Thanks
@Not_ME for posting those helpful links to Stephen Buhner's protocol(s); I agree the information is quite compreshensive. The first link [
Herbal Treatment For Coronavirus Infections] is double spaced and 19 pages long; the second link [
Corona Virus, Addendum] is 5 pages long. I thought I'd copy and paste what I considered some of the highlights, though there's plenty of other really good information to be gleaned. -- (boldings & underlining mine).
p.7-8
ACE-2 is intimately involved in regulating the renin-angiotensis system (RAS). RAS is active throughout the body and in most organs including the lungs, spleen, lymph nodes, kidneys (where it regulates renal electrolyte homeodynamis), the vascular system (where it regulates constriction and relaxation of the vessels), and so on.
RAS is crucial to the functioning of most organs in the body. ACE-2 has a number of regulatory functions, among them converting angiotensin 2 (Ang-2) to less potent molecular forms. (Angiotensin 2 is a highly bioactive molecule, ACE-2 regulates/modulates its actions.)
The SARS-group of viruses attach to ACE-2 wherever it occurs on the surface of cells (including the cilia in the lungs). [Herbs that protect ACE-2 are 8 Glycyrrhiza spp (licorice), Scutellaria baicalensis (Chinese skullcap root), Sambucus spp (elder), luteolin, Aesculus hippocastanum (horse chestnut), Polygonum cuspidatum (Japanese knotweed root), Rheum officinale, and plants high in procyanidins and lectins (e.g. cinnamon)].
These ACE-2 linkages are the entry point for the viruses infection of cellular tissues. Once ACE-2 is damaged by viral attachment and penetration ACE-2 levels in the lungs (or the affected organ) fall, ACE-2 function declines or is destroyed, the RAS system is no longer modulated properly. The lungs show enhanced vascular permeability, edema, neutrophil accumulation and worsening lung function.
ACE-2 function also tends to be less dynamic the older people grow. This is part of the reason that the SARS-group of viruses has more damaging impacts on the elderly [Herbs that upregulate ACE-2, increasing its levels in the body, are Pueria spp (kudzu), Salvia miltiorrhiza (Dan shen), and Ginkgo biloba]. ACE inhibitors (in contrast to ACE-2 upregulators) will actually increase the presence of ACE-2 and help protect the lungs from injury [ Some herbs that do that are Crataegus spp (hawthorn) and Pueraria spp (kudzu)].
... The RAS-stimulated cellular hypoxia generates high levels of free radicals through the rapid increase of Ang-2, i.e. a hypoxia-re-oxygenation injury cycle. The cells generate large levels of hydrogen peroxide and superoxide radicals. ... -- ... protecting endothelial cells (Polygonum cuspidatum – Japanese knotweed root) is crucial...
... Some Other Plants Found Active Against SARS-group Coronaviruses Artemisia annua, Cassia tora, Cibotium barometz, Dioscorea batatas, Eucalyptus spp, Gentiana scabra, Linera aggregate, Lonicera japonica, Panax ginseng, Polygonum multiflorum, Taxillus chinensis, Pyrrosia lingua, and Rheum officinale. ...
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There are a number of crucial points to keep in mind. The first is this: plant medicines are absolutely not drugs. They are far more complex in their actions. The way I discussed them in the initial corona virus article simplified that considerably.
To go into it a bit . . . drugs are single chemical structure entities. A great many of them are designed to force an alteration in physiological functioning, to lower blood pressure or to increase levels of ACE2, for instance. Drugs almost never treat the underlying condition which is causing the symptoms; they just force the body to behave, to move into a range of behavior that some people have decided it must be within.
This is a terribly flawed approach to disease but a very profitable one for pharamceutical companies. The last thing they want is for people to get well and to no longer need the drugs. It is simply a kind of “Ve haf vays to make you behaf.”
Plant medicine and the healing system it comes out of is quite different. It is crucial to understand that plant medicines are not simple. They have multiple constituents that do many things and they tend to work in synergy with each other. If other herbs are added to the mix then the synergy becomes even more complex. Ultimately, despite all the intellecutalism and mental analysis, herbalism is an art form, not give to the kind of misplaced reductionism of pharmaceuticals . . . though of course most people in the west insist on trying to do so anyway...
So . . . in the corona virus protocol itself, there are plants that specifically protect ACE2 integrity and reduce viral attachment and invasion. Then you have kudzu which can increase ACE2 levels while reducing ACE but which at the same time modulates excess inflammation in the lungs (as many of the herbs in this protocol do). The herb does many things, not one.
The reason why increasing ACE2 is important is that the lungs need ACE2 in order to function well. In the elderly those levels are often significantly reduced. This is one of the reasons why their lungs are a major point of entry for disease organisms, why they often die of pneumonia. So, in that population increasing ACE2 is important. Kudzu is absolutely not a pharmaceutical, it is very complex.
The problem with elderly patients who are on multiple pharmaceuticals, some of which force an increase in ACE2 or force 4 a decrease in ACE is that those drugs only do that, they do not act as complex modulators or synergists, enhancing physiological functioning, moving it toward health. So, again, it is not possible to look at plant medicines the same way that you look at drugs; they are not remotely the same things.
