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From the Book: Gunn's New Family Physician or, Home Book of Health; Forming a Complete Household Guide…, by John C. Gunn, Johnson H. Jordan, Charles S. Royce · 1867
The application of raw Cranberries, applied as a poultice to the sore, will cure this most inveterate disease. We know of many cures performed by the use of these berries, mashed and applied as a poultice. A lady of our acquaintance had a Cancer in her breast, which had become as large as a pullet's egg (smaller than regular chicken egg), and was an inch below the surface of the skin. In this case, it was an hereditary disease, and she regarded it as a death-warrant. She was persuaded, however, to try the Cranberries, and they effected a cure. The Cranberries were mashed in a mortar; spread on a cloth and laid on, changing the poultice three times a day. In two or three days it became so sore that it drew out pustules that filled like the Small-pox. This process was renewed with the same effect, until the whole was drawn away, the Cancer becoming softened and decreasing in size at every application, until it finally disappeared. The virtues of Cranberries are but imperfectly known. They are cooling and useful in removing inflammation, and have been known to cure an obstinate Sore Throat. We have never known them tried, but are persuaded they might be useful in Bronchitis. The Tuscaloosa Observer states that a Mr. Bell, who suffered for eight years with Cancer in the nose (Basal cell carcinoma), was entirely cured by using a poultice of the common Cranberry. It is so simple and innocent that every one afflicted with the disease should try it.
Why does it work?
Example: Cranberries for Prostate Cancer - Researchers started out with about 50,000 human prostate cancer cells in a petri dish and if you do nothing, within a day you're closer to 100,000, then 200,000 and then nearly 400,000 within 72 hours. But by adding just a tiny amount of raw cranberry juice, that exponential cancer growth can be blocked.
The reason they tested such tiny concentrations is that we only absorb a small fraction of the cranberry phytonutrients we eat into our bloodstream. Still, cranberries are cheap. If drug companies and supplement manufacturers are going to capitalize on this they needed to find cranberry's active ingredient.
Different fractions were tested against various types of cancer to find the magic bullet. Various fractions of phytonutrients inhibited colon cancer cell, prostate cancer, human breast, brain tumor, oral, and ovarian cancer cells proliferation about 15 percent, but nothing compared to the total extract of the whole fruit. There seems to be additive or synergistic anti-proliferative effects resulting from the combination of the various components compared to individual purified phytochemicals. So it's always better to eat the whole fruit.
How do you do that with cranberries, though? Although five percent of cranberries are sold fresh, the vast majority are consumed as processed products. To get the same amount of anthocyanin phytonutrients in a cup of fresh or frozen cranberries, you'd have to drink 16 cups of cranberry juice cocktail, eat seven cups of dried cranberries, or 26 cans of cranberry sauce!
The problem is that raw cranberries are so tart that folks may opt for the 7 cups of dried. In a taste test survey, consumers said they wouldn't mind eating dried cranberries every day, but the preference for raw cranberries sloped down toward maybe once a year. The problem is dried cranberries tend to come sweetened. Raw cranberries don't affect your blood sugar, but sweetened dried cranberries do—even the low sugar varieties.
What about cranberry “juice”? Cranberry cocktail is usually only about a quarter cranberry juice. The ruby red phytonutrients in cranberries and pure cranberry juice are powerful antioxidants, increasing the antioxidant capacity of our bloodstream within hours of consumption. But the high fructose corn syrup acts as a pro-oxidant, even with added vitamin C, canceling out some of the cranberry benefit.
In Australia, I've seen raw broccoli mashed up and used as a poultice for skin cancer so this is nothing new by Dr. J. Rozencwajg, NMD. Don't try to find it on Google because they are blocking everything in reguards to natural healing.
