BIOBRAN 1000 MGN3 Arabinoxylan Compound
Dear Colleagues
Please find enclosed product information pertaining to BIOBRAN (MGN-3)®produced by DAIWA Pharmaceutical Ltd., Tokyo, Japan. This nutraceutical is produced as a food supplement and has been effectively used as a natural remedy in complementary medicine to “boost” immune system function in patients with cancer entities.
Our doctors and researchers have tested this product both in the laboratory and clinically. We will gladly provide you with the results of these independent tests upon request. Although there are no so-called “placebo-controlled, double-blind studies” in conjunction with this product and its application in the treatment of cancer patients, there are well-founded pre-clinical as well as clinical studies, confirming the effectiveness of BIOBRAN with regard to increase of immune system function and prolonging life of cancer patients. If you decide to include BIOBRAN as a complementary oncological treatment, you should inform your doctor. You may also take advantage of our Aeskulap Patient Care Service and consult our expert doctors with any special medicinal questions you might have. Whatever you decide, we wish you much success with your treatment and all the best!
Your medical team at Aeskulap International
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INTRODUCTION
Biobran is a potent food supplement immunomodulator -a substance that can strengthen weak immune systems. Daiwa Pharmaceutical developed it in Japan in the early 1990s. It has since become the supplement of choice for many practitioners and their patients, and an adjunct to treatment programs for diseases and disorders that can benefit from immune system optimisation.
The immune system is not only our defence against disease but also the system by which the body maintains its integrity and function. It provides the intelligence in the day-to-day housekeeping that is essential for us to remain alive. When we use the terms ‚health‘ and ‚vitality‘, we are actually directly referring to the health and vitality of the immune system.
Scientists view the immune system as the ‚outside‘ or other‘ intelligent system in our body – as opposed to the brain and nervous system. Indeed, it is slightly misleading to use the terms outside‘ and ‚other‘. New research has shown that the two are intimately connected – a connection that has spawned a new branch of medicine called psychoneuroim-munology (PNI). If we feel low, it is likely that our immune system is low, and if we feel healthy and happy, our immune system is also healthy and happy. And it is not only that health affects our emotions – emotions also affect our health.
Some diseases – such as cancer, AIDS and infections – can put an enormous strain on the immune system as it fights to return the body to a healthy state. The irony is that many of the treatments for these conditions have side effects that involve further depression of immune function. Chemotherapy and radiotherapy, for example, knock out the body’s immune defences at a time when they are critically needed. This is why an increasing number of health practitioners are using supplements such as Biobran to augment treatment programs.
This is the story of Biobran, some of the research behind it and why it is being used by a large number of health practitioners around the world.
THE IMMUNE SYSTEM
The term ‚immune‘ derives from the Latin immunis, meaning ‚exempt‘, which in the context of the immune system refers to foreign invading agents. The immune system is our collective army – a trillion white blood cells, bone marrow, antibodies, cytokines and the thymus gland – that help to identify and destroy the millions of microbes (bacteria, viruses, parasites, fungi) that penetrate our bodies every day, and the thousands of our own cells that have become genetically abnormal or cancerous. By doing this vital job, our bodies retain their integrity; without it, we would be dead within a few days. All animals – from the single-celled amoeba to human beings – have immune systems. Generally speaking, the more complex an organism, the more complex its immune system is. Human immune systems are as complex as our nervous systems and are able to learn responses to particular diseases and remember these responses decades later. This immune system memory is, of course, the basis of vaccination – the injection of disease toxins into the blood to stimulate an immune response, so that if the actual disease is caught at some later date, the immune system is already primed to fight it.
TWO SYSTEMS
The human immune system can be divided into two distinct parts, which protect us in different ways. The first is natural (or non-specific) immunity, and the second is adaptive immunity. The first is a reflex or automatic response system that is pre-programmed at birth to protect us. For example, if we cut ourselves, there is immediately an inflammation response, followed by the amassing of macrophages, which gobble up bacteria. This is a nonspecific response in that it will happen in the same way whatever the nature of the infection. NK cell activity is another example of non-specific immunity. These natural killer cells can automatically destroy cancer cells and cells infected with viruses. The second type of immunity – adaptive – is far more complex and is based on the ability of lymphocytes T and B to respond selectively to thousands of different non-self antigens – viruses, bacteria, cells and large protein and polysaccharide molecules. An antigen is indeed anything that triggers an immune response. This system is able to tailor a response to the specific invader it encounters and then remember that response so that the immune system learns from experience, much as our nervous system learns. Even if we don’t have good memories, our immune systems do.
RECOGNITION
Before our immune system destroys invaders or cancerous cells, it must recognise them. After all, the vast majority of our cells, which are healthy, must be left alone. In other words, the immune system must be able to tell self from non-self. In the case of a genetically damaged cell, it must be able to read signals that all is not well within the cell. Recognition therefore plays a central role in immunity and is the most complex problem for the immune system – our bodies and its cells are always changing, and we are continually being exposed to new invaders. A delicate balance is required. If the immune system is too stringent, we end up attacking our own bodies, as in the case of autoimmune diseases and allergies. If the immune system is too lax, invaders can do severe damage to our bodies, and cancers can grow unchecked.
MEDIATION OF THE IMMUNE SYSTEM
All immune system responses are mediated by white blood cells (leukocytes, including T, B and NK cells; monocytes; phagocytes; basophils; neutrophils and eosinophils), specialised cells within various tissues (macrophages, mast cells) and hormone and other chemical messengers carried by the blood and lymphatic systems. The vast majority of the immune system cells are derived from precursors in the bone marrow and circulate in the blood and tissues. For example, T and B lymphocyte cells, which operate through the lymphatic system, originate in the bone marrow, but the T cells then migrate to the thymus to mature (hence ‚T-cell‘).
BIOBRAN AND THE IMMUNE SYSTEM
Biobran, a food supplement made from rice bran and the enzymes of the shiitake mushroom, can significantly increase the activity of weak immune systems. Although it is not completely understood how it works, it is thought that it stimulates the production of cytokines – messenger molecules that control the activity of the immune system. Biobran is therefore able to stimulate a weak immune system and optimise our immunity to disease.
DIETARY FIBRE AND BIOBRAN
DIETARY FIBRE
We are constantly reading about the Western health crisis caused by bad diet and the epidemic of obesity, but still have much to learn about the relationship between food and health. Most of us understand the importance of balanced nutrition, but we are only starting to understand the subtle effects of various substances on our immune system. We all know that dietary fibre is good for us and that it is an essential component for maintaining health. However, it is absent from much of modern processed food. Dietary fibre as a term came about only in the early 1950s. Since then there has been considerable debate about how to define it. It can mean different things to different people in different countries. Most people accept that it refers to unrefined plant foods, such as cereals, vegetables and fruits – foods containing plant cell wall material. We believe that a diet rich in unrefined plant foods can protect against Western diseases.
CARBOHYDRATES
Carbohydrates have also suffered from the vagaries of fashion and the dieting industry, and have been dismissed as having little dietary value. Foods containing carbohydrates are the cheapest source of energy. We find them pleasant to eat, especially in the form of sugars. In their refined form, they cause or contribute to dental decay, diabetes, obesity, coronary disease and cancer. Carbohydrates come in many guises. Since the early 1980s, complex carbohydrates have become increasingly recognised as a major source of energy and nutrients, and an alternative to fats.
Sugars are simple forms of carbohydrates. When sugars are joined together in chains, they are known as polysaccharides. Polysaccharides come in digestible form, such as starch, or indigestible non-starches such as cellulose and hemicel-lulose. As they pass through the gastro-intestinal tract, digestible polysaccharides are broken down by digestive enzymes into their constituent monosaccharides, which are then absorbed.
The dietary fibre-carbohydrate connection The general view was that indigestible plant residues were of little or no nutritional value. However, in the last few decades it was realised that to remain healthy the digestive tract depends on dietary fibre. By maintaining the health and tone of muscles lining the digestive tract, insoluble fibres allow proper nutrient absorption.
THE BIOBRAN CONNECTION
Insoluble fibre is not just a bulking agent helping digestion. By breaking down insoluble fibre, its hitherto hidden ability to stimulate the immune system has been unleashed. Biobran is broken-down, or predigested, fibre derived from rice bran – the nutrient-rich husks of brown rice discarded in the process of turning the raw grain into more-palatable white rice. Using a process of breaking the chemical bond between the husks and rice grains, by using the enzymatic abilities of shiitake mushrooms, Biobran is created. It retains the health benefits of complex sugars but makes them soluble, digestible and easily absorbed into the bloodstream from where it can begin the process of strengthening the immune system. Many plant-based materials are unable to act on the immune system because their high molecular weights and complex molecular structures are recognised as foreign bodies and therefore not absorbed. Biobran, with its lower molecular weight, can be easily absorbed in the digestive tract and activate the immune system.
CONFRONTING THE HEALTH CRISIS
The most serious health crisis that most people in developed societies are likely to face is cancer. When confronted with a malignant tumour, physicians have three main weapons in the armoury of western medicine – surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Though techniques have been refined, the general methods have changed little in fifty years. For most people, a diagnosis of cancer is a death sentence, though there have been notable and heart-warming advances in childhood leukaemia, prostate cancer and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Only 10 per cent of adults with common cancers survive more than five years. It is a constant source of amazement that doctors and surgeons will advocate violent assaults on the body through surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy without first stimulating the immune system to counter the simultaneous destruction of healthy and cancerous cells. Although patients and carers in the HIV and AIDS community are aware of the importance of strengthening the immune system to keep opportunistic infections at bay, this knowledge does not appear to have carried over quite as effectively into the cancer community, where bolstering white blood cells is just as crucial in stemming advancing tumours and offsetting the effects of aggressive orthodox treatments. The importance of immunotherapy has grown as our understanding of how cells interact increases. Immunotherapies are treatments that use the immune system to attack tumours, viruses and other pathogens. Immune-based cellular medicine provokes a cell-mediated response. Because immunotherapy drugs stimulate the body to respond biologically, sometimes these drugs are called biological-response modifiers (BRMs). Immunotherapy is now considered a fourth modality of cancer treatment – in addition to surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Over the past four decades the ability to clone cytokines created considerable excitement. Cytokines are powerful signalling molecules that cells within the immune apparatus employ to rouse, rally and redirect an immune response. Artificially cultured and bioengineered versions of these cytokines – interferon, interleukin and tumour necrosis factor (TNF) – offered hope that a cancer vaccine could be developed. However, expensive trials with few results and appalling side effects prompted a sober reassessment in the early 1990s. Advocates are nevertheless confident that this line of research will eventually bear fruit as treatments for viral diseases, melanoma, Hodgkin’s disease and leukaemia.
HOW BIOBRAN CAME ABOUT
The developers of Biobran chose a different, more-natural route than did the pharmaceutical establishment. As Mr. Yasuo Ninomiya, the founder of Daiwa Pharmaceutical, the manufacturer of Biobran, explains,’We believe that it is of the utmost importance to trust in nature, with which we must co-exist. We believe that the body’s natural healing power provides the foundation necessary to correct physical imbalances‘. With the Westernisation of diet in Japan, which means an increase in calories and proteins, there is a growing incidence of lifestyle-related diseases, such as cancer, diabetes, hypertension and heart ailments. Daiwa Pharmaceutical wanted to develop a dietary fibre product to counter the effects of imbalanced diets from which these conditions emerge. Rice, also being the staple food of Asia, has long been revered for its health-giving qualities. Indian literature thousands of years old has spoken of the healing properties of rice in treating stomach ulcers, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and high blood glucose. Complex sugars (polysaccharides) known for their anti-tumour and immune-boosting qualities are present within nutrient-rich rice bran. Dr. Hiroaki Maeda, head of research and development at Daiwa, has an interest in finding phytonutrient (plant-based) solutions for human health and agriculture. He has a degree in nutritional chemistry from the Graduate School of Science and Technology, the Horticulture Faculty of Chiba University in Japan. Since the late 1980s he has studied the health-giving qualities of complex sugars from plants and mushrooms.
In 1992, while on a visit to Los Angeles with the Japanese Society for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, Mr. Ninomiya was introduced to Dr. Ghoneum, an immunolo-gist investigating environmental pollutants at the University of California, Los Angeles, for the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Five compounds, each with a different molecular weight, were sent from Tokyo to Dr. Mamdooh Ghoneum, now working at the research laboratories of the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, Los Angeles, where he is an associate professor in the Department of Otorhinolaryngology (ear, nose and throat).
Dr. Ghoneum was born in Egypt and completed a degree in biology from Mansoura University. He won a scholarship to study in Japan, where in 1980 he gained a doctorate at Tokyo University for his study of the effects of low-dose radiation on the thymus gland. Given the legacy of the atomic bombs that fell on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, studying radiation in Japan had a special poignancy. In 1982 he moved to the United States, where he became a research associate at UCLA School of Medicine.
Dr. Ghoneum had an interest in natural killer (NK) cells and was interested in the ability of NK cells to consume tumour cells, and in the ability of cancer cells to fight back and destroy weakened NK cells.
‚I studied for almost ten years what makes NK cells weak, and the factors that suppress the immune system. There are three factors I call unavoidable – stress, ageing and chemical carcinogens. We know that stress suppresses the immune system, but nobody was looking for the mechanism, how this happened,‘ explains Dr. Ghoneum. Having researched immune inhibitory factors, Dr. Ghoneum was curious to find ways that the immune system could be enhanced. He began studying immunothera-py, more specifically biological-response modifiers (substances that strengthen the immune system). As with many scientific advances, there was an element of serendipity in Dr. Ghoneum’s meeting with Mr. Ninomiya. Dr. Maeda’s search for plant-based solutions to human health problems and Dr. Ghoneum’s fascination with NK cell activity combined to provide the crucible from which Biobran was developed and the subsequent evidence of its efficacy. In the early days of Biobran research, Dr. Maeda sent Dr. Ghoneum rice bran strains that were broken into constituents. Dr. Ghoneum used a simple technique to determine the effectiveness of each constituent. He tested efficacy against the anti-tumour abilities of natural killer cells and the ability of macrophages (a white blood cell that surrounds and kills micro-organisms, removes dead cells and stimulates the action of other immune system cells) to release signalling molecules that stimulate anti-tumour activity.
It took Dr. Ghoneum several months in early 1995 before he found the most effective chemical structure for sugars broken down by the enzymes. ‚From day zero, we didn’t know if it would work. Sometimes we almost couldn’t sleep at night worrying if it was going to work or not. I worried about the results, and they worried when they sent it to me. It was like an exam where you are waiting for the result.‘
The resulting product, a water-soluble biological compound of modified cellulose from rice bran, was found to possess powerful immune-enhancing qualities. Many plant-based materials are unable to act on the immune system because high molecular weight and complex structure suggest they are foreign bodies and therefore not absorbed. A key element in Biobran’s success is the ease with which it is absorbed into the blood stream. Dr. Ghoneum’s first tests were conducted in vitro on cells in the laboratory. Then he progressed to mice and rats. Ageing animals with low immune systems were used as models for study. Three different doses of Biobran were given to groups of rats, and NK cell activity was shown to rise by up to 142 per cent, in proportion to the dose. When Biobran was tested on mice and human cells, results showed an increase in molecule signals that activate anti-tumour activity.
‚I couldn’t believe the evidence of my own eyes when I first saw the effects of Biobran,‘ Dr. Ghoneum says. ‚Here was a substance that substantially affects immune function, notably the activity of natural killer cells‘ Daiwa Pharmaceutical carried out the initial human trials on twenty-four healthy people, 9 men and 15 women, with an average age of 34. The subjects were split into three different test groups and given different doses of Biobran for 60 days. During the tests, subjects were prohibited from taking drugs or vitamins. Their NK cell activity was measured at intervals. NK cell activity for the lowest dose group almost doubled one month after the start, and in the other groups rose about three times. After two months the average rise was about five-fold.
Tests were also carried out on rats given two common anti-cancer chemotherapy drugs, Cisplatin and Adriamycin. Rats given Biobran with the drugs maintained greater body weights and milder symptoms. Rats given Cisplatin alone or with a low dose of Biobran died, whereas those given a high dose of Biobran and Cisplatin survived.
One major factor that concerned Dr. Ghoneum was hyporesponsiveness to Biobran. Common in the drug world, ‚hyporesponsiveness ‚means increased doses are required to achieve a similar effect. Time was needed to test whether this was the case for Biobran. So far, including one study that lasted four years, there has been no indication that hyporesponsiveness is a problem. Likewise, tests were carried out regarding possible toxicity. After tests on mice, Dr. Ghoneum declared, ‚Biobran has very high safety levels, on a par with foods consumed in an ordinary diet. It has no known side effects.‘ BIOBRAN’S VALUE AS A FUNCTIONAL FOOD
Because of its immunostimulatory effect, Biobran is classed as a functional food. Though most of the research carried out concerned Biobran’s anti-tumour and antiviral abilities, the product has also been used by doctors to treat a wide variety of conditions.
Uses include:
* Antioxidant scavenging
* Improved glucose tolerance
* Enhanced pancreatic function
* Enhanced hepatic (liver) function
* Reduction of the adverse effects of chemotherapy
* Improved quality of life
RESEARCH EVIDENCE OF BIOBRAN’S EFFECTIVENESS
Extensive tests have been undertaken to determine the safety and efficacy of Biobran in treating a variety of conditions. These tests include:
• In vitro (laboratory) testing to determine the effects of Biobran at a cellular level.
• In Vivo testing on living organisms. Studies have been undertaken on mice, rats and humans. Mice and rats have been infected with cancer tumours or diabetes in order to reproduce corresponding human illnesses. The mice and rats may be given Biobran and the usual drugs used to treat these conditions, and the effects monitored.
• Clinical trials in which Biobran is administered to patients suffering from major illnesses and having compromised immune systems.
In order to help make comparisons, animal and human trials may include a control group to which no Biobran is administered. In the case of humans, the control group has to be ethically regulated and with informed consent.
IMPROVING NATURAL KILLER CELL ACTIVITY
Natural killer cells play a vital role in strengthening the immune system and guarding against disease. NK cells are the first line of defence against tumour development. They recognise and kill particular tumour cells and virus-infected cells. Natural killer cells have received considerable attention because of their potential role in resistance to cancer. However, it is still unclear exactly how they resist the development, progression and spread of induced or spontaneous tumours. Studies have shown that NK activity is suppressed in tumour-bearing rats and mice. As a result, there have been many attempts to augment NK activity through the use of substances that can improve the body’s natural response to disease. One such substance is Biobran. In an experiment to determine the effect of Biobran on NK cell activity, three groups of rats were given different concentrations of Biobran, and a fourth was the control. A further experiment examined whether sex made a difference in response to Biobran. Four days after they were first given Biobran, rats on the highest dose showed improved NK cell activity. As the trial progressed, all rats showed marked improvement, ranging on average from 119 to 142 per cent. The bigger the dose, the greater the rise over the course of the trial. There was a difference between the sexes. Female rats showed an increase of 162 per cent, compared to 135 per cent for males. Biobran did not increase the actual number of NK cells. Instead it strengthened existing NK cells and made them more effective fighters. It was not just NK cells that benefited from Biobran. Strengthened NK cells stimulate a type of T cell that recognises foreign bodies and kills them, and thereby may have an anti-cancer role. Quite how Biobran improves NK cell activity is not fully understood. Biobran is known to increase production of interferon, a naturally occurring substance that improves the body’s ability to fight infection and disease. Interferon in turn enhances the effectiveness of NK cells.
IMPROVING NATURAL KILLER CELL ACTIVITY IN CANCER PATIENTS
The conventional cancer therapy is immuno-suppressive, thereby affecting the body’s ability to fight back as it tries to defeat cancer and maintain optimum health.
A study was made of 90 cancer patients, some still undergoing conventional therapy – including surgery, chemotherapy, radiation and hormonal therapy – and others having completed treatment. They were put on 3 g of Biobran per day, 45 mg per kilogram of body weight, for up to five years. NK cell activity was measured every month after initial weekly tests, according to its effectiveness against tumour cells. The patients were suffering from the following cancers: prostate (22), breast (20), multiple myeloma (16), ovary (5) and other (27). In the trials, 86 out of 90 patients (95.5 per cent) showed increased NK cell activity of two to ten-fold, starting as early as one week after first taking Biobran. This activity was maintained at a high level for up to five years.
The findings showed that Biobran offers a new immunotherapeutic approach to cancer by increasing the body’s anti-tumour response, thanks to increased NK cell activity. The long period of study also provided the opportunity to measure the effects of stress levels on NK cell activity. Stress can severely impair the strength of the immune system. During the course of treatment, of the 86 patients whose NK cell activity improved, ten suffered from stresses, including sleep deprivation, bereavement, work overload or financial problems. These patients showed a decrease in NK cell activity of 40-75 per cent compared to previous levels. However, after the stresses eased, their NK cell activity increased to former levels. Here was proof that reducing stress is an important part of treatment with Biobran.
These results were presented at the Anti-Aging Conference and Exposition in Las Vegas in December 1999. The conference was sponsored by the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine and the University of Arizona Health Sciences Center.
Anti-cancer properties: Breast cancer
Five breast cancer patients had depressed NK cell activity after undergoing treatment. They were put on a high daily dose of Biobran and within two weeks began to show positive results. Before taking Biobran their NK activity ranged from 12.7 per cent to 58.3 per cent. During the trial period, NK activity rose from an average of 41.8 per cent to 89.5 per cent, well above the normal range. Two patients were in complete remission within six to eight months; another two went into remission later. The trial ran while the patients were undergoing chemotherapy. The researcher concluded, ‚In our study, we observed that Biobran dramatically enhances NK cell activity and has no side effects to be spoken of. Immunotherapy with Biobran together with chemotherapy is considered to be quite effective for the treatment of cancer.‘
These findings were presented in Baltimore, Maryland, in November 1995 at a conference titled: Cancer: The Interface Between Basic and Applied Research. The conference sponsor was the American Association for Cancer Research.
Anti-cancer properties: Skin cancer
Skin cancer is becoming more common among light-skinned people. In the United States it is the most common form of cancer, affecting one in seven Americans – about one million people – every year. The causes for skin cancer proliferation vary, including living longer and therefore having a greater exposure to the sun during a lifetime, while increasing leisure and affluence encourage people to spend more time outdoors. The skin is the body’s largest organ, protecting us from heat, light, injury and infection. It regulates body temperature and stores water, fat and vitamin D. The outer layer of skin (epidermis) is made up mostly of flat, scale-like cells (squamous cells). Biobran was tested to see if it can be effective in targeting particular cancer cells. Squamous-cell carcinoma cells were cultured with Biobran. Tumour cell growth was arrested, decreasing 30 per cent after 48 hours and by half at 72 hours. Cells not treated with Biobran but incubated continued to increase in number. Further analysis showed that after 16 hours of treating squamous cells with Biobran, there was an eight-fold increase of interleukin-10, a substance that performs an anti-inflammatory function, and a three-fold increase in interleukin-12, a substance that activates natural killer cells and plays a critical role in immune system defence. However, there was little change in the level of the type of interferon that was seen elsewhere to be stimulated by Biobrans effect on NK cells. This type of interferon is an important component in strengthening the immune system. This study seemed to indicate that Biobran acts by not only enhancing the host immune function but also through a direct alteration of tumour cell growth and by the production of cytokines, substances vital to stimulating the immune response. Biobran also achieved high clinical success on the 32 patients that had been monitored over four years. The findings were presented at the International Congress on Anti-Aging and Biomedical Technologies in Las Vegas, Nevada in December 2000.
Anti-cancer properties: Leukaemia
Biobran has been proven to increase the strength of NK cells. One of the beneficial effects of this increase can be making chemotherapy more effective by diminishing side effects. In the light of this research, Biobran was investigated to see how effectively it could help the body fend off destructive leukaemic cells. One of the immune systems lines of attack is to induce cancer cells to commit suicide. Helping a variety of cells kill themselves is one of the most important processes in maintaining a healthy immune system, though it is a finely balanced process that, if it gets out of hand, can cause the immune system to attack itself. In a laboratory test Biobran was combined with leukaemic cells, and the process by which the body stimulates cell suicide was replicated. The results suggested that leukaemic cells were destroyed in greater number and more effectively when Biobran was present. The experiment was undertaken at Charles R. Drew University by Dr. Ghoneum and his colleague Dr. Sastry Gollapudi. They presented their results at a conference organised by the American Association for Cancer Research in October 2002.
Advanced cancer patients
Biobran was tested on ten patients having advanced malignancies and undergoing conventional therapy. All patients were tested for six months.
NK cell activity more than doubled after just two weeks. There were also improvements in T- and B-cell function. Biobran’s beneficial effect on cell activity appeared to come about by the production of tumour necrosis factor (TNF) and interferon, substances that improve the body’s natural response to disease. Dr. Ghoneum and Dr. Maeda conducted the study. They presented their paper in 1998 in Kyoto at the First International Symposium on Disease Prevention By IP6* and Other
Rice Components.
Inhibiting cancer growth
In studies at Chiba University, Biobran was found to have a growth-inhibiting effect on three types of cancer -leukaemia, stomach and lung. In the experiment, Biobran was added to three lines of cancer cells associated with leukaemia, and with stomach and lung cancer. After three days, cell activity decreased in all three lines. The tests were carried out at the Graduate School of Science and Technology at Chiba University. The findings were published in March 2002 in the Journal of the Japanese Society for Bioscience, Biotechnology and Agrochemistry.
Improving natural killer cell anti-tumour activity
Natural killer cells can kill tumour cells. They kill with the help of interleukin-2, a cytokine (substance capable of targeting specific cells). The effectiveness of Biobran in helping stimulate interleukin-2 was tested in a laboratory at Chiba University, Japan. Biobran was added to white blood cells and tumour cells. Without the help of a cytokine, Biobran had no significant effect. However, when interleukin-2 was included in the experiment, there was a noticeable increase in NK cell activity. * IP6 is a fibre component primarily found in whole grains and legumes and may have cancer-protective effects. The team of five researchers – including Dr. Hiroaki Maeda of Daiwa Pharmaceutical – concluded that Biobran activates NK cells when in the presence of interleukin-2. The findings were published in March 2002 in the Journal of the Japanese Society for Bioscience, Biotechnology and Agrochemistry.
Cancer patients with low NK activity
Advanced cancer patients were shown to be responsive to treatment by Biobran. Of 27 cancer patients of age 42 to 57, all had low NK cell activity. They were suffering from a variety of advanced malignant tumours, including breast, prostate and cervical cancer; multiple myeloma; and leukaemia.
All were given 3 g of Biobran per day. Two weeks after first taking Biobran, there were remarkable increases in NK cell activity. In multiple-myeloma patients, activity increased over five-fold; in cervical patients activity nearly tripled; and in breast cancer, prostate cancer and leukaemia patients, activity more than doubled.
Although the vast majority of patients improved at each period of testing – two weeks, three months and six months – there were three patients for whom Biobran had no effect.
During this study the strength of NK cells increased. NK cells are populated by granules. Low levels of granularity mean the cells are tired or immunosuppressed. Biobran’s effect was to re-granulate the cells and restore effectiveness. Researchers concluded that the enhancement of NK cell activity by Biobran may be due to an increase in the granules of NK cells. These findings were presented in 1996 at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research in Washington D.C.
Countering the effects of chemotherapy
Cisplatin and Adriamycin are two important drugs used to treat cancer. Cisplatin is a platinum compound; platinum-containing drugs are the cornerstone of modern treatment for ovarian, testicular and some other cancers. Adriamycin is an antibiotic. Both drugs are chemotherapeutic agents that inhibit the growth of cancer cells in the body. Both also have severe side effects.
The effectiveness of Biobran in limiting the toxic effects of these drugs was tested in a small animal model study, which was divided into several groups: those on Cisplatin only, those on Cisplatin and Biobran (high and low dose), those on Adriamycin only, those on Adriamycin and Biobran (high and low dose), and a control. Over eleven days, Biobran was administered in proportion to body weight, and its ability to mitigate the side effects of chemotherapy drugs was noted by monitoring organ condition, especially the gastrointestinal tract. The results of this research showed that Biobran supplementation helped prevent the usual weightloss in 72 per cent in groups taking it. Those on Cisplatin alone lost 1.5 per cent weight, and those on Adriamycin alone increased in weight by 30 per cent. The group on low dose Cisplatin and low-dose Biobran increased in weight by 11 per cent, wherease those on Adriamycin and low-dose Biobran increased by 46 per cent. The group on Cisplatin and high-dose Biobran increased their weight by 44 per cent, and those on Adriamycin and high-dose Biobran increased weight by 43 per cent. What is more, none of the group on Cisplatin and high dose Biobran died during the trial, whilst several died from the other groups that received smaller doses of Biobran or none at all. The researchers reported that the survivors that received the Biobran appeared healthier, gained weight and had a lower incidence of gross intestinal damage.
The researchers concluded that Biobran was effective at maintaining body weight after a toxic dose of either Cisplatin or Adriamycin and protected against some gross gastrointestinal pathology. They felt that Biobran may have a role to play in improving the quality of life of patients receiving chemotherapy. The tests were conducted by research scientists, including Dr. Hiroaki Maeda, director of research and development at Daiwa Pharmaceutical; Products Safety Lab of East Brunswick, New Jersey; and Creative Strategy Inc. of Tokyo. A paper reporting their findings was presented at the annual meeting of the American Gastroenterological Association in San Diego, California, in May 2000.
Improving interferon production
Dr. Ghoneum reported the effectiveness of Biobran in helping human NK cells infected with tumour cells in a 1996 paper. He also measured how healthier NK cells increase the production of a type of interferon, the substance that improves the body’s ability to fight infection and disease. NK cells treated with Biobran were found to be two to five times more effective in fighting tumour cells just 16 hours after coming into contact with them. The production of interferon increased ten-fold. With such curative and life-enhancing properties, it is surely apt that nature made NK cells heart-shaped.
The study also found that improved NK cell activity appears to enhance the activity of T- and B-cells. As Dr. Ghoneum explained, ‚The mechanism by which it does that appears to be through a daisy chain of events: Biobran stimulates NK cells, which in turn causes gamma interferon to be secreted. This, in turn, induces further activation on the part of the immune cells.‘ T-and B-cells are crucial in maintaining the health of the immune system. Dr. Ghoneum concluded, ‚Biobran, as an adjunct therapy to ongoing cancer therapy, is an easy, safe, non-toxic and painless method of putting the power back into cancer patients‘
Antioxidant effects
The antioxidant scavenging effect of Biobran was tested against three types of free radicals. Free-radical damage is involved in most life-threatening diseases and is involved in the ageing process.
Depending on the dose, scavenging rates increased from 4.4 per cent to 64.6 per cent in one case for substance, between 3.3 per cent and 94.9 per cent in the second, and 11.5 per cent to 72.6 per cent for the third. The study was conducted by researchers at the Department of Adult Nursing and Department of Surgery of the Toyama Medical and Pharmaceutical University in conjunction with Dr. Maeda. It concluded that Biobrans scavenging activity against free radicals is high. Strengthening the immune system Macrophages are probably the single most important cell type in the immune system. Specifically, macrophages produce molecules that act as cell mediators. A study was devised to determine Biobran’s effectiveness in stimulating macrophages to produce these mediators.
Human and mouse cells were tested. Results showed that Biobran stimulated strong activity in mouse cells and was even more effective on human cells. Concluding the study, Dr. M. Matsuura of Jichi Medical University, Department of Infection and Immunity, found that Biobran is ‚a potent substance‘ that activates the macrophage cells of mice and humans.
Normalising the natural killer cell activity
Though Biobran’s beneficial effect on NK cell activity is well documented, research was lacking in how Biobran affected people having varying levels of NK cell activity.
In research carried out at Chiba University, Biobran was found, as expected, to increase NK cell activity in people with low NK cell counts, but to decrease NK cell activity in people with high NK cell counts. (Biobran is an immunomodulator and not merely an immunostimulator, making it extremely safe to take.) White blood cells were taken from people whose NK cell activity was 20 per cent below normal and 40 per cent above normal. The cells were then cultured with Biobran. Blood cells with lower NK cell activity showed a significant increase in activity, whereas blood cells that already had high NK cell activity showed little or no increase count showed a decrease. The results suggest that Biobran normalises NK cell activity. A paper based on the research was published in the October 2002 edition of the Journal of the American College of Nutrition.
Liver disfunction
In order to redress the lack of research into Biobrans effectiveness in addressing liver dysfunction, a team at Chiba University in Japan devised a test on laboratory rats. Five groups of rats with induced liver dysfunction were given Biobran in a variety of doses, orally and internally, and tested against a control group of rats with liver dysfunction but given no Biobran. All five groups of rats given Biobran were found to have a significantly suppressed liver dysfunction compared to rats without Biobran.
The team of six researchers from Chiba University’s Graduate School of Science and Technology and the Department of Bioproductions Science included Dr. Maeda of Daiwa Pharmaceutical. Their findings were published in the Journal of the Japanese Association for Dietary Fibre Research.
Protection from chemicals Toxic chemicals in the atmosphere are known to pose a risk of cancer and may cause a wide variety of other ailments. Because chemical workers are more at risk, these workers provide the ideal subjects to test whether Biobran can help. A study was designed to examine immune alteration associated with exposure to toxic chemicals and the possibility of counteracting chemical toxicity by using Biobran. Eleven people who had been exposed to chemicals in the workplace participated in the study. All showed signs of immune dysfunction and low levels of NK cell activity, and all had measurable T-helper and B-killer cell response impairment that affected the ability to fight infection. Patients were given a maintenance-level daily dose of Biobran of 45 mg/kg of body weight a day (approximately lg) for four months. NK cell activity increased four- and seven-fold at two and four months, respectively. T- and B-cell functions were 130-150 per cent higher. This study, which was presented to the Anti-Aging Conference and Exposition in Las Vegas in 1999, showed that the suppression of NK cell activity by chemical activity can be fully restored with Biobran. The American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine and the University of Arizona Health Sciences Center sponsored the conference.
Strengthening the immune system
NK cells contain substances that help fight tumours and some viruses. NK cells release tumour necrosis factor (TNF) – which seems to play a role in the breakdown of cancer cells – and interferon, which interferes with the division of cancer cells and can slow tumour growth. As the process gets underway, molecules bound to the surface of NK cells are also activated. These molecules alert T-cells that an attack is going on so that the they can join the response. A laboratory study was devised to see whether low and high doses of Biobran could improve the functioning of NK cells in responding to these immune system modulators. Results show that Biobran was effective in increasing the production of tumour necrosis factor. Production increased from 22-fold using a low dose of Biobran, to 47-fold using a high dose.Interferon production also showed an increase, though at lower levels to tumour necrosis factor. The study also tested substances designed to help with specific immune responses. Biobran stimulated these substances, too. Additionally, Biobran helped improve the ability of inter-leukin-2 to react. Interleukin-2 is a cytokine, a substance that can improve the body’s natural response to infection and disease. Biobran needs the help of cytokines if it is to be effective in strengthening NK cells. NK cells activated by interleukin-2 were found to stimulate the release of tumour necrosis factor and interferon.
The researchers concluded that Biobran can be used as a safe means of stimulating the immune system, notably in the fight against cancer and some viruses, either as an alternative treatment or in conjunction with other treatments. Dr. Ghoneum from the Departments of Neurobiology and Microbiology and Immunology at the University of California at Los Angeles School of Medicine and Dentistry, and Dr. A. Jewett, from the Department of Neurobiology and Microbiology at the same university published a paper detailing these findings in 2000 in Cancer Detection and Prevention, the official publication of the International Society for Preventive Oncology.
WHAT DOCTORS SAY
People facing life-threatening diseases and those who simply want to maintain a healthy immune system are increasingly turning to Biobran. Likewise, doctors with individual approaches are including Biobran in their treatment protocols. Sometimes Biobran will be at the heart of a treatment programme. For other programmes Biobran will be one of several substances and approaches in the armoury. Here is a selection of mostly UK practitioners for whom Biobran is a valued tool.
DR. PATRICK KINGSLEY
Dr. Patrick Kingsley’s experience working for a pharmaceutical company and setting up clinical trials on chemicals and drugs shows in his approach to new patients.
Cancer patients who visit his practice near Loughborough, Leicestershire, arrive in a variety of conditions – from those newly diagnosed and exploring alternative treatment, to those aware he may be their last resort after having undergone surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Mostly they come with immune systems that are in a very poor state. On their first visit, patients undergo extensive tests that determine precisely what is going on in their body. Tests indicating the strength of the immune system are among the most important. Dr. Kingsley uses an interferon gamma test to measure the activity of natural killer cell activity, ‚possibly the most important anti-cancer approach of the immune system.‘ Using a blood reference range of 3,000-10,000, he says he has had patients whose NK cell activity rose from less than 50 on arrival to over 100,000 after treatment. Similarly Dr. Kingsley uses an interleukin-2 test to measure the activity of TH1 cells, which are important in helping cells fight tumours, and an interleukin-12 test to measure the activity of macrophages and dendritic cells, both of which are important anti-cancer fighters. He prides himself on individually tailored treatment programmes developed over thirty years of practising what he calls ’nutritional environmental medicine.‘ Diet and nutrition form a key part of the treatment programme. He also uses digestive enzymes, anti-oxidants, acidophilus, co-enzyme Q10 and herbal products.
‚There are certain things like Biobran which just about every patient with cancer I put on nowadays. I find that Biobran is an amazingly good product to boost the immune system.‘
The largest proportion of his cancer patients have breast cancer, with most of the rest suffering from bowel cancer, lung cancer, multiple myeloma, brain tumours and leukaemias.
As is true of any responsible practitioner, he is hesitant to use the word cure.‘ ‚I would simply say that there are many patients with both multiple sclerosis and cancer and many other conditions who have come to me and have become symptom-free and have remained so for as long as practical.‘
However, the outcome is not always happy. ‚There are patients who are very very extreme when I first see them and I do question in my mind what chance there is of helping them, but they want to try, so I try‘ Among those who have died, he says they and their relatives believe he has helped prolong their lives for a long time. Biobran is one of a large armoury he draws on in the fight against cancer. He also uses Biobran for infections, bronchitis and the avoidance of flu. He takes it himself for various ailments, once using it when he had a whitlow on his toe. ‚It’s amazingly effective and astonishing. Almost within the first two doses, it just started to clear up really quickly He also uses Biobran when travelling abroad. ‚I will take a day’s worth of Biobran before I go on the plane to make sure that my immune system is boosted, that any infections I might pick up will be kept under control‘
DR. BEN PFEIFER
Dr. Ben Pfeifer has collected data on 1,250 prostate cancer patients who have attended the Aeskulap Clinic near Zurich over a three-year period and believes he has convincing evidence that his phytotherapeutic (plant-based) approach to the illness yields major benefits.
He uses Biobran in conjunction with Postasol, a composition of several plant extracts, and curcumin complex. Dr. Pfeifer states,’In the last 15 years I have seen 1,000 to 1,500 prostate cancer patients and consulted on many of those, and have learnt one thing – that chemotherapy in end-stage prostate cancer really has nothing much to offer. That was the reason I looked into another area, into phyto-therapy. ‚The recognised therapies today for metastatic prostate cancer are androgen ablation (hormonal therapy), chemotherapy or doing nothing (watchful waiting). I was discouraged by this approach. So I tried to develop a phytotherapy protocol.’He uses Biobran as part of this approach, in particular for its ability to boost NK cells. ‚Looking at Biobran, I wanted to know if it is important that NK cells increase in cancer patients‘ Lung cancer showed a reduced NK cell activity of 20 per cent, colon cancer about 30 per cent, breast cancer about 45 per cent, and prostate cancer about 25 per cent. He thought the figures significant enough to merit his investigating whether Biobran could be effective in raising the NK cell activity of his patients. He gave 15 patients whose prostate cancer had spread a 2 g per day dose of Biobran for six weeks. All but one showed an increase in NK cell activity, from around 90 per cent to over 200 per cent. Overall he says there is an improvement in the general condition of 70 per cent of patients using therapy offered at his clinic. He gets and expects a 50 per cent decline in prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels in 65 per cent of his patients. He found tumour-related pain decreases in 70 per cent of cases who had pain before therapy.
DR. JULIAN KENYON
Dr. Julian Kenyon is constantly searching for more-effective ways of stimulating cell-mediated immunity. In his practice at the Dove Clinic for Integrated Medicine – near Winchester, Hampshire, and London – he incorporates a variety of treatments that include acupuncture, high-dose Vitamin C and medicinal mushrooms. The founder and president of the British Society of Integrated Medicine, Dr. Kenyon has worked in China and has over 25 years of experience. He was drawn to include Biobran in his armoury because, as is true of medicinal mushrooms, it uses protoglycans to stimulate the immune system. ‚A protoglycan preparation is a protein with a simple sugar added on, which might be a xylose, mannose or arabinose. There’s a whole range of simple sugars,‘ explains Dr. Kenyon. ‚These preparations provide interesting ways into the cell. Protein sticks in the cell membrane, but the sugar sticks out like an aerial. Basically Biobran seems to me to connect up the matrix from one cell to another. The matrix is the stuff in which the cells are lying, and they have to be connected, and I think protoglycan preparations or glycopro-teins – there are various names for them – are fundamental to connecting the matrix up.‘ Dr. Kenyon admits this theory is not wholly proven, but it is his strong hunch. He believes modified rice bran, from which Biobran is derived, enables the Biobran to be better absorbed into the digestive system and blood stream. Its ability to help raise the cell-mediated immune response makes this supplement effective in combating diseases such as cancer. ‚Cell-mediated immune response is an effective anti-viral, anti-bacterial response that is also an effective anti-tumour response. That is the type of immune response which globally is getting worse, probably because pollution pushes human immune responses towards too much antibody production. ‚In our cancer patients, generally speaking over 80 per cent have a marked TH2 immune response (a humoral response associated with antibody production). It is a fantastic movement away from cell-mediated immunity (TH1 immune response). Therefore you’d expect a rise in incidence of cancer. ‚There are studies which show that if you have a cancer patient and you treat him/her with chemotherapy and radiotherapy and blast his/her immune system to hell, if you then restore his/her cell-mediated immunity to normal, he/she has a 50 per cent less chance of getting a recurrence.‘ The studies by Dr. Kenyon are based on using medicinal mushrooms to stimulate the immune system. Overall, Dr. Kenyon concludes, ‚Biobran is easy to take, it’s safe, there are no side effects, it can be taken in very large amounts and it helps serious illness.
‚If you’ve got a poor cell-mediated immune function, then I could reasonably say I’d put you on Biobran. There’s no conventional drug that has any of these functions and is anywhere near as effective.‘
PROFESSOR SERGE JURASUNAS
Professor Serge Jurasunas has been a practising naturo-pathic doctor for over 35 years. For over 20 years he has been treating cancer patients with many types of products and several protocols at his Lisbon clinic, the Holiterapias Institute. As he was already using effective treatments, it took him a while to consider the benefits of Biobran after it was first brought to his attention. The breakthrough for him came when he treated prostate cancer patients. ‚When I gave a patient Biobran, his PSA (prostate-specific antigen) went down. When I switched him onto something else, his PSA went up again.‘ That experience led him to look at Biobran more seriously. He now says, ‚I discovered that in many cases it is the best product, not only with prostate cancer but, also lung tumours. I have good results with breast cancer. ‚I have seen that Biobran will stimulate the immune system more than any other product. People feel the difference. They feel stronger.‘ Dr. Jurasunas uses Biobran with products he has developed, including Anoxe, which contains a wide range of antioxidants and ‚food factors with numerous uses in cancer.‘ He puts great value on diagnosis techniques, including iridology and high-resolution phase-contrast microscopy. He is a healer and emphasises the importance of detoxification to reduce intestinal disturbances as a prerequisite to successfully treating cancer.
DR. ROGER LICHY
By the nature of the techniques he uses – including meditation, visualisation and psychotherapy – Dr. Roger Lichy’s results are open to challenge by those who feel more comfortable with dry statistical data. However, Dr. Lichy’s anecdotal observations and use of Biobran is worth recording, despite the lack of hard evidence that would pass scientific muster. ‚I don’t measure success in terms of life and death,‘ he says. ‚I measure success in how well patients feel in themselves, how effective what they’re doing is in helping them to manage their symptoms. ‚What I say to them is: These tools that I teach you, if you are going to live, will improve the quality of your life, and if you are going to die, will improve the quality of your death. It will make you more mindful, more aware, more in touch with what you need to do to prepare yourself.‘ A former general practitioner, Dr. Lichy succumbed to pneumonia through exhaustion while working at the National Health Service, and pneumonia led to a further painful deterioration in his health. His illness left him almost crippled, and definitely disillusioned with the limitations of orthodox medicine. Dr. Lichy left his medical practice and changed his lifestyle, gradually restoring his health. Contacted by a retired hospital matron colleague who had become a herbalist, he began to take an interest in complementary medicine. He trained as a homeopath and developed expertise in other complementary disciplines. Subsequently he became principal doctor at the renowned Bristol Cancer Help Centre, where he is still one of the two lead doctors. He admits, as do many complementary medical doctors, that he is often the doctor of last resort for people who have been told orthodox medicine has nothing more to offer them.
‚Most of the people who come to me are stepping into terminal care or have huge cancer deposits. The techniques that I teach them – meditation, visualisation, using homeopathy – it takes a few weeks, even a month or two, to become skilled at meditation. Because we can’t do everything at once, it might be two, three, four weeks before you get round to doing a visualisation session that helps them get in touch with their emotions. ‚Biobran is a fast-track way to help them get their immune systems off the ground. There’s a map we use. Imagine your natural killer cell activity as being 100 at birth. After all the traumas of childhood, school bullying and first-love disappointment, the immune system gets a bit less with each additional trauma – divorce, job, unemployment.
‚Once it gets to below about 30 per cent effectiveness, then that’s the point at which we start getting cancer. So the NK cell activity for a person with cancer is 30 per cent or less. Normal is about 60-70 per cent effective.‘ Inevitably the medical establishment will challenge such assertions.
After a panel of doctors were satisfied with the research presented to them, Biobran is now recognised as a legitimate component of treatment programs by the doctors at Bristol Cancer Help Centre. As Biobran has been introduced relatively recently, no data have been collated as to its effectiveness. The centre is not a clinic. It is legally an educational establishment, which means that all treatments are offered as options, with the patients themselves choosing the course.
PATIENT CASE STUDIES
Bladder cancer
Dr. JK was 49 years old when he was diagnosed with bladder cancer in Salzburg, Austria in December 1993. A doctor of law, at the time he was president of a European multinational company and a regular smoker. The tumour was detected at a moderately advanced stage. It was starting to spread from the bladder, there were signs of it in the lymph nodes and it was quite aggressive. He was told he had three to five months to live. He took his doctors‘ advice and undertook the full course of treatment. He told them to ‚cut everything.‘ The following February, his prostate and urethra were removed and an artificial bladder fitted. The same month he began classic four-stage chemotherapy that continued through the following August. ‚The chemo afterwards was a real hammer. I did not accept the fourth chemo. I felt it would kill, not heal me. I had no more power left.‘ He heard about Biobran through his Tokyo secretary, who heard about it through friends, and agreed to give it a go. He was a sceptic with regard to complementary medicine but nonetheless felt anything was worth a try. After completion of his chemotherapy he took three to four Biobran tablets per day. ‚I completely changed my way of living – i.e., crazy work conditions and a most extensive private life, which besides many other factors was too much for my mind and body to bear for a long period. I can only recommend that anybody with similar symptoms should energetically transform their way of life to have a chance to live. To be so close to death is a good chance to start to get familiar with death and not see him as an enemy but rather as someone who has to do his job.‘ It took JK more than three years to regain his physical and mental strength, and a further three years before he felt confident he could beat his illness. He does not know whether Biobran or orthodox treatment did the trick, but approaching a decade after his first diagnosis, he says,’The cancer is not present anymore. Usually you say that 5-6 years after treatment without reappearance, you are cancer neutral. I have never been told I am in remission. I am still alive and feel very fine.‘ As for the causes of his cancer, he feels stress played a part, collectively in terms of his work, social and family life. He is still taking Biobran once a day and says, ‚I now live a much richer and more meaningful life.‘
Nasopharyngeal cancer
Dr. Teiichiro Fukushima*, Chairman, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, Los Angeles.
* We have made an exception in revealing Dr. Fukushima’s identity in the interests of transparency and clarity. As he was rushing around the hospital where he had worked for 20 years and managing the care of patients at the obstetrics and gynaecology department he headed, Dr. Teiichiro Fukushima was concerned about his own health. Believing at first that his constipation and rectal bleeding pointed to a haemorrhoid, he was alarmed when the bleeding became very severe. A biopsy in April 1999 revealed he had colon cancer. Further tests showed the cancer had spread to his liver.
Referred by colleagues to the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, the plan was for two teams of surgeons to take turns in operating on him. Firstly part of his colon was removed, and then while he was still under anaesthesia the second team set to work on the liver. When they opened him up they were surprised to find thousands of small tumours. ‚There was no point in cutting away half and leaving half with thousands around, so they stopped the operation at that point,‘ says Dr. Fukushima calmly. ‚The outlook was very poor. The doctor told me I had six months to a year.‘ He was 57 years old. It was a highly aggressive cancer, and he knew there was no point to a liver transplant; the cancer had likely spread beyond the liver. However, in an effort to improve the quality of life he had remaining, four weeks after the operation he was advised to start on a course of chemotherapy (5-FU) via a continuous-infusion pump. About six weeks after the colectomy, Dr. Fukushima was back at work at the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, carrying on his life as best he could. There he received a visit from his immunology colleague Dr. Mamdooh Ghoneum, who advised him to take Biobran. In July 1999 Fukushima began taking 3 g of Biobran daily. Dr. Fukushima’s NK cell activity was at a low 15 per cent efficiency as he began taking Biobran. Three weeks later, activity had risen to 35 per cent. Every two or three months he had a CT scan to monitor progress of the lesions. Though tiny lesions could not be seen on a CT scan, the largest, measuring 1.1 cm, was shrinking and after a year was no longer visible.
But CT scans have their limitations, and a more accurate PET scan revealed cancer was still present in the liver. He continued chemotherapy for a further month. The next PET scan came up negative. ‚So we knew objectively that the tumour was regressing, and everybody by that time was calling me a ‚miracle person because the three or four people who started chemotherapy about the same time as me with similar adverse lesions had all died by one year.‘ So does he think chemotherapy did the trick? ‚The chemotherapy guy likes to think so. My pastor likes to think his praying did it, too. I think all of them helped. ‚As a scientist I think that the natural killer cells are the only way to cure tumours from within. There are reports of miraculous disappearances of big, incurable tumours; that can only happen from inside, your own body taking care of the tumour. And that is the natural killer cells doing that. So there is no question in my mind that the Biobran helped my killer cells, and they went up and they fought the tumour for me.‘ Dr. Fukushima stayed on a high-level 3 g daily dose of Biobran for three months, thereafter decreasing the dose to 2 g per day. Then in June 2002 he noticed a swollen lymph node on the right side of his neck. ‚It was large enough to be visible at a distance.‘ A biopsy confirmed that the node was cancerous. After a colonoscopy to check that the original colon cancer had not returned, and a body scan, no further tumours were found. Eventually they discovered a rare nasopharyngeal cancer. It was an aggressive tumour, the size of an olive, behind the nose. Despite its proximity, there was no evidence it had spread to the brain. From August 2002 to February 2003, Dr. Fukushima endured a course of’brutal‘ radiation five days a week and strong chemotherapy every three weeks. He lost 25 lbs. Meanwhile he raised his daily dose of Biobran to 3 grams per day. After an initial bout of radiotherapy and one course of chemotherapy, Dr. Fukushima’s lymph node was checked by his radiologist. He said, ‚Hello, it’s already shrinking. This can’t be radiation because radiation takes weeks. This is a good sign. It means the tumour is very sensitive to whatever we are giving.‘ Dr. Fukushima completed the radiation and chemotherapy treatments and had two subsequent examinations at which there was no tumour presence.
‚So many people ask, „Well, if what you are taking is so good, how come you developed a second cancer?“ I don’t know how long I had it, though it was slow-growing. I was getting short of breath and tired for a long time.‘ As the trigger for cancer is still a mystery, it is impossible to know what difference a regular high dose of Biobran might have made. ‚Very few people can say they have survived two significant cancers – a very advanced colon cancer and the second one, a fully differentiated, very aggressive stage-3 nasopharyngeal cancer. I am in full remission from both cancers. I’m among the 5 per cent of people with stage 4 cancer who have survived five years‘
Throat cancer
In February 2003,47-year-old Czech Republican, HK, was diagnosed with gullet carcinoma. His symptoms were difficulty in swallowing and tiredness. HK’s physician explained to him the necessity of immediately starting chemotherapy and radiotherapy, and related some of the side effects he might expect from this heavy treatment. ‚I knew that I had to support my immune system in order to have the best chances of recovery, and so I asked for information from pharmacies and also looked on the internet to find complementary approaches to help me through this challenging time. This is when I discovered Biobran, which seemed very good. I immediately started taking 1000 mg per day and continued to take this amount throughout my treatment period. I did not inform my physician about my decision to take Biobran because, generally, physicians don’t appreciate the role of food supplements‘ (Biobran was the only food supplement that HK added to his diet during this time.) Although HK underwent a heavy course of chemotherapy and radiotherapy as an outpatient, he experienced no weight loss, no pain and no depletion in energy. This is unusual. His mood during this period remained upbeat and, even though he had problems swallowing, his appetite remained healthy. ‚I was able to go through radical treatment – a daily course of chemotherapy with weekly high-dose chemotherapy and radiotherapy – and still drive myself to hospital and to work afterwards. I did not feel any difficulties and was in a quite good physical state.‘ During his treatment, HK tried hard to keep his stress levels low, something that was quite a challenge because of his decision not to stop working. ‚I did relax more often than before,‘ he admitted. „Very important for me was my mental state, but as I did not have any side effects, I felt in very good shape. I did try to eat more healthily and stopped drinking alcohol.‘ HK finished his five-month chemotherapy course in July 2003. After that, he underwent surgery to remove what remained of the tumour, and today he is well but continues to take 500 mg of Biobran per day to maintain strong immunity. ‚I don’t know exactly how Biobran helped me, but throughout the treatment I felt very well and I am still alive. I was surprised how effective this health supplement was, and I believe that the combination of conventional treatment and Biobran supplementation helped me effectively fight my cancer and maintain my quality of life.‘
Stomach cancer
When doctors in Hokkaido, Japan, opened up the stomach of a 53-year-old woman to remove tumours from her stomach, they decided to abandon the surgery and closed her up again. The tumours were so widespread there was nothing they could do. The woman was given just three months to live and sent home to die. Her family declined the offer of chemotherapy, believing it would not be effective. She had been suffering stomach pains for a year before the diagnosis in March 1996. Though she may well have suspected what was wrong, the family never told her she had cancer. Her daughter observed the decline. It was at this point that the daughter heard about Biobran. Her mother began taking 3 g per day. ‚She did not have much appetite, but within a week she began to improve. Her appetite started to come back, and on good days she was able to walk round the house,‘ the daughter said. Six months later, after regular visits to hospital and periodic X-rays, the daughter was called to hospital to give consent for another operation. ‚The doctor showed me two X-ray films, one taken at the time of her first examination and the other from a recent visit. There was a remarkable change, with most of the shadows gone.‘ In September 1996 the woman had another operation, during which the remaining tumours in her stomach were removed. ‚The doctors were astonished to find most of the tumours gone. Her doctor told me it was the first time he had seen such a case. ‚We believe it really was a miracle. My mother is now enjoying a normal, healthy life.‘ A 62-year-old Japanese woman refused all treatment after benign growths were found in her stomach in March 1997. By January 1999 she was vomiting blood and immediately hospitalised. She refused the recommended surgery to remove the now-malignant tumour. An examination two months later found the tumour was now aggressive. The patient again declined conventional therapy and went to a holistic clinic, where she was put on a 4 g daily dose of Biobran as part of a regime that included partial fasting and a vegetable enzyme supplement designed to improve her blood condition. Two weeks after starting on Biobran she reported the pain had decreased, and her appetite had improved. A month later she was 4 kg heavier. Around the same time, an examination revealed no sign of malignant tumours. Two months later, in July 1999, growths in the stomach were examined and found to be benign.
Gastric carcinoma
Other than becoming diabetic in his early fifties, SN enjoyed good health. But in 2001 and the first half of 2002, he began feeling unwell. In May 2002 he first noticed bloody stools but refused to face up to the possibility of anythings being wrong. He hid his symptoms from his family and doctor. While on business in Singapore, he visited the National University Hospital and complained of stomach problems. He had been suffering from persistent nausea, vomiting, occasional diarrhoea and bloody stools. In August 2002, at the age of 57, he was diagnosed with gastric carcinoma – a moderate-size ulcerated tumour in the oesophagus. He was put on a three-month course of chemotherapy, but the treatment was not a success, and his condition worsened. Back home in Ras Al Khaimah, United Arab Emirates, he saw an advertisement for Biobran, marketed locally as Lentin-Plus. He had always taken an interest in complementary medicine and regularly used Royal Jelly, barley leaves extract and other herbal preparations. He began taking 3 g of Biobran per day in December 2002. At the same time, under the care of Dr. Rafe’h Bechir he changed his diet. He stopped eating meat and dairy, ate boiled vegetables and fresh seasonal fruits and salads, and drank a lot of pure water. He also reduced his stress levels. One month after first taking Biobran, he says his problems diminished. He experienced relief from diarrhoea, vomiting and anaemia. He was relieved of heartburn and acidity, and the blood in his stools disappeared. His appetite returned to normal as his digestion improved. He also found that hair loss from chemotherapy slowly vanished, and his white blood cell and haemoglobin counts improved. Though nervous about taking Biobran initially, after one month he became confident that he could get better. He believes Biobran is ‚100 per cent‘ responsible for his recovery.
Leukaemia
After an active long life of good health and no major illnesses, 72-year-old EC was told by her oncologist she could expect no more than a year of life. In July 2001 she had gone to her GP complaining of mouth ulcers that refused to go away. EC, who lived all her life in a village near Pontefract, West Yorkshire, northern England, was referred to Pontefract General Hospital. It took until November of that year for a diagnosis of acute myeloid leukaemia. ‚The oncologist told her she wouldn’t see Christmas 2001,‘ explains her daughter, JT. ‚She was told to start a course of chemotherapy immediately and to expect to be ill and in hospital for two months. Even with the chemotherapy, she was told not to expect an extended lifespan. When they told her that, she was resigned to dying and said,’Ten or twelve months. That’s just enough time to get my house in order.“ Fired up by what she saw as the insensitivity of the system, the poor prognosis and worried about her mother’s resignation, JT set about finding alternative routes for treatment. She did four or five days of intensive research on the Internet and visited the Bristol Cancer Help Centre before her mother was due to visit in Somerset. ‚By the time she got here, I was convinced chemotherapy was not the way to go. Because her blood tests were so low, chemotherapy would have completely destroyed her immune system, and she would probably die from pneumonia and never come out of hospital‘ JT devised her own intensive detox dietary programme that included abstaining from dairy and meat, eating organic fruits and vegetables, plus minerals and supplements. ‚The idea was the less toxins her immune system had to deal with, the more it could target what was wrong with her.‘
For over 18 months to two years the intensive detox dietary programme worked well, and all EC’s readings stabilised. Her oncologist expressed surprise and told her to carry on doing what she was doing. Check-ups were put back from every three weeks to every two months. From November 2002, the white blood cell count started to dip bit by bit, and the drop continued through January 2003. JT read on the Internet that Biobran could help leukaemia sufferers, and her mother began taking it in February 2003. Six to eight weeks after beginning a dose of 3 g, EC’s readings had reversed and were climbing again. 1 chose Biobran over other things because there seemed to be a lot of good-quality research behind it,‘ says JT. ‚The white count (CD4+ cells) started to go back up, and so did her platelets. Haemoglobin varied; that was always up and down. The white count was the one I was more bothered about. If you could get the white count to go up, then the cancer cells weren’t actually winning. That’s the one I concentrated on. ‚We realised it was starting to have an effect and we stuck at it. The doctors were again saying they didn’t need to see her for six weeks, instead of every three weeks. ‚I think if we hadn’t found something else that we knew was actually targeting a specific element of the cancer and boosting the NK cells, then I think probably yes, she might have continued to decline. In February, when we started on the Biobran and she had another surge of improved readings, mentally she was strong again.‘
Non-Hodgkin’s follicular lymphoma
JL is a 39-year-old woman living in Rijeka, Croatia. In March 2005 she was diagnosed with Stage IIIA non-Hodgkin’s follicular lymphoma and started a course of chemotherapy the following month as an outpatient. Before her chemotherapy started, JL had looked into ways to help her immune system and had discovered Biobran, which she immediately started taking a high, 3 g per day ‚loading dose‘ for the first two months of her treatment. She also changed to a macrobiotic diet. The result of her complementary approach was that during chemotherapy she was able to maintain a good quality of life and better energy levels. Although her doctor had described the side effects of chemotherapy, JL was pleasantly surprised to find that she suffered far less than expected. This is not to say that the chemotherapy wasn’t arduous, but diet and the Biobran helped her endure it. ‚My doctor was happy because, in that way, I was able to continue with the chemotherapy.‘ JL continues with her chemotherapy courses and has now reduced her Biobran dosage from 3 g per day to a maintenance dose of 1 g per day. She strongly believes that Biobran, along with a macrobiotic diet, helps her endure each further course of chemotherapy and recover much faster between hospital visits.
Ovarian carcinoma
In February 1993 a 53-year-old woman was diagnosed with aggressive cancer in both ovaries. Surgery was followed by chemotherapy. At the same time she began taking 3 g of Biobran daily.Her condition started to normalise, and her NK cell activity improved significantly just three weeks after she began treatment with chemotherapy and Biobran. The figures continued improving, and at four and a half months NK cell activity was 72.6 per cent, higher than normal. JF is a 43-year-old Czech Republic librarian who was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in March 2005 after finding a lump in her groin. Unfortunately, the tumour was in a very advanced phase and the prognosis very poor. A month after diagnosis, JF was hospitalised for surgery to remove the tumour, after which she was treated with chemotherapy as an outpatient. Just after the surgery and before starting chemotherapy, JF started taking 1000 mg of Biobran daily. A friend had recommended the regimen. JF took no other food supplements during this period but tried to focus on a healthy diet. After the operation she had very low levels of pain and a bigger appetite than other patients who had faced a similar ordeal without the benefit of immune system support. ‚Biobran helped me manage the worst period in my life,‘ JF says. During her subsequent course of chemotherapy, a treatment that makes most patients feel extremely unwell, she felt in remarkably good physical and emotional shape. An exception was the emotional impact of her hair’s falling out and a weight loss of 8 kg, which was less than many others‘. ‚When I started using Biobran, I felt very positive about my recovery. Biobran is great for the psyche!‘ Although JF informed her doctor of her use of Biobran, he did not comment on her decision – he is a conventional doctor who does not believe in complementary therapies. But he did witness her tumour markers falling from 1980 at the start of treatment to 78 only halfway through (treatment is ongoing, so no treatment-completion marker levels are available). JF continues to take 1000 mg of Biobran each day to ensure the continuation of her recovery. ‚I’m convinced that, thanks to Biobran, I feel very well all the time and can cope with my disease much better. I’m still under treatment, so my fight continues, but thanks to this food supplement I feel much stronger. Although this cancer came to me out of the blue like a bolt of lightning, I have faced this challenge head on. Although I have been off work for six months now, it is my goal to return to my job as soon as possible.‘
Colon cancer with liver metastasis
The spread of colon cancer despite three surgeries and chemotherapy over a two-year period led a doctor to tell a patient he could do no more. The patient, then 67 years old, first underwent surgery in January 1996 in hospital in the Shizuoka region of Japan. Despite chemotherapy, there were indications the cancer was spreading, and by November 1996 tumours were found in the liver. In April 1997 he had surgery to remove a liver tumour. The following February, a further tumour in the right lobe of the liver was removed by surgery. At this point the patient was advised that surgery was no longer an option. In January 1999 the patient received chemotherapy by injection. An adverse reaction to the treatment left the patient bedridden. The following month he visited a holistic clinic, where he was put on a partial fast. The clinic maintained that fasting was a good way of regulating intestinal conditions. The patient was then put on an unusually high 5 g daily dose of Biobran for five days, followed by two days free of Biobran, then the high dose again. By April 1999 the tumour in the right lobe of the liver was shrinking. The following month the tumour markers were normal. The patient had quickly gained physical strength and was enjoying good health. He continued taking Biobran.
Colon cancer
Despite benign growths in his colon and a warning that some of the larger ones might become malignant, a 58-year-old man declined treatment at hospital in the Okayama region when he first went to see them in March 1997. Two years later, in March 1999, the tumours became malignant and aggressive. The man refused surgery and instead visited a holistic clinic the following month. There he was put on a partial fast, received vegetable enzymes to improve his blood count and received 4 g of Biobran per day to boost his immune system. Two months later, in July 1999, an examination found the tumours had reverted to benign. He felt vindicated in refusing surgery and maintained a high quality of life throughout.
Skin cancer (Melanoma)
Having led a healthy life in Split, Croatia, IP points to the major stress she experienced as a first-time mother in March 1999 and its aftermath as the likely trigger for her cancer. During childbirth her daughter did not receive adequate oxygen, and IP herself suffered a uterus infection and haemorrhoids. The prognosis for the daughter was not good. Doctors said she would be physically and mentally disabled. However, after two years of intensive therapy, the daughter’s condition dramatically improved; she is no longer on medication and leads a normal life. Six months into her second pregnancy, in May 2001 at the age of 31, while undergoing a check-up in hospital, a mole on IP’s back began to bleed. It was sent for biopsy and was found to have aggressive melanoma (Stage IV, Grade V). She was given no option but to have immediate surgery despite her wish to have it postponed until after the birth. A tumour was removed from her back, and she was hospitalised until the end of pregnancy. Three months after giving birth, a recurrence of cancer left IP in agony. She returned to hospital, where a tumour was removed from under her left arm, followed by a six-treatment course of chemotherapy (DTIC). ‚It was extremely difficult for me to be on chemotherapy. It greatly affected my body and mind, leaving me feeling constantly sick and unwell.‘ After a final course of chemotherapy in August 2002, IP went to see an oncologist at a private clinic in London. ‚I was told that because of the nature of my illness I didn’t have much chance of recovery. According to the statistics, only 30 per cent of people manage to recover and survive five years from when the illness is registered. ‚That was the moment I felt completely filled with panic and fear. Until then I wasn’t aware how much peril I was in.‘ In October 2002 she suffered another recurrence, this time under the right arm, and again the tumour was removed. Doctors suggested another course of chemotherapy, which IP rejected. ‚I felt that the original course of chemotherapy had not helped, and I could not face going through the same physical and psychological torment again.‘ At this point IP began seeking alternative treatments. She contacted a herbalist in neighbouring Bosnia, and the herbalist gave her information about Biobran. ‚I started taking Biobran and a combination of herbs. After 45 days I had a biopsy. The tissue sample was negative. The doctors were shocked, saying they hadn’t witnessed anything like it in 20 years of medical practice. I continued taking Biobran and the herbs for a year.‘ IP says she does not know how much of her recovery can be ascribed to Biobran, but notes that while taking Biobran she was less tired and her moods were better. ‚There was one period when I ran out of Biobran and I noticed all the bad symptoms coming back again. It convinced me that Biobran was very effective.‘ While taking Biobran, she changed her eating habits. 1 eat natural and wholesome food, only white meat, fish, vegetables, fruit, grains and pulses. I don’t eat fried or roasted food, processed or convenience food or dairy products. Besides Biobran I was taking herbal teas, vitamins C and E, beta carotene and energy treatments.‘ In an effort to reduce stress, she tried to maintain a positive outlook in thought and deed, and found faith in God. She was fortunate also to have a strong support network of friends and family. ‚They worked hard to find money to pay for my medicine. Without their help I wouldn’t have recovered.‘ A year and a half after her last operation doctors found a lump in her neck, but a biopsy in February 2004 revealed it was benign. ‚I hope neither myself nor anyone else has to again go through what happened to me. It was not just difficult; at the time it seemed unreal. I am looking forward to a brighter future.‘ In January 2001 SM, a 42-year-old businessman, noticed a skin disorder on a finger on his right hand. The disorder was soon diagnosed as melanoma and treated with chemotherapy. Returning to hospital in Coimbra, Portugal, in February 2002, he was told the cancer had spread to the lung and liver and that he could expect only four months of life. He went on another course of chemotherapy but also went to see Professor Jurasunas, who prescribed Biobran and other substances and advised him to change his diet. ‚I put my cancer down to a lot of exposure to the sun and a stressful, busy life,‘ says SM. ‚After I saw Professor Jurasunas, I altered my lifestyle and adhered to everything he prescribed for me, taking it with my medication. About two months after I first saw Professor Jurasunas, there were signs I was getting better.‘ The side effects from the chemotherapy were lessening. He finished the course of chemotherapy in July 2002. ‚My doctor did not want to believe what he was seeing, but the truth was that everything was OK. I thought I was in a dream. I am very happy and feel like I am born again.‘ In November 2002 SM was told he was free of cancer in the liver and that the nodules in his lungs were considerably reduced. By March 2003 he was told that he was free of all cancer.
Prostate cancer
When JR, a 63-year-old truck driver, was diagnosed with prostate cancer, he was advised that surgery was the best course. Unfortunately, delays in the health service in Portugal meant he would have to wait for the operation. Meanwhile he was put on analgesics for pain relief. Eventually an operation was scheduled for January 2002, five months after the initial diagnosis. On arrival at hospital he was told no operation would take place because the cancer had spread throughout his body, and there was nothing doctors could do. The following month he went to see an oncologist, who said that he could expect to live between six to twelve months. By now he was unable to walk unaided. On April 1, 2002 JR had his first appointment with Professor Jurasunas in Lisbon. JR was put on 3 g of Biobran per day with other substances and told to change his traditional, fat-heavy Portuguese diet to a healthier combination of fresh fish and vegetables. One month after starting his treatment with Professor Jurasunas, JR felt better and was starting to put on weight. A prostate blood test showed improvement. In April 2003, blood tests showed his prostate was normal and there were no sign of tumours anywhere in his body. JR states unequivocally, ‚Biobran saved my life.‘ He is now retired and says he is enjoying life again. A former master on merchant ships, AK had enjoyed good health his entire life, a requirement for his arduous job. He then migrated to a less-physical desk job and based himself in London, from where he runs a trade body representing Japanese shipping companies. In July 2001, at age 62, he went for an annual health checkup and was told that his prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels indicated the presence of prostate cancer, and in further tests the cancer was confirmed and found to be moderately‘ aggressive. He agreed to have surgery and in September 2001 underwent a prostatectomy. A subsequent biopsy detected cancer, and in October he underwent a six-week course of radiotherapy. Earlier, while in hospital recovering from surgery, a friend sent him Biobran, but AK did not take it. However, when told he needed further treatment, he began taking a daily 3 g dose of Biobran in the belief it could help with the cancer and be effective in helping alleviate the side effects of radiotherapy. ‚I believe it was due to Biobran that I suffered minimal side effects from radiotherapy, which I understand is quite unusual. Ever since then I’ve taken 2 g of Biobran every day.‘ The first blood test following the completion of his course of radiotherapy, and after taking Biobran regularly, showed his PSA level was almost zero, with no detectable cancer cells. Thereafter he had regular check-ups every three months, but the interval was soon extended to every four months and then six. ‚My doctor said it was unexpected that everything was going so well. I have always been a healthy person and in good shape. You have to be when working onboard ships. Otherwise it would be very difficult. ‚I don’t know whether Biobran saved my life or not, but I have decided to take it as long as I live. I also believe that thanks to Biobran for the past two winters I haven’t caught a cold, which is unusual. So I am very pleased.’Biobran in conjunction with chemotherapy over a long period helped a Japanese man diagnosed with prostate cancer at the age of 78 return to a normal life. Told he had prostate cancer in September 1994 and that the tumour was spreading to his spine, the man had surgery the following month. More than a year later, in December 1995, he began taking a 2 g daily dose of Biobran with continued chemotherapy. The chemotherapy was stopped for a while because of anaemia, but the man believed continued use of Biobran helped overcome the anaemia and allowed him to resume chemotherapy. In June 1996 the tumour in his lower spine was found to have shrunk by half, and by December 1996 all his tumours had disappeared. Two types of chemotherapy treatment failed to have any impact on a 68-year-old American diagnosed with aggressive prostate cancer in July 1995. In January 1996 he started taking 3 g of Biobran per day. The following April he had surgery to excise the tumour. By November bodily functions returned to normal. His NK cell activity was high, his PSA level had returned to normal and he was deemed to be in full remission. A 56-year-old man found to have aggressive prostate cancer that had spread to his lymph nodes was put on hormone therapy at hospital in the Shizuoka district of Japan in November 1998. The treatment had some impact on the size and number of the tumours, but they remained large and numerous when he left the hospital in January 1999. The patient continued with the therapy but was unable to make further progress. Feeling that hormone therapy might have limitations, the man in April 1999 went to an alternative medicine clinic that offered Biobran as part of a course that included partial fasting. He was put on 5 g of Biobran per day for five days with a two-day break, continuing on this rotation for two months. Two weeks after starting on Biobran his abdominal discomfort disappeared. By the same time his PSA level had drastically lowered and by June 1999 was normal. Nothing abnormal was found in the lymph nodes. Hormone therapy appeared to have been successful in suppressing the growth of tumour cells, though it was unable to destroy the tumour completely. Biobran appears to have helped enhance the effects of hormone therapy and the eventual elimination of the tumour.
Breast cancer
When JB was first diagnosed with cancer at the age of 45 in January 1998, she promised herself that she would live to dance at both her daughters‘ weddings. In July 2003 when her first daughter married, the first half of that dream came true. JB had been a healthy person who resorted to alternative medicine when she got colds. As a distributor for an herbal products company, based near the Black Forest in southern Germany, she regularly took supplements for health maintenance. In 1997 she had started to feel a knot in her breast but ignored it. By December of that year she was so exhausted she arranged to have a check-up. A mammography a month later revealed quite a large, moderately aggressive breast cancer. It might have been a coincidence, but she believes the painful experience of having her breast squeezed for the mammograph might have caused her harm. She agreed to the removal of the lump from her breast, though because it was so widespread, it was not fully removed. Despite severe pressure, she refused follow-up chemotherapy and radiation and checked out of hospital early, after three days. A friend removed her operation stitches. Though still scared, she was in a stable state of mind. While searching for alternative treatment she decided to change her diet, adopting the flaxseed oil diet developed by Dr. Johanna Budwig. She stopped working, learned progressive muscle relaxation and took antioxidants and vitamin C infusions. At the end of 1998 she undertook a six-week fast according to the programme devised by healer Rudolf Breuss. In May 1998 she went to convalesce at the alternative Tumorbiologische Clinic in Freiburg. Though there only for psychological counselling and a natural diet, she was asked to agree to chemotherapy, or at the least radiation, both of which she refused. In October 2000 she had a second operation to remove more tumours from her breast. With her NK cell activity at only 5 per cent, she booked herself into the Veramed Clinic near Munich, where she had vitamin C infusions and hyper-thermia treatment. This treatment involves lying in a tent-like structure while the body is heated to 41 degrees Celsius (105.8 Fahrenheit) whilst under anaesthetic. The treatment did not work, and she left the clinic with the same 5 per cent NK cell activity. She first heard about Biobran while on holiday in Florida in May 2001. Still open-minded and willing to try anything despite feeling exhausted, she ordered Biobran because the literature said it could increase her NK cell activity. A few weeks later, on June 2,2001, she began taking 3 g of Biobran per day. She was still careful about her diet. She followed the Budwig diet, which she continues with today, and takes supplements, which she believes has helped prevent the cancer from spreading. Four days after first taking Biobran, she realised she had more strength and her feeling of exhaustion had disappeared. Back home in Germany she went for another NK cell activity test on June 25 and found it was now 28 per cent. By July 14 it was 38 per cent. ‚For the first time I had the feeling that there was a chance I could survive,‘ JB says. ‚Biobran gave me more power and helped me be more relaxed about not having chemotherapy In autumn 2002 she was told there were probably three more tumours in her breast. She plans to have another breast operation, but not before she has sorted out the problem of mercury fillings in her teeth, which she believes are one of the causes of her cancer. In 1993, 14 amalgam fillings containing mercury, which had been in place for 20 years, were removed. She believes the work was poorly carried out, and that residues of mercury have been left in her system. She is trying to eliminate mercury with the help of a kinesiologist. She believes stress was another major factor in her development of cancer. Her daughter was diagnosed with diabetes at four years and, due to her unstable blood sugar levels during childhood, the family had some troublesome years. here may be a genetic disposition to JB s cancer. Two half-sisters also developed cancer. One half-sister, a daughter by her father, recovered from cancer of the womb. She had an operation to remove the tumour, refused radiation therapy and changed her diet. Another half-sister, a daughter by her mother, was diagnosed with breast cancer, but doctors told her the tumour was benign and she should not worry. The cancer nevertheless spread, and she had a hysterectomy in 1991 and part of a lung removed in 1995. She was on intensive chemotherapy and refused to consider alternative options. She died in November 2002. DS, who had her own business making fairground toys, had taken early retirement and loved working in her garden. Then, nearly four years after being diagnosed with cancer, having a lump removed from her breast and undergoing chemotherapy, DS believed her cancer had returned. Her surgeon made a physical examination and told her nothing was wrong. But the pain persisted and four months later, in September 2002, it became so bad she phoned for another appointment. By this time her breast had become enlarged and she said she felt like she was carrying a ‚hard handbag‘ under her arm. This time the surgeon said he would do a biopsy ‚and see what these cells are playing at.‘ A week later DS, then aged 57, was diagnosed with cancer for the second time. She had a liver scan and was told the cancer had spread. At first DS did not realise the seriousness of the diagnosis. When told she had only months‘, she believed the doctor was referring to how long she would have to wait for an operation, not how long she had left to live. In a state of shock, she made an appointment to see her original surgeon at Dumfries and Galloway Infirmary, Scotland. She was advised surgery was no longer suitable and she should undergo ’strong‘ chemotherapy. ‚I couldn’t sleep because of the swelling. I was in terrible pain.‘ She began the course of chemotherapy in the mid-December 2002. It was while still on the course that she heard of Biobran and on January 15, 2003 – the date is printed on her mind – she began taking 3 g of Biobran per day. Within three days, she says, ‚I felt a different person. I had much better energy and began to feel normal again.‘ A week after first taking Biobran the swelling in her breast had subsided and the pain had disappeared. Two weeks after first taking Biobran she went for another liver and bone scan. She was told the cancer had disappeared from her liver. Her doctor expressed surprise. ‚That’s strange,‘ he said. ‚I can’t believe that it’s gone from the liver, but we’ll keep a check on that.‘ ‚It was definitely due to Biobran, not the chemotherapy, because the swelling seemed to go days after I started taking it,‘ says DS. ‚It’s clear a miracle has happened because when you get liver cancer, there is no cure. I’ve had friends who had liver cancer and they had chemotherapy and it didn’t do them any good and they died. I’ve always said if you believe in a thing, it will work, if your own mind works along with the stuff. If you say I’m going to get better, then you’re going to get better. The Biobran has done the trick.‘ On March 7,2003 DS went to the Dumfries and Galloway Hospital for a final liver scan. The letter states, ‚An ultrasound of her liver today has confirmed no evidence of metastatic disease at all.‘ Over a year later she was still free of the cancer. After a tumour was found in a 51-year-old woman’s left breast in December 1994 she began a course of hormone therapy and radiotherapy. There was no improvement in her condition. In March 1995 she began taking a daily 3 g dose of Biobran, and her NK cell activity soon doubled. A mam-mography taken in July 1995 found no signs of a tumour. She continued taking Biobran and was tested again in January 1997. No tumour was found. A 75-year-old Japanese patient diagnosed with breast cancer had her left breast removed in November 1998, followed by hormone therapy that finished in April 1999. The following June, the cancer was found to have recurred, and she was put on chemotherapy and a daily 3 g dose of Biobran. During the first four-week cycle of treatment the tumour shrank. At the end of July 1999, after the second cycle of treatment, the patient, who had been readmitted to hospital when the tumour recurred, was well enough to be discharged and continue treatment at home. During the four-month course of treatment, a key tumour marker consistently drop and eventually reverted to normal. Biobran appeared to reduce the side effects of chemotherapy while improving effectiveness by maintaining the strength of the immune system. The patient recovered steadily despite her age and during chemotherapy treatment maintained her appetite and energy.
Malignant melanoma (right leg)
Although retired for a number of years, LS believes her old job at a chemical factory in Slovakia was the cause of the malignant melanoma that was diagnosed on her right leg in October 2002 when she was 66 years old. She immediately underwent surgery to remove the lymph nodes in her leg and then a localised course of chemotherapy. Having been advised by a friend on the importance of a strong immune system, especially with somebody her age, LS used Biobran from the very start, taking 3 g per day for the first two months, reducing the dose to 2 g per day for the next seven months, and then finally going down to a maintenance dose of 1 g per day until the end of 2003. She took no other supplements during this period, although LS did include more fruits and vegetables in her diet and reduced her consumption of high-fat foods. On taking the Biobran, LS immediately noticed that she recovered much more quickly after the surgery than she was led to expect, especially taking into account her pre-existing diabetes. The same speedy recovery applied to her chemotherapy. Although as an older person she suffered much more from the treatments – she felt depressed afterwards and found that even basic cooking and cleaning left her exhausted – she felt that with the Biobran her recovery was quicker than normal and her energy levels easier to maintain. However, even Biobran was not able to prevent her immunity from falling to critically low levels at the end of her course in chemotherapy. She insists that although she ‚felt no spirit to live further‘, she found that subsequent Biobran intake quickly returned her optimism and vitality. Today, LS is enjoying her newfound health: ‚I enjoy my retirement to the fullest and I love to take care of my greatgrandchildren.‘
Lung cancer
Though he suffered from no major health problems, YB, a chronic smoker, did have bouts of coughing. In September 2002 his coughing became persistent. He found blood in his sputum, and lost appetite and weight. By December 2002 his condition had worsened. His weight had decreased from 87 kg to 73 kg, he felt pain throughout his abdomen, and he had a complete loss of appetite and severe constipation. In January a MRI and biopsy revealed extensive small-cell lung cancer that had spread to his lymph nodes. He was told he had only a few months to live.
A Syrian-born teacher, YB resides in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. He was diagnosed at the American University Hospital in Beirut, where he started on a course of four chemotherapy sessions in February 2003. This led to an improvement in his appetite. He felt the cancer was being vanquished and he was returning to normal, though he suffered severe side effects, including lack of sleep and hair loss. On his return to the United Arab Emirates at the start of March 2003, he went on a further course of chemotherapy at the Tawam Hospital in Al Ain. At the same time, having read about Biobran and having consulted Dr. Bechir, YB began taking 4 g of Biobran per day as a loading dose and from the middle of March felt his condition was improving. A month after first taking Biobran, his appetite had returned to normal and he had almost regained his regular weight. His nausea had disappeared, his loss of hair from chemotherapy was now minimal, his cough was suppressed and his sputum was free of blood. However, there was still some abdominal pain, though greatly reduced. Two months after first taking Biobran, YB felt he could keep the cancer at bay. By August 2003 he was in 90 per cent remission and sure that he could survive. He reduced his Biobran dose to a maintenance level of 1 g. He felt his heavy smoking and a genetic predisposition to cancer – all six of his brothers had succumbed to cancer -combined to bring the disease on. He is now on a mission to help others give up smoking. After losing weight and suffering from a hacking cough and blood in the sputum, a 67-year-old man was found to have lung cancer and pulmonary tuberculosis when he visited a hospital in Osaka, Japan, in August 1996. In October 1996 he was treated with antibiotics for the tuberculosis and radiotherapy implants for the cancer. In December the lower part of his lung containing the tumour was removed, and in January 1997 he was discharged from hospital. Five months later he felt a pain on the right side of his chest and on examination cancer was found to have spread to his bones. The primary source of the cancer was the ribs on the right side of the chest. He was put on morphine to relieve the pain and began a daily 3 g dose of Biobran. Six months after starting on Biobran, the morphine dosage was gradually reduced as his pain subsided. In June 1998 the pain disappeared and the morphine administration stopped. During the course of taking Biobran, his tumour markers gradually reduced and eventually returned to the normal levels that indicated full remission. Biobran was deemed to be successful in the difficult area of treating bone cancer. DF was diagnosed with moderately aggressive lung cancer that had spread to the abdomen and pelvis in August 2002. The cancer was inoperable and DF, then 57, underwent chemotherapy. DF believed the cancer had arisen through stress and his addiction to tobacco. The following month he visited Professor Jurasunas at the clinic in Lisbon. Jurasunas noted that DF was suffering side effects from chemotherapy and put him on a protocol that included Biobran. DF soon reported feeling better, and by November 2002 said he was experiencing no side effects from the chemotherapy course, which was still underway. By the end of the year he was optimistic that he might have a full life again. In January 2003 he went for a CAT scan. The scan revealed his lung tumour had shrunk by two-thirds and there was no longer any sign that the cancer had spread. He says the doctors were astonished and did not think such progress was possible. In March 2003 the lung tumour had disappeared. His doctors expressed astonishment.’In my experience I think it was unavoidable that I had to take the chemotherapy, but without Biobran and complementary medicine I wouldn’t have been able to achieve good results,‘ says DF.
Cancer that has spread to lungs
After having surgery to remove her cancerous right breast in 1996 at the age of 55, a Japanese woman from the Tokushima region suffered a recurrence of cancer in the lymph nodes near her right armpit. In January 1998 she again underwent surgery. In December 1998 a CT scan detected a 5 mm tumour in her lung. Fearing the side effects, she ignored advice to have chemotherapy. Instead, in January 1999 she visited a holistic clinic, where she went on a partial fast and began a 4 g daily dose of Biobran for five days, followed by two days off. This regimen was continued in rotation for six months. Ten days after starting on Biobran, she reported feeling less tired and began recovering strength. After a month her constipation and lumbago improved, enhancing her sense of well-being. In July 1999 a CT scan found her lung had returned to normal and no tumour was found. As no further tumours were found, her doctor considered her fully recovered. Multiple myeloma (tumours spread throughout the bone marrow) JM was in a serious condition by the time he visited Professor Jurasunas at the clinic in Lisbon, Portugal, in December 1999. JM had been a keen soccer player and sportsman, but now at the age of 38 was suffering from aggressive multiple myeloma. He had begun a course of chemotherapy in Lisbon and continued with chemo in London on the advice that he could get more effective treatment there. Doctors in London advised that he should have a bone marrow transplant, but he was unwilling to undergo the operation. ‘It was a desperate case and took several months before he started to recuperate,‘ says Professor Jurasunas, who put him on a variety of products, including Biobran, while he was still undergoing chemotherapy. After completing his course of chemotherapy, JM was told he was in remission. He had defied his doctors‘ orders in not having a bone marrow transplant. Professor Jurasunas believes he was able to stop the spread of the cancer. ‚Again, I was able to observe the high efficiency of Biobran in this difficult disease.‘ A 45-year-old woman living in Palm Beach, Florida and diagnosed with multiple myeloma in March 1998 refused all conventional treatments. She wanted to use alternative treatments, with Biobran as her core supplement. She began taking a daily 3 g dose of Biobran in April 1999 with other supplements, including fresh- water algae and B-12. Her white blood count levels showed significant improvement, with values normalising. She continued working full-time and enjoying a normal life, and continues to take Biobran. A 46-year-old musician was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in March 1994 and had low white blood cell concentrations. In February 1995 he began taking Biobran. One week after first taking Biobran, his NK cell activity had doubled to 38 per cent. By November 1995 his blood results showed normal levels, and in December his doctor said he had no symptoms of multiple myeloma. He continued taking Biobran for two and a half years and believed himself free of cancer.
CONCLUSION
In this book you have seen some of the evidence that Biobran – a biological response modifier (BRM) made from rice bran and shiitake mushroom enzymes – can have a powerful and beneficial effect on weakened immune systems. Now that we are in the twenty-first century, the health of the immune system is finally being recognised as pivotal to disease recovery and to the maintenance of optimum health. The information in this book will certainly encourage the use of Biobran as an adjunct to any treatment program. As Dr. Soyer stated in his introduction, ‚it works‘ Biobran has no side-effects or toxicity, so you can understand why many thousands of doctors around the world have been recommending it to their patients, and why Biobran has become the leading serious immune system supplement world-wide. Although many orthodox physicians are starting to acknowledge the importance of natural BRMs, such as Biobran, as important adjuncts for the success of their treatment programs, some doctors have been dismissive because large-scale double-blind clinical trials have not yet been undertaken. It must be remembered, however, that Biobran is a complex natural compound and not a drug, and that anybody involved with such natural products will be familiar with the difficulty of interesting clinics, hospitals and universities in doing large-scale double-blind clinical studies, especially when such studies generally require levels of funding that only multinational pharmaceutical companies can afford. The present lack of such studies does not mean, however, that large-scale double-blind trials using Biobran will never be done – the supplement is so effective that such trials are inevitable in the near future. At the moment, much of the research on Biobran has been conducted on cancer patients because they tend to have the most depleted immune systems, either from the onslaught of the cancer itself or as a result of intense orthodox treatments, such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy. When resources are finite, it is wise to focus research in this way. However, pilot studies have indicated that Biobran may also be a useful adjunct for the treatment of HIV, diabetes, Hepatitis B and C and general illnesses (such as the common cold). Future research will spread to these other areas, but for now the majority of research on Biobran remains cancer-orientated. Developers of leading-edge supplements such as Biobran need to achieve a balance between product innovation and product research. Without adequate research, we cannot tell the difference between an exceptional product and exceptional marketing. Many manufacturers of immune products today are very happy to make all sorts of claims but very reluctant to back up those claims with clinical research. Instead, they list research on the general product category rather than on a specific product. In this way, claims appear to be backed by copious research, when in fact the truth is very different. Biobran is backed by a growing amount of bona-fide medical research. For a natural product, this backing is quite unusual. It means that patients wishing to boost immunity can be confident that, in choosing Biobran, they have invested in a tried-and-tested product that really does deliver benefits. This research is one of the main advantages of Biobran over rival immune system supplements, most of which do not have Biobran’s level of research. In addition, studies show that Biobran is significantly more effective than standard mushroom products and combinations, herbal formulas, vitamin and mineral formulas and other arabinoxylan compounds. When a product is the best in its category, it is important that innovation and research continue to ensure that it remains there. And this is exactly what Daiwa Pharmaceutical, the developer and manufacturer of Biobran, is doing. In the future, we will certainly see Daiwa Pharmaceutical produce new-generation immune system supplements, and many more thousands of people around the world will be helped in healing and in their quest to maintain optimum health. For now, however, we have Biobran – the most effective, safe, well-researched and easiest to take natural immunomodulator currently available. I hope you have enjoyed this journey with me into the world of Biobran and immunomodulation, and I wish you the very best of health, for now and into the future. If you have further question for our medical team, please do not hesitate to contact us:
info(at)biobran.nl
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