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Kava and Lung Cancer

Groggy

Groggy

Kava aficionado
Admin
Blinkyrocket said:
http://m.cancerpreventionresearch.aacrjournals.org/content/7/1/86

Now, when I heard about Kava and its anti cancer properties, I never expected this... This is pretty amazing.
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That's awesome, we got make you the resident Expert researcher or something (my vote, I have no real say about anything, to be clear) You and Palmetto have come up with more information about the benefits and some drawbacks since joining than anyone else I have seen on this site. (I probably excluded some folks, apologies in advance, surely @verticity will smack me for that) But seriously, that's very encouraging results. @HeadHodge may I suggest an impartial section on this website for documented research studies, a lot of this information is crucial, in my opinion. Maybe the kavapedia.
 
Zac Imiola (Herbalist)

Zac Imiola (Herbalist)

Kava Connoisseur
Kava research tag is what we have to atleast keep things together for a search

Kava treatments covering the initiation stage reduced the multiplicity of lung adenomas by approximately 99%. A minimum effective dose is yet to be defined because kava at two lower dosages (2.5 and 1.25 mg/g of diet) were equally effective as 5 mg/g of diet in completely inhibiting lung adenoma formation.

Love that part ^
 
Sam Handwich

Sam Handwich

Kava Enthusiast
It would be interesting to know-
A: is cigarette smoking highly prevalent in the islands that traditionally drink kava?
B: are the rates of lung cancer lower amongst these smoking kava consumers?
 
Zac Imiola (Herbalist)

Zac Imiola (Herbalist)

Kava Connoisseur
That's exactly how kava cancer research came to be. That exact questions lmao.
In Vanuatu they found men ages like 30 to 50 or around there who smoked weren't getting cancer as much if at all and found they were kava drinkers
Let me see if I can find it
 
Zac Imiola (Herbalist)

Zac Imiola (Herbalist)

Kava Connoisseur
The research may also help explain the low rate of cancer incidence where kava is traditionally consumed. Rates of cancer in the South Pacific Islands of Vanuatu, Fiji and Western Samoa are dramatically lower than those in countries with no kava consumption. Similarly, despite tobacco smoking rates comparable to those of the United States, the occurrence of lung cancer in Fiji is just 5 to 10 percent of the U.S. lung cancer occurrence rate.
 
B

Blinkyrocket

Kava Enthusiast
Yeah, I just love to peruse Google.Scholar and other sites like it, finding out as much as I can, about as much as I can. :bookworm:
 
Jonathan

Jonathan

All Hail Leon
I bet that has something to do with the high glutathione content in whole kava root. I don't have any proof of the correlation, but glutathione is a powerful antioxidant, and this paper has some interesting info about its prevalence in kava. https://ewsd.wiv-isp.be/Publication...Kava/Whitton2003_kava-lactones-GSH-safety.pdf

Also I bet the low incidents of lung cancer in the pacific islands also has a lot to do with their reduced overall exposure to environmental toxins and pollutants, as well as less consumption of highly processed foods, certainly nowhere near the levels we have here in the U.S.
 
Alia

Alia

'Awa Grower/Collector
Blinkyrocket said:
http://m.cancerpreventionresearch.aacrjournals.org/content/7/1/86

Now, when I heard about Kava and its anti cancer properties, I never expected this... This is pretty amazing.
Click to expand...
Yes, lung cancer prevention and colon cancer prevention studies have shown kava for both- that's University of Minnesota! UC, Irvine did one for kava preventing Prostate Cancer. Chaminade in Honolulu and UH, College of Pharmacy suggest Kava's "calcium exchange capacity" is involved as are kavalactones.
 
Alia

Alia

'Awa Grower/Collector
Blinkyrocket said:
Hmm, I'm curious about what this "calcium exchange capacity" is. I know Kava inhibits calcium channels and can therefore lower blood pressure and relax the heart and vessels and whatnot.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium-calcium_exchanger
Is it this?
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Dr. Helen Turner at Chaminade has done several studies/published papers on "Calcium Signaling Pathways by Components of Piper methysticum". They are a bit over my head in complexity but a summary of a Talk at the KavaCon 2015 in Honolulu was- "Current literature and the preliminary data of the proposed research support the hypothesis that 'awa will inhibit the growth of cancer cells via a novel calcium-dependent mechanism" That talk was by Dr. Dana Koomoa-Lange UH, Hilo College of Pharmacy. She has co-authored the studies with Helen Turner on the calcium exchange part. Honestly, I wish they had a 10 year old interpreter who could explain some of this to me!
 
Palmetto

Palmetto

Thank God!
Kava can deplete glutathione levels in the liver unfortunately. This effect is related to hepatotoxicity.

On another note, very closely know a cancer patient (not from one of my clinics), that I encouraged to take tudei (25%) mixed with a headier kava. Noble kavas from Vanuatu were tested to have flavokawain : kavalactone ratios of 0.09 on the average, whilst tudei had an average of 0.39 and wichmannii 0.38. Yet another paper tested liver toxicity in mice and found that even tudei kava had almost no hepatotoxicity normally, but when acetaminephine + kava (noble or ignoble) was added, liver toxicity was high. Flavokawain (A, B, C, and unnamed varieties) appear to be the primary antitumor components in kava, but probably not the only ones. I have spent many hours looking up research studies on this topic in the last month, specifically to help out the person I know. Some studies found better efficacy and lower toxicity using kava than two very common chemo drugs (adriamycin and doxorubicin).

In Fiji, only men tend to drink kava (except perhaps virgin girls). Men have roughly 30% the cancer rate than womn in Fiji. When Fijian men move to Australia where they have little or no kava, their prostate cancer rates go up 5.1 times. I believe the reason why women on't drink kava is not so much patriarchical, but rather since there is anecdotal evidence that it may cause miscarriages. If young women were drinking it, their populations might could have disappeared, if that is the case.
 
ThePiper

ThePiper

Kava Lover
Would this mean that as soon as you stop drinking kava your cancer risk returns to normal or would it create beneficial conditions in the body with lasting results, i.e. Someone smokes cigarettes for 10 years and then quits, so they have a high cancer risk. In fact, lets say they have a precancerous environment in their body at this point and its only a matter of time till they get cancer. They then drink copious amounts of kava for a year or so, then stop. Would the kava level the playingfield a little for their cancer risk or would it just serve as a temporary support, that would disappear when they quit? Would the body go back to the precancerous high risk environemnt when they stopped kava or would it "nip it in the bud"? I know that nothing is definite and there are millions of factors at play but i have oft wondered this about many substances that prevent disease
 
Alia

Alia

'Awa Grower/Collector
ThePiper said:
Would this mean that as soon as you stop drinking kava your cancer risk returns to normal or would it create beneficial conditions in the body with lasting results, i.e. Someone smokes cigarettes for 10 years and then quits, so they have a high cancer risk. In fact, lets say they have a precancerous environment in their body at this point and its only a matter of time till they get cancer. They then drink copious amounts of kava for a year or so, then stop. Would the kava level the playingfield a little for their cancer risk or would it just serve as a temporary support, that would disappear when they quit? Would the body go back to the precancerous high risk environemnt when they stopped kava or would it "nip it in the bud"? I know that nothing is definite and there are millions of factors at play but i have oft wondered this about many substances that prevent disease
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Two of the main researchers from the University of Minnesota (did the kava-prevention for lung and colon cancer) have told me that the key is to consume kava regularly like on a daily basis. Just as in Vanuatu, Fiji, etc. The UC, Irvine folks who did the kava-prevents prostrate cancer study appear to advocate same. All that work needs refining and specific human studies so is subject to debate. Personally I believe it partly from knowing the sincerity,intelligence and dedication of some of these researchers. But, much of the proven results is in mice...so human trials would be nice too.
 
K

kavayo

Kava Enthusiast
KrunkyMonkey said:
That's awesome, we got make you the resident Expert researcher or something (my vote, I have no real say about anything, to be clear) You and Palmetto have come up with more information about the benefits and some drawbacks since joining than anyone else I have seen on this site. (I probably excluded some folks, apologies in advance, surely @verticity will smack me for that) But seriously, that's very encouraging results. @HeadHodge may I suggest an impartial section on this website for documented research studies, a lot of this information is crucial, in my opinion. Maybe the kavapedia.
Click to expand...
Do you have any of the drawbacks information? It would be very much appreciated.
 
Alia

Alia

'Awa Grower/Collector
kavayo said:
Do you have any of the drawbacks information? It would be very much appreciated.
Click to expand...
Over the next day or so I will list out all the relevant research papers on kava and cancer prevention and post here. Then if no one replies with links to whole papers maybe I can figure out how to do it...I have them but am not too computer literate when it comes to links.
 
Alia

Alia

'Awa Grower/Collector
kavadude said:
Hey @Alia if you do that I will link to the fulltext where able

I have a cancer page here: https://kavachat.com/research/tag-cancer.htm but as you can see it's only got the UMinn study right now
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(PS- looks like you have the link to #1) I started to write them all out this morning from my hard-copy notebook...here is just a beginning, Xing is UM. There is one from UC, Irvine. I will have to continue this project on a day to day since it is time consuming...I have LOTS, so here are a few--
1-Kava Blocks 4-(MethyInitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-Butanone-Induced Lung Tumorigenesis in Association with Reducing O6—Kmethylguanine DNA Adduct in A/J Mice. Xing et. al. Cancer Prevention Research 7(1) January 2014.
2-Kava– Its Resurgence, Quality Control, Anxiolytic Activity, and Hepatotoxic Risk, a Natural Medicine with Future Promise and Challenges . Xing et. al. Planta Med 2013; 79-P97.
3-Inhibition of mitogen activated protein kinases increases the sensitivity of A549 lung cancer cells to the cytotoxicity induced by a kava chalcone analog. Xing, et. al. NIH public access.
4-Reduction in Colon Cancer Risk by Consumption of Kava or Kava Fractions in Carcinogen-Treated Rats. Xing et. al. Nutrition and Cancer 1-9 2012.
5-Kava Components Down-Regulate Expression of AR and Ar Splice Variants and Reduce Growth in Patient-Derived Prostrate Cancer Xenografts in Mice. UC, Irvine . Zi, et. al. PLoS One; 02/2012. Vol. 7; Issue 2.
6-Identification of Methysticin as a potent and non-toxic NF-kB inhibitor from kava, potentially responsible for kava’s chemopreventive activity . Xing, et. al. Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry Letters. Science Direct.
 
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