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Shark Liver As An Immunity Booster

(5/23/2006)

Shark liver oil is increasingly being promoted worldwide as a dietary supplement for boosting the human immune system, fighting off infections, healing wounds, treating cancer and lessening the side effects of conventional cancer treatment.

The most recent research has confirmed earlier findings that shark liver oil is a rich source of alkylglycerols (pronounced al-keel-gliss-er-ols).

Alkylglycerols (also called AKGs) are natural substances of the human body’s immune system. The only other known sources of alkylglycerols, apart from shark liver, are human-bone marrow and breast milk.

Many years ago, fishermen routinely tossed shark livers and other entrails of the shark overboard from fishing trawlers.

Now, thanks to the scientific curiosity of medical historians and scientists, fishermen have re-discovered what the people of many regions of the world found out long ago to their great benefit the medicinal value of shark liver oil.

Today manufacturers of food supplements are harvesting and processing liver oil from sharks caught off the coasts of Norway, Sweden and Greenland, which are home to most of the world’s deep sea, cold-water sharks.

Scientists have discovered Nordic fishermen used shark liver oil as a folk remedy to heal wounds and fight influenza.

Japanese seamen called shark liver oil samedawa, or "cure all." A new use for shark liver oil emerged in the 1950s, when a Swedish doctor noted that children with leukemia who were fed calf bone marrow showed some protection against the adverse effects of radiation.

The history of human interest in the so-called miracle healer dates farther back: In 1758, a Swedish botanist called Carolus Linnaeus discovered and claimed the great health and medicinal value of oil extracts from deep-sea sharks.

In the Micronesian Islands, shark liver oil had been an age-old remedy for various sicknesses and diseases, as well as a familiar source of strength, stamina and virility.

The historic health benefits of shark liver oil have always been a mainstay in Scandinavian folk medicine.

In Norway and Sweden, fishermen used shark liver oil for healing wounds and irritations of the respiratory tract and alimentary canal.

In China, the extract of deep-sea shark has been recorded in the ancient pharmaceutical book "Honzukomuko".

In Spain, ancient mariners regularly took "aceite de bacalao" or “oil of the great fish”.

They claimed they had a greater resistance to colds and various other diseases because of the oil they took in. Even in Ernest Hemingway's book, "The Old Man and the Sea", he says of the old man: "He also drank shark liver oil each day from the drum in the shack where many of the fishermen kept their gear.”

In 1906, Dr Mitsumaru Tsujimoto conducted in-depth research into shark liver oil, and discovered that an extremely great quantity of unsaturated hydrocarbons was contained in the liver oil of deep-sea sharks.

Dr Tsujimoto's brilliant discovery was not fully established until 1931 when Prof. Calour, a Nobel Prize awardee at Zurich University, Switzerland, confirmed Tsujimoto’s discovery.

Investigations revealed that the calf marrow’s therapeutic actions were due to natural immune-boosting alkylglycerols in shark liver oil.

Shark liver oil also contains squalamine, a substance that, in animal studies, has shown some ability to fight cancers of the breast, lung, brain, and skin by choking off blood supply to the tumour.

Since then amazing discoveries continue to be made on shark liver oil. More careful scientific studies are being made to thoroughly examine its full composition and health benefits.

Since the 1950's, shark liver oil has been studied clinically for its healing benefits in over 50 countries. Alkoxyglycerols (AKGs) in a mother’s milk is the key substance which provides natural protection and immunity against infection, as it helps in the continued development of their immune system.

There are 10 times more AKGs in a mother's milk than in a cow's own.

Science has proven that breast-fed babies are more resistant to infection and diseases even all through life because of the more abundant ingestion of AKGs in their early physical development.

There are many books and research publications written by medical doctors and scientists about the health benefits of shark liver oil, all of which basically extol the virtues of the oil.

Even though physicians and medical scientists with PhDs write these books, most of the information they offer about shark liver oil is actually based on either patients relating their successes or limited laboratory animal studies.

Some of the benefits of shark liver oil seen in the research include a marked improvement of the circulatory system, an increase in energy level, lessening of pain, improved skin with fewer wrinkles and control of arthritis.

Others are control of allergies, control of diabetes, control of asthma and control of candidiasis.

Most of the promising studies on shark liver oil, which have excited some researchers, have focused on its possible benefits against cancer.

Studies done at the Smithsonian Institute in the US showed that only one out of 25,000 sharks tested over a 25-year period showed signs of developing a cancerous tumour.

Clinical trials, which are currently under way, suggest that alkylglycerols hold great promise for cancer control in humans.

Scientific research has found that giving cancer patients small doses of alkylglcerols, before and after radiation and chemotherapy, reduces the sharp and dangerous drop in white blood cells, which often results in tissue damage, loss of hair, nausea, loss of appetite and loss of weight.

The known healing benefits of shark liver oil include healing of burns, healing of infections and skin lesions, reduction in various symptoms of cancer, increase in white blood cells which provide the body’s immunity, increase in the excretion of mercury from the body and the clearing of eczema.

Shark liver food supplement, which comes mostly in liquid form or in the form of easily soluble capsules containing purified shark liver oil, has shown great promise as a booster of the immune system.

All the findings about shark liver corroborate one thing shark liver oil exhibits a remarkable ability to help strengthen the human immune system and is perhaps the most amazing immune enhancer ever discovered.

Shark liver oil has been used independently or in an adjunct therapy in managing HIV/AIDS.

Researchers are however careful not to claim that the oil is a cure for AIDS. HIV patients who use shark liver oil therapy are strongly advised to abstain from smoking and alcohol consumption, to have maximum rest and to adhere to the prescribed dosage of shark liver oil.

Patients who follow this advice and take the miracle food supplement have shown marked increases in T-cell count.

In many clinical trials, the count has gone down where the use of shark liver oil was discontinued due to interrupted access to the dietary supplement.

The LYNKATE Centre near the Presco school at Nungua in Ghana is trying to promote an understanding of the immunity boosting and other medicinal benefits of alkylglycerols in West Africa.

The head of the centre, Rev Osei Kofi, says the centre plans to organise workshops on shark liver oil for pharmacists, doctors and nurses to promote shark liver oil use for the treatment of diseases and for health management.

Researchers with an interest in immunology, pharmacists, health workers and members of the public interested in shark liver oil can obtain all the information they need from the center.

By Marx H. Jewell

  • 2 years later...

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