Herbal Treatment As An Alternative (Turmeric Treats)

Herbal treatment has been in existance since ages . It has been found safer and even less cost effective when treatment of a disease comes into play .

Turmeric ( curcuma longa ) is one such herbal medicinal drug which has vast area of actions from antiseptic to anti infllamatory or anti diabetic to anti rheumatic .

According to the new research pancreatic cancer can be treated with turmeric.

Pancreatic cancer is among the most aggressicve forms of human cancer, characterized by a very high mortality rate. It represents the fourth leading cause of cancer death in United States, killing 32,000 people annually. With a five-year survival rate of only three percent and a median survival rate of less than six months, pancreatic cancer carries one of the poorest prognoses. The diagnosis of pancreatic cancer is one of the worst things a doctor ever has to tell a patient. The only FDA-approved therapies for it, Gemcitabine and Erlotinib, produce objective responses in less than ten percent of patients, while causing severe side-effects in the majority. There is a desperate need for new options.

Clinical research to test new treatments is split into phases.

Phase I trials are just to make sure the treatment is safe, to see how much you can give before it becomes toxic. Curcumin, the natural yellow pigment in the spice turmeric has passed a number of those. In fact, there was so little toxicity, the dosing appeared limited only by the number of pills patients were willing to swallow.

Phase II trials are conducted to see if the drug actually has an effect. Curcumin did, in 2 of the 21 patients that were evaluated. One patient had a 73 percent tumor reduction, but the effect was short-lived. One lesion remained small, but a curcumin-resistant tumor clone emerged. The other patient, who had a stable disease for over 18 months, showed slow improvement over a year. The only time that patient’s cancer markers bumped up was during a brief three-week stint where the curcumin was stopped.

So, curcumin does seem to help some patients with pancreatic cancer, and most importantly, there appears to be little downside. No curcumin-related toxic effects were observed in up to doses of eight grams per day.

It is Difficult to swallow the capsules therefore the patient do not want to take higher doses .The question Seems why? People want to go for the nastiest chemotherapies but not for these herbal drugs because they cause some inconvinience to administer.

LIVE EASY WITH HERBAL MEDICINES AS AN ALTERNATIVE TO THE HARSH THERAPIES .