Chaparral

[Guest guest]

Notice in this article it was just one woman who was using chaparral who MAY

have had damage from the overuse of " tablets " that caused the ban of the

herb, while drugs doing far worse to far more people do not receive the same

treatment.

Kris

 

http://www.smartbasics.com/glossary/chaparral_glos.htm

 

Chaparral, also referred to as greasewood and creosote bush, is an herb

derived from the common desert shrub Larrea tridentata. Native to the

Southwestern United States, the leaves of this desert plant have been used

for centuries by Native American healers as a tonic for the treatment of

cancer, snake bites, infections, arthritis, tuberculosis and venereal

disease.

 

Modern herbalists had come to view chaparral as an effective herbal

antibiotic and as a treatment for intestinal parasites. Chaparral was also

widely employed as a remedy for the treatment of colds, flu, cancer, and

diarrhea.

 

Chaparral contains a compound called nordihydroguaiaretic acid or NDGA for

short. NDGA is a powerful antioxidant, that is widely used in the food

industry as a preservative for lard and animal shortenings. Early studies

had raised hopes that NDGA might prove to be an effective treatment for

cancer when it was revealed that NDGA was able to inhibit the growth of

cancer cells in animals.

 

Human studies were disappointing, and raised new concerns about NDGA's

toxicity after researchers reported finding lesions on the kidneys and lymph

nodes of animals. Subsequently chapparal was removed from the FDA's list of

products that are generally recognized as safe, or GRAS.

 

In 1990 a women suffered liver damage that was believed to be the result of

consuming large amounts of chapparal tablets to treat a non-malignant breast

lump. Though the woman recovered in time, the incident led to the widespread

removal of all chapparal products from the shelves of health stores around

the country. Many medical researchers currently feel that while chapparal is

an intriguing product worthy of further research, it is too toxic to be reco

mmended for human consumption at this time.

 

 

Recognize joy when it arrives in the plain brown

wrappings of everyday life. ~Judith Viorst