{"id":256,"date":"2019-05-04T02:08:51","date_gmt":"2019-05-04T06:08:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ayslcorp.com\/blog\/?p=256"},"modified":"2019-05-04T02:08:51","modified_gmt":"2019-05-04T06:08:51","slug":"the-rationale-behind-my-arriving-at-a-disruptive-concept-in-drug-therapy-4th-post","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ayslcorp.com\/blog\/index.php\/2019\/05\/04\/the-rationale-behind-my-arriving-at-a-disruptive-concept-in-drug-therapy-4th-post\/","title":{"rendered":"The rationale behind my arriving at \u201cA DISRUPTIVE CONCEPT IN DRUG THERAPY\u201d \u2013 4th post"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
  1. See 3rd post.<\/li>
  2. Natural therapeutics (herbs, foods, etc.)<\/em>.\u00a0 They include natural materials from plants, animals, minerals, and microbes (mushrooms included), among others.\u00a0 But they don\u2019t include drugs produced by synthesis which invariably carry with them toxic impurities that include intermediates, toxic reagents, and\/or byproducts that are hidden in the \u2018pure\u2019 chemical drugs, normally expressed as 98% to 102% purity, which is never 100.00% pure.\u00a0 I have discussed the issue of toxic impurities hidden in modern synthetic drugs in my books and other writings, such as online, on my blog.\u00a0\u00a0 I don\u2019t believe these impurities (no matter in what quantities present) have ever been tested in humans.\u00a0 If you have contrary information, I\u2019d love to hear from you. These might have been tested on receptors or small animals, and then the results were projected onto humans.\u00a0 Testing them on some isolated receptors, chemicals, or cells in vivo<\/em> certainly doesn\u2019t translate onto our living and extremely organized and well-functioning body.\u00a0 This reminds me of Dr. Albert Hofmann.\u00a0\u00a0 He was the famous chemist at Sandoz of Switzerland who, 50 years ago, was the first to have isolated the hallucinogen, psilocybin, from a Magic Mushroom of Mexico.\u00a0 At the time I was a graduate student at Michigan, Ann Arbor, working on cultivating a North American hallucinogenic mushroom (Psilocybe baeocystis<\/em>) in submerged culture and isolating 2 new sister compounds of psilocybin from its fungal tissue, whose chemical structures I determined and named baeocystin & norbaeocystin.\u00a0\u00a0 I met Dr. Hofmann a couple of times at meetings or conferences and remember his story of trying a tiny little bit of a synthetic compound that he had synthesized, shortly before he went home one day.\u00a0 That chemical was LSD!\u00a0 He certainly had an unexpected trip riding home on his bicycle that day!\u00a0\u00a0 What I am trying to say is there are two major systems of discovering and developing therapeutics \u2013 the scientific but uncertain way and the human empirical, trial-and-true way.\u00a0 What Dr. Hofmann took was maybe only micrograms of LSD, but that would be enough to give him a trip.\u00a0 The chemical (ergotamine) from which he synthesized the LSD is a drug for migraine and related headaches used in doses of a few milligrams (or thousands of micrograms) each time.\u00a0 The LSD made from it has much stronger effects in a different way, not necessarily in relieving migraine.\u00a0 I believe the in vitro<\/em> and in vivo<\/em> testing microcosm won\u2019t be able to predict that effect, nor will it work as well as actual human experience.\u00a0 Only time will tell.\u00a0 However, for natural therapeutics, our herbs and foods have already gone through the tried-and-true process.\u00a0 \u00a0The fact that we know what herbs or foods are safe to eat should serve as evidence that the process for natural therapeutics is far ahead of the modern \u2018scientific\u2019 process.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0For synthetic drugs, we won\u2019t have the verdict for who knows how long, decades, centuries, or millennia?\u00a0 Shouldn\u2019t we reset our thinking in modern drug discovery and development?\u00a0 And start looking at traditional medicines that have already gone through the process, not just for 2 or 3 decades, but for millennia?\u00a0 Using natural therapeutics can start to complement our current toxic drugs and help mitigate their toxic effects.\u00a0 To my drug colleagues, please point out what you see as wrong in my thinking in terms of science and common sense.\u00a0 To be clear and impartial in your thinking, please temporarily step outside the vicious cycle of drugs (which financially benefits only the greedy) and put yourself in the shoes of the health- and financially oppressed public.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 There are two subgroups of natural therapeutics within the herb\/food domain.\u00a0 They are tonics and fashi<\/em> or fawu <\/em>(or food \u2018taboos\u2019).\u00a0 Many people outside of China may have heard of tonic herbs, but few may know what they mean.\u00a0 Tonic herbs are loosely defined as natural materials, mostly botanicals, that double as both medicine and food, depending on usage.\u00a0 Thus, ginseng tea (Asian or American) can be drunk either as a medicine or simply as a beverage.\u00a0 Same with astragalus root, goji berries, Schisandra berries, and danggui<\/em> (Chinese angelica root).\u00a0 They can be taken as medicine or as food. \u00a0From modern research performed over recent decades, these tonic herbs all have some the following biological functions \u2013 antioxidant, immune-system modulating, anti-inflammatory, and anti-allergic, among others.\u00a0 These and their formulas have been often described in my latest book, My Life & Rollercoaster Career<\/strong>.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The other subgroup consists of mostly foods and tonic herbs that are generally used as foods with certain other specific foods.\u00a0 While my sisters and I were growing up under Grandma\u2019s traditional medical care, we learned the very basics of Chinese medicine, including cooling versus warming herbs, yin<\/em> versus yang<\/em> herbs, detoxifying herbs, tonic herbs, and what to use in warm or qi<\/em>-deficient conditions, among others.\u00a0\u00a0 There are some herbs and foods that should not be used with one another. \u00a0For a more detailed description, read pp. 228-229 of my My Life & Rollercoaster Career<\/strong> (from my newsletter, Issue 5, January 1997) reproduced below:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    A NOTE FROM DR. LEUNG<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    One\nof the things I learned while growing up in a cosmopolitan city like Hong Kong\nis the contrast between East and West in treating illnesses. We learned early\non that illnesses are closely related to our diet. When we are ill, we need to\nwatch what we take into our body. For example, according to Cantonese\ntradition, if one has a fever or a \u201chot\u201d condition (such as canker sores,\nblood-shot eyes, bad breath and dry and hoarse throat), one should avoid\nwarming foods or herbs, such as lamb, beef, Asian ginseng, chili pepper,\ncinnamon, and other strong spices. On the other hand, cooling foods or herbs\nare just what one needs for such a condition, which include American ginseng,\nwatercress, kudzu root, mung bean, and bean curd. In contrast, when one is\ntreated by modern Western medicine, except on extremely rare occasions, one is\nallowed to eat anything because modern medicine does not believe in food taboos\nas they have no \u201cscientific\u201d rationale. Since I have grown up in a traditional\nChinese environment and received a solid Western scientific education, I have\nalways been torn between tradition and science regarding this issue. We rarely\ntook any modern drugs while we were growing up but on the few occasions that I\ndid, I wholeheartedly endorsed the Western way because it allowed me to eat my\nfavorite foods. I was certainly guilty of expediency. But I was young. For a\nlong while, up until several years after I obtained my doctorate, I leaned\ntowards modern medicine, even though all the time my traditional upbringing was\nprominent in the back of my mind. Then, as I learned more about the\ndeficiencies of modern medicine and of drug treatment, the voice of my\nbackground and traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) started to speak louder to\nme. Now, I am convinced that both conventional Western medicine and TCM have\nstrong points and weak points and they can coexist\nto serve us well. Nevertheless, I have a healthy skepticism towards both\nsystems, especially when proponents of each often try to outdo the other. But\nin reality, there is no need to do so, as there is plenty of room for each to\nexercise its good. Getting back to food taboos. I think it won\u2019t hurt for one\nto be open minded about it. Here is a little \u201cscientific evidence\u201d I recently\ncame across in my files to support food taboos.30<\/sup> It is by no means\na quality report, but the results intrigued me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In a brief report from the Department of Surgery of Jiaxing Municipal No. 1 Hospital of Zhejiang Province, the incidence of postoperative infection was evaluated among 4,357 patients who underwent surgery between 1978 and 1982. Among the 2,171 patients who observed food taboos, i.e., eating only mild and plain foods and not eating so-called fashi<\/em> or fawu<\/em> (nutritious foods that cause the \u201cflare up\u201d of certain diseased conditions, such as chicken soup, fish, shrimp, crab, mutton, green onions, and jiucai<\/em> or Allium odorum<\/em>), only 71 had infections. In contrast, among the 2,186 patients who maintained a normal diet after surgery, 191 had experienced infections. The difference was almost threefold! I personally think it is worthwhile to investigate this type of food taboo further in a more controlled manner. And I don\u2019t think it is difficult to design a good protocol for this either. After all, the terms fashi<\/em> and fawu<\/em> are not recently made-up terms; they have been around for centuries, a result of practical human experience with diet and diseases.31<\/sup> According to Chinese diet taboos, \u201cnutritious\u201d foods (yes, chicken soup included!) do not necessarily suit all occasions; some actually aggravate certain diseased conditions. This is something modern nutritionists should heed.
    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n\n\n\n

    30.  J .J. Ying et al., \u201cThe Clinical Significance of Food Taboos in Surgery,\u201d Zhongxiyi Jiehe Zazhi<\/em><\/strong>, 5<\/strong>(7<\/strong>): 439(1985). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    31.  J\nHuang, \u201cPreliminary Evaluation of Fawu<\/em>,\u201d Zhongguo Zhongyao Zazhi<\/em><\/strong>, 17<\/strong>(9<\/strong>):\n563-565(1992).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    See 3rd post. Natural therapeutics (herbs, foods, etc.).\u00a0 They include natural materials from plants, animals, minerals, and microbes (mushrooms included), among others.\u00a0 But they don\u2019t include drugs produced by synthesis which invariably carry with them toxic impurities that include intermediates, toxic reagents, and\/or byproducts that are hidden in the \u2018pure\u2019 chemical drugs, normally expressed as … <\/p>\n

    Continue reading “The rationale behind my arriving at \u201cA DISRUPTIVE CONCEPT IN DRUG THERAPY\u201d \u2013 4th post”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ayslcorp.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ayslcorp.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ayslcorp.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ayslcorp.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ayslcorp.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ayslcorp.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ayslcorp.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ayslcorp.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ayslcorp.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}