CLL patients test arabinoxylan rice bran and curcumin

May 24, 2016 / Margaret / 16 Comments

Back in 2011 I wrote a brief post/page (if you use my Search box, you can find the page easily) about a study showing that a special type of rice bran (MGN-3/Biobran) combined with curcumin annihilated U266 myeloma cells.

This study was carried out on cells, though, not human beings.

But today, about five years later, we have the results of a small study carried out on 20 curcumin-taking human beings with stable, early-stage MGUS, SMM, and CLL (chronic lymphocytic leukemia).

And it’s a Terry Golombick (et al) study, to boot.

Here’s the link to the full study, which is available for free online (love that!): http://goo.gl/6n2X3U

The Golombick team tested Ribraxx, a combination of a rice bran and shiitake mushroom extract (too bad it isn’t chocolate with almonds!!!), together with a form of C3 Complex curcumin called Curcuforte (which I’d never heard of before…it’s made by an Australian company), on a group of 10 MGUS/SMM patients and 10 CLL patients.

At a certain point, they mention a previous study, which I missed (!) but will go read tomorrow, on 48 myeloma patients who took two grams of this Ribraxx per day. The results were: increased NK (natural killer) cell activity, increased levels of mDCs (myeloid dendritic cells) in the peripheral blood and of Th-1-related cytokines. Yes, definitely need to check this out…

But right now I have time only for the Golombick study. The MGUS/SMM/CLL patients took a daily dose of six grams of Curcuforte and two grams of Ribraxx, in divided doses.

The study monitored a whole bunch of markers, including CRP, FBC, paraprotein, ESR, B2M and so on. You can read about the markers on page 3, in the “Results” part. Just a few highlights:

8 out of 10 patients saw their neutrophil count increase. Five of them had been neuropenic when they began the study, so that is very good news for them.
Some of the patients experienced a reduction in their ESR; two of them had an 80% reduction…wowsie.

Personal note: throughout the years, my ESR levels have gone down substantially on curcumin alone. In spite of a bit of fluctuation, they have never returned to the high levels that I had back in 2005. Based on my most recent tests, in fact, my ESR levels are less than half (!) what they were in the pre-curcumin period…Not too shabby!

This reduction might be more important than I knew. On page 5 of the study, in fact, I discovered something that I did not know: “In multiple myeloma of the IgG and IgA subtypes, significant correlations have been found between ESR and the monoclonal proteins and between the ESR and percentage of plasma cells in bone marrow.” It might even be “an independent prognostic factor for survival in patients with MM.”

Ouch!

Now I’m even gladder that my ESR levels have decreased more than 50% compared to 2005…!!!

Well, I have to go off to have dinner now (first the cats, then us). But I didn’t want to wait until tomorrow to publish this post…so…here goes! I hope you enjoy this study! Ciao!

When it rains, it pours…

May 19, 2016 / Margaret / 14 Comments

Stefano and I returned to Italy a couple of days ago. Those ten days we spent in the U.S.A. might well have been the worst days of my life thus far…worse even than when I received my cancer diagnosis…I mean, it was simply awful awful awful, every day, every minute of every day…

The “good” thing is that Stefano and I did get to Cape Cod in time to say goodbye to Mom, and in fact she is still alive. But I don’t think she will last very much longer. She is amazingly weak…The nurse practitioner, whom Stefano and I went to see shortly after we arrived, told us that “there is no going back.”

She’s dying. She isn’t eating enough to keep herself alive…

The “funny” thing is that she is drinking colas (sweetened, carbonated soft drinks) every day. This started back in February, when she began experiencing a lot of nausea after her second hip operation. She now drinks two or three colas a day, at least. My mother wouldn’t have touched a cola with a ten-foot pole a few months ago. But now she finds them “refreshing.” Under other circumstances, that would have been very amusing…very amusing indeed.

She is also drinking small shakes containing Ensure (yes, yes, yes, I know that this stuff is crap, mainly water and sweeteners and chemicals…But she likes the taste, so…whatever…).

The entire time I was there, the only solid food I saw her eat was a small slice of quiche…oh and a tiny bowl of jello. She waves food away. She doesn’t want any. My sister has tried bringing her all sorts of goodies. Nothing has worked.

And now it’s too late.

Stefano and I went to say our final goodbye to Mom on Monday morning, before leaving for Boston Logan airport. She was turned on her side, fast asleep.

I began saying, more loudly each time, “Mom…Mooom…MOM…MOOOOOM!!!!!,” but she didn’t wake up. I began gently shaking her shoulder, then a bit more forcefully, still calling her. No reaction. The thought that she might have slipped into a coma crossed my mind, so I ran to the nurses’ station for help. A nurse rushed in and did what I had done, talking to Mom and shaking her shoulder.

Mom finally opened her eyes. And so we had a little more time together. I pretended to have an allergy when I felt tears welling up in my eyes as I told her that we are all okay (and similar “goodbye” sentences)…But she seemed not to notice…The tiny little creature in that bed really isn’t my Mom anymore…

Later on that day, I thought that going into a coma wouldn’t be such a bad way to go. No pain, just…sleep. I hope that will be the way she will slip away from us…

But let’s get to the title of my post. When it rains, it pours.

Exactly a week ago, on Thursday evening, my Dad said he didn’t feel too well and wanted to go to bed before dinner. My sister and I tucked him in, and he reassured us that he would be okay. After dinner, I went upstairs to check on him, and he looked and felt awful. He had a fit of the chills, so I took his temperature, which turned out to be rather high. I went downstairs to tell my sister and get him a glass of water and some Tylenol. The two of us decided to take him to see the doctor in the morning if he wasn’t feeling much better.

When I got back upstairs, I saw Dad staggering toward the bathroom, moaning and groaning, all bent over. I rushed to him and grabbed him just in time, before he fell down, I mean. He’s a tall guy, too heavy for me, so I yelled for help. Stefano and my nephew came running and gently lowered Dad to the bathroom floor. My sister called an ambulance, while I asked Dad some questions to make sure he hadn’t suffered a stroke. He was a bit confused but answered the basic questions…

The long and short of it is that Dad spent three days in the hospital. Diagnosis: pneumonia. He is now out of the hospital and, get this!, he is in the same clinic where Mom is, except Dad is in the rehab part…

So right now, Mom and Dad are under the same roof, and he can visit her for longer periods of time. That is not a bad thing, all things considered. They have been happily married for 61 years…

It was hard for me to get on that plane bound for Italy on Monday. I broke down at the airport when I realized that I probably won’t see my Mom alive again. But Stefano and I had to get home. And it’s just as well we did…

My cat sitter called us as soon as we landed to let me know that she’d found quite a bit of blood on the bathroom floor the previous evening. She had examined all the cats but hadn’t been able to figure out which one had been bleeding…

So Stefano and I went looking for Puzzola, our eldest cat, the only one who hadn’t greeted us at the door. We finally found her all scrunched up a corner of the bathroom. She wasn’t moving, and she didn’t react to our calling her name and petting her. When we spotted the blood underneath her, we rushed her immediately to the vet clinic.

Thank goodness it turned out not to be a hemorrhage of any sort but “only” a very bad bladder infection. So now she is on antibiotics…and she is going to be fine.

Welcome home.

P.S. Incidentally, Priscilla, the cat who had convulsions before we left for the U.S.A., is fine. The vets couldn’t find anything wrong with her…nothing in her X-rays or in her blood tests. We’ll just keep a close eye on her and hope it was a one-time, weird thingy.

Margaret's Corner

Month: May 2016