Enjoy your chocolate with less guilt — a study at the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, which is affiliated with Georgetown University Medical Center, has found that a synthetic chemical based on a compound found in cocoa beans slows the growth of cancerous tumors and speeds their destruction.
“We have all heard that eating chocolate is good for you; this study suggests one reason why that might be true,” said researcher Min Kim, Ph.D. “This chemical seems to be safe, which makes sense because it has a structure similar to a natural product in cocoa beans, the same beans used to make chocolate,” he says.
Even better, the concentrations of the chemical tested in the study weren’t excessive. “The effective concentrations were considered similar to what a person might eat or use,” he says.
Kim and his team of researchers found that the chemical, known as GECGC, was effective against colon, cervical, and one line of leukemia cells. Growth of colon cancer cells was cut in half, and the chemical damaged most of the tumor cells.
GECGC was most effective against fast-growing cancers and was so effective against colon cancer, and didn’t harm normal cells that Kim says the chemical “could serve as a promising therapeutic for colon cancer.”
...(courtesy from Newsmax.com Health Alerts)
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