I thought “Caligula,” the beastly hot anticyclone hovering over Italy right now, was bad enough…but in a couple of days Italy (and part of Europe) is going to be hit by “Lucifer,” the biggest (3 million kilometers wide!!!) and baddest anticyclone of the summer…Yikes! 

Florence, of course, is one of the cities on HIGH red alert. Well, this will give me the purrrrfect reason to hide indoors and work on my translation (I have to translate an entire website from Italian to English)…Yep. I need to stop procrastinating…

Speaking of which 😉 , I have been reading/glancing through a lot of articles lately. Here’s a (partial) list: 

• “Curcumin, found in turmeric, stopped the potentially deadly Rift Valley Fever virus from multiplying in infected cells“: http://goo.gl/4WLnZ Incredible, huh? 
• Curcumin may protect us  from UVB-induced damage/skin cancer (well, it protects mice, anyway!): http://goo.gl/3XRyV (= open access study)
• Curcumin may help prevent Type 2 diabetes: http://goo.gl/sXK44
• Curcumin may also help repair spinal cord injuries (this is not the first article I’ve read on this topic…amazing to the point of unbelievable, but there you go, curcumin is unbelievable!): http://goo.gl/zuAJj
• New curcumin analog,UBS109, promotes bone health (more proof!): http://goo.gl/3bJXP

• New strategy to destroy multiple myeloma: http://goo.gl/4QlXd Curcumin, incidentally, inhibits CDK…like flavopiridol…Take a look at this study, e.g. http://goo.gl/dBcsW)
• Drinking alcohol increases bioavailability of drugs: http://goo.gl/7rS4N Hmmm…
• Check out what stress and depression can do to breast cancer patients (namely, check out the bone issues): http://goo.gl/8546y Possibly relevant for MM? I’d say so…
• The herpesvirus CMV, or cytomegalovirus, and the immune system: http://goo.gl/QZVjI
• Proof that cancer stem cells exist: http://goo.gl/vdlbV
• News like this makes it really hard to trust the results of any clinical trial sponsored by a big pharma company (that is, almost ALL of them, sigh): “According to the disclosed information, last year Eli Lilly paid out more than $200 million in payments to doctors and healthcare providers for promoting their drugs.” Read the article here: http://goo.gl/WVFvR I’m not surprised, actually…I taught English in two big pharma companies several years ago…and, believe me, these goings-on were no secret… 🙁
• And then there’s this…also very discouraging: http://goo.gl/YGts0 In a nutshell, 85 percent of researchers involved in promoting off-label drug use do not adequately disclose financial conflicts of interest in published articles. 85 PERCENT!!!!!
• Finally, just for fun!, an English grammar game: http://goo.gl/V3aH4 You’ll see my name on the board from time to time…I’m the “Margaret” from Italy…And yes, I’m totally HOOKED! 🙂 In fact, I’m going to play right now…ciao! 🙂