An Amazing Discovery in Turkey
by Tony Isaacs
My own search for a
possible cancer cure began in late 2004 when I found out that my cousin,
lifelong friend and running buddy, Jeff Johnson, had been diagnosed as having
stage-three melanoma. The cancer had appeared out of nowhere and so it was
quite a shock to my cousin and everyone close to him. As luck would have it, I
had spent a lot of time the previous four years or so working on my dream of
someday posting a website aimed at helping aging baby boomers and others live
longer, healthier and happier lives. Naturally, a lot of my research involved
searching for ways to ward off and treat diseases and ills such as cancer,
Alzheimer’s, heart disease, high blood pressure, kidney and liver disease, and
so forth.
When I found out about my cousin, I already had a head start on
knowing where and how to look, and so I began to redouble my efforts and focus
my research more on cancer. As a result of my research, I found a lot of very
good information about fighting cancer and other diseases, boosting our immune
systems and improving health in general - much of which you may find in my
articles and upcoming book “How to Live a Long and Healthy Life”. However, it was not my
research that led me to finding out about the magical, miraculous oleander plant
– it was a card game!
Yes, the way I first heard
about the healing powers of oleander happened one evening when I was sitting
down at a friendly card game and mentioned my cousin’s cancer. An acquaintance
of mine whom I had known for a few years and who had worked for the American
Medical Association at one time, looked across the table at me and, as serious
as could be, said “I know a cure.” He then proceeded to tell me an amazing story
of what he knew about oleander. Later, I found others who told me essentially
the same basic story, although each person seemed to have a slightly different
version. I fully expect that the story is headed toward becoming a modern day
legend someday. Although the versions I heard have differed somewhat, the basic
story line I believe to be essentially correct is as follows:
In the early 1960's a
Turkish doctor by the name of Huseyin Ziya Ozel was searching for a cure for his
pet dog’s cancer when he noticed that a large number of Turkish villagers
referred to him came from high altitudes and he thought that perhaps there was
more to the story than just the higher incidence of skin cancer associated with
higher altitudes:
In many versions
of the story, Doctor Ozel was reported to have observed Turkish villagers
drinking an oleander remedy, which pretty much correlates with the description
of Oleander Leaf on the American Cancer Society website, where it states that
Doctor Ozel started his study of oleander because of folk traditions that
suggested that an extract from oleander was active against leukemia. It should
be noted that Doctor Ozel’s daughter Sumru disputes this version and states that
Doctor Ozell “studied folkloric remedies and discovered that poultices made of
crushed oleander leaves and flour were applied topically to wounds and produced
amazingly fast healing of the wounds.” The author suspects that this version
may have been put forward to put distance between what Ozel observed and what he
later patented in order to protect the patent from challenges.
According to
Ozel’s daughter, Doctor Ozel made an observation that the majority of cancer
patients referring to him were coming from an altitude above 600 meters. He
thought that there should be a correlation between the rate of cancer occurrence
and some environmental influence.
Whatever the
actual truth, Doctor Ozel obviously did observe Turkish villagers using oleander
and did review that use as well as a number of environmental factors, and he
proceeded to continue his research on oleander based on what he found.
Further
research showed that Nerium Oleander was most abundant in lower altitudes and
practically did not exist at high altitude. Satisfied that he may have
determined the cause of the villager’s good health, Doctor Ozel
became intrigued with the plant and
began to
prepare and work with various extracts of Oleander himself in 1966 while he was
the head of the surgical department at Mugla State Hospital of Turkey.
Doctor Ozel first conducted
animal studies to determine that the substance was non-toxic and, once he
determined the toxicology and effects of Nerium
Oleander Extract (or NOE), he conducted further experiments and developed
his treatment in various forms until he eventually
started tests on terminal human cases.
After initial
success in treating human cancer patients with NOE, Doctor Ozel began to
discussing his findings with other professionals in his field. He sought
analysis of the extract from various Turkish laboratories to understand the
empirical results. They were unable to characterize the extracted compounds. In
hope of gaining assistance from the government or research organizations, he
prepared a paper to present his first human cases at the Fourth Balkanic Medical
Days Symposium held in Ankara on 20 September 1973.
The cases
presented were all considered terminal cases when the patients came to Doctor
Ozel. By law, he could not treat patients with an experimental drug, such as NOE,
unless they had exhausted all other conventional treatment methods with no
response or were diagnosed as advanced stage, terminal cases. At the symposium
he was able to call the attention of the scientific community to NOE and how the
extract had shown to be efficacious on cancer cases of different varieties. He
was sure that his presentation would trigger serious and abundant research on
NOE, and that it finally could be put into service for mankind.
The response
from the scientific community was less than overwhelming. The skepticism
centered mainly on the fact that the presentation contradicted what little
literature there was on oleander species. Clearly the results presented could
not be explained as an extension of prior art but Turkish scientists strongly
denied the facts that Doctor Ozel had presented without any further research. To
conclude, the medical community was reluctant to accept the results. Doctor Ozel
was undaunted by the criticism and lack of support for the ideas presented. He
continued his research and patients continued to seek treatment.
In 1974, he
published additional case reports in the Turkish Medical Journal “Dirim”. Doctor
Ozel resigned from his position as Chief Doctor at Mugla State Hospital that
same year in order to be able to work on NOE and initiate research on the
subject,
Doctor Ozel
contacted various universities in Istanbul. Years passed and he realized that no
serious scientific research could be performed in any of the local universities.
In the meantime, his old patients referred new ones to him, and more cancer
patients presented to him as word of the results of the treatment spread.
In 1985 he
started to look for research facilities abroad. During 1986-1987 some tests
performed in Europe proved the effect of NOE on the immune system as well as
cancer tumors. The studies showed that it was at least six times as potent as
the most active commercially available immune-stimulants (Schizophylan, Krestin
and Lentinan, which were patented by the Japanese in the 1980s).
In 1988, a
research team was formed at Munich University Pharmacology Institute to isolate
the active components contained in the N.O. extract. Several polysaccharides
were identified that might be responsible for some part of the immune activity.
On 17-22 July 1990, the initial results were presented as a poster at the
symposium of Biology and Chemistry of Active Natural Substances (BACANS) which
was held in Bonn, Germany. The presentation was published in Planta Medica
1990-56:66. However, no single component of the extract was found to be the sole
source of its benefits. Instead, the activity is induced by a complex mixture of
components contained in the extract, acting synergistically to modulate the
immune system.
Among the
compounds that have been identified are the major active cardiac glycoside
Oleandrin, a number of other cardiac glycosides in lesser amounts and many other
proven cancer fighting and immune boosting compounds such as Quercitin, Beta-sistosterol, Linoleic-acid, Ursolic-acid. Oleic-acid
and many more compounds.
Since the early 1970’s,
Doctor Ozel has been treating patients with advanced and inoperable cancer as
well as a wide variety of other of illnesses. His results have been truly
remarkable. In fact, so fantastic were the stories of his success that Doctor
Ozel had to endure long periods of controversy from the Turkish medical
establishment and there were those who tried to charge the good doctor with
being a charlatan. Happily, the truth of his successes won out and such charges
were dropped from consideration when his results were proven. Scores of
patients rose up to defend the good doctor, testifying about how they had been
cured when all other treatment options had failed.
The patented name of
Doctor Ozel's oleander extract is Anvirzel™, whose trademark was once owned by
Ozelle Pharmaceuticals, which was formed by Doctor Ozel’s son and other
investors. Today, trademark rights are in dispute. Unfortunately, since Doctor
Ozel had claimed that oleander was a cure for cancer, as opposed to a natural
supplement, and since his extract was patented and given a trademark, the FDA
now considers oleander as an unproven medicine which, because of the toxicity of
the raw plant, must have it's safety and effectiveness proven before the FDA
will allow it's use even as a herbal supplement, and so it is very difficult to
obtain herbal supplements which contain oleander in the United States.
Today, the lengthy and costly
three-phase FDA trial process for approval of Anvirzel™ or any other oleander
extract, is far from over, although many people and millions of investor dollars
are counting on it ultimately being approved. In 2000, Ozelle Pharmaceuticals
had successful phase I FDA trials conducted on Anvirzel™, but subsequently ran
into investor problems and had to reorganize. Although Ozelle continues to
publish plans that it will soon begin phase II trials with Anvirzel™, such plans
have not yet reached fruition and funding appears to continue to be a major
problem for Ozelle.
In the interim, a
competing company, Phoenix Biotech, also obtained a patent for Anvirzel™ in
Honduras and has applied for a U.S. patent as well, and a clinic has been
established in Honduras by the name of Salud Integral. For over a decade, the clinic has successfully treated a number of patients, many of whom
travel from the United States for initial diagnosis and treatment, as well as
three-month supplies of Anvirzel™ for various cancers, hepatitis-C, psoriasis
and other immune disorders. Phoenix Biotech has since spun off the Anvirzel™
portion of its operations to a company known as Nerium Biotechnology and Phoenix
itself is pursuing a new oleander extract (see below).
A few years ago, a third competing company appeared by the name of Shimoda Atlantic
Oncology Biosciences, and claimed to have developed its own oleander extract
named Xenavex™ which it claimed was much stronger due to an ethanol extraction
method. As it turned out, I and others exposed the company as a fraud that was
created to cheat investors and the drug was actually a heart medication imported
from Russia. Furthermore, although the imported Russian medicine does have
slightly higher concentrations of oleandrin, the ethanol extraction method
results in the loss of other compounds that researchers believe work together in
a synergistic way to make oleander extract so powerful (over 500 trace compounds
have been identified in an aqueous, or water, oleander extract, including vital
long-chain polysaccharides that are lost in ethanol extraction methods because
they precipitate out during the extraction process).
Sadly, I must report that
it may be many years, if ever, before an oleander based medicine wins FDA
approval. The simple fact is that it takes hundreds of millions of dollars to
get a new drug successfully through all the FDA trials, and this pretty much
bars competition to all but the very large pharmaceutical companies. Many feel
that if the issue ever went to court, the patent itself would be hard to defend,
since it is based on a common plant and a centuries-old folk remedy. Others
feel that, because of the billions of dollars in profits at stake for the
trillion-dollar world pharmaceutical industry and their myriad cancer
treatments, no oleander medicine will ever be approved in the United States.
The best hope as of the time of this writing
appears to be the development of an oleander based tablet by Phoenix Biotech,
which is made by using
liquid carbon dioxide for extractions nd which is reported to be have a much
stronger concentration of oleandrin and the other cardiac glycosides while
losing none of the other essential synergistic compounds.
Thus far, it has sailed through FDA phase I trials at M.D. Anderson a Only time will tell if a major pharmaceutical company with the
requisite funds will pick up this new oleander product from Phoenix, shepherd it
through FDA trials, and finally bring it to market.
The good news for those who have cancer or
who wish to avoid it is that two very good quality oleander based supplements
have been introduced in recent years. The first is Sutherlandia OPC, which ships
from South Africa and the other is a pure oleander supplement known as Rose
Laurel OPC Plus which ships directly from the Utopia Silver Supplement company
in Texas. Both supplements are made by the same pharmaceutical manufacturing
company in South Africa and both have had remarkable success.
Excerpted
from the author's book "Cancer's
Natural Enemy".
Sutherlandia OPC Oleander Based Supplements
Be sure to read the entire Oleander Series of
articles:
An Amazing Discovery in Turkey
The Father of Oleander Soup
The History of Oleander Before
1960
Success Against Cancer and HIV
in South Africa
The
Recipe for Oleander Soup Part 1
The Recipe for
Oleander Soup Part 2 - Tips and Advice
Oleander
Induces Autophagy - Exclusive Story
Case Reports and Studies on
Oleander
Herbal Supplement for HIV/AIDS is
Successful in Clinical Trial
Unraveling
the Mysteries of the Cancer Fighting Oleander Plant
Two Oleander HIV Success Stories
from Africa
Unsolicited Testimonials about the
Sutherlandia OPC Oleander Based Supplement
For the very best comprehensive
natural anti-cancer protocol, click
here.