Grouppe Kurosawa: HIV - Letters From Blanche Vol. 2, Part 2 (print)

Letters From Blanche
Vol. 2, Part 2

Dear Dr. Steve:
Cool. Any suggestions on proportions, or should I just wing it? Lysine is listed as an "inactive ingredient" on the container I have, so they don't have to say how much they put in, I presume...

Blanche,
Load it up baby. Concentrate it to the max. If this works, great. Otherwise, I'll send you some lauric acid (from coconut, your favorite food) which you can dissolve in isopropyl alcohol (just takes a little) and you can add this to the mix. Lauric acid will help get the stuff through the skin. Orange oil is not soluble in water so it can't be used to help the lysine penetrate the skin.

Isn't science fun?

Steve

Dear Dr. Steve:
Maxing out on lysine. The hubby raised a point: if we're over the top on the lysine, how will we know we're not wasting money by overdoing? I replied that he'd obviously never had Shingles or he wouldn't ask such stooopid questions. Lysine is cheap!

The prepared stuff I'm currently using is actually advertised for cold sores (simplex), but seems to work. It contains zinc oxide as an active ingredient; the rest are listed as inactive, and are mostly stuff like aloe vera, l-lysine and water, as well as things for consistency like gum benzoin and beeswax. I don't know just what they think the zinc oxide is doing; I used to put in on kiddies' diaper rash and it appears to be mainly protective.

Orange oil (or other citrus) also increases the risk of sunburn. Not good right before romping out the door. I've also heard some essential oils are supposed to help fight Shingles, but that's a long research project. Lavender works on almost everything. Also, care must be taken; many essential oils cannot be used at all unless severely diluted or they will make your earlobes fall off; very strong. This may be worth looking into over the long haul. After all, this is my second pass with the Shingles and there may well be a third. Argggh.

If you run out of things to ponder, how about colloidal silver? I kept running into pros and cons on that all over "shingles-fighting" sites. It makes your skin turn gray (blue). It is a wonder drug. It was around before the sulfas (true) and has been proven to fight (you name it). In many cases the claims are true IN VITRO. Nobody's run any definitive tests on actual humans. It's being suppressed by the drug cartels. It's snake oil. Everybody has an opinion and nobody appears to have any facts. Fascinating. I don't know what's true but nything the drug biggies don't like fascinates me. Then again, sometimes snake oil is just snake oil. -- Blanche

p.s. it's also rumored to kill HIV.

Blanche,
I think I've got it. Hydrocortisone reactivates herpes viruses, but how? I think I figured it out.

Hydrocortisone activates the synthesis of a number of proteins in something called the proteasome complex. Think of the proteasome as both a garbage disposal and a site for protein processing. If you inhibit it, cancer cells die, and HIV synthesis slows to a crawl.

The proteasome is necessary for the activation of both the HIV virus, herpes simplex and papilloma virus, among others. On the other hand, the proteasome is necessary for the inhibition of hepatitis B infections. Not all viruses are the same. If you inhibit the proteasome and a person has a latent hepatitis B infection, the infection will become activated. This happened to one of my clients, as I told you before.

For some reason, I never bothered to look into the utility of proteasome inhibitors as treatments for herpes and papilloma infections (two forms of papilloma cause cervical cancer big time). The literature is clear that these inhibitors will inhibit the synthesis of these viruses.

EGCG is one of the most powerful proteasome inhibitors ever identified, which is why it is in both cancer and HIV treatment protocols. Soooo, Blanche get ready to kick it up a notch, as Chef Emeril might say. We, as in you, are going to make some topical EGCG for your shingles. Bet they go away completely. Lysine is only effective temporarily. Inhibiting the proteasome should drive the herpes virus back into latency...no more roblem.

EGCG is a remarkable molecule. It crosses the skin wonderfully. So dissolve a few caps in hot water, mix with lysine and combine with aloe vera gel. Let’s see what happens.

I love science.

Steve

Dear Dr. Frankenstein:
I'll be doing a couple of different things on different parts of the ol' anatomy. You can get a laugh out of the first few paragraphs, but read the last few for actual information. Check out Plan B, the best shot, I think.

Laurel & Hardy do kitchen chemistry: Stanley bought caplets, which are capsule-shaped tablets. May as well use them because I opened the bottle before reading it, so we can't take it back. Since this is topical, we figure the binders won't be a problem. He grinds everything up with a mortar & pestle (we don't own a spice grinder).

Now I get your email. Aha! She thinks. I now have a perfect use for that snotty 45% EGCG I bought 500 grams of and can't get past my lips! My skin doesn't care how it tastes! Aha!

So here we are, with home-ground tablets instead of capsules and Blanche boiling about 25 grams of 45% EGCG, which then had to be strained 'cuz it was lumpy and ugggly. This is the cheapo EGCG. This leaves us with an unknown quantity of actual EGCG. Nutz.

I know that there is a solid 100 grams of l-lysine in the final product 'cuz I read the pill bottle. We used 'em all. 1000mg "caplets," 100 in bottle. 6 oz water total to get everything in solution. Now we've also got the fact that Stanley does NOT go to the health food store and buy aloe vera gel. He goes to the drug store and gets a 16oz bottle of some skin shit with an aloe vera gel BASE. Smells like cheap cigars, but that's okay because now we have to add the EGCG and lysine, which looks quite a bit like runny chocolate pudding because of the tea solids. Will this stain the skin? Probably not, no tannins to speak of. What fun we'll have finding out.

Add to this the fact that we've probably over diluted the aloe gel and so nothing is going to stick to the skin, and you have Chocolate-covered blanched Blanche, smelling like drinking tea in a cheap perfume factory. Whew! I'm not sure I can use it because it stinks like the cheapest cheap perfume you ever had the misfortune to be stuck next to in an elevator! My nose is stuck in the middle of all this, and I'm a sensitive kinda person.

Things got quite warm and perhaps the gel will set as it cools. At this point we're waiting to see if the gel... well, gels. Smart money says it won't. You need better assistants.

In the certainty that even when the gunk cools it will be of no earthly use to anybody, I'm going with Plan B. Plan B unfortunately does not contain any lysine because we used all the 'caplets'. However, tonight I make up another batch of kocktail, and I figured that, when I open a can, it's got a ton of coconut fat floating on top. I buy 49% saturated fat coconut milk, the most I have been able to find; this is real fatty. So I "borrow" a couple of spoonsful of coconut fat from the kocktail and mix in several caps of the 70% EGCG. This gives me a better idea of the proportions. All I have to do then is pick a "test patch" and go for it. I plan to make about enough to last 2-3 days (about 2 tbs of coconut fat, four 500 mg caps of 70% EGCG. Saturation bombing.

I'm also trying Plan C, which is hopefully designed to see how well EGCG absorbs without orange (or other) oils. Boil a batch of the 45% EGCG gunk. Soak cotton ball in it. Place directly on patch of herps and cover ith 2x2, plastic wrap, tape. In the morning we'll take a look and see if I'm a) brown; b) herpless; or c) none of the above.

Notes from the nether region: I was also considering the possibility of adding an oil and an emulsifier such as lecithin. It works on salad dressing, why not lotion? I'm sure that there will be enough lauric acid in Plan B to get things to absorb, but I don't especially want to smell like coconut all the time, either. It is also a problem with clothing as it is quite greasy. Walking around greasy and naked causes comment. I was thinking in terms of water-dissolved EGCG and lysine, plus some oil and lecithin. Guar gum (Benefiber) might work also. Of course, I am not a bowl of salad, so maybe not.

The plan at this point is (B) 70% EGCG and coconut fat. Also (C) 45% EGCG on cotton ball, used as a "patch." Tomorrow we'll get some lysine CAPSULES and some real aloe vera gel from the health food storethat doesn't smell like kaka, and we'll try something with that.

On the plus side for these little experiments, I have several lovely patches of herpes that I can use with this, with that. The negative side for experimenting is that I'm healing quite quickly now, and we may have been too late with the EGCG idea. What I need now is a treatment for PHN (post-herpal neuralgia), which is not a real problem but could still go away without hurting my feelings one little bit. I'm not sure I have enough shingles left to prove this theory. Darn! I was looking forward to "Blanche's topical antiherpifier" or whatever. – Blanche

Congrats Blanche,
You and hubby Stanley have just been elected National Lampoon's Couple of the Year.

How could anything so simple get so complicated? True, as lab assistants you both need work, but you are entertaining. Anna is the true lab expert, relatively speaking. She's made all kinds of topicals and orals without killing herself or dyeing herself brown.

First, lauric acid is a free fatty acid. Technically, it isn't a fat. The triglycerides or fats in coconut milk contain a ton of lauric acid, but it is complexed as a fat molecule. Picture a coat hanger that has three ties hanging from it. Each tie is a different length. This is a triglyceride or fat molecule. Each tie is a different fatty acid. Free fatty acids are just that, fatty acids that have been released from the coat hanger. Triglycerides have to be broken down to free fatty acids before the fats can be consumed by the body. Smearing coconut milk may enhance the uptake of EGCG, which is soluble in both fats and water (VERY rare), but any oil would do. The best for topical purposes is safflower oil.

You've got to learn moderation. You don't need to make tons of this stuff at once. A little EGCG goes a long way. And stop grinding stuff in a mortar and pestle. It’s not exactly sanitary. Just buy some capsules of lysine and dissolve the powder in hot water. Dissolve 3-4 grams of EGCG in hot water, let the crap settle, and mix it with real aloe vera gel. EGCG is active in very low concentrations.

The aloe vera gel has all kinds of emulsifiers and other stuff in it that helps to get the active ingredients into the skin.

Let me know what happens. I am DYING to see how all this turns out.

Try not to hurt yourself in the mean time.

Frankenstein

Dear Dr. Steve:
Wow! We won!

You said to max it out, so we max-ed. Once we had the great huge pile of smashed lysine we had to do something with it, not to mention the stooopid smelly fake aloe shit. This required a lot of EGCG and I was

using the cheapo 45% stuff I couldn't swallow. May as well use it. The results were... less than optimal. I think I'd rather roll in cowshit; this stuff is awful! I'd like to blame the whole thing on your assistant's assistant, but I wasn't very specific, and I did try to make the best of what we had, so mea culpa already.

Will get caps, actual aloe gel. In meantime, Well done! EGCG/protease inhibition may work! "patch" of straight 45%-EGCG actually stopped the itching very well on a new small spot on my right elbow. Trouble was it was an elbow and I had trouble keeping the patch on. Lasted maybe two hours. There's still a red spot and I can feel bumps, but they don't seem to be "blooming"

Am also using the coconut fat/70% EGCG on some spots on my legs. Just got that made up and applied; will keep you posted. I am not dead and didn't turn brown, so there! -- Blanche

Dear Dr. Steve:
Okay, not coconut fat. That's just shorthand. – Blanche

Blanche,
Yes I did say max it out. Apparently you are one of those people who’s gone through life driving without a functional break pedal. Nevertheless, you and Stanley, deranged as you both might be, gave it the old college try.

I have two quick stories to tell you about two undergraduate assistants I had as a grad. student at Berkeley. One I called Flash Dance, because he was anything but a flash. He was in fact the slowest technician in the world. And he couldn't make a mathematical calculation to save his ass. All the solutions and buffers he made were wrong. The second guy I called Moe, from the 3 Stooges, because he just didn't think before he acted. He was my tissue culture guy and way too many of my cultures were getting contaminated. When we teased out spleen lymphocytes from a mouse, we had to put them through a fine screen, which blocked all the lumps and crap. The procedure was to soak the screen in alcohol and set it on fire as a sterilization technique beforehand. When it cooled, we used it. This was done in a biohazard hood. What did I catch Moe doing? Blowing on the screen with his breath to quicken the cooling time. His non sterile breath was contaminating all my cultures.

What happened to these two idiots? They are BOTH PHYSICIANS NOW . I wouldn't let either one of those guys wash my feet.

Steve

Dear Dr. Frankenstein:
It's aliiiiiive!

Or, more to the point, it's probably dead. The coconut oil/70% EGCG is working. (That's two tbs of semi-solid coconut oil and four 500-mg caps of 70% EGCG). The bumps in the test area are disappearing and there is absolutely no itch. I realize it's a little soon to get excited, and I have no idea what will happen with the aloe gel, but I can't help but feel encouraged.

Since my main plan was to stop itching for less money than possible with the commercial lysine cream, I can say my part of the experiment is a success. I haven't actually tested any lysine stuff yet, but the EGCG may well be better. Two birds with one stone stuff. Time will tell.

By the way, I'm not quite as insane as you might assume. I have about 15-20% of my skin area involved with these little buggers, and I'm a big woman; 5'8'' and about 175 pounds right now. That's 15-20% of a lot of skin. I will try to practice more restraint in the future. Note I only made two tbs of the coconut/70% EGCG. I am restricting the test to a small area to compare to the rest of me.

At any rate, the prognosis for EGCG treatment looks good at the preliminary stages. – Blanche

Blanche,
My little, OK semi-little mouse, you're famous. Do you know how many people have herpes lesions of all kinds. Fantastic. You get to name the different treatment protocols. The name Blanche MUST be included in each. How about this for an advertisement.

"Are all those herpes lesions on your penis putting a crimp in your love life? Then try Blanche's Scab Be-Gone Ointment. In a matter of 30 minutes, your lesions can be gone enabling you to once again spread your herpes infected semen amongst unsuspecting women."

Think that will fly on Madison Avenue? Probably not. I am ahead of my time, you know.

Got any more problems I can fix? If you have unsightly nose hair, I have a treatment protocol for that too. Unfortunately, it also tends to dissolve the cartilage in the nose causing the nose to flop over to one side of the face. I'm working on it...don't pressure me.

The more red wine I drink tonight, the more creative these emails are going to get.

Great work, kiddo.

Steve

Dear Dr. Steve:
Mea culpa

Lesions were originally only on arms & hands. Didn't spread 'til later. I did mention that in passing but did not emphasize they had wandered around measuring for curtains. This was one of the things that fooled me also. Initially, I thought they were hives.

Enjoy your wine – Blanche

Dear Dr. Steve:
I think I need to respond to this somewhat better than I did earlier this morning. My brain was still a little fuzzy. Yes, the herpes are everywhere. I even have a really cute one on the big toe of my right foot that looks like I was bitten by a mouse (probably consumed by a rabid fear of spleen extraction).

1. On that note, I'm not sure I want to be your mouse. You don't play well with mice. I shall now have nightmares about you and my poor little spleen, which has problems enough without becoming an endangered species. No! No! Not the Spleen! (This must be delivered in a high-pitched mousey voice, of course).

2. I like you personal equipment de-herper, but fear you are right; it'll never fly commercially. Also, the treatment may take longer than 30 minutes to totally remove evidence of herpes. Your partners would still know you have herpes (keep the lights out and use lots of Blanche's Scab-Be-Gone super moisturizer and concealer cream? We could charge extra.)

3. Your nose-hair remover definitely needs a little more work, unless we can sell it as a COMBINATION nose-hair remover and biochemical nose job enhancer. Remove nose hair, Reshape you nose -- all in one easy treatment! You just need to develop a "cartilage hardener/setter" for once the job is done. Like an epoxy hardener, only different.

4. I also need to kinda apologize for babbling about stuff like emulsifiers and essential oils. It's been a while since I've been to the GK website, where I see you've already done the job. Duh! I'll try to catch up before babbling again.

5. I think I have mentioned this before but it bears repeating. I am THE poster kid for placebos. If I think it will work it probably will. You'd better find another test case before getting too excited about the EGCG, although it DOES make sense. I have a... somewhat unusual... brain. C'mon, let's be charitable here! It is quite capable of deciding to remove selected herps because they smell like coconut. Don't laugh! Confirmation with other victims... er... experimenters is definitely in order before you break out the champagne. I have to admit early results do look promising.

6. What do you recommend for healing icky crusty pulling leftover scabs? Ick! We'll need it for the concealer ream anyway. My skin is very rough and has flakey crater-rims sticking up all over. I usually use Vitamin E but it's greasy. You probably know something better, so give. -- Blanche

Blanche,
Excellent. You get a cookie. I think the aloe vera version will be better. Did you put some on the scabs you mentioned?

Steve

Dear Dr. Steve:
Yup. These are old and probably no longer active, at least that's my guess. The solution on scabs seems to relieve residual itching and what is possibly post-herpal neuralgia (some invisible guy with a hatpin?) Feels better right away but no visual change after -- oh, about two-three hours.

We were just discussing the aloe. We obviously didn't do a very good job of choosing last time. Is there some trick we're missing here with the aloe gel? What is the difference between aloe juice and gel? What viscosity do we need in the unmixed gel? Stanley asks "if he (that's you, of course) could "recommend something." He's a dear, but very confused with this alternative stuff, poor lad! I am of no help here because I've never used the stuff either. Halp!

What kind of cookie? -- Blanche

Dear Dr. Steve,
Isn't science fun? I've been putting some of this in some of that with some of the other. So far have not blown anything up. This is a blessing; I never took chemistry and still remember the time (long ago

and far away now) I added Clorox to some ammonia-based cleaner to make it work faster. Yeah. Run, dump, flush. Run outside and try to breathe. Empirical lessons are the ones that stay with you...

I also got some Lavender oil and am trying to figure out how to work it into some mix. Don't even suggest Oil of Oregano 'cuz I'm too sick to rob a bank. I'd be too easy to identify, also. "Be on the lookout for a bank robber with rabid chickenpox..."

Bwhaaa-ha-ha-ha! -- Blanche