I have an exciting announcement for all curcumin-takers with MGUS, SMM or MM! Please go to the Beating-Myeloma website (http://beating-myeloma.org/) and fill out the form for the Curcumin Patient Study! (See my September 7th post for a bit more information on this informal patient study).
Once you reach the B-M homepage, you will find the CPS listed under Patient Studies, on the left-hand side of your screen. Click on that link, and follow the directions. It’s easy. Only we have access to our data, so we can add updates whenever we get new test results and so on.
For some reason, today I had to scroll down the page to view the list of those (eight of us curcumin-takers) who have already filled in the form. So if you see a blank page, just scroll!
Anyway, in order to participate in the CPS, you must be a B-M member. If you are not, please sign up first (it’s free). As a member, you can also sign up for the forum/listserv, where discussions range from alternative to conventional and complementary myeloma treatments. It’s a very very very friendly group of myeloma patients (all stages) and MM patient caregivers, so I urge you to join.
If you are not a myeloma patient or are merely curious about curcumin and wish to view the study results, please click on this link: http://beating-myeloma.org/patient-study-results/
As David (the founder and owner of the B-M website) wrote in a post to the MMA listserv yesterday, this is not a rigorous trial but a collection or snapshot of mmers who take curcumin often along with conventional therapies like thal/dex or velcade. Experiences range from MGUS diagnosis changing to smoldering and IgG diagnosis in complete remission experiencing improving numbers…
While this is not a formal myeloma clinical trial, if enough of us participate we may gain some interesting and potentially important information about curcumin. So, whether your experience with curcumin has been positive or negative, please fill out the form. The more, the merrier!
My husband was diagnosed with mm July 2007. I discovered your wonderful blog after countless hours doing research on this cancer online. Very interested on all the info about curcumin. I don’t know if you have seen this article yet, so just in case you haven’t, I am sending the link: http://www2.mdanderson.org/depts/oncolog/articles/07/9-sep/9-07-2.html
What a journey!
Take care,
Robin
Hi Margaret,
I just knew I have a Malignant Melanoma 3 weeks ago and I ´m begining treatment on Monday 29th. I ´ve been searching for something natural that can “go with” the interferon, I arrive to your pages just at the time I began with the Curcumin, thank you very much for sharing all your knowledge with us. I began taking the Curcumin powder, the first day, 10 gms. with water, tuff; the second day, just 5 gms with scrambled eggs, olive oil and a piece of bread, much better! But I have a question, capsules are the same as taking the powder? I am peruvian but I live in Madrid, I can ´t find the pills yet, If you have any suggestion, it will be great. A big kiss, and thank you again! Patricia
For Robin. The link to this MD Anderson article can be found under Curcumin Overview (my homepage). Indeed, what a journey, I agree! Mamma mia.
For Patricia. Just a suggestion: don’t take curcumin powder with water. Please read my Bioavailability page for the explanation. Try taking it with a fat (some kind of oil, OR the way I am taking it now–butter and chocolate mainly–OR yoghurt). You can try taking it in different ways, the important thing in my opinion is that you dissolve it FIRST in a fat. As I mentioned, I am testing butter, but your fat of choice could be oil (flaxseed, fish, etc.). Don’t heat up flaxseed oil, by the way: curcumin will dissolve in it even without the heat. Then you can add the dissolved curcumin to whatever you want, to improve its taste, mainly. How about making a curcumin Vindaloo once a week or so? Yummy. See my Vindaloo page. 🙂
Capsule question. I tested capsules with bioperine, and my markers kept stable. So capsules have worked for me. My only concern was taking all that pepper extract (bioperine). So please eliminate black pepper from your diet if you choose to take the capsules. Just a suggestion. I like to err on the side of caution.
Capsules without bioperine didn’t work for me. See my “Some Test Results” page. My September results were okay, but my IgG count went up.
Finding capsules in Spain. I have a friend (with breast cancer) in Madrid, and she had a heck of a time finding a way to get capsules. She finally had a friend bring her a supply from the U.S. You could try getting in touch with Sabinsa Spain, I will send you that info privately once I find it…
By the way, are you sure you are taking curcumin (“curcumina”), not turmeric (“curcuma”)? Turmeric or curcuma is the spice, curcumin/a is its active ingredient. Turmeric contains only 5-8% curcumin, so it’s useless against cancer. We MUST take curcumin.
Te voy a escribir luego, Margaret