I am proud to announce that an “old time” blog reader/Facebook friend of mine is one of the lead authors–a group of Harvard and MIT neuroscientists–on an incredibly fascinating, newly published study on how meditation can help relieve pain, especially the distress associated with chronic pain. This study proves that we can all benefit from meditation. Here is the link to a recent Fox25 (Boston) interview that can help us get started: http://goo.gl/KaqtL

And here’s the link to the study abstract: http://goo.gl/C6u4W. For an easier-to-read summary (Science Daily), click here: http://goo.gl/xDyak Good stuff!!!

Speaking of blog readers…this evening a close friend, whom I met a few years ago through my blog (fabulous!), is arriving from the UK with his wife and son. We first met them last summer, on our way to see the puffins on Skomer Island in Wales. They are absolutely lovely people…so Stefano and I are really looking forward to seeing them and are planning lots of fun things…trips around Florence and Tuscany…

They will be spending a week with us, so I expect I will be taking lots of photos. Be prepared! 😉

Yesterday, =  our 12th wedding anniversary, Stefano and I got up at 5:40 AM (zzzzzz) in order to be at the WWF Oasis of Gabbianello, near Barberino di Mugello, by 7:30 (zzzzz). Actually, we are both early risers…but on the weekend we like to stay in bed a little longer than 5:40 AM (zzzzz)!

The Gabbianello oasis opens early for groups of at least five people every second Sunday of the month (it normally opens at 10 AM on Sat and Sun). Yesterday happened to be the second Sunday of the month, so we were able to join up with a group of five others…A few more people arrived later on, but there was never a crowd, which was nice.

The lake was full of birds, mostly common birds that we have seen over and over again (but then, the migratory birds have already…migrated, so that is not surprising)…I still love to watch and photograph even the common ones.

The best scene we saw yesterday morning was of a couple of great-crested grebes courting each other…Lots of head shaking and crest puffing and turning heads to the left, then to the right, in a ritualistic manner. Fun to watch, and so very elegant…

We saw our friend the purple heron again, but he (she?) stayed put on a small grassy island in the middle of the lake and didn’t come very close to us, as you can tell by the rather fuzzy photo. The wild swans are always fun to watch…And there were heaps of other birds—little grebes, overactive coots chasing each other with lots of splashing and shenanigans (hey, we also saw a couple of coot babies…fluffy little cuties!), ducks of all sorts (also with babies), egrets, grey and white herons, one squacco heron, one least bittern and one cattle egret…oh, and a small hawk, perhaps a falcon (we don’t do as well with our birds of prey, I admit!), hunting in a nearby field…

Stefano also got some great shots of an inquisitive, completely unruffled hare munching on a flower that looks as though it is going right up its nose…so CUTE. Stefano’s photos came out much better than mine, of course. But I want to post my own photos on the blog…so there! 🙂

We made a couple of friends at the oasis. One was a guy we’d seen there before. Like us, he is an amateur photographer (nice camera, though…So he and Stefano spent some time discussing this or that photographic technique, zzzboringzzz as far as I am concerned…), but he could identify more birds than we could, so that was helpful. He was the one who told us, when all we saw was a blur, “Hey, a thick-throated paparazzi just flew by!” 😉 Well, after all, he has been birdwatching for the past 20 years!

We also ran into a young couple who took a lot of photos but really complained (a lot…) about having gotten up early in the morning just to see some ducks, blablabla (“hey,” I wanted to say to them, “not true…what about the purple heron???”). They left early, disappointed. Silly things. What were they expecting to see? Puffins? Eagles? Penguins? A Himalayan quail? Humph!

There were also two other guys who just sat and sat and sat inside ONE hut (whereas we and the others walked around the lake, trying out other huts and viewpoints) and took photos of everything with their big cameras and big lenses. I say this with a bit of envy, since, as luck would have it, the squacco heron landed on a branch right in front of their hut, and they had plenty of time to take about 40 photos of it. And these were perfect photos, I have to say. When Stefano walked into the hut later that morning, they asked him if he could identify that bird. They didn’t even know what they’d photographed. We were both much amused, especially since the two of us still can’t distinguish a pigeon from a hawk (well, ok, slight exaggeration, there!), so we are happy to run into folks who are worse off than we are! 😉

As the morning hours passed, and it got hotter, the birds began being less active. Some disappeared…probably off to take well-deserved naps. We were the last humans to leave the oasis. As planned, we had lunch in the restaurant I’d found the day before…about a two-minute drive from the oasis. What a lovely place it turned out to be…

We had a fabbbbbbbulous meal. Everything was just purrrrrrfect, from start to finish. Stefano had crostini (a classic Tuscan chicken liver pâté spread on toasted Tuscan bread…Tuscan Tuscan Tuscan! 🙂 ), and we both shared some fried veggies, which we never have, but hey, this was our anniversary! Then we both had “tortelli mugellani,” which are mainly-potato-filled pasta with meat sauce. Yummy. I was stuffed by then, but Stefano had room for a “tagliata,” which is grilled, then sliced (need I say “Tuscan”? 🙂 ) Tuscan meat, served with beans, Tuscan style…

As we getting ready to leave, our waiter showed up at our table, holding a tray with two champagne flutes and a dish of yummy (Tuscan, what else? Hehe…) sweets. He handed us the flutes and said, solemnly: “You must make a toast on your anniversary! Auguriiiiii!” (Auguri is an expression of goodwill that means “best wishes.”)

So Stefano and I sat back down and made a toast to at least (AT LEAST!!!) another 12 happy years together… 😀

Those few sips of champagne put a lovely finishing touch on one of our best anniversaries ever…

Just can’t seem to be serious today. Well, after all, it’s the WEEKEND! 😀 And I am sooo excited about tomorrow…

Tomorrow morning Stefano and I are getting up at the crack of dawn in order to be at the “Gabbianello” WWF oasis by 7:30. That is how we both want to celebrate our 12th wedding anniversary–two amateur bird watchers going birdwatching (last week we caught a glimpse of a Squacco heron…hope to get a photo of it tomorrow…)! If we can tear ourselves away in time, we are going out for lunch in a lovely romantic place (conveniently located near the oasis, inside a restored 17th century barn surrounded by a park..Living in Italy does have many perks! 😉 ) that serves glorious, traditional Tuscan fare. Big day, tomorrow!

Anyway, since today is laugh-a-lot day, here are the links to a couple of the videos that have made me chuckle/smile/laugh out loud in the past couple of days:

• Cat and the tap (translation): http://goo.gl/o99r6
• Ultimate dog tease: http://goo.gl/ZjiEi 

Have a laughing weekend, everyone! 🙂

I’m in a super hurry today, but I wanted to share this Science Daily article with you, since I think it has some VERRRRRRY important information in it: http://goo.gl/6bjne

An excerpt: “Bisphosphonates […] disrupt normal bone remodeling by shutting down the osteoclasts — the cells that break down old bone to make new bone. When that happens, new bone is built on top of old bone. Yes, your bone density is higher, but the bone’s not always structurally sound”…

Well, I didn’t know that…but it certainly explains lots of things…

Okay, need to dash off now…Ciao!

I really have no clear idea as to what a “webinar” is, but here goes anyway: on Tuesday, May 17, between 1 and 2:30 PM (EDT), the National Cancer Institute will be hosting a webinar (?) titled: “Is Curcumin the Spice of Life? A Look at Cancer Prevention Evidence.” One of the presenters is Prof. Bharat Aggarwal, a name that should be very familiar to most of us by now.

You can read a bit more about it and register here: http://goo.gl/iHG93 By the way, if anyone knows how webinars work…for example, if you have to pay to attend and so on, I wouldn’t mind learning something new…Thanks! 🙂

(Sometimes I feel a bit like a dinosaur… 😉 ).

I decided to go ahead and finish Part 2 of my vaccination post even though I didn’t get any feedback on Part I (April 21^st post), which, I confess, led me to think there might be no interest in the subject of myeloma vaccinations…Well, no matter, it is a subject of interest to me, and this is my blog 🙂 , so here goes… 😉

Reading on…the authors of this new study (http://goo.gl/KHCQh) raise the question of long-term impact of vaccinations = a big unknown. After 12 months, five out of nine patients still had stable M-protein levels. Three of these patients, however, had had local radiation for a lesion 6 to 7 months before the vaccination study began, which might (or might not…) have made a difference in terms of lingering effects. Incidentally, it turns out that the patient who progressed to stage III (mentioned in my April 21^st post) was one of those who had undergone “radiation”…

Another thing that turns up in the full study is that five of these patients (= more than half, that is) had received bisphosphonates. Not sure if that is relevant, but I understood that these patients were not supposed to have been previously treated… Now, aren’t bisphosphonates considered to be part of a conventional treatment strategy? Hmmm…I am a tad perplexed, here…

Well, let’s go to the Discussion part where the authors provide a list of earlier studies…Unfortunately, I didn’t and don’t have the time to check them all, but I would like to note that previous vaccination studies also involved stage I myeloma patients. What makes this January 2011 study different, the authors state, is the fact that it is the first DC-based Id vaccination (where DC stands for dendritic cell, Id for idiotype) tested on stage I patients who had not been previously treated…hmmm, with the exception of the three radiotherapy patients, I guess…

Point is, according to the authors, these stage I patients had less compromised immune systems compared to the advanced stage patients in previous vaccination trials.

Possible problem: apparently, the vaccinations stimulated an increase in the patients’ production of interleukin-10, or IL-10, which, even though it is a known anti-inflammatory cytokine, happens also to be a proven growth factor for myeloma cells (see http://goo.gl/jfZkT). Ehm, don’t really want that, do we? Authors of another vaccination study, published in 2007 (http://goo.gl/SaM1i), report that two out of ten patients had increased productions of IL-10 and TNF-alpha several months after being vaccinated…Well, this certainly doesn’t sound very encouraging, but I need to do more research on the Th1 and Th2 responses before I’m able to make any judgments/reach any conclusions…

Let’s see. A positive finding of the January 2011 study is that immune responses were detected in a few of the patients…

Wait a sec.

As I was writing the “positive finding” sentence and racking my brain to, er, find something, er, positive to say about immunotherapy and this new vaccine study, the only sentence that kept popping into my mind over and over again, as much as I tried to ignore it, is the following: HERE WE BLOODY GO AGAIN!

I may be wrong, terribly wrong, of course, and, whenever that happens, I am always ready to apologize publicly…but in this case my gut feeling, which has rarely led me astray, tells me that it’s wrong, just plain WRONG, to screw around with smoldering patients like this. (Don’t even get me started on that ongoing Spanish SMM-lenalidomide/dexamethasone trial…WHICH INFURIATES ME BEYOND BELIEF!!! Grrrrrrrrr…Oh, as if ONE such study weren’t enough!!!, a National Cancer Institute study is in the process of recruiting so-called high-risk SMM folks RIGHT NOW for a similar study to be held in the U.S. GOOD GRIEF!)

I personally would never participate in a vaccination study… not as long as I remain in the smoldering stage, that is…

There are simply too many unknowns, too many potential risks of making things worse…Even the authors admit that they don’t know what could happen to patients in the long-term…I am worried about them and can only hope that they remain healthy…

I would like to conclude with a link that a blog reader sent to me: http://goo.gl/7ExWQ Hah. It figures. Whenever the potential of making money enters the picture…big pharma* jumps on the bandwagon, ready to make a few million or billion bucks, give or take a few…GOOD GRIEF (again)!!!

*A related note: a Science Daily article (see http://goo.gl/U6RET) tells us that big pharma spends about twice as much on advertising than on research and development. We are talking billions of U.S. dollars, here. And that article was published three years ago. Quelle surprise…sigh…

I awoke to the news that OBL has been killed. It’s hard to concentrate on anything but the news today, especially since I’m really worried about possible reprisal attacks…Oh, how I hope I’m wrong!

But concentrate on an entirely different issue I must and will. Today, you see, may mark the beginning of a difficult period for those who buy their supplements in Europe. I am talking about the 2004/24/EC directive…the European Union directive that may ban, as my post title states, hundreds of herbal remedies…

I have actually known for quite some time about this ban…But I haven’t reported on it until now, mainly because the news is conflicting and confusing. In fact, to be super honest, after reading quite a lot about it in the past few days, I am still not sure WHAT exactly this ban is going to mean for the individual herbal extracts that many of us take.

So that is my first reason for writing this post: I hope to be illuminated” by some of you who understand/know about this issue more than I do…Thanks in advance! 🙂

My second reason is that I read that ashwagandha risks being banned. Whaaat??? Ashwagandhaaaaa? Why, if true, that would be absolutely ridiculous! On what grounds?

The same may also happen to boswellia, which is in my medicine cabinet right now, waiting for its turn to be tested, AND Scutellaria baicalensis (or Baikal skullcap), which I tried a few years ago…All these herbs have anti-MM effects…

My biggest fear: what is going to happen to curcumin? Thus far, I have not seen curcumin mentioned at all, which I hope is a good sign…

Before going on, let me state that I am always in favor of regulating stuff. I am verrrrrrry strongly opposed to the existence of snake oil sellers/practitioners/websites and so on. Yuck. I mean, if you really want to infuriate me, just direct me to one of those so-called “alternative” websites claiming that cancer can be cured with this or that “natural, non-toxic buy-it-right-here” substance (grrrr!!!). 👿 Hogwash!!!

AND I also agree, again very strongly, that herbal products should be checked for heavy metals, pesticides and other types of toxic craparola. I take/test these extracts myself, therefore obviously I don’t want to be swallowing something toxic…Concerning this last point, I would like to mention that serious, responsible herbal-selling companies already perform their own safety tests, and have very high standards. Perfect example: the Sabinsa Corporation, which makes C3 Complex curcumin and bioperine, has been awarded the Good Manufacturing Practice, or GMP, certification. Let’s also not forget that we have Consumer Lab and its periodic checks of supplements etc…

The directive was supposed to go into effect yesterday….so this morning, out of curiosity, I checked some UK websites and can confirm that they are still selling ashwagandha and curcumin. Hmmm. Well, all this hoopla brings me to an obvious question: since I buy almost all of my supplements in the U.S. and bring them back to Italy packed inside my suitcase, what is this directive going to mean for me? Am I going to get into trouble when I go through customs? Will I need to obtain a letter from my hematologist stating that I need to take these supplements? You can see why I have been postponing the writing of this post…Che confusione!!!

Oh, I just realized that I haven’t yet given you any links. Let’s see. For the brave folks among you, here is the text of the European directive, which turned my brain into porridge after I read the first paragraph: http://goo.gl/Y09TS or http://goo.gl/gQzBd (same thing, different format). As I mentioned, I didn’t find this text very helpful…too generic blablabla. Sigh. So I looked around for some reliable summaries and found a few interesting links, as follows:

According to a list of “frequently asked questions” compiled by the strongest opponents to this directive, = the Alliance for International Health or ANH-Intl, Italy will not adopt the directive to the letter of the law. Phew! This is not true, however, of other countries–the UK, Belgium, Germany and Sweden: http://goo.gl/q3VbF 

ANH-Intl also provides a list of substances that apparently are at risk of being banned: http://goo.gl/L8Qzw On the right-hand you will see the name of the Western herbs, which are perhaps more recognizable for us. Speaking of which, I don’t know about you, but I recognized only a few of the items on this list…bromelain, witch hazel, thyme. Speaking of bromelain, I guess my quercetin capsules are illegal now, since they contain some…Mamma mia…

On Wikipedia you can find a decent, easy-to-read summary of the directive…again, it’s a bit generic, but I suppose it is hard to be specific right now: http://goo.gl/sw7GA 

A couple of newspaper articles. Herald Scotland: http://goo.gl/m2moc and The Independent: http://goo.gl/BdofD 

Confused…AND concerned…