Just Ask Terry

Terry is happy to provide his opinion on diet and nutrition, supplements and lifestyle choices. This information is for educational purposes only. It is not meant to replace the advice of your physician and is not to be considered medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Should you have any concerns please contact your physician directly.

Q. Dear Terry, “One of my best friends has pancreatic cancer. I know this is a bad one and so does she. We are not looking for a cure, but is there ANYTHING natural that might help? And do you know of anything that can be used with chemotherapy? Her doctor is agreeable, but would like to look at any research. Thank you and God bless you for all you do.” —Carolyn K., Milwaukee, WI A. Dear Carolyn, First, please send my best regards to your friend. Pancreatic cancer is indeed tough. There is one supplement that is very popular with cancer researchers right now and that is a special form of curcumin that has enhanced bioavailability, up to 10 times that of plain curcumin. Curcumin is extracted from the spice turmeric. Though it makes up only 2-3% of the spice, it is the most potent compound in the root. While I would never suggest that this is any kind of cancer “cure,” it has certainly showed excellent results in research. This special bioavailability-enhanced curcumin has been used in published human studies. If I could only recommend one nutrient support for a person with cancer, it would be this kind of curcumin. Thus far, there have been no serious contraindications found with using curcumin alongside chemotherapy. In fact, there are some studies where both are used simultaneously. One recent study is: Epelbaum R, Schaffer M, Vizel B, Badmaev V, Bar-Sela G. Curcumin and gemcitabine in patients with advanced pancreatic cancer. Nutr Cancer. 2010.Nov;62(8):1137-41. However, I would leave it to her to discuss with her doctor if this is right for her. If you go to the government website PubMed: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/ and type in curcumin and cancer, you will get over 1,600 published studies. I hope this will give your friend’s doctor the additional information on curcumin that he may wish to review. Best wishes to both you and your friend. Healthy regards! Terry . . . Naturally