"Quality of Life" May Not Be Good When Life is Challenged With a Serious Health Crisis QOL is an acronym for "quality of life." When QOL is good, we may not give it much thought on a day-to-day basis. But when life is challenged with a serious health crisis, QOL often becomes a moment-to-moment issue. For women who are diagnosed with breast cancer, quality of life and even survival chances may improve with the use of an herbal treatment with a history that stretches back many centuries. I was struck by these two intriguing comments made by a researcher at the conclusion of a study that tracked ginseng use among breast cancer patients: "When patients used ginseng prior to diagnosis, they tended to have higher survival." "Ginseng use after cancer diagnosis was related to improved quality of life." Both of those observations were made by Ziao-Ou Shu, M.D, Ph.D., of the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center at Vanderbilt University Medical Center - a facility that focuses on an "interdisciplinary approach" to cancer care, treatment and prevention. A Vanderbilt press release (the source of Dr. Shu's comments) notes that there are two primary classes of ginseng: red and white. White ginseng root is naturally dried and is reputed to promote general good health over a long period. Red ginseng gets its color from a drying process that increases potency. This variety is used by some herbalists to aid in disease recovery. In the e-Alert "The Tonic King" (9/14/05), I told you how ginseng has been shown to boost energy and reduce stress, while also strengthening the immune system to fight off colds and flu. In addition, laboratory and animal studies have shown that both varieties of ginseng may prompt anti-tumor activity. Dr. Shu hopes to advance this cancer research, and her first step is the breast cancer study mentioned above, published in a recent issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology. Shu's team (which included a representative from the Shanghai Cancer Institute) recruited more than 1,450 subjects who joined the Shanghai Breast Cancer Study between 1996 and 1998. Information on the subjects' ginseng use before and after breast cancer diagnosis was gathered through the end of 2002. Nearly 30 percent of the subjects were regular ginseng users before their cancer diagnosis. Researchers found that these subjects had a significantly reduced risk of death compared to subjects who never used ginseng. Meanwhile, ginseng use after diagnosis was associated with higher QOL scores, especially in the areas of psychological and social well-being. The authors add: "QOL improved as cumulative ginseng use increased." Each of the subjects also underwent some form of conventional cancer treatments, such as chemotherapy, radiation therapy and surgery. The Vanderbilt press release notes that the study was limited in that subjects didn't specify what ginseng varieties they used or how the ginseng was prepared. In addition, subjects were not asked about other alternative therapies they might have been using at the same time. For now, Dr. Shu continues to collect data on subjects in the Shanghai group and also from another breast cancer study with about 4,000 subjects. She hopes to mount a placebo-controlled trial in the near future, and I'll be on the lookout for the results. Sources:
'Association of Ginseng Use with Survival and Quality of Life among Breast Cancer Patients" American Journal of Epidemiology, Vol. 153, No. 7, 4/1/06, aje.oxfordjournals.org
"Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center Researchers find Ginseng May Improve Breast Cancer Outcomes" VUCast, 3/15/06, vanderbilt.edu | 
