How Does Ginger Work? last updated March 21, 2007.
This is a hypothetical explanation of how ginger works to kill cancer cells.
Hopefully this will help you understand why ginger can be both such a powerful
cancer killer and a potentially dangerous drug.
Ginger contains several compounds that have anti-cancer properties. 6-Gingerol
is probably the one that does most of the work when ginger is used. The
best way to show how ginger kills cancer is by way of an analogy. Imagine
that the cancer cell has a self destruct button hidden by a cover. To activate
self destruct, the cover must be held open for at least 100 seconds. Each
gingerol molecule can only hold it open for 10 seconds at a time. When
there are more gingerol molecules nearby they can take turns holding the
cover open. When there are enough gingerol molecules around they can work
together to hold the cover open for one hundred seconds, and self destruct
is triggered. Ginger works at the genetic level in the cell. It actually
disrupts the cancer cell function and results in the cancer cell eating
itself. This process is called autophagy. This
is both good and bad. Good because there does not seem to be at this time
any indication that cancer can become resistant to this process. Bad because
once the concentration of gingerol is high enough the cancer cells will
die. This is bad because if there is a large tumor, a very large amount
of cancer can die rapidly. So much dead tissue can overload the body's ability
to clean up. The kidneys and liver could shut down, and that could be lethal.
This graph
shows what happens. Therefore the first cycle is most critical and must
be of a dose that will kill only a safe amount of cancer. Subsequent cycles
may use increasing doses. But the ginger must be stopped at the first sign
of kidney or liver pain or ache. Large amounts of water intake are necessary
to ensure constant urine flow.
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