(NaturalNews) Smoking cigarettes and reading Natural News are two very incompatible notions. But Natural News readers are people after all, and thus not totally perfect. Besides, even the most fastidious raw foodist probably knows or even loves someone who occasionally takes a puff. For them, research on a substance that appears to reverse the health harming effects of smoking may have the ring of good news. Inositol, a compound found in many foods, seems to stop the threat of lung cancer from cigarettes dead in its tracks.
Inositol is a naturally occurring nutrient found in various forms, the most common of which is myo-inositol. Inositol is considered part of the B complex group of vitamins, even though it is not officially recognized as a vitamin and no RDA has been set. Like the B vitamins it is water soluble, and as a result is not stored very well in the body. It needs to be continually replaced from the diet, even though approximately 4 grams a day are produced from glucose in the kidneys.
Inositol is found in a variety of foods such as nuts, seeds, oats, rice, beans, corn, chickpeas, liver, pork, veal, whole grains, cantaloupe, most citrus fruits, lecithin granules, and wheat germ. It is available as a supplement in capsule or powdered form. Jarrow Formulas makes a powdered form that is readily available from online health retailers. There are others. Inositol powder has a delicious sweet, creamy taste and is a fabulous addition to smoothies.
Two famous researchers discovered inositol prevents cancer
Dr. Lee Wattenberg, known as the Father of Chemoprevention, searched for several decades starting in the 1970`s to find naturally occurring compounds that could theoretically prevent cancer and then applied scientific methodologies to research his discoveries. After testing several molecules, he found inositol to have great potential. Using various study models he was able to demonstrate that inositol could prevent lung cancer. It had previously been documented that a poor diet increased the chances for cancer to occur, but Dr. Wattenberg was among the first to show that a common nutrient could actually prevent cancer, a truly empowering discovery.
A few years after Dr. Wattenberg, Dr. Abdul Kalam Shamsuddin, known as the Father of IP6 (inositol hexaphosphate), also showed that inositol was able to prevent cancer, demonstrating the preventive value of the compound with colon cancer. Research by Dr. Shamsuddin revealed that inositol affects health in several ways, largely because it is in all human cells and is a major component of cell linings or membranes where it facilitates communication between the various organelles and molecules in a process known as cell signaling.
Why don`t cigarette companies hand out a bottle of inositol with each carton of cigarettes?
Some bright young executive at one of the major tobacco companies may have had the idea to boost sales by telling everybody that inositol, an inexpensive supplement, prevented lung cancer. But for the cigarette companies to buy into the idea would mean an acknowledgement that cigarettes cause cancer. Such an acknowledgement would create immense legal liability for any company making and selling cigarettes.
Inositol provides many other benefits in to the body
Inositol is a critical nutrient for hair growth. It helps prevent hardening of the arteries and is important in the formation of lecithin and the metabolism of fat and cholesterol. It helps remove fats from the liver. Inositol has a calming effect on the brain and has been used successfully at high doses as a treatment for psychiatric disorders such as depression, bipolar, obsessive-compulsive, and panic. Inositol is also used for insomnia, retinopathy, and bulimia nervosa and binge eating. It is beneficial for diabetic neuropathy, brain seizures, and for normalizing cholesterol and triglyceride levels.
Symptoms of deficiency are arteriosclerosis, constipation, hair loss, high blood cholesterol, irritability, mood swings, and skin eruptions. The consumption of large amounts of caffeine usually results in inositol deficiency. As coffee consumption was often accompanied by cigarette smoking, this shortage of inositol may have been a critical factor in the cases of smoking induced lung cancer so prevalent during the time when smoking was in style.
Research continues to refine knowledge of the mechanisms by which inositol works
Being a natural compound, there is little incentive for drug companies to research inositol. Natural compounds are not patentable. However, some dedicated researchers are continuing to study the effects of inositol, trying to determine the specific mechanisms by which it prevents lung cancer in cigarette smokers. Here are summaries of the abstracts from the most recent research. It is truly amazing, or maybe criminal is a better word, that the smoking public has not been made aware of these results which date back steadily to the time of Drs. Watterberg and Shamsuddin
.
No comments:
Post a Comment