A few days ago, Dr. Terry Golombick of the Department of Endocrinology, St George Hospital, Sydney, Australia, sent me the link ( http://bit.ly/2VwqWf1 ) to her team’s most recent clinical case report, in which they tested curcumin on myeloma patients who were no longer able to tolerate the prolonged use of dexamethasone due to its adverse side effects, such as “fatigue, weight gain, fluid retention, poor impact on mental health, osteoporosis and hyperglycemia, or poor diabetic control.”
This new study selected 15 patients, ranging in age from 57 to 86, who were either taking immunomodulatory drugs (IMiDs) or proteasome inhibitors (PIs) in addition to the dexamethasone. They replaced Dex with a daily dose of 3-4 grams of curcumin (about half of what I take, btw).
Of the 15, three died during the study period…not because of the curcumin, obviously, but because they weren’t doing very well, unfortunately (you can read the details in the paragraph located above “4. Discussion and Conclusion”).
The other 12 patients, however, are stable and doing well, in spite of the fact that some have high-risk cytogenetic and FISH abnormalities.
The combination of curcumin and the other conventional drugs reduced their paraprotein levels by 38%, and plasmacytosis by 59%. How about that?
Anyway, it’s not a difficult read, methinks, so please have a look at the above link…
Thank you, Dr. Golombick! I am so grateful to you and your team for all your tireless work. You give us hope!!! :-) Thank You Thank You Thank You!!!
We need MORE studies like this one! Not 10 years from now…but…NOW!!!!!!!!!!
Great news, we need to fight with food plants and herbs, they work
Dear Margaret: So glad we heard from you and extend our sincere sympathy to your husband and you. Of course I have followed the corona events in Europe. My brother lives in Graz Austria, age 91, and I am concerned. So far he is unaffected, but the grocery has run out of noodles, people are stockpiling….Thank you for the exiting study on curcumin, well you have always kept us informed and I am so grateful. Please take care, get enough rest, stay away from people, and take your vits. Beatrice
Great news. Thank you for posting this.
Hope your life is turning onto a positive path, you’ve had enough sadness lately.
Susie
hi Margaret – just thought of you and how you are doing in light of how COVID 19 has really done damage in Italy – I am glad you are doing well – I too am dong great – COVID is slowly moving around here and the gov has taken measures – schools are closing today for 3 weeks in Ontario – pools, rec centers too – and people are advised to avoid crowds – people are also stockpiling here – especially toilet paper – for some reason – take care – stay safe
Thank you for publicising this curcumin study Margaret. It seems really interesting on lots of levels. Obviously one is that curcumin may be an effective alternative to the dreaded Dex, hated by most myeloma patients (although it didn’t have negative effects on me personally).
Secondly 80% of this cohort of patients were still alive at the end of this study. I couldn’t see how long the study lasted exactly, but it must have been 8 years plus for the average time on curcumin to have been over 6 years. An overall survival of 80% amongst this “older” group of patients seems significant, given OS figures are usually quoted as around 5 years now, ie I would have expected at least 50% to have died.
Thirdly some of the patients dipped in AND OUT of having high risk markers. Really? This is astounding to me, I thought we were on a one way track, with our myelomas mutating into chromosomal aberrations which current treatments cannot deal with….
I hope these researchers are going to continue their work, and others will pick up on the further questions the results raise.
In the meantime keep safe everyone, from my lonely isolation in rural Suffolk, UK (only in not that lonely as I’ve got canine company)