Inhibition of Cytokine Storm/influenza/ebola

Inhibition of Cytokine Storm/influenza/ebola

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J. Claire Green
Message 1 of 7 , Oct 13, 2014
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When I first heard about the Ebola outbreak in late July, I did not give it much thought. But in Early August my brother in law checked in with me about my take on it.

My b-i-l is a great guy, but also a bit tinfoil hat/conspiracy theorist type. I am sympathetic, although I think this outbreak has gone exponential due to poverty and incompetence of leadership in Africa (not so sure how we have handled ourselves either given what happened in Dallas). He thinks Ebola could be weaponized, what did naturopathy have to offer, in case that comes to pass or it mutates?

So I started to look into it. Then my brother, a first responder in Omaha, called to find out more in Early September when the first Ebola patient was brought to UNMC in Omaha for treatment. Things became more personal. Then I came across an article about the possibility of Ebola becoming endemic in West Africa. The reservoir for infection will be humans, not just bats. At the risk of sounding like a Cassandra, (Greek mythology, woman with gift of prophecy but curse of never being believed) I think this has grave consequences for public health worldwide, health care workers in particular.

I see there are a lot of “alternative” therapies being touted on the interwebs to fight Ebola. All well intentioned, but some seem to fly in the face of what I was finding out looking at pubmed searches. (Stimulate your immune system!) I condensed all the research I could find (not specifically about Ebola, as little has been done with filoviruses and nutrition or botanical medicine) but information about the cytokine storm that underlies the pathophysiology of infection. I imagine that if things play out as the WHO is predicting (a million cases as of Jan 2015) in West Africa, we will get more and more questions from concerned patients here. So I put up a website this weekend (bare bones) were one can download a PDF with all research summaries of what I found and possible treatment strategies. Inhibition of cytokine storm also has more immediate relevancy in case a virulent stain of avian flu begins to circulate. I am charging $7 a copy, as I have put almost 150 hours into this over the 2 months and incurred expenses setting up the website. www.ebolastorm.com


Ultimately, I agree with Paul Herscu , the similimum for an acute hemorrhaghic fever, may be the best CAM treatment option once a person gets sick. But I also think as NDs we have a lot of tools to help mitigate the risk of cytokine storm developing by targeting host response with nutrition and herbs.
http://www.paulherscuepidemics.blogspot.com/2014/09/ebolavirus-2014-outbreak.html#more

J. Claire Green, N.D.



Gabrielle Duebendorfer
Message 2 of 7 , Oct 13, 2014
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Dear Claire, thank you so much for doing this; was wondering if there was a similarity to the cytokine storm of the avian flu; had a young man I knew here die of that a couple of years - not my patient but I am seeing his wife now.  Yes, that does hit home. thanks so much for all the hours put in.  I am looking forward to reading it,Gabrielle

Aspen WellSpring
Dr. Gabrielle Duebendorfer, ND



Sheila Frodermann
Message 3 of 7 , Oct 13, 2014
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Nice compilation of abstracts, Claire. I enjoyed reading your 'take home messages'.
Glad to see the research on herbs & nutrients, and appreciate your 'cautionary notes'.
Sheila

--
Sheila M. Frodermann, MS, ND, DHANP, CCH
Naturopathic Physician
Diplomate of the Homeopathic Academy of Naturopathic Physicians
Certified Classical Homeopath
Bowen Practitioner



Daniel H. Chong
Message 4 of 7 , Oct 13, 2014
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Hi,
Thanks and will check it out!

Just as an FYI, I do think that vitamin C, if dosed appropriately, may go beyond the "support the immune system" concerns you have here and could work very well in conjunction with homeopathy.

The following story is only and n of 1 but powerful nonetheless and, considering the possibility that Swine Flu killed most because of a cytokine storm, could be pertinent here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twUVWv0fpRc
--
Aloha,
Daniel Chong, ND



Eric Blake
Message 5 of 7 , Oct 14, 2014
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The cytokine storm hypothesis of the high mortality of the 1918 epidemic is perhaps a bit of a red herring.

http://m.cid.oxfordjournals.org/content/49/9/1405.full

And the ny times translation
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/13/health/13aspirin.html

During the epidemic the naturopathic docs had an extremely low mortality as did the homeopaths.  Perhaps it was not only what they did but also did not do that made a difference.

In naturopathic physical medicine I discuss this and the research on the physiological rationale of that periods naturopathic treatment in infectious disease.

One of my big concerns today is the prolific and indiscriminate use of anti pyretics and NSAIDs in and out of healthcare settings. Often a first line treatment. As I reference in the book they don't shorten severity of duration of infections, increase complications, and increase communicability and are associated with higher mortality with their use.



Sincerely
Dr. Blake

Eric Blake ND, DAc
Naturopathic Physician,
Diplomate in Acupuncture
Member of the Oncology Association of Naturopathic Physicians
Member of Oregon Association of Naturopathic Physicians
Medical Director
Portland Clinic of Holistic Health



Eric Blake
Message 6 of 7 , Oct 14, 2014
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And dr green thank you for putting all of this together. That's a lot of work.

Sincerely
Dr. Blake

Eric Blake ND, DAc
Naturopathic Physician,
Diplomate in Acupuncture
Member of the Oncology Association of Naturopathic Physicians
Member of Oregon Association of Naturopathic Physicians
Medical Director
Portland Clinic of Holistic Health



J. Claire Green
Message 7 of 7 , Oct 15, 2014
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Thank you Dr. Blake for linking to that fascinating piece on ASA and 1918 Influenza mortality. I guess the "more is better" sentiment really held sway back then.
I really enjoyed my trip down the rabbit hole that PubMed represents. So many grains of sand to sift there....I feel I only scratched the surface.
I agree, too many people reach for Vit I or ASA at the first sign of discomfort in an illness, but the research on ASA with EPA/DHA taken together to endogenously produce resolvins is pretty compelling.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17965751

It would be interesting to see if we could do more on Natchat around crowd sourcing research findings and clinical pearls on some cloud based platform. I find the archive search and retrieval feature of Yahoo Groups is pretty clumsy, most times I get that error message about results failing to load. Is that just me?


J. Claire Green, N.D.
Santa Rosa, CA