"Benefits of Marjoram for Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS)"
One of the reasons fruits and vegetables may be
so good for us are the antioxidant compounds they contain,
given the role that oxidant free radicals are thought to play
in aging and disease.
So if you're making a salad, for example,
using spinach or arugula or red-leaf lettuce,
it may offer twice the antioxidants of butterhead lettuce.
And then choosing purple cabbage over green, or red onions over white,
you can help boost the antioxidant power of your salad.
But fresh herbs are so powerful, even a little bit
could double or quadruple the antioxidant power of the entire meal.
Here's the total antioxidants in a simple salad, lettuce and tomato.
And then here's that same salad, with just a tablespoon of lemon balm leaves,
or it could be half a tablespoon of oregano or mint.
And here's marjoram country, thyme or sage,
effectively quadrupling the antioxidant content of the salad,
and making it yummier at the same time.
And that's not to mention maybe a little fresh garlic or ginger in the dressing.
Herbs are so antioxidant-rich that researchers decided to see
if they might be able to reduce the DNA- damaging effects of radiation with them.
Radioactive iodine is sometimes given to people
with overactive thyroid glands or thyroid cancer to destroy part of the gland
or mop up any remaining tumor cells after surgery.
For days after the isotope injection, patients become so radioactive
that they are advised not to kiss anyone or to sleep close to anyone,
including your pets.
If you breathe on a phone, make sure to wipe it off.
Don't splatter radioactive urine.
Don't go near your kids,
and basically stay away from others as much as possible.
The treatment can be very effective, but all that radiation exposure
appears to increase the risk of developing new cancers later on.
So to prevent the DNA damage associated with this treatment,
researchers tested the ability of oregano to protect chromosomes
of human blood cells in vitro from exposure to radioactive iodine.
At baseline, about one in a hundred of our blood cells
show evidence of chromosomal damage.
Add some radioactive iodine, though, and it's more like 1 in 8.
But then add, in addition to the radiation, increasing amounts of oregano extract
and chromosome damage was reduced by as much 70 percent.
They conclude that oregano extract significantly protects
against DNA damage induced by the radioactive iodine in white blood cells.
But this was all done outside the body.
They justified it by saying, look, it wouldn't be particularly ethical
to irradiate people for experimental research.
But, look, millions of people have been irradiated for treatment,
and so they could have used them,
or at least just had people eat the oregano instead
and then irradiate their blood in vitro to model the amount of
oregano compounds that would actually make it into the bloodstream.
Other in vitro studies on oregano are similarly kind of unsatisfying.
In a comparison of the effects of various spice extracts—bay leaves,
fennel, lavender, oregano, paprika, parsley, rosemary, and thyme—
oregano beat out all but bay leaves in its ability
to suppress cervical cancer cell growth in vitro, while leaving normal cells alone.
And they've got pretty pictures of oregano killing off cervical cancer cells,
but people tend to use oregano orally,
and so the relevance of these results are not clear.
Similarly, the closely related herb marjoram
can suppress the growth of individual breast cancer cells in a Petri dish,
and even effectively whole human breast tumors grown in chicken eggs—
never seen that before.
But the only clinical trial I could find on oregano-family herbs,
the only randomized controlled study on actual people,
was this study on the effect of marjoram tea on the hormonal profile
of women with polycystic ovary syndrome.
PCOS is the most common cause of fertility problems in women,
affecting about 1 in 8 young women.
It's characterized by excessive male hormones,
resulting in excess body or facial hair, menstrual irregularities,
and cysts in one's ovaries on ultrasound.
Evidently, traditional medicine practitioners reported marjoram tea
was beneficial, but it had never been put to the test, until now.
Two cups a day versus a placebo tea for one month,
and there did seem to be beneficial effects on the hormonal profiles,
and so that would seem to offer credence to the claims
of the traditional medicine practitioners.
But the study didn't last long enough to confirm
that actual symptoms improve as well.
That's what we care about.
Is there anything that's been shown to help?
Well, reducing one's intake of dietary glycotoxins may help prevent
and treat the disease, which I'll cover next.