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Sunday, 12 June 2016

Boswellia?

I'm a little confused about Boswellia. Should I be adding this to the cocktail during radiation? Hes not currently taking any steroids.....

5 comments:

  1. Boswellia actually has clinical trial support as a means to reduce the need for steroids during brain radiation. These studies used high doses of a German Boswellia formulation called H15.

    From one of the trials:

    "Many patients had a significant problem swallowing 12 relatively large capsules of [Boswellia] or placebo per day, but most of the patients learned to cope with this problem."

    I have therefore been recommending more potent/bioavailable sources of Boswellia such as Wokvel (made by Verdure Sciences, the same company that manufactures Longvida curcumin), with the rationale that such high Boswellia doses might not be necessary with a more bioavailable formulation.

    http://www.wokvel.com/

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  2. Thank you. I'm going to add it.

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  3. Just a link to support Stephen W's suggestion.
    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21287538
    "Boswellia serrata acts on cerebral edema in patients irradiated for brain tumors: a prospective, randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind pilot trial."
    Showed a rather striking benefit in reducing cerebral edema (brain swelling) during radiation treatment. That's at 4200 mg/d. I don't have the full article to know what preparation was used.
    I note other studies showed benefit when used topically to prevent skin damage.

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    Replies
    1. This study is the same one I was quoting above. 4200 mg per day" = 12 relatively large capsules. The preparation was called H15 (350 mg; Hecht Pharma, Stinstedt, Germany). This study can be found in my Brain Tumor Library on Google Drive (folder 1, then Boswellia subfolder).

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  4. Cerebral edema from Keytruda is giving my husband aphasia, which is very distressing to him. Our NO recommended boswellia, but I found that it interacts with Coumadin which my husband is prescribed for an artificial heart valve. I am wondering whether it is possible to take both if the blood INR levels are closely monitored and whether anyone here has done so. (I posted the same question on Inspire.com).

    Thanks!

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