Ginger linked to prostrate cancer prevention : The Canadian Business Daily

Health 2967 Views Dr. Joseph Mercola

Ginger linked to prostrate cancer prevention

Ginger has a long history of medicinal use, primarily for soothing nausea and easing stomach upset and dizziness. But it's also a natural immune system booster with anti-inflammatory and pain-relieving properties, courtesy of several bioactive phenolics, including:

-- Gingerols

-- Paradols

-- Shogaols

-- Gingerones

-- Zingerones

Phenolic antioxidants, which are plant metabolites found throughout the plant kingdom, have been found to play important protective roles against diseases caused by oxidative damage, such as coronary heart disease, stroke, and cancers. (This is in part why regular consumption of vegetables is believed to be so important for heart disease and cancer prevention in particular.)

Previous research has also established that ginger exhibits antiproliferative powers, indicating it may be useful as a chemopreventive agent. Now, a study published in the British Journal of Nutrition has demonstrated, allegedly for the first time, the in vitro and in vivo anticancer activity of ginger, suggesting it may indeed be effective in the management of prostate cancer.

How Whole Ginger Extract Helps Combat Prostate Cancer

The study showed that whole ginger extract exerts significant growth-inhibitory and death-inductory effects in a spectrum of human prostate cancer cells. The extract:

-- Impaired cell-cycle progression

-- Impaired cellular reproductive capacity

-- Modulated the cell-cycle

-- Modulated molecules that regulate apoptosis (cell death)

-- Induced caspase-driven, mitochondrially mediated cell death in human prostate cancer cells

The authors write:

"Remarkably, daily oral feeding of 100 mg/kg body weight of ginger extract inhibited growth and progression of PC-3 xenografts by approximately 56 percent in mice, as shown by measurements of tumour volume.

Tumor tissue from [ginger extract]-treated mice showed reduced proliferation index and widespread apoptosis [cell death] compared with controls, as determined by immunoblotting and immunohistochemical methods. Most importantly, [ginger extract] did not exert any detectable toxicity in normal, rapidly dividing tissues such as gut and bone marrow."

Other Health Benefits of Ginger

The phenolic antioxidants (listed at the beginning) are also believed to have particular anti-inflammatory and analgesic properties similar to nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), and more recent research confirms this. In a 2010 study, ginger was found to be an effective pain reliever for exercise-induced pain. In this case, raw ginger was determined to be slightly more effective than a heat treated form, reducing pain by 25 percent within 24 hours. More importantly however, over the past decade, researchers have discovered that ginger may offer potent cardiovascular benefits by:

-- Preventing atherosclerosis

-- Lowering cholesterol levels

-- Preventing oxidation of low density lipoprotein (LDL)

With cancer and heart disease topping the charts in terms of mortality, making sure to include potent disease fighting foods in your diet on a regular basis would be a no-brainer, and ginger certainly appears to be one such ingredient. In one animal study, mice who received 250 micrograms of ginger extract daily experienced the following beneficial effects over a 10-week period.

Internet site reference: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/10/11/this-common-cooking-spice-dramatically-shrinks-prostate-tumors-in-mice.aspx?e_cid=20111011_DNL_art_3