Last week, Health Watch readers learned about a little-known compound in avocados that may help kill leukemia. Now a team of researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham have discovered yet another natural cancer killer.
They found a compound in one of the world’s oldest trees stops the growth—and spread—of squamous cell cancers of the head and neck. These include cancers of the larynx, lips, mouth, nose, throat, and salivary glands. It put a stranglehold on a protein that helps 90% of these cancers thrive.1
The thing is… It’s not really a new discovery.
Natural healers in China and Japan have used it for hundreds of years to treat everything from anxiety and stress to digestive disorders and inflammation.2
Now researchers are seeing it as one of our best bets for beating cancer… That’s because it just crushed one of Big Pharma’s cancer drugs in a head-to-head test.
What was this cancer-fighting substance?
Honokiol.
It’s a small-molecule polyphenol found in the bark of the magnolia tree. And talk about a survivor… Experts estimate these trees have been around for millions—and millions—of years. They survived an ice age… Even thrived without bees to pollinate them.3
In the lab, honokiol was able to bind to EFGR (that protein that helps cancer thrive) better than gefitinib—a drug doctors prescribe to treat head and neck cancers. Researchers suggest this makes it a more effective treatment for head and neck cancers. But it isn’t just more effective… It’s safer.
According to the authors, “The poor response rates, toxicity, and resistance of the drugs have limited their use as therapeutic agents . . . Therefore, development of less toxic and less resistance-associated alternative treatment options is urgently needed . . . Conclusively, honokiol appears to be an attractive bioactive small molecule phytochemical for the management of head and neck cancer.”4
Not a bad endorsement… But there’s also research linking honokiol to preventing—or reducing—tumor growth in breast, lung, prostate, and skin cancers.5 In other words, it may be one of the most effective natural solutions to cancer available to us.
So how do you put its cancer-busting power to work?
Your best option is a natural magnolia extract supplement. You can take up to 750 mg a day without risk of any side effects.6 You can also make tea from dried magnolia flower. It’s a popular ingredient in herbal tea blends.
You should have no problem finding them at your local health food store. Just make sure it’s organic and hasn’t been sitting on the shelf for months.
In Good Health,
Angela Salerno
Publisher, INH Health Watch
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References:
1http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/295962.php
2https://naturalmedicines.therapeuticresearch.com/databases/food,-herbs-supplements/professional.aspx?productid=188
3http://www.herbs2000.com/flowers/m_history.htm
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5http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2842137/
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