“How an 1800 year old herbal mix heals the gut”

Research shows that a herbal mix can have a major effect on reducing the pain of chemotherapy patients. This mix consists of four ingredients, Chinese Peonies, Chinese liquorice, fruit from a buckthorn tree, and flowers from a Chinese skullcap plant. This ancient mixture has been used by the Chinese for about 1800 years to treat gastrointestinal problems. Another name for this ancient treatment is “PHY906”, it was named by a pharmaceutical company called PhytoCeutica. The main struggle of this new drug is that it hasn’t been approved by the FDA, because some of the chemicals are unknown.

PhytoCeutica has done some research that may have found how the drug repairs chemotherapy damaged guts. When the scientists gave the chemotherapy drug called irinotecan, which blocks an enzyme that is important to DNA replication, to mice the gut cells begin to die off. However, when the same drug is given to the mice along with a dose of PHY906, the gut cells are restored within three to four days. When the researchers compared the guts to guts of the control mice, they found that the mice that took PHY906 had less dying cells and more dividing cells.

This scientific breakthrough can affect today’s cancer patients immensely. The use of this drug not only helps with the reduction of healthy cells that die due to chemotherapy, it also opens the door for new medical findings. Furthering the research of this drug, PHY906, can eventually lead to more successful treatments for cancer, and maybe even a cure. This scientific finding is so important because it can potentially save millions of lives.