Be careful!  Zeolites (products of volcanic ash) not only are unproven
in the treatment of cancer, but many think that they can actually
*cause* cancer.  Do a Google on "Zeolite and Cancer" and you will be
surprised.

Just one extract:

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Potential Danger - Don't Eat NCD "Zeolite!"

The newest multi-level-marketing product called Natural Cellular
Defense (NCD), derived from a zeolite mineral mine, is being promoted
on the Internet, and people are signing up to sell it. It is claimed
that it will "kill epithelial cancer cells, 100% kill rate, detoxify
heavy metals and all toxins easily, and [it] disables viral
replication by capturing viral components within it's [sic] cage like
structure." The company cites a small study that demonstrated that the
cancers of terminally-ill patients went into remission when they
consumed the product.

The manufacturers of Natural Cellular Defense claim that their product
is completely safe and are promoting it as something that healthy
people should take to prevent disease. But there are many unanswered
questions.

Many minerals are naturally contaminated with heavy metals such as
lead and mercury. The manufacturers of NCD do not specify where their
mineral crystals come from or how they are processed, nor whether
tests have been done to determine whether they are lead and mercury
free. Some mineral crystals - both fibrous and non-fibrous - have a
long history of causing disease. For instance, silica crystals -
ordinary fine sand - cause lung cancer and a fast-acting deadly lung
disease called silicosis that kills cement workers and miners.

Rik Deitsch, one of the principals of the company that promotes this
new product, has revealed electron microscope data indicating that the
crystals of NCD have sharp edges. He states that these crystals enter
the bloodstream (presumably through the small intestine), cells, and
intercellular spaces, and that they are highly reactive. In relation
to a non-food product that is a red flag. It is precisely this crucial
piece of information that raises unanswered questions about its
safety:

What does NCD do inside the cell and inter-cellular spaces?

What reactions does it mediate or interfere with?

Does it stay inside the cell and become part of it?

Does it leave the cell and intercellular spaces? Is it excreted?

Since it is a reactive mineral, how does it react with each of the
thousands of cellular bio-chemicals, hormones, neurotransmitters, and
essential fatty acids? (Some of these bio-chemicals are not even
known.)

How does it get into the cell? Does it enter through a protein
channel, or does it break a hole in the cell membrane?

What does it do to developing cells or tissue?

If it can enter cells from the bloodstream, then it can likely enter
into the cerebrospinal fluid. If so, what does it do to the neural
membrane or to developing brain cells?

Does it affect the operation of the cell organelles (components of the
human cell), and, if so, how?

Does it enter into or affect the nuclear envelope (that is, does it
affect DNA and RNA)?

Does it enter or affect the mitochondria, our energy subsystem?

Is the immune system aware of the presence of the particles? Does it
go into overdrive, eventually leading to allergy, MCS, or auto-immune
disease?

These unanswered questions suggest that we simply do not know very
much about this material. That is the critical difference between a
food-derived substance, such as a dietary supplement, and this
product, which is just pulverized rock containing unknown minerals.
Humans have been eating food and food extracts for hundreds of
thousands of years. In contrast, it would seem inadvisable to take a
small cancer study of a non-food substance and turn it into a vast
human experiment. It would be very different if the company submitted
its work to the National Cancer Institute for a larger study with
terminally ill cancer patient volunteers. But instead it is subjecting
the entire human population to the product and promoting it via a
multi-level marketing organization.

Please take my advice: Stay with food-based natural therapies, such as
those developed by well-known researchers and physicians such as Dr.
Matthias Rath and Dr. Hugh Riordan. These have been used successfully
by thousands of people and proven safe.

References:

Physical Carcinogens, excerpted from Cancer Medicine,
http://www.cancer.org/downloads/PUB/DOCS/SECTION3/16.pdf

Korkina LG, Suslova TB, Nikolova SI, Kirov GN, Velichkovskii BT.
Mekhanizm tsitotoksicheskogo deistviia prirodnogo tseolita
klinoptilolita [Mechanism of the cytotoxic action of the natural
zeolite clinoptilolite]. Farmakologiia i Toksikologiia 47:63-67(1984).

Pylev LN, Krivosheeva LV, Bostashvili RG, Possible carcinogenic hazard
of zeolite-clinoptilolite Gig Tr Prof Zabol. 1984 Mar;(3):48-51.


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Best,

Bob

Robert A. Fink, M. D.
Neurological Surgery
2500 Milvia Street  Suite 222
Berkeley, CA  94704-2636  USA
510-849-2555

**********************************
NOTE:  The material above is not "medical
advice".  Medical advice can only be
given after an in-person contact between
doctor and patient.
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