Thalassemia - Wheat Grass Clinical Studies 2004 -2010

Dear Readers,

these are the studies i could find in the internet referring to Wheat Grass and Thalassemia. For your reading and studying.

There are a few additional informations in them which i could not read in the wheat grass posts you recommended for this topic.
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1. Effect of wheat grass tablets on the frequency of blood transfusions in Thalassemia Major, 2010
2. Effect of wheat grass therapy on transfusion requirement in beta-thalassemia major, 2009
3. The Role of Iron Chelation Activity of Wheat Grass Juice in Blood Transfusion Requirement of Intermediate Thalassaemia, 2007.
4. Wheat grass juice reduces transfusion requirement in patients with thalassemia major: a pilot study, 2004.

With Links:

ad 1. Effect of wheat grass tablets on the frequency of blood transfusions in Thalassemia Major. 2010

PMID: 20135271
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20135271

Clinical Brief:

http://www.springerlink.com/content/m88t31m23275n358/fulltext.pdf


Result: Wheat grass has the potential to increase the Hb levels, increase the interval between blood transfusions and decrease the amount of total blood transfused in Thalassemia Major patients."

ad 2.  Effect of wheat grass therapy on transfusion requirement in beta-thalassemia major. 2009

PMID: 19205635
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19205635

SpringerLink to Clinical Brief actually broken, only a preview of the first of the two pages can be read by preview

ad 3. The Role of Iron Chelation Activity of Wheat Grass Juice in Blood Transfusion Requirement of Intermediate Thalassaemia, 2007.

http://abstracts.hematologylibrary.org/cgi/content/abstract/110/11/3829
Wheat grass could be an effetive alternative to transfusions

ad 4.  Wheat grass juice reduces transfusion requirement in patients with thalassemia major: a pilot study. 2004,

PMID: 15297687
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15297687

4.1. Discussion and reply

http://www.indianpediatrics.net/june2005/618.pdf

4.2. Discussion and reply

http://www.indianpediatrics.net/jan2006/79.pdf

Best wishes,

Margarete

Margarete,

Thank you for posting the links to these articles. I had not previously heard about the chelating properties of wheatgrass. This is one more reason to be using wheatgrass. I feel that its affect on the immune system alone, is plenty of reason but its ability to increase Hb in some people and its role as a supplemental chelator just add to the benefits one can find with wheatgrass. I hope it is all the chelation your will now need. We already know that tea and IP6 can act as natural chelators and I am happy to be able to include wheatgrass to this group.

Andy,.. thank you for your comment,

it`s on my side to thank you and all the contributers of the forum, giving one another hope and advice, in sharing experiences and informations! In my own history of illnesses i have had much help through such self-help networks/groups. How precious it is when this forum with all its informations and actual helping/responding members goes on and on..

When i read  postings concerning experiences with wheat grass i had sometimes the impression that there would help a systematic dose taken in the frame of sort of research-controlled study perhaps user-leaded and controlled. In this moment - at least for me - it seems not to be clear, which sorts of products are the optimum for this purpose. It might be that for enhancing the hb another product would be optimal than it would be optimal for iron chelating..

Therefore it would, in my opinion, need another lot of discussion and sharing of experiences. We have still not any discussion in Europe concerning Wheatgrass. In my "home-forum", http://lil.lu/ there is only one ladyr with chronical lymphatic leukemia who uses wheat grass for cures in wintertime and is very happy with that because wheat grass enhances her health in general. She is not transfusion-dependent. Another lady in our forum has myelodysplastic syndrome, low risk, and is transfusion dependent. She is chelated by Exjade, but actually she has to pause for the second time because her kidneys did not work properly. Now, in the pause, her creatin is getting normalized. But she fears for her kidneys for future and so she would be happy to take additional wheat grass. But her hematologist advices her not to do so, because perhaps her liver could take damage. No studies, no further arguments which would prove that.. According to all the studies i read there were never complications observed.

But there could be some in case you would take wheat grasses in higher doses and/or for longer periods as the studies included. So its necessecary to be careful.

Also i communicated another wheat grass study - one that relates to MDS and reports also some success like some of the studies i sent to this forum - to the forum on http://www.marrowforums.org/ with open acess to archives where mainly MDS Patients and Patients. They had no information concerning wheat grass before.  

Further i tried to registrate in the *......*, but that seems impossible actually..

Are there any other forums probably interested in the wheat grass topic in relation with transfusion-dependency or even palliative care (also therefore exists already a wheat grass study)?

Have a nice Sunday, you all, who read this!

Best regards,

Margarete

Thnx akita , my brother Search a lot in the markets of Bahrain for wheat grass juice, but to no availbal because we dont have in Bahrain, but we found tablat of wheat grass. Is the impact of juice has the same effect in the tablat of wheat grass.

Thnx akita , my brother Search a lot in the markets of Bahrain for wheat grass juice, but to no availbal because we dont have in Bahrain, but we found tablat of wheat grass. Is the impact of juice has the same effect in the tablat of wheat grass.

In one of the studies i listed above, wheat grass tablets where successful in

- increasing the Hb levels,
- increasing the interval between blood transfusions and
- decreasing the amount of total blood transfused in Thalassemia Major patients."

But: the study does not tell, if it really was successfull with all the patients.

Tablets were given on empty stomach, so this seems to be helpful.
Tablets were bought from
R. J enterprise, Pune, Maharashtra, India.
www.greenheartindia.com

The minimum of time-period of intake was one Year! And then they compare the Hb levels etc. with the data in the year before beginning of intake. And then the success was shown.

But the other study from 2009 was not successful. It seems that they used another sort of wheat grass tablets, which had not the right exact ingredients. I think so, because otherwise perhaps they would not published the 2010 study (conducted in 2005) now, after the 2009 published study and that in this study they indicated the enterprise where they bought it.

It could be possible, that the wheat grass tablets your brother has seen in Bahrain would be not of much help for your purposes. Wheat grass tablets are sold for many health reasons, and iron chelation is only one, not one known in public.. Anyway, it will enhancen your help..

So, sorry, i can not tell you how much this tablet will help. Do you know the brand, how many mg has one tablet? How much of them are in one serving? Is it expensive?

Could you or your brother buy one by internet?

Why not growing wheat grass indoor at home? (Not possible?)

How is your health status actually?

Many questions..

best regards,

Margarete

Hi Akita how are i hope doing will .

So, sorry, i can not tell you how much this tablet will help. Do you know the brand, how many mg has one tablet?

yeah ther waw many brand , ther was 500,250 ,120

How much of them are in one serving?

i dont know mybe 100 or 120

Is it expensive?

not that much but ther was many brand


Could you or your brother buy one by internet?

can u give any website plz

Why not growing wheat grass indoor at home? (Not possible?)

yeah not possible

How is your health status actually

my bro is healthey and he dont look thalassemia at all

Hi dear,

1. Company: the webside is

www.greenheartindia.com

This is the enterprise from which the hospital in Amritsar bought the wheat grass tablets for the then successful study on Hb, transfusion intervals, and amount of transfused blood packs, number one in my first posting.

Today i phoned to the company. They did not know that they are mentioned in a study. They sold to hospitals for several times in the past in Bombay, Pune, etc.., but never learned about the outcome. So i emailed the studies to them.

The owner told me that the wheat grass plants are harvested when they are 7 -8 days old. This is a good time also for iron chelating, but also for the other purposes. You can buy tablets or powder. They deliver also to abroad countries. The purchase prize has to be payed in advance by an indian bank account or by Western Union, Moneytransfer.. The shipping needs 15 or 30 days. But 15 days ist much more expensive.

Actually i wrote an email to the enterprise asking for details of the products concerning different packages, different ingredients for tablets. i will write it in the forum once i have an answer.

2. Ingredients of the tablets - which are the best?

Today i phoned to a professor at the University of Vienna, Department of Pharmacognosy and asked, how much it would cost to analyse some wheat grass tablets for their components. He told me, that a full analysis would take 3-4 years and cost 4000 Euros per month. But there would always be the problem, that natural products like wheatgrass have different qualities of ingredients depending on the weather and the climate where the plants have grown (sun, rain, hot, not so hot..) So when you make an analysis, it would be not valid for the next package of the same firm...

3. Which quantity of tablets per day is the optimum, should  be taken for success?

This evening i wrote an email to the correspondending doctor of the Wheat Grass Study 2010 (my first email in this thread, asking him for the advisable quantity for adults and young people older than 10. Is it per kg bodyweight ? And then, how much? I hope that i will get an answer soon.

So we will have to wait for one or two another days...

Good night, in Vienna its actually 10 pm.

Margarete

Hi,

the corresponding medician of the wheat grass studie 2010 did not respond to my email. Its perhaps very important to know the right quantity of tablets to take for special "thal-purposes", this seems me to me a bigger quantity than taken für general health purposes.

To some extent it seems possible to read about the quantities from the studies Thal - 2009 and Thal 2010 and MDS 2009. But as i am not an medical doctor, i would like to obtain an advice by a doctor in this matter,sort of "second opinion", not to read the studies alone..

So i contacted my hematologist and sent him the links to the studies. He forwarded it to another doctor. But he told me, that he in my position never would write in the internet at all. OK...

So i contacted my doctor/general practicioner whom i asked to give me advice in this matter. He asked for an reader with all the links/studies printed out.. I will do this this week-end and give him the reader beginning of next week. If not him, anybody else, a doctor, will tell me his opinion about best quantity for wheat grass tablets...

So it will last another some days...sorry

Margarete

The answer of www.greenheartindia.com was:

Eden Park" <edenpark@vsnl.com>
An:"Margarete Aulehla" <MAulehla@gmx.at>Betreff:Re: The Studies concerning Wheat GrassDatum:Wed, 17. Nov 2010 13:30:07

Dear Madam,
Thank you for your mails. Also thank you for your telephone call..

Will go through the articles which you have mentioned.

Regarding our wheat grass powder
.
Family pack contains 120 sachets each having 2 grams of wheat grass powder.
(cost in Indian Rupees 800 per pack exclusive of taxes and shipping)
Product code- WGF

Tablets each bottle contains 120 tablets each of 500mg.(cost in Indian
Rupees 220 per bottle ) Product code WGT-2.

As explained we can send a few packs at a time so it becomes economical .

Please feel free to email me with any queries.

Regards
Gopinath Pillai


Dear Madam,

In the previous mail I have mentioned only the WGF and WGT -2
Please also note the following
WGM contains 30 sachets 2 gms each Cost Indian Rupees 220/=
WGT-1 contains 60 tablets each of 500 mg Cost Indian Rupees 120/= per
bottle.

Dear Forum,

my general practicioner answered after having read at least a part of the studies::

It ist not possible to recommend a certain quantity of the wheat grass juice, tablets, powder. In his view, wheat grass is not a medicament for which it is necessary to know the exact components. The helping ingredients must be uniquely defined. As there does not exist such a definition for wheat grass, one cannot know which quantity would be best for the particular person.

But he agreed to my view that in that case it is possible to indicate the quantities used by the wheat grass studies, - as an information, not a recommendation.

Referring to my posting on November,10, the quantities used in the studies are:

-Study 1. 2010: (successful)

 Wheat grass tablets 500 mg from Greenheartindia.com, for
- Patients in the dose of 2-3,6 and 8 tablets per day in
divided doses in children aged 1-3 yr, 4-8 yr and >8 yr
respectively (1 tablet=500 mg).

(that is: more than one dose per day/divided, children:1-3yr 2-3 tablets,
children 4-8 yr 6 tablets, children older than 8 yrs 8 tablets per day; oldest child: 16 yrs, on empty stomach)

Study 2 2009:(not successful)

Wheat grass tablets 500mg, patients median 16 years old, 100 or 200 mg/ per Kilogramm bodyweight and day. Quentities were well tolerated.

Study 4 (successful)

"Wheat Grass Juice: Family of the patients raised the wheat grass at home, in the kitchen garden or in earthen pots. The sprouts were harvested when they were 5-6" tall, grounded and the juice extracted by sieving. About 100 mL of freshly extracted wheat grass juice was consumed daily. No specific variety of wheat grass was used. "


Extra Study (successful): " The role of iron chelation activity of wheat grass juice in patients with myelodysplastic syndrome, ASCO 2009

http://www.asco.org/ASCOv2/Meetings/Abstracts?&vmview=abst_detail_view&confID=65&abstractID=33788

Citation of the presentation of this study by Soma Mukhopadhyay:
http://www.asco.org/ASCOv2/MultiMedia/Virtual+Meeting?&vmview=vm_session_presentations_view&confID=65&sessionID=3112

Dose for adults (were 42-73 yrs old)

Dose: 7-8 days old wheat grass fresh leaves and stems in aqueous solution.
30 ml fresh juice (approx. 5 g leaves) 2-3 times daily for continuous 6 months

The duration of intake in the studies was from 6 months to 1 1/2 years

So, thats the information, i hope this helps,

Best regards,

Margarete