10 Actions that Can be Done to Minimize COVID-19 Transmission

Since a few months ago, it seems that the coronavirus' transmission has reached the smallest unit of our aspect, the family cluster. Despite that many people are wearing a mask obediently, the virus transmission still does occur. This happens because, many people don't wear a mask when they are in their own house. Given that coronavirus are airborne type, and 95% of COVID-19 infection happens through respiration route, it is understandable why the house -- which was considered the safest place -- has turned against us. The virus transmission happens mainly during 'family time', such as eating together. This supposedly happy moment is the time where the virus are passed from one person to other family members, since obviously we won't use mask when eating. 

 

well, unless if you are a fictional animé character...

Furthermore, our wrong habits can accidentally invite coronavirus to stay with us. The designs of modern house that rely too much to air conditioners without natural air ventilation may cause coronavirus to be trapped inside our house / rooms. However, simply by changing our habits (well, in some case we still need to use some cash), I personally believe that we can reduce the risk of being infected significantly. You don't have to wear a mask in your house (even though if you can, it will be better). The followings are 10 things you can do to minimize the risk of being infected by coronavirus at your own house.

(1.) Washing Hands

I think this is not a new thing. Since we were small, I believe our mother and grandmother always told us to wash our hands after we played outside. And now, even WHO tells us to do so. According to WHO, it is suggested that we wash our hands for 20 seconds under flowing water and using soap. As discussed earlier, coronaviruses have a hydrophobic envelope (protective shield), so they will stick on your skin if you just wash it using water. Soap will not only destroy the coronavirus' protective shield, but also capable to wash it away, into the sink.

(2.) Change Clothe

This is really an impractical thing to do (well, most of the things I mention here are impractical, though). But, come to think about that, coronavirus can stick at any surfaces, including your shirt, pants, etc. Since the nature of the coronavirus is airborne, the virus can then spread by air / wind, hovering anywhere inside your house, and this doesn't sound that good. We can minimize the outspread of the virus if we are willing to change clothes each time we come back to the house from outside. Also remember to soak the clothes into a bucket filled with soap (detergent) water immediately.

(3.) Take a Shower

This is related to the previous point. It is suggested that you take a shower after going outside for a quite long period of time, for the same reason. Therefore, it is kinda useless if you change clothes but do not take shower after going back home from outside. Therefore, I would think that it is better if you directly take shower after going out for a long period of time, change clothes, then put the previous clothes into a bucket. By trying to minimize the virus that are attached to your body, this means you also minimize the amount of virus hovering in your house, thus protecting your family.

(4.) Reheat Your Food

This is relatively important if you purchase the food outside. Even though there is only a weak evidence that coronavirus can be transmitted through oral route (through something you eat), but please remember that coronavirus are airborne. By reheating the food, you deactivate the virus that may be present, even though not all food can be heated, for example ice cream, salad, etc.

(5.) Stay Away from Animals

Many animals like cats and dogs are cute. Some wild animals like squirrels are also cute. However, in this epidemic era, animals can act as a carrier or even suffer from the virus. Therefore, if you find / meet an animal that is not your own pet, it is suggested to limit or avoid interaction with them, because at least they can act as a carrier for the virus. Coronaviruses themselves are known capable to infect a wide range of animals, especially mammals and aves (birds).

(6.) Wash Your Mask

The mask you wear should be washed regularly. Otherwise, the mask itself can harbor the virus if you don't wash it regularly. Normally, you should wash your mask twice a week. Also, when you are eating in a public space like restaurants or in your office, remember not to put the mask on the table ; better if you put it into your pocket.

(7.) Use Eyedrops

Even though it is said that the transmission of COVID-19 virus through eyes is no more than 5%, but there is nothing wrong with having eye drops. In addition, you can use eye drops to treat itchy or sore eyes because of pollution, rain, or light infection of other germs.

(8.) Baking Soda Spray

Baking soda (NOT baking powder) contains sodium bicarbonate, NaHCO₃. Sodium bicarbonate can experience a redox reaction, a kind of chemical reaction. The reaction can also happen when the solution makes a contact with viral particles or some other chemicals. Since the results / products after reaction are salt and CO₂ (carbon dioxide gas), then I can assure you that the use of baking soda is safe.

You can put 2 or 3 table spoons of baking soda into a container filled with 200 mL of water. Then, you can put the solution into a sprayer, and spray it at / to any place / surface (including to air) whenever needed.

One thing to remember, you cannot drink the baking soda solution to protect you from coronavirus infection. Many proponents of alkalizing theory believe that drinking baking soda will alkalize the blood, that in turn make virus die. If the treatment is that simple, not so many people should die in vain. Our body regulates pH at a value of somewhere between 7.35 to 7.45, and if your blood pH is higher than 7.45, you will die from blood alkalosis. Also, the fact that coronavirus infects the lungs (or, respiratory system in general) which is the 'most alkaline organ' compared to the others automatically put a contradiction to their claim.

(9.) Use Air Cleaner

If possible, you can purchase an air cleaner. An air cleaner works using several principles. Some air cleaner works using ion principle, which is very effective to deactivate germs, like molds, bacteria, and virus. Some types of air conditioner are already equipped with ionizer or plasma-cluster that is capable to deactivate germs or even hazardous chemicals.

 

(an illustration of a hydro-cleaner) 

 

If you have extra money, you can purchase a hydro-cleaner. A Hydro-cleaner is a kind of vacuum cleaner in principle, that works using water to 'catch' airborne particles like dust and germs from air. The airborne particles are sprayed with water so that they will 'dissolve' in water. The water is stored in the tank in the hydro-cleaner and needs to be replaced or removed after using. Hydro-cleaner has the best performance in removing airborne particles (including coronavirus) compared to air conditioner, air purifier, and air cooler. 

The graph above shows the comparison between a typical hydro-cleaner VS air purifier in removing airborne particles (dusts etc.) in a typical room. Though there is no specific information (i.e. the power consumption, CFS, etc.) between the two appliances, a hydro-cleaner has effectively removed 75% of PM10 particles (particles which size are ≤ 10 µm) from 200 µg/m³ to 50 µg/m³ (the safe limit according to EPA) in 0.7 hours (40 to 45 minutes) ; which is an hour faster compared to if using an air purifier. 

 

This makes a hydro-cleaner as the best option in reducing coronavirus in a 'sealed room' (a room without air circulation / ventilation). Basically, a member of coronavirus particle has a size of 80 to 220 nm (which technically also fits the PM10 criteria), so the above chart can also be used as a reference. However, there are also some disadvantages. The noise produced by a hydro-cleaner may be disturbing, its power consumption that is quite big, and of course, the price. 

(10.) Consuming Supplements

There are so many kinds of supplements, each with a specific function. From supplements containing Omega 3 - 6 - 9, supplements containing MSM - chondroitin - glucosamine for joints, supplements containing vitamins, microminerals, etc. Of course there are also some supplements that can be consumed to prevent the coronavirus from infecting our body. One of the supplements that we produce is CNC oil supplement, that acts as an immuno-modulator, that can help enhance the immune system to fight virus, as well as actively attacking the protective shield (envelope) of the coronaviruses. The properties of compounds that can potentially deactivate coronavirus can be found here. (and they can be found in our supplement, too...)

 

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Therapy Combination, New Hope for COVID-19 Medication

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In the previous article, we discuss how experts think that coronavirus have been existed since the dinosaurs era, far before prehistoric human existed. Coronavirus can also experience mutation that causes a change in characteristics and virulence. It is not impossible that the HCoV-SARS2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) is a mutation product from the previous generation of coronavirus. Successful mutation is the key of evolution, and the cruel mother nature constantly forces all living creatures to experience adaptation and competition. There is one interesting fact about this COVID-19 epidemic, that in South Africa for the first time there is no influenza outspread in the country, except one case. Could this mean that, viruses also experience competition? No one can answer this for sure, but what scientists do know is that both coronavirus and influenzavirus are two groups of viruses that cause colds in adults. In the past, the coronaviruses are responsible for about 15% of all colds in adults. However, it seems that one of the coronavirus member has somehow experienced mutation and changed its characteristics, then causes a lot of trouble to governments of many countries. Even though the COVID-19 can be cured, but sometimes the recovery can be painful ; and if the treatment is too late, then the cell, tissue, or even organ damage can happen. Lung is the organ that is prone to damage caused by the virus. However, since the lungs have a crucial role in absorbing oxygen, damage in lungs will cause a systemic effect to the damage of other organs, such as brain, eyes, heart, etc.

Then, is there any method to kill or neutralize coronavirus that infects our body effectively? I believe the answer is YES, theoretically. How? By using what is called the integrated complementary healing approach. What is that? A healing approach that combines several kinds of treatment.

Then, what should we do? In the book Sun Tzu's Art of War, the basic rule before we go to a battlefield is "know yourself, know your enemy". So, using this principle, we first need to know more about coronavirus. By using dichotomy classification, coronavirus are classified as enveloped RNA viruses. 

In Biology, dichotomy classification is not the best classification, but is already sufficient to describe about coronavirus. The envelope (protective shield) of coronavirus is composed of phospholipid bilayer. This protective shield is hydrophobic (rejects water). This is the reason why washing our hands using water alone is not enough to get rid of coronavirus. So, what will happen if we wash our hands using soap and water? It will kill the virus. But how?

Look at the following illustrations.

(1.) Coronavirus has a hydrophobic protective shield. 

 

(2.) Soap molecules have hydrophilic (likes water) heads and hydrophobic tails.

 

 

(3.) In water, the 'tails' of soap molecules will be attracted to the virus' envelope.

(4.) Then, the 'tails' will bind to the envelope's surface.

 

(5.) With some 'mechanical treatment', such as rubbing your hands while washing it, the 'heads' of soap molecules will be attracted to water while the 'tails' that stick to the virus' shield will pull it out, making the shield to break / collapse.

(6.) Without its protective shield, coronavirus' particles are now just tiny little pieces of meaningless genetic materials that no longer active and infectious.

(7.) According to WHO, the recommended duration of washing hands is about 20 seconds. Quite a lot, I think. Besides soap, alcohol (i.e. ethanol) can destroy the coronavirus' shield by using the same mechanism. 

As discussed earlier, killing coronavirus is not difficult if the viruses are outside our body. But, if the viruses are inside our body, it will be a different story, since we cannot drink soap or alcohol. Even if you can drink alcohol, the minimum concentration required to kill the virus is around 55%, which is impossible to achieve (if your blood contains 55% of alcohol, this means you no longer have blood). So, how can we kill viruses that have invaded our body? Some people recommend drinking warm water, but this is also not effective. First, food will pass through esophagus, while coronavirus infects the mucosal membrane of respiratory systems, starting from trachea. So, they are different 'channels'. Sometimes coronavirus enters the wrong 'entrance' and passing through the digestive system. If this is the case, coronavirus will die as they enter the stomach because of the gastric acid. 

So, how can we kill coronavirus? Theoretically, by using chemical compounds with the same characteristics as above. Compounds with hydrophilic 'head' and hydrophobic 'tail'. But, do these compounds exist? Yes, the mother nature has provided us. Shockingly, with the progress in technology as well as Modern Medical Sciences, the herbal medicines are gradually abandoned. It is such a sad news, because as the advancement in medical manufacturing technology has been exceptionally fast, scientists reveal the fact that pathogens (especially bacteria) are also developing their resistance against drugs and antibiotics. Herbal medicine, however, is composed of many compounds (components) that work synergically so it will be more difficult for pathogens to develop resistance against so many compounds. Even though the fact that finding the correct dosage for herbal medicine is difficult, but everything has its own advantages and disadvantages. 

So, I was trying hard to find compounds that have the following properties :

• have 'head' and 'tail'
• have hydrophilic and hydrophobic parts
• if possible can pass through the digestion processes without changing its structure
• can be absorbed easily by the intestine
• dissolves easily in blood, so it can be transported to infected parts of the body
• if possible, does not produce any harmful waste after being metabolized 
• if possible, easy to make
  

 

(several active compounds in CNC supplement)

We extract these natural compounds from several herbal plants using special oil. The reason why we chose oil because the compounds we use are basically non-polars, though they have hydrophilic head and hydrophobic tail. Some compounds can actively attack the virus' envelope just like soap molecules, while other components help to strengthen immune system and alleviate the inflammation. The compounds are mainly members of flavonoids, alkaloids, and carboxylic acids. Please visit about us for more information about the products and how to order.

>>>>>

HEAT THERAPY : A HYPOTHESIS

Heat therapy is one of the oldest healing method on Earth. This method was first documented by a Greek philosopher named Hippocrates (460 - 375 BC). One of his statements related to heat therapy is "give me the ability to produce fever, and I will cure any disease". Obviously the word 'fever' here is interpreted as 'heat therapy', since fever is manifested as the rise of body temperature. In the very past, sick people would soak themselves into a thermal spring or they would use a big kettle heated with firewoods. This method was once forgotten, especially after the industrial revolution. However, as Science & Technology progress and many new fields emerge, for example Medical Physics, it was revealed that heat therapy is useful to treat many health problems, although not all diseases can be cured using heat therapy.

Naturally, our body temperature will increase whenever we get a fever. However, body temperature that rises too high can be life-threatening, or causes some damage to the body (i.e. brain damage, vision loss, etc.). In our body, fever is usually followed by inflammation reaction. In heat therapy, we want to rise the body temperature passively, so the inflammation reaction can be minimized. The question is, will this therapy be effective against COVID-19 (or, coronavirus in general) infection? I personally believe so.

Let's get back to the Sun Tzu's Art of War story, which implication means we have to dig deeper about the coronavirus' characteristics. As mentioned before, coronavirus have a protective shield (envelope) made of phospholipid bilayer. Coronavirus infect respiratory system, because the virus' binding receptors like to attach themselves to mucosal membranes of the respiratory tracts. Coronavirus have already existed since million of years ago, so they can evolve and adapt (infect) to many animal species. Scientists have learnt that coronavirus family (coronaviridae) are capable to infect hundreds (if not thousands) of species. Even though this fact seems scary, but I found an interesting pattern : all potentially infected species only come from 2 major groups, aves and mammalia. Thus, what are the similarities between aves (birds) and mammals?

 

(few kind of fish have retia mirabilia to regulate their body temperature)

Yes, both mammals and aves are warm-blooded creatures. Each of them has a specific body temperature. This means, human and animals infected (including the natural reservoir) if combined, will have a body temperature range that falls on a narrow range. Due to its long evolutionary processes, coronavirus can infect many species, despite the variation of cell receptor structures in different species. However, their evolution aren't still enable them to tolerate a wide range of temperature. We can take advantage of this weakness in an attempt to cure coronavirus infection. That's why, grandma always said to have a hot chicken soup when we catch cold, I think this is somewhat true. Experience is the best teacher.

Then, what is the body temperatures of some warm-blooded animals? The following table gives some data.

From the data obtained, the body temperature range for mammals lies between 33 - 40 °C (91 - 104 °F) with the exception of echidna (89 °F / 31.7 °C), while aves body temperature is between 38 - 42 °C with the exception of hummingbird (45 °C / 113 °F). Bats, the creature that has been thought as the natural reservoir for coronavirus have varying body temperature, but can rise to 106 °F (41 °C) when the bats fly. Scientists also found that bats have unique immunity system that can be activated to aggressive state when its body temperature reaches 40 °C (104 °F) or more. This is the reason why bats do not get sick even though they have contracted the virus : because their immune system and the pathogens are always in dynamic equilibrium. If bats are the natural reservoir for coronavirus, even though a COVID-19 patient's body has reached 41 °C (which means, a high fever) but this will not affect the coronavirus significantly, since coronaviruses have been exposed to that temperature oftentimes when they are living in their natural host. So, we need a higher temperature in order to kill coronavirus. I believe that wee need a temperature of 43 °C or more in order to kill the virus.

So, the next question is, how can we achieve that temperature? There are 3 possible methods.

(1.) Infrared Radiation

Infrared is divided into 3 zones based on its wavelength : the short-wave, medium-wave, and long-wave. Each of them has its own characteristics and healing ability. Infrared wave can easily penetrates the skin and fat tissues and reaches the place. 

 

(sunbathing allows you to receive both 

beneficial infrared and harmful ultraviolet radiation)

You can expose yourself to infrared wave by buying an IR lamp. There are many types of IR lamp sold, and they are all OK. You just need to direct it to your throat or chest and it will work effectively. The advantage is, it can penetrate soft tissues in our body, and we can do it alone. The disadvantage is that this IR lamp gets overheat easily and the coverage area is relatively small, if compared to sunbathing.

(2.) Bath Tub

This oldest method is still applicable until now. Especially in this modern era, almost every house has a bath tub equipped with hot water. We can also set the temperature. The advantage is very easy to use. Also, even if we are infected with the coronavirus, we can still do the therapy without worry to spread the virus to other people, since we do it in our own house. The disadvantage is, because water has a density of 1000 kg/m³ and specific heat of 4200 J / kg °C, it will not wise to leave elder people unaccompanied, because high temperature may cause heat stroke.

(3.) Sauna

There are two types of sauna : wet and dry. I would recommend the wet sauna rather than the dry sauna. The reason is because wet sauna contains water vapor. Coronavirus infects respiratory system, which means even though they infect the inner parts of our body, there is always 'a contact' between the virus and the air around us (well, actually, the air we inhale is more precise). Sauna room is filled with air saturated with vapor, which temperature is higher than our body temperature, around 48 to 55 °C (118 - 131 °F). When we inhale the air, our body temperature is lower than the temperature of sauna room, so the absolute humidity decreases (relative humidity exceeds 100%) as the inhaled air temperature decreases. As a consequence, water vapor starts condensing in the contact area. Since most of the viruses attach themselves to the mucosal membranes, they are subjected to contact to supersaturated air. Water vapor that condenses gives-off energy as much as 2300 Joule per gram, a very big amount for coronavirus particles. This treatment can weaken the virus and help our antibody by alleviating its pressure. The disadvantage of this method is, that sauna is usually a public place, so if we are already contracted the coronavirus, during the trip there we can pass the virus to many other people. Even though, in the sauna room itself, coronavirus will die.

>>>>>

It is important to understand that temperature as high as 45 or 50 °C does not kill coronavirus. It needs a temperature of 60 °C or higher to kill coronavirus. What kills coronavirus when our body temperature is risen to 43 °C or more is called hyperthermia-induced antibody stimulation. For optimum result, we can combine this method with our supplement. We call this method as INTEGRATED COMPLEMENTARY HEALING APPROACH. 

If you are interested to order our product, feel free to reach us through Twitter, CNC Herbal.

Please visit about us for more information about the products and how to order.

References :

https://english.alarabiya.net/en/coronavirus/2020/04/18/Coronavirus-can-survive-60-degrees-Celsius-for-an-hour-boiling-temp-kills-it-Study

https://www.biomedicenter.com/local-hyperthermia-can-induce-increase-immune-system-response/ 

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00180-8

https://www.news24.com/news24/southafrica/investigations/for-the-first-time-in-36-years-there-will-be-no-flu-season-in-south-africa-20200807

https://www.goldennumber.net/body-temperatures/

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/new-clue-found-why-bats-spread-viruses-dont-get-sick-n81321

Combatting Coronavirus, Is This Process Never Ending?

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Scientists have figured out that coronavirus family (or, they call it coronaviridae) have already existed since the dinosaurs era, or even before that. This means, some members of the coronavirus family were already exist during the dinosaurs extinction, some 65 million years ago. Other scientists even speculate that coronavirus were already present since 200 million years ago. Compared to this, human great ancestor started to diverge some 3.5 million years ago. Homo habilis, human ancestor started to exist some 2.8 million years ago, while 'modern human' (Homo sapiens) presence are detected since 200,000 years ago. From evolutionary biology perspective, coronaviruses are more successful compared to us, humans. However, since one of the coronaviruses' member, [H]CoV-SARS2 -- the culprit behind COVID-19 outbreak -- has been causing many destruction in several aspects of life, including economy, the humankind must declare a war against this 'invisible army of invaders'. The question is, HOW? Scientists from many backgrounds are working as best as they can to find a way to push the virus back to the bay.

 

(scientists are trying hard to find a

strategy to defeat COVID-19 infection)

There are many approaches that scientists have been working on, each with its own advantage and limitation. Here are some of the approaches :

Plasma Serum Method

Blood plasma is the liquid part of blood. The plasma serum method is considered as a  passive immunity method, since the antibody from an organism is taken and injected to a sick patient. This can be thought as having a foreign legion or Gurkha soldiers to defend your country or territory. In the past, the serum was usually taken from horses that had developed their antibodies after purposely infected by an infectious agent, for example diphtheria, measles, smallpox, tetanus, etc. However, to cure COVID-19, the blood plasma is taken from someone who has survived and recovered from the virus. Of course the survivor had contracted the virus incidentally, because if he / she is purposely made infected, it will be a very cruel method. Blood from the survivor can be taken, then the plasma is purified, and can be donated to an infected patient. 

The advantage of this method is the patient get antibody that can readily fight the invaders. However, since the basic of this method is to take some blood, then basically what applies to normal blood donation also applies here. For example, the blood type of the donor and recipient must match. Also, someone can only donor his / her blood no more than 500 mL, and then he / she must wait for 3 - 4 months until he / she can give his / her blood again. So, the number of patient that can be helped is limited. Also, this 'imported antibody' has a short life period, so if the infection prolongs, then the treatment must be switched to another approach, or finding another serum from another donor.

Vaccination

Even though many countries have involved in a race to develop vaccines against COVID-19 virus, as a 'standardized medical product' the vaccines must pass some stages of development that consumes a lot of time. In principle, vaccines are classified as an active immunity method, because the immune system is 'introduced' to a weaken version of pathogen to train the antibody. This concept was first discovered by Edward Jenner, who infected his own son with cowpox and then he found that he (the son) had developed immunity against smallpox that became a pandemic at that time. Vaccine can be developed by using a weakened version of the pathogen or can also be developed using different (but similar in some ways, such as in E. Jenner case) pathogen that has a lower virulence.

However, this method also has a weakness. Just like soldiers that get some trainings then facing a peace time and doing nothing, they will forget their training. So does our antibody. If there is no infection, the antibody will 'forget this training' and lose its immunity against the virus. Usually, antibody from vaccines will lose its 'memory' after 2 - 5 months, therefore a second vaccination must be repeated within that interval of time. Just like we tend to forget unnecessary things, so does our immune system. Human antibody can still recognize influenzavirus' antigen until around 2 months of post-infection. For MERS and SARS, scientists found that the viral antigen can still be recognized by the immune system 2 - 6 years after infection. For ebola virus (which is very life-threatening), the antibody in some survivors is still exist and capable to recognize the viral antigen even until 10 years or more. Sometimes, the virus can experience mutation, and this may cause some alteration to the virus' characteristics. As a consequence, the vaccines may become partially ineffective. We can imagine this as a group of soldiers who receive jungle warfare trainings, but then are deployed to a snowfield.

 

(marines in the desert)

Of course, there are some categories of people who cannot receive a vaccine. Elder people, children, infants, people with serious disease (i.e. kidney, heart disease, they who have received organ transplants, etc.), and of course they who are suffering from the disease itself cannot receive a vaccine shot. 

Monoclonal Antibodies

Monoclonal antibodies are antibodies designed, engineered, and developed in a laboratory. These antibodies will be injected to a patient's body later on. These antibodies are designed in such ways to search, identify, and destroy a specific target which is called antigen. Antigen is a specific [part of] molecule at the outside part of a pathogen (sometimes also a cancer cell) that can be identified by the immune system as an 'intruder' ; hence will trigger the immune response by sending a specific antibody in order to destroy the pathogen. When injected to human body, monoclonal antibodies can 'teach' (provoke) the human immune system to produce extra antibodies to help them, in this case is called immunotherapy. In principle, there are two major groups of monoclonal antibody : the naked monoclonal antibody and the conjugated monoclonal antibody. The conjugated monoclonal antibody is usually attached to a certain drug, either chemical-based or radioactive-based ; while naked monoclonal antibody is not attached to any drug. 

This method works very effectively, and selectively (only targeting a specific type of cell), and also works very fast. Monoclonal antibody injected to our body will attack the target by using the blitzkrieg strategy (the strategy used by the NAZI during the World War II) ; because the massive amount of antibody will be dispatched (sent) to a very specific target / location. However, the monoclonal antibody method also possesses some risks. First, remember that the monoclonal antibody is basically a foreign substance, so this may trigger an immune response of the injected person, causing a severe allergy reaction. Second, if a massive amount of antibody is sent to a target, it will be manifested by our body as fever. Fever rises the body temperature, and if the body temperature rises too fast and too high, this can be life-threatening. The third, designing an appropriate monoclonal antibody requires 'real' living antigen. Keeping an antigen alive is relatively easy for bacteria and cancerous cells, but for viruses is very difficult. Also, remember about the mutation factor. Regeneron Pharmaceuticals [not so] recently has just received US$ 450 millions for its research fund about monoclonal antibody against COVID-19 virus, and this is still not enough.

Antibiotics

Antibiotics cannot kill viruses, since antibiotics work by intervene or disrupt the cell metabolism of bacteria. Viruses are not perfect cell. They don't have ribosome, mitochondria, or even nucleus, so there is no target for antibiotics to attack.

Probiotics

There are several examples of probiotics, but yoghurt is the most famous example. Probiotics therapy works by colonizing our colon (large intestine), which is a part of digestive tract ; while coronavirus normally attack respiratory system. Coronavirus specifically attach themselves to cell receptors in respiratory organs and also throat. The word 'throat' is a little bit confusing, because consists of two different organs : trachea (part of respiratory system) and esophagus (part of digestive system). While it is still possible for coronavirus to attach themselves to esophagus (because ciliated cells in esophagus have similar cell receptors with those in respiratory system), but if the virus moves forward, they will end-up in stomach, and will die because of stomach acid. If the infection starts at the trachea, the virus will move down to bronchus, bronchioles, and finally alveoli. In either scenario, the probiotics residing in the large intestine can do nothing to the coronavirus, and hence practically cannot kill the virus nor alleviate the symptoms.

Using CADD

CADD stands for Computer-Aided Drugs Design. In this AI (artificial intelligence) era, almost all tasks can be done automatically. This includes the drugs engineering, or drugs design, precisely. 

By inputting all data, the computer will give some 'advice' about the drug structure that might be effective in killing a pathogen. The advantage of this method is that the possible structure of the drug can be found relatively quick, and this is a nearly automated process. They just need to provide a very cold room, since the searching simulation process will involve supercomputers that generate a lot of heat. The disadvantage is, all information about COVID-19 virus must be correctly inputted. Also, there is a possibility that the devised drug structure cannot be synthesized in the laboratory.

 

(how are you going to make this 3D object in real life?)

Nano Technology

The implementation of nanotechnology to fight COVID-19 seems promising. The fact is, that virus itself is a naturally occurring nano-particle. So far, scientists have successfully made a nanorobot as small as 100 nm (0.1 μm) while the coronavirus' cell diameter is somewhere between 80 to 220 nm. Let's hope a good news from this story.

Traditional Herbs

Alternative Healing Methods (AHM) have existed for hundred of thousand of years, if not million of years. It was very common for our grand grand mother to treat diseases with herbs, especially in the Eastern world. Some of this knowledge is passed from generation to generation, even though the trust level to AHM is slowly fading away, especially since the Modern Medical Science claim it as 'scientifically unproven'. As someone who learn herbal plants as well as microbiology, biochemistry, organic chemistry, and those complicated stuffs, I can say that the 'AHM is scientifically unproven' statement has no scientific reason. The real truth is, Modern Medical Science has actually failed to reveal AHM's secret scientifically. 

What is the scientific evidence of my statement? You might be wandering. Well, we'll see.... The stages of modern drug production is started with confirmation test. If I have a mixture of herbal solution to treat a certain disease, they will first need to make sure that the herbal solution works. If it works, the next step is separation and purification. Let's say that there are 30 different chemical compounds in the herbal solution, that needs to be separated... and purified. After the compounds are separated, and purified, they need to test each pure component one by one. 30 components means there will be 60 or 90 trials, since each trial needs to be repeated. Oftentimes, during the confirmation test, a herbal solution shows a good result, but the result turns disappointing during component test. Why? Because the component oftentimes does not work individually. Instead, several compounds (components) from the herbal solution usually work together synergycally. The problem is, how many compounds that work synergically? And how to find that combination?

If (for example) there are two active components that work synergically to cure a disease, then scientists must do extra 435 trials to find those 2 combinations, and this 435 trials is without repetition. What if there are actually 6 components that works sinergically, from 30 components? An A-level Mathematics student would answer that there will be more than 590,000 trials needed (without repetition) to find those 6 out of 30 components. But, how do they know that the 'key components' required to heal a disease is actually 6? What if actually there are only 3 components, or 21 components? Then they have to evaluate all those possible outcomes ; in this case the scientists have to do 1,073,741,823 (2^30 minus 1) trials only to find the 'desired key components' from a herbal solution. And this trials need to be replicate, right? Oh, the good news is, a herbal mixture can contain as many as 80 to 200 (sometimes even more) different compounds. Mathematically speaking, it's really fun to play with numbers, but from the Chemistry perspective, this identification process literally takes forever. And don't forget, in drugs development, they still need to do pre-clinical stage, clinical stages 0 to IV, etc. I believe no one will stupid enough (or generous enough?) to fund the expenses related to do this kind of research activities. And you still believe that herbal plants (or AHM in general) is not scientifically proven, NOT because they successfully prove that AHM is not scientific ; but because it is impossible for them to prove instead? This sounds ridiculous to me.

The fact is, during the COVID-19 outbreak, when doctors didn't know what to do, Chinese herbal experts were the first one to put their skills at the first line. They successfully got 85% of compliance from the patients. As Modern Medical Science is puzzled with the COVID-19 mysteries, AHM practitioners already know what to do. And this is including me, who has treated several COVID-19 patients with my herbal supplements. If you interested to know more about our product, please visit this. While actually, of course herbal medicine also has some disadvantage as well. The main thing that herbal medicine doesn't have in consistency. The concentration of active components in one herb from one place with the same herb from different place can be different. Also, in some cases, 'unwanted components' can make liver and kidneys work harder. But, with a better understanding (modern approach), we can make a safer version of the herbal extract. And that's what we are doing in producing supplements that we believe can fight coronavirus.

If you are interested to order our product, feel free to reach us through Twitter, CNC Herbal.

Please visit about us for more information about the products and how to order.

 

References :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_coronavirus

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/24/what-is-blood-plasma-therapy-covid-coronavirus-trump

https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertpearl/2020/08/10/coronavirus-vaccine-gone-wrong/#71d503947ae4

https://www.statnews.com/2020/07/31/covid-19-vaccine-amazingly-close-why-am-i-so-worried/

https://www.thenational.ae/world/europe/coronavirus-world-must-be-prepared-for-ineffective-vaccine-or-stronger-virus-1.1061836 

https://www.devex.com/news/devexplains-monoclonal-antibody-treatment-for-covid-19-97708

https://www.cancer.org/treatment/treatments-and-side-effects/treatment-types/immunotherapy/monoclonal-antibodies.html

https://www.drugtargetreview.com/article/61581/can-a-computer-help-us-find-a-treatment-for-covid-19/

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41565-020-0757-7

https://news.northeastern.edu/2020/03/04/heres-how-nanoparticles-could-help-us-get-closer-to-a-treatment-for-covid-19/

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3052763/coronavirus-80-cent-patients-china-benefiting-traditional

Revealing the True Potency of the Underestimated Alternative Healing Method

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As someone who lives in a big city, I can feel that the trust to Alternative Healing Methods (AHM) is slowly decreasing. And I believe that most of you feel the same thing. Being born from a Dayak (the name of a native tribe in Borneo) mother, I was told about many plants / herbal medicines that can be used to heal specific diseases. In Asian traditional cultures, the role of herbs to cure a certain disease has been passed from generation to generation. Sadly, along with modernization, the trust level to the Alternative Healing Methods is decreasing. Along with the rise of the income level, people nowadays prefer to seek medical treatment from a medical professional rather than an alternative practitioner. While actually this is not bad, since the education curriculum that must be accomplished by medical students are standardized as well as the medicines used for treatment and cure, modern medicines are also based on research and evidence. Some other Sciences, i.e. Physics, Chemistry, Informatics, even Robotics have also given some contributions to the development of the Modern Medical Science.  

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With its rapid progress and improvement, it is understandable why Alternative Healing Methods is oftentimes underestimated by the Modern Medical Science. Sometimes, there is also a rivalism between Modern Medical Science and Alternative Healing Methods. 

There are several methods that can be classified into Alternative Healing Methods, such as : chiropractic, osteopathy, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), naturopathy, iridology, kinesiology, reflexology, homeopathy, acupuncture, massage therapy, chikung / qìgōng, taichi, aromatherapy, and so many more. Some Alternative Healing Methods are difficult to standardized and some others are rejected by Modern Medical Science just because it looks 'not scientific'.

If the modern world rejects something just because it doesn't fit with logic, then how does Modern Medical Science explain about demon-possessed phenomena? How do Science and logic explain about fire soccer game played in Indonesia? Some Alternative Healing Methods even involve ritual, which is hard to understand with logic ; while others involve 'treatment', for example acupuncture, reflexology, and herbal medicines. Since the Alternative Healing Methods and Modern Medical Science have different perspective about health itself, of course it may be difficult to understand each other. 

 

The history of humankind began since the prehistoric era, some 2.8 million years ago. That time, Homo habilis is considered as the ancestor of modern human (Homo sapiens) that started to exist some 200,000 years ago until now. It's undeniably that, we can be here and reading this article now, because our ancestor and great-great ancestor had followed the basic instinct to survive, which was manifested in many ways, from living in groups, finding safe places to live, developing early tools to make their work easier, domesticating dogs, and of course, learning the art of healing. A study about Ngangkari tribe (Aboriginal sub-tribe) from Australia has revealed that they have practiced their natural healing method at least for 60,000 years. Therefore, it makes sense to say that the Alternative Healing Methods have been existed for several hundred thousands of years, if not millions of years. This is much much longer than the Modern Medical Science, that has just started slightly more than 100 years ago. Some important timelines are given in the chart below.

The introduction of Scientific Method is believed to give the first influence to
Modern Medical Science. Along with Statistics, Pharmacy, and other Sciences, these make Modern Medical Science only acknowledge the Evidence Based Medicine (EBM). Sadly, with its arrogance, Modern Medical Science refuses to acknowledge the Alternative Healing Methods simply because they are scientifically not proven ; despite some facts that methods like acupuncture has more successful rate in treating stroke patients, for example. But well, just because statistically this method cannot be analyzed, then the Alternative Healing Methods are labeled as 'scientifically not proven'.

(coining is a common practice in South East

Asian to relieve cold symptoms)

To be 'scientifically proven', a method or drugs must pass the series of processes called clinical test. A clinical test is basically a statistical analysis with many data. The more the number of samples (participants) the more reliable the drugs' claim will be. This is the basic of Statistics. Statistical analysis is based on Scientific Method, and during middle or high school we know that to perform an experiment we need two groups so that we can analyze whether our 'treatment' has an effect or not. Those two groups are called experimental groups and control group. In medical 'experiment' (OK, they call it clinical trials), the control group receives what is called the placebo. Placebo is a substance or treatment which is designed to have no therapeutic value (Wikipedia definition). Imagine 100 people get a capsule each to treat headache. Or, imagine there are 100 people who get a vaccine to prevent from coronavirus infection. 50% are placebo. The person with placebo may develop a suggestion (belief) that their treatment is real, hence developing a reaction [that can be] similar to the person with 'real treatment'. In my [and your] understanding, would this 'scientifically designed experiment' produce more BIAS, if compared to statistical analysis conducted on Alternative Healing Methods? 

 

If we want to, say, find out whether aromatherapy or music therapy can reduce stress or not, then we can just expose the experimental group with the 'treatment' (i.e. music / scent) then do nothing to the control group, then compare the result. What result? The stress level. So, the design experiment is so easy, and so does interpreting / analyzing the results. But, how do we 'measure' stress level? Using a questionnaire. Wait, but how can we compare stress levels between the participants? Questionnaire is too subjective and not objective, so the result is not scientifically accepted. So, do you get what I mean?

 

Modern Medical Science is very familiar with the word standardization, which is a good thing sometimes. If you want to buy 500 mg of paracetamol in Philippines, or Arab, or Korea, or Kenya, you will get the same medicine with the same specification. Well, except in Japan, since they don't normally sell paracetamol but Loxonin instead. So, even for vitamin C that can easily be obtained from fruits, vitamin C sold as supplements are made from chemical process, not extracted from fruits naturally. Why? The reason is, standardization or consistency. Vitamin C that is made synthetically can have a certain (desired) value of concentration, so the concentration is easily monitored / adjusted and the presence of unwanted substances can easily be controlled as well. With the same reasons, most of medicines, antibiotics, and some supplements are synthesized chemically even though they can be found in nature. However, there are many steps required before a health product can be produced commercially. This is to assure that the product is safe to consume ; or at least can identify some problems that may arise with the consumption of the product. These steps requires a thorough research and trials, and of course requires a lot of time, money, effort, and patience. The stages of a new drug development is given as follow.

 

 

From the discovery of a new potential drugs until its mass production, it can take roughly 12 years and US$ 150 million, and this excludes the money required to build the factory facilities, marketing and training fee, business development fee, etc. So, [let's say] during the discovery of a new antibiotic, scientists will first do the early activity test or activity confirmation test from mold sample in a petri dish. Then, if it shows a good result, they will purify its components one-by-one, then repeat the activity test using [nearly] each of the components. 

 

 

Finding which component[s] that may work requires trial and error process. It's like opening a door with a pile of keys. Sometimes, there are more than one key that can be used to open the door. Component[s] which show good results will be analyzed to see their chemical structures. Then, the chemists will devise a mechanism of reactions in order to 'duplicate' the useful substance[s] synthetically. These steps are parts of the discovery stage. After the discovery stage, the medicine will enter the pre-clinical examination stage, where the medicine is tested to a non-human subject. The last stage is called clinical examination stage or clinical drugs testing, and is divided into phases 0 until III (ideally until phase IV). 

 

(stages required from discovery to launching of a new drug) 

 

Most of antibiotics are discovered and produced using these stages. Antibiotics are usually produced by fungus as secondary metabolite byproducts. Since fungus usually produces few substances only, the separation and purification process is not too difficult. What seems more difficult is to find which component[s] that can be used to kill bacteria, or finding the target bacteria that can be killed with the antibiotic. With the rise of informatics and information technology, the discovery stage can be done at a shorter period of time with the help of CADD (Computer-Aided Drugs Design) software. Once the structure of the medicine is found, Chemists just need to 'produce' a substance with the structure as devised by the CADD, then the activity test can be done afterward. 

However, producing a modern medicine from herbal plants (i.e. Traditional Chinese Medicine) is very complicated. Herbal medicines usually consists of combinations of several herbs ; at which each herb itself contains many chemical compounds. Thus, one set of herbs combination may contain as many as 80 to hundreds of compounds. Consequently, the separation and purification process of each compound present in the mixture will not be easy. Moreover, even though the herbal mixtures can have a healing effect as a whole combination, but when the compounds are separated and purified, it is still possible that the outcomes are not satisfactory. The reason is, many compounds in herbal mixture may interact one another to produce the desired healing effect ; while this healing effect cannot be confirmed (or will not be optimum) if the compound present is tested one by one seperately. Therefore, if scientists cannot find out how many key compounds are required to produce the desired healing effect, then the modern version of the herbal plants will be nearly impossible to make. For illustration, if there are 30 compounds present and only 6 of them can synergycally work to show a desired healing effect -- if you have learnt about permutation & combination in Mathematics -- you will find that it will demand more than 590,000 trials just to find the perfect combination, and this number excludes the repetition (a good scientific experiment must be repeated several times). While even doing one single experiment may take a lot of time, this investigative trials to find the 'perfect combination' will take a whole lifetime, literally, and not to mention the amount of money required. And we are only talking about the discovery stage.

 

(it is much easier to choose 6 players from 30 available candidates

than to find a perfect combination of 6 compounds from 30 compounds)

 

With the outspread of the coronavirus, the Modern Medical Science now face a great challenge. The development of a new drug takes about 8 - 12 years, and we cannot wait that long. Moreover, it seems that CoV-SARS2 is able to experience mutation in a relatively short period of time, just like influenzavirus. Modern Medical Science that usually produces  'standardized drugs' now is facing the reality that this virus seems cannot be taken down by one kind of drug (compound) alone. Just like MDR-TB (Multi-Drugs Resistant Tuberculosis) bacteria that has already developed immunity against many antibiotics. These pathogens must be handled using different approaches, and probably requires what is called the 'integrated complementary healing approach' ; the collaboration between modern and alternative methods.

Some countries like Germany have already pay more attention to the development of the Alternative Healing Methods as a complementary to the modern medicine. Some fields of the Alternative Healing Methods that receive attention are homeopathy and heat therapy. While we do not know what the future pathogens will look like, rather than competing each other, it would be better if both Alternative Healing Methods and Modern Medical Science can collaborate, for the future of humankind.

 

(collaboration is better than competition)

 

Thank you for reading my blog. If you are interested, I am also selling immuno-modulator supplements that can prevent the viral infection, in some cases even can help immunity to fight-of viral infection.

If you are interested to order our product, feel free to reach us through Twitter, CNC Herbal.

Please visit about us for more information about the products and how to order.

 

References :

 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-02-21/schwager-war-against-natural-medicine/3840682

https://www.antac.org.au/ngangkai-services/workshops/bush-medicine-workshops

https://joyfulcacophony.wordpress.com/2015/08/27/why-i-believe-alternative-medicine-will-become-mainstream-before-i-die/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4170418/ 

https://nodawaynews.com/why-your-immune-system-and-most-prescription-drugs-cant-kill-mold/

https://www.nature.com/articles/ja2016121