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Text | Sun Lingxia
Registered Dietitian in the United States
Former clinical dietitian at John Hops Hospital
He was a nutritional research assistant at Harvard University
Ginseng, Ganoderma lucidum, Cordyceps sinensis, these valuable supplements on the road to anti-cancer, by many patients and families have high hopes, as long as the family can afford to buy, can not lose patients.
Are these valuable supplements worth buying?
The answer is: not worth buying!
These valuable supplements are not only expensive, but may even interfere with the smooth progress of treatment and surgery; even if they are eaten during non-surgical periods, there are safety risks; even if the product quality is guaranteed, the cost performance of these valuable supplements is low, and there is a lack of clear clinical data that will help cancer treatment and rehabilitation. If you blindly eat these supplements, it affects the normal diet, but aggravates malnutrition, which is not conducive to treatment and rehabilitation.
Interfere with treatment and surgery
Cordyceps sinensis has been shown to increase the proliferation of precursor cells of red blood cells, and these cells are homologous to cells that produce myeloid leukemia (that is, from the same family), so it is currently not recommended for patients with acute myeloid leukemia or chronic myeloid leukemia.
Ganoderma lucidum has a certain impact on immune regulation, during cancer treatment, the use of immunosuppressants, such as bone marrow transplantation, eating ganoderma lucidum is likely to increase the risk of rejection, so it is not recommended to eat ganoderma lucidum casually.
Ginseng and some anti-cancer drugs, such as imatinib, have a certain interaction, which is likely to increase the toxicity of the drug to the liver.
Ginseng, ganoderma lucidum, and Cordyceps sinensis all have a certain degree of anticoagulant effect, and eating it before surgery may increase the risk of surgical blood loss. Ginseng, in particular, has been clearly recommended not to eat ginseng for at least a week before surgery.
Ginseng and Cordyceps sinensis have a certain influence on blood sugar control, and it is not recommended to eat ginseng and Cordyceps sinensis during the use of insulin or blood glucose-lowering drugs, especially sulfonylureas (eg, glimepiride, gliclazide, gliquinone, glibenclamide), it is not recommended to eat ginseng and Cordyceps sinensis, which increases the risk of hypoglycemia. Hypoglycemia is potentially life-threatening.
Security risks
The wound heals after the operation, is it okay to take a little of these supplements?
You don't have to.
Many of these supplements have been reported to have detected heavy metals exceeding the standard, and they have indeed caused harm to the human body. A doctor at a cancer hospital in Beijing once shared the real experience of a patient. After suffering from cancer, he ate a lot of Cordyceps sinensis every day, and as a result, he was admitted to the hospital for heavy metal poisoning.
The image comes from the internet
Low price-quality ratio
Although there are studies suggesting that ginseng, ganoderma lucidum, and cordyceps are beneficial to the treatment or rehabilitation of some cancers, the vast majority of them are extracellular studies or animal studies, and there is little support for high-quality clinical studies that have practical benefits for real clinical use in humans.
The function in the human body is very exquisite and complex, the in vitro environment is completely incomparable, it is easy to kill and inhibit cancer cells in vitro, but most of the methods are completely failed in vivo; animal research also has great limitations, and the tumors of animal models and the tumor growth of the human body are very different.
No matter what kind of research, it is to build a stage for the final stage of clinical cancer fight. In vitro research is usually the first step, animal research builds the second step, human clinical research is the third step, only the three steps are stable and good, in order to straighten the waist and finally board the stage of clinical treatment to help patients.
Only after rigorous clinical research with patients as the object and rigorous design, we know whether a certain supplement is really useful, whether it is harmful, who is useful to whom, how to use it is beneficial to treatment, and how much dose is needed to play an effective role.
The biggest worry is that it took a lot of thought, spent money, picked up sesame seeds and lost watermelon, and finally it may be harmful.
Blindly using these expensive supplements is not only likely to be a waste of money, but also has a negative impact on the treatment of drugs and surgeries, and it is more likely to ignore the basic dietary nutrition that is really effective and should be paid attention to because only these valuable supplements are valued.
Treating cancer is like taking a major exam. We all know that if the exam is good, the basic questions must not lose points, and the nutritionally balanced and comprehensive diet is the basic question of the battle against cancer.
Don't underestimate everyday foods, the nutrition they provide is the basis for ensuring the functioning of the body, whether it is to fight diseases or heal, these nutrients are indispensable. Only by doing a good job of these basic meals can we better empower the body and increase the strength of the "battle" to win the cancer battle.
If you can do a good job of the basic diet and practice it in the daily meals, I firmly believe that this is definitely much more helpful than eating a few cordyceps, a few ginseng, and a few pieces of Ganoderma lucidum for treatment.
bibliography:
[1] BILGI N, BELLK, ANANTHAKRISHNAN AN, et al. Imatinib and Panax ginseng: a potentialinteraction resulting in liver toxicity[J]. Annals of Pharmacotherapy, 2010,44(5):926-8
[2] MemorialSloan Kettering Cancer Center. Integrative Medicine. [EB/OL]. [2020-03-25].https://www.mskcc.org/cancer-care/integrative-medicine/herbs/cordyceps#references-16
[3] GAO Y, ZHOU S, JIANG W, et al. Effects of ganopoly (a Ganoderma lucidum polysaccharide extract) on the immunefunctions in advanced-stage cancer patients[J]. Immunological Investigations, 2003,32(3):201-215
[4] ANG-LEE MK, MOSS J, YUAN CS. Herbal medicines and perioperative care[J]. JAMA, 2001;286:208-216.
[5] MemorialSloan Kettering Cancer Center. Integrative Medicine. [EB/OL]. [2020-03-25]. https://www.mskcc.org/cancer-care/integrative-medicine/herbs/ginseng-asian#msk_professional
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