Persin, a natural toxin found in avocados, appears so effective at killing breast cancer cells that it is being considered as a chemotherapy agent.
I’ve covered high-fat plant foods in the past such as nuts, which are health-promoting, coconut oil, which is, not so health promoting, but what about avocados. 75% calories from fat, but good for you none the less, neither good nor bad, or something we should consider avoiding?
Well, Rats, fed the human equivalent of 200 pounds, of avocado seeds don’t do so well. But we’re not rats, and who eats avocado pits?
Then of course the FDA warns about the toxicity of avocado leaves, for the lactating mammary gland of the goat, but what about the actual fruit? Not good for pets evidently, but neither is chocolate. What about the actual fruit for actual humans? We have been eating avocados for 10,000 years, the darling of health nuts everywhere. What could possibly go wrong?
Well, they’re not a problem for cholesterol, in fact people put on an avocado diet, see a significant improvement in their cholesterol, probably in part due to it’s phytosterol content.
The California Avocado Commission even supported a study pitting, no pun intended, hass avocadoes again a malignant line of oral cancer cells. Here's the control. The red dots indicate living mitochondria inside the cells, the little sparks of life force, extinguished by an avocado extract leaving dead lifeless husks of cancer cells in its wake
Kills breast cancer cells too. There a natural plant toxin, produced by the avocado tree, that acts as a fungicide, an insectide, and can do a number on human breast cancer cells. And here they are.
These are not what you want in your body. These are three breast cancer cells huddled together, planning their route of attack. This is a different stain than before. Here the red is their nucleas, and the green is their cytoskeleton, the cells skeleton. Didn’t know cells had skeletons? How else could they move?
How else could a breast cancer cell get from the breast to the brain or to the liver, it crawls there. Here's a video breast cancer cells in a lab working their way way through a maze researchers set up for them; using their cellular skeltons to pull themselves along.
Ah, but that’s what chemotherapy is for. This is what the chemo drug paclitaxel can do: Clumps up the cytoskeleton, so the cells can’t move, can’t divide. And the avocado toxin can do the exact same thing, stopping breast cancer cells in their tracks.
The researchers conclude that persin should be further evaluated single agent combination chemotherapy agent for cancers of the breast, maybe other cancers too.
Look what it does to cancer cell DNA. This is a measure of DNA fragmentation, the avocado compound rips their chromosomes llimb from limb. Unfortunately, it appears to do the same thing to normal cells too.
To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by Dianne Moore.
To help out on the site please email email@example.com
Please feel free to post any ask-the-doctor type questions here in the comments section and I’d be happy to try to answer them. Be sure to check out the other videos on avocado as well as breast cancer. Also, there are 1,449 subjects covered in my other videos–please feel free to explore them!
For more context, check out my associated blog post, Stool Size and Breast