Today I’m going to introduce a rather bizarre topic…a recent discovery concerning the surprising anticancer properties of a terribly dangerous hallucinogenic drug, which here in Italy is still, unfortunately!, immensely popular in discotheques and dance clubs among young folks, mainly because it gives them a crazy sense of euphoria, brushing aside any feelings they might have of anxiety and fatigue, which means they can spend several hours dancing and having “fun” (!) without stopping…The common name of this awful, dangerous drug is “ecstasy.”

Here in Italy those young disco-going, ecstasy-taking Italians dance all night and then, in the early morning hours, get into their cars all confused and dizzy, frequently causing accidents. Deadly accidents. It happens almost every Saturday. Well, there is a lot of info online about this terrible drug, which has very serious short-term AND long-term effects…from blurred vision to strokes. But harping on drugs is not the point of my post today…

The point is: what does ecstasy have to do with myeloma? Well, some of our MM, MGUS and SMM support group members on Facebook have recently brought up and discussed the results of a recent ecstasy/cancer study (as you may know, I am a co-administer of that support group, see FB link on right-hand side of blog). Today, after Beth A.’s comment (yesterday’s post), I decided to give it a go…

First, have a look at this “Time” article: http://goo.gl/lAVbl Please note the following sentence: the dose of ecstasy needed to fight cancer would have to be so large, it would kill the patient. No comment needed…!!!

However, the article notes that a University of Birmingham team has recently developed and tested two ecstasy analogues. And their lab tests show that these compounds can KILL blood cancer cells, including myeloma ones. Now, before getting too excited about all this, let’s not forget that so far this team has been working with CELLS. So these are in vitro tests only…

Moving on to another, possibly related (?) topic…The “Time” article discussion concerning neurotransmitters reminded me of something I’d written about in 2008. About curcumin. See my September 12 2008 post: http://goo.gl/mJSnu

I have no idea if the antidepressant effect of curcumin can be linked in any way to the recent discovery made by the Birmingham team, but here goes anyway…In 2005, a team of Chinese researchers discovered that the chronic administration of curcumin had an antidepressant effect on rats. Curcumin, they found, increases the levels of serotonin in the brain, and it affects brain dopamine levels, thereby reducing depression…See my post for more details and links to the studies…

Now, let’s go back for a second to the “Times” article where we can read the following: Intriguingly, receptors for serotonin, dopamine and other neurotransmitters aren’t found just in the brain–they’re also located on immune cells. WHAAAT?!!! They’re located on IMMUNE cells? Intriguing(ly), indeed! 🙂 Since I’m not a scientist, though, I find myself unable to put together the pieces of this puzzle. All I have is a hunch. Not enough. And so I find myself forced to move on…drat…drat…drat…(Comments welcome, as usual!)

Okay, now for another interesting titbit. This morning I discovered that a clinical trial testing curcumin together with Prozac (scientific name: fluoxetine) was completed last year: http://goo.gl/1D1F8

That was particularly…intriguing to me since, as the “Time” article tells us, the Birmingham “ecstasy” researchers […] patented the new cancer indication and tried to get pharmaceutical companies to fund clinical trials of fluoxetine. Unfortunately, none were interested. Prozac can be obtained so cheaply, now that it’s off patent, that if even the drug were approved for the cancer indication, it wouldn’t be profitable.

Not profitable? Hmmm, now, where have we heard THAT before? 🙂 And, surprise surprise, the clinical trial testing curcumin and Prozac took place in…India.

Case closed…

To be honest, today I don’t have the energy or the desire to launch into another tirade against the medical status quo and/or the evils brought to us by profit-chasing big pharma. I’d just like to point out that if you log onto Pubmed you will find several recent studies on the antidepressant effects of curcumin, such as this 2011 one: http://goo.gl/8u6JF And, if you are feeling brave enough, you can go read this full scientific study about curcumin and depression: http://goo.gl/qtwdf

In conclusion, it’s simply too early to tell what these ecstasy analogues might mean for us myeloma folks…

Just my opinion, as usual…

Today I tried to make my blog’s Help Page a bit prettier, but I’m not very good at that. Not like Hanna! 🙂 But anyway, pretty or NOT (more like the latter!), I did update my “Help Page.” To have a look at it, just scroll down the right-hand side of my blog…or click here: http://margaret.healthblogs.org/good-or-bad-for-myeloma/.

Let’s see…mainly, I added my findings on aspirin and NAC. Oh, and I also added the link to my curcumin protocol, which is actually the protocol that Prof. Aggarwal sent to me in January of 2006…and the link to my Page on side effects and warnings. 

From the messages I receive daily from new readers via my blog’s Contact form, I have come to realize that my blog is overwhelming (and not just to “newbies”), so that is why a Help Page might be of some…well…help! Hope so, anyway! 🙂 

Okay, it’s time to take some time…off. It’s the weekend, after all! Speaking of which, if you’re anywhere near Hurricane Irene this weekend, please stay safe! Even though Irene seems to be weakening a bit, she still looks like a really bad storm…I’ve been through a few of those…no fun… 

Nothing like a few sea views on what is promising to be another boiling hot day in Florence (but last night was quite cool, yay!).

I took the first two photos at Minack Theatre, which is an open-air theatre built in the 1930s (?) into the granite cliffside overlooking Porthcurno Bay, not too far from Land’s End, in Cornwall.

Wikipedia tells me that minack from the Cornish meynek means a stony or rocky place. Anyway, the first photo gives a view of Porthcurno beach…the second is a shot of the theatre taken from above. It was a stunning place. And we happened to be there on one of the rare (during our holiday) sunny days, which made it even more perfect…

My third photo, which came out a bit on the dark side (it was late afternoon, and the sun was in the wrong place…or perhaps we were in the wrong place… 😉 ), shows St. Michael’s Mount…yes, similar to Mont St-Michel in Normandy, France…

During low tide you can walk over to the (tidal) island–and in fact, if you look closely, you will be able to see the beginning of the causeway–but if the tide is high, as it was when we chose to go there, you have to get there by ferry boat. Or swim. 🙂 We chose the ferry boat (the one we missed can be seen on the left in the photo)…

And, in case you were wondering, this is another National Trust property ;), though the castle, perched on the top of the island, is still the official residence of Baron St Levan…

My last two photos are of Durdle Door and the Man of War Bay. We spent a couple of days near the end of our holiday on the Jurassic Coast (which was completely booked…sigh). What can I say about the Jurassic Coast? Stunning, and very relaxing. And even though it rained most of the time, there is always something entertaining to do (National Trust properties, e.g.; hmmm, since I keep mentioning the NT, I suppose I should declare officially that I am in no way affiliated with it!).

Yes, we did look for fossils on the beach at low tide but found none…though Stefano and I did bring home a pile of, er, promising-looking (?) stones… 🙂 Now all we have to do is get a small hammer and open them…carefully…

Durdle Door is a really magical, lovely place. Even the crowds didn’t bother me. We sat on the cliffs above the Door, admiring the views, soaking up the sun rays (vitamin D!) and watching swimmers diving happily off the limestone rocks…

So beautiful…so relaxing…

A few notes of interest: Durdle Door is a natural limestone arch near Lulworth, in Dorset. According to Wikipedia, Durdle is derived from an Old English word ‘thirl’ meaning bore or drill. Even though the Door is privately owned, it is open to the public. And in fact I watched (with a bit of apprehension) teenage kids climb all over the first part, the less steep part, of the arch. Eeek…

The last photo, as I mentioned, shows a view of the perfectly-shaped Man of War Bay, which is right next to Durdle Door. I tell ya, if we’d had our bathing suits with us, we’d most certainly have gone for a swim down on that lovely beach…The sea looked absolutely glorious…

Oh well…next time! 🙂

P.S. Since I don’t wish to bore you (and me!) with TOO many photos (I took hundreds), I decided to skip the ones I took in many other places, such as Tintagel Castle, which is associated with the King Arthur legends…in fact, this castle is supposed to be the birthplace of King Arthur…

One of the places we visited in Cornwall was the Eden Project, which is located in an abandoned 170-year-old china clay quarry. One of the friends who was travelling with us wanted to go there because she remembered that (part of) one of the James Bond movies, “Die Another Day,” starring Pierce Brosnan, was filmed there in 2002. And, since we all like plants, plus I was curious to see a real live turmeric plant (see photo no. 3 below, left), off we went.

In a nutshell, the Eden Project is the world’s largest greenhouse. It has been called the eighth wonder of the world, I read this morning. Its two massive, weird-looking, artificial, covered “biomes” (see my first two photos–the one with Honey gives an outside view, the other, an inside view) host and protect a huge variety of plants from all over the world…The Rainforest biome contains tropical plants; the second biome contains plants from the Mediterranean/South African/Californian area.

These two “domes” are made of hundreds of huge hexagonal and pentagonal plastic bubbles (that’s what they look like, at any rate) supported by steel frames. There are no internal supports, as far as I could tell. Bizarre. But it works.

We spent most of our time inside the Rainforest biome, which is 3.9 acres (55 metres/180 feet high, 100 metres/328 feet wide, and 200 metres/656 feet long…ah yes, it’s BIG). Boyohboy is it hot in there! And it gets progressively hot as you wander up the path leading towards the panoramic platform. In fact, it got to be so hot and damp up there that our camera lenses clouded over (so we couldn’t take any more photos), we began sweating madly and one of my friends started feeling a bit ill, so we stopped to rest in an air-conditioned chamber so that she could recover.

In the end, we didn’t quite make it to the top of the biome…the heat and damp were too overwhelming (I mean, after all, the four of us went to the UK in part to escape from the Tuscan summer heat…!). But even though we didn’t get to the panoramic platform, see photo no. 2, we found what we were looking for—namely, the cocoa plant (yeah, chocolate! Photo no. 4), the nutmeg tree, the curry leaf plant, and various other spice plants, from paprika to cinnamon…And we had a very nice baobab smoothie, made with baobab pulp, coconut milk, pineapple juice and some mint.

At one point, I came across a plant that I’d never heard of—Devil’s Tongue, or Amorphophallus konjac. It’s an eastern Asian edible plant. I took a photo of the sign describing its medicinal properties, and here follows the transcription: As it contains no fat and is low in calories it is suitable as a diet food. Due to its high fibre content it can help reduce the causes of cancer, heart disease and gallstones. It is also used as a treatment for wounds, tumours, skin diseases plus snake, insect and rodent bites. Interesting. The photo came out a bit too blurry…sorry about that.

For me, the most interesting part of the second biome, the Mediterranean area one, was the area devoted to chilli pepper varieties (see photo no. 5). I had no idea there were so many. One of the hottest chillies in the world is called Dorset Naga (Capsicum chinese)…On the Scoville Scale of Heat, it measures 1.6 million. YIKES! If you eat an entire one of these chillies, you will probably end up in the hospital, so beware! Compare that to cayenne pepper, which is “only” 400,000. Wow, I cannot even imagine…and I really enjoy hot, spicy food, mind you…

By the way, the Scoville scale measures the amount of capsaicin (=the myeloma killer, yeah!) present in the fruit. And here is a bit of trivia: pure capsaicin measures 15 MILLION units on the Scoville scale…YIKES!!! And did you know that law enforcement grade pepper spray measures 5 million units? That’s the equivalent of more than three Dorset Nagas! Ouch.

Now we get to the controversial part of this post.

I was fascinated by the Eden Project, and in a way I still am, but I have to admit at being absolutely horrified and shocked by what I read a short while ago on various websites…for instance, one of the EP’s partners is a British mining company (!!!!!!) called Rio Tinto. What the…??? This company is supposed to begin (or perhaps has already begun…) mining in Madagascar for titanium dioxide, which means that a large area of that splendid coastal forest will be devastated, with unimaginable consequences for the local flora and fauna. Helloooo????? Where is the positive, environmental friendly message in that??? 🙁

I also read that the Eden Project accepts funds from some rather nasty corporate environmental offenders/polluters such as the Syngenta Foundation, which was founded in 2000 by Novartis (hmmm, where have I heard that name before? 😉 ) and AstraZeneca, both promoters of genetically modified technology (HORROR!!!!!!). Both of these companies manufacture hazardous chemicals, such as paraquat…No, I’m not kidding…and, to be honest, I didn’t know that Novartis was involved in crap like this…not that I’m surprised, eh…! Not at all. 

And then I read that the Eden Project, which is supposed to make the world into a better place, hah, has not taken a position on genetically modified foodstuff. HRRRUMPH!!! Shame shame shame!!!!! 🙁

My post began as a celebration of the Eden Project but has turned into a partial condemnation, due to the EP’s ties to the evil, polluting corporate world…I am verrrrry disappointed, to say the least…

Oh, I wanted to mention one more thing. Out of curiosity, I read the biographies of a few past and present members of the EP’s board of trustees, and I was most definitely not impressed—defence contractors as well as Nestlé (evil Nestlé!) and chemical industry executives…simply incredible. Or perhaps not, come to think of it. Well, there is a lot more information online, if you are interested in reading more about the EP’s corporate ties…

In retrospect, had I known about all of those negative corporate polluter connections, I probably wouldn’t have gone there at all. But I have to admit that it was interesting to see a real, live turmeric plant as well as other tropical spice plants that I wouldn’t be able to see otherwise…And it’s also true that the EP has provided jobs for lots of people in an economically depressed area…

But now I very much doubt the EP will change the world, which is what it intended to do…originally…theoretically…

Well…who’d have thought my post would take such a disappointing turn…

Premise: I like signs. 

I like reading street signs or signs that I see in shop windows or tacked on people’s doors. Signs of all sorts. Mostly, I enjoy taking photographs of signs…the funnier, the better.

Yes, photographing gorgeous landscapes or handsome buildings is all fine and dandy…but when I get back home from a holiday, what really puts a smile to my face is looking at the quirky photos I took.

And many of those photos are of amusing signs… 🙂

Therefore, here follows a collection of some of my best “sign” photos from Somerset, Dorset, Devon and Cornwall…

The top two–Volvo and Opening Times–were taken in Dunster village, Somerset. I found other “-ish” shop signs during our trip…and they always amused me. Besides, that Volvo sign is precious…one of my favourites!

I took the third photo (“If you want breakfast in bed…” on the right) in Lacock village (see yesterday’s post). Inside the organic soap shop. Hehe. 

Photo no. 4 (on the left): this “One way…Another” sign was stuck on the roof of a thatched cottage in Porlock Weir, a small, cute village and harbour located about 1.5 miles from the coastal village of Porlock (which apparently boasts the most elderly population in England!) in Somerset… 

Photo no. 5: This “Slow!…” sign (on the right) stands at the entrance to the “prettiest village in England,” i.e. Castle Combe (see yesterday’s post). I thought I’d misread it as we were driving past, so, as soon as we’d parked our car, I walked back to have a second look.

Castle Combe also had some handwritten “Slow please. Ducks on road” signs, which was nice for the ducks… 🙂

Land’s End, photo no. 6 (above, left), is a headland in south-western Cornwall. It’s actually the most westerly point in England (mainland, of course)…

I wondered about the “John O’Groats 874” reference (btw, sorry about the shadow that almost entirely obscures the lettering) until we returned to Florence, or rather, until I finally got my hands on a computer and was able to look it up. From Wikipedia: Land’s End to John O’Groats in Scotland is a distance of 838 miles (1,349 km) by road and this Land’s End to John O’Groats distance is often used to define races, walks or charitable events in the UK. Ah, ok. All clear, now… 

Photo no. 7 (also on the left): I took this “Thank you for…” sign inside a tea room in the city of Wells (Somerset) where we visited the cathedral, of course, as well as roaming around the Saturday market located near the cathedral, where Stefano and I bought some Stilton cheese to bring back with us to Florence. I still can’t believe we actually did that…but yes, we did, and in fact we ate our bits of Stilton last night, together with my parents. 🙂 Does “perky” have a different meaning in British English? If not…well, then that definitely is a bit of an odd sign…

Last but not least, here is the helpful “Keep Calm” series. Hehe. I found the complete series (of which these are but a few) in a shop window in Exeter, in Devon, which we visited mainly for its famous cathedral…but where we also ended up having perhaps the best meal of our entire visit, at Angela’s, in New Bridge Street.

After raving with Angela about our meal (I had sea bass surrounded by a lovely sauce that included caramelized ginger, spring onions and definitely some chilli…), the chef, Richard, came out of the kitchen to meet us, which we enjoyed very much…

Okay, now, since you might begin thinking that this is turning into a travel/food blog (NOT!), let me add a link to an article I just finished reading about a new study suggesting that MGUS patients do not receive adequate evaluation, follow-up, or treatment for their condition: http://goo.gl/08FJ6 Eh…

Hottest city….in all of EUROPE??? No kidding…Ah, which city, you ask? Er, that would be Florence. Yes, Florence, Italy. My city…sigh…40 degrees expected here again today…

I ventured outside briefly this morning, just enough time to run a few errands, and it was
36 degrees by the time I got home…mammamiaaaa! Pant pant…

Stefano and I returned from the UK yesterday. Let me tell ya, it was quite a shock, going from temperatures of 15° (UK) to 40° (Italy)…Celsius, of course! In fact, as soon as we descended from the plane and met our first blast of horrendous heat at the airport in Pisa, I turned to Stefano and said: “Holy cats, let’s get back on the next flight to the UK!” I was joking, of course…or was I? 😉

Well, as tempted as we were, we decided against returning to the UK, which means we are back home in HOT Florence now. Pant, pant. But seriously, all joshing aside, it’s good to be home again…

We’re in Penzance, Cornwall…will be here for a few days before driving back up the coast. We LOVE Cornwall! We’ve had such a lovely time so far, in spite of the fact that the weather hasn’t been that great.  But we put on our rain gear and go out anyway. We even went on a coastal walk in the Exmoor National Park in the pouring rain. And who says English food isn’t good? We’ve had some fabulous meals! Anyway, I have to be quick…This is the first time I’ve been able to get my hands on a computer, and it may well be the last until we return to Italy. The reason I can’t stay here long is that this computer belongs to our very kind and helpful B&B host. But I just wanted to say a quick CIAO to everyone…hope you are all well. I don’t have time to read any comments or messages right now, so please don’t get antsy if I don’t respond…I do NOT have access to my e-mail…

Another week on holiday…OK, time to go off and have some fun! Ciaooooo! 🙂

Stefano and I, and two of our best friends, are leaving tomorrow for the UK. We’re mainly going to visit Cornwall, but also parts of Devon, Somerset and an itty-bitty sliver of the Jurassic coast (I want to come home with a fossil! ;)).

I’ll be checking my e-mail and blog today…but for the next two weeks I doubt I’ll be able to get online much, perhaps not at all. We’re not taking a laptop with us this time…However, if we stay in a place that has a computer, I might just sneak a peek, hehe…

I’m not leaving, however, without publishing a few links that should give us some food for thought…

Here’s an interesting article on statins: http://goo.gl/5mf9u. I’ve never taken any, but a couple of members of my family have, luckily not for long. I thought this sentence was of particular interest: “Several lifestyle factors also play a role in a healthy heart. Exercise regularly. Stop smoking. Spend time with supportive family and friends. That includes your animal friends too — a study showed that owning a cat is almost 25 times more effective in lowering the risk of dying from heart disease than taking a statin!” (Click on the “a study” link to read the “cat” article). So, OWNING A CAT REDUCES ONE’S RISK OF DEVELOPING HEART DISEASE, huh? Hmmm, let’s see…since I have FIVE cats, does that lower my heart disease risk by 125%???? 😉 

Next item. This one’s scary, reaaaaaaaaally scary, but please pay attention, especially if you take supplements of any sort. Dick (no comment…) Durbin, a U.S. senator from Illinois, has recently introduced a super sneaky bill that would crack down on the testing, labeling, and sale of dietary supplements nationwide. See: http://goo.gl/UXEzU. Now, as you know, I’m all in favour of testing and whatnot. However, this bill smells a lot like a disgustingly rotten pile of anchovies to me. It looks like the big drug companies are trying to get rid of our relatively cheap supplements so that they can take over the market with their own, more expensive & probably less effective stuff. Okay, I’m worried, I must admit, since I buy all of my curcumin in the U.S., then bring it (or have it brought) over to Italy. The Alliance for Natural Health has created an Action Alert that you can sign (easy peasy), see here: http://goo.gl/UkYOw Please please please contact your senator/s about this squeaky sneaky bill!!!

And finally, here’s a Myeloma Beacon article on myeloma and fatigue: http://goo.gl/cL1Vt 

Soooo, I hope everyone has a wonderful August…and…I’ll see you here in two weeks (if not sooner…yeah, probably sooner…)! Ciao! 🙂

Today I’d like to plug a fascinating book…a book that every household should possess, even a cancer-less household. It’s an A to Z guide to FIFTY (!) spices that have been shown to possess healing potential for more than 150 (!) health conditions (even wrinkles, no kidding).   

Since I haven’t had the time (yet) to read it all, I’ve just skimmed through it and checked out some of the 50 recipes (hey, how about some cinnamon and banana French toast or some roasted tomato soup with fennel and mint or some spiced vegetable fritters? SLURP!) and the descriptions of some of these spices and their healthful properties…

“Healing Spices” is super well-organized…Each spice has its own section, which includes helpful charts illustrating which specific healthful properties the spice possesses and other pertinent information. This means that you don’t have to read the entire text if you don’t have time…all you have to do is glance at the charts. For example, opening the book at random, let’s see what we get–ah, horseradish, which may help prevent and/or treat cancer, bronchitis, cholesterol problems, ear infections, the flu, food poisoning, bacterial pneumonia, sinusitis and urinary tract infections. The chart tells us how to use horseradish, which goes well with apples, eggs and potatoes, for instance. Another chart in the horseradish section gives us a recipe for a Bavarian apple and horseradish sauce. Yummy! 

Oh, the book also provides the history and medicinal use of all the spices. Absolutely enthralling, let me tell you. 

The author of this fabbbbbulous new book is Prof. Bharat Aggarwal. No need to introduce this wonderful man…a true pioneer! It is thanks to him that I began taking curcumin in January of 2006, and for that, as well as for his ongoing kindness, support and helpfulness throughout the years, I will be eternally grateful to him. He changed my life.  

But let’s get back to his book. On the back cover we can read that rosemary is one of the most powerful antioxidants on earth, that black pepper protects brain cells and that chiles can help relieve the symptoms of arthritis. If you’re serious about making some positive dietary changes, Prof. Aggarwal tells you to include SPICES in your diet. They are loaded with health-enhancing compounds. Much more so than herbs, fruits and veggies. How about that?

And did you know that the Japanese super-hot condiment called wasabi may help you say sayonara to (at least some of) your cancer cells? Watch out, though, this stuff is super HOT! 

I really urge you to buy this book, which is also sprinkled with interesting, paragraph-long stories. The book will tell you how to use the spices, and which spices go well together. Yesterday evening, after reading some bits here and there, I felt so inspired that I made what turned out to be a lovely dish (my own creation)–scrambled eggs (which go in last) with chopped up tomatoes, onions and zucchini (from our garden), Nigella sativa (the spice that “cures everything but death” and that has anti-myeloma effects), cumin, turmeric and paprika. I also added a bit of leftover mozzarella cheese at the end. As with all Indian dishes, you start out by frying the spices, then add the rest. Anyway, it was yummmmmmy. 

In conclusion, let’s follow Prof. Aggarwal’s suggestion and add spice to our lives! 🙂