The Mini Medley No.1

🌿 What does it do?

In addition to anti-tumour, Amentoflavone has a large number of pharmacological functions, such as anti-inflammation, anti-oxidation, anti-ageing, anti-virus, anti-diabetes, neuroprotective activities, and effects on cardiovascular system and central nervous system.

🧪 What cancers does it suppress?

Preclinical studies show it has an anticancer effect on many different cancers. Some of these include; cervical adenocarcinoma (1)🔬, breast cancers triple negative (2)🔬 and hormone positive (3)🔬, melanoma (4)🔬, glioblastoma (5)🔬 and ovarian cancer (6)🔬.

🌿 Bioavailability

The leaves of the ancient angiosperm, Gingko biloba are a source of amentoflavone but it has low bioavailability. A recent attempt to increase uptake via micelles (surfactant molecules) increased the uptake in rats (7)🔬.

Amentoflavone References 🔬

1. Ndongo, J.T., et al. Cytotoxic flavonoids and other constituents from the stem bark of Ochna schweinfurthiana. Natural Product Research 29, 1684-1687 (2015).
2. Bao, C., et al. Amentoflavone inhibits tumorsphere formation by regulating the Hedgehog/Gli1 signaling pathway in SUM159 breast cancer stem cells. Journal of Functional Foods 61(2019).
3. Pei, J.S., et al. Amentoflavone induces cell-cycle arrest and apoptosis in MCF-7 human breast cancer cells via mitochondria-dependent pathway. In Vivo26, 963-970 (2012).
4. Siveen, K.S. & Kuttan, G. Effect of amentoflavone, a phenolic component from Biophytum sensitivum, on cell cycling and apoptosis of B16F-10 melanoma cells. J Environ Pathol Toxicol Oncol 30, 301-309 (2011).
5. Hsu, F.-T., et al. Amentoflavone Effectively Blocked the Tumor Progression of Glioblastoma via Suppression of ERK/NF-κB Signaling Pathway. The American Journal of Chinese Medicine 47, 913-931 (2019).
6. Chen, L., et al. Positive feedback loop between mitochondrial fission and Notch signaling promotes survivin-mediated survival of TNBC cells. Cell Death & Disease9(2018).
7. Feng, X., et al. Preparation, evaluation and metabolites study in rats of novel amentoflavone-loaded TPGS/soluplus mixed nanomicelles. Drug Deliv 27, 137-150 (2020).

now, to the mind 🧠 …

Whatever stage you may be at with combating cancer, and also if you are supporting someone else, it is good to make sure you have emotional support. 

You can look for emotional support from people you know or people that you don’t know. It might help you to talk to other people who have a cancer diagnosis or to join a support group.

If you are helping another person, finding others doing the same role may be beneficial to you. 

Or, you may feel better talking only to a close friend, family member, or counsellor, a member of your faith or spiritual community.

Feeling socially connected and supported reduces stress. Reduced stress can give both a better quality of life and reduce cancer progression so it’s worth striving for.

“Psychological stress is an emotion experienced when people are under mental pressure or encounter unexpected problems. Extreme or repetitive stress increases the risk of developing human disease, including cardiovascular disease (CVD), immune diseases, mental disorders, and cancer.”

“Several studies have shown an association between psychological stress and cancer growth and metastasis in animal models and case studies of cancer patients.”

“ Stress induces the secretion of stress-related mediators, such as catecholamine, cortisol, and oxytocin, via the activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) axis or the sympathetic nervous system (SNS).”

” These stress-related hormones and neurotransmitters adversely affect stress-induced tumor progression and cancer therapy. Catecholamine is the primary factor that influences tumor progression“(1)🔬.

Stress Reference 🔬

1. Jin Shin, K., et al. “Molecular Mechanisms Underlying Psychological Stress and Cancer.” Current Pharmaceutical Design 22(16): 2389-2402. (2016)

Indulge and Target cancer with Dark Chocolate-coated Strawberries

Strawberries contain fisetin, an anticancer natural compound and chocolate contains cocoa, another anticancer compound. 

Dark chocolate has more cocoa than milk chocolate so dark is the go. Studies in cancer cultured cells and animal models have shown that cocoa and its flavanols may interfere at the initiation, promotion and progression stage (1)🔬.

Cocoa is not only an anti-carcinogen but it’s flavanols also exert health beneficial effects to make it anti-obesity, anti-diabetic, cardioprotective and neuroprotective natural compound.

So next time you reach for a chocolate bar, you could melt dark chocci onto a few strawberries instead. 

Cocoa Reference 🔬

1. Martín, M.Á. & Ramos, S. Health beneficial effects of cocoa phenolic compounds: a mini-review. Current Opinion in Food Science 14, 20-25 (2017).

Now you have a few ideas for how you can target cancer naturally.

www.TargetCancerNaturally.com