Monthly Archives: March 2020
John Rosemond, Ph.D., a well-known psychologist and author, said giving a name to a disease or disorder is not the equivalent of understanding and knowing what to do about it. The statement was intended to apply to the field of psychology, but also applies to many medical specialties and many chronic diseases—describing symptoms and naming diseases is not the equivalent of understanding and knowing what to do about the chronic disease. Identifying root causes is the way forward, in understanding…..
A 2016 NIH article reviewed causes and treatments for cytokine storms, caused by H1N1 and H5N1 influenza. H1N1 and H5N1 caused severe disease and significant mortality, from cytokine storms. The article reported macrolides acted against pathogens, had anti-inflammatory effects, and improved mortality. Gamma globulin is used to boost immunity, in a variety of chronic diseases. Macrolides and immunoglobulins were found helpful in severely ill H1N1 and H5N1 patients, and reduced mortality. For many years, Dr. Merchant used azithromax and…..
Medical science has amassed vast amounts of knowledge about the human body and disease, which has led to important discoveries. Medical knowledge has been sub-divided by medical, surgical, and research specialties; and by body parts, diseases, and treatments. Chronic diseases are defined by symptoms and findings, with each new symptom or finding becoming a newly named disease or sub-type of an existing disease, making it difficult to recognize commonalities in chronic disease and the connection between chronic diseases and co-morbid…..
In 1898, Friedrich Loeffler and Paul Frosh found evidence that livestock foot-and-mouth disease was caused by an infectious particle, smaller than a bacterium; which was the first clue to viruses. Viruses are acellular, meaning lacking a cell wall. Some viruses have a protein coat or “capsid”, some have a membrane on the surface, and some are enclosed in an envelope of fat and protein molecules, which protect the virus from the immune system. (Covid-19 is enclosed in fat and protein…..
Hydroxychloraquine, a/k/a plaquenil, is an anti-parasitic drug that has been used to treat uncomplicated malaria and for prevention of malaria during travel. Historically, soldiers who took anti-malarial medicines reported improvement in their rheumatoid arthritis and lupus symptoms. Today, hydroxychloroquine is used to treat lupus and rheumatoid arthritis; and it is being tested in covid-19. If hydroxychloraquine successfully treats and/or mitigates symptoms in rheumatoid arthritis and lupus, we should ask whether rheumatoid arthritis and lupus are caused, in whole or…..
We discussed the evolution of pathogens and danger to humans from animal pathogens, in “The Origin of Disease: The War Within”. We discussed the danger of bird pathogens, the possibility of a co-epidemic of psittacosis during the Spanish Flu pandemic, and the danger of co-infections. We discussed the Zika virus, in Brazil, and how scientists searched country-wide for patients with the Zika virus; but failed to test for co-infections common in Brazil, to determine if co-infections increased the risk of…..
Dr. Merchant’s grandfather, Crede H. Calhoun, had malaria as a young man, which he acquired working in the Canal Zone and on the Panama Canal. Treatment with chloroquine cured his malaria, but left him hearing impaired. The governor of NY announced clinical trials using the combination of chloroquine and Zithromax, for covid-19 patients, to treat the patients and prevent secondary bacterial pneumonia. We wonder if pyrimethamine (Daraprim), a drug which also treats malaria, has a good safety profile, and…..
Years ago, Hantavirus struck NM, a/k/a Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome or Hantavirus hemorrhagic fever, which was transmitted by inhaling urine droplets from rodents. Hantavirus began with flu-like symptoms, and could rapidly progress to life-threatening breathing difficulty or acute renal failure. We wondered why the vast majority of victims were born after 1972? Some viruses can be related, i.e. in the same family of viruses, and prior infection or vaccination against one virus may be partially protective against another. Hantavirus is…..
Daraprim (pyrimethamine) was developed by a Nobel Prize winning American scientist, Gertrude Elion (1918-1999); and treats blood borne parasitic infections, such as malaria and toxoplasmosis. WHO reports Daraprim is one of the safest and most effective medicines that is needed in any health system. In clinical trials, Daraprim has been shown effective in treating HIV (HIV patients susceptible to toxoplasmosis), retinochoroiditis (retinal inflammation), and ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease); and may slow the progression of Tay-Sachs disease, a “syndrome” in which…..
We are on the precipice of so many things. The coronavirus pandemic could spur innovation and lead to the discovery of the root causes of many chronic diseases, through development of new diagnostic tools and routine availability of better diagnostic tools, in patient care and research. It could lead to new medications and vaccines for other viral illnesses; and a better understanding of the role of immortal bacteria, bacterial pneumonia, and underlying co-infections, in chronic disease and acute viral illness……