions containing the DNA of viruses and bacteria “could emit low frequency radio waves”. These waves influence molecules around them, and turn them into organised structures. These molecules in turn can emit waves. He has discovered that the waves remain in the water, even after it has been diluted many times.

Montagnier’s statement couldn’t happen at a worse time for doctors. Last week, the UK’s British Medical Association (BMA) – the trade union of doctors – passed a resolution to stop homeopathy being made available on the National Health Service. It also wants all homeopathic remedies to be placed in a special area marked ‘Placebos’ in health shops and pharmacies. The NHS currently spends around £4m a year on homeopathy, mainly by funding four homeopathic hospitals in the UK.

(Sources: Sunday Times, July 4, 2010; British Medical Association).



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Men—you CAN understand a woman—through her feet!

There was a recent BBC Radio World Service interview with Professor Geoff Beattie.  He explained what  foot readers have known for some time—that you have no idea most of the time what your feet are doing.  The feet give the least conscious internal feedback so they will often give away non-verbal communication signals without you even realising. For example, if you wanted to know if someone is lying to you, watch the feet. Continue reading “Men—you CAN understand a woman—through her feet!”

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Mother’s milk – the greatest cancer-fighter of them all

We all know that mother’s milk is best – and scientists have discovered that it could also be one of the best cancer fighters of them all. Human milk contains a natural substance that appears to kill 40 different types of cancer. The magic ingredient is known as Hamlet (human alpha-lactalbumin made lethal to tumour cells). Continue reading “Mother’s milk – the greatest cancer-fighter of them all”