Holiday time!!!

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Stefano and I, and two of our best friends, are leaving tomorrow for the UK. We’re mainly going to visit Cornwall, but also parts of Devon, Somerset and an itty-bitty sliver of the Jurassic coast (I want to come home with a fossil! ;)).

I’ll be checking my e-mail and blog today…but for the next two weeks I doubt I’ll be able to get online much, perhaps not at all. We’re not taking a laptop with us this time…However, if we stay in a place that has a computer, I might just sneak a peek, hehe…

I’m not leaving, however, without publishing a few links that should give us some food for thought…

Here’s an interesting article on statins: http://goo.gl/5mf9u. I’ve never taken any, but a couple of members of my family have, luckily not for long. I thought this sentence was of particular interest: “Several lifestyle factors also play a role in a healthy heart. Exercise regularly. Stop smoking. Spend time with supportive family and friends. That includes your animal friends too — a study showed that owning a cat is almost 25 times more effective in lowering the risk of dying from heart disease than taking a statin!” (Click on the “a study” link to read the “cat” article). So, OWNING A CAT REDUCES ONE’S RISK OF DEVELOPING HEART DISEASE, huh? Hmmm, let’s see…since I have FIVE cats, does that lower my heart disease risk by 125%???? 😉 

Next item. This one’s scary, reaaaaaaaaally scary, but please pay attention, especially if you take supplements of any sort. Dick (no comment…) Durbin, a U.S. senator from Illinois, has recently introduced a super sneaky bill that would crack down on the testing, labeling, and sale of dietary supplements nationwide. See: http://goo.gl/UXEzU. Now, as you know, I’m all in favour of testing and whatnot. However, this bill smells a lot like a disgustingly rotten pile of anchovies to me. It looks like the big drug companies are trying to get rid of our relatively cheap supplements so that they can take over the market with their own, more expensive & probably less effective stuff. Okay, I’m worried, I must admit, since I buy all of my curcumin in the U.S., then bring it (or have it brought) over to Italy. The Alliance for Natural Health has created an Action Alert that you can sign (easy peasy), see here: http://goo.gl/UkYOw Please please please contact your senator/s about this squeaky sneaky bill!!!

And finally, here’s a Myeloma Beacon article on myeloma and fatigue: http://goo.gl/cL1Vt 

Soooo, I hope everyone has a wonderful August…and…I’ll see you here in two weeks (if not sooner…yeah, probably sooner…)! Ciao! 🙂

6 Comments

  1. Margaret, Buone Vacanzeeeee! divertitevi e rilassatevi 😉 E’ un po’ che non ci sentiamo, quando torno dalle vacanze, ti racconto…comunque sto bene e sono sempre stabile :-)))
    Un grande abbraccio
    Doriana

    Reply

  2. Hi Margaret – If you have a spare day when you’re near Dartmouth, on Devon’s south coast, do ring us at 01803 782 205. We’d love to show you around – a trip up the river Dart to Totnes, lunch at the White Hart pub at Dartington Hall (11th century great hall, all this week hosting the Summer School music festival).
    We’re in Stoke Gabriel, a village on the Dart – have lunch with us!
    Whatever.
    Best regards,
    John Williams

    Reply

  3. Hi, Margaret

    I found your blog when searching for information on curcumin and cancer. My mom and I started taking curcumin when her mom, my grandma, was diagnosed with dementia, based on some reports that turmeric/curcumin might be able to stave it off. I was also interested in the cancer connection, as my dad and paternal grandma both died of colon cancer.

    My mom was diagnosed in 6/2008 with stage 3 melanoma, which progressed atypically slowly until she was advised to stop taking all antioxidant supplements (specifically, stop taking the curcumin and washing it down with mixed vegetable/fruit juice every day) and start chemo. She progressed rapidly at that point. I know she might have been at a tipping point anyway, but I have continued to suspect that totally giving up on the alternatives of curcumin and extra fruit/vegetable servings contributed to her decline.

    Reading your blog and the research you dig up, while specifically aimed at your MM diagnosis, reinforces my interest in curcumin and evidence-based alternative treatments for cancer.

    From my reading here, I see there is a bone-weakening component to MM. I have been diagnosed with osteopinia, and started looking for an alternative to bisphosphonate therapy. Lately I have been seeing info on strontium citrate helping to strengthen bones. Have you found any research that backs that up?

    Thanks for your efforts, and here’s wishing you a long, progression-free life!

    Catherine

    Reply

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