Small Dose Interferon Sublingual Dripping Plus Herbal Remedies -An Experimental Treatment for Chronic Viral Hepatitis

Small Dose Interferon Sublingual  Dripping Plus Herbal Remedies -An Experimental Treatment for Chronic  Viral Hepatitis, by Patients

(This article is about  experimentation. Many of my patients have sought to improve the efficacy  of their IFN based treatments by varying the rate and amount of intake. These changes were made with the cooperation of their physicians. Patients with chronic viral hepatitis should consult with their physician before  any changes are made to their treatment protocol.)

Interferon is a cytokine,  secreted by the lymph cells, a type of white blood cell.  When a person is infected with a virus, the production of this particular  cytokine increases and becomes an anti-viral weapon of the body. In addition, IFN also has extensive physiological and immunological effects.  Pharmacological studies showed that interferon has anti-viral, anti-inflammatory, anti-fibrotic, and anti-cancer effects. All of these  effects are very useful in treating chronic viral hepatitis B and C.

In patients with chronic  viral hepatitis (HBV and HCV), the level of interferon (IFN) gradually  becomes depleted. This is one of the reasons why an acute infection  develops into a chronic infection. Thus, supplementing the body with IFN  to enhance its anti-viral defense is the main therapeutic method of conventional medicine. IFN-based  treatments are now available in different several forms: alfa-IFN  solo-therapy, Infergen (Interferon alfacon-1), IFN plus ribavirin  combination therapy, Peg-intron (Peginterferon Alfa-2b) plus ribavirin,  and Pegysis plus ribavirin combination therapies.

Currently, the approximate efficacy rate for sustained response to IFN  based treatments is about 50%. That means about half of patients treated  with these methods reach a viral load of undetectable status six months  after the treatment has finished. The response rate is largely dependent  on the genotype of the HCV, stage of progression, age, and sex of the patient. The most common genotype, 1a or 1b has the smallest response  rate: around 35%. For genotypes 2 or 3, the response rate is around 66%.

Newer versions if IFN,  such as peg-IFN, is improving the response rate.  However, the side effects can still be quite serious and hard to  tolerate. The side effects are mainly caused by the size of the dose. When  alpha-IFN was used as a mono-therapy or combine with ribavirin as a combination therapy, the dosage was 3 million units, three  intra-muscular injections per week.  With  Peg-intron and Pegysis, the once-a-week injection dose remained at 3  million units, the only difference being the frequency of intake was  reduced to once a week. The purpose was to release the Peg-IFN slowly  overtime. The main problem again, was the large size of the dose, which continued to cause intolerable side-effects for many patients. Many of  these patients suggested using lower and more frequent doses to their  doctors and some agreed to the experiment.

The description below  is a report of the progress these patients have made. It is purely for  informational purposes and is not a substitute for medical advise.

With the cooperation  of their respective physicians, the daily dose starts from 300,000 units  (1/10 of the one injection dose in the evening) and slowly builds the  tolerance level to eventually reach 600,000 units (one dose in the evening  and one in the morning).

The old version of IFN  is in a solution form, packed in a vial that contains the 3 million units  in 0.5 cc volume. It was divided into 10 drops, one drop contained 300,000  units of the IFN or 1/10 of the original dose.

To start, patients  took one drop sublingually per day. They dripped it under the tongue and kept it there for at least one minute without swallowing. The mucus  membrane of the mouth absorbed the IFN into the blood stream directly. The  saliva did not destroy it because saliva does not contain any protease.  The dripping was done in the evening, before bed. After a few weeks, the  body built a tolerance and doses were gradually increased to 600,000 units  of IFN. At this stage, most of the patients did not experience any side  effects of IFN. Only a few people found that after the dripping, they felt  slightly discomfort in the local mucus membrane area along with some congestion.

For Pegintron, or Pegysis  IFN, both are in powder form. People are experimenting to divide the one  dose powder into 10 small parts. Every day, one part of the powder is placed under the tongue. With these methods, people are getting the  benefits from IFN without experiencing side effects.

The clinical results

First, almost every  patient saw their ALT, and AST dramatically improved or normalized.
Second, viral load dramatically reduced.  Total eradication is still not feasible for many patients but the results  showed reduced liver inflammation and viral replication.

Third,  very few  side-effects relative to conventional large-dose IFN treatment.

If used with herbal  remedies, there was dramatic overall improvement of symptoms. Patients who  were not able to tolerate IFN before were able to do so and reap some of the benefits.

The results have been  positive and I do encourage patients with work with their liver specialist  to find the best treatment route, using variations of conventional  techniques.

Please keep in mind, this  is a self-designed patient experimentation. There was no placebo-controlled, randomized, double blinded tests to support its  validity.

However, I do think that  this method is rational and the overall clinical results have been encouraging.

http://www.sinomedresearch.org/hcv/articles/c41_DripIFN.htm

[St. George]

What type of physician are you ( MD,DO,Naturopath,etc..)?  Also, there is an Asian physician in NY who has been treating patients this way for sometime now.  My sister went to him for her Hep.

[St. George]

Dr. Zhangs his name.

[GrandmaA]

It lowers the viral load but doesn't get rid of it. Dr. Zhang has a list of doctors who are using this treatment.

[GrandmaA]

It lowers the viral load but doesn't get rid of it. Dr. Zhang has a list of doctors who are using this treatment.

[nygirl7]

Is this an advertisement for herbs against interferon?


For the new peeps NOTHING works except the current protocols that our DOCTORS prescribe.  If you want only to lower your liver enzymes (but not cure the disease) something like this might be ok but it isn't going to cure you at all.

[willows]

"Herbs against Interferon"....OMG, that was pretty funny, girl.  It is nice to be the one with a giggle finally.

"An experimental tx for chronic viral hepatitis" is not where I would put my energy, too many good doctors who truly care about curing the disease.  

Willow

[rochammer]

That was written at least 3 years ago or maybe more just a little out dated
But as the good doctor states

[Catll]

I just give you example:

[BThompson4]

"The clinical results

First, almost every patient saw their ALT, and AST dramatically improved or normalized.
Second, viral load dramatically reduced."



How are these "findings" any different from SOC?  Most patients' enzymes dramatically improve or normalize during SOC treatment and viral load is almost invariably reduced dramatically during SOC.

[GrandmaA]

There was one patient on Dr. Zhang's forum who got rid of the virus with his herbs alone and she didn't use the interferon under the tongue. But that was only one patient out of thousands. Dr. Zhang said that is not the purpose of his herbs. They are just to control inflammation and progression of the disease. Maybe the patient was in the acute phase. I have no idea.

[viaduk]

Been there; done that... It didn't lower the viral load, nor have any better effect than the herbal protocol alone.   That is just my experience, though.

Dr. Zhang is a knowlegable person, and a good man who readily answers questions and admits when he does not know something.  His protocols have  helped some people.  My liver doc does not think that this route of administration  (sublingual) will get enough INf into your system to affect the virus or significnalty improve  your immune system.

On the other hand, I did not have any side effects while trying this method for 2 months ;)