Saturday, February 18, 2012

Dandelion Tea

Canadian researchers are looking into the possibility that dandelion tea, made from the plant's roots, may kill cancer cells.

Pretty interesting. There are so many "miracle cures" out there -- high antioxidant fruit juice, asparagus, whatever -- that people will tout. But they're unproven. The dandelion tea, on the other hand, is being handled the right way. It has been shown to be effective anecdotally (it kinda seems to work for some people who have chronic myelomonocytic leukemia), so researchers have planned a clinical trial to test the tea in a more controlled way.

That's critically important. Maybe there are many cures in nature. Maybe we're missing out some more natural treatments that could help out without side effects. But we need to test them in a rigorous, controlled way. Otherwise, too many people rely on untested treatments to save them, when proven possibilities exist (sadly, this happened with Steve Jobs).

A cancer like Follicular NHL creates even more problems in this situation. It's slow-growing, and waxes and wanes. So maybe my all-asparagus diet just happened to come at a time when my fNHL was naturally waning, getting better on its own, temporarily. Or maybe not. Maybe it was really that yummy asparagus.
 
Will dandelion tea and asparagus work? Maybe. But let's find out for sure.

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