Cartilage: A closer look

In his book, Off-the-Shelf Natural Health, Mark Mayell explains that bovine and shark cartilage contain a substance called angiogenesis inhibition factor (AIF), that some scientists say, slows down the process of angiogenesis (the growth of new blood vessels). Since tumors need blood-derived nutrients and oxygen to grow, it is thought that cartilage supplementation can inhibit tumor growth.

Let's take a closer look at both kinds of cartilage and see why and how they may work against cancer and other ailments. Bovine cartilage: gaining in scientific recognition

Bovine tracheal cartilage has a number of beneficial uses. Its potential value and effectiveness came to the notice of John F. Prudden, M.D., Med.Sc.D., while he was a surgeon and associate professor of clinical surgery at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City.

Back in 1956, Prudden discovered that bovine cartilage had the ability to speed wound healing.

As part of a combined attempt to reverse the negative effects of cortisone on wound healing, Prudden used bovine cartilage chips in an animal model. To his astonishment, the cartilage sped up wound healing and reduced inflammation in the surrounding tissues. The speed at which the wound then healed amazed Prudden and directed him away from surgery and into research exploring the mysteries of bovine tracheal cartilage.

Bovine cartilage and cancer

"This discovery encouraged Prudden to utilize bovine cartilage in other areas," explained the March 1996 issue of Better Nutrition. "During the course of his initial work, he observed that in one patient who had breast cancer (as well as a malignant ulceration of the entire chest wall), her cancer disappeared completely on bovine-cartilage [supplementation]."

This finding led Prudden to carry out trials on other cancer patients. In an article which appeared in the Journal of Biological Response Modifiers (1985), Prudden published the results of bovine-cartilage supplementation in 31 patients with a variety of cancers (including ovarian, rectal, prostatic, cervical, thyroidal, and squamous cancer of the nose). Ninety percent showed a partial or complete response and 35 percent showed a probable cure. Results of this case made Prudden focus all of his efforts on research.

Since then, more than 100 cancer patients have had positive responses to bovine cartilage supplementation. To verify the long-term effectiveness of this product for cancer, he has followed the total-remission cases for more than 19 years, observing no return of the cancer.

Cartilage products also hold back the development of new-growth vessels that could support cancer. In addition, bovine cartialge's immune-enhancing effects were observed by J. Rosen and colleagues in a 1988 article which also appeared in the Journal of Biological Response Mofifiers.

The authors found that the results "demonstrate that [bovine cartialge] has immunoregulatory activity." Further, the results show that these preparations "enhance antibody production" and that "cartilage-derived material, rich in proteoglycans [...] apparently stimulates" immune defenses, said Better Nutrition.

Prudden's subsequent research revealed to him that bovine cartilage specifically increases the number of B cells, macrophages, and Tcells, which attack viruses and reject foreign tissue. It also increases the number of "natural killer" cells.

Importantly, when B cells are increased, immunoglobulins also increase and are supercharged with more power to block the replication of cancer cells.

In addition, as Prudden describes, in an August 1995 issue of Nutrition Science News, bovine cartilage closely resembles "fetal mesenchyme, the primordial tissue from which muscle, bone, tendons, ligaments, skin, fat, and bone marrow (the heart of the immune system) all develop."

There are no overnight miracles, Prudden points out, however. Some patients take it daily for as long as four months before showing a definite response. Also, in certain cases, the condition worsens before getting better.

Prudden's most important advice to his patients is to stay on the same daily regimen even after noticeable improvement.

Prudden has found bovine cartilage helpful in managing disorders in addition to cancer and wound healing: allergies and immunological skin disorders, herpes (viral) infections, mononucleosis (caused by the Epstein-Barr virus), ulcerative colitis, scleroderma, and even rheumatoid and osteoarthritis.

Bovine cartilage and arthritis

How does bovine cartilage seem to work against these types of arthritis? It reduces inflammation and provides healthy biochemical material which the body needs for synthesizing cartilage.

In a 1974 report published in Seminars in Arthritis and Rheumatism, Prudden and colleague, Leslie Balassa, published their results after treating patients with moderate-tosevere osteoarthritis. By the end of the study, of the 28 people who were included in the study, 19 experienced "excellent" results, six reported "good" results, and two noted "some benefit."

Shark cartilage: an understanding

Shark cartilage owes part of its popularity to two books written by I. William Lane, Ph.D.: Sharks Don't Get Cancer and Sharks Still Don't Get Cancer, and to interest generated by his appearance on the news program 60 Minutes.

With a background in industrial research, Lane became especially interested in sharks in the 1970's, when he was retained as a fisheries consultant to the Shah of Iran.

Around 1983, prompted by a meeting with Prudden, Lane heard about a new study by M.I.T.'s Anne Lee, Ph.D., and Robert Langer, Sc.D., "Shark Cartilage Contains Inhibitors of Tumor Angiogenesis" (Science 221: 1185-1187).

Lee and Langer reported that shark cartilage, which comprises 6 to 8 percent of the fish's gross body weight, contains a substance which strongly inhibits the growth of new blood vessels attaching to solid tumors. Without support of new blood vessels and the oxygen and nutrients that they carry, tumor growth is stopped or even reversed.

"Since then, I've been a man obsessed," Lane remembers in his 1996 book, Sharks Still Don't Get Cancer.

A 1987 paper by Judah Folkman, M.D., and colleagues, echoed the findings of the Lee-Langer study, showing that solid tumors are, indeed, dependent upon the growth of new capillaries for food and oxygen, for cell metabolism, and for the elimination of cellular wastes. Folkman's second conclusion was that by preventing new capillary growth by means of shark cartilage, one could curb the growth of a tumor.

Lane's intensive personal research, built upon the Lee-LangerFolkman findings, led him to write "Shark Cartilage: Its Potential Medical Applications," which was published in the Winter 1991 edition of the Journal of Advancement in Medicine, in which he states:

"Many of man's worst maladies require the development of a new blood capillary network. The medical potential for shark cartilage, taken orally and non-toxic, evolves around its apparent ability to inhibit [block] angiogenesis [the development of new blood vessels] while stimulating the immune system." In other words, starve a tumor by not allowing it to get nutrients through the bloodstream, then it can't get bigger, and may even bite the dust (at some point). He continued:

"By inhibiting angiogenesis, shark cartilage, which is itself avascular [no veins] tissue, appears to be able to affect inflammation and the pain associated with arthritis, as well as as the development and spread of cancer, psoriasis, diabetic retinopathy, neovascular glaucoma, and other new-blood-network-dependent diseases."

This was not the first suggestion that blocking angiogenesis could block cancer - just one of the first to suggest that a protein portion in shark cartilage could do the job. In fact, back in 1988, Patricia A. D'Amore, in Seminars in Thrombosis and Hemostasis, wrote that if new capillaries are absolutely essential to establishing a tumor, to its subsequent growth, and metastasization (ability to spread), it would seem that the blocking of capillary growth might well prevent cancers from metastasizing.

Two later studies solidified this hypothesis. Researcher G. Atassi, at the Jules Bordet Institute (Brussels, Belgium), stated that unique and super-accurate photography (xenography) revealed that tumors were reduced by 36 percent in volunteers taking shark cartilage orally. This is in sharp contrast to volunteers acting as controls, whose tumors increased by 169 percent.

In human trials at the Hospital Ernesto Contreras in Tijuana, Mexico, across the border from San Diego, seven of eight advancedstage cancer patients showed a reduction in tumor size when treated with 15 g of shark cartilage administered therapeutically (under supervision). No negative side effects were reported when up to 30 g of shark cartilage was taken daily by several patients.

In another shark cartilage trial, in Cuba, 29 terminally-ill cancer patients were selected. After two years on this same shark cartilage regimen, 14 were still alive and well.

Don't forget that the potential benefits of shark cartilage are not limited to cancer. It has been used successfully to help sufferers deal with the inflammation and pain of arthritis, for managing psoriasis, for diabetic retinopathy and neovascular glaucoma, as well as other blood network-dependent medical conditions.

Shark cartilage and arthritis

According to Lane: "Considering the components of shark cartilage, it is not really surprising that the cartilage is effective for arthritis sufferers. The mucopolysaccharides in shark cartilage seem to fight inflammation. The complex carbohydrates found in the cartilage -- particularly chondroitin sulphates A and C have long been used in the safe and effective treatment of chronic inflammatory diseases. [Also], proteins in shark cartilage appear to block the angiogenic process, which is now known to be associated with the development of arthritis."

Shark cartilage guidance. In their book, Prescription for Nutritional Healing, James F. Balch, M.D., and Phyllis A. Balch, C.N.C., offer some guidance on shark cartilage supplementation. They warn that not all shark cartilage products, which are generally available in either powder or capsule forms, contain 100-percent pure shark cartilage; so, it is important to read labels carefully. Also, since shark cartilage is high in calcium, it may be a good idea to increase your supplementation of other minerals, in particular, potassium and magnesium, to maintain a proper mineral balance in the body.

Cartilage guidance, in general. Lastly, they advise that pregnant women, children, persons who have recently undergone surgery, and those who have suffered a heart attack avoid taking cartilage. Both shark and bovine tracheal cartilage are developing a large following among the many people afflicted with cancer and the other illnesses discussed in this article.

[Sidebar]

Better Nutrition Thought Bite: Dr. John Prudden

IN A JULY 1, 1997, chat between Dr. Prudden and Better Nutrition's editor, James Gormley, Prudden proclaimed: "I'm the Papa Doc of cartilage therapies" recognizing his own role as a leader in cartilage research (although no connections to Haitian political regimes were presumably intended by Prudden in his self-proclaimed moniker). Asked to look back at those early days of research and describe them, Prudden said (with a smile): "I was just a busy surgeon who was happily discovering things."

[Sidebar]

Is shark cartilage demand endangering shark populations?

CONTRARY TO SOME news stories which came out in June and July, an exhaustive study by TRAFFIC consultant Debra A. Rose says - according to available data: "no." The 106page report, which was conducted by the TRAFFIC Network - a joint program of the World Wildlife Fund, and the Shark Specialist Group and Center for Marine Conservation of the Species Survival Commission/ IUCN-The World Conservation Union (the same report cited by other media sources) - in fact said the following:

Conservationists have expressed growing concern that new markets for shark cartilage pose an additional source of pressure on shark stocks worldwide [...] However, research for the present study suggests that [...] there is little evidence that the use of cartilage is stimulating shark fisheries.

This is good news for us conservation-minded consumers, retailers, and manufacturers. Nevertheless, the report includes critical recommendations for improved trade monitoring; improved basic fisheries management, research, and data collection; and improved reporting of the volume, species composition, and destination of catches and landings, etc.

The report is entitled: An Overview of World Trade in Sharks and Other Cartilaginous Fishes. TRAFFIC International, 1996.

Those interested in requesting this report, can contact: TRAFFIC USA, 1250 TwentyFourth Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20037 (phone: 202-2934800, fax: 202-775-8287).

[Reference]

List of references available.