Dear Dr Chan Boon Lye
Thank you for your further info about Artemisinin
and Chinese researcher Tu Youyou who won the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or
Medicine
This, indeed is a very great honour for a
Chinese, and a giant leap for a medical researcher in TMC from China for a
female Chinese to win this very prestigious Nobel Prize in Medicine or in
Physiology.
As far as I know, there are 12 Chinese so far
world-wide, 3 from Mainland China, including Tu Youyou, one from SAR Hong Kong,
and the rest who won this coveted Prize in Physics and Chemistry were Chinese
working in the United States.
But Tu Youyou is the first female Chinese from People's Republic of China, and the only Chinese to
win one in Physiology or Medicine. What a tremendous honour for the super-fast
growing superpower of China and the Chinese race world-wide.
What is more glaring is that she won this much
esteemed Prize not in conventional allopathic medicine, but in a 2000-year old
Traditional Chinese Medicine (TMC). This gives the practice of TMC such a
tremendous boost in recognition against the fast declining popularity of
allopathic drug-based mainstream medicine.
My Awareness as a
Medical Researcher:
In the 1980’s when I was working at the Institute
for Medical Research (IMR) there were already much talks among us
researchers at international conferences, scientific meetings and
medical updates about the resistance of MP (malaria parasite) -
Plasmodium falciparum to most anti-malarial drugs, notably chloroquine a
drug that has long been used against malaria.
Malaria claims the lives of nearly one million
people each year, mainly in Africa. Chloroquine was then the best anti-malaria
drug available against the scourge of this tropical disease.
It was about the time I returned from London
after completing my PhD in natural medicines. I went to London and universities
elsewhere in the UK 3 times over for my postgraduates
I remember one afternoon standing on the open
wooden corridor of the old colonial building, the old section of IMR after
completing my PhD in this field of expertise, I had a long discussion
with Prof Dr Mak Joon Wah, MD PhD who then was the Head of the Malaria Division
at IMR.
His office was just next door to mine. I asked
him if he knew about a plant called Artemisia, a specie called Artemisia
annua in which contains a therepeutic principle called Artemisinin.
I told Prof Mak that artemisinin has been
used in Traditional Chinese Medicine as a very effective treatment for malaria.
That was the knowledge I brought home from the London School of Hygiene and
Tropical Medicine, University of London.
The year when I suggested that to Dr Mak, was
around 1988 or 1989? I then proposed to Prof Dr Mak, that he should
consider using this naturally-occurring medicine instead of using the
conventional chloroquine-resistant synthetic agent against P.
falciparum (malarial parasite) since the parasite was already showing
resistance to chloroquine, first observed in Vietnam and in Thailand.
Fortunately Prof Mak told me he was aware
of artemisinin, but unfortunately he also told me the World Health Organization
has recommended that artemisinin should be reserved as the last resort
as the only last hope left for treating malaria since MP has already shown
resistance to most anti-malarial drugs, the best then was chloroquine, the
chemical analogue of quinine from the bark of the cinchona tree.
So it looks like artemisinin is now
a reserved natural drug-of-choice against malaria
Spoke to a WHO
Malariologist:
I also remember some years later I also spoke to
a WHO Consultant Malariologist who was posted to IMR.
During our dialogue, he admitted we were losing
our battle against malaria and that mosquitoes have existed even much earlier
than the dinosaurs, maybe about 100 million years ago.
He told me he was sent by WHO to Malaysia from
Assam in the south-eastern region of the Himalayas
He told me malaria existed even in Assam, it was
not a huge problem there because the Assamese used traditional medicine to
treat themselves. In the case of malaria or any form of fevers, they did this
by chewing the bark of a tree (presumably, the bark of the cinchona tree)
Then the fever and malaria were all gone within
hours. It was not a problem for the Assam people because they rely on their
good old traditional medicine.
But he said WHO had a “better” idea for them.
WHO then started introducing chloroquine and other synthetic anti-malarial
drugs into Assam to fight the disease en masse
After WHO did that he said, malaria took revenge,
and ravaged the population there uncontrollably. That was why he
escaped from Assam and came to Malaysia to do the same to this country to the
loud laughter of both of us.
Our Experience
among Orang Asli in Malaysia:
The same thing we experienced here in Malaysia among
the Orang Asli. When our malaria team from the IMR went into the jungles and
the orang asli settlements to do a survey, we found almost all of them carry
Plasmodium falciparum or other species of Plasmodium in their blood as seen in
thick blood films on Giemsa stains
But they do not suffer from any of the classical
clinical signs and symptoms of malaria. They merely walk about healthily with
the malarial parasites in their blood. It was a kind of symbiosis between
their body and the parasites.
Despite that, we still dosed all of them with
synthetic chloroquine with the hope of getting rid of all the MP (malarial
parasites) in the blood. Then naturally the MP count fell.
We were very happy because we thought we were
very clever, we have achieved our objectives. We also thought we were very
clever and smart, smarter than Mother Nature.
We then returned to our sophisticated research
laboratories at IMR in Kuala Lumpur and ‘bemused’ at our ‘victory’ because we
thought we have solved their chronic sub-clinical malaria problems.
Then we returned to re-evaluate our findings and
our prophylactic and therapeutic regimen a month later. What did we find? Well,
this time the entire settlement there not only got back all the MP into their
blood, but they all also came down with clinical malaria as well, which was
never there before.
It only shows if we have not interfered with
Mother Nature with our synthetic drugs, we would not have made the problem
worse.
The Orang Asli have been living peacefully in the
jungles in harmony with Nature, and the malaria parasites too have been living
peacefully with them in their blood without attacking them. They were in
harmony with Nature, some kind of natural symbiosis.
We are not too sure about this biological
phenomenon as the malarial parasites require at least 6 major steps in their
life cycle for their development once the malarial parasites or other species
of Plasmodium, such as P. falciparum
P. vivax, P. ovale, and P. malariae enters the body from the bite of the Anopheles mosquito during which
clinical manifestations of malaria will develop.
But most of the native people living in the
jungles or in malarial infested regions have high loads of malarial parasites
in the blood without suffering from the classical clinical presentations of the
disease. It is quite a phenomena we cannot quite understand.
Perhaps they are immune to it with chronic and
long exposures to the bit of the Anopheles mosquitoes till they do not respond
clinically? It could be the exhaustion phase from an acute to the chronic phase
a disease until the body fails to respond as postulated by the famous Canadian
physician Dr Hans Seyle in his theory of
General Adaptation Syndrome when the body undergoes from acute to chronic
stress. This could be the best
explanation.
Alternatively, they may have developed a symbiotic
relationship with the parasites in their blood
Yet, once we interfere with this biological
relationship we invite trouble. The parasites attack back.
Perhaps if we have used artemisinin or other
natural medicines, the scenarios would have been entirely different.
As doctors and research scientists we have much to
learn from other alternative systems of medicine such as traditional medicines,
botanical and herbal medicines, naturopathic medicine, nutraceutical and
nutritional medicines.
Allopathic Medicine vs Traditional and
Complementary Medicines:
Doctors and practitioners of most
alternative systems of medicine learn their therapeutics from Mother Nature
thousands of years ago.
Conventional allopathic doctors use chemical
drugs and surgery only less than 100 years ago compared with thousands of years
of therapeutic experiences for traditional and other systems of medical
practices.
Conventional drug-based medicine handles chronic
and degenerative diseases such as metabolic syndrome (diabetes and endocrine
disorders), hypertension, CVA, cardiovascular disorders, cancers, renal and
neurological disorders, etc poorly using synthetic chemical drugs to
control (not cure) the disease, compared to the slower but more
responsive therapies of botanical and natural medicines.
Traditional Chinese Medicine for instance has
served the Chinese civilization very effectively for over 2000, while
naturopathic medicine or natural medicine based on food, rest, physiological
fasting, etc has been around since the time of Greek Physician,
Hippocrates of Kos, the Father of Medicine around 460 – c. 370 BC.
Hippocrates advocated
"Let Food Be Your Medicine"
This is therapeutic nutrition or nutritional
medicine. Food especially plant-based (fruits and vegetable) contains hundreds
of phytochemicals including antioxidants. They are functional foods and also be
nutraceuticals. Almost half the present generations of synthetic chemical drugs
used in conventional medicine have their origin from herbs and medicinal
plants.
Hippocrates only advised “let food be your
medicine” not the other way round. How can that be using medicine and drugs as
our daily food? This round about quote was put there into Hippocrates mouth by
modern allopathic doctors and drug companies working hand-in-gloves to promote
their chemical drugs as food. The root causes was never taken into account, but
simply to supply the same medication month-to-month till the next routine
appointment three months later comes round!
Unfortunately this last claim by Hippocrates that
"let medicine be your food" was repeatedly quoted by many, including
health-care professionals like parrots who has not a clue what they are
uttering.
They just follow the repeated quotation from
others like parrots. They merely follow the crowd to be on the safe side, but
has no clue what were they were uttering.
Food and herbs do contain medicinal principles
besides their nutrient contents, and can be used as food as well as medicine.
But we need to be selective
But how illogical is it to advise someone to take
tablets, pills, drugs, injections, including herbal medicines as our daily food
and bread?
This last quote is highly illogical and can only
come from someone who has no knowledge on the difference between medicine, food
and nutrition.
They merely blare out their ignorance by
following what others have quoted.
Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine only advised
physicians of his time to treat their patients with food, rest and exercise
Never did he advise taking natural medicine as
food. Food and medicine are two different things
How illogical to take drugs and all kinds of medicines as our daily food and bread. The body must be terribly ill to be supported like that!
Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine had never advised that!
Lim juboo BSc (Physiol) PG Dip Nutri
MSc MD PhD (Med) FRSPH FRSM
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