HERBAL UNTUK MENINGKATKAN IMUNITAS TUBUH

Menurut Dr Suprapto Ma'at dari Fakultas Kedokteran Universitas Airlangga fungsi sistem imun adalah pertahanan. Intinya menangkal bahan berbahaya agar tubuh tidak sakit. Jika sel-sel imun diganggu, orang rentan sakit. Ia sebagai penjaga keseimbangan komponen tubuh dengan membersihkan sel-sel yang mati. Fungsi lain, sistem imun meronda ke seluruh bagian tubuh. Jika ditemukan sel tubuh yang mutasi-memicu kanker-sistem imun akan membinasakannya 'Sistem imun tubuh melindungi tubuh dari bahaya radikal bebas dalam tubuh,' kata Lukas Tersono Adi, herbalis di Tangerang.

Sistem imun itu terbentuk dari antioksidan yang secara alami sudah terdapat dalam tubuh. Namun, jumlah sistem imun terkikis seiring gempuran bahan kimia dan penyakit. Makanya, untuk memperkuat sistem kekebalan tubuh butuh konsumsi bahan-bahan alami yang mengandung zat gizi lengkap. Dengan begitu keseimbangan hormon pengatur fungsi tubuh tetap terjaga, walau virus, cendawan, dan bakteri menggempur. 'Hidup sehat alami dengan cara memanfaatkan tanaman di sekitar kita,' imbuh Lukas.

Biji anggur yang selama ini kita buang ketika menikmati buah Vitis vinifera, justru kaya antioksidan. Ia berkekuatan tinggi sehingga dapat menembus sel darah dan otak sekaligus meningkatkan kadar oksigen dalam darah dan otak. 'Antioksidan tinggi juga terdapat pada herbal,' kata alumnus Universitas Diponegoro itu. Sekadar menyebut beberapa contoh adalah kumis kucing, meniran, pegagan, sambiloto, temulawak, kunir putih, daun sendok, dan jombang. Herbal itu teruji klinis dan mempunyai aktivitas antioksidan tinggi untuk membentuk sistem imun.

Kerja sama

Senyawa aktif yang terkandung dalam herbal itu memang beragam. Meniran Phyllanthus niruri ampuh menjaga organ tubuh dari penyakit itu. Ia kaya senyawa aktif seperti alkaloid, astragalin, asam karboksilat, brevifolin, dan korilagin. Senyawa-senyawa aktif itu saling bersinergi membentengi tubuh dari penyakit.
Sedangkan sambiloto Andrographis paniculata membantu imunitas tubuh melalui peningkatan daya fagositosis leukosit. Itu diperoleh berkat kerja sama 4 jenis senyawa lakton utama, yaitu deoksiandrografolida, andrografolida, neoandrografolida, dan didehidroandrografolida. Khasiat bakal terasa setelah rutin meminum rebusan 5 gram daun kering sambiloto dalam 2 gelas air. 'Jika menggunakan daun segar, dosisnya 30 lembar daun dan direbus dalam 2 gelas air,' kata Lukas.

Herba yang mujarab menjaga sistem kekebalan tubuh: temulawak Curcuma xanthorriza. Riset Prof Dr Yahya Kisyanto dan Dr Nyoman Kertia, SpPD-KR membuktikan temulawak menurunkan risiko serangan kanker payudara. Xanthorrhizol, senyawa aktif dalam rimpang kerabat kunyit itu memang terbukti antikanker. Selain itu, 'Temulawak juga didukung oleh 100 komponen senyawa aktif yang mencegah penyakit masuk ke tubuh,' kata Prof Nyoman.

Kurkuminoid salah satu di antaranya. Senyawa aktif itu berkhasiat sebagai antioksidan, antiinflamasi, antibakteri, antihepatotoksik, antikolesterol, antikanker, dan sekaligus antiplatelet agregasi. Dosis yang dianjurkan adalah 2 gram temulawak. Mau yang lain? Masih ada pegagan Centella asiatica. Jika rutin mengkonsumsi rebusan pegagan 3 kali sehari- rebus 3 gram dalam 2 gelas air- berbagai jenis kanker menjauh.

Sebab kandungan asam asetat, betakaroten, betakariofilen, betaelemena, betafarsenen, betasisterol, dan brahminosida dalam pegagan membentengi tubuh dari gempuran penyakit. Yasir Hassan Siddique periset Aligar Muslim University, membuktikan pemberian 50 mg/ kg bobot tubuh/hari ekstrak pegagan selama 14 hari, meningkatkan enzim antioksidan seperti superoksida dismutase (SOD), katalase, glutathione peroxidase (GSHPx), dan antioksidan glutathione (GSH) yang efektif menekan laju pertumbuhan tumor maupun kanker.

Temulawak, meniran, sambiloto, dan pegagan ada di sekitar kita dan mudah didapat. Dengan rutin mengkonsumsi herba itu, berarti memperkokoh pertahanan tubuh. Itulah salah satu cara paling bijak mencegah serangan penyakit maut yang terus mengintai. (Sardi Duryatmo & Vina Fitriani) http://www.trubus-online.co.id/mod.php?mod=publisher&op=printarticle&artid=1136

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Book Review: "The Human Diet: Its Origins and Evolution"

I recently read this book after discovering it on another health site. It's a compilation of chapters written by several researchers in the fields of comparative biology, paleontology, archaeology and zoology. It's sometimes used as a textbook.

I've learned some interesting things, but overall it was pretty disappointing. The format is disjointed, with no logical flow between chapters. I also would not call it comprehensive, which is one of the things I look for in a textbook. Here are some of the interesting points:

• Humans in industrial societies are the only mammals to commonly develop hypertension, and are the only free-living primates to become overweight.
  
• The adoption of grains as a primary source of calories correlated with a major decrease in stature, decrease in oral health, decrease in bone density, and other problems. This is true for wheat, rice, corn and other grains.
• Cranial capacity has also declined 11% since the late paleolithic, correlating with a decrease in the consumption of animal foods and an increase in grains.
• According to carbon isotope ratios of teeth, corn did not play a major role in the diet of native Americans until 800 AD. Over 15% of the teeth of post-corn South American cultures showed tooth decay, compared with less than 5% for pre-corn cultures (many of which were already agricultural, just not eating corn).
  
• Childhood mortality seems to be similar among hunter-gatherers and non-industrial agriculturists and pastoralists.
  
• Women may have played a key role in food procurement through foraging. This is illustrated by a group of modern hunter-gatherers called the Hadza. While men most often hunt, which supplies important nutrients intermittently, women provide a steady stream of calories by foraging for tubers.
• We have probably been eating starchy tubers for between 1.5 and 2 million years, which precedes our species. Around that time, digging tools, (controversial) evidence of controlled fire and changes in digestive anatomy all point to use of tubers and cooked food in general. Tubers make sense because they are a source of calories that is much more easily exploited than wild grains in most places.
• Our trajectory as a species has been to consume a diet with more calories per unit fiber. As compared to chimps, who eat leaves and fruit all day and thus eat a lot of fiber to get enough calories, our species and its recent ancestors ate a diet much lower in fiber.
  
• Homo sapiens has always eaten meat.
  

The downside is that some chapters have a distinct low-fat slant. One chapter attempted to determine the optimal diet for humans by comparing ours to the diets of wild chimps and other primates. Of course, we eat more fat than a chimp, but I don't think that gets us anywhere. Especially since one of our closest relatives, the neanderthal, was practically a carnivore.
They consider the diet composition of modern hunter-gatherers that eat low-fat diets, but don't include data on others with high-fat diets like the Inuit.

There's some good information in the book, if you're willing to dig through a lot of esoteric data on the isotope ratios of extinct hominids and that sort of thing.

Sunscreen and Melanoma

Melanoma is the most deadly type of skin cancer, accounting for most skin cancer deaths in the US. As Ross pointed out in the comments section of the last post, there is an association between severe sunburn at a young age and later development of melanoma. Darker-skinned people are also more resistant to melanoma. The association isn't complete, however, since melanoma sometimes occurs on the soles of the feet and even in the intestine. This may be due to the fact that there are several types of melanoma, potentially with different causes.

Another thing that associates with melanoma is the use of sunscreen above a latitude of 40 degrees from the equator. In the Northern hemisphere, 40 degrees draws a line between New York city and Beijing. A recent meta-analysis found consistently that sunscreen users above 40 degrees are at a higher risk of melanoma than people who don't use sunscreen, even when differences in skin color are taken into account. Wearing sunscreen decreased melanoma risk in studies closer to the equator. It sounds confusing, but it makes sense once you know a little bit more about UV rays, sunscreen and the biology of melanoma.

The UV light that reaches the Earth's surface is composed of UVA (longer) and UVB (shorter) wavelengths. UVB causes sunburn, while they both cause tanning. Sunscreen blocks UVB, preventing burns, but most brands only weakly block UVA. Sunscreen allows a person to spend more time in the sun than they would otherwise, and attenuates tanning. Tanning is a protective response (among several) by the skin that protects it against both UVA and UVB. Burning is a protective response that tells you to get out of the sun. The result of diminishing both is that sunblock tends to increase a person's exposure to UVA rays.

It turns out that UVA rays are more closely associated with melanoma than UVB rays, and typical sunscreen fails to prevent melanoma in laboratory animals. It's also worth mentioning that sunscreen does prevent more common (and less lethal) types of skin cancer.

Modern tanning beds produce a lot of UVA and not much UVB, in an attempt to deliver the maximum tan without causing a burn. Putting on sunscreen essentially does the same thing: gives you a large dose of UVA without much UVB.

The authors of the meta-analysis suggest an explanation for the fact that the association changes at 40 degrees of latitude: populations further from the equator tend to have lighter skin. Melanin blocks UVA very effectively, and the pre-tan melanin of someone with olive skin is enough to block most of the UVA that sunscreen lets through. The fair-skinned among us don't have that luxury, so our melanocytes get bombarded by UVA, leading to melanoma. This may explain the incredible rise in melanoma incidence in the US in the last 35 years, as people have also increased the use of sunscreen. It may also have to do with tanning beds, since melanoma incidence has risen particularly in women.

In my opinion, the best way to treat your skin is to tan gradually, without burning. Use clothing and a wide-brimmed hat if you think you'll be in the sun past your burn threshold. If you want to use sunscreen, make sure it blocks UVA effectively. Don't rely on the manufacturer's word; look at the ingredients list. It should contain at least one of the following: titanium dioxide, zinc oxide, avobenzone (Parsol 1789), Mexoryl SX (Tinosorb). It's best if it's also paraben-free.

Fortunately, as an external cancer, melanoma is easy to diagnose. If caught early, it can be removed without any trouble. If caught a bit later, surgeons may have to remove lymph nodes, which makes your face look like John McCain's. Later than that and you're probably a goner. If you have any questions about a growth, especially one with irregular borders that's getting larger, ask your doctor about it immediately!

Keladi Tikus. Satu lagi alternatif pengobatan dari alam

Selama ini kanker masih menjadi istilah medis yang menakutkan bagi sebagian orang, namun saat ini kanker bukanlah penyakit tanpa obat. Seperti halnya penyakit berat lainnya, bukan berarti ‘tidak ada obatnya’, tetapi ‘belum ditemukan’. Setiap penyakit (akan) ada obatnya, ini suatu keniscayaan yang harus kita yakini. Sementara perihal kesempatan mendapatkan obat ini, adalah bergantung kepada usaha dan kehendak yang Maha Kuasa. Sementara Tuhan tidak pernah berbuat dzolim pada hamba-hamba-Nya.
Kanker merupakan penyakit mematikan kedua setelah jantung. Kanker merupakan sel tidak normal yang bercokol dalam tubuh. Pertumbuhannya selain cepat juga tidak segan menyakiti jaringan lain, atau bersifat invasif, dan beranak sebar (metastasis) melalui pembuluh darah serta pembuluh getah bening.

Dengan berbagai pengalaman dan penelitian mengenai keladi tikus sebagai alternatif pengobatan kanker, tak pelak lagi keladi tikus langsung muncul dalam jajaran tanaman berkhasiat obat di negara kita. Literatur tanaman ini masih sebatas hasil dari malaysia dan penelitian lebih lanjut masih terus dilakukan. Meskipun tidak bisa diklaim sebagai obat dewa, kehadirannya telah banyak memberikan banyak arti bagi penderita kanker.

Tanaman keladi tikus (Typhonium flagelliforme) adalah tanaman sejenis talas setinggi 25 cm hingga 30 cm, termasuk tumbuhan semak, menyukai tempat yang lembab yang tidak terkena matahari langsung. Tanaman berbatang basah ini biasanya tumbuh di tempat terbuka pada ketinggian 1.000 meter di atas permukaan laut. Bentuk daunnya bulat dengan ujung runcing berbentuk jantung. Warnanya hijau segar. Umbinya berbentuk bulat rata sebesar buah pala.

Hasil Uji Empirik

Dari uji empirik (berdasarkan pengalaman) pengobatan kanker, beberapa jenis kanker yang mampu disembuhkan dengan menggunakan keladi tikus diantaranya : kanker payudara, kanker testis, kanker prostat, kanker usus besar, kanker tulang, kanker paru-paru dan kanker hati.

Keladi tikus sebagai tanaman obat dapat digunakan keseluruhannya, mulai dari akar, umbi, juga daunnya. Penggunaan yang paling umum adalah dengan mengonsumsi seluruh bagian tanaman dalam bentuk jus segar dan segera diminum setelah diolah. Hal ini dimaksudkan untuk sedapat mungkin mempertahankan khasiatnya.

Jus keladi tikus dapat dengan mudah dibuat sendiri, sebanyak 3 herba keladi tikus dengan bobot sekitar 50g dicuci dan dibersihkan lalu direndap dalam air matang yang telah didinginkan selama sekitar 30 menit. Kemudian ditumbuk dengan alat penumbuk obat (mortar-stamfor) lalu peras dengan kain penyaring dan langsung diminum. Dosis yang dianjurkan adalah 1-3 kali sehari, 1 jam sebelum makan, untuk terapi. Bagi yang memiliki masalah lambung, dianjurkan diminum setelah makan. Apabila setelah meminumnya tenggorokan terasa gatal, dapat diatasi dengan meminum air gula/madu. Walaupun akan hilang dengan sendirinya setelah beberapa saat, demikian menurut Dr. Henry Nalan (ahli bedah tumor).

Menurut Yellia Mangan (herbalis), keladi tikus membantu sekali melawan kanker. Fungsinya sebagai pencegah timbulnya kanker setelah dioperasi bisa diandalkan. Di samping itu, fungsi lainnya adalah sebagai penghilang efek buruk kemoterapi. Mereka yang mengonsumsi keladi tikus secara teratur terbukti sesudah menjalani kemoterapi akan mendapatkan nafsu makannya kembali, rambut tidak mudah rontok dan rasa sakit di badan berkurang.

Hasil Riset

Tanaman ini pertama kali di diriset sebagai tanaman obat oleh ahli dari Malayia, Prof Dr.Chris K.H.Teo, Dip Agric (M), BSc Agric (Hons)(M), MS, PhD yang juga pendiri Cancer Care Penang, Malaysia. Sejak tahun 1995 Prof. Chris Teo meneliti tanaman ini, hasilnya menunjukan Ekstrak Typhonium Flageffiforme dan campuran bahan alami lainnya membantu detoxifikasi jaringan darah. Ramuan ini akan semakin baik bila diberikan bersama-sama dengan bahan herba lain, seperti sambiloto, temu putih dan rumput mutiara. Ramuan ini mengandung ribosome inacting protein (RIP), zat antioksidan dan zat antikurkumin. Kombinasi ketiga zat dalam campuran ramuan tersebut memproduksi mediator yang menstimulasi penguatan sel dalam sistem kekebalan tubuh untuk memberantas sel kanker.

Keladi tikus juga mampu menekan efek negatif dari proses pengobatan modern (kemoterapi), seperti rambut rontok, nafsu makan hilang, rasa mual dan rasa nyeri di tubuh. Di Amerika Serikat, tepatnya di Cancer Institute of New Jersey, sebuah tim yang dipimpin oleh Dr. Khaw Voon Chin, Associate Professor of Medicine and Pharmacology, melakukan penelitian dan membuktikan bahwa ekstrak keladi tikus efektif berfungsi sebagai anti-tumor dan anti virus.

Di Cina tanaman ini di teliti oleh Zhong Z, Zhou G, Chen X, dan Huang P dari Guangxi Institute of Traditional Medical and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Nanning. Penelitian ini dilakukan untuk mengetahui efek farmakologisnya. Diketahui bahwa ekstrak air dan alkohol dari Typhonium flagelliforme mempunyai efek mencegah batuk, menghilangkan dahak, analgesik, bersifat sedatif dan antiinflamasi, dan bersifat sedatif. Pada konsentrasi 720 g/kg ekstrak air, 900 g/kg ekstrak alkohol dan 3240 g/kg ekstrak ester tanaman ini dapat meracuni tubuh.

Lain lagi menurut Choo CY, Chan KL, Takeya K, dan Itokawa H. dari
School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University Sains Malaysia, ekstrak Typhonium flagelliforme memang mengandung zat anti kanker namun konsentrasinya lemah. Hasil penelitiannya ini pernah di publikasikan di jurnal kesehatan Phytotheraphy Research pada Mei 2001: 15 (3) : 260-2.

Sumber :
Lesly Septikasari - Bandung.
Majalah HERBA, April 2002
http://www.kabarinews.com/article.cfm?articleId=2630
http://www.wikimu.com/News/DisplayNews.aspx?id=5084

SehatHerbal.Com menyediakan ektrak Kapsul Keladi Tikus , harga Rp. 90.000/50 kapsul. Info lebih lanjut bisa sms ke 081310343598 atau email : sehatherbal@gmail.com.

Grains and Human Evolution

[Update 8/2011: as I've learned more about human genetics and evolution, I've come to appreciate that many Europeans actually descend from early adopters of agriculture more than they descend from the hunter-gatherers that previously occupied Europe.  Also, 10,000 years has been long enough for significant genetic adaptation.  Read The 10,000 Year Explosion for more information].

You've heard me say that I believe grains aren't an ideal food for humans. Part of the reason rests on the assertion that we have not been eating grains for long enough to have adapted to them. In this post, I'll go over what I know about the human diet before and after agriculture, and the timeline of our shift to a grain-based diet. I'm not an archaeologist so I won't claim that all these numbers are exact, but I think they are close enough to make my point.

As hunter-gatherers, we ate some combination of the following: land mammals (including organs, fat and marrow), cooked tubers, seafood (fish, mammals, shellfish, seaweed), eggs, nuts, fruit, honey, "vegetables" (stems, leaves, etc.), mushrooms, assorted land animals, birds and insects. The proportion of each food varied widely between groups and even seasons. This is pretty much what we've been living on since we evolved as a species, and even before, for a total of 1.5 million years or so (this number is controversial but is supported by multiple lines of evidence). There are minor exceptions, including the use of wild grains in a few areas, but for the most part, that's it.

The first evidence of a calorically important domesticated crop I'm aware of was about 11,500 years ago in the fertile crescent. They were cultivating an early ancestor of wheat called emmer. Other grains popped up independently in what is now China (rice; ~10,000 years ago), and central America (corn; ~9,000 years ago). That's why people say humans have been eating grains for about 10,000 years.

The story is more complicated than the dates suggest, however. Although wheat had its origin 11,500 years ago, it didn't become widespread in Western Europe for another 4,500 years. So if you're of European descent, your ancestors have been eating grains for roughly 7,000 years. Corn was domesticated 9,000 years ago, but according to the carbon ratios of human teeth, it didn't become a major source of calories until about 1,200 years ago! Many American groups did not adopt a grain-based diet until 100-300 years ago, and in a few cases they still have not. If you are of African descent, your ancestors have been eating grains for 9,000 to 0 years, depending on your heritage. The change to grains was accompanied by a marked decrease in dental health that shows up clearly in the archaeological record.

Practically every plant food contains some kind of toxin, but grains produce a number of nasty ones that humans are not well adapted to. Grains contain a large amount of phytic acid for example, which strongly inhibits the absorption of a number of important minerals. Tubers, which were our main carbohydrate source for about 1.5 million years before agriculture, contain less of it. This may have been a major reason why stature decreased when humans adopted grain-based agriculture. There are a number of toxins that occur in grains but not in tubers, such as certain heat-resistant lectins.

Non-industrial cultures often treated their seeds, including grains, differently than we do today. They used soaking, sprouting and long fermentation to decrease the amount of toxins found in grains, making them more nutritious and digestible. Most grain staples are not treated in this way today, and so we bear the brunt of their toxins even more than our ancestors did.

From an evolutionary standpoint, even 11,500 years is the blink of an eye. Add to that the fact that many people descend from groups that have been eating grains for far less time than that, and you begin to see the problem. There is no doubt that we have begun adapting genetically to grains. All you have to do to understand this is look back at the archaeological record, to see the severe selective pressure (read: disease) that grains placed on its early adopters. But the question is, have we had time to adapt sufficiently to make it a healthy food? I would argue the answer is no.

There are a few genetic adaptations I'm aware of that might pertain to grains: the duplication of the salivary amylase gene, and polymorphisms in the angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) and apolipoprotein B genes. Some groups duplicated a gene that secretes the enzyme amylase into the saliva, increasing its production. Amylase breaks down starch, indicating a possible increase in its consumption. The problem is that we were getting starch from tubers before we got it from grains, so it doesn't really argue for either side in my opinion. The ACE and apolipoprotein B genes may be more pertinent, because they relate to blood pressure and LDL cholesterol. Blood pressure and blood cholesterol are both factors that respond well to low-carbohydrate (and thus low-grain) diets, suggesting that the polymorphisms may be a protective adaptation against the cardiovascular effects of grains.

The fact that up to 1% of people of European descent may have full-blown celiac disease attests to the fact that 7,000 years have not been enough time to fully adapt to wheat on a population level. Add to that the fact that nearly half of genetic Europeans carry genes that are associated with celiac, and you can see that we haven't been weeded out thoroughly enough to tolerate wheat, the oldest grain!

Based on my reading, discussions and observations, I believe that rice is the least problematic grain, wheat is the worst, and everything else is somewhere in between. If you want to eat grains, it's best to soak, sprout or ferment them. This activates enzymes that break down most of the toxins. You can soak rice, barley and other grains overnight before cooking them. Sourdough bread is better than normal white bread. Unfermented, unsprouted whole wheat bread may actually be the worst of all.