Tumeric...do you take it?

Wow, aside from the turmeric advice (thank you!), I just have to say that is a truly beautiful cat. I used to breed siamese. Yours?

I posted before about being careful with curcumin while on Tamoxifen, based on the info from the article below:



http://foodforbreastcancer.com/articles/what-should-breast-cancer-patients-and-survivors-eat-during-tamoxifen-treatment?



But after reading other sources and your posts, I contacted my "personalized hormonal therapy" dr Richard Kim (London, Ont), who is researching drug contradictions, does CYP2D6 testing and asked for his advice.

He just got back to me with an answer: it is ok to take it while on Tamoxifen.

I though, I would let everyone know, especially that earlier I posted otherwise.



😊

Coraleliz, I am not buying any capsules either. I read that their absorption is very poor.

I purchased organic turmeric powder and make a mixture of 1 tsp, pinch of black pepper and a couple of drops of olive oil into 1/3 cup of hot water. It is disgusting, but I drink it fast, like a medicine.

I'm not sure how much I'm actually getting in comparison to the extract in capsules, but I'm hoping that it absorbs better thanks to addition of pepper, oil and heat. (I was told by one Indian naturopath that all these elements are needed to activate anti cancer properties and increase absorption).

After reading that article - I stopped, but restarted again after response I got from my dr who specializes and advices oncologists on hormonal and other therapies. I will have another check endoxifen level (an active form of tamoxifen), in my blood in September, so it will be interesting to see if it is going to be affected by curcumin consumption or not.

My onc doesn't check endoxifen levels, but she agreed to refer me to personalized medicine specialist/researcher at another cancer centre, who did my cyp2d6 testing and "took me into his research". So I go every 6 months to do blood work to check endoxifen levels. I happened to be a very good tamoxifen metabolizer and my endoxifen level in February was high. Of course it only means that my liver does its job converting tamoxifen into its active form, but does not guarantee that it will protect me from bc coming back... It only tells that genetically I have a very good potential to benefit from tamoxifen therapy. Now I restarted turmeric, so it will interesting to see if it alters the endoxifen level or not.

Kinda like the drinking bit:  some studies say yes, others no.  So hard to know what to do.

I take Curamin when I get aches and pains, it is fantastic stuff--same line as Curamed.  Curcumin based naturopathic drug.

That said, I had an oncologist who suggested I not take more than the RDA of any vitamin, as there will never be enough studies to determine what does and doesn't interact with Tamoxifen.  I try to keep my vitamin intake mellow as a result.  I do take a megadose of D, as my levels have been a mess for a long time.

I do now wonder based on reading here whether I should be taking my Tamoxifen in the morning, separate from my D, magnesium, calcium and fish oil.

This thread has reminded me to take my tumeric every day! I have Anticancer among the books by my bedside, but with everything 'good' we 'should' do re anti-cancer, there's also real life, and it's so hard sometimes to keep with everything!  Maggs09, the preparation you describe (w/pepper, oil) is what Anticancer author Servan Schreiber describes.  Like your naturapath he also says that tumeric needs those additional two ingredients in order to be digested.  The heat factor is not mentioned...hmmmm.   

Also like LtotheK my MO believes that with every benefit comes a risk, and isn't a supporter of supplements generally (except Vit D-limited).  I myself am not comfortable with the unregulated world of supplements. Not only is the effect unclear but what I'm even ingesting/what's labeled etc is unclear...so if I were taking a supplement I would want to take it from a very known manufacturer, like Solgar or something....(I have no idea whether they make it or not).

In any event I need to figure out how to add this to my diet regularly....maybe I'll even carry some of it around with me (might seem kind of wacky to pull it out at coffeeshops, etc.!! but we'll see...just a thought~)  Not sure I could swallow the drink daily but that actually might be the easies way to ensure the dose.  

I didn't know that what you take tamoxifen with would matter. Isn't it in your system 24 hours a day, essentially?  That said, I do try and take it by itself, in the evening well after dinner  (around10 pm).  I take synthroid in the AM and Vit D at dinner usually.

Jessica749, yes tamoxifen is just an inactive pills that needs to be absorbed and converted into active form; otherwise it leaves the body like any other unused stuff. Once activated, it stays in the system but if the further absorption is decreased or stopped, or liver won't metabolize more, these "saved cumulated" endoxifens will at some point deplete. This is what happened in my case. Due to decreased enzyme activity (enzyme inhibited by curcumin), over period of almost 2 months endoxifen in my blood decreased by half. Fact is that once I stopped curcumin, 3 months later this level more then doubled, went 15%over my before curcumin level. So maybe it does something to enzyme activity that enhanced tamoxifen metabolism if taken on and off...? But that's just my speculation..,

Hi everyone!

My name is Ashleigh and I am a member of Rice University's OwlSpark accelerator program. I was going through different cancer blogs and I came across this post. I am currently working on a project concerning nutrition and cancer and I wanted to know about how to manage your diet. If anyone is willing, I would love to connect with you and speak to you more about it and get your feedback.

Feel free to respond to this post or message me