Anti-Aging enzyme's secret revealed

Johns Hopkins researchers have determined how a tiny molecule normally squelches the activity of an enzyme that otherwise could help yeast, worms and flies live longer.The structural secrets they found, which are described in the March 18 issue of Molecular Cell, are likely to help efforts to design molecules that increase or decrease the enzyme's normal activity. 

The idea isn't to create a fountain of youth, say the researchers, but to help treat diabetes, inflammation, cancer or other conditions in which the enzyme plays a role. 

The enzyme, called Sir2 or sirtuin, turns on or off certain proteins by removing "decorations" called acetyl groups."Some of the proteins the enzyme turns on or off are already known to be involved in disease, and new ones are being identified all the time," says Cynthia Wolberger, Ph.D., professor of biophysics and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator in Johns Hopkins' Institute for Basic Biomedical Sciences. "The idea is that specifically and carefully altering the activity of sirtuins could help fix those conditions by restoring appropriate activity levels of the specific protein involved."

For example, Johns Hopkins scientist Pere Puigserver reported just last month that the human equivalent of Sir2 is intimately involved in controlling whether the liver produces sugar when food is scarce. In people with diabetes, sugar production in the liver is constant, and targeting this sirtuin might help restore control.

 One key controller of the enzyme's activity is a small, naturally occurring molecule called nicotinamide (nick-oh-TIN-ah-mid), itself a product of the enzyme's complex chemistry. Already, scientists knew that this molecule fine-tunes sirtuin's activity by reducing its ability to remove the acetyl groups from proteins.But exactly how nicotinamide interfered with sirtuin's activity was unknown. 

One idea was that there might be two places where nicotinamide could sit in the enzyme -- one spot where it's created, and another where it just blocks the enzyme from doing its job."Our structures of the protein and nicotinamide show that this is clearly not the case," says Wolberger, whose research focuses on understanding proteins' functions by determining what they look like. "Instead, nicotinamide binds in only one spot in the enzyme."Jose Avalos, then a graduate student, found the answer by determining the three-dimensional structure of the nicotinamide and sirtuin bound together. The structure literally shows the molecule sitting in a pocket of the enzyme and also reveals how its presence prevents sirtuin from doing its thing. 

Based on this picture, the researchers altered a single component of that pocket, which made the enzyme sensitive to a different molecule."Things don't usually work out so cleanly," says Wolberger. "But in this case we made a prediction based on the structure, and we were able to prove that prediction true."Wolberger and Avalos used sirtuin from bacteria to create their structures, but the human version of the enzyme responds to nicotinamide in the same way. 

Avalos's structures clearly identify which building blocks of the sirtuin protein are involved in binding nicotinamide."Understanding the interaction in such detail can help in the design of new compounds that could inhibit sirtuin's activity or increase it," says Avalos, now a postdoctoral fellow with Nobel laureate Rod MacKinnon at The Rockefeller University. "Which one you'd want to do depends on the ailment being addressed."Molecules that mimic nicotinamide and block sirtuin's activity might be useful in treating diabetes, based on Puigserver's recent discoveries. 

Or the structural clues could be used to do the opposite, to turn up sirtuin's activity, which might restart a tumor suppressor gene called p53 that is erroneously shut off in many cancers. But those are just two examples."In the last two or three years, there's been an explosion in the number of known implications of sirtuin enzymes in biology and human health," notes Avalos.

Wolberger's goal isn't developing drugs, but understanding the details of how sirtuin works and how it's controlled, in part by understanding how various inhibitors and stimulators of sirtuin activity interact with the enzyme.

 The research was funded by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, part of the National Institutes of Health. Authors on the paper are Avalos, Wolberger and Katherine Bever.

(Source:Johns Hopkins Medicine)

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Wheatgrass and Overcoming Cancer - Dr. Ann Wigmore

For many years I have taken a great interest in the problem of cancer. My reasoning has been that if wheatgrass and live foods can help the most feared and uncontrollable medical problem, cancer, no questions should remain about its ability to heal, nourish, and balance the body. With twenty years of teaching cancer patients behind me, I know that—contrary to popular belief—all types of cancer can be overcome. However, my own opinion is that we will never find a "cure" for this dreaded problem because it can't be cured.

The body of the cancer patient must heal itself in the very same way any body rebounds from a cut, bruise, or common cold. Although there are drugs which seem to help by destroying this or that cancer cell, all they can do is help. The body must replace the lost cells with new cancer-free ones.

Once you understand the logic of self-healing and self- cleansing it is easy to understand how the body can reverse even a serious problem like cancer. All that is needed is sufficient will to live and fight the disease, and enough life energy in the body—a strong enough immune system.

How do you build up the immune system to overcome or prevent cancer? First, by eliminating the things that reduce your immunity: stress at home or at work, and processed and cooked foods. Once you have taken some of the pressure off your immune system in this way, you must learn how to rebuild it. Thus, your second task is to cleanse the toxic residues of stress and bad food choice from your system with a cleansing live food diet and wheatgrass.

Live foods and wheatgrass juice will begin the process of cleansing and rebuilding the immune system as long as you stay clear of the stresses and foods that create a high risk of cancer in the first place. If you do not avoid stresses, you are like a person with a broken leg who continues to walk on the leg without a cast and crutches.

You won't heal regardless of how calm you are or how well you eat. Until you get off the leg and rest it nothing will help. Similarly, if you don't take a vacation (I recommend a permanent one) from the foods that congest and clog your body, your chances of recovery will be that much poorer.While wheatgrass juice helps to build immunity, its beneficial effects range much further.

Preliminary studies have identified a number of substances in wheatgrass juice that are formidable anti-cancer agents. One of these is called abscisic acid. I first learned of abscisic acid from Eydie Mae Hunsberger, a former Hippocrates guest who used the Hippocrates Diet and wheatgrass juice to heal herself of malignant breast cancer.

As she relates in How I Conquered Cancer Naturally, her doctor took an interest in her case and researched many past studies to find the active ingredient in wheatgrass that helped make her well.
What he discovered was abscisic acid, a plant hormone known to prevent seeds from germinating until environmental conditions are just right.

In tests on laboratory animals, he found that even small amounts of abscisic acid proved to be "deadly against any form of cancer." Tumors disappeared quickly in animals given injections of abscisic acid. Eydie Mae did mention, however, that research with abscisic acid is in its infant stages and it is still too early to tell whether it will become a "cure." But as she says, "Poor eating habits cause more diseases than cancer.

We may be able to reverse cancer with abscisic acid pills, but then die from a heart attack or something else." Only sound preventive nutrition and a healthful lifestyle can save us from all illness. Eydie Mae's decision to switch from the "condemned person's diet" to wheatgrass and other live foods on the Hippocrates Diet certainly paid off for her—within one year after she was given up by the medical establishment, the cancer was in remission—and it remained that way.

Another possible anti-cancer property of wheatgrass juice, first brought to my attention in a lecture given by the well- known biochemist and researcher, Dr. Ernst Krebs, Jr., is Vitamin B17 (laetrile). In his research, Dr. Krebs extracted laetrile from apricot pits, but it is also found in whole foods and especially wheatgrass. This vitamin has shown the ability to selectively destroy cancer cells, while leaving non-cancerous ones alone. While laetrile as a cancer treatment is still hotly debated in this country, the facts speak for themselves: the modern American diet contains about four hundred times less Vitamin B17 than the diet of the natives in countries where the incidence of cancer is extremely low.
At the Linus Pauling Institute of Science and Medicine, Dr. Arthur Robinson studied the various effects of live foods, wheatgrass, and synthetic Vitamin C on cancer in laboratory mice. Skin cancer was induced in the mice through exposure to ultraviolet radiation.

The control group received the standard laboratory chow diet. Two other groups of mice were given the chow diet and different dosages of Vitamin C. Another two groups of mice received a raw foods diet restricted to apples, pears, carrots, tomatoes, sunflower seeds, bananas, and wheatgrass. One of these groups was also given one hundred grams of Vitamin C.

In a March, 1984 article entitled "Living Foods and Cancer," Dr. Robinson summarized the findings of his research as follows: "The results were spectacular. Living foods [including wheatgrass] alone decreased the incidence and severity of cancer lesions by about 75 percent.

This result was better than that of any nutritional program that was tried. It was possible to duplicate this cancer suppression with ascorbic acid [Vitamin C] only by giving doses so high as to be nearly lethal for the mice and far beyond any rational range of human consumption. In fact, ascorbic acid in the amounts usually recommended for colds and cancer doubled, increased by 100 percent, the incidence and severity of the cancer."

In my own opinion, if the group of mice receiving only wheatgrass and raw foods had been given sprouts rather than fruits and vegetables, the decrease in cancer would have been even more dramatic.

The severity of cancerous lesions in Robinson's mice was caused to vary greatly by nutritional means alone. I believe that this indicates that cancer research of the future must look to diet for the answers.

The cancer-nutrition connection is becoming more evident to researchers and physicians. Recently, the prestigious National Cancer Institute commissioned the National Academy of Sciences to study the relationship between diet and cancer. The study pointed out many carcinogenic foods and their link to cancer. You may already be aware of some of them—processed items such as luncheon meats, smoked meats, high-fat cheeses, and refined oils.

The study also found that some vegetables, especially green and yellow varieties, seem to have anti-cancer properties. Nevertheless, many of the foods singled out by the National Academy of Science, including carrots, squashes, broccoli, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, and leafy greens, are less potent in overall nutrition than wheatgrass—and none of them contain active enzymes when they are eaten cooked.

- by Dr.Ann Wigmore "The Wheatgrass Book"

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Anti-aging: Support for the youngest older generation ever!

Wheatgrass juice is the nectar of rejuvenation, the plasma of youth, the blood of all life. The elements that are missing in our body's cells,especially enzymes, vitamins, hormones, and nucleic acids can be obtained through this daily green sunlight transfusion."

    -- Rev. Viktoras Kulvinskas, Author of Survival into the Twenty First Century

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Cancer: The Dreaded C Word

Cancer: The Dreaded C Word

The effects of live foods (wheatgrass, and synthetic Vitamin C) on cancer in laboratory mice were studied at the Linus Pauling Institute of Science and Medicine by Dr. Arthur Robinson. The scientists induced skin cancer through exposure to ultraviolet radiation.

Their findings were reported in an article that appeared in March, 1984, titled Living Foods and Cancer, The results were spectacular. Living foods [including wheatgrass] alone decreased the incidence and severity of cancer lesions by about 75 percent. This result was better than that of any nutritional program that was tried.

 
Nobel-prize winner Otto Warburg, M.D., showed that cancer cells thrive in an oxygen-poor environment. He viewed cancer not as a virus, but as a process of cell mutation caused by oxygen deprivation on the cellular level.

Warburg arrived at his discovery more than fifty years ago, yet his theory still stands uncontradicted, while dozens of others are discredited every year.Because wheatgrass juice is oxygen-rich, and up to 70% chlorophyll, it literally adds life to the cells and assists with the creation of healthy blood the chlorophyll molecule resembles the molecule of human blood (hemoglobin).

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Wheatgrass Treatment for Migraines

Wheatgrass Treatment for Migraines: Migraines are severe, recurrent headaches that can cause debilitating pain for hours on end. While there is no cure for a migraine, home remedies and life-style changes can go a long way to reduce symptoms.

A highly digestible, concentrated source of nutrients, wheatgrass is a commonly used supplement for natural healing for all kinds of illness, including migraines. Wheatgrass contains chemicals shown to have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties (helpful for overall health and migraines). Wheatgrass treatment usually involves daily consumption of a small amount of wheatgrass juiced.

For further inquiries, buy Organic Wheatgrass online, please visit our official website at:

web: miraclewheatgrass.com / sihatsihat.com
Email: egahokl@gmail.com
Tel: (6)016-2800684

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Wheatgrass For Your Animals

Cat eating wheatgrass

Household pets can nibble the grass to get roughage (absent in most prepared pet foods), so keep your wheatgrass at a safe distance.  If they are chewing on it, then you can grow the wheatgrass back a second time (lost 50% of it's value, but fine for your pets) and let them chew on that.

For you animal that may have a health issue, fleas, eye problems, hair loss, trouble walking, wounds, etc... here is what you can do:

Give them a little less than ½ an ounce (orally), twice a day, 30 minutes before you feed your animal.Use a bulb syringe or eye dropper to get it down.

Do this everyday for at least five days.Stay with it as you will then see some amazing results in a very short time! You may apply a dropper of wheatgrass juice into your pet's mouth for illness, gum or teeth problems, urinary problems or eating problems.

After you have given them the juice for the five days, then chop finely into their food for preventative, three times per week.This will help keep your animal in balance.

Wheatgrass soaked bandage for sores, can be applied right to their wounds.
Grow small amount in the house for cats to play with (this will take their attention away from your plants)

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Anemia Testimonial: Wow, I Was Surprised - Wheatgrass Helps Anemia!

Anemia Testimonial: Wow, I Was Surprised - Wheatgrass Helps Anemia!

I was feeling run down and tired. I went into the doctor and they ran some blood tests and found out that I was experiencing an extreme case of iron-deficiency anemia.

The doctor gave me a prescription for strong iron pills. I had taken iron pills in the past. They would make me nauseated and constipated. I was not interested in doing this, so I started to look for more natural ways to address the anemia.

I heard about wheatgrass juice helping to build healthier blood and assisting with anemia. I decided to try drinking the wheatgrass juice and I found great success.

When they first took my blood, it was way below the proper iron range. After 2 months of drinking wheatgrass juice, I was in the high numbers of the iron range.

For those two months, I drank 2 ounce wheatgrass juice shots, 3 times per week, at a local juice bar. Drinking the wheatgrass juice was the answer for me and it did not have any bad side effects!

by Marilyn (Arizona ,Source:www.healthbanquet.com)

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Dr. Chris: Wheatgrass - Effective Inducer Of Fetal Hemoglobin

I wish to report some evidence that may have an important bearing on the treatment of beta-thalassemia (thalassemia major, Cooley's anemia, Mediterranean anemia) and sickle cell disease. A wheatgrass extract I use frequently in clinical practice may well have the potential to improve the quality of life of many sufferers of this debilitating, often life-threatening disorder. There is both clinical evidence and some state-of-the-art science that supports this finding.

Thalassemia major is an inherited disorder of hemoglobin, the protein in red blood cells that binds oxygen and transports it around the body. Just one gene determines whether or not a child will have the disorder or is simply a carrier of the abnormal gene. The disorder affects children of mainly South-East Asian (eg. 600,000 cases in Thailand), Indian, Mediterranean and Central African origin. Patients can suffer from an enlarged liver and spleen, heart failure, growth retardation, endocrine disorders and various other symptoms. Current treatment for thalassemics includes regular blood transfusion, chelating or iron-removing drugs, and drugs that induce the production of fetal hemoglobin such as hydroxyurea. Without adequate support and management, the disease can be fatal.

Wheatgrass and other cereal grasses have been thoroughly researched and reported as a therapeutically effective substance since the 1930's. Traditionally, chlorophyll, or its synthetic derivative, chlorophyllin, has been implicated as the biological active responsible for reported healing effects. A number of animal studies have shown quite marked improvement in anemia following chlorophyll ingestion. (1,2,3). Other studies up to the present day have shown positive results in the treatment of suppurating wounds(4), burns(5), liver cancer(6), ulcerative colitis(7) and many other conditions. My own experiences in treating numerous patients with a wheatgrass extract since 1995, although anecdotal, strongly support many of these research findings. I am almost certain however that neither chlorophyll nor chlorophyllin is the therapeutic agent responsible.

In my February, 2004 newsletter, I mentioned a clinical pilot study carried out by Dr. R. K. Marwaha et al at the Advanced Pediatric Centre, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, India. Entitled "Wheat grass juice reduces transfusion requirement in patients with thalassemia major: a pilot study.", the study was performed between February 2000 and May 2003. Sixteen out of 38 (42%) blood transfusion dependent thalassemics fulfilled the trial criteria for final analysis.

To summarise the findings during period of wheatgrass juice ingestion:

• all participants experienced lower blood transfusion requirements (from 0.4 to 43%)
• 50% had at least 25% reduction in transfusion requirements
• the mean interval between transfusions increased 29.5%
• overall, hemoglobin levels were not compromised by reduced transfusion volumes

Dr. Marwaha's conclusion was that "wheat grass juice has the potential to lower transfusion requirements in thalassemics." He was not prepared to speculate on the "mechanism of action of wheat grass juice in transfusion dependent thalassemics" being of the opinion that the concept of chlorophyll enhancing hemoglobin production "sounds too simplistic". I support his position and seriously doubt whether chlorophyll has any function other than to drive photosynthesis. (See my newsletter "Chlorophyll - Healer or Humbug"). Add to this the fact that my wheatgrass extract is clinically effective in most, if not all the areas described in the substantial literature about wheatgrass healing - but contains barely detectable amounts of chlorophyll.
 
It is interesting to note that twenty of the original trial participants were withdrawn due to "indiscipline in intake and an insufficient duration of intake of wheat grass juice." This does not surprise me considering they were asked to consume 100mls per day. Many find fresh wheatgrass juice unpalatable, as I do. Some of these children were as young as four and, unless they really enjoyed the taste, would have found it very difficult to comply with the regime. They would I believe, have found it much easier to ingest a dilute solution of my extract.

I contacted Dr. Marwaha, mentioning the extract and wheatgrass website. At the time it did not seem likely he would want to repeat or extend the pilot study using the extract, so I did not suggest it. Nonetheless, because of the substantial clinical experience I have had using wheatgrass as a therapeutic agent and the extensive scientific literature available on the topic, I felt quite certain that it would work just as well as fresh wheatgrass juice. More importantly, the extract is infinitely more palatable and the dose required would amount to no more than 1 to 3 mls. a day. Also, wheatgrass cultivation is unnecessary as the extract's potency lasts for years, if not indefinitely. The next development was totally unexpected.

The Murdoch Children's Research Institute at the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne (Australia) is involved in a number of research projects, one of which is thalassemia. This unit, the Cell & Gene Therapy Research Group is headed by Professor Panos Ioannou who has spent a large part of his working life researching thalassemia. Also, because of his work in the production of artificial chromosomes, he made a significant contribution to the Human Genome Project. On 3rd May he requested a sample of wheatgrass extract saying, "We have recently developed very specific assays for the induction of foetal haemoglobin, ("The assay is based on detecting production of HbF in human erythroleukaemia cells using a fluorescent protein gene that is used to replace the genes for HbF") to facilitate the discovery of pharmacological agents that might be therapeutic for thalassaemia. Given the reported effects of wheatgrass juice on thalassaemia, (Dr. Marwaha's pilot study) we would very much like to test wheatgrass juice (extract) whether it can cause a significant increase in foetal haemoglobin."

This point is important. Fetal hemoglobin, (HbF) which has a substantially higher affinity for oxygen than adult hemoglobin, develops in the fetus during the last six months of gestation. As both mother and fetus share the same blood supply, fetal hemoglobin essentially draws off oxygen from the mother's blood. This enables the fetus to survive in the uterus. After birth, fetal hemoglobin levels fall rapidly and in the adult represents less than two percent of total hemoglobin in the body. It has been found that stimulation or induction of fetal hemoglobin in thalassemia can improve the patient's clinical condition. Although drugs exist that have this function, e.g. hydroxyurea, they lack specificity and may have a variety of serious side effects. Professor Ioannou assayed the wheatgrass extract for fetal hemoglobin induction on three separate human cell clones.

On 14 July he reported that over a 5 day period:"Our measurements suggest a 3-5 fold increase in the production of HbF by the wheat grass extract. This is a substantial increase and could certainly provide an explanation why some thalassaemia patients may derive significant benefit." 

Of course, these laboratory results may or may not bear a relationship to what one could expect in the thalassemic patient. However, given the quite significant reduction in transfusion requirements noted in some of the patients in Dr. Marwaha's pilot study, Professor Ioannou's findings strongly suggest they could have resulted from induction of fetal hemoglobin by wheatgrass.

I think it is worth noting again that the Murdoch Institute results were achieved using a wheatgrass extract that contained virtually no chlorophyll. This fact further supports my belief that chlorophyll, like hemoglobin, has a specific function to perform in nature. As hemoglobin transports oxygen within the red blood cell, so does chlorophyll assist photosynthesis within the chloroplast. Nothing more, nothing less.

In conclusion, I believe the two new studies relating to wheatgrass and induction of fetal hemoglobin mentioned here give more than a glimmer of hope to thalassemic patients. Commercial wheatgrass products such as fresh juice, tablets, powders and nutritional supplements are cheap, readily available and virtually devoid of adverse effects. While more studies are clearly necessary, thalassemics may have nothing to lose and possibly much to gain from ingesting wheatgrass, in one form or another, daily. While it is not possible from the current studies to predict the optimal dose of wheatgrass extract for a beneficial effect on thalassaemia, I recommend that in order to benefit fully from the biological activity of the herb, thalassemics, like anyone taking wheatgrass, need to hold it in the mouth for at least a minute before swallowing.

References:

1. Kirkman, N.F. 1939. The effect of low-porphyrin diet on erythropoiesis and hemoglobin regeneration. J Physiol 95:508-515
2. Kelentei, B., Fekete, I., Kun, F. 1958. Influence of copper chlorophyllin on experimental anemia. Acta Pharm Hung 28:176-180
3. Borisenko, A.N., Sofonova, A.D. 1965. Hemopoietic effect of Na chlorophyllin. Vrach Delo 9:44-46
4. Gruskin, B. Chlorophyll – its therapeutic place in acute and suppurative disease. 1940. American Journal of Surgery.
5. Collings, G. 1945. Chlorophyll and adrenal cortical extract in the local treatment of burns. American Journal of Surgery 70:58- 63.
6. Egner, P.A., Munoz, A., Kensler, T.W. 2003. Chemoprevention with chlorophyllin in individuals exposed to dietary aflatoxin. Mutat Res. 2003 Feb-Mar;523-524:209-16.
7. Ben-Ayre, E., Goldin, E., Wengrower, D., Stamper, A., Kohn, R., Berry , E. 2002. Wheat grass juice in the treatment of active distal ulcerative colitis: a randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial. Scand J Gastroenterol 2002;37:444-449 

(Source:www.drwheatgrass.com)

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Dr.Lorraine: Cancer Can Be Cured Naturally

This is an inspirational video from a woman who walks the talk & lives with great passion & conviction. It's simplicity of message is that we create our own illness, so we can heal our illness too. I just clicked on a critique of this video & realised that people that want to shoot it down are living from their academic heads & not realising the full life force of this woman's great power. A power we can all re-discover if we dared to feel the breath in our lungs & return to some simple rules.

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Simple yet delicious Wheatgrass Recipes

Simply Green

• Stalks of celery
• 4 large spinach leaves
• Half cup parsley
• 2-3 inch round of wheatgrass
• 1/4 cup water optional
• Wash greens thoroughly, cut up celery and juice
• Dilute with water if desired

Carrot Grass

• 3 carrots
• 2-3 inch round of wheatgrass
• 1/4 cup water optional
• A nutritious drink that tastes good

Hawaiian Wheatgrass

• 2 cups fresh pineapple
• 1 orange
• 1 papaya
• 2-3 inch round of wheatgrass
• Combine juices to enjoy this healthy Hawaiian treat
• Sip slowly and imagine sitting on a tropical beach

Wheatgrass Smoothie

• 2 oranges
• 1 banana
• 1 lime
• 2-3 inch round of wheatgrass
• 12 crushed ice cubes
• Juice orange, lime and wheatgrass, then place all ingredients in a blender on high speed for 30 seconds
• Stimulating !!!

Apple Grass

• 1-2 cut up apples
• 1/4 cup of water (optional)
• 2-3 inch round of wheatgrass
• A very popular drink among frequent users
• The apple slightly sweetens the taste of the wheatgrass

Pure Veggie Delight

• 2 large carrots
• 3 stalks celery
• 1/2 cup parsle
• 4 large spinach leaves
• 1/2 beet root
• 1/2 cup alfalfa sprout
• Wash veggies thoroughly and cut to fit juicer
• A veggie lovers delight

Tropical Passion Grass

• 2 kiwi
• 1 guava or papaya
• 1 cup pineapples
• 5 strawberries
• 1 orange
• 3-4 inch round of wheatgrass
• Combine all juices and serve slightly chilled

Sweet Grass

• 2 apples
• 1 orange
• 2-3 inch round of wheatgrass
• This sweet drink is sure to satisfy your sweet tooth
  (Source:wheatgrassforlife.com)

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