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New to Hydrea for ET

Blood Cancers & Disorders | Last Active: Jun 19, 2025 | Replies (176)

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Profile picture for nohrt4me (Jean) @nohrt4me

Just me being cynical, but often the bad things you read about HU are from alternative medicine sources that want to scare you off chemo and buy THEIR stuff instead.

In the 10 years since my ET was diagnosed, I've seen alternative practitioners hawking resveratrol, turmeric, CDB oil, cinnamon, and ginger. It's like Spice Rack Roulette.

A 2019 study did show curcumin (turmeric) might have some effect on MPNs, but those studies are preliminary, and there are no dosing or safety guidelines for people. In addition, turmeric supplements taken with prescribed blood thinners can cause bleeding.

The searchable NIH site is here. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/

Be sure to look at the publication (e.g. Journal of the American Society of Hematologists), age of a study, whether the study has been tested on humans, and whether a potential treatment has been compared for effectiveness against current therapies.

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Replies to "Just me being cynical, but often the bad things you read about HU are from alternative..."

Hello, I’m on HU for PV for about two and a half years now. Some hair loss, brown spots in my skin and tooth pain but I deal with it because the other meds are way more expensive and have worse side effects. I was taking Tumerac 1000 mg twice a day and my joint pain and body aches subsided substantially. Then, my iron crashed!! I researched and it said that tumerac can STOP most of your body from absorbing iron. I was told it was safe to take with the HU and baby aspirin from my hemo/oncologist. I’m off it now for a
Month and everything hurts again but I make do with some IB and keeping busy. My energy level is slowly increasing. I completely agree the meds work and keep us from having a heart attack and strokes.Just thought I’d share to make others aware.