"Pall, Martin L" <[email protected]>
Dan, I'm going to leave your comments on here so that I don't have to reiterate them. You ask for my opinion:
Firstly, excessive NF-kappa B activity leading to increased inflammatory cytokines, nitric oxide and oxidative stress was a very important, probably THE most important part of the first paper that I published on CFS/ME back in January 2000, so I am delighted that Dr. Cheney is a latter day convert to this view. And as you may recall, using agents that lower NF-kappa B activity was one of the group of agents suggested in Chapter 15 of my cook to lower the NO/ONOO- cycle.
With regard to Cheney's other recommendations, I agree with most but not all of them. I think that table sugar and specifically fructose is a big problem, so are various sources of mercury, excessive exercise is a specific problem for the CFS/ME group, allergens are a problem for people with this whole group of illnesses, especially food allergens. I have published multiple times on all of these, so there is nothing new about that. I do have doubts about Cheney's view on fish oil which appears to be useful for people suffering from apparent NO/ONOO- cycle diseases based on multiple clinical trials (this is also discussed in my publications) -Cheney's view on this, as best I can determine is due to some very short term responses which may not be indicative of the longer term improvements presumably provided by both the antiinflammatory properties of fish oil and possibly also its role in allowing regeneration of the cardiolipin in the brain mitochondria - both of those are likely to be important. You know, Dan, you should read Chapter 15 in my book if you really want to understand these things.
I've already commented on XMRV and have little to add to my previous comments. However I do have one thing to add - that is the Mikovits and her colleagues have made it clear in various statements that XMRV is a very low copy number virus in people with CFS/ME. In my judgment, that makes it still more likely that it is an opportunistic infection, supported by both the changed immune function in people with these diseases, as well as by the elevated levels of NF-kappa B activity.
Here's Paul Cheney's current recommendations, and they hint that there are other factors involved, even if the XMRV helps make everything worse.
"It is important to note that the external membrane glycoprotein of XMRV responsible for cell to cell infectivity and propagation of the virus internally to other organs, immune cells and infectious body secretions is attached by disulfide bridges to the transmembrane glycoprotein.
These bridges can be broken and the virus rendered non-infectious or non-transmissible to other cells by redox shifting to a more reducing biological terrain and unfortunately strengthened by a more oxidizing body terrain.
Factors that are highly oxidizing include diets high in meats, sugars, fructose, processed foods, allergic foods, fish oil in the special case of CFS, environmental exposures and especially mercury (Sushi) or dirty amalgam extractions or cracked amalgams and immune activators such as vaccinations and echinacea, mold, stress or chaos in your life, heavy exercise, excessive heat or cold and EMF.
Factors that are reducing and therefore protective include fresh vegetables (not overcooked and preferably raw) and especially freshly juiced green drinks, olive oil, low stress, clean environments, low EMF exposure (aka avoiding cell phones and unshielded house currents), and avoiding drugs that induce P450.
Probably the worst thing is severe stress or life chaos combined with a bad diet and mercury exposure. EMF could also be a bigger factor than people realize. EMF couples into the bi-lipid membrane of cells and could activate NF Kappa B.
Proper buffering of the redox set point for the human body's biological terrain is critical to control intracellular viral replication. Oxidative stess will potentially amplify XMRV replication. The biggest amplifier of oxidative stress is NF Kappa B and one of the best inhibitors of NF-kB are the artemisins (Artesunate and Wormwood). Artemisins are also thought to be useful in cancer.
We will be exploring the dose response curve for Artemisins to inhibit infectious XMRV in the near future to determine the best dose. We already know that activating NF-kB activates this virus and suppressing NF-kB inhibits XMRV. Artesunate is also known to inhibit HIV and all the associated herpes viruses that are co-factors in the evolution of AIDS and CFS as well."