Dieneke Ferguson had been fighting against time when she was first diagnosed with terrifying myeloma, a form of blood cancer which starts from plasma cells in the bone marrow. The cancer was rapidly spreading to other parts of her body in just three sessions of chemotherapy.
At that moment, she was starting to lose hope until one day, she decided to consume curcumin, a main active ingredient in turmeric.
Now, she is cancer-free
Her survival story is the first ever recorded for myeloma patients who used spice as an alternative to combat the cancer after stopping conventional medicines and treatments. Patients with myeloma have only on average five years to survive.
Dieneke was diagnosed in 2007
When her myeloma became worse and started to spread in an alarming rate after three failed chemotherapy sessions and four stem cell transplants, the 67-year-old woman then began to search for other alternatives to treat her cancer. It was then when she came across the potential of curcumin as cure for cancer on the internet in 2011.
Dieneke then decided to try consuming curcumin tablets as her last resort as modern treatments and medicines failed to fight the cancer cells where she began to take 8 grams of curcumin a day. She also stopped taking any chemotherapy sessions and stem cell transplants.
The tablets, however, are quite expensive as they cost USD 70 for ten days as she could not use kitchen turmeric as it only contains 2 per cent of curcumin.
It would be impossible for her to consume kitchen turmeric enough to get the same dose of curcumin in the tablet
Her doctors were absolutely impressed with her recovery. The team of doctors from Barts Health NHS Trust in London who treated Dieneke wrote in the British Medical Journal Case Reports: “To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report in which curcumin has demonstrated an objective response in progressive disease in the absence of conventional treatment.”
Dr. Abbas Zadi, the team leader said some myeloma patients do take dietary supplements alongside modern treatments but only few use dietary supplement as the only treatment of the cancer. So far, these few patients have managed to control the cancer and are now leading a good quality of life.
Since Dieneke has been taking the curcumin tablets, her cancer has stabilised with the cancer cells diminish to negligible count.
The doctors also wrote: “biological activity of curcumin is indeed remarkable,” including its “anti-proliferative effects in a wide variety of tumour cells.” However, according to Professor Jamie Cavanegh, it may not work for everyone. “A lot of my patients take curcumin at different stages of their treatment. I don’t object to it. Dieneke’s is the best response I have observed and it is clear-cut because we had stopped all other treatment,” he said.
On the other hand, Dieneke was frustrated that doctors could not recommend the use of spice in antimyeloma treatments and she would like further research to be carried out
She said: “I hope my story will lead to more people finding out about the amazing health benefits of curcumin.”
