Artemisinin / Qinghao, protozoal diseases & cancer?

[Guest guest]

Hi All,

 

See this, forwarded to TCM List today by ykcul_ritsym.

 

Could Artemisinin (or Qinghao (Hb Artemisiae annuae), its its

crude source) be effective in other protozoal diseases, like

Schistosomiasis, etc?

 

Vet colleagues!, have you tried Artemisinin/Qinghao in protozoal

diseases, like Babesiosis, Coccidiosis, Cryptosporidiosis?

 

Best regards,

Phil

 

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ykcul_ritsym” forwarded this today:

 

Herbal Miracle Drug?: Traditional Chinese Herb Offers Cure For Malaria &

Possibly Cancer, By Kathleen B. Deoul [see: http://tinyurl.com/2qdyy or

www.cancer-coverup.com/newsletter/06-2004/default.asp?linkref= nl_0604 ]

 

What if there was a disease that killed between 1.5-2.7 million people/year,

including at least 1,000,000 children that could be easily treated w a simple

herbal extract that had negligible side affects? What if had been known for

decades that this cheap, well- tolerated cure was available, but its use was

blocked by institutions such as the WHO & UNICEF - the very ones charged w

improving global health? What if this disease were beginning to spread from the

underdeveloped world to Europe & the United States?

 

Would someone be held accountable for the needless deaths & growing threat?

Apparently not, because that is exactly what has happened w Malaria - but

that's only half of the story.

 

THE SCOURGE OF MALARIA: Malaria is one of the triumvirate of diseases

that has devastated the developing world. Along w AIDS & TB, it has reached

pandemic proportions in Asia & Africa w some 120 million clinical cases

reported annually. Although the vast majority of Malaria deaths occur in Africa,

at lease 40% of the World's population has been exposed to the parasite.

Indeed, it is estimated that 300 million people carry the parasite. This

compares w around 40 million AIDS carriers & is exceeded only by TB which

may be carried by as much as one- third of the world's population.

 

What is particularly disturbing about Malaria, however, is that over the last

century every time a new drug has been developed to combat it, the parasite

has adapted & developed a resistance. In the 1950s quinine-based drugs such

as Chloraquine & Primaquine proved highly effective in combating Malaria, but

today, anywhere from 50% to 90% of new cases are proving resistant.

 

Over the past fifteen years, the older quinine-based drugs were replaced as the

treatment of choice by Lariam (Mefloquine), a drug developed by the United

States Army for soldiers serving in Vietnam. Lariam was first produced at the

Walter Reed Army Institute of Research in 1963. Licensed to Swiss

pharmaceutical giant Hoffman LaRoche, it was approved for general use in May

of 1989. Each year, thousands of civilians traveling abroad as well as U.S.

military & Peace Corps personnel take Lariam to protect them against Malaria.

 

PROBLEMS w LARIAM: However, like their predecessors, drugs such as

Lariam are now also losing their effectiveness. Moreover, serious side effects

have been associated w Lariam, including extreme neuropsychiatric disorders.

These disorders are suspected of sparking a series of murders at Ft. Bragg,

N.C. by soldiers returning from Afghanistan where they were administered the

drug.

 

Concern over the possible neuropsychiatric side effects of Lariam caused the

FDA to require a change to the product's label in 2002 that reads in part:

" Mefloquine may cause psychiatric symptoms in a number of patients ranging

from anxiety, paranoia & depression to hallucinations & psychotic behavior. On

occasions these symptoms have been reported to continue long after

mefloquine has been stopped. Rare cases of suicidal ideation & suicide have

been reported though no relationship to drug administration has been

confirmed. "

 

What makes the concern over growing drug resistance to Malaria an even more

urgent problem is that the increase in global travel, especially to areas such

as

Africa & Southeast & Southwest Asia where Malaria is common raise the

specter of its return to the United States. Other tropical diseases such as the

West Nile Virus have already made there way here, & some fear it is only a

matter of time before Malaria does so as well. But is there a solution?

 

AN HERBAL SOLUTION? Surprisingly, one has been available for at least three

decades, but it has been resisted by both Big Pharma & the international

institutions that do its bidding. At about the same time the U.S. Army was

looking for a new Malaria drug to give to soldiers fighting in Vietnam, the

Chinese military was engaged in the same task to protect their own troops &

those of North Vietnam. Their approach, however, was quite different.

 

China has a tradition of using herbal medicine that dates back over 2,000

years. In 1965, Chinese military researchers began looking at traditional herbal

remedies to see if they could find one that was effective against the strain of

Malaria endemic to Vietnam. In short order they hit on an herb known as

" sweet wormwood. " Sweet wormwood had been used to treat a variety of

illnesses in China for more than two millennia. Normally administered as a tea,

it had no noticeable side effects & seemed quite effective. The Chinese military

researchers were able to isolate the active ingredient in sweet wormwood, a

substance called Artemisinin, & to develop a simple process to extract it. The

results were astounding.

 

ARTEMISININ'S EFFECTIVENESS: They found that Artemisinin was effective

against all strains of Malaria, & more important, its therapeutic action was

stunningly rapid. In one clinical trial, it was found to destroy 95% of the

Malaria

parasites in patients within twenty hours. The fever typically accompanying a

Malaria infection was gone within eight hours. Moreover, there were no side

effects. Other studies of Artemisinin confirmed its effectiveness & rapid action

-

something particularly important for the treatment of very young children who

account for 90% of all Malaria deaths.

 

But that wasn't all of the good news concerning Artemisinin. Because sweet

wormwood is easy to cultivate & because the extraction process to separate

out the Artemisinin is simple, it was cheap to manufacture. In other words, it

was the perfect answer to the developing world's Malaria pandemic. Of course,

this new " miracle " cure was embraced by the WHO, UNICEF & the other

international organizations trying to combat global public health problems - at

least that's what you would think. Unfortunately you would be wrong. Their

reaction was exactly the opposite.

 

ESTABLISHMENT RESISTANCE & REVERSAL: In 2002, Dr. Dennis Carroll, a

health advisor to the Agency for International Development called Artemisinin

" … not ready for prime time … " The World Bank & UNICEF objected to the

herbal remedy claiming it was " too expensive. " At the time, a dose of

Artemisinin sold for around $2 whereas a single dose of Lariam costs from

$4.50 to $6.00! Suddenly, last April, Dr. Carroll reversed himself & became a

cheerleader for Artemisinin. How could this happen?

 

Well, he was not exactly a cheerleader for Artemisinin. Rather, he became a

cheerleader for what is termed " ACT " / " Artemisinin Combination Therapy. "

Under this approach Artemisinin is combined w a pharmaceutical product -

usually a drug called Lumefantrine that is produced by Novartis, the huge Swiss

drug conglomerate. Interestingly, in poor countries Novartis sells the

combination under the brand name " Coartem " for about 90 cents a dose. In the

Developed World, however, it sells the same drug under the brand name Riamet

for around $20 a dose. While Novartis could not patent Artemisinin, because as

a plant, it was a naturally occurring substance, it can patent the combination -

ensuring its coffers will be fattened!

 

But that's not all! Even though the WHO now says it needs at least 100 million

doses of the combination drug by next year, Novartis managed to get it

qualified as an " orphan drug " under FDA regulations making it eligible for

preferential tax & investment treatment! So now that Big Phama can make a

profit, the ancient Chinese herb has suddenly become the " next new thing " in

the pharmaceutical industry. The question is how many children died

needlessly while greedy executives in corporate board rooms were protecting

their profits?

 

If you only take the period from 1989 when Lariam, the last " next new thing " for

Malaria came onto the market into account, the death toll comes to around 15

million! But at least Artemisinin is now becoming available, & not a moment too

soon, because conventional pharmaceutical remedies are rapidly losing their

effectiveness. In Uganda, for example, a country which had not previously had a

significant drug resistance problem, the number of Malaria cases not

responding to existing pharmaceutical products rose from 6% in 2000 to 31% in

2003. Similar patterns of rapidly growing drug resistance are being experienced

elsewhere.

 

BIG PHARMA'S PLOY: Of course, Big Pharma uses this fact as a justification

for using a " combined drug therapy. " They claim that using Artemisinin in

combination w Lumefantrine will protect the herb against losing its

effectiveness. This makes sense on first glance except for one thing:

Artemisinin has been used for over 2,000 years wo losing its punch.

 

Why would it suddenly do so now? The simple truth is that Novartis is not afraid

of Artemisinin losing its medicinal power. It's afraid of losing the drug's

financial

power. As long as it is sold in combination w a conventional pharmaceutical

product, the combination can be patented even if the herb cannot. That means

that whenever the patent on Lumefantrine is set to expire, all that Novartis has

to do is combine it w another pharmaceutical product - it really doesn't matter

what since it's the herb that's providing the greatest medical benefit - & apply

for a new patent! It effectively creates Big Pharma's fondest dream - a patent

that will never expire!

 

Not only that, but by following the two-tiered sales approach & having one

relatively cheap brand name Novartis uses in poor countries & another

expensive one for the rest of the world, the company can continue to watch its

profits grow while avoiding criticism for exploiting poor nations. As if its

indefinite patent protection weren't enough, institutions such as the WHO, the

Global Fund for AIDS TB & Malaria & the U.S. Agency for International

Development are providing grants to farmers to grow more sweet wormwood so

that sufficient supplies of the herb are available. That these grants also serve

to

keep manufacturing costs down for Novartis thereby making their profits larger

is yet another benefit to the pharmaceutical giant.

 

But how does Artemisinin work? The answer to this question may have

implications for global health that go far beyond its effectiveness against

Malaria. Artemisinin contains a bioactive peroxide molecule. It is this molecule

that is the key to its effectiveness against the Malaria parasite. Malaria grows

in the body's erythrocytes,/red blood cells. Hemoglobin, a major component of

red blood cells, contains large amounts of " unbound " /free iron. The iron plays a

crucial role in the function of red blood cells to transport oxygen throughout

the

body. The peroxide molecule in Artemisinin reacts w the iron in the red blood

cells to create free radicals that in turn destroy the parasite's membranes,

killing it. This mechanism may be the reason why Malaria parasites are unable

to develop a resistance to Artemisinin.

 

The belief that oxygen plays a key role in the Artemisinin anti- malaria

mechanism has been reinforced by studies of derivatives of the substance that

do not contain the peroxide molecule. These were found to be ineffective

against malaria. Further, when other drugs such as miconazole & doxorubicin

that also generate free radicals through an oxygen interaction were used in

conjunction w Artemisinin, its effect was enhanced. Conversely when

substances that retard free radical creation such as vitamin E were used in

conjunction, its effect was reduced.

 

In a separate study where the antioxidant defenses of rats were manipulated, it

was discovered that those w weaker antioxidant defenses were more resistant

to the Malaria parasite, whereas those w enhanced antioxidant defenses were

more vulnerable to the disease. But why is it so important that Artemisinin

transport oxygen to cells? The answer lies in the research of German Nobel

Laureate Otto Warburg.

 

A POSSIBLE CANCER CURE? Warburg won the Nobel Prize in 1928 for

describing the way a cancer cell functions. A key element of his research was

to establish that cancer cells were " anaerobic. " That is to say that they

required an ABSENCE of oxygen to survive. Since 1928, countless researchers

have worked to find a way to transport oxygen to cancer cells. Although some

researchers, such as Dr. Keith Brewer, developed treatments based on this

principle, their discoveries were either ignored/attacked.

 

But in the case of Artemisinin, the fact that it is approved by the FDA for use

in

humans may finally open the door to an oxygen-based approach to cancer

treatment. Once a drug is approved for one purpose, it can be prescribed by

physicians to treat any disease they deem appropriate. This practice is called

" off-label prescribing " & is widespread within the medical community. Soon,

though, it may not be necessary to engage in such subterfuge.

 

Professor Henry Lai & Assistant Professor Narendra Singh of the University of

Washington have been conducting in vitro experiments to determine the

effectiveness of Artemisinin in fighting cancer. A study concerning their

research published in the Journal Life Sciences described how the compound

killed virtually all human breast cancer cells exposed to it within sixteen

hours.

According to Dr. Lai, " Not only does it appear to be effective, but it's very

selective. " He continued " it's highly toxic to the cancer cells, but has a

marginal impact on normal breast cells. "

 

Dr. Lai has been investigating the potential of Artemisinin in regard to

treating

various types of cancer for over seven years w consistently promising results.

He has developed a " cocktail " consisting of holotransferrin, a substance that

binds w a cancer cells " transferring receptors, " the part of the cell that

absorbs

iron & a water soluble form of Artemisinin. Cancer cells normally absorb much

more iron than healthy cells. Therefore the chemical cocktail is attracted to

the

diseased cells & brings the Artemisinin along w it.

 

Although full-scale human trials have not been conducted as yet, in one animal

trial, a dog w severe bone cancer was completely cured within five days of

being given the Artemisinin cocktail. According to Dr. Lai, Artemisinin could

open the door to a whole new era of cancer treatment. Patients could be given

a prescription for a pill they could take at home wo the need to go through

expensive hospital-based treatments. " That would be very easy, & this

[Artemisinin] could make that possible. The cost is another plus - at $2 a dose,

it's very cheap. & w millions of people who have already taken Artemisinin for

Malaria we have a track record showing that it's safe. "

 

Dr. Lai continued " The fascinating thing is that this was something the Chinese

used thousands of years ago. We simply found a different application. "

 

The real question is not whether Artemisinin will eventually become part of the

arsenal for fighting cancer as it has become part of the arsenal for fighting

Malaria. Given the amazing results of Dr. Lai's research, it undoubtedly will.

The

real question is whether Big Pharma & its allies in government will make the

public wait three decades before it becomes available.

 

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Best regards,

 

Email: <

 

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