A blog reader, thanks!, sent me the link to this CBC News article on the healthful benefits of dandelions (and here I thought they were just weeds…): http://goo.gl/yajZP

A research team headed by Siyaram Pandey, a biochemist at the University of Windsor, showed that even a low dose of a dandelion root EXTRACT can make leukemic cells commit suicide (= apoptosis). How about that???

I was also intrigued to discover HOW this research came about in the first place: Pandey admits he was skeptical when he was first approached by local oncologist, Dr. Caroline Hamm, who was curious about cancer patients who had been drinking dandelion tea and seemed to be getting better.

AHA!!! It all began because of patients drinking dandelion tea and GETTING BETTER…A familiar story…

However, before you begin pulling up all the weeds in your garden, make sure you read Dr. Hamm’s warning: “dandelion extract tea could interfere with regular chemotherapy, and she urged patients not to mix the natural remedy with other cancer drugs without speaking to a doctor first.” Now, those of us who aren’t doing any conventional treatments can get a dandelion tea recipe online (I just checked, there are tons)…or, if we’re feeling a bit lazy/don’t have access to any dandelions, we can just buy some organic dandelion tea (heaps of brands out there…any suggestions?)…Easy peasy! 🙂

Anyway, I strongly recommend that we all read this article…very interesting…especially Mr. DiCarlo’s story at the end…

“You aren’t a sick man anymore.” Wouldn’t we all love to hear those words…

This morning I read an article about a new MD Anderson Phase I trial administering curcumin to metastatic cancer patients who have not responded to chemo and radiation treatments. NOTE: this is a new type of curcumin…a WATER-SOLUBLE, nanotechnology-enhanced type (no kidding), which basically means that it’s better absorbed into the bloodstream than regular curcumin. That’s what we want…

Here’s the link:  http://goo.gl/l9r6S  The article begins with a description of an organization called “Gateway for Cancer Research,” which funds promising cancer research…alternative, too. I really liked what the Gateway President (a 14-year cancer survivor) said: 

“We support truly innovative and promising research that has potential to positively impact the lives of cancer patients at the earliest opportunity. We’re not interested in cancer research that experiments on laboratory mice for years and years without cures.” Excellent!

Reading on, the article tells us that two of the patients in the study have already responded well to this new type of curcumin: their tumors have shrunk…in one case, quite substantially. Wow. 

The last paragraph expresses my sentiments exactly: Patients want this information. They want less toxic, more effective treatment options. Indeed! Anyway, a good read. Highly recommended. 

And here is the direct link to the MD Anderson Phase I curcumin study, which, incidentally, is still recruiting patients: http://goo.gl/zTn4P

While I find this to be a verrrrry promising and exciting study, I have to add that I’m driven absolutely BONKERS by the fact that only metastatic cancer patients (with a short life expectancy) are allowed to enroll. Hellooooooo??? Since curcumin is non toxic blablabla (bla), then why can’t patients in early stages be part of the study, too? I mean, if we can stop cancer from spreading, if we can even shrink existing tumors in a non-toxic way, then why not “go get ’em!” in an early stage??? It makes sense, doesn’t it? If I lived in Texas, I’d be absolutely thrilled to participate in such a study…But, as things stand, I wouldn’t be eligible…I’m too “healthy”…

Very frustrating!!! (To say the least.)

Anyway, today is a national holiday in Italy, and the sun has just come out, so Stefano and I are about to set off for the Parco della Piana (near Florence) to do some bird watching. We hope to see some “babies”! That would be lovely. 🙂

I’m a huge fan of TED talks. I’ve posted some here in the past, notably the one about the JQ1 molecule, and I make sure to watch a few talks every month, if I have time…even on topics that are, or seem to be, completely unrelated to anything that is of interest to me. I remember watching a talk on bugs, e.g….and being compleeeeetely fascinated… 🙂

Today, though, I watched a talk that really resonated with me. Wait until you hear the final part…My reaction was to say “WOW!” out loud. And I think you will, too. This paragraph introduces Dr. Gawande’s talk: 

Our medical systems are broken. Doctors are capable of extraordinary (and expensive) treatments, but they are losing their core focus: actually treating people. Doctor and writer Atul Gawande suggests we take a step back and look at new ways to do medicine — with fewer cowboys and more pit crews. Surgeon by day and public health journalist by night, Atul Gawande explores how doctors can dramatically improve their practice using something as simple as a checklist.

Here is the link: http://goo.gl/CcW6G 

Hmmm. I have a final question: does oncology have checklists? 

“Better is possible. It does not take genius. It takes diligence. It takes moral clarity. It takes ingenuity. And above all, it takes a willingness to try.” Atul Gawande

Whenever I decide it’s time to do some research and writing for the blog, something always seems to pop up (work, mainly…which is good, of course!), and I’m forced to abandon my good intentions. Well, “things” have been popping up all week, and now it’s Friday! How did that happen??? 😉

Don’t get me wrong: I’m happy it’s Friday. Friday means that Stefano and I will be spending two full days together, plus there’s lots going on in Florence this weekend. The 2012 edition of the city’s “Mostra Internazionale dell’Artigianato” (one of Italy’s oldest and famous arts and crafts fair) opens on Saturday, e.g. It’s tiring but (almost) always interesting. And fun…But take my advice: if you’re going to the Artigianato, wear super comfy shoes…there’s a lot of walking involved…

Let’s see, what else? Later today I’m playing cards and then having dinner with a group of funny gals at my best friend’s house.  Fun fun fun. 

Anyway, point is: no time for research. Not today.

And so I’m going to give you the links to a couple of interesting Natural News articles posted by a blog reader (thanks) on Facebook:

A write-up on parsley (good source of apigenin): http://goo.gl/Ejt58 And here is a bit of info on parsley “safety”(source: Drugs.com): http://goo.gl/Uka2H 

A write-up on cayenne pepper (capsaicin kills MM cells!): http://goo.gl/v24WN 

I just read another really interesting bit of news…Cholesterol, a cancer-fighter? 😯 Here’s the link: http://goo.gl/gubei

Okay, now for some fun. Here is a really CUTE kitten video that I watched this morning…Made me chuckle: http://goo.gl/LMGdY 

I’d like to end this “post” by adding a photo of my own real-life kitty, my crazy and irresistible Pinga, quietly resting in the hammock of the new, ceiling-high cat tree (= a big hit with our furry ones, by the way). Awwww…

Well, if we decide to skip the Artigianato, and/or if the weekend weather doesn’t allow us to go birding (it’s been raining almost nonstop all week), I’ll probably have time to post some research-related stuff this weekend. In the meantime, have fun, y’all, and take care! 😀

Sometimes I get notes from readers with pets. Pets with cancer. The readers usually ask me about curcumin doses for animals. It’s a tough topic, but I have written a few posts about it (see, e.g., my March 11 2010 and October 11 2007 posts).

Well, today, thanks to a Google Alert, I stumbled across the story of a dog named Lucy. For the past year, Lucy has been in remission from nasal cancer. She has taken a combo of natural extracts, including curcumin. Luckily for us, her “owner” decided to post her story on a blog, with videos and photos: http://goo.gl/f5Swt Three cheers for Lucy!!!

Speaking of dogs, today I watched a video showing a playful dog trying to get a “stranger” (…) to throw him (her?) a stick: http://goo.gl/UnF9x Very high on the cute factor! 🙂 Enjoy!

Some blog readers have asked me to ask all of you out there if by any chance you’ve tried the “Meriva” curcumin. If so, do you have any results? I’m curious, too, even though I have such a huge supply of Doctor’s Best (the 500 mg capsule form) that I won’t be trying anything new for months…But still, I’d love to know…Thanks!

A reader sent me the link to this “Medical News Today” article about a recent, comparative Meriva study: http://goo.gl/bhGiE Since I don’t have access to the full study, I don’t know what type of “corresponding unformulated curcuminoid mixture” was used in this comparative test…that would be a bit of interesting info, methinks…oh well…

The abstract of the original study can be found here: http://goo.gl/QldHu Interesting quote: …the major plasma curcuminoid after administration of Meriva was not curcumin (1a), but demethoxycurcumin (1b), a more potent analogue in many in vitro anti-inflammatory assays. Well, well…

Anyway, for the first time since I tested BCM-95 (with terrrrrrrible results), I am tempted to try something new…But not until I finish what I already have…especially since the price of curcumin has soared in recent months…mamma mia!  😯

At the beginning of April, Vaxil BioTherapeutics released the interim results from its Phase I and II vaccine trial in multiple myeloma patients. The full shebang is available online for free, so I don’t need to do much…commenting (though I probably will, hehe): http://goo.gl/ec1ZI

The vaccine, called ImMucin, targets something called MUC1 (the “Muc” in “ImMucin”!) = a gene that can cause cancer also known as an “oncoprotein.” As we can read in the above-mentioned press release, MUC1 is present in 90% of all tumors. OF ALL TUMORS. Myeloma, too, of course. Myeloma cells thrive on MUC1…but when this oncoprotein is blocked, they all die (see this Dana Farber 2012 study, e.g.: http://goo.gl/zmvNR). A no-brainer, eh…

I’ve already written about this vaccine (see my January 19 2012 “apigenin” post: http://goo.gl/X01ht), mainly because apigenin—a natural compound found mainly in celery and parsley—also inhibits MUC1…How about that? So hey, this is something we can all do…I mean, while waiting for more info to be released, it can’t hurt to increase our intake of celery and other apigenin-containing foods (but please be careful about eating too much parsley, which could be toxic in high doses…My above-mentioned post includes a bunch of warnings, so please have a look at it first…). 

Back to the Vaxil press release now. Only seven multiple myeloma patients have thus far been treated with the ImMucin vaccine. And here are the preliminary results: the vaccine has a very high safety profile. No side effects were observed with the exception of minor local irritation which all resolved themselves within 24 hours without the need for any additional treatment or medical intervention. Sounds good…

And, after only being given 2-4 doses (out of 12), all the patients had a robust and specific immune response. Indeed, some of the patients’ cancer markers stabilized or even decreased. And three out of seven patients are in complete response now. No news on how the four others are doing, though. But this is a press release whose main goal seems to be that of announcing a company merger, so I suppose the lack of medical details is to be expected.

Now here is a really interesting…and important titbit: Firstly, ImMucin can be offered to a very wide section of the population with no need for complicated and expensive personalization or prior selection based on the patient’s immune system. Second, ImMucin has the ability that may enable it to cope with the tendency of the tumor to evade the immune response and develop resistance to treatment. Aha!

Well, that’s what we know so far. It looks very good on paper, but of course we have to keep in mind that the vaccine producers themselves are releasing their own data. So before getting too excited, I’d like to see some independent trial data. Still…

Fingers crossed! 🙂

P.S. I almost forgot to mention that my blog’s commenting problems seem to have been solved (thanks, Beth!)…shhhht, don’t let the spammers know! 😉 So go ahead and post a comment, if you wish. Oh, if you notice that it isn’t published immediately, that simply means that I’m not at the computer (I have to approve all comments, you see…). 

Today I meant to read and post about one of the full studies lying on my desktop, but a blog reader sent me the link to a video that made me laugh out loud, especially at the end. I just had to share it! And, while I’m at it, I might as well post the link to almost too-incredible-to-believe story that I read yesterday…

First, the funny link: http://goo.gl/MDyBC 

And now you can watch a video and/or read about a teenager who, 18 years ago, ran from chemotherapy treatments, chose alternative remedies (including diet) and is now, at age 34, cancer free: http://goo.gl/xC4AD An interesting story, for sure…

P.S. This morning I received (more) messages from blog readers telling me that they aren’t able to post any comments on the blog. Okay. Well, at least we now KNOW there is a problem. The Healthblogs manager will fix it, and I’m sure things will get back to normal soon. Thanks for your help (and your patience!). 🙂

P.P.S.S. Today is Piccolo’s birthday (here’s a recent photo of my boy on the new cat tree). He’s nine years old. We know the exact birthDAYS of only two of our cats, simply because they were born in a neighbor’s garden: one of them is Piccolo, of course; the other is Peekaboo, five years old. As for our other three cats, we “rescued” them  from the street, so we can only guess at their ages: Puzzola, Priscilla and Pinga, respectively eleven, seven and almost three, more or less…we think…

Anyway, happy birthday, auguri!, Piccolo! My handsome boy who still brings toy balls to me and “asks” me to throw them down the stairs so he can retrieve them…who fills our bed with balls during the night…who”skypes” with my parents and watches nature documentaries on TV. I think he’s the smartest cat I’ve ever had…certainly one of the most affectionate (loves forehead “bumps”!) and loudest purrers (though perhaps not as loud as Smokey, the world’s loudest purrcat: http://goo.gl/YwIxs  😉 )…

Okay, I’m off to read a full study! Yay! 

(Continued from my April 11th post…)

We had a memorable lunch in Pitigliano. Actually, come to think of it, we ate incredibly well everywhere in the Maremma. And (much) more cheaply than in Florence, that’s for sure. Anyway, if you ever plan to visit the lovely town of Pitigliano, let me know, and I’ll give you the name of the family-run trattoria where we ate the best “pici,” which is a type of handmade pasta, similar to fat spaghetti, traditionally made just with water and flour…but in this small restaurant the pici chef added egg whites to the pasta dough to keep the pici from disintegrating when thrown in boiling water…smart, huh? 

Pici all’aglione…mmmmh, finger-licking good. “Aglio” in Italian means “garlic” and “-one” is a suffix that means “big,” so “aglione” literally means “big garlic.” And in fact this recipe calls for a thick tomato sauce made with quite a lot of garlic (= big garlic!)…Based on the family recipe we were kindly given at the restaurant, you take out the slightly crushed garlic  from the tomato sauce before it browns, then you add a hot red pepper and finally a splash of vinegar…It’s a simple recipe, but you have to know what you’re doing…Stefano, who is the best cook I know (well, on second thought, he shares first place with my best friend here in Florence), made pici all’aglione yesterday, and we went into “pici” heaven again… 🙂

When we entered the above-mentioned trattoria, the sun was still out and it was warm enough for me to have taken off my sweater. But by the time we’d finished lunch, a very cold wind had picked up and it was pouring rain. Luckily (!), I’d listened to the weather forecast first thing in the morning, so Stefano and I had stuffed our Skomer Island heavy and warm rain gear into our backpacks, even though there was no sign of a cloud when we first set out.

Covered from head to toe, the wind and pelting rain didn’t bother us. We continued our tour of Pitigliano…you can see the wet streets in two of my photos. Not a soul in sight…too cold!

By the time we left Pitigliano, the sun was out again. Weird weather! We made a quick stop at Sorano (photo no. four, zigzagging down, on the right. This is a view from the panoramic terrace, looking down toward the river), a small and ancient town built on a tuff cliff. But here’s a bit of advice: visit the smaller towns first, then go to Pitigliano, otherwise you will probably be disappointed…

The following day (Easter Monday) was an absolutely glorious, sunny day. So we decided to go to the Natural Park of the Maremma, which, by the way, was the first natural park in Tuscany: http://goo.gl/sYBd0 

The trails were divided into “easy, intermediate and difficult.” We decided to take one of the intermediate, panoramic trails, called the A2 or “Two Towers” trail, which was about 6 kilometers long (= a three hour, non stop walk; it took us longer, since we stopped to take photos and/or rest).

The A2 trail takes you up a hill, through rather thick woods, all the way up to the ruins of a 12th century tower (called Castelmarino), a watch tower that was used mainly to spot pirates. As you can see, we had a splendid view of the Tuscan coastline from up there (photo no. 5).

Once you’ve rested a bit and taken in the views, not only of the sea but also of the mountains behind you, you are faced with a rather steep and treacherous descent (photo no. 6) on the other side of the hill. This “trail” was filled with warning/danger signs telling you to watch your step or else…! If you manage not to slip and fall 😉 , you will end up in a thick pine forest. Level ground…phew…relief! From there it’s an easy walk out to the beach.

And the beach…ahhhh, what can I say? Stunning. You can see the islands of Elba and Giglio in front of you. Stefano wanted to hike up another cliff to the second watch tower, but I decided to stay on the beach and relax in the sun. Off he went (this is an important point, as you will soon see).

After resting a bit, listening to the idle, mostly food-related chatter of my Italian neighbors–entire families who’d brought huge luncheons with them, from pizza to sandwiches with porchetta (= oven or spit roasted suckling pig flavored with different seasonings), mmmh, even though I don’t eat porchetta, you’ve just gotta love Italians having a picnic!–I took off my socks and shoes, rolled up my jeans and stuck my feet in the water (note: nobody else did that…Yes, the water was coldish, but not THAT cold…but Italians like their water to be quite warm…). Ahhh, bliss. I walked around in the water for a while and hunted for seashells. 

Suddenly I heard someone shout: “hey look, there’s a fox!” I turned, and there it was. A little adorable furry creature running down the dunes toward me. I rushed to grab my camera and took as many photos as I could. This is one of the best. And it’s not even “cropped,” so you can tell how close the fox got to me. 

You’re not supposed to feed the wild animals in the park. In my opinion, there should be warning signs to that effect posted everywhere. But there aren’t. I have to admit that feeding the cute fox was my first instinct, too. But Stefano and I had brought only a bottle of water and a few cookies with us, so I couldn’t have fed the fox anyway.

Just as someone nearby was throwing some bread to the fox, one of the park guards came running and yelling “nooo, don’t feed the fox!” Thing is, you don’t want the wild inhabitants of the park to get used to being fed by humans. It could be really dangerous for them. Makes sense. But this fox didn’t know the park rules and was happy to grab the piece of bread and rush off down the beach…away from the guard and toward another family, probably…

When Stefano got back from his climb, I concealed a smile and asked him how he’d liked the view from up there. He said it had been nice, but that the view had been nicer from the first tower. Trying really hard not to gloat, I asked him if he wanted to see what I’d photographed on the beach while he’d been gone. “Sure,” he replied. You should have seen the expression on his face when he saw the fox. He was so disappointed that I didn’t have the heart to laugh at him… 🙂

On our way out of the park, which included a walk through an olive grove (and there I took one of my favorite photos ever, here on the right), we encountered two more foxes. They came right out of the bushes, asking us to feed them (why else would they come so close?). If we’d had any food with us, it would have been really hard not to share it. Luckily, we had nothing with us. But both encounters meant that Stefano was finally able to come out of his “fox photo” funk. Of course, taking a photo of a fox on the beach is much more unusual than taking a photo of a fox in the middle of a pine forest (hehe, sorry, can’t help it)…

We left the Maremma in the early afternoon. But we vowed to go back there next winter to see the flamingos in the bird reserve…

P.S. Because of an increase in dumb “spam” attacks, the Healthblogs manager added some extra protection to my blog. Since then, though, I’ve noticed a decrease in the number of comments, and I’ve heard from some blog readers complaining they had so much trouble posting comments that they finally gave up. So I have a favor to ask: even if you hadn’t planned on commenting on this post (or earlier ones, for that matter), please do so, so I can check to see if the blog still has a “posting comments” problem. Thanks a bunch!!! 🙂 

My cousin posted this link on his Facebook profile, and I just had to share it, even though (as you will see) it’s really an ad for…something. But I thought it was really funny: http://goo.gl/Q7GKM

And then there’s this video, showing a CNN reporter giggling while reporting on…”Dyngus Day”: http://goo.gl/ERSYj  My favorite quote: “It’s funny because it has a Y in it…” The RidicuList, indeed! 🙂