Wake Forest University researchers have found that a product available for the last decade as a sexual aid may have the added benefit of helping female cancer survivors alleviate their post-cancer symptoms.
ArginMax, a product of Hawaii firm the Daily Wellness Company, was originally developed as a natural nutritional supplement to enhance sexual performance for both men and women. Dr. Kathryn Greven, a radiation oncologist at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, began studying the supplement to see if the product worked for female cancer survivors who frequently experience sexual dysfunction.
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While Greven found that ArginMax did not improve sexual function for female cancer survivors, the supplement did improve their overall quality of life. Greven, the lead investigator on the study, said that symptoms such as lack of energy, pain, nausea and sleeplessness all improved.
“Simply, they reported a greater enjoyment of life, without any additional side effects from the supplement,” Greven said in a prepared statement.
Researchers recruited 186 female cancer survivors to participate in the study, which received funding from the National Cancer Institute. Study findings are being presented on Monday at the 2011 American Society of Clinical Oncology, or ASCO, annual meeting in Chicago.
Dr. Edward Shaw, an oncologist and counselor, and principal investigator for Wake Forest Baptist’s Community Clinical Oncology Program Research Base and a co-researcher on the study, has a theory of how ArginMax helps. Cancer survivors can suffer from persistent inflammation, or chronic oxidative stress, that can continue for years following treatment. The condition causes fatigue that affects quality of life. Shaw hypothesizes that the ingredients in ArginMax for Women may help counteract the inflammation.
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“There’s been some thought that dietary supplements could offer a potential benefit, but previous studies on other drugs and supplements have had disappointing outcomes,” Shaw said in a statement. “We’d like to see the results replicated in other studies, as they give us renewed hope in this area.”
ArginMax, commercially available since 1998, is marketed as a dietary supplement and not as a medicine. While companies marketing supplements do need to show that their products are safe, supplements do not need U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval. However, if Daily Wellness wants to market its product as a medicine that offers clinical benefit to cancer patients, the company would need to go through the regulatory process for FDA approval.
