I just had a quick look and found the abstract to the clinical trial, so I thought I would post it immediately: http://tinyurl.com/26mjb7
I went to work today, then spent the afternoon working on one of my more complicated posts, which will be ready tomorrow (?).
As my boy Piccolo suggests in this photo, take it easy! Here he’s lying on Stefano’s pillow, by the way. 
I just read an amusing Science Daily article and decided to post the link. I am currently working on a couple of different, and very complex!, topics right now (not ready yet), so I needed a breath of fresh air. Science Daily provided just that! The article, titled "Aroma Of Chocolate Chip Cookies Prompts Splurging On Expensive Sweaters," can be read here: http://tinyurl.com/3bp5h6
An excerpt: "Exposure to something that whets the appetite, such as a picture of a mouthwatering dessert, can make a person more impulsive with unrelated purchases, finds a study from the February 2008 issue of the Journal of Consumer Research. For example, the researchers reveal in one experiment that the aroma of chocolate chip cookies can prompt women on a tight budget to splurge on a new item of clothing."
Hah, that explains a lot! So, from now on, if you enter an expensive clothing shop just to have a quick look around and smell the aroma of chocolate anything, exit immediately and run in the opposite direction! 
Thanks to an MMA list member (thanks!), I read this January 9 press release from the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center (http://tinyurl.com/3avj8s), which confirms what we have been suspecting for a while now, that is, until we get rid of the myeloma STEM cells we won’t get rid of myeloma. I have always thought of myeloma as a sort of big bothersome (to say the least!) weed. We can cut off parts of it, but it will always grow back. That is, until we pull it up by its roots, i.e., the cancerous stem cells.
Read here: “Scientists at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center say they have evidence that cancer stem cells for multiple myeloma share many properties with normal stem cells and have multiple ways of resisting chemotherapy and other treatments.” I will try to get my hands on the full study in the next couple of days. This should be a fascinating read.
The researchers transplanted stem cells from four myeloma patients into a bunch of mice that, poor dears, developed myeloma. But when they transplanted plasma cells into mice, they were not able to recreate the cancer. So the stem cells are the culprit, it would seem.
Another finding was that myeloma stem cells were not affected in the least by chemotherapy, which did instead inhibit the growth of myeloma plasma cells. The researchers may also have discovered what makes myeloma stem cells resistant to treatment. How about that? This is mind-boggling. I must write an e-mail to my study suppliers straight away!
Exciting times.
Intriguing title, eh? I don’t have time to write a proper post today, although I am working on a couple of different, rather complicated (!) items, but I did want to post about a recent Mayo Clinic report on the benefits of guided imagery. You can read about it here: http://tinyurl.com/ythf5x An excerpt, which is practically the whole thing!: “Aristotle and Hippocrates believed in the power of images in the brain to enliven the heart and body. Today, research shows they were right. Guided imagery is helping patients use the full range of the body’s healing capacity […]. Guided imagery is more than listening to relaxing sounds. It’s a learning process to listen to someone’s voice, relax the breathing and consciously direct the ability to imagine. The effect of guided vivid imagery sends a message to the emotional control center of the brain. From there, the message is passed along to the body’s endocrine, immune and autonomic nervous systems. These systems influence a wide range of bodily functions, including heart and breathing rates and blood pressure.”
Guided imagery apparently can reduce side effects from conventional cancer treatments, reduce fear and anxiety before surgery and help manage stress and headaches. I have never heard of this technique. Has anyone tried it?
Celiac disease sufferers, have a look at this: http://tinyurl.com/ysrtex An excerpt: “Researchers have discovered a new structure for a key enzyme associated with celiac disease, a finding that could lead to the design of new medications for the common digestive disorder.” Hah!
And finally, wine-drinkers will certainly be interested in this Science Daily report: http://tinyurl.com/yqfn6s Basically, specific polyphenols found in the waste products from winemaking (fermented seeds and skins, which normally get tossed) may prevent tooth decay and, even more importantly, lessen “the ability of bacteria to cause life-threatening, systemic infections”? Hmmm. How about that?
First, a blog notice: yesterday I sort of updated my "Curcumin in the News" and "Italian Curcumin References" links. My New Year’s Resolution number 2861 (!) is to keep these links a bit more updated, and the same goes for some of my more sadly neglected blog pages, such as the recipe one.
I was waiting to read the full MD Anderson report before discussing the curcumin-myeloma trial results here, but Chris’ comment on yesterday’s post, on top of all the private messages I have received to this regard, made me decide this morning to go ahead and write a post even though, I repeat, I don’t have ALL the facts and numbers. I will certainly have more to say on the topic as soon as I read the full study, which hasn’t been published yet. In the meantime, for what it’s worth, here goes!
Oh, before proceeding, though, I wanted to mention that you can view Prof. Aggarwal’s ASH presentation on the International Myeloma Foundation’s website: http://tinyurl.com/yw4m7y One important thing he points out is that, even when as little as TWO grams of curcumin were administered to some of the myeloma patients in the clinical trial, after four weeks a downregulation of the evil (I added the "evil" part) transcription factor NF-kappaB was observed. After 24 weeks, no NF-kappaB could be detected in some of these patients. Not even a glimpse. And they were taking only two grams. How about that?
Prof. Aggarwal also says that cancer treatment requires the inhibition of more than a single pathway, which makes curcumin an ideal agent since it inhibits several different pathways involved in cancer progression. A key sentence: “Although this study was very interesting and we did find the downregulation of various markers for cancer in MM pts, no objective responses were noted. So, in the future, I think that it would be interesting to combine curcumin with some of the existing treatments.”
A few introductory comments of my own: we know from the huge number of studies published on curcumin that this biologically active compound has extraordinary anticancer properties in vitro. Frequently, however, extraordinary properties do not work as well, or indeed at all!, when applied in vivo. It’s one thing to inject curcumin directly into some cancerous cell cultures, quite another for us to swallow a capsule or pill and hope that eventually our myeloma cells will be blasted by enough active curcumin. As we know, when taken orally, most of the swallowed curcumin gets transformed into (probably) less powerful, perhaps even useless metabolites (first-pass metabolism etc.). The issue of bioavailability pops up, again.
So the big question is: how do we get enough still-active curcumin delivered right smack into our cancerous cells? Eh. Still working on that!
ASH abstract. Thanks to the kindness of someone who sent me the abstract presented by the MD Anderson curcumin myeloma trial researchers at the American Society of Hematology (ASH) meeting held in December 2007, I was able to read some of the preliminary clinical trial data. Jan 15 UPDATE: here is the link to the abstract: http://tinyurl.com/26mjb7
The abstract tells us that the MD Anderson clinical trial (which is still recruiting patients, by the way) consisted of 29 myeloma patients with asymptomatic, relapsed/refractory, or plateau phase disease. They took curcumin capsules without bioperine, 2, 4, 6, 8, or 12 grams/day in two divided doses, OR curcumin capsules with bioperine, 10 grams, again twice a day. The abstract tells us that “At least 6 pts are enrolled at each dose level; 3 on the curcumin arm and 3 on the curcumin + bioperine arm.” Conclusions: “Of the 29 evaluable pts treated so far, no objective responses have been seen. Twelve pts continued treatment for more than 12 weeks and 5 (1 patient at 4 grams, 2 pts at 6 grams, and 2 pts at 8 grams dose levels) completed one year of treatment with stable disease.”
Key words: “stable disease.” These patients remained STABLE. My glass is half full, not half empty. Always.
Most of the people with whom I have corresponded privately have focused on the “disappointing” trial results, that is, not one of these myeloma patients experienced a decrease in her/his myeloma markers. But that is precisely what I expected since my own results from my capsule experiments have been similar. So I am not disappointed. Not at all. Sure, it would have been great to see a decrease at least in one patient since I (myself) did experience a fluky IgG decrease in September of 2006 that may or may not be ascribed to my curcumin capsules with bioperine intake (update: my parents pointed out to me that the way I worded this last sentence makes it seem as though my September 2006 IgG decrease has been my ONLY decrease to date. That is not the case, of course. I have experienced decreases while taking curcumin powder. So I thought I should clarify that I was referring to capsules here). I say "fluky" because at the time, pre-blog era, I wasn’t keeping good records on my intake, and when, months later, I repeated the capsule with bioperine experiment my results were stable, that is, there was no decrease. Hmmm.
Well, anyway, in my view, the following trial results are even more important than disease stability (which is important enough!): “Oral administration of curcumin significantly downregulated the constitutive activation of NF-kB (at 3 months a median reduction of 77%, p<0.0001) and STAT3 (69%, p<0.001), and suppressed COX2 (66%, p<0.0001) expression in most of the pts at each of the monthly time points.”
Check out those percentages! Accipicchia! Excellent! This means that curcumin is able to inhibit all the overly active transcription factors that make myeloma cells proliferate…and this happened IN VIVO! That is, in spite of its low oral bioavailability, curcumin was still able to inhibit these bothersome pathways in myeloma patients. In vitro translates to in vivo. That result is not at all disappointing but very very exciting. To me, at least. Oh, I can’t wait to read the full report.
Curcumin won’t cure myeloma (or perhaps it could, but it would have to be injected directly into each cell, I am afraid…), but if it can keep me and others, I hope!, stable or even decrease my/our counts until someone finds a way to exterminate the cancerous STEM cells (DMAPT trial, where art thou?), well, that’s fine by me. As Earl (Beth’s blog reader, see yesterday’s post) wisely declares, “always believe you can do it…if you think you can, you can…if you think you can’t, you can’t.”
I think I can.
Sherlock and I discovered that this morning we forgot to discuss the issue of taking fish oil or some sort of omega-3 capsules. Well, we have both decided to add (in my case) and keep taking (in her case) omega-3. I have opted for black cumin oil capsules (see my page on nigella sativa). The recommended dose is 1 to 2 grams per day. I will start with one gram later today.
Sherlock and I had our blood tests done today up at the main hospital in Florence, as usual. My cocoa mass/curcumin powder, Scutellaria baicalensis and Zyflamend experiment has officially ended. Funny thing is, I just realized that I am going to miss my powder concoction at the end of the day! Oh well. I get these test results back on January 31st, which is rather late, but that’s because I also got tested for celiac disease, a test that requires special consideration.
Today the BioCurcumax experiment officially begins. BioCurcumax is, allegedly, a more bioavailable form of curcumin manufactured by an Indian company called Arjuna (you can read a bit more about it on my Bioavailability page). It’s basically curcumin mixed with essential oil of turmeric (curcumin mixed with a fat). We shall see!
Anyway, this morning, in between dodging the coughs and sneezes of others while waiting to have our blood drawn, Sherlock and I discussed exactly HOW we would conduct this experiment. We decided the following: I will take it in two doses of 4 grams each, whereas she will take it in one big gulp. We decided it would be interesting to take it in different ways rather than the exact same way, which was our other option. We will continue to take quercetin, but I will switch to the capsule form.
Today we start with 4 grams of BioCurcumax. Tomorrow, 6 grams. On Thursday we will go up to the full 8-gram dose, which we will take until early March, then we will have blood tests repeated.
So, as things stand today, this will be my protocol for the next couple of months:
Quercetin capsules with bromelain: 1.5 grams, 10 minutes before taking curcumin.
BioCurcumax capsules: 8 grams, divided into two doses, on a empty stomach.
Vitamin D drops, cholecalciferol, oil-based preparation: 2500 IU per week.
Freshly ground flaxseeds added to my food.
A multivitamin on occasion, with mostly B vitamins.
As time goes on, I may make a few minor changes. If that happens, I will post about it here. The main difference between my intake and Sherlock’s is, as I mentioned, that she will take the daily dose all at once. She will also continue to take vitamin C, which I do not take except as part of an occasional multivitamin. That’s it, for now.
A good story. Beth told me about one her blog readers, Earl, who is treating his precancerous prostate condition with…well, go see for yourselves: http://tinyurl.com/3dfc8g My hat’s off to you, Earl!
I have ended my quick expedition into the realm of bioavailability, at least for now (little dance of joy!). Not the most exciting topic I have ever researched and discussed (I mean, even molecular science had much more appeal for me!), that’s for sure, but an important one right at the moment. Based on what we have learned and in spite of a bit of residual uncertainty, Sherlock and I have decided to go ahead and take the full eight grams of Biocurcumax. Right now, we are both on eight grams of C3 Complex—I am taking it via a cocoa mass/curcumin powder mixture and she is taking capsules with bioperine dissolved in hot milk, more or less.
The pharmacist in the town of Calenzano, near Florence, has made one-gram BioCurcumax capsules for us, which will make this experiment a lot easier. I mean, fewer capsules to swallow.
Interesting note: from what I have been reading lately and what a blog reader wrote to me in a recent exchange, if for instance you double the dose of a particular substance, that doesn’t necessarily mean that you will double its bioavailability. That is the reasoning that convinced us, or me at least, not to halve the dose of BioCurcumax in our upcoming experiment. I’m afraid that the chapter on bioavailability is only temporarily shut. I will have to come back to it. But for now, basta, enough, I’ve had it!
Anyway, tomorrow morning (early early early, in a vain attempt to beat the crowds now that we are right smack in the middle of the flu season!) Sherlock and I are meeting up at the hospital lab to have our tests done. Even though, unfortunately, there are so many factors involved in how our tests turn out, these tests should give me some preliminary results on the cocoa mass/curcumin concoction and Scutellaria baicalensis/Zyflamend. We shall see.
One of the classical music radio stations is broadcasting Bach’s Goldberg Variations, one of my favourite pieces of music. I am in music heaven right now! Ahhhh, che bellezza…
Last night I stuck the Xmas wand toy (that has a suction cap on one end and a dangling toy on the other) to our bedroom closet, and, as expected, Peekaboo put on quite a show, flying through the air, over and over again. I finally put the toy away so she wouldn’t die of exhaustion, but not before I had taken some very amusing photos.
I really should get a videocamera for these occasions! Photos give but a vague idea of how funny this kitten really is! But this particular jump, caught in the photo, gave me a belly laugh that lasted at least one minute, the kind that gives you a stomach pain. Too funny! So even though I am working on a post of a rather more serious nature this morning, I thought I would post this photo for everyone’s enjoyment.
If you have never seen documentaries on flying squirrels, have a look at a great photo on the Encyclopaedia Britannica website: http://tinyurl.com/yw84sq I wasn’t sure about copyright issues so I didn’t publish it here, but this link will take you right to the photo, which is almost identical to this one, I’d say. Impressive, no? Peekaboo, the flying squirrel/cat!
We had errands to run today so I didn’t have much time to do research. But I did want to write a quick post to let you all know that sometimes the very efficient anti-spam program here at Healthblogs blocks some of your comments, which are put into a special moderation "box." I then approve or delete the messages. Today, for instance, I had two such messages. I deleted one, which was clearly spam (nasty stuff!). The other was a blog reader’s comment, which of course I approved. So, if your comments don’t appear immediately on my blog, it could be because they were, for some reason, put into the moderation box. I apologize in advance for any inconvenience. But, to be honest, I would much rather have an overzealous anti-spam program than have to deal with already-published whacky (or worse!) spam comments on my posts. There is so much garbage out there on the Internet! Bleah. Anyway, enough said. 
This is a photo I took of Peekaboo on New Year’s Eve. She’d been playing for hours…and finally crashed on the couch. Such a party gal!