By Teonghooi Ong

One of my preventive measures is to take turmeric on a daily basis. Those of us who have gone through the cancer journey, or have some experience with cancer, would have come across turmeric as a cancer preventive method. There is plenty of information on the internet on turmeric and its benefits but I want to share my experience with it. I’ll provide a short introduction on tumeric.

Tumeric contains curcumin, the active ingredient which has been attributed to prevent and destroy cancer cells. Curcumin is the yellow stuff that is a bit sticky when you scrap the turmeric. Tumeric healing properties have been known for a long time now especially to the Chinese and Indians. In India for at least 6000 years, turmeric has been used as medicine, beauty aid, cooking, spice, and a dye. For the Chinese, tumeric has been used for the treatment of spleen, stomach, and liver ailments for over a 1000 years. The Chinese have used it to stimulate and purify, and as an antibiotic, anti-viral, and an analgesic. Tumeric, also known as Indian Saffron, is a root of the ginger family and is grown predominantly in South Asia.

Tumeric is commercially made available in powdered form. It is produced by boiling the root and then it is oven dried. The dried tumeric is then pounded into bright orange-yellow powder form. This is sold as a spice and food additive. One can use the raw root, which is my preference, or purchase the powdered form from the grocery if you are just using it for cooking. However, if you are taking it as a supplement, then I recommend doing some research and purchasing them from a reputable supplement manufacturer. Herbal supplement manufacturing is not as strongly regulated as drugs so the amount of curcumin may not be verifiable and that will affect its efficacy.

Tumeric has anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory properties. I occasionally have eczema on my skin and I use the powdered form, making it into a paste and applying it on the eczema. Within a few applications, the eczema disappears. It must be the anti-bacterial properties of turmeric at work When applied, it stings a little bit, and it is probably the active ingredients working. Tumeric has also been shown to help psoriasis as well. Research has proven that tumeric is effective against the inflammatory reaction triggered by the bacteria, Heliobacter pylori.

Many studies and articles have been written on not just the cancer prevention properties, but also the cancer-killing properties of curcumin. A number of studies on curcumin have shown promising results.

• Curcumin can kill cancer cells in laboratory dishes and also reduce the growth of surviving cells.

• Curcumin also has been found to reduce development of several forms of cancer in laboratory animals, and to shrink animal tumors.

• When combined with cauliflower, it has shown to prevent prostate cancer and stop the growth of existing prostate cancer

• Curcumin has been shown to prevent breast cancer from spreading to the lungs in mice.

• And it has been shown to stop the growth of new blood vessels in tumors. This supports the theory of anti-angiogenesis. The idea of anti-angiogenesis is the starvation of nutrients to cancer cells that will lead to cancer cell apoptosy.

By Novelia C Cousteau

Some years ago, I knew a woman whose mother had a medical condition that required surgery, but her doctor could not operate, because she also had a tumor that would endanger her chances of surviving the operation. Her doctor tried everything he knew to shrink the tumor before operating, without success.

I had the answer. I was well-acquainted with the writings and work of an herbalist who went around the country healing people with natural remedies, some of whom had been given up to die, and I had practiced the use of herbal remedies, guided by his book on herbal healing, Back to Eden. This herbalist, Jethro Kloss, related in his book that his parents had a mailman diagnosed with cancer, to whom they gave Red Clover Blossoms tea. The mailman drank the Red Clover Blossoms tea like water and lived to a good old age. He never had to have an operation.

My friend was so desperate for a remedy for her mother that she took the Red Clover Blossoms without questioning it. Her mother made and drank the tea religiously. Her doctor was absolutely amazed when the tumor shrank, as he could not shrink it with any of the powerful pharmaceutical drugs he had available. The operation went ahead as planned, though many months later than desired, because of the failure of the pharmaceutical drugs to shrink the tumor to a safer size. It was interesting to me to note that the time it took the Red Clover Blossoms to do their job was shorter than the time the doctor took trying to shrink the tumor with various modern drugs.

Are you aware that many of the milk cows that produce the milk sold in grocery stores are now getting cancer? About fifteen years ago, I was told by the owner of a health food store that even the milk cows used to produce the more expensive health food store milk, some of which is organic, were beginning to show signs of cancer. Remarkably, cows that feed on Red Clover Blossoms do not get cancer.

In his book, Back to Eden, Jethro Kloss extols Blue Violet (Viola cuculata–there are other phyla of Viola) as a proven cancer remedy and declares that Blue Violet is especially beneficial in combination with Red Clover Blossoms and Vervaine. If I had possessed any Blue Violet herb the day my friend approached me about her mother, I would have given it to her, since I knew that Red Clover Blossoms and Blue Violet together were a powerful pair. Viola cuculata is renowned for its power against tumors. When you acquire a copy of Back to Eden, look up Blue Violet. You will be astounded at the kinds of diseases and conditions this wonderful herb can handle.

By Frank William Smithson