An apple a day may keep the doctor away, but three peaches keep cancer away. In fact, the peaches don’t just keep cancer away; they make the cancerous cells kill themselves, according to a new study.
Food science researcher at Washington State University, Giuliana Noratto, with a team at Texas A & M, found that polyphenol chemicals in peaches induce the human body to kill metastatic cancer cells. Certain signals in these cells are activated to make the cells kill themselves.
The metastatic, or cancerous cells spreading throughout the body, process was seen to slow in rats injected with breast cancer cells. Breast cancer, the most common and deadly cancer among American women, was part of the test, but Noratto and her team found the polyphenols in peaches attack all cancer cells.
Safer Than Chemo
And JUST cancer cells. Unlike chemotherapy, the compounds in peaches a cellularly-selective which means the kill only the cancer cells leaving your body otherwise undamaged. The researchers are positive the high-dose peach extract will offer a side-effect-free cancer treatment.
The tests concluded that a woman of approximately 140 pounds needs three peaches daily to get the right amount of the cancer-fighting compound. When the rats were given the extract, the scientists first noticed a slowed-down growth in the cells, which didn’t surprise them. The next thing they noticed did surprise them.
Giuliana Noratto and her team saw the cells dying off. The active compounds in the fruit lead the cancerous cells to send themselves signals “to commit suicide.” This slowed the growth of these cells (obviously) and cancer’s spread.
“We didn’t even think of metastasis at the time.”
Noratto and her team set out to set themselves apart from the chemotherapy-suggesting doctors, instead of a more natural choice that is already part of a healthy lifestyle. They didn’t think about metastasis at first, just killing cancer cells.
After 12 days the team noticed that the blood vessel formation responsible for the spread of cancerous cells was slowing down, lessening the enzymatic activity in both the invasion and spread of cancer.
After the initial research had been conducted, the team found that peaches with the most red contain more cancer-fighting compounds. Crest Haven, Red Haven, Elberta, and Blushing Star are on the redder side and are a good place to start. Rich Lady was the type of peach used in the study.
Well That’s Just Peachy
Noratto and her team found that the particular compounds that make cancer cells start destroying themselves (commonly referred to apoptosis) are not stable when heated.
Ditch the can and stick with the fresh, juicy peach. During the study, an extract was used – so scour the grocery store aisles for peach extract containing chlorogenic and neo chlorogenic compounds.
In comparison to chemotherapy, the peach extract, when used on mice in a controlled study, attacked and defeated the most aggressive cancer cells and had little-to-no toxicity on normal cells.
Facebook Comments