Duncan Crow
Wholistic Consultant
Fucoidans: Seaweed To The Rescue
The fucoidans references on this page show how natural polysaccharides similar to the acemannans in Aloe gel have pronounced health effects.
fucoidans references
The fucoidans component of brown seaweeds, a group of sulfated polysaccharides not unlike the mucilagenous Aloe Vera gel, has been the subject of about 300 studies. New scientific information reveals remarkable health properties; fucoidans enhance immunity and assist with joints, blood function, digestion, liver and stomach function, and improve skin and cellular growth, and more.
For example, it is a mild blood thinner; many people have blood that is too thick due to natural factors, dehydration, smoking, excessive drinking, diabetes, low antioxidant levels, high homocysteine, etc. The high viscosity produces shear stress and blood clots, so these folks might be taking blood-thinning drugs or simply incease their use of dietary sea vegetables that contain heparin-like fucoidans.
High molecular weight fucoidans are known to bind growth factors and increase the rate of tissue repair. Fucoidans can induce the production of interleukin 12 and interferon, two cytokines that are known to be effective in treating virus infection such as HIV and hepatitis C in addition to cancer. Low molecular weight fucoidans help rebuild blood vessels and thus improve circulation, an effect that was previously described also for high molecular weight fucoidan and other glycosaminoglycans, such as dextran sulfates and chondroitin sulfates. This information will be particularly useful for the recovering diabetic's attempts to rescue their legs from eventual amputation. Also for the diabetic, brown seaweed generally has also been shown to be capable of lowering high blood sugar, due to the naturally occurring combination of nutrients especially chromium (active in blood sugar control) and iodine (benefits metabolism).
One type of fucoidan (u-fucoidan) reduces certain types of rapidly growing cancer cells by promoting apoptosis (self-destruction of cancer cells). The prefecture of Okinawa, whose inhabitants enjoy some of the highest life expectancies in Japan, also happens to have one of the highest per capita consumption rates of fucoidans. It is noteworthy that the cancer death rate in Okinawa is the lowest of all the prefectures in Japan. Experiments are being done now to determine the effects of fucoidan within living organisms. If these confirm that fucoidans can help bring about apoptosis solely in cancer cells that are multiplying at uncontrolled rates, we would then have one more natural cancer therapy that does its job without causing adverse effects.
Brown seaweed helps decongest swollen or inflamed lymph nodes, a property that makes it useful in the body's fight against autoimmune illnesses such as chronic fatigue, HIV, arthritis and chronic allergies. Moreover, a main tonic benefit of fucoidan is as a general detoxifier of heavy metals and radioactive elements because the active ingredients in fucoidan are the alginates (algal polysaccharides), which absorb toxins and promote their disposal outside the body.
A Japanese study found that fucoidans enhanced phagocytosis, the process in which white blood cells engulf, kill, digest and eliminate debris, viruses and bacteria. An American study reported that fucoidans increased the number of circulating mature white blood cells. An Argentinian study and a Japanese study found that fucoidans inhibited viruses such as herpes simplex type 1 from attaching to, penetrating and replicating in host cells. A Swedish study is among many that showed fucoidans inhibit inflammation cascades and tissue damage that may lead to allergies. Other studies like one in Canada found that fucoidans block a process called 'complement activation' that is believed to play an adverse role in chronic degenerative diseases such as atherosclerosis, heart attack and Alzheimer's disease. Two American studies found that fucoidans increase and mobilize stem cells. Stem cells can differentiate to become any one of the 200 types of cells. They enable your body to replace dead cells, thereby enabling tissue and organ regeneration and slowing down the aging process.
See the fucoidan references below; you can find more by doing a Medline search.
Fucoidans References:
Fucoidan derived from Cladosiphon okamuranus Tokida ameliorates murine chronic colitis through the down-regulation of interleukin-6 production on colonic epithelial cells.
Clin Exp Immunol. 2004 Jun;136(3):432-9.
Matsumoto S, Nagaoka M, Hara T, Kimura-Takagi I, Mistuyama K, Ueyama S.
PMID: 15147344 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
A review of the biochemistry of heavy metal biosorption by brown algae.
Water Res. 2003 Nov;37(18):4311-30. Review.
Davis TA, Volesky B, Mucci A.
PMID: 14511701 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Biological properties of sulfated fucans: the potent inhibiting activity of algal fucoidan against the human Complement system.
Glycobiology. 2003 Sep 26 [Epub ahead of print] No abstract available.
Tissot B, Daniel R.
PMID: 14514710 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Effects of fucoidan on chronic renal failure in rats.
Planta Med. 2003 Jun;69(6):537-41.
Zhang Q, Li Z, Xu Z, Niu X, Zhang H.
PMID: 12865973 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Antitumor activity and immune response of Mekabu fucoidan extracted from Sporophyll of Undaria pinnatifida.
In Vivo. 2003 May-Jun;17(3):245-9.
Maruyama H, Tamauchi H, Hashimoto M, Nakano T.
PMID: 12929574 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Low-molecular-weight fucoidan promotes therapeutic revascularization in a rat model of critical hindlimb ischemia.
J Pharmacol Exp Ther. 2003 Apr;305(1):24-30.
Luyt CE, Meddahi-Pelle A, Ho-Tin-Noe B, Colliec-Jouault S, Guezennec J, Louedec L, Prats H, Jacob MP, Osborne-Pellegrin M, Letourneur D, Michel JB.
PMID: 12649349 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Preventive effects of Cladosiphon fucoidan against Helicobacter pylori infection in Mongolian gerbils.
Helicobacter. 2003 Feb;8(1):59-65.
Shibata H, Iimuro M, Uchiya N, Kawamori T, Nagaoka M, Ueyama S, Hashimoto S, Yokokura T, Sugimura T, Wakabayashi K.
PMID: 12603617 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
[Immunostimulating and anticoagulating activity of fucoidan from brown algae Fucus evanescens of Okhotskoe sea]
Antibiot Khimioter. 2003;48(4):11-3. Russian.
Kuznetsova TA, Zaporozhets TS, Besednova NN, Shevchenko NM, Zviagintseva TN, Mamaev AN, Momot AP.
PMID: 13677131 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Potential antioxidant capacity of sulfated polysaccharides from the edible marine brown seaweed Fucus vesiculosus.
J Agric Food Chem. 2002 Feb 13;50(4):840-5.
Ruperez P, Ahrazem O, Leal JA.
PMID: 11829654 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Immunological analysis of inhibition of lung metastases by fucoidan (GIV-A) prepared from brown seaweed Sargassum thunbergii.
Anticancer Res. 1995 Sep-Oct;15(5B):1937-47.
Itoh H, Noda H, Amano H, Ito H.
PMID: 8572581 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Antitumor activity and immunological properties of marine algal polysaccharides, especially fucoidan, prepared from Sargassum thunbergii of Phaeophyceae.
Anticancer Res. 1993 Nov-Dec;13(6A):2045-52.
Itoh H, Noda H, Amano H, Zhuaug C, Mizuno T, Ito H.
PMID: 8297113 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Antitumor effect of seaweeds. IV. Enhancement of antitumor activity by sulfation of a crude fucoidan fraction from Sargassum kjellmanianum.
Jpn J Exp Med. 1984 Aug;54(4):143-51.
Yamamoto I, Takahashi M, Suzuki T, Seino H, Mori H.
PMID: 6513098 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Antiviral properties of fucoidan fractions from Leathesia difformis.
Phytomedicine. 1999 Nov;6(5):335-40.
Feldman SC, Reynaldi S, Stortz CA, Cerezo AS, Damont EB.
PMID: 11962540 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Inhibitory effect of Cladosiphon fucoidan on the adhesion of Helicobacter pylori to human gastric cells.
J Nutr Sci Vitaminol (Tokyo). 1999 Jun;45(3):325-36.
Shibata H, KimuraTakagi I, Nagaoka M, Hashimoto S, Sawada H, Ueyama S, Yokokura T.
PMID: 10524351 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
[Antibacterial and immunomodulating activity of fucoidan]
Antibiot Khimioter. 1995 Feb;40(2):9-13. Russian.
Zapopozhets TS, Besednova NN, Loenko IuN.
PMID: 7605146 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE
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