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Antiviral Experience 2022 - Oxymatrine, RX, etc

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hapl808

Senior Member
Messages
2,111
I've been wanting to try various antivirals and curious about experiences, especially durable positive response.

I've tried a few antiviral adjacent things - in other words, herbs that may have antiviral qualities but aren't specific like RX Famvir, or Equilibriant, etc.

Things I've tried - Andrographis, Skullcap, Coptis, Allicin, etc. I would say andrographis and allicin were the most helpful, but they stopped giving me benefits about five years ago when an allergic response tripped me into more severe territory.

I'm interesting in various RX, and also wondering if anyone here has taken Paxlovid and if it helped your CFS symptoms?

How about Equilibriant, Ku Shen, Oxymatrine? Ku Shen seems like the safest option, although I'm open to all of them. Any particularly bad reactions?

My initial onset was in SE Asia with a bad GI illness.
 
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hapl808

Senior Member
Messages
2,111
Is there anyone who has used antivirals for a period of time and found improvement without having to continue indefinitely?
 
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zuperhero

Messages
31
oxymatrine is an 'active' substance in ku-shen(other name: Sophora flavescens)
equilibraint is multi-herb supplement that contains oxymatrine (i guess it is the main gun amongs those herbs: astragalus, olive leaf, shiitake mushrooms and licorice, as well as Vitamin A, Vitamin D, Calcium and Selenium )

i wouldnt start with Equilibriant b/c if you would get any bad/good reaction, you will never know which component was responsible for that reaction, secondly it is the most expensive supplement of those three

when it comes to ku-shen, it has between 2-4% of oxymatrine (since it usually 1-10 extract it would be obviously 10x more), except of oxymatrine it has some other components like matrine which suppose to be anti-viral too, but may cause some side-effects, beside that you get others alkaloids and they can both have postitive and negative effects. btw it should be the cheapest of 3 supplements that you have mentioned

pure oxymatrine, on the other side, would give you exact amount of 'active' substance in one pill, so it will be easy to reduce or increase dosage, of course if you are able to get oxymatrine, i think it is not that easy here in europe
 
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hapl808

Senior Member
Messages
2,111
Yeah, I lean toward oxymatrine or ku shen. The version of oxymatrine with the least side effects seems like a safe place to start, but the vague warnings about autoimmune issues definitely worries me. I wonder if ku shen is a safer way to start since the dosage would be way lower.

I seem to tolerate most TCM pretty well - coptis, andrographis, houttyunhia, etc. My only issue is usually reflux, but I have the same issue with all exertion (mental and physical), so not sure. Taking some neem at the moment and seems to be helping my brain fog but worsening my reflux - same as high dose allicin, etc.
 
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zuperhero

Messages
31
dunno in my opinion, drugs need to be taken in certain dosage to have any effects, if you are not able to tolerate oxymatrine, dosing it in 10x less dosage of course will decrease it side effects, but also will not have any positive effects too. So i guess you just need to risk and check if it works or not- either lower dosage of oxymatrine or higher ku-shen (to get needed amount of oxymatrine, so its 'working')
 
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