It was the cover image (above) that got me started on this subject. You see, people constantly and consistently post memes such as this with no context. The context missing from this particular meme is that no animal or human studies have ever been performed. Only in vitro experiments (laboratory experiments in Petrie dishes) have been performed. The average person seeing this meme wants to cry out, “Why aren’t we curing cancers with plums????”
Given that the current administration has dramatically reduced cancer research funding and has halted new grants, we’re probably not going to see any research on polyphenols and cancer in animal or human studies in the near future. Besides, pharmaceutical companies often collaborate with universities in studies, but of course they’re testing drugs and not natural substances.
There are exceptions, but you won’t see the big pharma names attached. Companies testing natural substances, like polyphenols are, as follows:
| Company | Focus Area | Notable Work |
| Brightseed Bio | AI-driven phytonutrient discovery | Uses AI to map plant compounds like polyphenols for therapeutic use |
| Ayana Bio | Plant cell biotechnology | Produces bioactive ingredients from natural sources for health applications |
| Qbiotics | Nature-derived small molecules | Investigates compounds from rainforest flora for oncology and wound healing |
| Phythera Therapeutics | Cancer therapeutics from natural products | Focuses on plant-based compounds with anti-cancer properties |
| Naprogenix | Genomics-based natural drug discovery | Screens plant compounds for therapeutic potential using high-throughput genomics |
| Polyphenolics | Grape seed-derived polyphenols | Develops supplements with documented antioxidant and anti-cancer effects |
As you can see, these are not big names in the pharmaceutical industry, and I doubt if you’ve ever heard of any of them. And as far as human studies go, even clinical trials involving humans use in vitro methods and this is so complex I’m not about to get into them (measuring things in blood plasma, lipid profiles, cell responses often derived from parallel in vitro experiments).
- Though some of these companies started their testing in vivo (animal models) to evaluate:
- Toxicity and safety of polyphenol compounds
- Mechanisms of action (e.g. apoptosis, angiogenesis inhibition)
- Tumor suppression in mice or rats with induced cancers
For example:
- Barry Callebaut, in collaboration with BIOalternatives in France, conducted animal experiments showing cocoa polyphenols had a positive impact on memory function and prostate cancer inhibition.
- Qbiotics has tested its rainforest-derived compounds in animal models for both cancer and wound healing applications.
And there are exceptions, such as the cancer and wound healing trails at Sloan Kettering Cancer Center using QBiotics’ tigilanol tiglate, with these results :
- Disrupting tumor vasculature
- Inducing oncolysis (tumor cell destruction)
- Triggering pyroptosis via caspase/gasdermin E pathways
- Activating PKC β signaling, which also promotes wound healing
Leaving Behind Natural Therapies and Natural Substances
Today the medical field is blanketed in ethical considerations. For example, in 1947 we got the Nuremberg Code, which emphasized that researchers should not expose others to risks they wouldn’t take themselves.
Today the progression of most studies follows this research pathway:
- In vitro (cell culture)
- In vivo (animal models)
- Phase I/II human trials (safety and efficacy)
However, in the field of medicine, the battlefield, some would say, oftentimes urgency is a prime concern and as the saying goes, “ Desperate times call for desperate measures.”
And at these times, faced with bureaucratic hurdles, ethical constraints, lack of funding, and urgency, physicians and researchers have more often than you’d think turned to their own bodies to prove a drug or therapy or theory. In fact, self-experimentation has a long, dramatic, and sometimes tragic history in medicine. Heroic efforts can bring success and death simultaneously.
Note: We (I) often reference where the information in these pages comes from, and as I’ve posted time and time again, we don’t use the method taught in colleges (because the liars and frauds and phonies use them too), but rather just a link, if possible, but in this article, since I’m now using AI in place of my memory (which at my age is but a memory), I’m not going to reference a damn thing because everyone should be able to use AI today, and if you keep posting memes that are factually incorrect or just plain wrong, you should be spanked for not fact checking with AI before posting! Dammit!
So, let’s start with the facts.
One study documented 465 cases of medical self-experimentation over the past 200 years, most occurring in the US during the 20th century (when formal ethics boards were rare). Of those , 89% supported the experimenter’s hypothesis, and 8 resulted in death.
The reasons were often similar, but most often they were conducted out of desperation. They had to bypass red tape and review boards, or accelerate a discovery (especially when time or funding was limited), or out of personal conviction: “I wouldn’t ask others to do what I wouldn’t do myself.”
One researcher, Elie Metchnikoff suffered from depression and out of desperation injected himself with “relapsing fever.” He did this to test his theories about immunity, and he did recover from the illness. Relapsing fever today is a form of Lyme disease, a tick borne illness.
Here are a few famous examples of self-experimentation:
Barry Marshall–Drank H. pylori to prove ulcers were bacterial and won Nobel Prize, changing ulcer treatment.
Werner Forssmann—Inserted catheter into his own heart, pioneering cardiac catheterization.
Jonas Salk— Injected himself and his family with polio vaccine, proving its safety, and refused to patent it. He was a great humanitarian, unlike Dr. Paul Offit who said that selling his share of the rotavirus vaccine patent made him feel like he’d “won the lottery” (which he had to walk back, eventually).
Daniel Carrión—Injected himself with Oroya fever, and died, but proved the disease link.
This next one makes me laugh. You see Albert Hofmann, a Swiss chemist, synthesized LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide) in 1938 while working at Sandoz Laboratories in Basel, Switzerland, but set it aside after initial tests showed little promise. Five years later, he revisited the compound and accidentally absorbed a small amount through his skin, experiencing unusual sensations. Curious about its effects, he intentionally ingested 250 micrograms on April 19, 1943—an amount now known to be quite high. And he got quite high, riding his bicycle home, accompanied by a lab assistant, while experiencing vivid hallucinations and altered perceptions. April 19 is now famously known as “Bicycle Day.”
Excuse the digression, but Hoffman is a truly interesting historical figure. His curiosity and intuition led to one of the most influential discoveries in modern science. He believed psychedelics could offer profound insights into consciousness, spirituality, and mental health when used responsibly. That it could be used as a tool for psychiatric therapy and spiritual insight. He also isolated psilocybin and psilocin, the active compounds in psychedelic mushrooms, now being tested by the VA on veterans with PTSD. He was deeply concerned about their misuse but remained hopeful about their therapeutic potential.
In his book, LSD: My Problem Child, he described his first trip as, “Kaleidoscopic, fantastic images surged in on me . . . exploding in colored fountains, rearranging and hybridizing themselves in constant flux.”
He described childhood experiences of nature as mystical and believed chemistry could help unlock the secrets of the material world. His work bridged science and spirituality, and he remained active in consciousness research well into his later years. And he lived to the age of 102.
Okay, Back on Track
As you can guess, self-experimentation walks a fine line between bravery and recklessness, but has undeniably shaped modern medicine. These scientists, risked their lives to avoid ethical violations, gain credibility, and/or speed up trials.
Let’s take a look at still more:
| Researcher | Experiment Description | Outcome & Impact |
| William Stark (1769) | Ate a restrictive diet (mostly bread, water, sugar) to study nutrition | Died of scurvy; helped link vitamin C deficiency to disease |
| Daniel Carrión (1885) | Injected himself with Oroya fever to prove its link to verruga peruana | Died; confirmed disease connection, honored in Peru as a martyr-scientist |
| Jesse Lazear (1900) | Allowed infected mosquitoes to bite him to study yellow fever | Died; helped prove mosquito transmission |
| Max von Pettenkofer | Drank cholera bacteria to disprove germ theory | Survived; didn’t get sick, demonstrating the importance of the terrain over the germ |
| Joseph Goldberger | Ingested bodily fluids of pellagra patients to prove it wasn’t infectious | Survived; proved pellagra was caused by niacin deficiency |
| Alexander Bogdanov | Performed blood transfusions on himself to study rejuvenation | Died after receiving infected blood; helped advance transfusion science |
| Frederick Hoelzel | Ate feathers, cotton, and asbestos to study digestion | Survived; contributed to understanding of gut transit time |
| Werner Forssmann | Inserted catheter into his own heart | Survived; pioneered cardiac catheterization, won Nobel Prize |
Modern Times
- In 2014, neuroscientist Philip Kennedy implanted electrodes into his own brain to advance brain-computer interfaces.
- In 2024, virologist Beata Halassy self-administered an experimental viral therapy for breast cancer—successfully.
- Biohacker Josiah Zayner injected himself with CRISPR gene-editing tools, raising alarms about DIY science.
As a scientist and educator, I truly love the TV series, The Big Bang Theory. I often take the theories they toss about and fact check them using AI. Once in a while, the AI engine tells me I must be watching The Big Bang Theory. Often, without using AI, I can find holes in Sheldon’s ideas about nutrition and the like, but for the most part, I love the science and I love the characters. My favorite character is Zach Johnson, Penny’s ex-boyfriend who said: “The great thing about science is, there’s no one right answer.”
He cracks me up, especially since in the history of medical science, researchers have put their lives on the line to advance their science, to find that one right answer that saves lives.
I’ve Saved the Best for Last
I’ve written about this person in the past. She was a very brilliant woman who did things no one else did and did them better than the men in her field. And it killed her.
