Posts Tagged ‘Apoptosis’
Pomegranate Seed Oil Fights Cancer

- Image by faria! via Flickr
The benefits of pomegranate juice and pulp have been well documented for their ability to help combat a wide range of degenerative diseases. Two of the leading diseases include cardiovascular disease and prostate cancer. Recently researchers have discovered that other parts of the pomegranate plant can confer significant health benefits. for example the extracts of pomegranate flowers provide excellent protection against type 2 diabetes and many of the collateral effects of obesity. It turns out that pomegranate seed oil provides powerful chemoprevention against reproductive cancers.
In particular pomegranate seed oil is a potent inhibitor of the enzyme aromatase that produces estrogen from testosterone. As men age the balance of high testosterone to low estrogen tends to become inverted which fosters the growth of prostate cancer. Pomegranate seed oil reduces the amount of testosterone that can be converted to estrogen in older men which promotes their prostate health. Pomegranate seed oil provides another health benefit, because it greatly inhibits the proliferation of human prostate cancer cell lines by interrupting the cell growth cycle and also by inducing cell death known as apoptosis. Thirdly it greatly suppresses the invasion of cancer cells. Finally when pomegranate seed oil is teamed with other pomegranate components it acts synergistically to suppress prostate cancer proliferation and matastasis more effectively than any of the components alone.
Chemopreventive Spice for Prostate Cancer!

- Image by annamatic3000 via Flickr
Recent cancer researchers in Europe ran tests that used curcumin that is derived from the well known spice turmeric. They tested curcumin in order to discover how efficacious it would be as part of a chemopreventive regimen for prostate cancer. The spice turmeric is used extensively in India and curcumin is the main curcuminoid found in turmeric. Curcumin is a natural compound that appears to interfere with the proliferation of prostate cancer and its metastasis.
The researchers also found that by using curcumin, they were able to regulate the inflammatory response by inhibiting pro-inflammatory mediators and the signaling pathways. Their results are consistent with curcumin’s known ability to induce pro-apoptotic proteins and to reduce the the anti-apoptotic counterparts. Other reports confirm that curcumin is effective in promoting the death of prostate cancer cells by apoptosis. In their study the researchers summarized the results of their work by affirming that curcumin appears to be an effective alternative for for the prevention and treatment or co-treatment of prostate cancer. This is very good news for senior men who are concerned about taking preemptive steps against prostate cancer or finding alternative treatment or co-treatment for prostate cancer.

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