Concern over curcumin / tumeric

I still hope curcumin, tea and garlic may be our wonder cure. In summary curcumin is believed to be the active ingredient in Indian curry powder known as Tumeric or Turmeric.

But I had doubts last night. I am happy it is safe, Indians typically take up to 2 grams of tumeric a day, and human tests show 8 grams a day is quite safe. It seems the dosage needed may be far higher than Jan takes, as she hates the taste. She takes less than half a gram a day. It also seems it is hard to get it from the digestive system to the cancer, bio-availability and metabolism issues.....

I understand the issues in trying to guess at the possible outcome of research. Professor Aggarwal takes a cancer cell on a glass plate, adds curcumin, irradiates and watches. This is a long step away from Jan eating a pill or curry and getting the same effect on a living cancer cell in her breast.

I should also explain why a ten fold increase in effectiveness of radiotherapy as produced by curcumin and green tea claimed in my earlier post may be different in a real life situation. The ten fold effect was seen in a single treatment of 5 Gy radiation. Jan will receive 15 treatments, each something over 2 Gy. So if say each treatment only killed half the cancer cells, by the end of 15 treatments all but 0.003% of the cancer cells will have been killed by radiotherapy anyway, curcumin just mops up the remaining 0.003%...... but I believe this well worthwhile, as the more one eradicates cancer from Jan's body the better, and one trusts the immune system will pick off the remainder.

I also read research on getting curcumin into the blood stream, how one may need to add black pepper (piperine) to get a 20 fold increase in blood absorption of curcumin. One doctor recommended 2 grams tumeric and half a gram of pepper a day, but Jan refuses that much pepper.

Similarly she hardly touches garlic. I bought quite a bit, and left it in the kitchen whilst a Polish lady visited last Sunday. In one day the Polish lady eat 3 times as much garlic as we eat between us in a week. And the Poles have a third of our breast cancer rate....

But five positive notes:

• I listened to David Hathaway on the radio this morning. He emphasised that God is in control, having seen God heal him from throat cancer 44 years ago, been imprisoned in Czeckoslovakia, yet now preaching in Russia and the Ukrain.
• I read Dr. Steve Martin who says blood absorption is irrelevant, curcumin is carried in the lymphatic system anyway.
• This Japanese report shows eating curcumin reducing lymph node metastasis, a traditional route for cancer spread.
  
• This report suggests curcumin enhances the bodies immune system without the need for large concentrations of curcumin in the blood.
  
• And I read that Indians have less than a third of our breast cancer rate, they just cook a curry and don't worry about these issues!

Ah, the joys of self medication and DIY cures....but the self help folk are the ones who live longest.