Artesunate - Cheney dosage and benefits

I only found relief from Artesunate when I followed Myhill's dosage: http://drmyhill.co.uk/wiki/Chronic_infections_in_CFS#Using_Artesunate
which is much higher than Cheney's (4 times the Cheney dosage for my body weight). I had no improvement from the 50mg dosing. From the high level research that I did, it appears to fight cmv and hhv6:
http://www.springerlink.com/content/xydqhqe88lu6p7nu/
http://cid.oxfordjournals.org/content/47/6/804.full.
I plan to stay on the treatment for another 2 weeks, take 2 weeks off to detox (I don't take any antioxidants while on it as I understand that counteracts the treatment) and then return for another 3 months and continue until I no longer require it. About 3 weeks ago, it appeared that my immune systems woke up as I had lymph node pain for several days. Following that, general energy has steadily gone up to the point that I don't require the amount of sleep that I did even before I got sick (before this I needed 8-9 average to feel rested. The past week, I have averaged 5 and felt fine. With regard to the liver issues/hepatitis, there does appear to be some risk but it appears to be with people who took very high doses and in the reports I have found, the subjects returned to normal after ceasing treatment (http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5831a3.htm). Valcyte in my opinion is riskier as it is a known carcinogen as reported to me by my MD when I initially asked for it and is part of the write up on the drug in Canada:
http://www.rochecanada.com/fmfiles/...dPublicAdvisories/Valcyte/valcyteJune1HPE.pdf. (I would rather risk a reversible disease vs cancer). I would say I am probably a 9 right now. General energy is excellent. I still have some ill effects from exercise but is significantly reduced and it appears to be going down steadily. I try jogging once a week to see what happens. When I no longer feel the fatigue and chest tightness that exercise has historically created since getting ill, I will consider myself functionally cured. My goal is to eradicate this if at all possible at the lowest possible risk. So far, so good.

P.S. I have also adopted 3 years ago a low carbohydrate diet with no sugar. Other than that, I am currently taking no other supplements except some probiotics due to the fact that I am probably killing a lot of good bacteria also.

Interesting. sounds like your making good progress.
Yes risks with valcyte, but im trying to take precautions with regular blood tests and using a low dose with famvir which is a safe antiviral. Was a study on valcyte comparing 450mg versus 900mg and the lower dose was almost as effective but with alot less side effects when used for cmv prevention. I went this way as i had made some good improvement with famvir and now hoping the valcyte cleans it up. Im using alot of antioxidants and some of which help protect the liver which i use to help protect the liver from antivirals. As u dont use antioxidants on artesunate, i would have to wait until i finish valcyte before considering artsenuate and going off anti-ox. Sounds like a good alternative to antivirals for others to try.

cheers!!!

Two years ago I was diagnosed with CFS a few months after I ran my 2nd 5k. I got really sick and thought I was going to have to retire from my job. April of 2011 I started seeing Dr. Larry Sharp in Ft. Worth because he used the Cheney protocol. I was on the full protocol, but the two things that made the biggest difference for me was the cell signal factors which you can get from CFS Nutriceuticals and the artesunate listed in the original post that comes from Hong Kong. I take a 50mg tablet 6x a week and go off it once every 6 weeks. I make sure and get liver testing every 6 mo. In the beginning I was getting testing more often. Once we knew I was going to do ok with it, I went to the every 6 mo. testing. After I had been on the Cheney protocol for about 4 months, I started running again. I was amazed that I could feels so much better. I feel like this protocol saved my life.

Carolyn, could you please post the email address of CFS Nutriceuticals - can't seem to find a link to their website. Thanks.
alice