Revising my position on aspirin and myeloma
I just finished re-reading a post I wrote in 2011 in which I stated that I would never take any aspirin…never ever ever ever again!
Well, since then a lot has happened, and I have read quite a number of positive studies on aspirin and cancer, so I am taking this opportunity to revise my former position, without going overboard, of course (no stuffing my face with aspirin every single night, I mean!). Proceed with caution, as always, since aspirin does have some side effects… Anyway, here goes.
A 2014 study, titled “Regular aspirin use and risk of multiple myeloma: a prospective analysis in the health prof...
Source: Margaret's Corner - April 27, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Margaret Tags: Blogroll aspirin myeloma Source Type: blogs
Revising my position on aspirin and myeloma
I just finished re-reading a post I wrote in 2011 in which I stated that I would never take any aspirin…never ever ever ever again!
Well, since then a lot has happened, and I have read quite a number of positive studies on aspirin and cancer, so I am taking this opportunity to revise my former position, without going overboard, of course (no stuffing my face with aspirin every single night, I mean!). Proceed with caution, as always, since aspirin does have some side effects… Anyway, here goes.
A 2014 study, titled “Regular aspirin use and risk of multiple myeloma: a prospective analysis in the health prof...
Source: Margaret's Corner - April 27, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Margaret Tags: Blogroll aspirin myeloma Source Type: blogs
An overcrowded bed
Stefano left last week on a business trip (he’ll be home in a couple of days, thank goodness…I miss him so much), but I have never felt alone. Alone, with SEVEN CATS? Not a chance.
Speaking of which, on the night of Easter Sunday, my cats knew that something BIG had happened. Especially Pinga.
After my niece called with the news of my mother’s death (it was 2 AM over here), I couldn’t get back to sleep. I didn’t go back to bed until 5 AM, in fact. During all that time, Pinga never left my side. When I quietly went downstairs, in the dark, so as not to wake Stefano, she followed me, got into m...
Source: Margaret's Corner - April 26, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Margaret Tags: Blogroll Source Type: blogs
PHDCOMICS ’ take on cancer and cancer research
Many thanks to a blog reader (and friend on Facebook) for this link: goo.gl/4Tfd40.
Whatever you believe (1. the cure for myeloma or any other type of cancer is around the corner; 2. there will never be a cure for myeloma or any other type of cancer, and so on), this cartoon provides some serious food for thought… (Source: Margaret's Corner)
Source: Margaret's Corner - April 24, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Margaret Tags: Blogroll cancer research PHDCOMICS Source Type: blogs
“ Long-term stabilisation of myeloma with curcumin. ”
Discussion: “The fact that our patient, who had advanced stage disease and was effectively salvaged while exclusively on curcumin, suggests a potential antimyeloma effect of curcumin. She continues to take daily curcumin and remains in a very satisfactory condition with good quality of life. This case provides further evidence of the potential benefit for curcumin in myeloma. We would recommend further evaluation of curcumin in myeloma patients in the context of a clinical trial.”
I couldn’t agree more!
P.S. in a recent comment, blog reader Charlotte brought the case report to my attention (thank you!...
Source: Margaret's Corner - April 20, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Margaret Tags: Blogroll Source Type: blogs
Per la mamma
My mother died on Easter Sunday.
She’d been in a nursing home on Cape Cod for about a year…a very difficult year, as you can imagine.
Thanks to my niece, I was able to see my mother on Skype and Facetime during her last few days.
On Saturday, in a moment of lucidity, she told Stefano and me, in Italian: “nessuno dovrebbe soffrire in questo modo. Voglio volare via,” which means, “nobody should suffer like this. I want to fly away.” I told her to let go.
Unlike previous times, our last Skype sessions were mostly silent. She didn’t have the strength to talk or even to pay much att...
Source: Margaret's Corner - April 18, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Margaret Tags: Blogroll Mom Source Type: blogs
Still coughing
Wow, I STILL have a cough. I mean, it’s A LOT better than it was last week, but it’s still there…sporadic and annoying.
Apparently lots of people in Florence are sick with more or less the same thing, so I’m not alone. In fact, a good friend of mine called to check on me and to tell me that she’d coughed for an entire month (last month). Thanks a lot for the encouragement!
This morning my family doctor put me on a second cycle of antibiotics. That should do it! But, I confess, I’m still feeling a bit on the sluggish side. However, I’m back to giving English lessons AND doing la...
Source: Margaret's Corner - April 12, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Margaret Tags: Blogroll Source Type: blogs
No Bence Jones!!!
Wow. I haven’t been this sick in…ages. On Saturday morning, I woke up with a nasty sore throat, symptom no. 1. But Stefano and I had already made plans to go outside of Florence, not a pleasure trip by any means ( = long story that wouldn’t add anything useful to this post), and I didn’t want to back out. So, after coffee and Manuka honey, off we went. By the late afternoon, the sore throat had vanished, but symptom no. 2 was about to rear its ugly head: THE DREADED COUGH. Whenever I’m about to get a cough, I get a strange, almost metallic taste in my mouth. I know it sounds odd, but that tas...
Source: Margaret's Corner - April 6, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Margaret Tags: Blogroll Source Type: blogs
A new curcumin and myeloma study
A newly published Chinese study shows that curcumin stops the proliferation of myeloma cells and even kills them by inhibiting EZH2 (I actually wrote quite a lot about this pesky protein in some 2010 posts…to find them, simply do a search of my blog for “EZH2”) and SUZ12.
These are two Polycomb repressor genes that become hyperactive in myeloma, which is not a good thing, as you can imagine. In my previous posts, in fact, I called EHZ2 a “Polyhooligan.”
At any rate, the important thing to remember is that when EHZ2 is inhibited, myeloma cells stop proliferating. Here’s the link to the...
Source: Margaret's Corner - March 30, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Margaret Tags: Blogroll Source Type: blogs
Woman dies after turmeric injection
I could hardly believe the article I just finished reading (incidentally, many thanks to Dr. Heger for posting this link on Facebook, and for commenting on it): goo.gl/cf8G0A
In short, a woman from San Diego had a heart attack and died after a “naturopath” gave her a turmeric injection to treat her eczema.
WHY, WHY, WHY would you let anyone inject you with turmeric (or curcumin, for that matter)?
WHY???
As Dr. Heger pointed out, would you let someone give you an injection of mashed carrots? No, of course not. Same sort of thing.
If anyone offers to treat you with weird-sounding treatments, run away as fa...
Source: Margaret's Corner - March 29, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Margaret Tags: Blogroll Source Type: blogs
Bryce Canyon, made in Tuscany
Yes, Bryce Canyon. Seriously. Something you’d never expect in my beautiful Tuscany. And yet, this “canyon” is practically in our backyard, only a 45 minute drive from where we live in Florence. But let’s start from the beginning.
We spent Saturday with a couple of friends of ours (the same ones with whom we went to Siena a few weekends ago, and who spent New Year’s Eve with us in Austria…poooh, I still have to publish that post, by the way, argh!).
We had planned on visiting Loro Ciuffenna, a very pretty little Medieval town, with steep, narrow streets, located in the province of Are...
Source: Margaret's Corner - March 27, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Margaret Tags: Blogroll Source Type: blogs
A promising new treatment for deadly sepsis
I have to thank my niece for leading me to this NPR article, which turned out to be a very interesting read: https://goo.gl/qMRjtM
Incidentally, this article reminded me of a related something or other that I’d read a while ago, and so I had a quick look at PubMed where I found are a number of studies, mainly conducted on rats, suggesting that curcumin might be an effective treatment for sepsis infections. But of course there are no HUMAN clinical trials to this regard…
As for my own, limited, anecdotal experience, I have treated skin infections and weird rashes on my arms (about which I have written here on...
Source: Margaret's Corner - March 24, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Margaret Tags: Blogroll curcumin sepsis vitamin C Source Type: blogs
“ I ’m 90-years-old, I’m hitting the road. ”
A friend of ours posted this link on Facebook today: goo.gl/P2jGO0 The link will take you to the inspiring story of a 91-year-old woman from Michigan who was diagnosed with uterine cancer and decided to spend her last months driving around the U.S.A. with her dog and family instead of undergoing the conventional treatments that “were unlikely to treat the illness” anyway.
She died in October 2016, after completing her long road trip.
Do you think she did the right thing?
I certainly think so. Remember, she was 90 years old at the time of diagnosis…Even her doctor supported her… (Source: Margaret's Corner)
Source: Margaret's Corner - March 23, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Margaret Tags: Blogroll Source Type: blogs
Punica granatum and myeloma
PubMed is such a fabulous treasure trove. A few days ago, I came upon a new, promising study on the devastating effects that extracts of the non-edible parts of a plant called Punica granatum had on U266 myeloma cells. The extracts not only stopped the myeloma cells from proliferating, but also took a hatchet to ’em, finishing them off for good: goo.gl/dYlXuK
Yes indeedie…Using more technical words, the extracts triggered apoptosis in this myeloma cell line…
Okay, and now it’s time for me to fess up…the joke’s on me! I mean, even though I studied Latin for many years, up to, and including, my last...
Source: Margaret's Corner - March 21, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Margaret Tags: Blogroll Source Type: blogs
More on cardamonin and myeloma
After months of being too busy with other stuff, such as…life!, to do much research, I have been going through PubMed again, yaaaay, and this is one of the studies, published in 2015, that really caught my attention: goo.gl/YgMY8O
You can actually read the full study online for free, at this link: goo.gl/muftiW
As my blog title suggests, it’s about cardamonin, about which I actually wrote a brief post
in February of 2011 (see http://margaret.healthblogs.org/other-alternative-treatments/cardamonin/). That post was based on a 2010 study, showing, and I quote, that “Cardamonin affects both the STAT3 and NF...
Source: Margaret's Corner - March 17, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Margaret Tags: Blogroll Alpinia katsumadai cardamonin myeloma Source Type: blogs
