I am having blood tests on Wednesday, so I want to be as carefree and happy as possible, especially tomorrow. My cousin, thanks!, sent me a link earlier today that has already put a smile on my face:
http://tinyurl.com/y8bbme4 = I’d never seen a cat stand for this long before…oh, and about halfway through, don’t miss the kitty lifting its paw…sooo cute!
I just wanted to add this BBC “Walk on the wild side” episode preview: http://tinyurl.com/3698jzy Have a look at more of these…very amusing!!!
This (my post title) is the title of a HealthDay article that I read this morning. Of course, the Indian spice is…uhm, gee, let me guess…what else COULD it be??? 😉
Anyway, the text is straightforward enough, so I will simply post the link: http://tinyurl.com/2dyppn7
The article isn’t just about curcumin, by the way…the last part deals with the connection between cirrhosis (chronic liver disease) and the chemicals contained in hair dye and nail polish…boy am I glad I don’t use any of that stuff! Oh, and there is a link between smoking and cirrhosis…again, I am glad I have never smoked! So, especially if you are a smoker who uses hair dye and nail polish, please take a close look at this article…or if you have an autoimmune disease…
Finally, I would like to thank all those who have been leaving comments on my April 8th post (the viral infection-myeloma one) and sending me private notes. I am very VERY busy these days, but this viral connection is very VERY interesting to me, and I am definitely going to follow up on it. Soon.
Blog readers send me the funniest stuff…I love it! Anyway, this joke is no exception…enjoy!
I went to the doctor for my yearly physical. The nurse started with certain basics. “How much do you weigh?” she asked.
“135 pounds,” I said.
She put me on the scale. It turns out that my weight is 180.
Then she asked, “Your height?”
“5 feet 4 inches,” I said.
The nurse measured me and reported that I am only 5′ 2″ tall.
She then took my blood pressure and told me that it was very high.
“Of course it’s high!” I screamed, ‘When I came in here I was tall and slender! Now I’m short and fat!”
Back from our weekend (more on that in the next couple of days, with photos, too) and…back to work again…:-)
Earlier today I came across a newly-published study in “Blood” (http://tinyurl.com/y29l7up) on the evil deeds of IL-17, a proinflammatory cytokine (=in a nutshell, a cytokine is a signalling molecule that immune system cells use to communicate with other cells…), which has a prominent role in angiogenesis, the process of new blood vessel formation that is essential for the survival of myeloma cells…angiogenesis is, in fact, one of the big targets of myeloma treatment.
The new study shows that myeloma patients have elevated blood levels of IL-17, which promotes myeloma cell growth and interferes with the regular functioning of our immune system…ooooh, not good. I don’t like the idea that something is having a negative impact on my immune system…
Anyway, I thought this new abstract was quite interesting, and it also took me back to a post I published more than two years ago (for a reminder, please see: http://tinyurl.com/y54rofj) on, tada!, this evil thingamajig called IL-17.
But the news isn’t all bad. As you can see if you read the above link, curcumin inhibits IL-17. So those of us that are taking curcumin regularly should be in good shape. At least, I hope we are!
I got the funny stuff (see below list) from a good friend last night and howled with laughter until I was practically rolling on the floor, clutching my belly. And, to make matters “worse,” my 6-month-old kitten, Pinga, got really excited by all the…noise I was making and began meowing loudly and climbing on and off my shoulder and running around like a mad thing. Made me laugh even harder…so much so that Stefano rushed upstairs to see what the matter was…hehe. Enjoy! The title of this list, by the way, is “Girlie Wisdom.” I chose the ones I liked the best:
I am very busy today…no time to do any serious research, oh well. I do have quite a bit of news, though, so here goes.
I was going to finish this post yesterday, but a couple of close friends invited us out for lunch, then we all went to an exhibition (Magritte, De Chirico and others)…so by the time we got home it was too late to do much of anything constructive.
Rome. Ah there is so much to write about…but I will try to keep in mind that this is not a travel blog. Let’s see, we arrived 
in Rome on Friday April 2nd…this was, incidentally, my first train ride in a very long time…we took one of the superfast trains, the Frecciarossa (=Red arrow), which got us to Rome in an hour and a half, impressive! Anyway, as soon as we arrived, we took the subway to the B&B, checked in and then went off on a walk. After grabbing a slice (or two…) of yummy pizza, we took the subway to the Coliseum…a few photos (but we had been to the Coliseum before), then we set off for the Basilica di San Clemente (photo no 1 shows a view of the Coliseum from via di San Giovanni in Laterano, near the basilica), which I had read about on Tripadvisor…apparently, one of Rome’s best-kept secrets…
The reports I read were correct. The basilica itself, built around the year 1100, is nothing spectacular…well, except for the floor…but the underground visit was amazing. After buying a ticket right inside the church, you go through a tiny door and down some stairs. And there you find yourself in a 4th century basilica that used to be a Roman nobleman’s home. Part of it had served as an early church (1st century), part as a temple devoted to the cult of Mithras. You go down more stairs and you find a Republican era building that had been destroyed in the Great Fire of 64…yes, this was really fascinating. Lots of history, there.
At one point you hear the sound of rushing water…and in fact on the lowest floor you will see an opening with a tiny waterfall…one of the church ushers told us that some visitors had actually drunk that water but, she added in a whisper, “nothing was ever heard of them again.” Hehe, very funny. To be on the safe side, though, Stefano and I didn’t touch the water…even though Roman tap water is safe and tastes very good, too. For more information on the Basilica di San Clemente, see Wikipedia, e.g. 
On Saturday we went to the Vatican Museums (see photo of one of the courtyards). My recommendation: buy your tickets online unless you like standing for hours in very long queues…unbelievable…those folks must have spent 3-4 hours in line…
Once inside, we hurried to the Sistine Chapel, ignoring the Egyptian Museum and Raphael’s Rooms (we saw all this later), so as to avoid the crowds as much as possible. This turned out to be a good thing to do, so here is my second recommendation for the Vatican Museums: get early morning tickets and make a beeline for the Sistine Chapel, especially if you are going there on a weekend or during a religious holiday…
The Sistine Chapel was definitely, for me, the highlight of our visit. I didn’t know where to look…at 
the floor (stupendous) or at the ceiling (stupendous)…at one point, overwhelmed by all that beauty and also achy from the previous day’s walking, I sank onto a bench and looked up to admire the famous depiction of God and Adam reaching out and almost touching fingers (=the “Creation of Adam”). As luck would have it, I sat next to a U.S. couple whose own private guide (no kidding!) began describing the chapel to them (in U.S. English, obviously)…now, I have no idea if this guy was making things up, but I enjoyed his stories. Here follows a bit of what I remember. 
He said that Michelangelo was paid a very handsome sum of money to paint the Sistine Chapel…but he had to pay for all his expenses, including materials (paint and whatnot) and assistants. From where we were sitting, we had a great view of the “Last Judgement,” which has a gorgeous blue background. Blue, the guide said, was a very expensive colour to make. You had to use lapis lazuli, a quite rare semi-precious (blue!) stone that had to be ordered from abroad. In fact, I remember reading that the lapis lazuli used by Michelangelo for this fresco might have come from Pakistan, so that should give us an idea…no planes or fast trains back then… Anyway, that is why there is no blue on the ceiling frescos. the guide said. I don’t know if that is the true reason why Michelangelo didn’t use blue everywhere, but the guide told a very convincing story…
Another titbit…when the chapel was cleaned in the 1980s, a startling discovery was made: Michelangelo had “signed” one of his frescos. He had touched and left his fingerprints on the eyes of Eve depicted in the “Temptation and Expulsion” fresco. The guide said that Michelangelo was probably particularly happy with this fresco and wanted to leave a sign for future generations. Hmmm. Who knows?
Another story: until Michelangelo came along, the guide said, God had always been depicted as a sort of stern, immobile figure. But Michelangelo painted God as a sort of Superman…a flying, very active character…so this was a huge break with the past. True or not, I was much amused.
You are not allowed to take photos inside the Sistine Chapel (but of course all you have to do is google “Sistine Chapel” and you will be able to see what I saw…except being there is, of course, quite different!), but you can take photos everywhere else in the Vatican Museums. So Stefano and I were quite busy with our cameras, as you can imagine. I have posted many of my photos on my private Facebook profile, by the way.
Other places we visited, not in chronological order: the Coliseum (this time we didn’t go inside, though), the Roman forum, Castel Sant’Angelo (photo no 4; if you go to Rome, don’t forget to visit the museum, incredibly interesting and with great views of the city, see photo of the bridge, Ponte Sant’Angelo, photo no 5), the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, 
Piazza Navona (see fountain detail, photo no 7), the Trastevere neighborhood, Ponte Fabricio (a bridge that has been standing since 62 BC, the oldest bridge in Rome, see photo no 6), isola Tiberina, St. Peter’s square…
And finally, one of the fabulous things we did was go to the Caravaggio exhibition. Very highly recommended. Again, buy your tickets online. This is a once-in-a-lifetime event. We couldn’t take photos inside the exhibit, of course, so all I have is a photo of the banner above the exhibit entrance. That experience was beyond words…so I will end this post with a big “wow”! Oh, I didn’t even mention the yummy food we ate…oh well. Enough! 🙂
Today, after returning from an appointment for which I had to get a bit dressed up, I opened the closet door to put away my dressy clothes and slip back into my more comfy house clothes, and Pinga hopped out. Eeek! The silly little creature had been stuck in my closet for about two hours…Luckily, she seems to have suffered no harm. In fact, right now she is leaning against me, purring, watching me type, and occasionally leaping after the cursor (my poor monitor!)…ah yes, life is back to normal! 😉
In my snippets of free time, I am writing a draft about our trip to Rome and trying to decide which photos I would like to publish. In the meantime, I thought I would ask you all a question, based on something that a blog reader told me recently: she was diagnosed with MGUS shortly after recovering from a bad viral infection. That reminded me that I would like to write another post on this topic, since I myself was diagnosed with MGUS just a few years after recovering from a nasty case of Epstein-Barr (EBV) while I was in grad school in Toronto…
Here is my question: does anyone else have a similar story? I mean, a viral infection preceding a MGUS, SMM or even MM diagnosis?
Here is an excerpt from an IMF document dating to 2005: Recently, researchers have proposed infection, particularly viral infection, as a causal or trigger factor. Several studies have linked multiple myeloma to HIV, hepatitis, herpes virus infections (especially herpes virus 8), Epstein Barr Virus (EBV), as well as new “stealth adapted” viruses such as mutated cytomegalovirus (CMV). The significance of these viruses with regard to multiple myeloma remains to be fully explored.
As I mentioned, I have already discussed this topic, which you can find under “Myeloma Triggers” (see: http://margaret.healthblogs.org/life-with-myeloma/what-is-multiple-myeloma/mgus-to-mm-progression-sox2/myeloma-triggers/), but I would like to take another look at it…there might be a more recent study out there…interesting topic, yes…
Well, what a splendid trip this turned out to be, even though we walked and walked and…walked until I thought my leg muscles were going to burst. Yes, it was very tiring, I admit…the distances in Rome are simply enormous.
But ohhh, everything was so amazingly gorgeous…from the Sistine Chapel to the Caravaggio exhibition, which went beyond our expectations…we were also lucky with the weather…until Easter Sunday, which turned into a very rainy day…but we put on our rain gear and trundled off to visit a museum (Castel Sant’Angelo). Easy
peasy!
Anyway, while I am recovering from all the excitement AND settling back into my daily routine, here is a photo I took of a sign outside a marble shop near Lungotevere Marzio…I was and still am most amused! 😀
Stefano and I are leaving early tomorrow morning for Rome and will be back in Florence on Monday night. During this long weekend, I will not be able to access my e-mail or my blog…in fact, I probably won’t even turn on my computer until Tuesday afternoon, after I return home from work.
Before wishing everyone a very Happy Easter, though, I just wanted to go back for a moment to the more scientific aspect of that “Word of caution” study that I have written about in two recent posts. In the abstract, the authors state the following: it is known that curcumin inhibits interleukin-12 production in dendritic cells, thereby dampening the Th1 response. It is also well established that Th1 cells are protective against invading pathogens and tumors.
Okay, the authors clearly seem quite concerned about curcumin’s inhibition of IL-12. Some of my blog readers have written to me expressing this concern, too. In the beginning, I was a bit uneasy, too. Well, I would just like to point out that, after doing a wee bit of research this afternoon, I found out that curcumin is not the sole inhibitor of this interleukin…
Dexamethasone also inhibits IL-12 (see http://tinyurl.com/yfjxfyk), as do thalidomide (see http://tinyurl.com/ydceuyw and http://tinyurl.com/y8h6r57), lenalidomide (see http://tinyurl.com/yeb7vjk) and, oh let’s see, bortezomib (http://tinyurl.com/ycdcksh). And these drugs (there may be more, incidentally, I just don’t have the time right now to check) are commonly used in conventional myeloma treatment…
And here is my point: I haven’t seen any conventional doctors getting all hopped up about the inhibition of IL-12 by conventional myeloma drugs…on the contrary, not one study (of those that I have glanced at so far) have expressed even the slightest concern about this inhibition.
As a result, my concern over curcumin’s inhibition of IL-12 has now gone down to a big fat zero, no question about that. I may decide, in fact, not to pursue this matter any further, even though I have already found and read a number of studies on this topic…Oh, this is bloody ridiculous…I am so annoyed to have wasted time on a pile of…NONSENSE! Uffa.
Well, I just thought that this bit of news would give us something to chew on over the Easter weekend…! 😉 Enough. It’s getting late, and I still have a few things to do…
Happy Easter, everyone! Buona Pasqua a tutti!
Today I would like to focus on the case study (see my March 28th post).
The first mention can be found in the abstract: The present study describes a case in which bronchitis developed upon turmeric intake for gastrointestinal complaints. Further on (page 266), the authors state that they feel the need to express a word of caution based on a case in which the use of moderate doses of turmeric induced some toxicity, possibly related to immunosuppression.
Well, before I begin growling (hehe, thanks, Sandy, you gave me a good chuckle with your comment…), let’s have a closer look at this part of the study.
The case: a 57-year-old man with an IgG1 deficiency and borderline hypogammaglobulinemia who had suffered from all sorts of ailments, poor dear!, from early childhood. These included middle ear infections (=otitis media), chronic rhinosinusitis (Stefano has the same thing, chronic rhinosinusitis I mean, so I know how nasty it can be…he frequently cannot breathe through his nose, and only when he is on cortisone does he regain his sense of smell, etc.…I am sure he is, er, really going to appreciate my having made all this public…oh, by the way, his regular use of a Neti pot has worked wonders…oh I digress…), and rarely bronchitis. This patient also suffered from chronic constipation that turned into post infectious irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) when he reached the age of 25.
We then learn that the patient himself suggested to his doctors that he take curcumin for this bothersome intestinal condition. CURCUMIN, mind you.
But no, the authors recommended that he take TURMERIC, yes turmeric the spice…a dose of one gram, twice a day…two grams total. Well, I must say that I was and still am completely bewildered as to why these doctors would have come up with a daily dose of turmeric, especially since they knew that Holt et al (the Australian MGUS-curcumin team) had used 99.5% pure curcumin...Very peculiar…
Let me pause here for a moment. If my haematologist had ever suggested that I take turmeric instead of curcumin, you can bet your fluorescent green socks that my reaction would have been a very strong one. At the very least, I would have pointed out the difference between turmeric and curcumin and insisted on taking the latter…more likely, I would have gone to a more knowledgeable specialist. I mean, what would you do if you asked your greengrocer for some broccoli, and he handed you a big bag of Brussels sprouts? Thought so…
Now, I am sure that the authors of this paper acted in good faith…but turmeric is NOT the same as curcumin. Turmeric the spice contains only a small percentage of curcumin, its active ingredient…8-9% at the most. But this is only the first of many problems…
Reading through the study, a million questions popped into my head but remained unanswered. Where did the patient get his turmeric? Was it a reliable source? You see, I have read that you have to be incredibly careful about where you buy turmeric and spices in general…for instance, spices bought in an open market may be contaminated with all sorts of nasty things: lead chromate, yellow earth, sand or even cheap talc (see: http://tinyurl.com/y8rf5d2).
I always buy organically certified spices in a health food store…and even then, I cook them, just in case there has been any bacterial contamination. I would never ingest a tablespoon of any spice without cooking it first. Did this patient cook the spice or simply take it raw? No details are provided in the study. This is a crucial bit of missing information…
Okay, it is one thing to swallow a daily dose of turmeric of unknown origin and in an unknown manner, quite another to take C3 Complex curcumin capsules/powder, the same curcumin that has been tested in the MD Anderson curcumin-myeloma clinical trial…the same curcumin made by a company that has received Good Manufacturing Practice awards…the same curcumin that has been tested in so many scientific studies. Blablabla…
But let’s set aside the curcumin-turmeric enigma for a minute and continue reading. Even on a daily one-gram dose of this mysterious turmeric, the patient confirmed the positive results found by Holt et al; within weeks the complaints related to the enteropathy became significantly milder and the patient experienced a subjective improvement in quality of life. (Enteropathy is any disease of the intestinal tract, by the way.)
But six weeks later, the authors report, their patient developed mild bronchitis with chronic cough and wheezing. This was surprising since traditional Indian medicine recommends the use of turmeric for a number of health problems, including sinusitis (see page 266 of the study for more details).
No kidding. I would like to highlight that this is the FIRST time I have EVER heard of a negative connection between turmeric and bronchitis…on the contrary, in traditional medicine, turmeric is given as a REMEDY for bronchitis (not just sinusitis) as well as many other ailments. So this just makes zero sense to me. Let’s keep reading…
The authors then tell us that Turmeric treatment was discontinued, and was re-initiated several weeks later after the bronchitis had totally cleared…after 4 weeks, the first signs of bronchitis returned, so turmeric treatment was stopped for 3 weeks, then re-initiated at a dose of 200 mg two times per day. This dose ended up being the correct amount for this particular patient, who has now, after two years, experienced a significant improvement of the intestinal problems without any further respiratory problems. That is wonderful, of course!
There are more details about this case, including an interesting discussion of vitamin B6 deficiency, but that isn’t what I would like to focus on right now.
I would instead like to offer a couple of examples of my own. Aside from having kept me stable for more than four years (in fact, my haematologist told me never to stop taking it…), curcumin has improved my quality of life in many ways, as we can see from the following…
Points 1 and 2: I haven’t had a yeast infection since 2006. Not even the hint of one. I also haven’t had a serious illness in the past three plus years. These symptoms are a thing of the past, in spite of the fact that my immune system is extremely compromised. My IgAs and IgMs are hanging on a thread. My most recent tests show my IgA at 15 (normal range: 70-400 mg/dL) and my IgM at 10 (NR: 40-230). My haematologist is always amazed that I don’t have recurrent infections…she always asks me how I am doing and is always astounded to hear that I am in such good…health. My general good health must be due to my daily intake of curcumin. There is no other plausible explanation.
I don’t know what caused this patient’s bronchitis, but I would be very cautious about pointing my finger at his daily intake of…turmeric. Another question: was the turmeric analyzed for possible bacterial or mold contamination? I am not sure if mold can cause bronchitis, but it can certainly cause asthma…hmmm, if I were in this patient’s shoes, I would investigate this matter further…gather up my bag of turmeric and run to the nearest lab, I mean…Okay, I think my point is clear…
The authors end their discussion of the case study with the following: The development of bronchitis after the use of turmeric or curcumin has, to the best of our knowledge, never been reported in the literature. Thus, it cannot be ruled out that our patient may have been more susceptible to turmeric toxicity than other patients due to his mildly compromised immune system and/or the related tendency to develop vitamin B6 deficiency. While one case does not provide proof for turmeric toxicity, a review of the literature is warranted in order to find or dismiss a possible rationale for an immunosuppressive effect of turmeric.
Okay, I am always in favour of words of caution…I am also very much in favour of more research, just like these authors. I would, however, encourage authors of future papers on curcumin, turmeric and/or any other substance to present their data in a more open and logical manner. I would ask them, for instance, to provide a “Materials and Methods” section, which is sorely lacking in this study…leaving us with more questions than answers. Again, we do not know what type of turmeric was used…was it bought in an open market or in a health food store or…? Was it analyzed for purity? Sorry for all these repetitive questions, but I feel that these are extremely important points…points that the authors do not address, which is not good at all, in my opinion…
Oh dear, I have more to write about this study…but this post is already ridiculously long, so I will stop here for today…wow, there is a quite a thunderstorm going on out there…the cats are all freaked out…and now, the sun…weird!
