FW:SARS SUMMING-UP

May 15, 2003

May 16,2003

Dear Listmembers,

I have translated this article due to its relevance to our present

discussion on Western drug / materia medica interaction ; side effects from

Ribavirin and use of steroids; and the current SARS epidemic.

Regards,

Rey Tiquia

Phd Candidate

Dept. of History and Philosophy of Science

University of melbourne

Victoria

Australia

With A Scientific Perspective Look For the Medicine Which Can Prevent and

Treat SARS

Deng Zhi Ren : General Manager: Hongkong International TCM Research

Institute Pty. Ltd.

Takung Pao May 15,2003- Currently, SARS (yan zhong ji xing hu xi si tong

zong he zheng) is wreaking havoc in the world. At this point, I will

attempt a more reasonable li zhi and scientific ke xue perspective mu

guang to investigate and find a method of preventing and treating this

infectious disease. This is the theme of this article.

From studies yan jiu done from various parts of the world. the pathogen

bing yuan i is a newly mutated coronavirus. As the research work on

completing the human genome project, a new testing device which only

requires 60 minutes to get the text result has been developed by China and

already used clinically. However, developing a genetic drug for prevention

and treatment of SARS , we still have to wait for it to be developed.

At present, as to the diagnosis of SARS we are still sifting through

shai xuan different common methods. One , is clinical physical signs lin

chuang ti zheng , for example continuous fever ( 38 degrees Celsius and

higher) , cough and shortness of breathe qi cu , as well as X-ray photos

showing lung organ pathological changes , then a diagnosis can be made.

Second , is laboratory tests and anti-body tests, molecular testings, and

white blood cells culturing etc.Of course, genetic comparison is the most

accurate (form of diagnosis ) but at this point, this method is still not

for real bu xia shi .

As for China's TCM. this (SARS) is external heteropathy entering the

'living body' ben yuan (or the root) through the nose and mouth.Then it

lodges within the lungs which leads to the lung's failure to disperse the

Qi fei Qi bu xuan , and thus losing its capacity to 'keep its purity and

move downwards ' su jiang shi tiao . It is a febrile warm disease Wen

Bing characterized by 'the living body being vacuous or deficient and the

'stem' (referring in this context to the heteropathy Trans.) being in

excess ben xu biao shi

At this time, the treatment of SARS. With Western medical treatment,

the situation in Hongkong and mainland China are basically similar. However,

in the mainland, they use a variety of methods in enhancing clinical

efficacy. This is looking from the situation in the Guangdong Provincial

TCM Hospital, Hospital Attached to the Guangzhou Hospitals, Shen Zhen Dong

Hu Hospital and some hospitals in Beijing. Aside from using antibiotics to

deal with the mycoplasma zhi yuan ti at the early stages of the disease and

using anti-viral drugs to deal with the virus, simultaneously, they use TCM

materia medica treatment zhong yao zhi liao .

Using TCM Materia Medica as a Complementary treatment , the Results are Much

Better

Unlike hospitals in Hongkong which uses tracheotomy encheiresis qi

guan qie kai cha guan shu at a very early stages of the disease , most of

the hospitals in the mainland uses respirators hu xi ji instead. This way

reduces post-traumatic infections chuang shang gan ran . On the other

hand, compared with a purely Western medical treatment , the appropriate

use of a complementary TCM materia medica clinical pattern diagnosis and

treatment zhong yao bian zheng zhi liao achieves a higher cure rate and

lower mortality rate.

In dealing with acute infectious diseases, complementing with TCM

materia medica is the aim that modern TCM is trying to achieve. At a loss of

what to do shu shou wu ce in the face of a virus that is continuously

mutating and ever developing resistance to certain drugs , more and more

people in Hongkong are thinking of TCM materia medica.

Presently, the drug of first choice to prevent and treat SARS is

RIBAVIRINI kang bing zuo it is also referred to as San Dan Zuo He gan

RIBAVIRIN . This drug has been around for more than 2 years. It is commonly

known to be a very unstable drug bu wen ding de yao wu . It's toxic side

effects are diarrhoeia, anemia, and reduction in the number of White Blood

Cells. It is generally administered orally for 5-7 days. Another drug that

is used simultaneously with Ribavirin against SARS) is steroids lei gu chun

.. Actually, cortical hormones pi zhi ji su (steroids . lei gu chun ) does

not treat any disease. The aim of its use is to prevent the destructive

effects of inflammations and to improve metabolic processes. ; reduce

antigen-antibody reactions and damage to organ tissues. In this way, the

body wins time employ other therapeutic measures or allow th body's natural

immune system to be put into full play. It can be said that it is a drug

with no specific efficacy wu te xiao yao wu .

Steroids bring about multiple adverse side effects. For example, it's

administration can lead to iatrogenic yi yuan xing hepeactivity in the

secretion of the adreno-cortical hormone shen shang pi zhi ji su ; muscular

atrophy; osteoporosis due to calcium phosphorus imbalance; induce and worsen

infections, bringing about the spread or aggravation of an infectious site

; or induce or aggravate ulceration bleeding. When the drug administration

is terminated, more adverse side effects also occur.

Blindly Composing a Materia Medica Prescription Has No Scientific Basis

Actually, TCM materia medica zhong yao has certain efficacy ken ding

you xiao vis-a-vis the prevention and treatment of SARS. However,

self-administration of certain materia medica like jin yin hua, ban lan

gen, or blindly composing some materia medical formulae like combining

Ling Zhi with Jin Yin Hua or combining the formulaYu Ping Feng San with

Sang Ju Yin belong to the category of 'subjective thinking' yi xiang or

'conjecture' tui ce . And these do not have a strong scientific basis ke

xue gen ju . As to the use of TCM materia medica in dealing with the SARS

virus, the study and 'actual prescribing' shi shi of a suitable formula is

the only appropriate method.Recently, there was a report of a group of

students in Shanxi province overdosing on SARS preventative and treatment

materia medica leading to a group poisoning The heavy veil will be lifted

that will show more cases of adverse reaction resulting from the wrong way

of administering materia medica .

In the laboratory experiments in the past, in vitro ti wai shi yan

testing of materia medica like Huang Lian, Huang Qin, Jin Yin HUa, Da Qing

Ye, and Ban lan gen demonstrate that these can inhibit viruses. This is

also true for ten other materia medica such as Chuan Xin Lian, Da Huang

Niu Huan etc. However , this does not prove that these materia medica

upon oral administration can be effective against the virus inside the human

body. Of the various materia medica and formulae , which ones and how can

they be effective against the SARS virus ?

Using ultra-high magnification microscope chao gao bei xian wei jing to

look into the blood sample of a SARS patient , one can see the external

pathogen or mycoplasma connecting with macrophagocyte ju shi xi bao , the

wall of the macrophagocyte undergoes changes. The external pathogen is

surrounded by the macrophagocytes and later swallowed by the latter. In

this process, the generation of hydrogen peroxide guo yang hua jing , on

the one hand attacks the pathogen while simultaneously damages the body of

the organism itself. It can also be seen that the white blood cells which

have been infected becomes inhibited , while other infected cells rapidly

swells and disintegrate. One can also observe the degree of movements and

quantity of the plasma granules of the WBC; calculate the percentage of WBC

vitality. Hence one can make an objective evaluation of the immune function

and changes in the immune function after the administration of the TCM

materia medica.

Correctly Use TCM Materia Medica Its regulation of the Body's Immune System,

Recovery of the Immune system the elimination of Viral Toxins this certainly

is efficacious.

We can infer that after a pneumonia patient has been infected by the

virus, the lymphocytes and the invading pathogen interacts with each other

which triggers the generation of a human immune response. At this time , as

a result of this immune state of each person, one may see various disease

symptoms . Under the protection of this human immune response, the pathogen

undergoes low level replication or high level replication depending upon

the rate of development and prognosis of the disease in an infected person.

Basically, what causes mortality of a SARS patient is respiratory

failure and kidney failure. TCM thinks that " the lungs is in charge of the

governance of the Qi ' Fei wei Qi zhi zhu, while' the' kidneys are the root

of the Qi ' shen wei Qi zhi gen . When a lung disease develops further and

deeper, this will damage the kidneys bi shang ji shen . When the kidneys

fails to draw in the Qi Shen Qi bu neng she na , this leads to the Lung Qi

could not return to the kidney root fei qi bu neng gui gen yu shen , then

the Qi (breathe)' shortens' duan (shortness of breathe) and one 'gasp

for breathe' or pants chuan. Classical literature states that :

" unproductive cough has sounds but no phlegm. The 'fire' (element) comes to

take advantage of the metal (element) " ; " When 'metal' reaches its peak it

'cries' ming " ; " When metal does not generate water, fire smolders and

water dries up " . Clinically lin chuang shang, protecting the Qi and body

fluids jin is critical to the disease's prognosis. " When there is Stomach

Qi there is life; when there is no stomach Qi there is death " . These are

TCM therapy principles that can be referred to doing 'tailoring of treatment

in accordance with the diagnosed clinical pattern' bian zheng lun zhi .

TCM Materia Medica as well as its prognostic Rehabilitation is Better that

Western Medicine

Clinically speaking, during the initial and middle phases of SARS , a

complementary , rational and correct TCM materia medica treatment , it's

efficacy ust be more superior than a purely Western medical drug treatment.

During the preventative and prognostic rehabilitation phase of SARS, TCM

materia medica is much better than Western pharmaceutical drugs.

In the treatment of viral infectious diseases, the combined TCM

materia medica and Western pharmaceutical drug treatment is the best

treatment. However, this cannot be done by an ordinary medical practitioner

.. In a great number of clinical trials lin chuang shi yan , in many

combined use of Western drugs and TCM materia medica, phenomenon of reduced

efficacy and increased toxicity du xing zeng qiang occur. For example,

antibiotics like tetracycline si huan su when used in combination with

TCM materia medica which contains metallic ions like ca,mg , al leads to

the formation of chelate au he wu which cannot be absorbed by the stomach

and intestines. Another example are TCM materia medica which contains

tannin rou zhi ; those which are categorized as carbons; as well as

alkaline types of TCM materia medica are not suitable to be used with shen

Qu, Mia Ya , Dou Chi etc.

However, in the same breadth , through many clinical trials, we also

found out that many TCM materia medica zhong yao have synergistic xie

tong and efficacy enhancing effects when combined with Western

pharmaceutical drugs. For example, Ku Shen, Di Yu, Yu Xing Cao, Pu Gong

Ying etc. can be used with TMP; San Qi and Bai Ji can be used with Yi

Yan (question mark symbol . one character missing) ; Da Huang , Niu Huang

can be used with the Western drug steroids . Their safety and efficacy are

much better than Western drugs of the same orientation. Hence, it can be

clearly pointed out that combined use with ribavirin San Dan Zuo He Gan

can have an efficacy enhancing as well as synergistic effect upon the TCM

materia medica. This can be done.

Actually, most SARS patients in the course of the development of the

disease is not infected by only one type of virus. For some patients who

exhibit early symptoms or those suspected SARS patients can be administered

with combined with sulphamethoxazole huang an jia ji yi wu zuo , TMP and

corresponding TCM materia medica , more often produce unexpected results.

Steroids have a severe inhibiting effect upon the human immune

function. On the other hand, many TCM materia medica have a resisting

(negative ) kang ju effect against steroids. Hence, in the use of great

dose of steroids and Rivavirini against SARS, these TCM materia medica

should not be used simultaneously.

TCM has the concept of " not to treat an illness that has already come

about but rather to administer 'treatment' before the illness sets in " bu

zhi yi bing zhi wei bing . Generally speaking, prevention is more important

than curing the disease. In essence, in this global environment that we are

in, humans and animals in the first place rely upon their own natural

immunity to resist external pathogens. Hence it should be said that no

matter where or when, the crucial point is to safeguard one's human natural

immune system.

When we dissect rats/ mouse , its gigantic and well developed thymus

gland xiong xian tell us why the rats in the drains and ditches of the

Amoy Gardens in Hongkong are not infected. The immune system of children

before nine years of age are also very robust. Their resistance to virus is

relatively more stronger than adults. Actually, Chlamydia and the

coronavirus already have existed in previous respiratory illnesses in the

past. In the course of repeated infections, people have already formed a

certain degree of antibodies. However, when the newly mutated coronavirus

attacks a person whose immune resistance is very low; or when when one's

immune system is inhibited, undergoes changes or damaged, people can

experience sudden physiological failures and death.

The Neijing has a saying which goes : " One with a thriving Spleen does

not get sick " pi wang bu shou bing . Correctly using TCM materia medica

have definite efficacy in the prevention of illness. Viruses' genes can

mutate, while there are already reports of certain TCM materia medica have

a regulatory effect upon genetic expressions. Under the guidance of modern

TCM discipline which comes together and develops with modern science and

technology, the design and manufacture of safe and effective preventative

and therapeutic TCM materia medica formulae against SARS which is

completely different in nature and efficacy from those variety of

" preventative TCM materia medica " developed with a commercial purpose , is

a possibility .

Modern TCM discipline is an enterprise that will develop along the

road to scientific and social prosperity and health to humanity.

May 15, 2003

Unlike hospitals in Hongkong which uses tracheotomy encheiresis qiguan qie kai cha guan shu at a very early stages of the disease , most ofthe hospitals in the mainland uses respirators hu xi ji instead. This wayreduces post-traumatic infections chuang shang gan ran . On the otherhand, compared with a purely Western medical treatment , the appropriateuse of a complementary TCM materia medica clinical pattern diagnosis andtreatment zhong yao bian zheng zhi liao achieves a higher cure rate andlower mortality rate.

>>>>I wander if we could use this to both bolster CM in the west and may be even to start increasing scope of practice to include injectable herbs.

Recently, there was a report of a group ofstudents in Shanxi province overdosing on SARS preventative and treatmentmateria medica leading to a group poisoning The heavy veil will be liftedthat will show more cases of adverse reaction resulting from the wrong wayof administering materia medica

>>>>Does anybody know more about this?

Alon