Modified Citrus Pectin: Antidote Extraordinaire

January 14, 2013

Modified Citrus Pectin: Antidote Extraordinaire 


 Reference.  Jr National Cancer Institute  (Strum S, Scholz M, McDermed J, McCulloch M, Eliaz I. 

Modified citrus pectin slows PSA doubling time: a pilot clinical trial. Paper presented at: International Conference on Diet and Prevention of Cancer; May 1999; Tampere, Finland.) 


Modified Citrus Pectin (MCP) is derived from the pith of oranges, grapefruits, and lemons.  It is long chains of galacturonic acid with neutral sugar side chains on each group.   Regular pectins are much longer and not absorbable at all.  They are abundant in apple peels and citrus fruits.  Pectins help make jam get solid.  When they get gently broken into pieces, carefully preserving the neutral sugars on the side chains, a very interesting chemical emerges, MCP.  


MCP is absorbed through your gut and gets into your blood.  From there, it is widely distributed in your body and does some very interesting things.  For one, MCP binds to galectins. And what do galectins do?  They coat early cancers and protect them from detection by the immune system.  Galectin 3 is also thought to help cancers hook onto and attach to blood vessel attachment sites, thereby helping cancer colonies spread.  That makes galectins a prime target for intervention.  MCP is that intervention.  And it’s a simple food product, not an expensive, patented, toxic pharmaceutical. What are the effects we have observed so far in cancer with MCP?  


In experimental models, MCP has been shown to block the aggregation of early cancer colonies.  It has been shown to block the growth of new blood vessels into cancers and has blocked the docking of spreading cancer cells.  All with no toxicity.  Now those are pretty important steps in the life of a cancer.   What happens with human cancers?  Data is pretty preliminary but early studies suggest a dramatic increase in doubling time of prostate cancer.  This makes MCP active in multiple stages of any cancer: the initiation, angiogenesis (new blood vessels), and metastasis (spreading). 


 That’s not all MCP does.  Interestingly enough, all those repeating sugar molecules make an effective chemical egg-carton.  They become a natural trap for heavy metals.  Again, evidence is preliminary but this may be the best way to detox someone with heavy metal toxicity.  As much as a 62% reduction in mercury burden has been recorded after one year of taking MCP.


 WWW.  What will work for me?  MCP sounds like a very potent food-derived supplement.  With no toxicity, it seems to have a dramatic impact on many cancers and heavy metals.  The thought arises, if it is so good on cancer after it emerges, and it blocks cancer spreading and even getting started at the earliest of stages, perhaps it is a candidate of a supplement to be taken more widely by all of us.  Hmmm.  I’m looking into it.  But you might stay tuned.  Chewing on your next orange peel won’t do it.  The miracle seems to be in the gentle processing that makes it active.


Column written by Dr. John E. Whitcomb, MD, Brookfield Longevity, Brookfield, WI 

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