via ProHealth.com
by Sayer Ji*
May 30, 2012
Nutrition research writer Sayer Ji is founder and chair of GreenMedInfo.com – a not-for-profit consumer advocacy site offering 'the world’s largest natural medicine database,’ with a searchable index linking to more than 18,000 biomedical study abstracts. This article, first published May 23, 2012, is reproduced with kind permission from Sayer Ji’s blog. ©2012 GreenMedInfo.com all rights reserved.
The tissues discussed are nerves, liver, beta cells (pancreas), hormones, heart, and cartilage/joint/spine.
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6 Bodily Tissues That Can Be Regenerated Through Nutrition
It may come as a surprise to some, especially those with conventional medical training, but the default state of the body is one of ceaseless regeneration. Without the flame-like process of continual cell turnover within the body - life and death ceaselessly intertwined - the miracle of the human body would not exist.
Consider the fact that every two days the enterocytes lining your intestines are completely replaced, and that within 100 days almost every atom and molecule within your body has been excreted, breathed out, or sloughed off, only to be replaced by new ones from the food you ate, the water you drank or the air you breathed in, in the interim.
In times of illness, however, regenerative processes are overcome by degenerative ones.
This is where [wholistic] medicine may perform its most noble feat, nudging the body back into balance with foods, herbs, nutrients, healing energies; i.e., healing intention.
Today, however, drug-based medicine invariably uses chemicals that have not one iota of regenerative potential; to the contrary, they almost always interfere with bodily self-renewal in order to suppress the symptoms against which they are applied.
Despite the outright heretical nature of things which stimulate healing and regeneration vis-à-vis the conventional medical system which frowns upon, or is incredulous towards, spontaneous remission in favor of symptom suppression and disease management - over the course of the past few years of trolling MEDLINE we have collected a series of remarkable studies on the topic.
Nerve Regeneration
There are actually a broad range of natural compounds with proven nerve-regenerative effects. A 2010 study published in the journal Rejuvenation Research, for instance, found a combination of blueberry, green tea and carnosine have neuritogenic (i.e., promoting neuronal regeneration) and stem-cell regenerative effects in an animal model of neurodegenerative disease.(1)
Other researched neuritogenic substances include:
1. Curcumin (compound in turmeric)
2. Lion’s Mane Mushroom
3. Apigenin (compound in vegetables like celery)
4. Blueberry
5. Ginseng
6. Huperzine (from ‘fir moss’)
7. Natto (from fermented soybeans)
8. Red Sage (compound in root of a type of salvia native to China and Japan).
9. Resveratrol (compound in grapes, red wine, purple grape juice, peanuts, some berries)
10. Royal Jelly
11. Theanine (amino acid derived most commonly in Camellia sinensis teas, esp green tea)
12. Ashwaganda (‘Indian ginseng’)
13. Coffee (trigonelline)
There is another class of nerve-healing substances, known as remyelinating compounds, which stimulate the repair of the protective sheath around the axon of the neurons known as myelin, and which is often damaged in neurological injury and/or dysfunction, especially autoimmune and vaccine-induced demyelination disorders.
It should also be noted that even music and falling in love have been studied for possibly stimulating neurogenesis, regeneration and/or repair of neurons, indicating that regenerative medicine does not necessary require the ingestion of anything.
Rather, a wide range of therapeutic actions may be employed to improve health and well-being, as well.
(To view the first-hand biomedical citations on these neuritogenic substances, visit the GreenMedInfo Neuritogenic Research page on the topic.)
Liver Regeneration
Glycyrrhizin, a compound found within licorice, and which we recently featured as a powerful anti-SARS virus agent, has also been found to stimulate the regeneration of liver mass and function in the animal model of hepatectomy. Other liver regenerative substances include:
1. Carvacrol (a volatile compound in oregano)
2. Curcumin
3. Korean Ginseng
4. Rooibos (aka ‘bush tea’)
5. Vitamin E
[Note: another substance in this category that Sayer Ji may discuss in future is Milk Thistle.]
(View the first-hand biomedical citations on the GreenMedInfo Liver Regeneration research page.)
Beta-Cell Regeneration
Unfortunately, the medical community has yet to harness the diabetes-reversing potential of natural compounds.
Whereas expensive stem cell therapies, islet cell transplants, and an array of synthetic drugs in the developmental pipeline are the focus of billions of dollars of research annually, our kitchen cupboards and backyards may already contain the long sought-after cure for type 1 diabetes.
The following compounds have been demonstrated experimentally to support regeneration of the insulin-producing beta cells, which are destroyed in insulin dependent diabetes, and which once restored, may (at least in theory) help restore the health of the patient to the point where they no longer require insulin replacement.
1. Gymenna Sylvestre ("the sugar destroyer")
2. Nigella Sativa ("black cumin")
3. Vitamin D
4. Curcumin (from the spice turmeric)
5. Arginine (amino acid)
6. Avocado
7. Berberine (found in bitter herbs such as Goldenseal and Barberry)
8. Bitter Melon
9. Chard (yes, the green leafy vegetables)
10. Corn Silk
11. Stevia
12. Sulforaphane (especially concentrated in broccoli sprouts).
(View the first-hand biomedical citations on the Beta Cell Regeneration research page.)
Hormone Regeneration
There are secretagogues, which increase the endocrine glands' ability to secrete more hormone.
And there are substances that truly support regeneration of hormones which have degraded (by emitting electrons) into potentially carcinogenic "transient hormone" metabolites.
One of these substances is vitamin C. A powerful electron donor, this vitamin has the ability to contribute electrons to help resurrect the form and function of estradiol (estrogen; E2), progesterone, testosterone, for instance.(2)
In tandem with foods that are able to support the function of glands, such as the ovaries, vitamin C may represent an excellent complement or alternative to hormone replacement therapy.
Cardiac Cell Regeneration
Not too long ago, it was believed that cardiac tissue was uniquely incapable of being regenerated.
A new, but rapidly growing body of experimental research now indicates that this is simply not true, and there is a class of heart-tissue regenerating compounds known as neocardiogenic substances.
Neocardiogenic substances are able to stimulate the formation of cardiac progenitor cells which can differentiate into healthy heart tissue, and they include the following:
1. Resveratrol
2. Siberian Ginseng (Eleuthero)
3. Red Wine Extract
4. Geum Japonicum
5. N-acetyl-cysteine
Another remarkable example of cardiac cell regeneration is through what is known as fetomaternal trafficking of stem cells through the placenta.
In a recent article we discussed the amazing process known as "fetal microchimerism" by which the fetus contributes stem cells to the mother which are capable of regenerating her damaged heart cells, and possibly a wide range of other cell types.
Cartilage / Joint / Spine Regeneration
As for the spinal cord, curcumin and resveratrol have been shown to support improved recovery from spinal cord injury.
(Over a dozen other natural compounds hold promise in this area, which can be viewed on our Spinal Cord Injury research page.)
As for degenerative joint disease, i.e., osteoarthritis, there is a broad range of potentially regenerative substances.
(With 50 listed on our osteoarthritis research page.)
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Ultimately, regenerative medicine threatens to undermine the very economic infrastructure that props up the modern, drug-based and quite candidly degenerative medical system.
Symptom suppression is profitable because it guarantees both the perpetuation of the original underlying disease, and the generation of an ever-expanding array of additional, treatment-induced symptoms.
This is the non-sustainable, infinite growth model which shares features characteristic of the process of cancer itself - a model, which by its very nature, is doomed to fail and eventually collapse.
Cultivating diets, lifestyles and attitudes conducive to bodily regeneration can interrupt this pathological circuit, and help us to attain the bodily freedom that is a precondition for the liberation of the human soul and spirit, as well.
- Sayer Ji
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1. “NT-020, a natural therapeutic approach to optimize spatial memory performance and increase neural progenitor cell proliferation and decrease inflammation in the aged rat,” Rejuvenation Res. 2010 Jun 29. Epub 2010 Jun 29. PMID: 20586644
2. “Photo-induced regeneration of hormones by electron transfer processes: Potential biological and medical consequences.” Radiat Phys Chem Oxf Engl 1993. Updated 2011 Aug ;80(8):890-894. PMID: 21814301
Disclaimer: This information (©2012 GreenMedInfo.com. All Rights Reserved) has not been reviewed by the FDA. It is general information, based on the research of Sayer Ji unless otherwise noted; and does not necessarily reflect the views of GreenMedInfo or its staff, or that of ProHealth, Inc. It is not intended as medical advice, or for prevention, diagnosis or treatment for any condition, illness or disease; and is not meant to replace a one-on-one relationship with a qualified healthcare professional. It is always very important that you make no change in your healthcare plan or health support regimen without researching and discussing it in collaboration with your professional healthcare team.