A team of Chinese researchers recently designed and tested a series of hybrid molecules based on the structures of thalidomide and curcumin, discovering that two of them killed myeloma cells. The two hybrids turned out to be significantly stronger than either compound on its own…

Here is the link to the abstract: http://goo.gl/uagWw If you register to the website, you will be able to download and read the entire study for free. I registered, of course, but in so doing I agreed not to use any of the copyrighted material in public, so I cannot and will not comment on the full text here.

For those who don’t want to bother registering, here’s a very brief, easy-to-understand description of the study, including a few interesting comments: http://goo.gl/QAQwN

As I’ve been writing for years now (here on the blog), I’m absolutely 100% convinced that THE ONLY WAY we’re going to find a CURE for myeloma (and other cancers, too) is to COMBINE toxic, conventional drugs with non-toxic, “non-conventional” substances. Conventional stuff alone is simply not going to work…yes, sure, it may work for a while, perhaps even a long while in a few happy cases, but in the long run it will fail, when the myeloma cells become resistant…

But by now, hundreds of scientific studies have shown that curcumin can boost the anti-myeloma properties of the toxic drugs, while protecting our healthy cells.  Yet some doctors still roll their eyes at the mere mention of the word “curcumin.” And then they bring up the lack of clinical trials.

Ah yes. Clinical trials. I don’t have much faith in them…not anymore. Why? Well, let’s see, my disenchantment with clinical trial results officially began after I watched Dr. Ben Goldacre’s TED talk on so-called “evidence-based medicine” (see my March 11 2013 post, or just click here: http://goo.gl/mshuh. After about 10 minutes, he mentions Tamiflu, by the way…oooh I am so glad I never took that stuff!).

Shocking. Absolutely shocking. Missing data, careful selection of patients so as to obtain a favorable trial outcome, big pharma-sponsored trials that are more likely to report flattering results compared to independently-funded trials, data that is systematically withheld from doctors and patients, etc. Believe me…it’s a long list!

If you have a bit of time, I urge you to read the excerpts of Dr. Goldacre’s book (titled “Bad Pharma: How Drug Companies Mislead Doctors and Harm Patients”) published in the Scientific American in February of this year: http://goo.gl/2pOEj

Depressing, huh? Well, no, not necessarily. There are a few things we can do to change this situation…

First and foremost, we can put pressure on our doctors, showing them our research (or mine!), telling them that we are taking some scientifically-backed, non-toxic supplements, etc. 

And we can also put pressure on our myeloma organizations, demanding that they STOP being so heavily and openly (= simply unacceptable!!!) involved and endorsed by the greedy pharmaceutical industry and that they begin funding promising, anti-myeloma, “alternative”, non-toxic substance-testing projects…Terry Golombick’s work in Australia, for example! 

Actually, what I just wrote, the part about big pharma, made the following scenario/question pop into my mind (hey, it’s all the fault of our recent trip to Skokholm Island 😉 ): how many chances does a puffin chick have of surviving when it tries to leave its burrow that is being patrolled by a hungry herring gull (= big pharma)? Not many, that’s for sure. But that doesn’t prevent the chick from trying, right? 

Well, we don’t want to be stuck in our myeloma burrows forever, do we? 

No, we don’t. And that is why we MUST raise our voices. Actually, this (= the voice-raising, that is) has been going on for quite some time. For years, in fact, I have been receiving reports (just this morning I got another one, a positive report, yaaay!) of blog readers talking to their doctors about curcumin, giving them links to the curcumin-myeloma studies…and receiving favorable feedback…

It’s a start…

Yes, a good start. 🙂

Okay, enough. And now, for a bit of comic relief, here are a few excerpts from a sad cat’s video-diary that I watched this morning (a few of these made me laugh out loud…): http://goo.gl/egTK5