A tribute to Homer…

August 29, 2013 / / 1 Comment

As I recall, I bought “Homer’s Odyssey,” the story of Gwen Cooper’s adventures with her blind black cat, while I was waiting to board a flight to Italy a few years ago. It was one of those (rare) books that I just couldn’t put down…

I laughed, I cried, I worried, I loved…so many different emotions…a wonderful book. Since then I’ve read quite a few other cat-based books (the one about Dewey, the small-town library cat, e.g.). But Homer was special. I fell totally in love with that extraordinary little cat…a cat with two big strikes against him: he was black AND blind. I don’t understand why this is the case, but people don’t want to adopt black cats. And a blind black cat? Forget it. But Gwen adopted Homer, and her life changed. And, thanks to her and thanks to Homer, the lives of many blind and/or black cats have changed, too.

My first cat was black…this was a looooong time ago, when I was a child. And so was my second cat, Micia, who had been abandoned in a field where I’d gone with friends to attend an Inti Illimani (= a Chilean folk music ensemble) concert just outside of Florence, Italy, many many years ago, when I was in my late teens. As we were making our way across the field to find a good place to sit down and enjoy the concert, I noticed a German shepherd running around and barking loudly at a bush. A group of children were yelling that he was after a kitten. As soon as I heard that, I zoomed over to the bush and eventually managed to grab the terrified, tiny black kitten hidden inside, holding her high above my head so the dog couldn’t reach her. I walked away, then tucked her safely inside my sweater, where she cried desperately for a while, then fell asleep, exhausted.

Needless to say, my friends and I didn’t attend that concert. I remember sneaking home, trying to be really quiet so as not to wake my parents who didn’t want any more cats (though they are huge cat lovers)…But my Mom heard Micia’s meowing (from hunger at that point, poor little sweetie!) and walked into my bedroom. I told her what had happened at the concert and reassured her that within 24 hours I’d find a family, another family!, that would adopt Micia. Well, I did find a family for Micia: our family. From the very start, in fact, it was clear that she was going to be our cat. And when we moved back to the United States, a few years later, Micia came with us (inside the cabin with us, of course). Micia had a good life and gave us much joy. She died on Cape Cod at age 16, the same age as Homer…our beloved Micia.

So it’s no secret that I love black cats. As does Stefano. And now we have a black cat, our Prezzemolo, who was very ill when we adopted him and still has a chronic sniffle and sneeze. Perhaps because of that, we love him even more, if possible…

Oh dear. Sorry for the long digression…

Back to Homer now. I remained “in touch” with Homer via Gwen’s Facebook and blog updates. And that is how I knew he had not been doing very well in recent months. Well, a few days ago I read Gwen’s devastating news: at age 16, Homer had finally been put to sleep…

I wept almost as though this had happened to one of my own six cats…

It brought back memories, wretched wretched memories…of when I had to put my beloved Canadian cat, Keshé, to sleep…She was still young, just five years old, but had kidney failure, and there was no hope (I’d even learned how to give her I.V. fluids in a last-ditch effort to save her life…). Keshé’s suffering, which didn’t last very long (I couldn’t bear to see her in so much pain and begged the vet to put her out of her misery…which she finally did…) made me realize that I would like someone to put me to sleep should I ever be in that much pain. But of course that—euthanasia—is not possible for humans, not here in Italy, at least…Hmmm, that could be fodder for another post, in fact…but not today…

Here is Gwen’s sweet and loving tribute to Homer published in the Huffington Post: http://goo.gl/uu3qZO

Get out a box of Kleenex before you click on the link…

An impaired immune system

August 16, 2013 / / 11 Comments

This is not the way I’d planned things. Stefano and I were supposed to be going on whale watching trips out of Provincetown, going off bird watching and, generally speaking, having a really good, relaxing, romantic time together, while of course spending time with and taking care of my parents, who had their second cataract surgery on Tuesday, by the way. A successful removal, once again: they can see well from both eyes now!!! Yay!

But I guess I’d gotten a bit overtired in the past few weeks. And the straw that finally broke my camel’s back was the frrrrrrrrrrreezing cold waiting room at the eye clinic on Tuesday. Like last time, as soon as my Dad was out of the operating room, one of the nurses called me so I could sit and talk with him. Mind you, it was cold in there last time, too, but this time it seemed that that the AC in that inner waiting room had really been jacked up. Even the nurses were remarking on how chilly it was, but of course they were running around and doing stuff, so they managed to keep warm enough. Anyway, point is: I had forgotten to bring a sweater with me the second time. Duh. And I felt silly asking the nurse for a warm blanket like the one Dad had (ah, if I could go back in time, I’d bloody ASK her!!!).

Result: I got a chill = the above-mentioned straw…

By Tuesday afternoon, I knew I was in trouble. Luckily, I can recognize the symptoms of “trouble” by now, so I knew what to do…

It began with a sore throat that kept getting worse. And a head cold, which also kept getting worse. I’d brought my usual antibiotics from Italy, so I went ahead and took one (I’m still on the same antibiotic, of course). Smart move. By the next morning, I was in a full-blown SOMETHING THAT WAS NOT AT ALL NICE. And my sore throat had turned into the mother of all sore throats. That would have been Wednesday, just two days ago. By Wednesday afternoon I had developed a fever (100.4 F, or 38 Celsius) and, worse, THE COUGH, the terrible, raking cough, the one with the lovely (not), colorful discharge, the one that we myeloma-touched folks dread like most folks dread the plague…

On the positive side: at the onset of the first symptoms, I immediately began stuffing myself with Manuka honey and Nigella sativa (not enough of the latter, I’m afraid, but I made up for that yesterday 😉 ). Curcumin, too, of course. Oh, and a bit of Sambucol and, since yesterday afternoon, one of those OTC cough expectorants, which I thought I needed but have now stopped taking.

Well, live and learn:

if you have an impaired immune system, don’t get all run down (or stressed out!), because bad things can happen really fast…within a matter of hours. Take it from me.
learn to recognize the symptoms. As soon as you begin feeling out of sorts, DO SOMETHING. Don’t just shrug it off.

And here I’d been priding myself on not having gotten really sick for two years…Sure, I’ve had a couple of 48 bugs (which I’ve posted about here on the blog…like after my father-in-law died = major stress period for Stefano and me…proof that stress is incredibly BAD for us, too!!!), but nothing major. Nothing like this. This August 2013 bug made me quite ill for the first 24 hours (I did almost nothing but sleep), then I felt better yesterday, and today I even went out with Stefano for a short trip to the store. Today I don’t have a fever, my cough has almost entirely disappeared (how about that??? I’m amazed, too), and I’m feeling quite strong. So I know that tomorrow I’m going to be FINE. In fact, I feel fine right now, as I’m writing this quick post.

All things considered, therefore, it hasn’t been that bad. Yes, my immune system is definitely out of whack, but it’s also a feisty little, er, whacker. 😉 And, with the proper sustenance (antibiotics, Manuka, Nigella, curcumin and so on), it is able to pick up its little sword and cut off THE BUG’S nasty, evil head. Those first symptoms are crucial…

It’s a learning process. But the important thing is that life goes on. And Stefano and I can now plan to go whale watching…perhaps even on Sunday.

Tomorrow (finally!) we’re going to the beach. And now I’m going to do some work. My brain needs a workout after all that snoozing. 😉

Life is good again. 🙂

The possible drawbacks of C3 Reduct

August 8, 2013 / / 13 Comments

I’ve been receiving a lot of questions regarding C3 Reduct, the new type of curcumin patented by Sabinsa Corp (= the company that also makes the C3 Complex curcumin that many of us take). We heard about C3 Reduct in February: http://margaret.healthblogs.org/2013/02/21/a-new-product-curcumin-c3-reduct/.

Thanks to my blog reader John, who left a few comments on that February post, I didn’t have to do a whole lot of research. He found the main study for me (and then I went to PubMed and found a few others that basically confirmed that study’s conclusions): http://goo.gl/pbWg2J

Here are a few excerpts (from the above-mentioned study) that should give us a better picture of what is going on. While you are reading, keep in mind that C3 Reduct = THC, which is an abbreviation of tetrahydrocurcumin = one of curcumin’s main and most stable metabolites:

“THC and turmerones were much less effective” at suppressing tumor activity compared to regular curcumin. Uhmmmm…

Why this occurs is explained in the paragraph titled “THC is less active than curcumin mix to suppress TNF-induced NF-kB activation.” While THC is able to inhibit chronic myeloid leukemic cells (= KBM-5), said inhibition occurred in tests only at a concentration 10 times higher than that required for the curcumin mix.

TEN TIMES HIGHER.

That doesn’t sound very promising to me! The paragraph ends with this statement: “Thus, these results suggest that THC is not a very potent anti-inflammatory agent and that the conjugated bonds in the central seven-carbon chain are needed for its activity.” Ah, so C3 Reduct is missing a few “conjugated bonds” in its makeup. Bummer, that!

More unfortunate news: as we know, there are also a lot of genes involved in keeping myeloma cells alive and happy, such as COX2 and cyclin D1. Well, THC was found to be “much less effective” in inhibiting these pesky genes compared to regular old curcumin.

There are other minor things, too, such as THC’s inability to generate ROS, but I would like to keep to the main point, that is, its comparatively reduced effectiveness concerning the inhibition of one of myeloma’s best friends, the NF-kB pathway…

In sum, it doesn’t sound to me as though C3 Reduct would be a great thing for us myeloma folks to take. Disappointing, yes, I know. I’m very disappointed, too! I was so excited at the idea of taking something more bioavailable than the old C3 Complex (and not as messy!) when I first read about C3 Reduct…oh well. I guess we need to be careful about which curcuminoids are inside the type of curcumin we choose. And, from the studies I’ve looked at, I’m afraid that this new product may fall into the category of “not as effective for myeloma.” Too bad!

Okay, now I am going to, er, muddy the waters a bit. A few abstracts seem to indicate the opposite of what I just wrote (I know, I know…!):

This 2011 study showed that THC was effective against a leukemia cell line (HL-60): http://goo.gl/MDglIw

This 2008 study found that THC was effective against highly-metastatic HT1080 human fibrosarcoma cells by inhibiting the MMPs, which are active in myeloma, too: http://goo.gl/IMS8Oh Note: another thing involved in myeloma is extracellular matrix, or ECM…in fact, it seems to have a role in myeloma drug resistance, from the little I just read in PubMed. Yikes.

So, is it possible that C3 Reduct might work for myeloma after all, in spite of the drawbacks listed in the first article? Hard to say. The only way would be to try it, of course…And, since I know that some of you have already begun testing it, please let me know how things go. Thanks! 🙂

Bottom line: for now at least, I’m sticking to C3 Complex (I’m currently on 4 grams of C3 Complex without bioperine, PLUS 3 to 3.5 grams of C3 Complex with bioperine).

What can I say? I want my NF-kB pathway to be inhibited…!!!

Cataracts…

July 29, 2013 / / 3 Comments

My parents had their cataracts removed last Thursday. Both parents, same eye (= the right eye). Everything went smoothly, and they are doing very well. My Mom said that she hasn’t seen this clearly since she was a child…so, onwards and upwards! 🙂

The past week (since I arrived in Massachusetts, that is) have been a bit of a blur, no pun intended hehe…as follows…and this isn’t even the complete list 😉 :

taking parents to last-minute doctor visits,
administering eyedrops eyedrops and more eyedrops in my parents’ eyes, several times a day, both before and after cataract removal,
installing a much-needed air conditioning unit in one of the living room windows…By the way, I just wanted…uhm…to gloat that I did that all by myself, the day after I arrived here in the U.S. I’m gloating because I am not the most technically-inclined person on the planet (to say the least!!!!)…But I got the heavy AC machine out of the box and then up and running (in spite of the instructions, which must have been in Hungarian, originally, then translated into English via Japanese, then Finnish 😉 ). The AC unit has turned the living room into what I call the “fridge” now…and it’s just what we needed!),
taking Dad to see his oncologist (= no sign of the cancer, yaaay, rejoice! I have a Super Dad with Super vocal cords!!!),
doing some work (oh yes, I can work from here, too! All I need is a computer…),
and a few other things, too…But I won’t bore you with a long (boring!) laundry list… 😉

So yes, it’s been quite busy here. But when Stefano arrives (in less than 2 weeks!), we’ll be taking some time off…We want to go whale-watching and bird watching, e.g. Can’t wait!

As things settle down in the next few days, though, I plan to read and comment on some of the studies I brought with me…

One last thing. Some readers have been asking me to send them the curcumin protocol or give advice on where to buy this or that supplement. Well, the curcumin protocol is here on the blog, for all to see…Just scroll down my Pages until you find “Margaret’s curcumin protocol.” Please also read my Side effects and Warnings Page…very important.

And finally, I am sorry to say that I cannot, for obvious reasons, give advice on where to buy this or that supplement…especially stuff I’ve never tested! Sorry about that.

Okay, I have to go and put in my parents’ breakfast eye drops now.

Take care, everyone! Ciao!!! 🙂