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Immunoceuticals: Potentiating the Body's Immune Offenses |
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by Parris M. Kidd, Ph.D. |
 our old friend Jane calls and blurts out the frightening news: she has cancer. Her low tone of voice doesn’t hide her desperation. The cancer is spreading fast. The HMO doctors did two rounds of chemo and radiation therapy—now they can’t do any more. What can you do to help her?
Jane needs new tools for fighting her cancer, and fast. The “slash and burn” doctors have done what they could and sent her home to die. First it’s important she find a very good integrative anticancer practitioner, one who would use all the tools available. Trying to fight cancer using the Internet can result in empty pockets and an early funeral. But these doctors aren’t infallible and can benefit from
the intelligent input of Jane and her friends.
The situation for a cancer patient is very different between pre- “slash and burn” and post. Always there is the need to reduce the size of a cancerous tumor and eventually eliminate it. Chemo/radiotherapy is intended to perform this function but invariably wreaks toxic damage on much of the noncancerous tissues. Jane had been through it and now had tumors that were not amenable to chemo/radiotherapy. She had to find ways to rebuild and re-mobilize her own, built-in capacities to
fight this fast-spreading cancer. Her immune system would have to get into high gear, go after the cancer cells and eliminate them. For this she needed the best immunoceuticals she
could get.
The driving force of immunoceuticals is helping the body’s immune system to help the body. While nutraceuticals help the body generally resist disease, immunoceuticals more specifically help rebuild and mobilize the immune system. The body’s immune support organs, and the single immune cells that are
either posted in the tissues or circulate with the blood, are uniquely sensitive to chemical and radiation toxicity. Immunoceuticals can nurture the damaged immune organs, supplement supplies
of defensive molecules such as antibodies, activate the isolated warrior cells not organized
into organs and enhance the immune systems’ chemical crosstalk that coordinates its activities.
Immunoceuticals protect against toxic side effects of cancer therapies, enhance immune responsiveness, increase energy levels and enhance well-being. Jane needs all these benefits. She needs a high-protein diet supplying the highest-quality protein, to help make new immune cells and tissues to replace those that were lost to toxic damage. And she needs support for her bone marrow, thymus, spleen and
overburdened liver.
Your friend John calls and informs you matter-of-factly that he has HIV-1. They’ve told him to practice safe sex, eat well and exercise, then when his immune system is sufficiently damaged by the virus they’ll prescribe for him a drug cocktail. But he’s asking, Do I know of anything else he can do to help himself?
Yes, John. I know of a few things. Do you really believe that drugs can save your immune system after it’s been ravaged by HIV? Just visit the Web sites for a few of these drugs and read the adverse effects listings. Severe, lifethreatening, in some cases acutely fatal, hepatotoxicity. Diabetes. Pancreatitis and kidney failure at the same time. Hemolytic anemia. All conditions that require intensive blood testing and other monitoring, as often as once a month. Has anyone told you about vitamin B12 or vitamin C or alpha lipoic acid or the phytosterols or glucans or oral antibodies or colostrum, or any of the other immunoceuticals that you could use in combination to keep your immune system healthy while it fights HIV?
Your aging aunt Dora calls and complains about how bad the pain is from the arthritis in her knees. She’s tried vitamins and glucosamine and it gives her some relief but there’s still a lot of pain. You’re the vitamin expert: what do you suggest?
Well Auntie, it seems arthritis is the best example of the immune system going off balance and attacking its own tissues. You probably should increase your glucosamine intake and try MSM—methylsulfonylmethane. Oh, did you already do that? Well, then you probably need heavy-duty immunoceuticals.
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| The root of the Astragalus membranaceus has been used
by the Chinese for thousands of years. |
Certain herbs and especially phytosterols, substances from plants that compete against cholesterol, seem to help the immune system get back on track and distinguish its own tissues as self, instead of seeing them as enemy and going on the attack. They’re pretty affordable—I’ll send you some.
Herbals that enhance immunity come from all over the planet. As one example of what a humble herbal can do, consider astragalus. The root of Astragalus membranaceus has been used by the Chinese for immuno-potentiation for thousands of years and appears in almost all their mixed herbal formulas. Astragalus has not been heavily studied using modern immunologic techniques, but at MD Anderson
Hospital and Tumor Institute in Houston, astragalus was used in combination with an immune-activating hormone to give a superboost to weakened immune cells. This is a protocol that is used only after more conventional approaches have failed. Sometimes it works and a life is saved.
Another interesting herbal immunoceutical is echinacea. Progress has been made in standardizing this herbal to optimize its benefits and I’m keeping track of developments from the clinical research. Other highly efficacious immunoceuticals are discussed on subsequent pages of this feature.
Immunoceuticals usually will work best as combinations since they are far from being magic bullets. With cancer they work best on small tumor masses and can help eliminate small metastatic foci but are unlikely to destroy large tumors. This is where other interventions are needed such as surgery, hyperthermia or massive doses of proteolytic enzymes. If chemo- or radiation therapy is undertaken,
massive dietary supplementation will be necessary all the way through, both with immunoceuticals
and with nutraceuticals that support the other organ systems. Much the same strategy applies to HIV-1 infection and autoimmune conditions.
When one’s health is fine, the body’s immune team can relax a little. But under today’s conditions of planetary contamination, our hundreds of billions of immune cells must always be prepared to snap into action at a moment’s notice. Immunoceuticals drive these warrior cells to greater heights of accomplishment as they go on the offensive against cancer, viruses and the other dark forces that threaten our well-being and our hope for long life. .
PARRIS KIDD, Ph.D.
A noted biomedical consultant and health educator with a basic science Ph.D. from the University of California-Berkeley and diverse clinical research experience from the UCSF Medical Center, Dr. Kidd pioneered the health applications of antioxidants and phospholipid nutrients and specializes in rational formulation of sophisticated dietary supplements. He is internationally recognized and is a frequent guest on radio and television.
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