Saturday, April 5, 2008

A Turmeric Experiment and a Joke

As some of you know, I have an open wound where the skin metastases was or is in the lower quadrant of my right breast - left from my point of view and right from yours. (Confused, yeah, me too!) I googled "skin mets healing wound breast cancer" or something and found a bulletin board on breastcancer.org (I think, now I can't find it). One woman with skin mets said she started taking an herb called "cucumin" or "curcumin" in addition to her regular chemotherapy. She reported that her skin mets healed. After some searching, I found a lot of sites about the topic. Curcumin is from turmurec, a root that is used in many curries. Turmeric is used in ayurvedic medicine to heal skin wounds. My colleague, who is from India, gave me some turmeric and a web site that told how to make a turmeric paste (http://www.healthy.net/scr/Recipe.asp?Id=47). I made the paste on Thurs and applied it to the open wound after my shower on Friday. I haven't yet had a chance to check on things today, but I did have a dream last night when I woke up to find the wound completely healed. I will report on its progress over the next few weeks (or hopefully less) and let you know how it works.

While trying to find the original post on breastcancer.org, I found this joke: (http://community.breastcancer.org/topic/31/conversation/702163)
OK ... so if the Jacksonville Jaguars are known as the "Jags" and
the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are known as the "Bucs," what does that make
the Tennessee Titans?

Thought it had some relevance to my boob jokes research, so I thought I'd share it with you!

2 comments:

Carver said...

Hi Dee,

It's interesting to me that you mentioned tumeric. MD Anderson in Houston, TX has done studies with tumeric and melanoma patients and have show that it can slow the growth of melanoma in studies. A lot of melanoma patients I know take tumeric supplements. I haven't heard of making a paste but I'll be interested in how it goes.

Below is a link to the MD Anderson news release about tumeric in case you are interested. MD Anderson tumeric

One point in the new release is that: "Curcumin, the pungent yellow spice found in both turmeric and curry powders, blocks a key biological pathway needed for development of melanoma and other cancers, say researchers from The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center."

Dee said...

Hi Carver,
I haven't checked out the MD Anderson site yet, but a couple of other reputable sites do talk about turmericc and melanoma. I figure it's a natural substance that can be ingested, so it certainly can't hurt by using it as a paste.

Right before my shower, I took off the dressing. I think that the sound bled a bit more yesterday, but when I looked at the wound, it seemed clearer, if that makes any sense. It seemed cloudy like there was a film or something there before. My take is that by bleeding a bit more, it was drawing out the toxins.

I'll keep monitoring it, though, and will update everyone about it. Now, if I cooked, I'd add a little bit to my meals!!