Can’t we give something natural a try first?
In March, two studies were published which suggested that aspirin may be an inexpensive and powerful weapon to fight cancer. This isn’t surprising. Aspirin is an anti-inflammatory and most anti-inflammatories seem useful against cancer.
Specifically, the studies showed that a daily dose of aspirin may significantly reduce the risk of many cancers, and prevent new tumors from spreading.
The downside? Daily or long-term use of aspirin doubles the risk of internal bleeding—and can cause hemorrhagic strokes—yet doesn’t reduce the risk of heart attack in people who have not previously had heart problems.
The gut lining protects itself from damage by producing nitric oxide (NO) and hydrogen sulphide (H2S). Now a scientist has developed what he calls “NOSH-aspirin,” which produces both gases as it breaks down, thus recreating the stomach’s protective mechanism.
Unfortunately, there are a number of serious concerns with this approach:
- Aspirin is still a chemical substance (acetylsalicylic acid) that can have serious side effects on the body; the new formulation doesn’t even address the serious risk of hemorrhagic strokes.
- Aspirin is part of a group of medications called nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). Four times as many people are killed each year by common NSAID painkillers like aspirin as are killed by the H1N1 swine flu virus.
- Gas-filled aspirin may ease the symptom (protecting the stomach against gastric bleeding), but the root of the problem (the fact that aspirin causes the bleeding) remains unaddressed.
- It is unclear whether NOSH-aspirin will actually work!
- Healthy people shouldn’t be taking drugs on a daily basis as a preventive.
Using drugs as preventives—even an over-the-counter drug as commonplace as aspirin—is the best way for pharmaceutical companies to increase their profits: create a product, convince healthy people they need to take it every day, then make another product to deal with the undesirable side effects, which in turn will produce other undesirable side effects, and so forth and so on.
We have seen this script often enough. Doctors gave young women a medicine to keep their bones strong during breast cancer treatment, hoping to prevent complications and relapses. They learned that the bone drug actually improved survival rates as much as many chemotherapies do—so the women were kept on the drug indefinitely. But as we have reported previously, many bisphonates (bone drugs) have extremely detrimental effects on the body. They don’t help the body produce new bone, but just interfere with the sloughing off of old bone. One of the most gruesome possible side effects is jaw death.
Pharmaceutical drugs often contain or are coated with phthalates. Congress banned this substance in toys and children’s products, but FDA approved it for medication! Phthalates are hormone-altering industrial chemicals that can cause reproductive abnormalities, yet the daily dose of phthalates in some drugs is twice the amount considered safe by the Environmental Protection Agencies.
But back to the gas-filled aspirin. As noted above, aspirin targets inflammation. Granted, it does so with a sledgehammer, but it’s effective, and relatively safe for many people in small doses in the short term—but not for everyone, and not in larger doses, and certainly not in the long term, which is unfortunate since it is chronic inflammation that is so dangerous. Even mainstream medicine acknowledges that chronic inflammation is involved in all chronic degenerative diseases, and may be a root cause of both cancer and heart disease.
What conventional medicine ignores is that chronic inflammation doesn’t require anti-inflammatory drugs. It can be treated and reversed by making dietary and lifestyle changes. The Life Extension Foundation’s chronic inflammation protocol discusses the importance of:
- maintaining a proper macronutrient and energy balance (some carbohydrates and “bad” fats in particular are pro-inflammatory);
- reducing your body fat percentage;
- consuming omega-3 polyunsaturated fats such as flax or fish oil;
- consuming beta-carotene, turmeric, genistein (an organic compound found in fava beans, soybeans, and coffee), and tea;
- supplementing with magnesium, vitamin D3, vitamin E (only in a balanced or high gamma-tocopherol form), zinc, and selenium;
- getting plenty of exercise;
- and increasing dietary fiber.
Ginger and boswellia (a tree that produces the fragrant resin frankincense) are also excellent anti-inflammatories.
Conventional medicine in general, and the drug industry in particular, are about sick-care, not health-care. They put band-aids on symptoms and leave the root causes unaddressed, possibly because it is illness that keeps them in business.
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The problem with aspirin is not the stomach but the brain bleeds that it can cause.
Great article!
I find it disturbing that we are still consuming GMO products that most countries will not even allow in their countries….and some citizens think we are the enlightened ones
What do you think of the idea of sending this article to every member of Congress….maybe a couple will even take it seriously and do something.
Thank You
Judith
The aspirin study is a knock off of the Turmeric, Curcurmin, Curry Study that demonstrates up to a 90% decrease in prostate cancer. Turmeric is also a COX-2 inhibitor as are the other NSIADs.
Bayer Pharmaceuticals wouldn’t want people eating delicious health building foods when they could be eating toxic pain killers instead!
I new this about the article above but thanks for the heads up as there are too many out there that are or choose to be ignorant of the fact you the people of America are being conned by the EPA, Pharmac and most industries. No the machine is not too big to take them on. Where there is a will there is a way. But if you choose to be fat and vicious and uneducated. Have to drive every and any where what more can I say but good luck.
Too Funny! Hydrogen Sulfide is the essence of rotten egg farts. Merely because aspirin causes the release of rotten egg fart essence doesn’t mean that the essence of rotten egg farts is at all good for anything other than clearing out the room. I don’t think that this will get the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval.
I have opposed the regular use of aspirin for some time. My husband, a WWII Veteran, was prescribed daily aspirin for blood pressure regulation. It had no effect in that department since his blood pressure only elevated when he was angry, disturbed or anxious. I tried to get him to stop taking it, but like so many people who believe the word of a physician is tantamount to God’s, he refused. The only time I take anything for rare headaches, sinus pain or muscular aches I use white willow bark, which of course is pooh-poohed by mainstream medicine as being voodoo medicine. I am 86, don’t go to allopathic physicians and rarely need to go to those who are holistic, take no pharmaceuticals, but do take supplements that balance my body chemistry, and do moderate exercise.. So far, so good.
I would like to read more on this article; specifically, it does not explain fully how the gas molecules protect the stomach lining, nor does it go into needed detail on how the new NOSH-aspirin works synergistically with the the natural contents of the stomach, especially to prevent cancer? More in-depth reporting/coverage is needed. Thank you.
Soy is TOXIC, unless it has been PROPERLY fermented, as in NATTO. Soy is fractionated by using hexon, a DEADLY neurotoxin. The other products mentioned is great. In fact, TURMERIC is a great blood thinner (which asperin CAN thicken blood) and is ALSO anti-oancerouse.
When you say healthy people shouldn’t be taking drugs as a preventative, do you believe that to be true of life extension drugs such as deprenyl, or cognitive enhancing drugs like hydergine. Most drugs have side effects, but some drugs have an extremely good harms/benefit ratio. The aforementioned drugs, to my knowledge, are a good example. Would love to hear your opinions on some of the popular life extension drugs.
The only life extending drugs I know are vitamins and supplements. The side only affects I have found are positive
Why not give people the option to use aspirin? I’m all for using natural remedies (when they have been scientifically proven to work), but there’s no reason to oppose the development of other options. That said, I certainly won’t be taking aspirin because of the risks involved and because, if I want anti-inflammatories, I can take, e.g., cherry juice.
‘Healthy people shouldn’t be taking drugs on a daily basis as a preventive’ – I’d say that is open to debate, especially when we ask what exactly is meant by ‘drugs.’ In any case, if there were a ‘drug’ that offered preventive benefits with minimal risks, I’d be open to taking it, and I see no reason to think such a drug is fundamentally impossible.
Every day physicians deal with chronic pain. They walk a thin line between opiate overdose, cardiovascular damage from Cox2 inhibitors and fatal gastrointestinal bleeding from conventional NSAIDS. Some patients benefit from antidepressants, others from medical marijuana and others from non-medical treatments. Most just suffer. The claim that there are easy answers for pain that physicians ignore is frankly insulting to those dedicated men and women.
Life Extension Foundation regularly reports the benefits of aspirin in reducing the risk of colon cancer as well as the benefit from natural sulfur-containing compounds against other cancers.
Recently they also reported how hydrogen sulfide could rescue mitochondria from failure due to anoxia from infarction. Hydrogen sulfide works through antioxidant, anti-apoptotic, anti-inflammatory and mitochondrial actions. See: http://ajpheart.physiology.org/content/early/2012/03/26/ajpheart.00044.2012.abstract
The modified aspirin was aimed partly at reducing the negative side effects of aspirin and partly at enhancing its positive effects. It was developed not by big Pharma but by government and academic researchers. See: http://digitaljournal.com/article/320418
The combination proved effective in-vitro against estrogen-insensitive breast cancer strains for which there is no effective treatment. See: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22209867
Foods and herbs are not magic talismans against disease. They are composed of and digested into difficult-to-pronounce chemical compounds which were optimized to benefit the plant, not the human.
Some plant extracts such as foxglove, scopolamine, atropine, nicotine and ephedra were evolved to poison browsers while phytoestrogens were evolved to reduce their reproductive success. Why would one assume that accidental benefits to humans could not be enhanced or that harms could not be reduced? This is chemistry, not religion.
The thought that one could develop chemical variants better suited to human physiology, with better risk/benefit ratios and wider therapeutic range than the natural products is an obvious goal and is not the sacrilege that some would suggest. If we cannot contribute to the search, we should applaud those who can do so.
I did a very illuminating Internet search; ‘cancer oxygen’ the googled results opened all kinds mind bending windows to explore.
The Life Extension Foundation’s chronic inflammation protocol is incomplete:
Multiple Chemical Sensitivities (MCS) do cause chronic inflammation.
An incomplete inflammation protocol will permit this sequence to repeat itself:
Despite frequent struggles to follow well-meant advice from chemically insensitive people supposedly “safe” chemical exposures will keep retriggering chronic inflammation in MCS patients until victims (finally!!!) find out how to push their chemical exposures far below the supposedly “safe” concentrations that make them sick.
Incomplete inflammation protocols go only halfway.
Halfway is only halfway.
Please research what MCS is,what it does,and how to help.
Thank you.
Yours very truly,
Louise Esther Rothstein.
Many vitamins and supplements support the immune system and fight inflamation 24 hours a day. They have been working for me for over 40 years.
Hi there. I largely agree. However, aspirin is from willow bark–that is where the ‘sal’ in salicylic cometh from. Thus, aspirin in and of itself is pretty natural. I’m not a medical doctor or licensed alternative health specialist, I’m just sharing what I know to this point.
Hugs,
me
I’m 62 and have been spending a lot of time in Hungary lately. I try to go natural as much as I can. A couple of years ago I was in a bad shape, nothing in particular, but many blood markers were off the chart. For instance, my CRP, an inflammation marker was 0.51-0.55. Then, I found a 100% natural product called Renovan (made a by a small Hungarian firm). I have started taking it and now all my markers are perfect, the CRP is 0.17-0.19. So, you are right, there are natural alternatives. And one more thing: my arteriall stiffness went down so much as I would be 25.
Your article was very newsworthy, however, it leaves one, it seems helpless, on the tide that the Rx companies have a tight hold on–which probably bottomline–greed. Just like the giant oil companies.
We need a solution and a sensible one but I don’t know the answer to that. I am locked into a regiment of Rx’s that are said I will die if I don’t take them.
My partner somehow contracted cancer and refused chem & radiation because he feared that it would kill him instantly with his already compromised immune system. He tried living healthy but staying also on the drugs he was already threatened to take and within a year he was dead.
Now that is horrible in my eyes and heart but what is being done to better our health conditions by this one sided system we seem to have evolved into. A friend of mine said we are actually parasites to the planet, which if you think for a moment–we actually are. Everytime you hear or see the news it is mankind destroying one way or the other the earth which is our living space.
If it wasn’t for my belief, I know I and others would be totally doomed in the way things seem to be going. It is like the wheels of this insane machinery must be reversed. Contact me if you have a solution.
Thank you
I deeply appreciate your information Pharmaceutical companies, Mansanto and the FDA, Wall St., the ad media, all are paints for a hopeless looking picture. Macro changes are needed in the American society. See the work of Dr. Michael Ryce, naturopath, at his website, “WhyAgain.com”. Change starts within. Michael is a raw foodist, does breath work etc. We need t o raise the consciousness of the planet’s life, starting right here within ourselves. Love and Peace to all, J. David
“Healthy people shouldn’t be taking drugs on a daily basis as a preventive.”
Healthy people shouldn’t be taking drugs on a daily basis for a chronic condition, dying perhaps excepted. Until our “Health Care System” is structured to acknowledge that toxic drugs are toxic and cannot CURE anything our health as a nation will continue to decline. Yes there are a few drugs that can prove useful LDN for one, but 99+% should only be used SHORT term.
Profit trumps prudence until the money runs…out …..we are almost there.
Hope someone can recall all the old remedies before the dementia sets in.
This is so true,but every time I try to talk to my friends about it they politely ignore me
Focus on wellness, not just treating disease!!! Focus on keeping our food supply clean & safe. Let individuals make their own decisions about supplementation. Stop “enabling” big pharmaceutical propaganda & political control!!!!!! Help return America back to the people! We all have the internet & can learn to read labels — your job is to make sure the proper, necessary info is there for us to read! Let us make up our own minds! I’ve personally experienced several “bad” drugs, prescribed despite the fact that I had several of the issues that made them contraindicated for me!! & I have “cured,” found relief using the internet and natural methods found there!!! With no bad side-effects!!! (also much cheaper & safer than the drugs!!)
Good article. As a chemist I have big question: what this suppose to mean “gas filled” aspirin? You cannot inflate gases into solid tablet. So what the new aspirin really contains? An additives of sodium nitrite and sodium sulfide that when contact with the acidic medium of stomach will produce nitrogen oxide (NO) and hydrogen sulfiide (H2S)? Well, sodium nitrite – is a common food additive they put to meats. It is moderately toxic. H2S itself is highly toxic gas (war gas of WWI) which is more toxic than HCN (hydrigen cyanide) and potassium cyanide, the spy poison! Google for that…
I am sure that mechanism of the gut protection is not just by simple NO and H2S bubbling around. More likely those gases are side products resulting from the protection mechanism.
I can’t agree more: No healthy person should take any drug for prevention purposes. This is all just another marketing trick for ignorant customers.
The pharmaceuticals are playing the samev old song, ‘ Accentuate the positive and bury the negative’ whitch is to often us. I have found what works for me is to seperate protean from fruits, vegtables, deserts by at least six hours. If you eat them all together they sit in your stomach rotting, fermenting and producing gas.