I was looking up the medicinal properties of honey and came across a fascinating bit of news by pure coincidence. In 2006, an Iranian pharmacist administered bee venom therapy (BVT) to a patient with MM. The patient improved considerably but, as soon as the venom therapy was stopped, his markers worsened (http://tinyurl.com/3dyj3l). I have not been able to get my hands on the particular study, so if anybody has access to the March 2006 issue of the Journal of the American Apitherapy Society, please let me know! Bee venom is no joke, as I quickly discovered. It stimulates the body to release cortisol, a natural steroid, and is being used to treat multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis.

Researchers at CSIRO Molecular Science in Western Australia have been trying to modify bee venom to develop cancer treatments that would target only cancer cells, not healthy ones, and cause very few side effects. See: http://tinyurl.com/ywgmlx The main active ingredient in bee venom is melittin, a molecule with potent anti-inflammatory properties (according to Wikipedia, it appears to be 100 times stronger than hydrocortisone!) that attaches to the membranes of cells, causing them to collapse and die. The researchers’ task is to modify this molecule in order to prevent allergic/toxic reactions while maintaining intact its cancer-killing potential. The idea is to create an immunotoxin, that is, a combination of melittin and a specific cancer-killing antibody: melittin-MABs (or melittin monoclonal antibodies). If these attempts are successful, this might mean no more chemotherapy with hair loss, vomiting, weight loss, etc. Just think: only cancer cells would die.

A bit more research led me to the following study (http://tinyurl.com/yvgh3o) published in the International Journal of Oncology in 2003: a melittin/avidin conjugate was successfully used to reduce tumours both in vitro and in vivo. Avidin is a glycoprotein, by the way, and was coupled with melittin to reduce its toxicity. At any rate, this conjugate ignored healthy cells but targeted MMP-2 (matrix metalloproteinase 2), an endopeptidase that plays an important role in cancer metastasis and is active in MM, too. See, for instance, http://tinyurl.com/27m7wm, http://tinyurl.com/3exzcd and http://tinyurl.com/2uxeom

Bee venom, a possible cancer treatment? Who would have ever thought?!

Today I had an appointment with my haematologist. She is a very cautious doctor and doesn’t let on that she is overjoyed when reading some good news (as I imagine she would not show disappointment when reading some bad news), BUT I could tell that she was very pleased with my tests €”my skeletal X-rays (she confirmed that there were no lesions) and most recent blood tests. She told me that she wants to see me 4-6 months from now, and that is how she let me know that she thinks things are definitely going well. She said I should get in touch with her if something negative shows up on my next tests, but otherwise we can schedule our next appointment in the fall. Yippee!!!

An aside. Whenever I whip out my list of questions, she almost rolls her eyes in resignation. But today we ended up discussing a couple of my most recent research topics, and her final words to me were: I always learn something from you. That made my day. Perhaps my week. My month?

I have always wondered what made me so lucky (tongue-in-cheek!!!) to have developed MM from my previous MGUS condition. Well, an explanation may be close at hand. This morning I read an interesting report on immunity to cancer stem cells that might explain why some people develop a malignant condition while others do not. By the way, I subscribe to the IMF newsletter, which provided the link to this EurekAlert! (http://tinyurl.com/35smgq). Cancer stem cell research is a hot topic right now, but this is the first time I have seen it connected to MGUS-MM progression. In a nutshell, these stem cell researchers discovered that those MGUS patients who had an immune response to a stem cell protein called SOX2 (appropriate name, I would say, except I would have spelled it out a bit more: SOX-it-2U) did not progress to MM. This immunity provided them with a sort of protective shield against MM. To read the abstract, please go to: http://tinyurl.com/2tn6e2 I found it significant that cancer stem cells are the target in this study, not just regular MM bulk cells. And this discovery is could lead to a future cancer vaccine. How about that?!

I will end with a quote by research head scientist Madhav Dhodapkar, “You need to target the roots to really kill the tree, but what we’ve been doing is trimming the branches and it hasn’t worked.” I’m all for working on the roots!

After watching my little honeybee friend buzz around my raspberry plant today, I decided to write about the worrisome decimation of bee populations in the U.S., Germany and Italy, just to mention a few countries.

In 2005, the Italian Corriere della Sera reported that the bodies of millions of bees had been found dead, scattered around their hives, throughout Italy. Bees began to die in France in the late 1960s, when the molecule of an insecticide sprayed on corn and sunflower seeds contaminated the plants (once they had grown) and the bees that carried the poisonous molecule back to their hives and well, you can imagine the rest. And the really sick part? This insecticide was banned in 1999 but the producers were allowed to continue to sell their stock, rather than destroy it. This article can be read in Italian: http://tinyurl.com/2dojyh

According to a March 22, 2007 Der Spiegel article, millions of bees have been disappearing everywhere. Why is this happening? The reasons given: herbicides, the practice of monocultures, the use of genetically-modified plants. The article can be read (in English) at: http://tinyurl.com/2c5mvc In the U.S., bee deaths have reached the level of catastrophe. Yet I hadn’t read anything about it. Then, just recently, two of the alternative newsletters that I subscribe to contained reports about the bee calamity. I began to get worried.

An April 2007 article from the British Independent (http://tinyurl.com/3cutao) offers the theory that the radiation emitted by our cell phones and other gadgets is causing bees to lose their sense of orientation so that they cannot make it back to their hives. As weird as that sounds, a recent German study has shown that bees will not return to their hives when cell phones are placed near it. My husband and friends used to get annoyed with me because I always keep my cell phone switched off. Well, perhaps I was right after all. (Are you turning your cell phones OFF?)

Aside from the obvious, why am I so concerned? I use organic honey instead of sugar. I know, it’s not like eliminating sugar altogether, but honey has so many medicinal properties that it would be classified as a drug under the new FDA S1082 bill. And keep in mind what Albert Einstein said: “If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man.”

I was asked about resveratrol recently and wanted to post that I began taking it last Friday: two capsules a day. Each capsule contains 100 mg of trans-Resveratrol and 80 mg of polyphenols (from red wine matrix (Grape (Vitis vinifera)) and Japanese Knotweed (Polygonum cuspidatrum)). Next blood tests in June.

Someone recently said that people who take curcumin turn yellow. That is ridiculous. I can safely state, after examining myself closely in the mirror, that I have not turned a different colour, not yellow, not orange, not purple. I am still as pale as I have ever been. 😉

This morning we were in our garden setting up the automatic irrigation system (of course, the second we had finished, there was a huge downpour, with thunder and lightning ). Anyway, as I was pulling weeds from the ground as though I were pulling myeloma weeds from my bone marrow, I saw a honeybee buzzing from bud to bud on my raspberry plant. I started watching this little creature busily collecting nectar. Honeybees have been doing this for at least 35 million years. Extraordinary. At any rate, I began thinking that I never would have stopped to watch a bee in my pre-MM life. MM has given me the gift of enjoying little things in life €”a honeybee, my husband teasing me, the sight of one of our Barni roses in full bloom (see photo), or one of my cats sleeping in the crook of my arm. Happiness can be found in small things. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t mean to say that I am HAPPY to have MM (hardly!!!), but I always try to look at things, yes, even cancer, in a positive manner. MM has given me a determination that I did not possess, or did not know I possessed. My research into alternative treatments, while keeping track of what’s going on in conventional medicine, has become perhaps my main purpose in life. Last but not least, I have met some truly splendid people through the listservs and this blog. And all this, for what it’s worth (and I think it’s worth a lot!), is the gift of myeloma.

I am all in favour of drug safety and regulation, of course, but I recently heard some news that concerns me, to put it mildly. A friend sent me a Life Extension Foundation article on the controversial “Food and Drug Administration Revitalization Act” (S1082), sponsored by Sen. Kennedy with the support of Sen. Enzi. It has already passed a Senate subcommittee and will soon (tomorrow???) go to the Senate floor.

This “Revitalization” Act gives new powers to the FDA that could affect all of us who are taking supplements. If the bill passes, the FDA would no longer be a theoretically impartial agency that is supposed to regulate drug safety: It would officially and unambiguously put the U.S. government in the drug business, where it could license pharmaceuticals and collect royalties on their sale. For obvious reasons, this is a particularly dangerous situation for consumers. Government should be regulating drug companies, not joining them as partners in profit. (quoted from: http://www.newstarget.com/021811.html) With this bill, impartiality goes out the window. Furthermore, taxpayers will foot the bill for drug development and then be charged outrageous prices for the drugs. [ ] This new bill panders to concerns of Americans regarding the safety of drugs. This legitimate worry is used by Kennedy and Enzi to garner support when in reality the bill does just the opposite – exposing Americans to almost unfathomable new drug risks and dangers while simultaneously making it possible to remove super safe, therapeutic, and helpful dietary supplements. (from http://tinyurl.com/33bclq).

The worst part is that, based on S1082, the FDA could classify as drugs any vitamins, supplements, herbs and other natural substances, even water when it is used to “treat” dehydration. Water? Gimme me a break! So we might not be able to obtain any of our supplements without a medical prescription. Not to mention the rise in cost to us consumers. Would we be able to afford a simple bottle of multivitamins? Would I be able to afford my curcumin? Does this make ANY sense? You can read the full text of S1082 at: http://tinyurl.com/2kqx9j And if you would like to do something about it, please please please go to: http://www.lef.org/featured-articles/consumer_alert_042707.htm. This LEF page enables you to send an e-mail to your representatives and senators telling them to vote NO on this awful bill. Just click on the take action now button. Or call your senators and let them know how you feel about this. Please do it. Now.

It began as a joke. Knowing that I love chocolate and have been unhappy to cut back on my intake (last year I gave it up altogether for a few months but have since fallen off the absolutely-no-chocolate wagon), friends began sending me articles reporting that chocolate is a healthful food. So, just for the heck of it, I began doing some research into the matter, and yes, it is true, natural cocoa is extremely rich in antioxidants that have protective cardiovascular effects: http://tinyurl.com/yqvgmc. Some types of cocoa could even increase the flow of blood to the brain, thus improving brain function (http://tinyurl.com/3dvjqg). Cocoa flavanols may prevent diarrhea (http://tinyurl.com/36b2tp), and seem to have a positive effect on our immune system (http://tinyurl.com/2xp2gv). So far, so good. But what about cocoa and MM? In my wildest dreams, I never dreamed that chocolate might be good for cancer patients. Hmmm.

Let’s start with MM. No, I did my best, but (sigh) I did NOT find a specific study on MM and cocoa compounds. However, I did find a 2005 study titled Flavonoids from Theobroma cacao Down-Regulate Inflammatory Mediators, (http://tinyurl.com/2h9bs9) which shows that an unspecified (in the abstract) cocoa extract decreased IL-6 mRNA expression. Remember IL-6? Yes, the inflammatory cytokine that is active in MM and promotes cell proliferation and growth. Among other things, cocoa flavonoids downregulate inflammatory cytokines. Aha! They also downregulate TNF (tumour necrosis factor) alpha. I was not able to read the entire study, but this was enough information to grab my attention. I have already used the study (http://tinyurl.com/22gcme) that examines the effect of EGCG on MM cells. HOWEVER, read this excerpt: the polyphenolic compounds present in green tea include ( €”)-epigallocatechin-3-gallate, ( €”)-epicatechin-3-gallate, ( €”)-epigallocatechin, and epicatechin, which have been shown to have cancer chemopreventive effects in many animal tumor models. [ ] We first examined whether the green tea polyphenols and the polyphenolic epicatechin derivatives induced inhibition of the growth of myeloma cells (IM9, RPMI8226, and U266) [ ]. Now, cocoa contains high levels of epicatechin. True, the tests carried out in this particular study showed that epicatechin was not as strong as EGCG against MM cells, but is it enough to give chocoholic MMers an excuse to eat chocolate now and again? 😉

In the following 2003 study, cocoa was found to be higher in antioxidants than black tea, green tea and red wine: http://tinyurl.com/2sfy2s Could cocoa flavonoids be chemopreventive? It would appear to be so. Norman Hollenberg, a professor of medicine at Harvard University, spent years studying an island-dwelling population off the coast of Panama, the Kuna, who drink a lot of natural cocoa, at least 900 mg a day. It turns out that the Kuna have much lower rates of cancer, stroke, heart failure and diabetes compared to the mainland population: http://tinyurl.com/2o93w6 Note: apparently, flavanols are what give dark chocolate its bitter taste, and frequently get removed in the mass-production process. So if your dark chocolate tastes really bitter, don’t complain, but think of the health benefits, which include fewer calories. Even though the Kuna study is an observational study, not a randomized, controlled clinical trial, it is worth reading. More on chemoprevention: http://tinyurl.com/2ncnzu I also found a 2005 study that examines the cytotoxic effects of pentameric procyanidin (another cocoa compound) on breast cancer cells : http://tinyurl.com/39h4te

And hey!, cocoa beans also contain quercetin (bingo!). But before you start unwrapping a chocolate bar, let me add (sadly) that during the chocolate-making process as much as 90 % of flavonoids are destroyed: cocoa beans are left to ferment in order to get rid of some of the bitterness caused by the flavonoids, and are then roasted. Is there a solution? Sure, look for chocolate bars made with pure cocoa, without any sugars or artificial sweeteners, and forget about milk chocolate. I have tried a 100 % chocolate bar, which is not as pure as what the Kuna drink but will have to suffice, since I don’t have a cacao tree in my back yard.

One last note: the cacao tree was given the scientific name of Theobroma by botanist Carolus Linnaeus. It means food of the gods. You may draw your own conclusions… 😉

After reading the Delano Report a few months ago, I decided to test quercetin. For details (and a link to the report), please see my April 20th blog post titled Protocol, Spelled Out. What is quercetin? It’s a flavonoid found mainly in apples, onions, berries, cauliflower and nuts. It has significant anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. From Wikipedia: Quercetin may have positive effects in combating or helping to prevent cancer, prostatitis, heart disease, cataracts, allergies/inflammations, and respiratory diseases such as bronchitis and asthma. In fact, last August I bought a couple of bottles of quercetin for my asthma but hadn’t yet opened them. Until I read the Delano Report, that is. Then my interest in quercetin went way beyond asthma! An aside: I can report that my asthma is officially GONE. I still take one puff of my cortisone inhaler before going to bed, but that is merely a precaution.

MM and WNT. For the following section on WNT signaling pathways, I am greatly indebted to Stephen Martin, Ph.D., of the Grouppe Kurosawa. Without his posts, I might not have done any research on this topic. Last year, he wrote that WNT signaling is elevated in many cancers, including MM. Researchers have discovered that aberrant WNT signaling causes MM cells to proliferate and grow, as these studies show: http://tinyurl.com/2rorm6 and http://tinyurl.com/2yp3yc A Dutch study is currently looking into the WNT-MM connection, see: http://tinyurl.com/2ex6tp These signaling genes seem to be in every single type of cancer, from colorectal to oral cancer. For a detailed explanation on how they affect different types of cancer, see this important 2000 study: http://tinyurl.com/2jrw3p

What IS the WNT signaling pathway? In a nutshell, it is a complex network of proteins involved in many development processes (cell-to-cell communication during embyrogenesis). However, it can also influence cancer growth, as I mentioned. The more scientifically-minded can check out a Stanford University WNT Homepage containing a ton of information on the WNT gene: http://tinyurl.com/27fnaj What is relevant to my research, however, is that this pathway is consistently active in MM and causes cell proliferation and growth. Not a good thing! And guess what? Quercetin inhibits it. An April 2007 Blood study examines acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL), not MM, that is true, but what is significant is that quercetin inhibits the WNT signaling pathway and causes the ALL cells to self-destruct: http://tinyurl.com/2m5w2d More evidence can be seen in a second study printed in the same edition of Blood : http://tinyurl.com/3d34vm Again, ALL cells self-destructed when treated with quercetin. Does this mean that it would have the same effect on MM cells? I haven’t found any studies on quercetin and MM, specifically…yet. But I have the feeling the answer is a resounding Yes!

My own observations. I have noticed two big changes since I began taking quercetin capsules more than a couple of months ago. One is that my rosacea (also known as curse of the Celts !) has gotten much better. I hadn’t connected this improvement to the quercetin, but recently I came to wonder: what else could it be? The other is that my peripheral neuropathy has gone completely. It had partially returned last fall (2006), though nothing like what I experienced in the pre-curcumin period (2005). Again, it’s impossible for me to say if the two things are related to my quercetin intake. Just a suspicion on my part. Of course, NOT to be discounted is the recent drop in my IgG count!

A note on quercetin from Wikipedia: Foods rich in quercetin include apples, tea (Camellia sinensis), onions (higher concentrations of quercetin occur in the outermost rings), red grapes, citrus fruits, broccoli & other leafy green vegetables, cherries, and a number of berries including raspberry, bog whortleberry (158 mg/kg, fresh weight), lingonberry (74 and 146 mg/kg), cranberry (83 and 121 mg/kg), chokeberry (89 mg/kg), sweet rowan (85 mg/kg), rowanberry (63 mg/kg), sea buckthorn berry (62 mg/kg), crowberry (53 and 56 mg/kg), and the fruit of the prickly pear cactus. A study by the University of Queensland, Australia, has also indicated the presence of quercetin in varieties of honey, including honey derived from eucalyptus and tea tree flowers.

This is just a first instalment. My research on quercetin continues. There is a lot to uncover, yet.

I used to be a professional translator, which is a big help when I try to make sense of what frequently looks like gobbledygook in scientific/medical articles. However, I didn’t need any translating skills to read Terri Michell’s clear report on the anti-cancer effects of curcumin (see link here on my homepage). Thanks to her, I became interested in kinases, which, she writes, are like phone lines that run right into the DNA of cancer cells, carrying grow signals. Easy! Compare that to the Wikipedia definition: in biochemistry, a kinase is a type of enzyme that transfers phosphate groups from high-energy donor molecules, such as ATP, to specific target molecules (substrates); the process is termed phosphorylation. Uh huh. Right.

Terri Mitchell reports that there are over 2000 known protein kinases. Curcumin inhibits several of them, an ability it shares with other phytochemicals including silymarin (from milk thistle), apigenin (from parsley and celery), hypericin (commonly known as St. John’s wort) and EGCG (from green tea), just to mention a few. As far as MM is concerned, a kinase called IKK plays an important role in the activation of NF-kB, a crucial transcription factor (inhibited by curcumin) that I have discussed in previous posts. And the name of an IKK inhibitor? Yes, curcumin again! See this 2003 “Blood” study: http://tinyurl.com/ypc7o7

When curcumin is used to cut kinase phone lines, some types of cancer cells stop growing. Of utmost interest to us MMers is that curcumin causes MM cells to self-destruct (through a process called apoptosis). Poof!, and they are gone. Like magic…(said like a true Harry Potter fan)…There are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of online studies concerning kinases and curcumin. It would be impossible to list or read them all. There are also thousands of studies on kinase inhibitors and cancer: a hot topic, clearly.

Back to Terri Mitchell, who ends her report with these remarks: The actions of curcumin have been the subject of presentations at major meetings on cancer research, and the object of study by researchers at the most prestigious universities in the world. If curcumin were a drug, it would be hailed as one of the best all-around cancer drugs ever invented. As it is, it’s a phytochemical with impeccable credentials, thousands of years of use behind it, and a very small price tag. No wonder a host of drug companies want to imitate it.

This morning we went to a large flower fair in my favourite historical garden in Florence, “Il Giardino dell’Orticultura,” which was created in the 19th century by the Tuscan Society of Horticulture. It is an oasis of peace and beauty, and contains a spectacular tepidarium which was built in 1880. I tried to take a few photos of it, but there were too many people in my way. However, I did get a good shot of some of the Barni roses (see photo). The Barni family is famous worldwide for its beautiful roses, of which many are copyrighted. We bought a rose called “William Shakespeare” for our back garden. We also bought a few cranberry plants. Fancy that, cranberries in Italy! If they survive, I will post a photo of them, too!