What is the anticancer efficacy of AHCC and Fucoidan?

The flow of cancer treatment in an era that emphasizes quality of life is also focused on improving the quality of life for patients.

It is constantly being studied how to administer anticancer drugs while reducing side effects to a minimum, and how to prolong a patient’s better life in the first place while in co-treatment with cancer.

Cancer patients in the U.S. have recently been considering treatments to increase natural way by using the power of alternative medicine rather than anticancer drugs or radiation therapy.

Now less people are willing to go through treatment that can ruin your body and overall lifestyle, and when quality of life is maintained, you can see the positive hormones are produced which can shorten the duration of treatment as study shows.

From this perspective, Fucoidan and AHCC are great advantages for cancer patients. As a natural ingredient, not only are there fewer side effects, but many clinical trials have revealed its efficacy in strengthening the immune system.

Fucoidan Inside of Brown Algae

Fucoidan can be found in slippery mucus on the surface of the algae, such as Mekabu, Mozuku, and Bladderwrack.

The anticancer mechanism of the Fucoidan is explained as follows.

Cancer cells that have begun to take place in certain parts of our body begin to multiply cell proliferation at a faster rate than regular cells.

New blood vessels are connected to provide the nutrients and oxygen needed for the proliferation, a pathway that allows cancer cells to be spread to other organs. This new process of connecting blood vessels is called Angiogenesis. Fucoidan inhibits this angiogenic development and prevents cancer cells from connecting capillaries, helping to inhibit cancer’s spread and growth by cutting off the supply of nutrients and oxygen. Also, Fucoidan promotes the activity of lymphocytes, which increases the fighting power of the body’s main immune cells, B cells, T cells, and NK cells. What makes cancer cells crucially different from normal cells is that they have lost their self-destructive Apoptosis function. All normal cells that make up the body will eventually die after a certain period of time, and new cells are regenerated and replaced. However, cancer cells lose these functions, virtually won’t die, repeating their division and proliferation forever. This is where the Fucoidan comes in place as a mechanism to stimulate the suicide (Apoptosis) function that cancer cells have lost and induce the cancer cells to self-destruct themselves.

How to choose a good Fucoidan

In particular, Fucoidan has an excellent effect on selectively inducing cancer cells to self-destruct without affecting normal cells, and new anticancer materials using fucoidan have been studied steadily. The efficacy of these Fucoidan can vary depending on the type of algae, origin, purity, weight of molecules (low molecular weight vs. high molecular weight), Polysaccharides contained, and the composition ratio of Polysaccharides and sulfated group.

Therefore, you should check the Fucoidan brand with regard to types of seaweeds, purity, origin, etc., before purchasing product. Since most products do not label Fucoidan details on the product or in the website, it is recommended that you contact the brand and ask the details.

One of good examples is purity.  The most effective fucoidan purity averages 85%, but most brands on the market do not explain fucoidan purity, probably because they use low-purity fucoidan between 20-70%.

The side effects of Fucoidan

No side effects are found in Fucoidan. However, it is recommended to consume in moderation. The recommended dosage for cancer patients to achieve the full effect of fucoidan is about 3-6 g per day. People who need to avoid iodine, such as those undergoing thyroid treatment, may be concerned about iodine from fucoidan. However, it is reported that the iodine content of fucoidan is very low, so it is not a big problem.

AHCC

The ingredient AHCC is an acronym for Active Hexose Correlated Compound, a natural ingredient developed by a Professor at Tokyo University in Japan. When the mycelium of Basidiomycetes is cultured in liquid for more than 40-60 days, beta-glucan polysaccharides are acetylated through an enzymatic reaction, resulting in alpha-glucanization with a small molecular structure, which becomes AHCC.

In general, a substance called beta-glucan contained in mushrooms is known to have an immune activating effect, but beta-glucan has a high molecular structure, so it may not be absorbed well into the body. Alpha-glucans, however, have the advantage of being well absorbed because the molecules have been converted into low molecular states of less than 5,000 Daltons. AHCC is well known for its ability to activate white blood cells that directly attack cancer cells, modified cells such as HPV viruses, or external pathogens that occur primarily in the body and support function of the liver. In other words, it does not directly remove cancer cells like anticancer drugs and radiation therapy, but rather stimulates the body’s natural immune cells to increase their fighting power to fight cancer, and activates the liver to minimize liver damage caused by medicine or treatment.  Therefore, AHCC has received a lot of attention as it provides a clue that it can maintain the patient’s biological balance well so that the patient can finish treatment with as little pain as possible.

Side effects of AHCC

It is noteworthy that no AHCC side effects have been reported yet and, like Fucoidan, there have been no cases of problems while taking them.