A Woman Used Spice To Cure Blood Cancer, After Years Of Western Medicine Failing

A London woman is telling her story of using a natural remedy to cure blood cancer after years of fighting a losing battle using Western medicine as her main weapon. Dieneke Ferguson is now leading a normal life after giving up on the grueling treatments that failed to stop her cancer and putting her trust in nature.

Ferguson put her trust in turmeric. According to the Daily Mail UK, doctors are claiming this is the first recorded incident of a patient recovering by using a spice after stopping medical treatment. Her doctors, from Barts Health NHS Trust in London, wrote about her transition to a natural remedy 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,” the doctors wrote.

The type of cancer Ferguson was plagued with, which has an average survival rate of just over five years, was causing increasing back pain and she had already had a second relapse when she knew she needed to make a change. With her myeloma spreading rapidly, and typical treatments continuing to fail, including three rounds of chemotherapy and four stem cell transplants, the 67-year-old began taking 8g of curcumin (one of the main compounds in turmeric) a day.  She also quite doing chemotherapy and the stem cell transplants that had failed her.

Five years after starting taking turmeric as opposed to chemotherapy, Ferguson’s cancer cell count is “negligible.”

Dieneke Ferguson

Hybrid compounds formed from structural features of the antinausea agent thalidomide and curcumin, an active ingredient in the common kitchen spice turmeric, destroyed multiple myeloma cells in recent lab experiments.

A team led by Shijun Zhang of the Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) School of Pharmacy in Richmond, Virginia, designed the hybrid molecules. According to information in a VCU statement accompanying the release of the findings in Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry, laboratory studies have shown that curcumin inhibits the formation of cancer-causing enzymes in rodents. Thalidomide was reintroduced into use in the late 1990s as a treatment for multiple myeloma, after being taken off the market in 1962 because it was found to cause birth defects. –Oncology Nurse Advisor

Dr. Abbas Zaidi, said some myeloma patients have taken dietary supplements alongside conventional treatment but “few if any, use dietary supplementation as an alternative to standard antimyeloma therapy.” Yet, they also admitted that “in the absence of further antimyeloma treatment the patient plateaued and has remained stable for the past five years with good quality of life.”

Many studies have been conducted into the healing and potentially life-altering effects of turmeric. Turmeric is a spice made from grinding the roots of the Curcuma longa plant, also called curcumin. It is a prime ingredient in curry powder, which is common in Indian and Asian cuisine. Curcumin and can be taken in powder or pill form and one can spot turmeric by its distinctively rich, vibrant yellow color.

These studies all suggest the spice can protect against several cancers, not just myeloma, as well as Alzheimer’s, heart disease, and depression. It has also been shown to help speed recovery after surgery and effectively treat arthritis.
Ferguson, who runs Hidden Art, a not-for-profit business helping artists market their work, is frustrated doctors cannot recommend the spice and wants more research carried out. “I hope my story will lead to more people finding out about the amazing health benefits of curcumin,” she said.

Myeloma affects some 5,500 people in the UK every year, killing nearly 3,000.

*This is not meant to be medical advice of any kind.