Introduction and
Disclaimer:
I have been treating cancer
patients for some years now, and, for the most part, have used acupuncture as
my primary modality. The reason
for this is that some of the oncologists and medical doctors that I work with
and who refer patients to me are very uncomfortable about mixing herbs with
chemotherapy and with Western medicine generally. I accepted their conservatism in this regard, since herb-drug
interactions are not well-understood and theoretically there is a possibility
of doing harm by mixing herbs with drugs.
So I would use only acupuncture to treat my patients for their neuropathy, or their Tamoxifen-related joint pain, or whatever.
More recently I have changed
my thinking on this topic. In
China, oncologists have been combining herbs with conventional cancer therapy
for decades, to good effect. There
is an entire branch of herbal medicine, called fu zheng therapy, that utilizes herbs to strengthen the
patient and minimize side effects during chemo and radiation. To disregard the clinical experience of
thousands of Chinese doctors and their patients when it comes to optimizing
outcomes and minimizing side effects during cancer treatment seems kind of crazy
to me. And for Western doctors to
dismiss this accumulated knowledge and experience is arrogant and patronizing.
So, for my patients who wish
to integrate herbal medicine into their cancer care, I have crafted this
modified fu zheng formula. About half the herbs here are Chinese
herbs that research has shown to boost the immune system, regulate blood
counts, etc., during cancer treatment.
The remaining herbs are plants that have a history of use as anti-cancer
herbs. After all, why stop at
treating side effects? I recently
lost a patient, a patient who had become a dear friend, to brain cancer. After she died, I had to do some deep
and painful soul-searching. What
kind of physician was I, if I had not done everything in my power to prolong
her life? After she died, I vowed to make available to my patients my best-bet
formula not just to get them through their cancer treatment, but to try to
eliminate their cancer altogether.
Please note that, despite
the promise of its name, I am not claiming that this formula cures cancer. I find nothing more despicable than companies and websites that prey on the desperation of cancer patients to sell dubious products cloaked in glowing claims and effusive testimonies. What I DO want to offer is high-quality herbal support, and also to place a positive
mental suggestion in my patient’s mind every time they take their herbs. Kick Cancer! Mobilize every resource you have available to do it! Don’t give in to depressing statistics, genomic determinism, and feelings of powerlessness or hopelessness. Positive attitude, a loving support network, healthy diet,
rest and exercise, regular acupuncture or bodywork – these are all ways to
nudge your body to overcome cancer.
As far as I’m concerned, the anti-cancer herbs are just one more nudge
to the system, one more lever to push to urge your body to optimize and mobilize
and beat this thing. It is my deep
and fervent desire that all these nudges do their job and leave my patients
cancer-free.
Ingredients:
Huang qi – Astragalus membranaceus root
Ling zhi – Ganoderma lucidum fruiting body
Bai zhu – Atractylodes macrocephala rhizome
Nu zhen zi – Ligustrum lucidum fruit
Ji xue teng – Millettia dielsiana root and vine
Burdock – Arctium lappa root
(fresh)
Dandelion – Taraxacum
officinale entire plant (fresh)
Dokudami – Houttuynia cordata herb (fresh)
Ashitaba – Angelica keiskei leaf (fresh)
Pau d’arco – Tabebuia impetiginosa
bark
Gotu kola – Centella
asiatica leaf and stem (fresh)
Sheng jiang – Zingiber officinale root (fresh)
Ban xia – Pinellia ternata rhizome (treated)
Sheng gan cao – Glycyrrhiza uralensis root
Ethanol
Water
Effects:
Boost immune system, allay
fatigue, stabilize white and red blood cell levels, reduce or eliminate nausea
and vomiting, prevent or minimize allergic skin rashes. This formula also contains herbs that have
a long tradition of use in treating cancer. Though the formula was designed for patients in active treatment,
it is also recommended for patients with cancer who are not currently
undergoing chemo or radiation.
Dosage:
Four full squirts of the
dropper, twice a day. I recommend squirting
the tincture in a cup of boiling water, to boil off most of the alcohol before
drinking it and to minimize the harshness of the alcohol before putting it into
what may be your already chemo-irritated mouth. Make sure to shake the bottle each time to distribute the abundant
astragalus and reishi polysaccharides, which will have settled to the bottom of
the bottle. Finally, if you are currently
undergoing chemotherapy, don’t take any herbs on the day of chemo, to minimize
the potential for herb-drug interactions.
If after a couple weeks of
use you don’t notice any change in how you are feeling, feel free to increase
your dose from four squirts to six or even seven or eight. Some people will
require a higher dose to see effects.
Also, chemotherapeutic agents can be so toxic that any positive biological
effect of the herbs is trumped by the negative side-effects of chemo. This isn’t necessarily a reason to
discontinue the herbs, since they will continue to protect your healthy cells,
detoxify your liver, benefit your circulation, etc. even if you’re not feeling
great.
Product Description:
The astute reader of this
blog will have noticed that the three herbs huang qi (astragalus), bai zhu (atractylodes), and ling zhi (ganoderma/reishi), are the chief herbs in my
fall/winter tonic, Jade Defense REISHI. Indeed, this overlap is not
accidental. Just as it is
important to boost the qi and mobilize
the immune system to keep from catching colds, it is important to do these
things to stay strong during cancer treatment. From a biomedical perspective, these herbs increase
interferon levels, boost white blood cell count, mobilize the immune system,
and protect healthy cells from radiation damage. They also help to increase appetite and energy. In addition to their palliative and
supportive effects, it is important to remember that astragalus and reishi
polysaccharides also have anti-tumor effects as well.
In fu zheng therapy, it is considered important to tonify the
blood and yin as well as the qi. Nu
zhen zi (ligustrum) and ji xue
teng (millettia) are the main herbs
that accomplish this. These herbs
help to keep white and red blood cell counts up, and the ji xue teng also helps combat damage to the
microcirculation that occurs with some chemo agents and which can lead to
peripheral neuropathy. I would
ordinarily include dang gui (Chinese
angelica root) here because it is a great blood tonic, but have excluded it
because its potential estrogenic effects are contraindicated in some cancers.
Burdock and dandelion is a
traditional pairing often used by Western herbalists to treat cancer. They are both cooling and detoxifying;
cancer is thought of in many traditional medical systems as a disorder of heat
and toxicity, and burdock and dandelion treat both. Dokudami (houttuynia) and ashitaba (Japanese angelica leaf)
are similarly used in Japanese folk medicine as anti-cancer herbs. They are two of my favorite herbs to eat
fresh (I grow them in my garden).
Speaking of which, the burdock, dandelion, dokudami, and ashitaba were
all tinctured fresh, meaning that they were extracted at the peak of freshness
from live plants rather than from dried plants. It is my belief that fresh-tinctured herbs have a stronger
vitality than medicines made from dry herbs.
The gotu kola (centella) in
this formula is also home-grown and fresh-tinctured. I include it here mostly for its neuroprotective,
circulation-stimulating, and skin-healing effects. My hope is that it will help prevent peripheral neuropathy
and skin rashes due to chemo. For
the former effect it combines well with the ji xue teng; for the latter with the burdock and dandelion.
Pau d’arco (tabebuia) is the
final anti-cancer herb in the formula.
It has a long tradition of use in South America, mostly for skin
problems, autoimmune disorders, and cancer.
Sheng jiang (fresh ginger) and ban xia (pinellia) are included for their anti-nausea
effects. They work well with the huang
qi and bai zhu to strengthen and protect the stomach to prevent
nausea. The final herb in the mix,
gan cao (licorice), is added to
harmonize the formula – its job is to make all the other ingredients get along
and work well together as a team. Licorice is an important detoxifying herb in
its own right; the compound in it known as glycyrrhizin is metabolized into glucoronic
acid, which turns toxic non-water-soluble substance water-soluble so that they
may be excreted by the body.
Production Notes:
In the past couple years I
have been expanding my liquid herb pharmacy, creating ethanol/water tinctures
of single herbs that I use a lot.
This is my first Green Monkey Pharmacy product made entirely by
combining single herb extracts rather than extracting the formula all at once. The astragalus and the reishi were
separately extracted in a relatively large amount of pure water over low heat
in order to maximize the amount of immune-stimulating polysaccharides in the
final solution, then boiled down.
The remaining dry herbs were separately ground and percolated to a final
strength of 1:3. The fresh herbs
were extracted with 95% ethanol for maximal extraction of alcohol- and water-soluble
compounds, at 1:2 fresh-weight to alcohol ratio. Finally, these various extracts were combined. Because the immune-stimulating polysaccharides
are water-soluble and not alcohol-soluble, about half the polysaccharide mass
precipitates out of solution once the extracts are combined. This is why you need to shake the
bottle well each time you take a dose.
One Other Herb You May
Want to Consider:
I recently had the
opportunity to dig up the root of pokeweed, Phytolacca americana. Poke is a beautiful and vigorous plant
common in the American South and Midwest.
It was used by the Eclectic physicians in the 1800s and by Native
American tribes, doubtless for much longer than that. Its primary uses are as a lymphatic stimulant, for swollen
glands, sore throat, mastitis, skin problems, arthritis, and cancer - one of its common names, "cancer jalap," reflects its folk use as a cancer remedy. (Probably THE primary use of poke is the berry juice as pediatric face
paint, but that does not concern us here). The whole plant is extremely toxic, and the effective dose is
a mere drop of tincture up to five or six drops, mixed in a glass of water and
drunk two or three times a day. A very similar plant, shang lu (Phytolacca acinosa), is used in traditional Chinese medicine primarily for its toxic effects, i.e. to cause a cathartic expulsion of stool to treat severe edema and constipation. It is also used topically for sores and carbuncles.
Poke's toxicity is clearly
problematic, as a careless patient could easily cause severe gastric upset,
blood clots, coma, or even death by taking too much. For this reason I didn’t include it in Kick Cancer. However, the potential benefits of careful low-dose treatments in my
opinion outweigh the potential dangers, and I encourage patients – especially patients
who opt to forego conventional treatment – to consider a course of poke
treatment.
The chemistry of pokeweed is
very interesting, and more compelling than any other anti-cancer herb I know
of. The active anti-cancer component is a
lectin known as pokeweed mitogen (PWM).
Lectins are antibody-like chemicals that are involved in biological
recognition phenomena. They are
sugar-binding proteins that attach selectively to specific sugars that they
encounter. When those sugars are
part of a cell’s molecular signature at the cell membrane, lectins cause those
cells to clump. There is some
intriguing research suggesting that pokeweed mitogen has an affinity for cancer
cells, signaling the immune system to then clean up the clumps and eliminate
the cancerous cells.
Additionally, PWM induces
cell division in B and T lymphocytes – this is what makes it a mitogen: it
induces mitosis or cell division. But what is interesting is that by increasing
T and B cell proliferation, PWM enhances two separate mechanisms that target
cancer cells. T cells directly and indirectly kill antigenic tumor cells, and B
cells are raw material for plasma cells, which develop into antibodies, which
check the growth of cancer cells.
It’s kind of like a special
ops team marking a target with a laser beam from a mile away, then a jetfighter
swooping over and bombing the marked target. Poke serves as both the laser-wielding special operative and the jetfighter.
The idea of purposely
causing cell proliferation may sound kind of scary, since after all what is
cancer if not cell division run amok?
Here I think that dosage and duration of treatment is important, and
this is why I’d rather talk to you in person if you’re interested in trying it
out rather than just make it part of this formula. I am currently making an alcohol extract for careful
internal use, and an oil extract for external use (for lymphatic swellings, skin cancers, and close-to-the-surface tumors, such as many breast cancers).
It is probably simplistic to think that poke will help in all cancers, since "cancer" is actually many different diseases. Personally, I would be wary of giving poke extract to patients with one of the blood cancers, since they are already having issues with proliferation of certain kinds of blood cells. Poke is strong medicine, far on the pharmaceutical end of the food-to-drug spectrum on which we can place herbal medicines. But its novel mechanism for stimulating the immune system to go after cancerous cells, and its long history of use as a cancer treatment, make me very excited to be able to offer it to you as another powerful nudge (or should I say "poke"?) to encourage your body to kick cancer.
It is probably simplistic to think that poke will help in all cancers, since "cancer" is actually many different diseases. Personally, I would be wary of giving poke extract to patients with one of the blood cancers, since they are already having issues with proliferation of certain kinds of blood cells. Poke is strong medicine, far on the pharmaceutical end of the food-to-drug spectrum on which we can place herbal medicines. But its novel mechanism for stimulating the immune system to go after cancerous cells, and its long history of use as a cancer treatment, make me very excited to be able to offer it to you as another powerful nudge (or should I say "poke"?) to encourage your body to kick cancer.