Thursday 29 April 2010

There are two sides to everything...

Further to my earlier post on CASH (some curries contain 'too much' salt = we are all going to die horribly), I spy this in The Metro:

A curry spice ingredient can make ovarian cancer more responsive to treatment, scientists have shown.

Researchers pre-treated ovarian tumours with curcumin, a component of the yellow spice turmeric, delivered in the form of microscopic "nanoparticles". The curcumin sensitised the cancer tissue, making it more vulnerable to chemotherapy and radiation treatment.


So if you [have ovaries and] eat such curries with 'too much' salt in them, wouldn't that sort of cancel out and be health neutral? Ah...

Study leader Dr Subhash Chauhan, from the University of South Dakota, US, said: "One strategy to improve the effectiveness and limit the toxicity of cancer therapy is to induce chemo/radio-sensitisation in cancer cells using natural dietary phytochemicals like curcumin. However, curcumin is poorly absorbed by the body, which limits its effectiveness.

... ah well.

5 comments:

Brian, follower of Deornoth said...

Only if you have ovaries, Mark.

bayard said...

"However, curcumin is poorly absorbed by the body, which limits its effectiveness"

There is research showing that turmeric also reverses the effects of Alzheimers, but you have to eat lots of it, like the Indians do. I'm not sure that the active ingredient, curcumin, works so well on its own, as the man from South Dakota implies, but that doesn't necessarily mean that turmeric is not effective. Big Pharma isn't interested in funding research into turmeric, 'cos they can't make any money selling it.

RantinRab said...

I take all these health scare stories with a pinch of salt...

RantinRab said...

Oops, wrong post!

formertory said...

There's maybe a third side too:
chillis help you slim so there may be health benefits even while the salt kills us all.