When I first began taking curcumin, more than five years ago–in January 2006, to be exact!–there was hardly any information to be had on the active ingredient of the Indian spice turmeric. About a year later, in March 2007, I began blogging about my very positive experience (in so many unexpected ways!) with curcumin…Again, I could not find much information on the marvelous spice extract…

But since then I have noticed a slow but steady increase in the publication of articles and studies on curcumin (oh, of course, I don’t mean to imply that my blog had anything to do with this increase…! 😉 )…

Especially in recent times…

I’m verrrrry pleased, of course. The more articles we have about curcumin (and other non-toxic extracts), the more the amazing healing properties of curcumin cannot be scoffed at and ignored. It’s about time…!

Here are just a few examples of the recent stuff I’ve read.

1. A Medical News Today article reports on a new University of Michigan study on head and neck cancer and curcumin. In a nutshell, the researchers were able to cut the dose of the chemotherapy drug cisplatin by four by using a new curcumin compound, FLLL32, which also reduced chemoresistance: http://goo.gl/EVvj2 (Oh, there is a slight mistake in the article: the Indian spice is “turmeric,” not “curcumin.”) Amazing, eh?
2. A Fox News article on natural and safe anti-inflammatory “medicines” mentions curcumin (see the “Hippocrates” paragraph): http://goo.gl/o1tue
3. Curcumin keeps cancer cells at bay (Live in the Now): http://goo.gl/WjZZp
4. Curcumin is a powerful anti-inflammatory (article written by Dr. Mercola published in Foodconsumer): http://goo.gl/gzSpT Not so sure about that egg yolk concoction, though…or about the boiling bit. Hmmm…
5. The New York Times tells us that worms live longer on curcumin: http://goo.gl/SYIcX  🙂

And here is a recent Fox News (yeah, I know, I know…) video about curcumin: http://goo.gl/eElHh

I’ll stop here…So much to read, so little time!

Scary headline, eh? Yeah.

But then you read the article, and it’s not such a big deal…that is, unless you are and have been a chronic user of  Tylenol…Even in that case, however, your risk of developing blood cancer is only about 1% a year, compared to healthy folks: http://goo.gl/msUsD In spite of the “exaggerated” headline, though, it’s an interesting article…

My UK blog reader and his family left Florence this morning and are probably back in London by now…Boy, the house seems so empty without them! We really had a glorious time and hope to meet up again soon.

I wanted to tell you about a few of the almost unbelievable strokes of luck that my blog reader (= a professional photographer) had while he was here. For example:

1. Yesterday we were in San Miniato, a small hilltop town between Florence and Pisa. My friend stopped to take a few photos in one of the town squares, Piazza della Repubblica (= this photo shows part of the colorful façade of a 17th century religious seminary located in Piazza della Repubblica, which you can reach by walking down a flight of stone steps under the enclosed bridge…), while the rest of us walked ahead…down a hill toward what turned out to be a very nice ice cream parlor. 🙂 Within a few minutes he caught up to us and, with a HUGE grin on his face, he told us that, while he was in Piazza della Repubblica taking photos, he had started thinking, “Oooh, wouldn’t it be nice if a nun walked out of the seminary just now?” And, within a few seconds, a nun came out…No kidding…
2. Very early this morning he drove up to the Piazzale Michelangelo to take a few last-minute photos of Florence. Well, lo and behold, he spotted and photographed a hot air balloon flying right over the city. I mean, HELLO???, a hot air ballooooooon over Florence? Why, I have never EVER seen one here…and so early in the morning, too!!! Unbelievable…unbelievable…
3. Just before they set off for the airport, my friend and I went for a quick walk in my neighborhood. As we were going up a hill, he stopped and pointed above our heads. I looked up just in time to see a rather big red squirrel running across an electric wire. Now, I have lived in this neighborhood for more than ten years, and this is only the second time (!!!) I’ve seen a red squirrel here…(For the record: Stefano has never seen one…not in our neighborhood, I mean, or elsewhere in Italy, for that matter!)…

There are a few other similar “lucky” episodes, but I can’t recall them right now…Anyway, clearly this was my blog reader’s lucky week! Ours, too…

I haven’t had any time to do research today (ehm, I am desperately trying to catch up with my e-mails in my snippets of free time…), but I did manage to read an interesting Science Daily article on the healthful effects of tai chi & green tea on our BONES. You will be surprised, I think: http://goo.gl/gF5z1 Good stuff! Oh, speaking of which, a quick word of caution: please don’t forget that you should not drink green tea or take any supplements containing EGCG if you are taking Velcade. Or rather, you should avoid green tea/EGCG on your “Velcade day.” At a patient seminar, Dr. Brian Durie told me that it’s okay for green tea aficionados to have a cuppa on their “off-of-Velcade” days.

I also watched a funny video that made me laugh and that I hope you will enjoy, too. It shows a dog singing the blues…: http://goo.gl/gKB8V 🙂

This was one of the loveliest weekends that Stefano and I have ever had…Everything was perfect, simply purrrfect.

We’d both forgotten how stunning the Val d’Orcia is…the area around Pienza and Montepulciano…magnifica!

And it’s only a 1.5 hour drive from our home! Funny how that happens…

Stefano and I had to return to Florence last night, but our British friends are still there, exploring other bits of the region located south of Siena. They are coming back to Florence this evening.

Visiting the Val d’Orcia with them was just the icing on the cake…

I really don’t have much to say about any of my photos, except to explain that I took the first two in the ancient village of Monticchiello, about halfway between Montepulciano and Pienza. 

A simply adorable little village covered in roses and other flowers…and very neat and clean. It also didn’t hurt that we had a fantassssstic lunch there! 🙂 Very few tourists, too, which always helps…

 Photo no. 1 shows a view of the square in front of the 12th century Church of San Leonardo e Cristoforo (taken from inside the church) in Monticchiello. Photo no. 2 is just a pretty view of Monticchiello from a side street, with roses and whatnot…

 Photo no. 3 shows a typical Tuscan landscape with rolling green hills (so many different shades of green…simply magnificent…my photos don’t do justice to the beauty of this area, but that is all I have, so it will have to do…), a lone farmhouse and cypress trees…

This particular one was taken very near the ancient, and beautiful!, town of Pienza.

Photo no. 4: a view of Palazzo Massaini, near Pienza…Don’t you just love those poppies???!!!

Photo no. 5…Another view of hills and cypress trees, this time taken from the town walls of Pienza…

Well, I would like to end this picture-post by suggesting that if you’re planning a trip to Tuscany, make sure you visit the Val d’Orcia, too…

Stefano and I were so blown away that we have decided to go back and explore the entire region, especially when the sunflowers begin blooming…I can’t even imagine what it will look like (well, actually I can, since I’ve seen heaps of postcards and calendars filled with Tuscan sunflower fields…but seeing it live must be amazing…)…

 

 

Life is good. No, I take that back…

Life is GREAT!!!

 

 

Busy busy BUSY but fun fun FUN days…As I announced in my previous post, I’m spending all my free time these days with some close friends from the UK who have come to pay us a quick visit…

On Wednesday we drove up to Fiesole, a pretty hill town with splendid views of Florence. Not to be missed: Fiesole’s Roman theatre…

Yesterday was totally exhausting. Mamma mia!!! We (minus Stefano, who was at work) walked all over the centre of Florence, from Piazza San Marco to the Duomo (= the cathedral in Florence), then–cutting through tiny side streets in order to avoid the, uhm, madding crowd–down to Piazza della Signoria and the Ponte Vecchio…

After admiring the Arno River from the Ponte Vecchio, we walked to and over the next bridge, Ponte alle Grazie, to get some good shots of Florence’s most famous bridge (see above). From there we visited the church of Santa Croce. AND, of course!, Piazza Santa Croce (=the square in front of the church), which is one of my favorite places on Earth! But I have written about Santa Croce before, so I’ll try not to repeat myself. 🙂 After a quick stop at Vivoli’s for some gelato (=ice cream), we headed back home…and collapsed!

Here are a few random photos, chosen among the ones I took yesterday. As I mentioned, the first is a shot of the Ponte Vecchio taken from the Ponte alle Grazie.

Then we have a side view of the Fountain of Neptune, located in Piazza della Signoria. If you look at it closely, you will catch a glimpse, in the distance, of the very top of the famous dome of the cathedral in Florence.

Speaking of Piazza della Signoria…When we first stepped into the square, emerging into blinding brightness from one of the dark, narrow side streets, we noticed that it was quite crowded…including quite a number of policemen and secret service-looking guys…

I asked a policeman what was going on…He told me that the President of the Italian Republic, Giorgio Napolitano, was inside the Palazzo Vecchio (= the town hall of Florence, among other things) and was about to come out. Wow!

So we stayed in the square long enough to get a photo of President Napolitano, here shown walking and chatting with, on the left, Rosy Bindi (President of the Italian Democratic Party and Vice President of the Italian Chamber of Deputies) and, on the right, a rather worried-looking Matteo Renzi, Mayor of Florence…

Photo number 4 shows Benvenuto Cellini’s Perseus, holding the severed head of Medusa…This is one of the many statues located inside the Loggia dei Lanzi, = a 14th century “arched” open building on a corner of the Piazza della Signoria.

This morning, while Stefano and I went to work, our friends headed off to the stunning Val d’Orcia region, which is more or less south of the city of Siena. Stefano and I are going to join up with them tomorrow.

It should be great fun…I just hope that this glorious, not-too-hot weather holds up and that my photos of typical Tuscan landscapes, with rolling hills and cypresses and whatnot, will turn out well!!!

I am proud to announce that an “old time” blog reader/Facebook friend of mine is one of the lead authors–a group of Harvard and MIT neuroscientists–on an incredibly fascinating, newly published study on how meditation can help relieve pain, especially the distress associated with chronic pain. This study proves that we can all benefit from meditation. Here is the link to a recent Fox25 (Boston) interview that can help us get started: http://goo.gl/KaqtL

And here’s the link to the study abstract: http://goo.gl/C6u4W. For an easier-to-read summary (Science Daily), click here: http://goo.gl/xDyak Good stuff!!!

Speaking of blog readers…this evening a close friend, whom I met a few years ago through my blog (fabulous!), is arriving from the UK with his wife and son. We first met them last summer, on our way to see the puffins on Skomer Island in Wales. They are absolutely lovely people…so Stefano and I are really looking forward to seeing them and are planning lots of fun things…trips around Florence and Tuscany…

They will be spending a week with us, so I expect I will be taking lots of photos. Be prepared! 😉

Yesterday, =  our 12th wedding anniversary, Stefano and I got up at 5:40 AM (zzzzzz) in order to be at the WWF Oasis of Gabbianello, near Barberino di Mugello, by 7:30 (zzzzz). Actually, we are both early risers…but on the weekend we like to stay in bed a little longer than 5:40 AM (zzzzz)!

The Gabbianello oasis opens early for groups of at least five people every second Sunday of the month (it normally opens at 10 AM on Sat and Sun). Yesterday happened to be the second Sunday of the month, so we were able to join up with a group of five others…A few more people arrived later on, but there was never a crowd, which was nice.

The lake was full of birds, mostly common birds that we have seen over and over again (but then, the migratory birds have already…migrated, so that is not surprising)…I still love to watch and photograph even the common ones.

The best scene we saw yesterday morning was of a couple of great-crested grebes courting each other…Lots of head shaking and crest puffing and turning heads to the left, then to the right, in a ritualistic manner. Fun to watch, and so very elegant…

We saw our friend the purple heron again, but he (she?) stayed put on a small grassy island in the middle of the lake and didn’t come very close to us, as you can tell by the rather fuzzy photo. The wild swans are always fun to watch…And there were heaps of other birds—little grebes, overactive coots chasing each other with lots of splashing and shenanigans (hey, we also saw a couple of coot babies…fluffy little cuties!), ducks of all sorts (also with babies), egrets, grey and white herons, one squacco heron, one least bittern and one cattle egret…oh, and a small hawk, perhaps a falcon (we don’t do as well with our birds of prey, I admit!), hunting in a nearby field…

Stefano also got some great shots of an inquisitive, completely unruffled hare munching on a flower that looks as though it is going right up its nose…so CUTE. Stefano’s photos came out much better than mine, of course. But I want to post my own photos on the blog…so there! 🙂

We made a couple of friends at the oasis. One was a guy we’d seen there before. Like us, he is an amateur photographer (nice camera, though…So he and Stefano spent some time discussing this or that photographic technique, zzzboringzzz as far as I am concerned…), but he could identify more birds than we could, so that was helpful. He was the one who told us, when all we saw was a blur, “Hey, a thick-throated paparazzi just flew by!” 😉 Well, after all, he has been birdwatching for the past 20 years!

We also ran into a young couple who took a lot of photos but really complained (a lot…) about having gotten up early in the morning just to see some ducks, blablabla (“hey,” I wanted to say to them, “not true…what about the purple heron???”). They left early, disappointed. Silly things. What were they expecting to see? Puffins? Eagles? Penguins? A Himalayan quail? Humph!

There were also two other guys who just sat and sat and sat inside ONE hut (whereas we and the others walked around the lake, trying out other huts and viewpoints) and took photos of everything with their big cameras and big lenses. I say this with a bit of envy, since, as luck would have it, the squacco heron landed on a branch right in front of their hut, and they had plenty of time to take about 40 photos of it. And these were perfect photos, I have to say. When Stefano walked into the hut later that morning, they asked him if he could identify that bird. They didn’t even know what they’d photographed. We were both much amused, especially since the two of us still can’t distinguish a pigeon from a hawk (well, ok, slight exaggeration, there!), so we are happy to run into folks who are worse off than we are! 😉

As the morning hours passed, and it got hotter, the birds began being less active. Some disappeared…probably off to take well-deserved naps. We were the last humans to leave the oasis. As planned, we had lunch in the restaurant I’d found the day before…about a two-minute drive from the oasis. What a lovely place it turned out to be…

We had a fabbbbbbbulous meal. Everything was just purrrrrrfect, from start to finish. Stefano had crostini (a classic Tuscan chicken liver pâté spread on toasted Tuscan bread…Tuscan Tuscan Tuscan! 🙂 ), and we both shared some fried veggies, which we never have, but hey, this was our anniversary! Then we both had “tortelli mugellani,” which are mainly-potato-filled pasta with meat sauce. Yummy. I was stuffed by then, but Stefano had room for a “tagliata,” which is grilled, then sliced (need I say “Tuscan”? 🙂 ) Tuscan meat, served with beans, Tuscan style…

As we getting ready to leave, our waiter showed up at our table, holding a tray with two champagne flutes and a dish of yummy (Tuscan, what else? Hehe…) sweets. He handed us the flutes and said, solemnly: “You must make a toast on your anniversary! Auguriiiiii!” (Auguri is an expression of goodwill that means “best wishes.”)

So Stefano and I sat back down and made a toast to at least (AT LEAST!!!) another 12 happy years together… 😀

Those few sips of champagne put a lovely finishing touch on one of our best anniversaries ever…

Just can’t seem to be serious today. Well, after all, it’s the WEEKEND! 😀 And I am sooo excited about tomorrow…

Tomorrow morning Stefano and I are getting up at the crack of dawn in order to be at the “Gabbianello” WWF oasis by 7:30. That is how we both want to celebrate our 12th wedding anniversary–two amateur bird watchers going birdwatching (last week we caught a glimpse of a Squacco heron…hope to get a photo of it tomorrow…)! If we can tear ourselves away in time, we are going out for lunch in a lovely romantic place (conveniently located near the oasis, inside a restored 17th century barn surrounded by a park..Living in Italy does have many perks! 😉 ) that serves glorious, traditional Tuscan fare. Big day, tomorrow!

Anyway, since today is laugh-a-lot day, here are the links to a couple of the videos that have made me chuckle/smile/laugh out loud in the past couple of days:

• Cat and the tap (translation): http://goo.gl/o99r6
• Ultimate dog tease: http://goo.gl/ZjiEi 

Have a laughing weekend, everyone! 🙂

I’m in a super hurry today, but I wanted to share this Science Daily article with you, since I think it has some VERRRRRRY important information in it: http://goo.gl/6bjne

An excerpt: “Bisphosphonates […] disrupt normal bone remodeling by shutting down the osteoclasts — the cells that break down old bone to make new bone. When that happens, new bone is built on top of old bone. Yes, your bone density is higher, but the bone’s not always structurally sound”…

Well, I didn’t know that…but it certainly explains lots of things…

Okay, need to dash off now…Ciao!

I really have no clear idea as to what a “webinar” is, but here goes anyway: on Tuesday, May 17, between 1 and 2:30 PM (EDT), the National Cancer Institute will be hosting a webinar (?) titled: “Is Curcumin the Spice of Life? A Look at Cancer Prevention Evidence.” One of the presenters is Prof. Bharat Aggarwal, a name that should be very familiar to most of us by now.

You can read a bit more about it and register here: http://goo.gl/iHG93 By the way, if anyone knows how webinars work…for example, if you have to pay to attend and so on, I wouldn’t mind learning something new…Thanks! 🙂

(Sometimes I feel a bit like a dinosaur… 😉 ).