No Side Effects
Plant-derived agents, including nutritional supplements with qualifying good manufacturing principles, pose no risk of adverse effects. There is no qualifying debate. No evidence to the contrary exists in medical literature. Period.If fact, an overwhelming abundance of published research confirms that all plant-derived agents, and nutritional supplements derived from natural plants, actually performed in a “dose-dependent” manner.Are there upper limits? Like any food, some nutritional agents can generate minor effects, such as aggravate digestion (nausea, diarrhea), activate allergic reactions, and in rare occasions counteract prescription drug functionality (eg. omega 3 vs blood thinners). In contrast, a mulitude of published research documents the synergistic benefit of nutritional agents when taken with chemotherapeutic drugs! The drugs are more effective and delay resistance to the therapy. As with any food, personal experience and common sense is the best approach. A spice like curcumin, could potentially cause stomach or digestive upset. It is reasonable to slowly increase the amount you consume, or consume with meals.If taking nutritionals, published research clearly presents dosing information in relation to the effectiveness of each agent.Many human clinical trials translated dosing animal studies to an equivalent dose for humans. HED (“human equivalent dose”) established the recommended human dose scaling for a specific animal tested. The problem: the conversion of equivalent dose from animal to human was based upon body surface area, “BSA.” Resulting conversion factors reduced dosing by factors less than 1/10th the effective animal dose. For example, conversion of effective dosing for a mouse must be reduced to 1/12 of that dose for a human equivalent! A recently published study challenges this method and warns of “disasterous consequences” for studies using this approach. The truly tragic possibility is the failure of clinical trials for potentially helpful agents (see exerpt below).
“Human Equivalent Dose:” handicapping clinical trials?
“A thorough review of the literature reveals that BSA (body surface area) conversions are based on antiquated science and have little justification in current translational medicine compared to more advanced allometric and physiologically based pharmacokinetic modeling. Misunderstood and misinterpreted use of BSA conversions may have disastrous consequences, including underdosing leading to abandonment of potentially efficacious investigational drugs, and unexpected deadly adverse events.”
\HED body surface area dosing deadly 2015.pdf (11-07-2015) \HED scaling is bogus and dangerous 2015.pdf
Studies report effective dose …
“Unlike most natural preparations, MGN-3 offers solid data collected from human clinical trials. This data offers compelling evidence that MGN-3 is a powerful biological response modifier that is free of toxicity or side effects. As such, it has enormous promise as an immunotherapy in the treatment of cancer and other diseases.”
\MGN-3 human cancer Ghoneum 2000.pdf
“Patients who had stable disease or better after 8 weeks received continued therapy with curcumin at the same dose and schedule. … “No toxicities were observed. … “There was no dose-limiting toxicity; dosing was limited by the number of pills that patients could or would swallow daily.”
\curcumin clin trial pancreatic 2008.pdf
“In total, 21 patients who showed disease progression during previous gemcitabine-based chemotherapy were enrolled in the study. The addition of oral curcumin (to gemcitabine chemo) dose did not increase the risk of clinically relevant toxicity, and the toxicity profile of the combined drugs was comparable with that observed in pancreatic cancer patients treated with gemcitabine-based chemotherapy alone. Cumulative toxicity from curcumin was not observed, and 4 patients were able to continue this intake regimen for over 6 mo, indicating that this agent is safe for long-term use.”
\curcumin therapeutic applic pancreatic 2014.pdf
“Fucoidan, a natural component of brown seaweed, has anti-cancer activity against various cancer types by targeting key apoptotic molecules. It also has beneficial effects as it can protect against toxicity associated with chemotherapeutic agents and radiation. Thus the synergistic effect of fucoidan with current anti-cancer agents is of considerable interest.”
\fucoidan anti-tumor 2015.pdf
“Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States. Conventional therapies cause widespread systemic toxicity and lead to serious side effects which prohibit their long term use. Additionally, in many circumstances tumor resistance and recurrence is commonly observed. Therefore, there is an urgent need to identify suitable anticancer therapies that are highly precise with minimal side effects.”“Curcumin is a natural polyphenol molecule derived from the Curcuma longa plant which exhibits anticancer, chemo-preventive, chemo- and radio-sensitization properties. Curcumin’s widespread availability, safety, low cost and multiple cancer fighting functions justify its development as a drug for cancer treatment.”
\curcumin road to cancer ther 2013.pdf
“Based on these results, the no-observed-adverse-effect level (NOAEL) for genistein in the present study was estimated to be 120 mg/kg per day (human equivalent >8g/day).”
\genistein toxicity dose 2002.pdf
“In animal models of ischemia-reperfusion it was demonstrated that alpha lipoic acid (ALA) ameliorates cardiac dysfunction with a decrease in the infarct size, TNF-α, mieloperoxidase, markers of cell death (lactate dehydrogenase and creatinine kinase), and upregulates gene expression of several antioxidant enzymes [67]. The mechanisms of action of ALA were related to the phosphorylation of PI3K/AKT pathway without any effect on nitric oxide production. Additionally, all these actions were dose dependent…”
Alpha-lipoic acid as a pleiotropic compound with potential
therapeutic use in diabetes and other chronic diseases
M B Gomes, C A Negrato, 2014
\ALA pleiotropic compound 2014.pdf
“As a natural product, curcumin is both nontoxic as well as diversified in its inhibitory effects on a multitude of pathways involved in carcinogenesis and tumor formation. While the compound alone has shown some anti-tumor effects in HNSCC (head neck squamous cell carcinoma), curcumin’s lack of systemic toxicity and broad-reaching mechanism of action may make it best suited as an adjuvant therapy for head and neck cancers that are resistant to currently available therapies.”