Archive for the ‘Natural Therapies’ Category

CU Cancer Center study shows promise for lung tumor treatment

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Posted 21 Feb 2011 — by James Street
Category Natural Therapies, Nutrition and Cancer, Vitamins and Supplements

posted: Sunday, February 20, 2011 3:33 pm | Updated: 9:41 am, Mon Feb 21, 2011.

CU Cancer Center study shows promise for lung tumor treatment ADAM GOLDSTEIN, The Aurora Sentinel Aurora Sentinel

AURORA | Researchers at the University of Colorado Cancer Center are drawing on milk thistle extract to fight the spread lung cancer in lab mice.

A new study conducted by UCCC researcher and CU pharmacy professor Rajesh Agarwal shows that silibinin, an extract from the milk thistle plant, shows promise in decreasing the size of lung tumors in lab mice. The data, published earlier this month in Clinical Cancer Research, shows that silibinin cuts down the production of an enzyme present in specific types of cancer, including strains of lung cancer.

The new research shows that the milk thistle extract reduced the size of tumors in certain lab mice by about 72 percent in a period of 12 weeks. The subjects that showed the most promising results all suffered from tumors that contained the enzyme inducible nitric oxide synthase.

“The results support targeting (the enzyme) with silibinin for controlling lung cancer,” Agarwal said in a release. “We are trying to reach down earlier in the cancer development to reach real chemoprevention.”

The milk thistle is a flowering daisy plant native to the Mediterranean regions of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.

The new research also points toward the benefits of micro-CT scans, a three-dimesnional method of examining lung cancer. The images from a micro-CT scan are much clearer and easier to read than those taken from an MRI, the research states.

“This is a very powerful, real-time technique to measure the effectiveness of cancer treatment in a non-invasive manner,” Agarwal said in a statement.

BLACK RASPBERRIES SLOW CANCER BY ALTERING HUNDREDS OF GENES

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Posted 20 Feb 2011 — by James Street
Category Diet and Prostate Cancer, Natural Therapies, Nutrition and Cancer, Prevention, Vitamins and Supplements
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Previous research stories pertaining to Professor Stoner’s work:

“Chemicals In Brown Algae May Protect Against Skin Cancer,” 1/25/07.

“Black Raspberries A Potentially Powerful Agent In Fight Against Colon Cancer,” 5/1/02.

” Black Raspberries Show Multiple Defenses In Thwarting Cancer” 10/30/01.

“How Fruits And Vegetables Lower The Risk Of Cancer,” 6/22/95.

“Mouse Might Make It Cheaper To Identify Cancer-Causing Chemicals,” 6/22/95.

COLUMBUS, Ohio – New research strongly suggests that a mix of preventative agents, such as those found in concentrated black raspberries, may more effectively inhibit cancer development than single agents aimed at shutting down a particular gene.

Researchers at the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center examined the effect of freeze-dried black raspberries on genes altered by a chemical carcinogen in an animal model of esophageal cancer.

Garry D. Stoner

The carcinogen affected the activity of some 2,200 genes in the animals’ esophagus in only one week, but 460 of those genes were restored to normal activity in animals that consumed freeze-dried black raspberry powder as part of their diet during the exposure.

These findings, published in recent issue of the journal Cancer Research, also helped identify 53 genes that may play a fundamental role in early cancer development and may therefore be important targets for chemoprevention agents.

“We have clearly shown that berries, which contain a variety of anticancer compounds, have a genome-wide effect on the expression of genes involved in cancer development,” says principal investigator Gary D. Stoner, a professor of pathology, human nutrition and medicine who studies dietary agents for the prevention of esophageal cancer.

“This suggests to us that a mixture of preventative agents, which berries provide, may more effectively prevent cancer than a single agent that targets only one or a few genes.”

Stoner notes that black raspberries have vitamins, minerals, phenols and phytosterols, many of which individually are known to prevent cancer in animals.

“Freeze drying the berries concentrates these elements about ten times, giving us a power pack of chemoprevention agents that can influence the different signaling pathways that are deregulated in cancer,” he says.

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“What’s emerging from studies in cancer chemoprevention is that using single compounds alone is not enough. And berries are not enough. We never get 100 percent tumor inhibition with berries, so we need to think about another food that we can add.”

To conduct this study, Stoner and his colleagues fed rats either a normal diet or a diet containing 5 percent black-raspberry powder. During the third week, half the animals in each diet group were injected three times with a chemical carcinogen, N-nitrosomethylbenzylamine. The animals continued consuming the diets during the week of carcinogen treatment.

After the third week, the researchers examined the animals’ esophageal tissue, thereby capturing gene changes that occur early during carcinogen exposure. Their analyses included measuring the activity, or expression levels, of 41,000 genes. In the carcinogen-treated animals, 2,261 of these genes showed changes in activity of 50 percent or higher.

“These changes in gene expression correlated with changes in the tissue that included greater cell proliferation, marked inflammation, and increased apoptosis,” Stoner says.

In the animals fed berry powder, however, a fifth of the carcinogen affected genes – exactly 462 of them – showed near-normal levels of activity, when compared with controls. Most of these genes are associated with cell proliferation and death, cell attachment and movement, the growth of new blood vessels and other processes that contribute to cancer development. The tissue also appeared more normal and healthy.

Lastly, of the 462 genes restored to normal by the berries, 53 of them were also returned to normal by a second chemoprevention agent tested during a companion study.

“Because both berries and the second agent maintain near-normal levels of expression of these 53 genes, we believe their early deregulation may be especially important in the development of esophageal cancer,” Stoner says.

“What’s emerging from studies in cancer chemoprevention is that using single compounds alone is not enough,” Stoner says. “And berries are not enough. We never get 100 percent tumor inhibition with berries. So we need to think about another food that we can add to them that will boost the chemopreventive activities of berries alone.”

Funding from the National Cancer Institute supported this research.

#

Contact: Darrell E. Ward, Medical Center Communications, 614-293-3737, or Darrell.Ward@osumc.edu

Antioxidant drugs may aid in cancer treatment Study: Antioxidants prevent oxidative stress, which can fuel cancer cell growth

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Posted 16 Feb 2011 — by James Street
Category Alternative Therapies, Antioxidants, experimental treatments, Natural Therapies, Nutrition and Cancer, Vitamins and Supplements

Drugs that provide a dose of antioxidants, such as those used to treat malaria and diabetes, might also help treat cancer, a new study suggests.

The results show a process known as oxidative stress, which damages cells, can fuel tumor growth. Specifically, oxidative stress triggers cells near the cancer to release nutrients, which feed the cancer cells.

“Cancer cells are parasites, and the way they do their business is that they use oxidative stress as a weapon to extract nutrients from adjacent normal cells,” said study researcher Dr. Michael Lisanti, professor of cancer biology at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia.

Because antioxidant drugs ameliorate oxidative stress, they might be useful tools for fighting cancer, the researchers said.

“The oxidative stress is part of a process to make food for cancer,” Lisanti said. “So the best way to then kill a cancer would be to cut off the oxidative stress.”

Current cancer treatments do not use antioxidant drugs, because it is thought these drugs might interfere with chemotherapy. Some chemotherapies are thought to work in part by increasing oxidative stress on the cancer cells. “We should rethink the idea of using antioxidants” during chemotherapy, Lisanti said.

However, the new study was conducted on cells in a lab dish, not on tumors in people. And clinical trials are needed to see whether antioxidant drugs, such as the diabetes drug metformin or the malaria drug chloroquine, could benefit those with cancer, Lisanti said. But the ways these drugs reduce oxidative stress make them promising cancer treatments, he said.

Antioxidants and cancer
Previous research has suggested that oxidative stress may promote cancer, but researchers weren’t sure exactly how this worked.

Lisanti and his colleagues had previously found that the presence of a protein known as Caveolin-1 is strongly tied to the survival of breast cancer patients. Patients with an aggressive form of breast cancer who had this protein in certain cells had a survival rate of 75 percent over 12 years. But among patients who did not have Caveolin-1 in their cells, the survival rate was less than 10 percent after five years.

Caveolin-1 prevents oxidative stress in cells that surround the cancer, called fibroblasts, the researchers said.

In the new study, the researchers removed the Caveolin-1 protein from these fibroblasts, and the size of the neighboring tumors increased four-fold.
The researchers said the loss of Caveolin-1 in the fibroblasts increased the oxidative stress on the fibroblasts, causing them to degrade and leak nutrients, which fed the cancer cells.

And further, when the researchers inserted a gene to get the fibroblasts to make a different antioxidant protein, they found that it stopped fibroblasts from leaking nutrients, Lisanti said.

This provides genetic evidence that antioxidants could be used to treat cancer, Lisanti told MyHealthNewsDaily.

Proving the benefits
To date, evidence of the effects of antioxidants on cancer has been mixed.

For example, a recent study found that women in China who took the antioxidants vitamins E and C during the first six months after they were diagnosed with breast cancer had a reduced risk of death and recurrence of their cancer, compared with women who did not take these vitamins. The link held true regardless of whether the women were on chemotherapy. However, there was no benefit to taking the vitamins if the women were undergoing radiation treatments as well.

Other researchers, writing in the journal Breast Cancer Research and Treatment in 2009, reviewed the findings of 22 previous studies, and concluded that taking antioxidants during chemotherapy, radiation treatments or hormonal therapy for breast cancer did not benefit the patients, but didn’t harm them, either.

More clinical trials are needed to determine the short- and long-term effects of consuming antioxidants during cancer treatment, the researchers of that study concluded.

Pass it on: Antioxidants may provide benefit when taken along with cancer treatments, including chemotherapy. The antioxidants prevent oxidative stress, which can fuel cancer cell growth, a new study says.

Marijuana For Hard-To-Treat Brain Cancer

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Posted 14 Feb 2011 — by James Street
Category Natural Therapies

Marijuana, commonly known as Gandia can be used to treat really advanced stage brain cancer according to a recent scientific study by scientists of  the Complutense University, Spain. Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is highly resistant to current anticancer treatments, which necessitates finding of new therapeutic strategies to improve the poor prognosis of patients suffering from this disease.

Medical Marijuana Plant

It was discovered that Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which is an active ingredient of marijuana as well as other cannabinoid receptor agonists, inhibits tumor growth in animal models of cancer, including glioma. This particular effect relies partly on the stimulation of autophagy-mediated apoptosis in tumor cells. Thus the combined administration of THC and temozolomide (TMZ; the benchmark agent for the management of GBM) produces a strong anti-tumoral action in glioma xenografts. This effect is also observed in tumors that are resistant to TMZ treatment.

Administration of submaximal doses of THC and cannabidiol (CBD (a plant-derived cannabinoid that also induces glioma cell death through a mechanism of action different from that of THC) remarkably reduces the growth of glioma xenografts. Treatment with TMZ and submaximal doses of THC and CBD produces a strong antitumoral action in both TMZ-sensitive and TMZ-resistant tumors.

Abovementioned findings by investigators at Complutense University in Spain prove that the combined administration of TMZ and cannabinoids could be thus therapeutically exploited for the management of GBM. The combined administration of THC and the pharmaceutical agent temozolomide (TMZ) therefore establishes strong anti-cancer activity in brain tumors which become resistant to conventional anti-cancer treatments.

The authors of these investigations have accordingly derived that the administration of THC in combination with TMZ “enhanced autophagy” (programmed cell death) in malignant tissue. According to them, “The combined administration of THC, CBD, and TMZ remarkably reduced the growth of glioma xenografts … [and] produced a strong antitumoral action in both TMZ-sensitive and TMZ-resistant tumors. Altogether, our findings support that the combined administration of TMZ and cannabinoids could be therapeutically exploited for the management of GBM (gliobastoma multiforme).”

Earlier in the year 2006 a study was published in the British Journal of Cancer. This study had reported that the intra-tumoural administration of THC is associated with reduced tumor cell proliferation in two out of nine human subjects with GBM (which is highly resistant to conventional anti-cancer treatments).

Separate preclinical studies which assessed the anti-cancer activity of cannabinoids and endocannabinoids also show that these substances can inhibit the proliferation of various types of cancerous cells which includes breast carcinoma, prostate carcinoma, colorectal carcinoma, gastric adenocarcinoma, skin carcinoma, leukemia cells, neuroblastoma, lung carcinoma, uterus carcinoma, thyroid epithelioma, pancreatic adenocarcinoma, cervical carcinoma, oral cancerbiliary tract cancer and lymphoma.

These studies have proved beyond doubt that marijuana ingredient THC is set to play a major role in combating GBM that has already become resistant to conventional anti-cancer drugs. Indeed a ray of new hope for the cancer patients!

Broccoli fights cancer

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Posted 30 Jan 2011 — by James Street
Category Natural Therapies, Nutrition and Cancer
Compensation trust fund information Find out if you qualify www.calldavid.com
Scientists have discovered how broccoli and its veggie cousins fight cancer.

They found for the first time that certain substances in the vegetables appear to target and block a defective gene associated with cancer.

The finding could lead to new strategies for preventing and treating cancer.

Fung-Lung Chung and colleagues showed in previous experiments that substances called isothiocyanates (or ITCs) – found in broccoli, cauliflower, watercress, and other cruciferous vegetables – appear to stop the growth of cancer.

But nobody knew exactly how these substances work, a key to developing improved strategies for fighting cancer in humans. The tumor suppressor gene p53 appears to play a key role in keeping cells healthy and preventing them from starting the abnormal growth that is a hallmark of cancer.

When mutated, p53 does not offer that protection, and those mutations occur in half of all human cancers. ITCs might work by targeting this gene, the report suggests.

The scientists studied the effects of certain naturally-occurring ITCs on a variety of cancer cells, including lung, breast and colon cancer, with and without the defective tumor suppressor gene.

They found that ITCs are capable of removing the defective p53 protein but apparently leave the normal one alone.

Drugs based on natural or custom-engineered ITCs could improve the effectiveness of current cancer treatments or lead to new strategies for treating and preventing cancer.

The report appears in ACS’ Journal of Medicinal Chemistry. (ANI)

Broccoli Fights Cancer by Clearing Bad Tumor Suppressors

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Posted 29 Jan 2011 — by James Street
Category genetic research, Natural Therapies, Nutrition and Cancer

Cruciferous vegetables contain compounds that preferentially destroy ineffective mutant p53 tumor suppressor proteins, but leave the good ones alone. Steve Mirsky reports

| Thursday, January 27, 2011 |

Generations of American children have been told, “Eat your broccoli!” And for decades, researchers have known that broccoli and related vegetables like cauliflower and watercress appeared to lower the risk of some cancers. And that compounds in the vegetables could kill cancer cells. But how the cruciferous veggies worked their medical magic was a mystery. Until now. Because researchers have figured out just what broccoli does that helps keep cancer in check. The work appears in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry. [Xiantao Wang et al., "Selective Depletion of Mutant p53 by Cancer Chemoprevention Isothiocyanates and Their Structure-Activity Relationships"]

Proteins coded by the gene p53 help keep cancer from starting to grow. But when the p53 gene is mutated, the protection is gone. Mutated p53 is implicated in about half of all human cancers.

Broccoli and its relatives are rich in compounds called isothiocyanates, or ITCs. And these ITCs apparently destroy the products of the mutant p53 gene, but leave the healthy p53 proteins alone and free to suppress tumor development.

The researchers write that “depletion of mutant p53 may reduce drug resistance and lead to new strategies for treating cancer in the clinic.” In the meantime, eat your broccoli!

—Steve Mirsky

Researchers Find More Evidence That Malaria Drug Could Help Combat Cancer, And That Breaks From Treatment Could Improve Results

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Posted 13 Jan 2011 — by James Street
Category Alternative Therapies, Combination Treatments, Complementary Therapy, Natural Therapies, Vitamins and Supplements

08 Jan 2011

Scientists investigating the cancer-fighting properties of artesunate a drug commonly used to treat malaria have found early evidence that combining it with an existing cancer drug has the potential to make each drug more effective than when used alone. They also found that regular treatment breaks could improve success levels.

The findings, recently published in the International Journal of Cancer, are the result of tests on human cancer cells studied outside the body (in vitro studies) by Dr Wai Liu and Professor Angus Dalgleish at St George’s, University of London.

Artesunate is well-known for combating malaria by reducing the amount of malaria-infected cells in the body that cause the disease and a number of scientific studies have already found that it may have the same effect on cancerous cells, consequently reducing the size of the cancer. This latest study adds further evidence to this theory. It also suggests that, in addition to actively killing infected cells to reduce the size of the cancer, artesunate may have the ability to prevent the disease from developing further by stunting the growth of the individual cancerous cells that cause the disease. They found that which effect it takes to combat the disease varies depending on the type of cancer.

The researchers analysed how four different types of human cancer cells two of which represented cancer of the colon, and the others breast and lung reacted to artesunate when it was used both alone and in combination with other anti-cancer drugs.

They found that artesunate prevented the cancer from growing in all four types of cell lines tested, in addition to reducing the size of the cancer in those cell lines derived from breast and lung cancer.

The researchers then combined artesunate with other common anti-cancer drugs in an attempt to boost activity, and this showed favourable responses with a drug called lenalidomide. When used together, these two drugs increased the effectiveness of the treatment in all four types of cancer cells tested, and had the largest effect on the lung cancer cells. When used separately, artesunate reduced the amount of lung cancer cells, or the size of the cancer, by 20 per cent, whilst lenalidomide reduced its size by 10 per cent. However, by using the two together, at the same concentrations, the cancer was reduced by around 60 per cent.

Dr Liu says: “We combined our lead drug called lenalidomide with the widely available drug artesunate, and showed that the overall activity of the drugs was boosted to a point that was greater than the sum of the two individual drugs, indicating that the two drugs have a cooperative relationship.”

The research also indicates that artesunate could be made more effective at reducing the size of the cancer if used in shorter bursts, separated by drug-free periods. The researchers showed that with this treatment pattern, the cancer’s size was reduced where artesunate had previously only been preventing the cancer from growing. The introduction of drug-free periods was also shown to further reduce the size of the cancerous mass where it was already being reduced without the drug-free periods. For example, in the breast cancer cell lines, a continuous exposure to artesunate achieved just a 10 per cent reduction in the size of the cancer, but the reduction with drug-free period was increased to over 50 per cent.

Dr Liu says: “Whilst stunting cell growth is a useful effect, destroying the cells to reduce their numbers is the preferred effect. These two processes are actually linked together, to the extent that if a drug inhibits cell growth it will inadvertently inhibit the ability of the cells to be destroyed. We have shown that by using short bursts of artesunate, the cancer cells regain the ability to be destroyed.”

He concludes that: “Whilst these studies are conducted on cells outside the body and reactions can vary in the human body, this research provides new insight into how artesunate interacts with cancer drugs and different treatment patterns to combat cancer, and provides a starting point from which studies can be based.”

Sources: St George’s, University of London, AlphaGalileo Foundation.

Article URL: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/213150.php

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Indian Americans pioneering cancer research from herbal extracts

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Posted 12 Jan 2011 — by James Street
Category Alternative Therapies, Diet and Prostate Cancer, experimental treatments, Natural Therapies, Nutrition and Cancer, Vitamins and Supplements

Curcumin, pepper, ginger, garlic have found their way into the labs of premier universities across the United States with Indian American scientists beginning to test natural products for treatment of cancer.

“Almost every group is thinking and conducting animal and clinical trials from natural products for treatment of different cancers,” said Prof. Shrikant Anant of University of Kansas Medical Centre, U.S. The first phase of clinical trial conducted by his research team has found curcumin to be safe. Orally administering 12 grams per day for three months, curcumin was found to inhibit proliferation of cells.

Prof. Bal L. Lokeshwar, Radiation Oncology, University of Miami, has conducted trials on transgenic animals using BIRM, an Andean plant extract, that has been found to down regulate androgen receptor and showing anti-tumour activity in prostate cancer.

“The androgen receptor (AR) levels and activities are critical for prostate cancer progression. Down regulating AR may slow or halt prostate cancer progression,” he said.

The trials have shown that there are no side-effects as the animals did not develop symptoms of diarrohea, heart trouble or weight loss as seen during treatment of humans with cancer, he said.

“The next step will be to conduct clinical trials and it needs funding,” said Prof. Lokeshwar. Most of the speakers at the session on development of novel drugs for therapy and prevention at the Indian Science Congress were Indian Americans.

Prof. Ahimesh Dhar of the University of Kansas has used Crocetin, a novel compound derived from saffron, for preventing growth and proliferation in pancreatic cancer.

Orally giving Crocetin along with milk to mice, he said the tumour was found to have shrunk to half. The tumour size more than doubled on the other group of mice which were not administered Crocetin, he said adding that clinical trials would begin soon.

Preliminary studies of Prof. Addanki P. Kumar, of University of Texas Health Science Centre, using Nexrutine, a herbal extract and a non-toxic over the counter anti-inflammatory agent has found to inhibit the growth of AR human prostate cancer cells and mouse prostate cells representing different stages of progression.

Cancer patients have accepted the concept of alternative medicine as a supplementary treatment and are using over 50 natural compounds mostly by way of self-medication. Scientifically-validated natural supplements could provide a toxic-free and effective alternative cancer management, Prof. Lokeshwar said.

In the U.S., mostly Indian Americans and Chinese Americans are pioneering research in the use of natural products for cancer treatment, Prof. Anant said.

What Really Works? Part One

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Posted 10 Jan 2011 — by James Street
Category Alternative Therapies, Natural Therapies, Nutrition and Cancer
What Really Works? Part One Print E-mail

Sunday, 09 January 2011
Coriolus versicolor (Turkey tail) mushroom

One of the hardest questions to answer is which, out of the many supplements really benefits cancer patients? There are many self-interested statements of benefit, but an inadequate amount of objective research on what is effective and what is not.
I therefore want to call your attention to an interesting article from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC). It compared the following seven botanical extracts and fractions:

(1) H-48 (a Chinese mixture of herbs)

(2) Coriolus vesicolor, or its derivatives: purified polysaccharide-K (PSK) or purified polysaccharide-peptide (PSP)

(3) Maitake mushroom extract

(4) Echinacea

(5) Astragalus root

(6) The yellow spice turmeric; and

(7) β-glucan derived from yeast.
All of these are popular supplements used by cancer patients. The MSKCC authors looked at the ability of these substances to induce immune reactions in laboratory mice. Specifics on these products, and how they were tested, are given in the reference below. (The full paper is available for free, and readers should consult that text for details).

The bottom line of the study was this:
Consistently significant activity was seen with four of the preparations:

(1) Coriolus mushroom extracts (especially PSK);

(2) Alcohol extract of astragalus;

(3) yeast β-glucan; and (to a lesser extent)

(4) Maitake mushrooms.
Little or no adjuvant activity was demonstrated with H48, Echinacea extracts or a water-based extract of astragalus. The results with turmeric were mixed (but the New Chapter brand of turmeric was active.)

Coriolus versicolor (also called Trametes versicolor or Turkey tail mushroom) is available from a number of sources. I will have more to say about Astragalus in a future blog entry.



FDA outlawing injectable vitamin C to further destroy health of Americans

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Posted 08 Jan 2011 — by James Street
Category Antioxidants, Complementary Therapy, Finance and Politics of cancer research and treatment, Life Extension Foundation, Natural Therapies, Nutrition and Cancer, Prevention, Vitamins and Supplements

by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor

(NaturalNews) Not content to kill 100,000 Americans each year with deadly Big Pharma drugs while censoring the truth about the healing effects of herbs, nutritional supplements and natural medicines, the FDA has now set out to deny Americans access to yet another lifesaving medicine known simply as vitamin C.

As reported by the Alliance for Natural Health, the FDA has notified a manufacturer of injectable vitamin C that it will be criminally prosecuted if it continues to manufacture this lifesaving nutritional therapy. (http://www.anh-usa.org/action-alert…)

Why injectable vitamin C saves lives

In an age where tens of millions of Americans are already vitamin C deficient and suffer from colds and other infections that can be prevented with vitamins, the FDA appears to be acting on what can only be called a death wish for the American people. But really, it’s more likely a targeted attack at the alternative cancer industry that frequently uses injectable vitamin C to help patients eliminate cancer tumors and heal from various cancers.

If there’s one thing that the health authorities in the United States absolutely cannot tolerate, it’s natural cures for cancer. That’s why (nearly) all the natural cancer treatment clinics have been chased out of the country, leaving only toxic chemotherapy centers (poison clinics) in their place. And that’s probably why the FDA is going after vitamin C right now as well. Take away enough natural cures and the people will be forced into accepting conventional medicine, regardless of whether it works or not.

Injectable vitamin C has many other uses besides cancer, too. As the ANH reports, “The government, instead of banning intravenous vitamin C, should instead be supporting research into it. Even though IV C is being used in burn units around the world, including in the US, and has been adopted by the military for this purpose, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) refuses to fund any studies using intravenous C in patients. There are privately funded studies currently underway, but of course these cannot continue if the FDA bans the substance.”

Take action now to protect your access to vitamin C

Please take a moment to take action with both of the following petitions:

The Alliance for Natural Health has posted an online action item that sends a letter to Dr Margaret Hamburg, the commissioner of the FDA:

https://secure3.convio.net/aahf/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=648

The Natural Solutions Foundation has also posted an action item, this one going out to various FDA and government officials:
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/…

Of course, sending these letters to FDA bureaucrats assumes that they give a damn about human health in the first place, and after observing the FDA’s behavior over the last several years, I can confidently state that the FDA’s own actions betray its real agenda: To protect the profits of the drug companies by eliminating competing products such as vitamin C.

As Dr Rima Laibow says about this issue, “When injectible Vitamin C goes, the rest will soon go, and the natural Docs WILL be criminalized a la the infamous Flexner report. Codex standards effectively criminalize accurate speech on nutrition. This IS the other shoe; I do not believe we are being alarmist.”

The rise of tyranny

The larger issue here, however, is not this isolated decision by the FDA but rather the question: Why do unelected regulatory bureaucrats have such power in the first place?

While we may elect lawmakers in America today, those lawmakers have long since delegated the real “laws of the land” to bureaucratic agencies like the FDA which are run by unelected politicians who simply write their own laws and regulations without the approval of Congress. This situation is described by attorney Jonathan Emord as The Rise of Tyranny, which also happens to be the name of his book on the topic (http://www.amazon.com/Rise-Tyranny-…)

This book, which I consider a “must read” on the subject of health freedom, explains how the delegation of powers to rogue federal agencies (FDA, DEA, DHS, TSA, etc.) results in the nation being ruled by tyrannical bureaucrats who operate outside the authority of Congress. Under this power structure, for example, the FDA could simply announce one day that “all vitamins are illegal,” without Congressional approval and without any new laws being debated or signed into law. The delegation of powers to agencies like the FDA is the granting of dictatorial police state powers over entire sectors of our society.

The FCC, for example, may simply decide to seize control over the internet at any time. The TSA could simply announce it’s going to perform body cavity searches on all air travelers starting this Saturday. The DEA could announce it’s going to arrest operators of websites that even discuss marijuana. The FDA, likewise, could announce that “all herbalists are criminals” and proceed to have them all arrested.

Think this couldn’t happen? It’s happening right now, one step at a time. Last year it was cherries and walnuts (http://www.naturalnews.com/029698_c…). Today it’s injectable vitamin C. Tomorrow it could be all vitamin D supplements, or raw cacao, or medicinal herbs. The point is that the FDA could take away our access to supplements virtually overnight with no debate, no scientific scrutiny, and no Congressional oversight. The FDA is, itself, a tyrannical police state branch of the federal government that is now proceeding to take away Americans’ access to lifesaving supplements one by one.

Senator Rand Paul hopes to put a stop to this bureaucratic madness by introducing legislation that would require Congressional approval for such regulatory actions by any federal agency. That would strip the power out of the hands of these rogue agencies and put it back into the hands of lawmakers who are elected. While this may not be a perfect solution (because most lawmakers are still largely just corporate whores, to state it matter-of-factly), it would certainly be an improvement over the current situation where unelected bureaucrats rule over the American people as if they were dictators.

You know why the TSA is reaching down your pants? For the same reason the FDA is banning injectable vitamin C — because this nation is run by tyrants, not the legislators who are elected by the People. And as long as the tyrants are in charge, freedom can never be fully expressed.

Stop begging the King and just pick up your pitchforks

That’s why opposing the FDA on this decision by appealing to the FDA itself is sort of like begging the King to change his mind. It’s a slave-mentality action. Sure, it may be useful at some level, and that’s why we support these petitions, but let’s not kid ourselves on the fact that this is a slave-mentality appeal to a group of tyrants who act as if they were the King.

The real solution here is not to appeal to the King as peons, but rather to pick up our pitchforks, storm the castle, tie a rope around the neck of the King and hang him from a high castle wall (metaphorically speaking, of course) to send a message to all other would-be tyrants that messing with the freedom of the people will have consequences.

The way to accomplish that in our modern world would be to arrest FDA commissioner Margaret Hamburg for her crimes against humanity, prosecute her in a fair and open trial, and watch her serve time in prison while firing all the other bureaucrats at the FDA and dismantling the agency. No good can come out of the FDA. It is beyond repair. It is effectively working against the interests of the American people, making it as dangerous as a foreign enemy organization such as a terrorist group.

With the FDA, we are past the point of being able to negotiate with rational human beings who have ethics and souls. What we are dealing with at the FDA and other agencies are real-life incarnations of evil who are pursuing an agenda to spread death and suffering across our lands while they increase their power and control. And remember, the Congress just put the FDA in charge of the national food supply, too. Oh yippee. I can’t wait to see them ban broccoli because broccoli contains anti-cancer medicine, too.

I have a feeling that I will have a very exciting future as a broccoli smuggler. That’s my dream. To be the Han Solo of vegetables, fighting the Evil Empire with the power of garden vegetables.

Hold on a sec… somebody already did that! You can watch the hilarious video here: http://naturalnews.tv/v.asp?v=D86C3…

The Organic Rebellion is fighting back!

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