Grape seed extract may help prevent skin cancer

[OKIsItJustMe]

Source: Reuters

Grape seed extract may help prevent skin cancer

Mon Mar 26, 2007 12:56 PM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Chemicals found in grape seeds may help ward of skin cancer due to regular exposure to the sun, according to the results of an animal study reported Sunday in Chicago at the 223rd annual meeting of the American Chemical Society.

Researchers from the University of Alabama, Birmingham exposed hairless mice to ultraviolet-light. Some of the mice they fed a standard diet supplemented with grape seed proanthocyanidins, or GSPs, while control mice were fed a standard diet without this supplement.

Dietary supplementation with GSPs inhibited light-induced carcinogenesis, study chief Dr. Santosh K. Katiyar told the conference.

Mice supplemented with GSPs had up to 65 fewer tumors than control mice did. Moreover, the tumors seen in GSP-supplemented mice were up to 78 percent smaller than those seen in the control mice.

...

Read more: http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=healthNews&storyid=2007-03-26T165221Z_01_COL660528_RTRUKOC_0_US-GRAPESEED-CANCER.xml

[Magleetis]

1. Make that

a double Grappa.

[Taverner]

2. Hmmm...wonder how much of this is in Grape See oil?

I use a lot of that in cooking...

[OKIsItJustMe]

5. Apparently, relatively little

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oligomeric_proanthocyanidin

...

A number of grape seed oil vendors have claimed that grape seed oil is high in OPCs. However independent studies have indicated that grape seed oil is actually the grape product with the lowest concentration of OPCs. ...

http://jhs.pharm.or.jp/49(1)/49_45.htm

Grape seed extract (GSE) is one of Japan's natural food additives, and is recommended for use as an antioxidant. The component of interest is polyphenol, mainly proanthocyanidins, which are condensed tannins. A vanillin-hydrochloric acid (HCl) assay is specific for flavan-3-ol. The sensitivity of GSE components to the vanillin-HCl assay differed according to the chemical structure. We applied this assay to the determination of proanthocyanidin content in GSEs, health foods containing GSEs and grape seed oils. The concentration of proanthocyanidins in GSEs and health foods was overestimated in the vanillin-HCl assay when (+)-catechin was used as a standard. However, the concentration of proanthocyanidins in health foods with high protein or a high colored substance content was underestimated. No proanthocyanidins were detected in grape seed oil. Furthermore, we examined the content of low molecular weight compounds in GSE by reversed-phase HPLC. The percentage of low molecular weight compounds, including gallic acid, (+)-catechin, (-)-epicatechin, procyanidins B1, B2 and C was estimated to be 5.5-12.2%(w/w).

[Greyskye]

3. a couple drops of GSE...

...dissolved in fruit juice has been of incredible help when fighting off intestinal bugs. I always keep it in the medicine cabinet. And I always take it on trips where there is the possibility of encountering 'Montezuma's Revenge'.

[kimmerspixelated]

6. I keep it on hand as well.

I'm glad to see there are a few folks here who embrace natural cures and don't call it snake oil.
It's one of my pet peeves, that people are such naysayers to natural medicines, when all they really have to do is a bit of research. Take charge of your own health! Don't make Big Pharmas any more powerful! Okay, I'll get off my soapbox!

[Dogmudgeon]

8. Well, we DO have a "Skeptics" forum

But with most of the big-name "skeptics" (e.g., Michael Shermer, Penn'n'Teller) also ridiculing the idea of Global Warming, they aren't quite as cocky these days. Then again, some of them aren't too fond of big biz, either.

--p!

[eppur_se_muova]

4. Maybe post in the "Health" forum ? nt

[yava]

7. where to find the good stuff?

drink red wine :)

[Dogmudgeon]

9. Eat colorful foods. Take enemas.

Mold does not count as a colorful food, incidentally.

You can also drink your morning coffee through your ass -- it's supposed to clean out the liver, make it shiny and clean like a just-waxed '61 Corvair.

Kombucha, a fermented mushroom tea, is also rumored to be good for the old gizzard. In Russia, they call it Kvass and drink it like soda. Of course, in Russia, the average life expectancy is around 26, and most of the children smoke. But the Kvass, they say, reverses some of the damage. Maybe the life expectancy would be better if they took Kvass/Kombucha enemas -- gosh, the enema and Eastern Europe were practically made for each other!

We could try it out on Kevin Trudeau first.

--p!