Peter’s Hospital Diary

…but enjoyable ones! I think I mentioned in Saturday’s post that my parents were planning to visit, and they arrived on Sunday morning for 3 days, and left today. As always, it was lovely to see you, and thank you for coming down!

And here is a picture of “The Three Stooges”! – my other two visitors on Monday, Neil and Suzanne, both Leukaemia Care colleagues (fellow trainers) and who have recently posted comments on the blog. Both arrived bearing gifts, and no, not grapes! Neil (as a bloke) arrived with a pack of bacon and some sausages (delicious – I had some this morning!) and a loaf of harvest grain bread. Now that used to be my favourite, but since the radiotherapy, when my saliva dried up, I have been wary, and only recently started eating white bread. However, I had some as pork sandwiches on Monday evening – they were delicious! Thank you Neil! Suzanne’s present is equally useful, given Friday’s discovery that I can enjoy beer – the 2007 Good Pub Guide! I was pleased to see that most of the local pubs here are all featured!

We did have some work to do, but after that they stayed for a (late) lunch. Again new discoveries for me! At Christmas, I tend to enjoy the cold meats on boxing day as much as the meal on Christmas day, but this year the mucositis from the first lot of chemo was starting to kick in and I couldn’t really enjoy the meal. However on Monday we had cold meats and salad, which I enjoyed, but the real revelation was being able to enjoy pickles, especially some home pickled pears and some pickled onions. Equally welcome was the enjoyment of cheese and biscuits. But best of all was the convivial company – Neil, Suzanne, my parents and Felicity – a good day.

I’m not sure if I overdid things a bit on Monday, but yesterday I did feel quite tired. We went out for a pub lunch (Good Pub Guide featured!) which was good, but when we got back home, I just fell asleep. As John said in a comment “listen to what your body is telling you”. Sound advice. I must remember that although I am feeling several hundred percent better than three weeks ago, I still have a way to go!

Now, at the risk of becoming an Acai berry bore (who said “too late”?) I have revisited the subject one more time, in an attempt to find the source article. Now I have found the publication, a learned journal of “The American Chemical Society” called “The Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry” and although I have the publication date, I cannot find the article (which I couldn’t read anyway as it is a subscription journal) Now I’m sure it is a worthy journal, but I would have been a bit more impressed if it had been published in say “The American Journal of Haematolgy” which reaches a wide cross section of haematologists on both sides of the Atlantic.

However of interest was the University of Florida News letter, which I have linked to here. Naturally they make no claims about any anti-cancer properties in humans (apart from any other reasons, to avoid falling foul of the Federal Drug Agency) but they actually go further and point out that the study, funded by UF sources, was not intended to show whether compounds found in acai berries could prevent leukaemia in people.

“This was only a cell-culture model and we don’t want to give anyone false hope,” Talcott said. “We are encouraged by the findings, however. Compounds that show good activity against cancer cells in a model system are most likely to have beneficial effects in our bodies.”

The newsletter also pointed out that the berries are perishable and have only been available outside Brazil for about 5 years. And on the subject of freshness and quality control, Richard directed me to this link which voices similar concerns – so it isn’t just me!

So the facts are: The freshly picked berries contain the highest levels of anti-oxidants of any berry and that extracts from the pulp have been shown in one laboratory to kill a percentage of unspecified leukaemia cells. Again if you read the article, it points out that grape juice and guava juice also exhibits similar effects. So do I go and buy frozen Acai berry pulp at £12/kilo, and take up loads of freezer space (and probably displace that bottle of Plymouth Gin I am keeping nicely chilled against the day I can enjoy it again) or nip out to Sainsburys and buy a couple of pounds of red skinned grapes (or better still, a product made from them – which contains anti-oxidants and lots of flavinoids) and a couple of guava? Hmm – tricky!

One other thought – Florida’s main source of income, apart from Mickey Mouse and tourism, is the citrus fruit industry, which has taken a bit of a battering recently. Now if the acai palm could be grown in Florida, what a useful bit of marketing that research might be… cynical? moi?

So now to draw a line under the acai berry – worth watching – but treat claims with caution. I suppose at worst it can do no harm (or can it? Grapefruit juice reacts with the anti-rejection drug cyclosporin) but it isn’t cheap, and the quality isn’t guaranteed. I will pull the other post and this text and put it in an ‘about…’ page.

Anyway, it is getting chilly, time to put the heating on, and light the fire! Nothing like an open fire on a cold and frosty day!

Onwards and Upwards!