Pau D'arco Extract Vs. Cancer And HIV
George Finnerin
Pau d'arco is a tree that grows in the Brazilian rainforest. In
Brazil the tree is called Tahuari and has been used by the
indigenous people in the rainforest as a cure-all. Pau d'arco
has two constituents that have interest to medical science:
Beta-lapachone and lapachol which are topoisomerases that have
been proven in medical science to be anti-cancer agents.
However, there is a dark side: They can have side-effects of
severe nausea and anemia.
These two constituents in pau d'arco have been shown to help
dramatically improve cancer patients with lung, breast, colon,
prostate, malignant melanoma, HIV (level 1) and leukemia.
However the nausea and anemia side effects have caused doubt in
doctors' minds as to its effectiveness. Doctors have isolated
two of pau d'arco's components and say they are great
anti-cancer compounds but they are toxic at high levels.
Herbalists believe in aiding and preserving nature, not
changing it; therefore, they believe pau d'arco should be taken
as an extract of a whole plant where it has no known toxicity
levels, no nausea and no anemia - not as isolated compounds. It
is naturally not as strong as taking 10 tons of plant material
and extracting two of the hundreds of constituents and making
it a concentrated pharmaceutical. However, taken as a tea or
extract it has many wonderful benefits and someone with a
serious illness, under a doctor's supervision, can take pau
d'arco and see positive changes.
Pau d'arco has been shown to help with pain and cancer. Cancer
patients found themselves in remission after a 3-8 of months of
using pau d'arco with supervised medical care. Dr. Theodore
Meyer learned of pau d'arco's benefits and used it on his
patients, and reported that 5 of his terminal leukemia patients
were completely cured. “Beta-lapachone keeps the chromosomes
wound tight, and so the cell cannot make proteins. As a result,
the cell stops growing. Because cancer cells grow and reproduce
at a much faster rate then normal cells, they are more
vulnerable to topoisomerase inhibition than are normal cells.
Beta-lapachone also interferes with the replication of HIV-1, a
virus that causes AIDS, thereby slowing the advancement of the
disease.”
Maybe modern science will find a way to take out the components
that cause side effects when you take highly concentrated forms
of compounds isolated from pau d'arco. Scientists have
discovered 3-allyl-beta-lapachone, a chemical relative to
beta-lapachone, that has been found to have lower toxicity
levels in cell culture tests, and might be proven to be more
effective. However, more tests will need to be done so that
doctors and scientists might be able to come up with an
effective “cocktail,” like they do for HIV and AIDS patients.
This would create a combination to balance the side effects
with other herbs that could reduce the nausea and anemia, and
which has no contra-indications when taken with pau d'arco. For
instance, there are two traditionally used herbal extracts that
are effective when taken internally for severe nausea:
Chamomile flower and nutmeg. Further, dandelion root has
extremely high iron content and might help combat the anemia.
This research article was written to create awareness and
provide consumers with a general overview of available
scientific information. For further interested reading, there
is a 152-page book called Pau D'Arco by Kenneth Jones that is
recommended by the American Botanical Council. It is available
from Amazon.com for $7.50.
About The Author: Florapathics researches alternative health
benefits of essential oils and
http://www.florapathics.com for
use in organic aromatherapy products.
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