Quite a few people have asked me if the full curcumin-H1N1 study mentions which curcumin dose works against H1N1. No, unfortunately, it doesn’t. This is an in vitro study…infected cell cultures and test tubes and big-name assays and the usual technical thises and thats. The authors do say, however, that the doses they used were below the cytotoxic (=toxic to cells) level. I will see if I can find something more helpful in the study later on today.

By now, everywhere we go, we are bound to run into coughing and sneezing people. In fact, whenever I think about it, I find it extraordinary that, in spite of my almost nonexistent immune system (=as I wrote the other day, my hematologist was astounded that I wasn’t ill all the time), I am as healthy as a horse, whereas my students are falling one by one, like leaves in autumn. I won’t hide that I am apprehensive, but so far I haven’t had even the slightest of sniffles. Is it my daily intake of curcumin? Is it the Broncho Munal that I began taking in September (I am at the end of the third and final cycle now)? Is it my increased intake of vitamin D3? Or is the H1N1 virus being scared away by the mere presence, in my house, of a bottle of Sambucol (=black elderberry extract)? I have no idea. Whatever it is, though, it is working…and I hope it continues to do so (knock on wood, tocca ferro)!

Since I am still reading, writing and doing research (ah, don’t even ask about the curcumin-esophageal study…mamma mia, that one had me spinning in so many different directions that I had to shove it into a drawer for the time being, just to catch my breath!), I thought I would give you the link to a HealthDay article on a fascinating, recently-published, er, sneezing study: http://tinyurl.com/ydn7tkn

It’s amazing to think how much we are influenced by, and fearful of, a sneeze or a cough…from now on, perhaps we should try to remember what one of the study authors says (see above link): “about one out of 80 people have gotten H1N1,” which means that “there’s a 79 out of 80 chance the person you heard sneeze doesn’t have it.”

To this, let me add that Dr. Ugazio, President of the Italian Pediatric Association’s Vaccine Committee, said yesterday in an interview that H1N1 is a “media-hyped virus,” and that the regular flu kills ten times as many people (hmmm, not a comforting thought, actually). He is absolutely right…you wouldn’t believe the H1N1 media frenzy going on right now here in Italy…

Still, I can’t help it…the mere thought of someone sneezing or coughing in my vicinity makes me run for my bottle of curcumin…

Okay, okay, I know that curcumin does this that everything and more besides, but I would never have thought that it ALSO inhibits H1N1!!! But it does. Incredibly. A blog reader (merci!!!) sent me a recently published study on this very topic, see abstract: http://tinyurl.com/ybug9sl After reading the abstract, I commented to Piccolo (my male kitty), “non ci posso credere, non è possibile!!!” (= I can’t believe it, this isn’t possible.) He batted his handsome yellow eyes at me, as if to say, “silly girl, why didn’t you just ask me? I knew it!”

Well, I don’t have enough time right now to provide a full report, although I am itching to do so!…but my mother-in-law is coming over for lunch in less than a half hour, and I have a few things to do before she gets here (such as making our bed!, even though the cats, as usual, are draped all over it and will not cooperate at all…).

The study shows that curcumin greatly reduced the impact of influenza A at non-toxic doses. The authors write: To our knowledge, this is the first report demonstrating that curcumin exerts anti-influenza activity, and the anti-influenza effect is via a mechanism that abolishes virus-cell attachment. To my knowledge, too! Oh, I am sooo grateful to my blog reader for sending me this full study. A big round of applause!

For lack of time, I am going to cut and paste the Conclusions part, highlighting the main points. The researchers tell us that 1. curcumin interrupts virus-cell attachment, which leads to inhibition of influenza virus propagation; 2. curcumin has an established safety profile and high SI value of 92.5, and 3. hence, curcumin has promising potential for use as an anti-influenza drug. Yesssss!

[I had no idea what “SI value” meant, so I had to look it up and finally found that it means “selectivity index,” implying, methinks, that curcumin is able to select its “target” (the evil cells, probably…?), without interacting with “other targets” (the healthy cells?). If I understood SI correctly, curcumin turns out to possess a very good therapeutic index, which is good to know.]

I will read the study more carefully tomorrow and probably add a few more titbits from the full study. Sorry to be in such a terrific hurry, but I thought I should get this bit of news published on the blog as soon as possible…

Oh, one final remark. My bottles of Sambucol arrived from the UK yesterday. Super. Now, with my usual curcumin dose and my increased daily intake of vitamin D, I should be all set. Oh, and let me also mention that Stefano and I are having our regular yearly flu shot on Tuesday. Not the H1N1 vaccine, mind you…my haematologist strongly recommended against it (in my case). Oh drat, my mother-in-law just got here…bed still unmade…uffa! 😉

A friend sent me the funniest thing last night. I don’t care if this is a hoax, it made me laugh. Enjoy! 

The following questions were set in last year’s GCSE examination in Swindon, Wiltshire (U.K.). These are genuine answers (from 16 year olds):

Q. Name the four seasons. A. Salt, pepper, mustard and vinegar.

Q. Explain one of the processes by which water can be made safe to drink. A. Flirtation makes water safe to drink because it removes large pollutants like grit, sand, dead sheep and canoeists. [Margaret: I want to know where this kid lives, so I will never go there…sounds like a scary place!]

Q. How is dew formed? A. The sun shines down on the leaves and makes them perspire. [Margaret: a poet in the making…]

Q. What causes the tides in the oceans? A. The tides are a fight between the earth and the moon. All water tends to flow towards the moon, because there is no water on the moon, and nature abhors a vacuum. I forget where the sun joins the fight. [Margaret: I hear ya. I’m quite lost, too, at this point…]

Q. What guarantees may a mortgage company insist on? A. If you are buying a house they will insist that you are well endowed.

Q. In a democratic society, how important are elections? A. Very important. Sex can only happen when a male gets an election.

 Q. What are steroids? A. Things for keeping carpets still on the stairs.

Q. What happens to your body as you age? A. When you get old, so do your bowels and you get intercontinental. [Margaret: I can’t wait!]

Q. Name a major disease associated with cigarettes. A. Premature death.

Q. How can you delay milk turning sour? A. Keep it in the cow. [Margaret: brilliant…I hope this kid got some extra points.]

Q. How are the main 20 parts of the body categorised (e.g., the abdomen)? A. The body is consisted into 3 parts – the brainium, the borax and the abdominal cavity. The brainium contains the brain, the borax contains the heart and lungs and the abdominal cavity contains the five bowels: A, E, I, O and U. [Margaret: ok, I’d like to know what happened to the other 17 parts…]

Q. What is the fibula? A. A small lie. [Margaret: teehee 1.]

Q. What does ‘varicose’ mean? A. Nearby. [Margaret: teehee 2.]

Q. What is the most common form of birth control? A. Most people prevent contraception by wearing a condominium.

Q. Give the meaning of the term ‘Caesarean section’? A. The caesarean section is a district in Rome. [Margaret: next time I go to Rome, I must check that out.]

Q. What is a seizure? A. A Roman Emperor. (Julius Seizure, I came, I saw, I had a fit). [Margaret: so did I, by the time I’d finished reading this list…]

Q. What is a terminal illness? A. When you are sick at the airport. [Margaret: extra points for this answer!]

Q. Use the word ‘judicious’ in a sentence to show you understand its meaning. A. Hands that are judicious can be soft as your face.

Q. What does the word ‘benign’ mean? A. Benign is what you will be after you be eight.

At the end of June my gynaecologist told me that I should have a mammogram. I couldn’t and can’t remember the last time I had one (=another one of those “fun fun fun…NOT!” tests…). It could have been when I was in grad school, or, more likely, when Stefano and I were considering enlarging our family, which didn’t happen the way we had hoped (for reasons that should be rather obvious)…but, in the end, did happen. We now share our lives with 4 small furry loving funny bundles of joy. This morning the happy bundles were all snuggled together on my side of our unmade (sorry about that!) bed, as you can see.

At any rate, I tried to make an appointment for a mammogram in July but was told to call back in the fall. I have been busy, though, and, well, just haven’t gotten around to it.

Then this morning I happened to read an October 20th New York Times article…an interview with Dr. Otis Brawley, chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society, which I think everyone should read. No need for an introduction: http://tinyurl.com/yaaqka7.

Oh boy…well…uhm…well, uhm, as we say in Italian, non ho parole. I am at a loss for words.

I saw my haematologist today. The gist: I am as stable as a mountain. And yes, she confirmed that my numbers have improved compared to May 2009, except for the B2M, which will have to be monitored, she said. Apart from that, though, she was very pleased, and told me that we don’t need to meet again for another 6-8 months (I will, of course, send her the results of any blood tests).

As always, she was simply amazed that I haven’t had any infections (I haven’t!) and agreed with me that this is probably thanks to curcumin. She added that her main concern are my low IgM and IgA levels. Well, heck, they concern me, too, but it is also true that those two numbers have not changed for a long time now. She said that it might be a good idea to check my T-cell levels and added that particular test to my regular set. Interesting…

I brought up the issue of having another bone marrow biopsy, or BMB. As much as I hate BMBs, I haven’t had one in almost two years now, and the still-high percentage of neoplastic cells in my bone marrow is THE ONLY reason I am stuck in the SMM category. Every other marker is MGUS. My haematologist remarked that she doesn’t expect huge changes in my BM, but that it might be a good idea to have another peek. She gave me the name of a new BMB doctor who is reportedly even better than the one I had last time. That is a good thing to know for two main reasons: 1. patients here are not sedated; 2. my bones are as hard as granite. She didn’t think that a BMB was absolutely necessary and left it up to me to decide whether or not to have it. I am thinking about it…but my hip bone is already moaning and groaning,”Noooo, don’t do it!!!”

Change of subject. If you have been following my blog since last July, you know that Stefano (my husband) and I are absolutely mad about puffins (see: http://tinyurl.com/pcgnft). For new readers: in July, we spent one night on Skomer Island (see above link) and, in spite of the horrid rainy chilly weather that soaked and froze us to the bones, we fell completely in love with the place, so much so that we decided to go back in 2010, too. But by the time we called the Welsh Wildlife Centre (last month), much to our chagrin the island was already fully booked for the “puffin” season.

Horrendously disappointed, we started considering other options for our 2010 puffin trip…but I had the idea of asking to be put on a Skomer waiting list…well, what a brilliant idea that turned out to be…

When I got home from Careggi university hospital today, I found an e-mail from the Welsh Wildlife Centre. There had been a cancellation for a twin room on Skomer Island in early July…! I immediately got in touch with Stefano at work, and, well, we booked that twin room on Skomer Island without even looking at flights to the UK, etc. As I told the contact person at the Wildlife Centre: “if necessary, we will walk to Skomer!” Hardiharhar.

This year we will be staying two whole nights on the island, so we should have plenty of time to walk all the way around it and, I hope!, take at least 1,235,000 photos of our darling puffins…oh, and by then we should also be able to get a glimpse of a puffling (=a puffin chick)! I just hope the weather will take pity on us this time…

Well, this has turned out to be a brilliant day. 1. I got a good report from my hematologist, and 2. we are going to spend two nights on Skomer Island…yaaaaaay!!!

I wanted to publish my ruminations on the curcumin-esophageal study today, but my brain was completely fried by the time I got home from work, so I finally had to give up.

It seems that the more I do research for this post, the more I keep finding new things to look up, new studies, new words…how do I get myself into these messes? Oh whine whine whine, complain complain complain… 😉

Okay, there is only one solution. I need a “Far Side” break! This cartoon, from my own copy of Gary Larson’s “Wildlife Preserves,” is an old (an oldie but goodie!) favourite of mine and will do just the trick. I hope you enjoy it, too!

I am still reviewing my draft on the curcumin-esophageal study, which I hope to publish tomorrow. This morning I finally realized that I really needed a refresher on the complex process of mitosis, so I went online and found an incredibly easy-to-follow, less-than-13-minute explanation (in English) of the importance of mitosis in cancer. Two birds with one stone. In fact, three birds with one stone, since apoptosis is explained, too. Fantastico! Please have a look: http://tinyurl.com/ye8xdvy