Comphensive Guide to Accessory Nutrients and Essential Oils

Meschino Health Comprehensive Guide to Accessory Nutrients and Essential Oils
Accessory Nutrients and Essential Oils
Modified Citrus Pectin
General Features
Modified Citrus Pectin is a dietary supplement that has demonstrated an ability to prevent the spread of cancer
(metastasis), with strong evidence to support its use in the prevention and/or management of prostate cancer
metastasis. Modified Citrus Pectin is a special form of pectin that has been altered in the laboratory by a proprietary
process that shortens the length of pectin’s polysaccharide chain. This results in a lower molecular weight, enabling
the molecule to be absorbed through the intestinal wall into the bloodstream. By contrast, pectin itself cannot be
absorbed from the intestinal tract into the bloodstream and thus, is primarily categorized as a type of water-soluble
fiber with a proven ability to lower cholesterol and provide other health benefits via its actions in the intestinal tract.
Pectin is found in the peel and pulp of citrus fruits such as lemons, grapefruits, oranges and tangerines. Its long chain
of monosaccharides has numerous branches with important binding capabilities, which play a key role in pectin’s
unique anti-metastatic attributes. Therefore, researchers were interested in manipulating pectin’s structure is such a
way as to allow it to be absorbed into the bloodstream, while maintaining its ability to bind to carbohydrate-binding
proteins (glycoproteins) on the surface of metastatic cancer cells, blocking their ability to invade adjacent tissue, and
inhibiting their proliferation and colonization into new tumor masses. As explained below, Modified Citrus Pectin does
not prevent the development of cancer (cancer initiation), but rather appears to play an important role in preventing the
spread of cancer to other tissues (metastasis), which usually is the manner in which cancer death occurs.
Principle Active Constituents
The laboratory modification of citrus pectin to Modified Citrus Pectin yields a galactose-rich pectin product with a lower
molecular weight than citrus pectin in its native (original) form. This structural modification allows Modified Citrus
Pectin to be absorbed from the intestinal tract into the bloodstream, and exert an anti-metastatic effect on cancer cells,
which contain certain carbohydrate-binding proteins (galectins) on their cell surface.
Clinical Application and Mechanism of Action
1. Preventing the Spread of Cancer (Anti-metastatic)
One of the dominant carbohydrates contained within Modified Citrus Pectin is galactose. Galactose has a strong
as galectin-3 (a galactoside-binding lectin). In turn, the binding of Modified Citrus Pectin to the galectin-3 receptor
on metastatic cancer cells creates a type of galectin-3 blockade. With the galectin-3 receptor blocked in this
fashion, cancer cells are less able to adhere to other healthy tissues and cells, essentially inhibiting cancer cells
from invading and spreading to new areas and tissues in the body (anti-metastatic effect). As well, the blockade of
destroyed by the body’s immune system. Thus, Modified Citrus Pectin has been shown to attach to galectin-3
receptors on metastatic cancer cells, preventing their clustering and colonization into a larger tumor mass and
blocking their ability to spread to other tissues. Interestingly, non-metastatic cancer cells do not have high levels of
galectins on their cell surface. Thus, it appears that these galectins are essential for the spread of cancer
(metastasis) to a very significant degree.
Research into this area, in fact, confirms that galectin-3 receptors play a very pivotal role in the metastasis of
cancer in the body. Galectins on the surface of cancer cells are known for their carbohydrate -binding abilities,