Cat’s Claw Extract Supplement: Accelerate Self Healing

Because there are so many kinds of cat’s claw supplements, such as: cat’s claw leaves, cat’s claw bark, and cat’s claw twigs, cat’s claw is one of the most confusing nutritional supplements currently available in health food stores. Although all cat’s claw supplements claim to help the immune system, only the root of Uncaria tomentosa gives the true health benefits by possessing the healing power to treat and prevent diseases such as cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, ulcers, degenerative diseases, and also providing anti-inflammatory, anti-viral, and anti-microbial benefits.

However, only those Uncaria tomentosa roots that contain “good spirits,” seen by Ashaninka healers of the Ashaninka tribe contain healing properties. If these good spirits are mixed with any root that does not contain good spirits, the healing power is lost. With the use of high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), scientists can now see the “good spirits” too. These good spirits are actually medicinal compounds called pentacyclic oxindole alkaloids (POAs).

POAs directly interact with white blood cells, which fight diseases we catch, such as colds and flu, along with diseases that start in our own cells, such as cancer and autoimmune diseases. Some POAs also help white blood cells called macrophages, which engulf and digest foreign material, work faster by engulfing more bacteria and disease causing microbes. This medicinal compound also increases the production of interleukin, a chemical protein secreted by macrophages that alerts resting white blood cells and forces them into action and helps make other biochemicals that are helpful to the immune system.

One particular such alkaloid, rynchophylline, is also believed to be of great benefit to the cardio-vascular system in preventing blood “stickiness”, or the potentially catastrophic formation of clots in circulating blood in the heart and brain. Like other anti-oxidants, cat’s claw may also help to prevent the oxidation of low density lipids (LDL), or “bad cholesterol”, and the consequent build up of deposits inside the arteries leading to atherosclerosis. Recent research also suggests that the anti-oxidant action of cat’s claw may also help to prevent the deposit of the plaques within brain tissue which are implicated in the development of Alzheimer’s disease.

The many potential benefits of cat’s claw make it a hugely exciting prospect for advocates of herbal remedies. But there is an important caveat in that most of the research so far has been conducted in the laboratory rather than on live human subjects. Against that, however, must be set the many centuries of use of the herb amongst older civilisations.

Orthodox medicine, moreover, is always keen to stress, quite correctly, that the mere fact that a remedy is described as “natural” or “herbal” does not mean it is necessarily free of potential side effects. Herbal remedies, after all, often provide the raw materials for the manufacture of conventional drugs, and are highly active biochemical compounds in their own right. They could not be of any benefit if they were not.

Some cat’s claw roots have good spirits, POAs, while others tetracyclic oxindole alkaloids, TOAs, which do not help the immune system at all. Since Uncaria tomentosa plants look almost identical, it is hard to tell if they contain healing properties or non-helpful properties. Plants containing POAs one year may contain TOAs the following year because their alkaloid chemotypes change at will. After scientists discovered that they could “see” the presence of TOAs using the HPLC technology, they gained the ability to harvest cat’s claw root extracts with POAs consistently. Because buying products that contain TOAs will only benefit the cat’s claw distributor due to its canceling effects on POAs, it is important to read the label of the cat’s claw root product you are considering buying.

European clinical studies have used the extract from the bark in combination with AZT in the treatment of AIDS. It is also used in the treatment and prevention of arthritis and rheumatism, as well as diabetes, PMS, chronic fatigue syndrome, lupus, and prostrate conditions.

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