Boswellia Serrata and Carterii
Recommended by Dr. Budwig (especially when it comes to fighting brain tumours) frankincense essential oil is an unbelievably effective cancer killer, and research trials are filling medical journals proving this. Specifically, Indian Frankincense (Boswellia serrata) has been shown clinically to being a vital treatment for:
- Brain cancer
- Breast cancer
- Colon cancer
- Pancreatic cancer
- Prostate cancer
- Stomach cancer
According to researchers out of Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, the cancer killing effects of frankincense are due in part to its ability to regulate cellular epigenetic function, which highlights its function in influencing genes to promote healing. Baylor cancer scientists emphasize that this potency makes Boswellia serrata a viable candidate for both cancer prevention and treatment!
Benefits
The most common frankincense benefits include:
- Reduces Inflammation
- Cancer-killing Properties
- Spiritual Awareness
- Boosts Immunity
- Fights Infections
- Improves Anxiety
- Heals skin and reduces acne and scarring
Frankincense Oil Cancer Natural Treatment
People who have added Boswellia serrata into their natural health cancer care plan may find themselves experiencing double-benefits from this miracle essential oil. For many cancer patients, there’s a time when the treatment becomes worse than the cancer itself. It is as this point that quality of life and symptom suppression is the focal point for many diagnosed with this deadly disease. Debilitating in-and-of itself, these cancer treatment side effect can make having cancer absolutely miserable.
Take, for instance, brain cancer patients who experience cerebral oedema (swelling in the head) after having their tumours irradiated. Typically, these people are treated with dexamethasone and other corticosteroids to control the swelling, but this is done at a great cost because the deadly complications of steroids are limitless.
Unfortunately, these people suffer toxic overload from the drugs that are supposed to help them in the first place and get headaches, migraines, and may even deal with blurred vision because of the steroid treatments.
Thankfully, frankincense offers a natural, viable solution to this horrible issue. Back in 2011, the journal Cancer published the results of a 44-person clinical trial evaluating how brain swelling was effected by frankincense.
Astoundingly, 60% of the patients displayed 75% reduction or greater in cerebral swelling after being treated with 4200 mg/day of frankincense! These results are so significant that scientists are urging the medical community to consider prescribing this potent essential oil instead of steroids for cancer patients assigned to radiation treatment.
Frankincense Benefits Immune Function
A growing body of research has recently unlocked the doors to our understanding of why frankincense benefits our health. In a study published by Phytotherapy Research, for instance, when mice took 1-10 mg of Boswellia serrata orally it was discovered that multiple levels of their immune systems were stimulated including:
- Delayed hypersensitivity reaction (early 24 hours, delayed 48 hours)
- IgG
- IgM
- Cytokines (interferon gamma, interleukin-4, and tumour necrosis factor-alpha)
- T-cell interactions (i.e. CD4/CD8, which are generally low in AIDS patients)
In layman’s terms, frankincense can boost the immune system like no other! Two fundamental ways this is accomplished is by proliferating lymphocytes (white blood cells, which are the body’s primary defense team) and by keeping inflammation at bay (which is arguably the primary risk factor for most chronic diseases).
This may also explain why frankincense is so effective in treating autoimmune conditions like bronchial asthma, Crohn’s disease, rheumatoid arthritis, and ulcerative colitis.
Implement frankincense into your natural health regimen today and see how Frankincense Benefits Immune Function. This essential oil can be used in diffusers with ease to treat respiratory conditions or you can put it as an essential or salve directly on your skin.
And finally, you can also take frankincense (boswellia) as a supplement with a few essential oil drops placed under your tongue, on the roof of your mouth or in powdered capsule form for treatment of many health conditions.
In 2013, the University of Leicester conveniently published just before Christmas that has rekindled this theory. According to their press release, the Omani government-funded research has (for the first time) uncovered that frankincense has the ability to target cancer cells in late-stage ovarian cancer patients. And this all appeared to be due to AKBA (acetyl-11-keto-beta-boswellic acid). According to lead researcher Kamla Al-Salmani,
“After a year of studying the AKBA compound with ovarian cancer cell lines in vitro, we have been able to show it is effective at killing the cancer cells. Frankincense is taken by many people with no known side effects. This finding has enormous potential to be taken to a clinical trial in the future and developed into an additional treatment for ovarian cancer.”
It has become glaringly obvious that boswellic acid (BA) is a compound fit to kill cancer cells, and researchers have tested frankincense essential oil to determine if it should role to play in oncology.
Although there is some debate whether or not BA is too large a compound to survive conventional essential oil filtration systems, there are studies in the literature that claim they are indeed part of frankincense oil. Subsequently, the jury is still out as to the exact mechanism(s) explaining why frankincense essential oil is so beneficial to cancer patients. However, advances in recent research suggest that Beta-elemene – a cancer fighting terpene found in frankincense and myrrh with the ability to cross the blood brain barrier – may be partly responsible.
Boswellia Serrata and Carterii
Description
Boswellia is the purified resin made from the gum from the Boswellia serrata or Boswellia carterii trees. For medicinal purposes, the products of these two trees are used in similar ways.
B. serrata is a moderately large branching tree that grows in the hilly regions of India. It grows to a height of about 12 ft. (4 m). The sticky resin, or sap, from the tree is also called Indian frankincense, Indian olibanum,dhup, and salai guggul. B. carterii is a related tree that grows in parts of North Africa, especially Somalia, and in some parts of Saudi Arabia. The resin from this tree is called frankincense.
General use
Boswellia is a significant herb in the Ayurvedic system of health and healing. Boswellia is a guggul. A guggul is a sticky gum resin that comes from the sap of a tree. Ayurvedic healers have used Boswellia for centuries to treat arthritis and rheumatism. In traditional Ayurvedic medicine, it has many other uses. These included being used as an antiseptic, expectorant, and diuretic. In traditional Ayurvedic medicine, many conditions are treated with Boswellia.
These include:
- arthritis and rheumatism
- asthma
- bronchitis
- diarrhoea
- jaundice
- ringworm and other skin diseases
- syphilis
- ulcers
- undescended testicles
Modern usage has focused on the use of B. serrata. This is most likely to be used by Western herbalists and found in natural products stores. Modern herbalists use Boswellia primarily to treat arthritis and other inflammatory conditions. Boswellia can be applied as a component of anti-arthritis cream.
Some very promising scientific evidence backs up this traditional use of Boswellia. Compounds isolated from Boswellia have demonstrated anti-inflammatory in laboratory studies. In experimental animals they reduced swelling as effectively as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as ibuprofen (Advil, Nuprin, Motrin) and produced none of the side effects such as irritation of the stomach seen with NSAIDs. This could prove important for people who must take anti-inflammatory taken internally or can inflammatory drugs for a long period of time.
Other animal studies have suggested that Boswellia lowers cholesterol and triglyceride (a type of fat) levels in the blood. In other controlled human studies, Boswellia was shown to decrease the duration of bronchial asthma, possibly by blocking formation of the chemicals that cause the blood vessels to contract. It has also been shown to be safe and effective in human studies for the treatment of arthritis.
Boswellia Serrata, via its active Boswellic acids, appears to be a novel inhibitory of a pro-inflammatory enzyme called 5-Lipoxygenase and may possess other anti-inflammatory effects (such as nF-kB inhibition, which are not as novel). These anti-inflammatory effects have been investigated for their benefits in osteoarthritis (OA), and it appears that oral Boswellia supplements can suppress pain and immobility associated with OA quite significantly with the effects taking as little as a week to occur.
The studies are well conducted, but funded by the producers of the tested supplements. There are limited non-funded interventions with Boswellic for this claim, but they seem to agree with the battery of funded study in effect size.
Remarkably, Boswellia appears to be quite anti-cancer that appears to be more anti-proliferative rather than apoptotic (the latter meaning to induce regulated cell death) since it is a potent inhibitor of angiogenesis and cell invasiveness. There is not a large battery of studies on these claims, but preliminary mouse and rat evidence where the rodents are injected with tumours suggest that Boswellia can potently suppress tumour growth (Pancreatic, Colorectal) and in some cases actually outright prevent tumour growth (Prostatic, Glioma).
Boswellia appears to be a very promising anti-cancer herb due to the potency it exhibits in animals, with one study noting this after oral administration (100mg/kg of the main Boswellic acid in animals). The potency has been replicated in other cancer cell lines in vitro (including breast, cervical, myeloma and leukaemia) but these cancers do not yet have animal interventions yet.
Boswellia appears to be fairly non-toxic, has a history of usage as a phytopharmaceutical for brain oedema associated with radiotherapy (a cancer treatment), and the general anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer effects make it a fairly interesting herb relative to others that have subpar evidence.
DBM Protocol – Adjunct Treatment – Frankincense Essential Oil Therapy
- Rub frankincense essential oil on your body (neck area, onto a tumour) 3 drops 3 x daily.
- Dilute essential oil with 1 drop of coconut oil to ease skin sensitivity.
- Drink 3 drops internally in 250ml of water 3x daily OR add to a teaspoon of coconut oil (warmed so it becomes liquid) OR add into a softgel capsule (use a syringe and draw out some of the omega 3 oils from a capsule and add it into that – less stressful on the oesophagus). CAUTION: DO NOT begin any “internal” protocols until you have spoken with your DBM Physician / Practitioner
- As an additional method, diffuse in an oil diffuser
DBM Protocol – Adjunct Therapy – Boswelic Acid
Preparations
Boswellia is harvested from trees in late October by cutting away a flap of bark 6–8 in (15-20 cm) wide. For about two weeks, the gum is then scraped away from this wound. This material is then purified and used in healing.
Commercially available Boswellia is standardized as an extract to a strength of 60–65% Boswellic acid.
- Dosage varies depending on the patient’s condition.
- Rheumatic conditions – 150 mg of boswellic acid three times per day.
- Creams containing boswellic acid can be applied externally.
- Transdermal applications of boswellic acid / DMSO
Precautions
Some herbalists suggest that pregnant women, people with immune system diseases such as AIDS, and the frail elderly not take boswellia.
Side effects
Generally, boswellia appears to be well tolerated with very few side effects. In rare cases it can cause diarrhoea, nausea, and skin rash.
Interactions
There are few, if any, studies of how boswellia interacts with traditional Western medicines. It has been used for many years in combination with other Ayurvedic herbs without incident. With interest in boswellia interest high in modern research laboratories, more information on drug interactions is likely to be forthcoming.
