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Recently an interesting study was published in the Journal of Holistic and Alternative Medicine.
The name of that journal may surprise you, but there really are scientific studies dealing with alternative medicine, although the truth is that they are not published often and little is known about them.
In any case, this study demonstrated the ability of one plant to eliminate pancreatic cancer stem cells — one of the most feared cancers, which until now was considered almost incurable.
It is a little plant called Japanese horseradish, also known as wasabi or, in Latin, wasabi japonica.
Incidence and mortality of pancreatic cancer
Pancreatic cancer is among the types of cancer with the highest mortality.
In the United States alone it is estimated that this year around 50,000 people will be diagnosed with the disease and 40,000 of them will die from it. In Slovakia it is about 800 new cases and 680 deaths.
As you can see, the survival rate is quite small, only about 10% of patients. However, that applies to cases where treatment consists of standard chemotherapy.
It is often questioned how many patients die from the cancer itself and how many from the consequences of toxic treatment. Unfortunately we cannot say, because doctors do not record such statistics and attribute all deaths to the cancer.
Why pancreatic cancer is so dangerous
The pancreas is responsible for producing insulin — the hormone that regulates metabolism and blood glucose levels.
This partly explains why patients with type 2 diabetes have, according to the American Cancer Society, an increased risk of pancreatic cancer.
Besides insulin, the pancreas also produces proteolytic enzymes that are strong enough to cleave proteins and break them down into amino acids.
This also applies to the cleavage of tumor protective coatings, which tumors use to protect themselves from the immune system.
This is the main reason why cancer occurs more often in heavy meat consumers. All their proteolytic enzymes are used up digesting meat and none remain to fight cancer.
For this reason most alternative anticancer therapies involve limiting the consumption of sugar and meat — so as not to overload the pancreas in producing enzymes that fight cancer.
There is an additional reason regarding sugar: sugar also serves as a primary fuel for cancer cells.
The main problem of chemotherapy
The biggest problem with chemotherapy is not only its toxic effect on the body, but also its effect on cancer stem cells.
After it is administered, it often happens that although they destroy the majority of the tumor, the cancer stem cells hide from it and survive.
After the initial “success of the treatment” a relapse of increasing numbers of resistant cancer stem cells occurs, which are already resistant to further chemotherapy.
It is therefore a very similar situation as with antibiotics, when bacteria develop resistance to them. Similarly, cancer stem cells gain resistance to chemotherapy.
It is therefore important not only to reduce the tumor itself, but also which cancer cells are removed — whether ordinary or stem cells, which have the greatest ability to create new tumors and metastasize.
What scientists discovered about Japanese horseradish
Two Taiwanese studies focused on the effect of active compounds from Japanese horseradish on cultures of pancreatic cancer cells and specifically on cancer stem cells.
Cancer stem cells are essentially mother cells that can multiply into new daughter stem cells and also into specific cancer cells (forming the tumor tissue itself or the blood vessels supplying the tumor with blood).
Chemotherapy does not distinguish between healthy and cancerous cells. It is essentially carpet bombing, in which everyone dies.
The result is high toxicity of the patient’s internal environment and a weakened immune system.
Regarding the effects of active compounds from Japanese horseradish, researcher Sayer Ji states:
“A new study found that two active compounds from Japanese horseradish, 6-MITC and I7557, were able to reduce populations of cancer stem cells.
In addition, they also reduced the expression of the signaling molecule known as SOX2, which represents a basis for cell division and differentiation (found not only in cancer cells but also in embryonic cells). “
- To summarize, it was found that these two molecules:
- reduced the viability of Pancho-1 and BxPC-3 cancer cells
- stopped the division of pancreatic cancer cells and initiated their self-destruction (apoptosis)
- interrupted the G2/M phase of cancer cell division
- reduced the proportion of ALDH-positive Pancho-1 cancer cells (ALDH is a marker of the number of cancer stem cells)
The study authors conclude:
“The active compounds in Japanese horseradish 6-MITC and I7557 possess bioactive abilities to neutralize human pancreatic cancer cells, including stem cells.”
Conclusion
Japanese horseradish is quite pungent and it is not easy to consume it in large amounts, so a more feasible route would be the use of extracts from it.
Unfortunately, bribed government agencies will not allow such a natural and inexpensive method to be used for cancer treatment and thus threaten the billion-dollar profits of the pharmaceutical industry.
Therefore, until some daring manufacturer takes on the production of such extracts, for patients the only option remains the direct consumption of this plant.
