Diagnosed with SMM, SPB, or MGUS?
Learn how you can stall the development of full-blown Multiple Myeloma with evidence-based nutritional and supplementation therapies.
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High-Risk SMM- Therapy
Hi David- Thank you for such an informative site! There is so much to learn with Multiple Myeloma. At 44, I was diagnosed with Monoclonal Gammopathy of Undetermined Significance (MGUS). Last year at 49 I was diagnosed with high risk Smoldering Multiple Myeloma (SMM).
Can you send me info on the best curcumin supplements? I know I read it somewhere on your amazing site, but I can’t seem to find it again. Thank you for being a guiding light and comforting voice. Smoldering Multiple Myeloma Patient
Dear Smoldering Multiple Myeloma Patient-
Several issues. First and foremost, I am sorry to learn of your high risk Smoldering Multiple Myeloma diagnosis though I am cheering your efforts to remain pre-mm. I have emailed you the curcumin guide. I do not recommend any single brand of curcumin. Rather I talk about what I see as the key issues of curcumin supplementation such as bioavailability.
I take a curcumin supplement called Curcumin Elite from a company called Life Extension Foundation. I take a maintenance dose of one capsule daily as well as supplementing with resveratrol, omage-3 fatty acids, green tea extract, etc. Many supplements have shown the ability to kill MM.
Another key issue for the high risk Smoldering Multiple Myeloma patient where you are concerned is that you are young as pre and full MM patients go.
I have found that conventional oncology thinks short-term- as in a decade or two. I believe that Smoldering Multiple Myeloma patients think long term… as in “I want to die of old age in my sleep at the age of 90!”
If you do ever progress to full MM, you will be stage 1. According to research 95% of all newly diagnosed MM patients are either stage 2 or 3. Further, the average MM patient is 70 years of age. This means that the standard -of-care therapy plan for newly diagnosed mm patients is designed to stabilize the MM patient with advanced MM.
This is not you. Standard induction therapy followed by an ASCT is too much toxicity for the stage 1 MM patient in my experience.
Research shows that by pursuing an anti-mm lifestyle through supplementation, nutrition and lifestyle therapies you can reduce your risk of a MM diagnosis and PRE- habilitation yourself. Meaning you will respond well to whatever therapy you do undergo if you start therapy.
I apologize for the long email. Let me know if you have any question.
Hang in there,
David Emerson
- MM Survivor
- MM Cancer Coach
- Director PeopleBeatingCancer
Recommended Reading:
- Supplements, Nutrition and Multiple Myeloma- A How-To Guide
- Multiple Myeloma Pre-habilitation- Enhance Efficacy, Minimize Toxicity
- Cardiac Rehabilitation-Curcumin, Cardiovascular Disease, Heart Failure
The Most BioAvailable Curcumin Formulas-
“Based on a review of these studies, it is evident that better bioavailability of formulated curcumin (CU) products is mostly attributed to improved solubility, stability, and possibly low first-pass metabolism.”
A search of the Pubmed database for the word curcumin yields 16,818 studies spanning health topics from multiple myeloma (MM) and colorectal cancer, to chemotherapy regimens that integrate with CU, to Alzheimer’s Disease, arthritis and more.
Based on years of reading studies and personal accounts, I think it is safe to say that CU supplementation is safe and relatively inexpensive and effective…
I have read posts about myeloma patients taking daily doses of CU from 400 milligrams to 8 grams (1000 milligrams = 1 gram). By almost any measure, CU is a safe, inexpensive wonder drug…”
Multiple Myeloma Therapy- Curcumin for Both Symptoms, Side Effects
“However, chemotherapy only has a limited success with severe side effects, especially causing damage to normal tissues such as bone marrow, gastrointestine, heart, liver, renal, neuron, and auditory tissues, etc.”
When I first read about curcumin, I learned about an evidence-based multiple myeloma therapy that was also non-toxic. I was ecstatic. Numerous studies, in vitro, in vivo, in humans, have shown that curcumin, a non-toxic therapy, not only kills MM but also synergizes to enhance the MM killing ability of both velcade and revlimid.
Skip ahead 10-15 years…I’ve come to realize that MM patients and survivors face challenges throughout their lives living with MM. It’s not just about multiple myeloma cytotoxicity…”
Multiple Myeloma Therapy- MGN-3, Curcumin
“This synergy was characterized by an 87% decrease in cell number and a 2.6 fold increase in the percentage of apoptotic U266 myeloma cells.
Multiple Myeloma (MM) is a rare (1% of all cancers), incurable form of blood cancer. Conventional oncology has gotten pretty good at putting newly diagnosed MMers into remission. For example, more than 90% of MMers achieve some form of remission when given the chemotherapy triplet RVd (revlimid, velcade, dexamethasone) as an induction therapy. Conventional, FDA approved multiple myeloma therapy however, will never cure multiple myeloma. MM patients must look outside the FDA box and consider multiple myeloma therapies that are evidence-based but non-convention. Consider MGN-3 and curcumin…
Curcumin vs. Multiple Myeloma: The scientific evidence continues to pile up
“We observed that curcumin cell death induction was heterogeneous, of note 16 Human Myeloma Cell Lines were highly sensitive to curcumin…”
I am both a multiple myeloma (MM) survivor and MM cancer coach. I have been researching and writing about multiple myeloma for years. I can honestly say that MM patients and survivors may want to learn about and employ both conventional (FDA approved) and evidence-based non-conventional therapies if they are to manage their “incurable” blood cancer.
Green Tea, Curcumin as Integrative Multiple Myeloma Therapy
“Integrative Cancer Therapy to Enhance the Efficacy of Your MM Chemotherapy While you Reduce It’s Toxicity
You have been new diagnosed with high risk smm or multiple myeloma (MM). You have been told that your blood cancer is incurable. In the next breath your oncologist prescribes toxic chemotherapy regimens that will result in short, long-term and late stage side effects.
While I understand the need to undergo toxic therapies for manage multiple myeloma, I question the amount of toxicity proposed by the standard-of-care FDA approved protocols.
Consider the supplementation of green tea and curcumin as evidence-based integrative therapies.
According to the studies linked below show, both Green Tea extract and Curcumin kill multiple myeloma cells. Key for the high risk SMM patient. Both green tea extract and curcumin enhance the efficacy of specific chemotherapy regimens…”