I receive all sorts of daily alerts and newsletters. Frequently I am simply overwhelmed with too much information and don’t have the time, unfortunately, to examine it all. Including, I regret to say, some of my blog readers’ links. Well, I do my best! If only I could teach my cats to use Internet…!

Anyway, yesterday was the birthday of Florence’s patron saint, St. John the Baptist, so I didn’t go to work (in fact, the company was closed on Monday as well, which made this a four-day holiday, hurray). Since Florence is one of the hottest cities in Italy this week (yesterday we had a Stage 3 heat wave alert, and I think we are still in the red zone today…feels like it, at any rate!), I was happy to stay inside under my ceiling fan and do some catching up, reading and writing. So glad I am NOT a tourist in Florence today…

Curcumin, obesity and diabetes. One of the items I read was a Eureka alert (http://tinyurl.com/4qzjre) on curcumin and diabetes. A group of Columbia University Medical Center scientists lead by Dr. Drew Tortoriello, an endocrinologist, discovered that turmeric-treated mice were less susceptible to developing Type 2 diabetes, based on their blood glucose levels, and glucose and insulin tolerance tests. They also discovered that turmeric-fed obese mice showed significantly reduced inflammation in fat tissue and liver compared to controls. They speculate that curcumin, the anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant ingredient in turmeric, lessens insulin resistance and prevents Type 2 diabetes in these mouse models by dampening the inflammatory response provoked by obesity. I am now curious to read their results, to be published soon in “Endocrinology.”

Very interesting topic. My glucose levels are perfect, but they have always been within the normal range, so I can’t say that I have noticed a huge difference. Yes, a bit lower compared to before, but I doubt there is much statistical significance.

And the link between inflammation and obesity is also interesting: Curcumin administration was also associated with a small but significant decline in body weight and fat content, despite level or higher calorie consumption, suggesting that curcumin beneficially influences body composition.

I am going to try to keep an eye on the work of these scientists because they are exploring novel methods of curcumin administration to increase its absorption, and are also interested in identifying novel anti-inflammatory processes invoked by curcumin and in adapting those processes in the development of more potent curcumin analogues. Yeah!

Drink coffee! Another item of interest to those of us, especially women!, who drink coffee is that apparently we will live longer. Have a look at this HealthDay article: http://tinyurl.com/3kojwq Okay, you may well object that this holds true probably only for healthy folks since all the Spanish study participants were free of heart disease and cancer, but hey, every little bit counts. And besides, I will never tire of repeating this!, caffeine inhibits angiogenesis, an important tumour-feeding process.

Another bit of recent research shows that drinking coffee lowers your risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

Okay, so myeloma may kill me in the end, but these studies indicate that thanks to my coffee and curcumin intake I will die without a trace of diabetes and probably with a healthy heart. Small consolation, perhaps…but after all, chi s’accontenta, gode (I found a not-very-good English translation of that Italian saying: there’s no point in complaining…). Eh!