“Whole-body hyperthermia is used to treat metastatic cancer that has spread throughout the body. This can be accomplished by several techniques that raise the body temperature…”
Dear David-Does infrared sauna (whole-body hyperthermia) help decrease the risk of Smoldering Multiple Myeloma (SMM) developing into Multiple Myeloma? Is near-infrared or far-infrared better for this purpose, or combo? Asking because a loved one was just diagnosed with Smoldering Myeloma. Thanks! Liz
Dear Liz,
I am sorry to learn of your loved one’s SMM diagnosis.
Several things to consider. The articles excerpted and linked below give an overall explanation of hyperthermia as a cancer therapy and how heat/whole body hyperthermia may kill m-proteins (MM cells). The explanation does not discuss far vs. near infrared therapy.
Therefore my experience below is just that. My experience. To answer your question, yes, I think whole-body hyperthermia from a sauna, either far or near infrared sauna, decreases the risk of Smoldering Myeloma from developing into Multiple Myeloma. My reasoning is outlined below.
1) I consider WBH an integral part of my MM therapies. My definition of WBH is to raise my internal body temperature to about 102 degrees fahrenheit. I do this by sitting in a sauna at approx. 175 degrees for approximately 35-45 mins.
2) The majority of studies I’ve read about hyperthermia talk about this therapy as an adjunct therapy to either radiation or chemotherapy. Because I am in CR from my MM I am not undergoing chemo or radiation and therefore consider my nutrition/supplementation regimen to be non-toxic chemotherapy.
All to say I supplement with curcumin, resveriarol, green tea extract, etc. before I go take my sauna and research confirms that these anti-oxidant, anti-angiogenic supplements are in my blood stream while I am increasing my internal body temperature.
I’ve been supplementing with these anti-oxidants for years. I think curcumin, for example, would be wonder drug if it were patentable. The challenge with curcumin is that it is not absorbable into the blood stream.
Please scroll down the page to learn about the most bioavailable curcumin formulas.
“We here aimed to clarify the therapeutic effects on MM cells and their progenitors by hyperthermia. Heat treatment at 43°C time-dependently induced MM cell death. The treatment upregulated endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress mediators, ATF4 and CHOP, while reducing the protein levels of Pim-2, IRF4, c-Myc and Mcl-1. Combination with the proteasome inhibitor bortezomib further enhanced ER stress to potentiate MM cell death…
In summary, heat treatment is demonstrated to effectively enhance ER stress possibly through enhanced protein misfolding by heat, thereby inducing phosphorylation of eIF2α, along with the up-regulation of ATF4 and CHOP, to cause apoptosis in MM cells and their progenitors with stemness or self-renewing capacity. The enhanced ER stress may subsequently suppress translation of critical pro-survival mediators such as Pim-2, IRF4, c-Myc and Mcl-1, leading to further potentiation of MM cell death…”
“Whole-body hyperthermia is used to treat metastatic cancer that has spread throughout the body. This can be accomplished by several techniques that raise the body temperature to 107-108°F, including the use of thermal chambers (similar to large incubators) or hot water blankets…”The effectiveness of hyperthermia treatment is related to the temperature achieved during the treatment, as well as the length of treatment and cell and tissue characteristics (1, 2). To ensure that the desired temperature is reached, but not exceeded, the temperature of the tumor and surrounding tissue is monitored throughout hyperthermia treatment (3, 5, 7). ..”
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 601 studies spaning health topics from multiple myeloma and colorectal cancer, to chemotherapies that synergizes 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.
I have read 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.
The only challenge is that CU is famously difficult to absorb in the body. In other words, a person has to mix curcumin with some sort of fat (coconut oil, chocolate, etc.) or take a brand of curcumin capsule that is already formulated to be more “bioavailable” in order to derive the full benefit of CU.
The study linked and exerpted below reviews different formulations of CU. The study itself lists the three most bioavailable formulation/brand of CU and I’ve added an excerpt from a further review from Consumerlab.com that lists four additional bioavailable brands of CU.
I consult the independent evaluation service Consumerlab.com frequently. For one low annual payment, I can read about and evaluate all of the nutritional supplement that I take.
“Curcumin is a widely studied natural compound which has shown tremendous in vitro therapeutic potential. Despite that, the clinical efficacy of the native CU is weak due to its low bioavailability and high metabolism in the gastrointestinal tract. During the last decade, researchers have come up with different formulations with a focus on improving the bioavailability of curcumin. As a result, a significant number of bioavailable curcumin-based formulations were introduced with the varying range of enhanced bioavailability.
The purpose of this review is to collate the published clinical studies of CU products with improved bioavailability over conventional (unformulated) CU. Based on the literature search, 11 curcumin formulations with available human bioavailability and pharmacokinetics data were included in this review. Further, the data on clinical study design, analytical method, pharmacokinetic parameters and other relevant details of each formulation were extracted.
Based on a review of these studies, it is evident that better bioavailability of formulated curcumin products is mostly attributed to improved solubility, stability, and possibly low first-pass metabolism. The review hopes to provide a quick reference guide for anyone looking information on these bioavailable curcumin formulations.
exhibited over 100-fold higher bioavailability relative to reference unformulated CU. Suggested mechanisms accounting for improved bioavailability of the formulations and details on the bioanalysis methods are also discussed.”
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