Think You Know Everything? Think Again!

January 3, 2008 / / 1 Comment

No time to do research today because I have a ton of errands to run. But I thought I would quickly post this list of “facts” sent to me by a friend, as I found some of them amusing. By the way, I don’t know if all of them are true (I did check out a few), but, really, it’s just for fun, so who cares? I added a few comments of my own in brackets. Here goes:

‘Stewardesses’ is the longest word typed with only the left hand and ‘lollipop’ is the longest word typed with the right hand. (I just read that there are other words, such as “tetrastearates,” “tesseradecades,” “aftercataracts” and “phyllophyllin.”)

No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver, or purple.

There are two words in the English language that have all five vowels in order: ‘abstemious’ and ‘facetious.’ (Actually, there are three words, and the third one is “arsenious”)

‘Typewriter” is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of the keyboard.

A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds. (That’s what mine is, too, at times!…okay, I just read that this statement is not entirely true, but I liked it so I left it in…)

A ‘jiffy’ is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second.

A snail can sleep for three years. (New Year’s resolution number one: appreciate the wisdom of snails…)

Almonds belong to the peach family.

An ostrich’s eye is bigger than its brain.

A crocodile cannot stick out its tongue. (This one could come in handy when you run out of things to say at a party…)

Leonardo Da Vinci invented the scissors.

Peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite. (New Year’s resolution number two: throw away the peanut butter…)

Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated.

The cruise liner, QE 2, moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel that it burns. (How about that for ecologically correct? Actually, I read that it can move 23 feet, oh boy, huge difference, there!

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The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.

Babies do not produce tears during their first month of life.

It’s impossible to sneeze with your eyes open. (Hmmm…I wonder…)

Your stomach has to produce a new layer of mucus every two weeks; otherwise it will digest itself. (I wanted to end this list with a good ‘n freaky one!

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General Bioavailability Issue

January 2, 2008 / / 1 Comment

As my good friend Sherlock and I are about to begin our BioCurcumax experiment (after we go to the hospital lab for blood tests next week), I am going to be spending a certain amount of time this week doing research on the general issue of bioavailability.

What follows is based mainly on info I gathered from various general websites. First of all, what does “bioavailability” mean, exactly? According to the Merck manual, “Bioavailability refers to the extent to and rate at which the active moiety (drug or metabolite) enters systemic circulation, thereby accessing the site of action.” It essentially refers to how much of an ingested substance ends up being absorbed by our bodies. This is of fundamental importance because substances with poor bioavailability will be of little or no use to us. We know that curcumin is poorly absorbed, so one of our aims should be to increase its bioavailability. I am a big fan, no, a HUGE fan of curcumin, perhaps the world’s biggest fan of curcumin (okay, I am getting carried away, eh)…in sum, I think it’s one of the best anti-cancer substances that I have read about so far, but I also realize that it won’t work well if not taken "properly." Speaking of which, it’s a shame we can’t take it intravenously! When a drug is administered intravenously, in fact, it is absorbed 100% because it does not pass through the stomach etc. Since Sherlock and I will be swallowing capsules of BioCurcumax, however, I have no interest in intravenous administration right now.

Let me proceed. As we have seen in previous posts, one reason for low bioavailability has to do with the first-pass metabolism (whereby a drug is metabolized before it reaches the bloodstream). The Merck manual tells us that “Low bioavailability is most common with oral dosage forms of poorly water-soluble, slowly absorbed drugs.” (for more info, see http://tinyurl.com/ywm4q8) In fact, curcumin, quercetin and parthenolide are not water-soluble (quick note: DMAPT, the leukemic stem cell killing parthenolide analogue, though, is water-soluble…).

There are many factors that influence how quickly and how well our bodies can absorb a substance. I found a good online reference titled “Basic Pharmacokinetics.” The chapter on bioavailability can be viewed here: http://tinyurl.com/yrn9hg Physical activity, age, biorhythm and emotional state, just to name a few items, can have an effect on bioavailability. And that explains why in vitro results do not always correspond to in vivo results. In fact, there is an entire section in "Basic Pharmacokinetics" that explains how this all works. Though interesting, it’s beyond the point of this post.

Another important factor is the “with or without food" one, which is a bit controversial as far as curcumin is concerned. I am on the side of the "empty stomach" takers, but some folks take curcumin with food for various reasons. And it’s also true that my current experiment is being conducted just before we go to bed, i.e., close to dinnertime, and at that time my stomach is not empty, since we tend to eat rather late in the evening in Italy.

"Basic Pharmacokinetics" tells us that “Food may also interact directly with drugs, either chemically (e.g. chelation) or physically, by adsorbing the drug or acting as a barrier to absorption. In general, gastrointestinal absorption of drugs is favored by an empty stomach, but the nature of drug-food interactions is complex and unpredictable; drug absorption may be reduced, delayed, enhanced or unaffected by the presence of food.” Actually, what I read here would seem to reinforce the empty stomach preference, since we don’t really want curcumin to remain in the stomach where it is subjected to fierce enzyme attacks.

This paragraph also made it clear to me why some substances have to be taken with lots of fluids: in order to dissolve and get them out of the stomach more quickly. Hadn’t thought of that. In fact, that would seem to be a good pointer on how to take BioCurcumax, Sherlock!

A few remarks on sublingual administration. As most of you know by now, I am testing a concoction of my own making, based on a blog reader’s suggestion. This involves the preparation of a mixture consisting of cocoa mass (100% chocolate), honey and quercetin and curcumin powders. Well, almost on a whim, a couple of months ago I began sticking gobs of this very warm mixture under my tongue. I guess I had read somewhere about sublingual (literally, “under the tongue,” from Latin) drug administration, and this bit of info had stuck in the back of my mind. And today for the first time I had a close look at the sublingual method, which would seem to be a VERY good way to take curcumin.

As I understand it, these gobs get absorbed into the epithelium beneath my tongue via the mucous membranes. Since the epithelium is covered with blood vessels, theoretically (at least) the curcumin-containing gobs are then able to enter the bloodstream very quickly. This would mean that curcumin is protected from the first-pass metabolism of the liver, which reduces its bioavailability (a lot, apparently). Taken sublingually, curcumin avoids being attacked by the hostile enzymes present in the gastrointestinal tract. Perfect! I had a gut feeling (no pun intended…) that this was a good way to take curcumin but didn’t really know why or how until today.

I guess this is enough to digest (again, no pun intended…) for today. I still have a pile of e-mails to answer, so I guess I’d better sign off now and go do that. I should also compile a list of New Year’s resolutions…

BUON ANNO! HAPPY NEW YEAR!

January 1, 2008 / / 3 Comments

Today is Capodanno, i.e., the first day of the new year.

We welcomed 2008 with open arms. We ate (too much!), drank a bit of good wine (not too much!), and followed a few of the fun Italian traditions as we do every year. One of them is to wear red underwear. Sounds silly, and it probably is, but that’s the tradition, and supposedly wearing red undies for some reason wards off the evil eye. No idea why!

A culinary tradition that we gladly follow every year is eating lentils, which supposedly bring money and good luck. And in fact, my lentils appear to have worked very quickly since for the first time in years I won at tombola, which is bingo in English. Tombola is a traditional Xmas-New Year’s game in Italy. And we play for money! Well, okay, for change, really. Stefano won the first game, I won the second, for a total of perhaps ten euros. What a team!

Important note! According to a popular Italian saying, quello che si fa il primo dell’anno si fa tutto l’anno, which means “what you do on the first day of the new year you will do for the rest of the year!” So be really really careful about what you do today. Unless you like to iron, for instance, don’t do any ironing, or you will be ironing each and every day of 2008. And so on. Plan only FUN stuff for today! Yesterday, in fact, I did the laundry and other boring but necessary household chores so that today I could rest and have fun. I am about to go bake a batch of World Peace cookies (my hopeful wish for every year: world peace…!), and later we will play cards and probably another round of bingo. Bliss!

In sum, have fun today, everyone, and laugh laugh laugh! Only positive and fun thoughts and actions are allowed today! Like resting, as Piccolo and Puzzola, and Priscilla, are doing in the above photos, or jumping up high in order to grab a toy as Peekaboo is doing in this photo, taken last night after dinner.

Curcumin and Angiogenesis

December 28, 2007 / / 6 Comments

Again, happy holidays to everyone! I have been busy busy busy, not with research but with family and holiday-related engagements. But I did have time this morning to take a quick look at a study dealing with curcumin and angiogenesis, and will attempt to present some of its findings. Quickly, since I have some folks downstairs waiting for me to join them for a card game, hehe!

A blog reader (thank you!) recently sent me the link to an article (see: http://tinyurl.com/36aaem) about a study (see abstract: http://tinyurl.com/ysyq4y) published in the October 24 2007 issue of the “Journal of Cellular Physiology.” The study is titled “Opposing effects of curcuminoids on serum stimulated and unstimulated angiogenic response.” In a nutshell, a group of researchers from the University of Kerala, India, discovered that curcumin promotes the formation of blood vessels in HEALTHY cells. This may not sound so amazing, but it really IS, when you think about it, because their finding confirms the fact that curcumin has the ability to distinguish between healthy and cancerous cells. Curcumin provides a supply of blood to normal cells whenever they need it but cuts off that same supply to nasty cancer cells. This may appear to be contradictory, but the Kerala researchers, as we will see, may have found an explanation. And their finding may be important not only for the treatment of cancer but also of ischemic conditions where there is a shortage in blood supply and, consequently, of oxygen.

The Kerala study (the full text was sent to me by another blog reader, thanks!) begins with an explanation of angiogenesis, which “is the formation of new blood vessels from preexisting vessels. […] Physiologically, it plays an important role in wound healing and ovulation. Nevertheless, uncontrolled angiogenesis results in many pathological conditions.” Indeed!

Curcumin applied to wounds caused by radiation has strong healing properties. An interesting aside: while I was doing research for this part of the post, I came upon a 2007 study (http://tinyurl.com/2ahqmg) showing that curcumin has both radioprotective AND radiosensitizing properties. How about THAT? So curcumin will protect our healthy cells from the harmful effects of radiation while enhancing the murderous effects of radiation on cancer cells. At the exact same time! Extraordinary. That is why it might be very useful in the radiotherapy treatment of cancer, the study suggests. Well, I already knew about the radioprotective effects of curcumin, and now in fact I am not at all nervous about having my annual skeletal exam, but not the radiosensitizing effects. Curcumin never ceases to amaze me!

A 1999 study (see abstract: http://tinyurl.com/2fs5bw) showed that curcumin both when taken orally and applied topically improved wound healing in diabetic rats and mice.

The above-mentioned Kerala researchers point out that it seemed contradictory for curcumin to have wound healing properties when it is also has these anti-angiogenic properties. So they focused on the cellular microenvironment to see if it had “any effect on the angiogenic potential of curcuminoids.” Well, it does. This was a difficult, very technical study for me to read (the abstract will give you an idea…), but the following is more or less clear: curcuminoids stimulated the expression of proangiogenic factors when there was no extracellular stimulation (of an angiogenic response) by serum or proangiogenic growth factors, whereas, in the presence of those stimuli, curcuminoids appeared to be anti-angiogenic. Okay, perhaps this is not clear at all, now that I reread it! Well, basically, depending on the presence or absence of serum or certain growth factors, curcuminoids help normal cells live happily ever after, but they can also kill cancer cells by cutting off their blood supply.

This study gives us another example of the wonderful dual nature of curcumin, able to distinguish between the good and the bad guys. Yeah!

Ma di quel, che sì puretto/si vendemmia in Artimino/vo’ trincarne più d’un tino…

December 26, 2007 / / 2 Comments

The title of my post today refers to part of a dithyrambic ode to wine known as "Bacchus in Tuscany" and written by the famous 17th century scientist and poet Francesco Redi. The ode celebrates the wine of Artimino, among others, and a translation of the verses I quoted is more or less: "but of that wine so pure/ that they harvest in Artimino/I want to guzzle more than a vat." Hehe. I couldn’t resist quoting these verses today, even though my post is mainly about a wedding reception that we attended…at Villa Artimino. This will all make sense in a second.

Yep, I know, a wedding the day after Xmas. It sounds rather odd. But it turned out to be lovely. The reception hall was decked out with cheerful Xmas lights, and the wedding photos were taken in front of a huge sparkling Xmas tree. I thought it was brilliant! This photo, by the way, shows the detail of a frescoed ceiling. I liked this depiction of "Diligence."

But the most important part about today, for Stefano and yours truly!, is that the wedding reception was held in the EXACT same place, i.e., a four-story Medici villa built in the 16^th century, where we had our own reception almost nine years ago. Ahhh yes. So Stefano and I took a little trip back in time, remembering our own wedding and so on. And the food, service and wine were just as good as we recalled.

This elegant Renaissance villa is also known as Villa “La Ferdinanda.” It was originally designed as a hunting lodge for the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Ferdinand I de’ Medici, and is now part convention center, part archaeological museum.

Another name (!) of Villa “La Ferdinanda” is the "villa with one hundred chimneys" (villa dai cento camini), even though there are only actually 40 of these differently-shaped and sized chimneys. This photo shows a few.

The view from the back terrace/lawn over the Tuscan hills covered with vineyards and olive groves is absolutely magnificent. In the background you can make out the small fortified Medieval village of Artimino.

Well, I can’t say that I enjoy attending weddings. I am a casual dresser and like comfortable clothes, so getting all dressed up and wearing heels is not my cup of tea. Not at all! But I did enjoy being out and about with my dashing Stefano on such a beautiful sunny winter day.

Marvellous Pharmacy In Calenzano

December 23, 2007 / / 2 Comments

This post is mainly for my Italian readers so I will (more or less) translate the relevant info into Italian for those who aren’t very familiar with English. First, in English. Thanks to a tip from a curcumin-taking doctor friend, I recently discovered a pharmacist in Calenzano (a small town near Florence) who orders curcumin C3 Complex powder directly from the Italian Sabinsa distributor in Milan. He then makes curcumin capsules (as well as other herbal preparations) in his own little Galenic laboratory. Brilliant! By the way, I asked Dr. Balducci if I could post about his pharmacy because I felt it would be helpful to let others know about this amazing resource. He agreed immediately. I would like to add that he is a very friendly and helpful doctor, ready and willing to answer any questions.

Upon request, Dr. Balducci will mail supplements to any location in Italy. If you are live in Tuscany, within a certain range (Florence and Siena, e.g.), he will even have your order delivered right to your doorstep. How about that for service! The pharmacy’s phone number is (055) 882 4687, by the way.

Ok, now for my "shocker" of the day. I just ordered and picked up (yesterday!) a huge bottle of BioCurcumax capsules. Dr. Balducci ordered the raw material directly from Arjuna in India, and made the one-gram capsules that I had requested. He has had so many requests for BioCurcumax that he has finished his current supply, but he has reordered it and should have it in stock again by mid January.

You see, my friend Sherlock and I are going to start testing BioCurcumax in January. After having blood tests done in early January, we will begin taking these capsules, the exact same amount etc. After two months, we will go have our second set of blood tests. We have planned to do this together. Our own teeny tiny “clinical test”! I will have more details as we get closer to January.

In italiano: ho scoperto un meraviglioso farmacista a Calenzano, il Dr. Balducci. Nella sua farmacia ha un laboratorio galenico dove realizza ogni sorta di preparato. Ad esempio, è possibile trovare la curcumina C3 Complex che arriva direttamente dal distributore italiano della Sabinsa. Su richiesta, il Dr. Balducci spedisce in tutta Italia. Quelli che abitano in Toscana (tipo, a Firenze o a Siena) hanno inoltre la possibilità di farsi recapitare la “spesa” direttamente a casa.

Ma la notizia forse più sensazionale è che il Dr. Balducci ha ordinato la BioCurcumax direttamente dalla ditta produttrice, la Arjuna, in India. Io e Sherlock abbiamo deciso di fare un nostro piccolissimo test “clinico,” nel senso che prenderemo insieme le capsule di BioCurcumax a partire da gennaio. Faremo insieme le analisi del sangue, sia prima sia dopo. Ovviamente prenderemo la stessa quantità di BioCurcumax che, a proposito, dovrebbe essere sette volte più assorbibile della curcumina “normale.” Beh, vedremo cosa succederà!

Per ordinare la C3 Complex o la BioCurcumax (o altro), telefonate direttamente al Dr. Balducci: (055) 882 4687. In bocca al lupo!

My Cocoa Mass And Curcumin Recipe In English And Italian

December 21, 2007 / / 1 Comment

Yesterday I went to see my family doctor, who was absolutely thrilled to see my most recent test results. Almost as thrilled as he was to get a big bag of my Xmas cookies, hehe. And some Slitti chocolate. Oh, I just have to fly my own kite for a second: he told me that MY cookies are the best he has EVER had. Ever! Anyway, he wrote down my chococumin recipe and also asked if I had posted about it on my blog. Since I couldn’t remember the exact date and am too lazy to look it up, I decided to post the recipe again. It’s not even a real recipe, since I don’t measure anything!

Anyway, here goes (I will translate this into Italian, too, see following paragraph): I use one and a half or two small squares of cocoa mass, or 100% chocolate (not cocoa powder, mind you). Cocoa mass looks like a regular chocolate bar, and you don’t need but a small bit. I melt it over very low heat, but you could use a double boiler, if you prefer. I add a couple of heaping teaspoonfuls of dark organic honey, otherwise it’s too bitter to swallow, in my opinion. As soon as these two ingredients have melted (be careful not to burn the mixture, as I have done a couple of times in the past!), I take the pan off the stove and add two grams of quercetin powder and my eight grams of C3 Complex curcumin powder. Stir quickly and eat the mixture even more quickly since it has a tendency to harden. Important note: I put small blobs of it under my tongue, where there are a TON of blood vessels. My idea is to get the dissolved curcumin into the bloodstream without much ado. It would seem that this approach works, which is why I am SO curious to see my next test results.

Ricetta in italiano: prendere un quadratino e mezzo oppure due (dipende dalla grandezza; ad esempio, se è pasta di cacao Slitti ne basta uno e mezzo; se è Domori ce ne vogliono due) di pasta di cacao. Mi raccomando, che non sia cacao in polvere (non so perché, ma mi dà l’idea che funzionerebbe peggio), ma pasta di cacao, che assomiglia alle tavolette di cioccolato normali. Praticamente si tratta di cioccolato al 100%, senza zucchero insomma. Aggiungere due cucchiaini da té stracolmi di miele biologico, il più scuro possibile (tipo, castagno). Scioglierlo a fuoco bassissimo oppure a bagnomaria. Attenzione a non bruciarlo sennò fa veramente schifo (lo so per esperienza, eheh!). Aggiungere due grammi di quercetina in polvere e otto grammi di curcumina, sempre in polvere. Io uso la curcumina C3 Complex. Una volta sciolto e mescolato il tutto, ne metto un po’ sotto la lingua e lo faccio sciogliere piano piano. L’idea è che da lì entra velocemente in circolo nel sangue senza passare per lo stomaco e l’intestino dove viene aggredito in malo modo da diversi enzimi. Ultima cosa: siccome questa specie di pastone cioccolatoso si indurisce rapidamente, bisogna mangiarlo velocemente e, soprattutto, mentre è caldo.

Back to English. I am busily finishing research for a post and have other errands to run. Busy days, these! I apologize to those who have sent me messages and who are not receiving a reply. I do read every single message, but I probably won’t get to answering any of ’em until Sunday or so. Ok, off I go! Poof!