Not only is ginger a natural pain-reliever and a safe, effective means to treat morning sickness, it can also cause ovarian cancer cells to die.

This natural discovery is a great boon to the treatment of ovarian cancer, considering many patients develop recurrent disease that, over time, becomes resistant to apoptosis, one form of cellular death that ginger triggers. The other kind of cellular death ginger induced -- autophagy -- forces cancer cells to digest themselves naturally.

University of Michigan researchers made the discovery when they treated ovarian cancer cell cultures with a common variety of ginger powder sold in grocery stores. In fact, ginger caused cellular death in all ovarian cancer lines tested, and at a similar or better rate than chemotherapy drugs.

I'll keep you posted on the results of future University of Michigan studies on other natural treatments for ovarian cancer, including resveratrol and curcumin.

University of Michigan Health System April 4, 2006

Yahoo News April 5, 2006