Blood Tests and A Good Story

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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! 

Bioavailability Saga

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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…

Flying Squirrel, I mean, CAT!

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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!

Blog Comments

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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!

Curcumin Dreams And Culinary Tips

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I am about to begin poring over a handful of studies on general bioavailability (sigh), but I am a bit sleepy this morning and my coffee hasn’t kicked in yet, so I thought I would share a few recent odd discoveries with y’all.

Dreaming background: I have only on extremely rare occasions in the past been able to remember my dreams. At times I might wake up with a start after a particularly bad nightmare, but I would remember very few details. And if anybody asked me right then and there what the nightmare was about, I would be hard put to answer. This has changed in recent times, it would seem.

I don’t remember exactly WHEN I became aware of this new phenomenon, but I now remember my early morning dreams. I mean, EVERY single one! I now I wake up with a sort of clear “dream movie” in my brain. I remember details, colours, language spoken (I dream in at least two languages!) and so on. How long has this been going on? I am not sure, but my best estimate is: for about a month.

Another point. I think that most people would be able to relate to the following: even when you wake up remembering a dream clearly, this memory starts fading straight away, and if you don’t tell someone or write things down immediately, you will forget everything, no matter how hard you may try to recapture the moment later on in the day. Well, right now I can remember the dream I had before waking up…more than two hours ago, although, yes, the images are beginning to fade.

Only yesterday did I think of a possible connection between remembering dreams and my sublingually-absorbed curcumin mixture.

Could curcumin be affecting parts of my brain that are normally not “awake”? Could that be possible? Is there any other explanation? Are there any brain cell experts among us who could clarify this point, or tell me that I am simply…dreaming things?

Culinary Tips: yesterday I read a Science Daily article on boiling broccoli (see: http://tinyurl.com/3xzq59). Since you can go read the article for yourself, I won’t go into any details, but, in two words, a just published Italian (YEAH!) study has shown that some cooking methods actually seem to increase the release of certain nutrients contained in vegetables, which is contrary to conventional wisdom. I did know that cooked tomatoes have a higher content of lycopene compared to their raw counterpart, but broccoli? Apparently, if you steam (NOT boil, mind you) broccoli, you increase “its content of glucosinolates, a group of plant compounds touted for their cancer-fighting abilities.” How about that? I am very glad to learn this, since Stefano and I love steamed broccoli, which we eat the Italian way, almost as a hot salad, adding extra virgin olive oil, raw chopped garlic, lemon juice and a bit of salt.

Another titbit I read yesterday, and that someone actually told me about during the Xmas holidays, is that crushing garlic before cooking with it reduces the loss of its healthful properties. I found a February 2007 Science Daily article on this: http://tinyurl.com/2zu9v3 If you cook garlic whole, you lose a lot of the healthful compounds. But if you crush or even chop it before cooking, you release an enzyme called alliinase “that catalyzes the formation of allicin, which then breaks down to form a variety of healthful organosulfur compounds.” Crush garlic and then wait at least ten minutes before cooking with it, to give this enzyme enough time to work.

This is not a new discovery, eh. A study reported in 1998 (see: http://tinyurl.com/27hh3f) showed that garlic loses its anti-cancer characteristics if roasted for 45 minutes or cooked even just for one minute (!) in a microwave oven. But the good news is that “Garlic’s anti-cancer activity was retained, however, if the herb was first chopped or crushed and allowed to stand for 10 minutes before being heated. In the case of roasted whole garlic, anti-cancer activity was partially retained if the top of the bulb was sliced off prior to heating.”

Interesting stuff. Since I eat a lot of garlic, from now on I will crush it, just as my favourite British chef Jamie Oliver ("easy peasy!") does. Okay, back to my bioavailability studies. If I find some pearls of wisdom, I will be sure to report them here…tomorrow!

Think You Know Everything? Think Again!

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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! )
 
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! )

General Bioavailability Issue

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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!

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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.

Xmas Burraco…

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This photo will give you an idea of what I have been doing during these holidays, in addition to strolling around downtown Florence and eating eating and…more eating! It’s been a busy but restful holiday. Day before yesterday, Stefano’s aunt and uncle drove up from southern Italy to celebrate the New Year with us, and brought a TON of food. So we haven’t really had to cook at all, which has been fabulous.

Getting back to my photo, though: this card game is called "burraco," which has in recent years become all the rage in Italy. (Note: I have been playing it for years, that is, way before it became so popular.) There are burraco clubs that organize charity tournaments and even serious competitions. There is even an Italian Burraco Federation (see: http://www.fibur.it/ if you don’t believe me ) with rules and regulations and a statute. So hey, this is serious stuff. 

I usually get together with three close girlfriends to play burraco, which is best played with two couples. As with any other game, it’s fun if you play with people who are NOT set on winning and get upset when they lose. Otherwise, forget it. Playing with competitive folks is NO fun! Although, okay, I admit that I do like winning…

Last but not least, in case I don’t manage to finish the research today for a post I am writing, I wanted to take this opportunity to wish everyone a VERY VERY VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Curcumin and Angiogenesis

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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!