Herb Triggers Cancer Cell Death

A substance found in the popular Chinese herb huang qin triggers the death of tumor cells, while having virtually no effect on healthy cells.

Many researchers have looked to the capability of controlled cell suicide as a means of fighting cancer. But it is a risky approach, because it involves the danger of damaging healthy tissue, too. Scientists have been searching for substances that induce cell death selectively in tumor cells.

Now scientists of the German Cancer Research Centre have discovered that wogonin, a component of huang qin, causes apoptosis (cellular suicide) in cultured leukemia cells without affecting healthy blood cells. Wogonin has already been shown to reduce cancer growth in mice.
Dr. Min Li-Weber of the Division of Immunogenetics has found that wogonin works by radically increasing the formation of hydrogen peroxide in tumor cells compared to healthy cells. The peroxide, in turn, produces a calcium response, which triggers the apoptosis reaction.Sources:
Chinese Medicine News December 28, 2007

Egg-citing News About My Favorite Comfort Food

By Julie Upton

One of my favorite comfort foods is scrambled eggs. I love eggs pretty much any way you can prepare them, but scrambled with toast is what I crave when I’m not feeling well, think I’m not feeling well, or just need to give myself a good dose of food love.

The other day when I went out for brunch with my girlfriends after a long run, I needed some major comfort food for my achy muscles and bruised ego from not being able to keep up for most of the run. After I ordered my scrambled eggs and whole wheat toast, I noticed that most of my friends ordered egg white-only options.

I told them that without the yolk, they were missing out on most of the important vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients in eggs, like vitamin D, zinc, and lutein. They reminded me that the average yolk packs 210 mg of cholesterol. I shot back that dietary cholesterol is not what raises blood cholesterol, it’s saturated fat, and egg yolks are relatively low in saturated fat. Moreover, studies show that people who eat eggs don’t necessarily have high blood cholesterol levels.
When I read a major report about eggs and choline being linked to a reduction in breast cancer, I dashed it off to my egg yolk-averse friends. Read More