As the New Year approaches I am feeling very optimistic for the future. I am more and more convinced my decision to forego combination interferon/ribavirin therapy and instead pursue Modern Chinese Medicine was the right one for me. I continue to sustain my new found sense of well being and high energy levels since beginning Dr. Zhang's Chinese Medicine protocol. Recently I had a conversation with a nurse who happens to work in the same medical clinic as I do. Even though she underwent a successful course of interferon treatment last year she told me that if she had to do it again she would not pursue interferon treament. She said this even though she was one of the lucky ones who did acheive a negative viral response with interferon treatment. Despite this she was emphatic that she would not make the same choice again because the effects of the interferon and ribavirin were so ravaging. Why would anyone make such a statement? One factor in the decision whether or not to pursue conventional combination therapy is the consideration that one should be aware that a negative viral response after interferon treatment does not mean "total eradication" of the Hep C virus! Most of the patients after "successful" inteferon therapy will still have HCV in their liver. Relapse can, and does in some cases happen at a later time.

Please understand, I am in no way advocating just sticking one's head in the sand and ignoring their HCV infection. Rather, a comprehensive approach is needed to treat chronic viral hepatitis, including proper herbal treatment, rest, and nutrition. I do believe it's possible using Modern Chinese Medicine to halt the progression of the disease and restore general health.

Blessings to all in the New Year.

The Nativity Of The Divine Light

Christmas Eve, sometimes called Holy Night, celebrates the ageless story of the birth of Christ. As the divine light of Christ incarnates in a tiny babe in a lowly manger, to us this story represents the nativity of the divine light within the Gnostic soul, the coming of the royal light into the lowly frame and darkness of this world. When the outer world grows cold and dark it is even more necessary to keep the spark of divine light kindled and bright.

Though the light shines in the darkness, the darkness can not itself give birth to the light. The earth would be naught but cold damp clay without the life coming from the light of the Sun. Even so, the spirit which gives life comes from somewhere else, a mystical dimension beyond time and space. The alchemists assure us that “nature unaided always fails.” Without divine assistance in the Hermetic art the alchemist can not achieve the goal of the Great Work, the Philosopher’s Stone. In the same way, our human natures can not transform our ego personalities without the assistance of that spark of our Divine Self and the birth of that consciousness within us........more

Wishing you and yours all the best this Holiday Season. May the New Year bring you much Light, Love, and Health.

Happy Holidays

C’mon people can’t we all just get along? This is the one of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever read, “Religious conservatives are threatening lawsuits and boycotts to insist that store clerks and advertisements say Merry Christmas”. I myself prefer “Happy Holidays”or "Seasons Greeting's". It’s much more inclusive, what’s wrong with including the Jewish Faith, Buddhists, Moslems, Pagans or any other ism’s in one’s best wishes for the Season and New Year? “Peace on earth, goodwill towards men” should be directed to all regardless of race, color or creed.

Of course, the major mistake in the Christian conservatives line of reasoning is the assumption that the Holiday Season began with Christianity. Celebration of the Winter Solstice far predates any form of Christianity.

Perhaps maybe we should all just celebrate Festivus.

Wishing everyone Happy Holiday’s as I cue up my cd player;

Artist: Jackson Browne
Album: Rarities And Duets
Title: The Rebel Jesus

Original recording from the chieftain's album "the bells of dublin"

All the streets are filled with laughter and light
And the music of the season
And the merchants' windows are all bright
With the faces of the children
And the families hurrying to their homes
As the sky darkens and freezes
They'll be gathering around the hearths and tales
Giving thanks for all god's graces
And the birth of the rebel jesus

Well they call him by the prince of peace
And they call him by the savior
And they pray to him upon the seas
And in every bold endeavor
As they fill his churches with their pride and gold
And their faith in him increases
But they've turned the nature that i worshipped in
From a temple to a robber's den

In the words of the rebel jesus

We guard our world with locks and guns
And we guard our fine possessions
And once a year when christmas comes
We give to our relations
And perhaps we give a little to the poor
If the generosity should seize us
But if any one of us should interfere
In the business of why they are poor
They get the same as the rebel jesus

But please forgive me if i seem
To take the tone of judgement
For i've no wish to come between
This day and your enjoyment
In this life of hardship and of earthly toil
We have need for anything that frees us
So i bid you pleasure
And i bid you cheer
From a heathen and a pagan
On the side of the rebel jesus.

Jimmy Page receives the OBE

Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page has been honored by Queen Elizabeth II - but the award was for his work with poor Brazilian children rather than his music. Page, 61, went to Buckingham Palace on Wednesday to receive an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, or OBE.Page said he was overwhelmed to be given the accolade. He recalled how he first became involved with Brazilian children in 1994 when fighting broke out among street gangs while he was in Rio de Janeiro promoting an album. "At that time in Rio, the sun wasn't shining. The army was going into the favelas (shantytowns), and I heard about the plight of the street children," he told reporters.Page joined forces with a British charity, Task Brazil, and set up a safe house, which has supported more than 300 children. Task Brazil offers medical and psychological support, food, clothing and job training. "I think when you're faced with a plight that's inescapable, and there's something you can do about it, you hope you can make a difference," Page said.

Ready For Spring

I know it’s not even Winter yet but I’m all ready for Spring. Last week I booked an itenerary online at Expedia.com for the week of March 20th to attend some San Francisco Giants Cactus League Spring Training games in Scottsdale, AZ.  We’ll be there for 5 Days, 6 nights, enjoying the warm weather and the baseball rites of Spring.
Also nearby is Sedona, Az which I’ve always wanted to visit, so the plan is 3 days in Scottsdale and 2 days in Sedona which should be lovely after weathering the winter season.

Robert Plant BBC Interview

Discovered this recent interview with Robert Plant in RealPlayer format provided by the BBC.
In this interview with BBC WM's Paul Franks, Black Country rock legend Robert Plant talks about living with the legacy of Led Zeppelin, writing with Jimmy Page, and how he's able to make sense of the past with his new band, The Strange Sensation. 
He also describes one of his most treasured memories - his meeting with Elvis.

For All You ZepHeads Out There

Kevin Shirley's blog is reporting:

"Rumors abound about a new release of the Led Zeppelin movie,The Song Remains The Same, with improved audio and video..."

Herbal Protocol Update

I have been on Dr. Zhang's herbal protocol for three and a half weeks now. So far the results have far exceeded anything I had hoped for. The fatigue and achiness has all but disappeared. The first week of the protocol was life as usual, extreme fatigue and achiness 2 or 3 days that week. Since then however, I have only experienced two days of extreme fatigue and achiness. Over the last year or so I was experiencing these days 2-4 times a week. I feel human again for the first time in years. The mild problems I reported the first week of treatment, feeling jittery, extreme intestinal gas and loose stools have abated as my body has adapted to the herbal formulas .Of course it's much too early to verify any results quantitatively by lab results or liver biopsy but judging by how I feel my life has greatly improved qualitatively and I'm very optimistic for the future. Dr. Zhang has scheduled the first lab tests for three months after beginning protocol.

While cruising the world wide web this morning I found yet another example of a Dr. agreeing that the toxicity of conventional interferon treatment is unacceptable. The article can be found here but I have reproduced it below:

Benefit vs. harm of treatment of chronic hepatitis C

TO THE EDITOR: I am quite apprehensive that your article (1) on hepatitis C by Dr. Ward and colleagues will cause misconceptions for family physicians and may cause harm to our patients.

The article (1) trumpets the efficaciousness of treatment of chronic hepatitis C. However, no justification for the repeated assertion of treatment effectiveness is offered. Treatment of hepatitis C does lower viral RNA loads, but I fear there is no evidence showing that treatment prevents cirrhosis, cancer, disability, and death. In lieu of outcomes evidence, what do experts say? The authors cited the consensus statement from the National Institutes of Health, (2) which discusses only disease-oriented evidence regarding the benefit of hepatitis C treatment. My local gastroenterology colleagues have no patient-oriented outcome evidence to report either. Real patient benefit, such as reduced incidence of cancer, cirrhosis, disability, and death remains speculative and the topic of ongoing research.

Yet, we have plenty of patient-oriented outcome evidence showing how this supposedly effective treatment is toxic. In my own practice, I have several patients who have been harmed significantly by treatment for hepatitis C, with outcomes such as chronic sprue-like enteropathy, myopathy, and depression.

No patient would tolerate cancer chemotherapy without the confidence that it improved their chance for better health. Yet, we are poisoning thousands of our patients who have hepatitis with just such a situation of known harm and uncertain benefits from treatment.

I have stopped referring my patients who have hepatitis C to gastroenterologists unless they enter a research protocol to help achieve patient-oriented outcome evidence. Until we have patient-oriented evidence that rates of cirrhosis and cancer are reduced with treatment, I do not feel that clear harm and no clear outcome benefit is acceptable.

JOSHUA STEINBERG, M.D.

State University of New York Upstate College of Medicine Department of Family

Medicine 475 Irving Ave., Suite 200

Syracuse, NY 13210

REFERENCES

(1.) Ward RP, Kugelmas M, Libsch KD. Management of hepatitis C: evaluating suitability for drug therapy. Am Fam Physician 2004;69:1429-38.

(2.) NIH consensus statement on management of hepatitis C: 2002. NIH Consens State Sci Statements 2002;19:1-46.

IN REPLY: While I agree with Dr. Steinberg that the pegylated interferon and ribavirin used in the treatment of patients with chronic hepatitis C are difficult agents to use, I disagree with his assertion that there is no evidence for improved patient outcomes with treatment.

Treatment not only "lowers viral RNA loads," but, when successful, appears to eliminate viral RNA entirely. The published treatment response rate of approximately 50 percent is not measured at the end of treatment, but represents the percentage of patients in whom hepatitis C viral RNA continues to be undetectable six months after finishing medication. Follow-up of patients who are RNA negative at six months shows that only 5 to 10 percent of them have had a virologic relapse at five years, with virtually none of those recurrences occurring after year 4. (1)

Other studies (2,3) have shown slowing and even regression of hepatic fibrosis, and a few of the patients in these studies actually regressed from cirrhosis to an earlier stage of fibrosis. Furthermore, among patients receiving treatment, even those who failed to achieve viral elimination showed a cessation of progression of fibrosis while being treated. Among patients who already have cirrhosis at the time of treatment initiation, therapy has been shown to improve survival (risk reduction [RR], 0.54; confidence interval [CI], 0.33 to 0.89) and to reduce the occurrence of hepatocellular carcinoma (RR, 0.65; CI, 0.43 to 0.97]). (4)

The National Institutes of Health consensus statement on the management of hepatitis C does not recommend that all patients with hepatitis C receive treatment, but rather states: "All patients with chronic hepatitis C are potential candidates for antiviral therapy. Treatment is recommended for patients with an increased risk of developing cirrhosis." (5) The decision to treat a patient with hepatitis C frequently is not an easy one and involves balancing the possibilities of cirrhosis, liver cancer, and death against the known side effects of the medications--side effects that, as Dr. Steinberg points out, occasionally may include serious toxicities. My own patient base includes those who have had substantial difficulties in tolerating pegylated interferon and ribavirin and those who have died from hepatitis C and its complications.

These medications are important advances in our ability to treat this illness, and I suspect that the data regarding their benefits are likely to continue to accumulate as longer-term outcome studies become available.

RAYMOND P. WARD, M.D., PH.D.

440 South Medical Drive Bountiful, UT 84010

REFERENCES

(1.) Veldt BJ, Saracco G, Boyer N, Camma C, Bellobuono A, Hopf U, et al. Long term clinical outcome of chronic hepatitis C patients with sustained virological response to interferon monotherapy. Gut 2004;53:1504-8.

(2.) Abergel A, Darcha C, Chevallier M, Ughetto S, Henquell C, Pol S, et al; French Multicentre Study Group. Histological response in patients treated by interferon plus ribavirin for hepatitis C virus-related severe fibrosis. Eur J Gastroenterol Hepatol 2004;16:1219-27.

(3.) Arif A, Levine RA, Sanderson SO, Bank L, Velu RP, Shah A, et al. Regression of fibrosis in chronic hepatitis C after therapy with interferon and ribavirin. Dig Dis Sci 2003;48:1425-30.

(4.) Shiratori Y, Ito Y, Yokosuka O, Imazeki F, Nakata R, Tanaka N, et al; Tokyo-Chiba Hepatitis Research Group. Antiviral therapy for cirrhotic hepatitis C: association with reduced hepatocellular carcinoma development and improved survival. Ann Intern Med 2005;142:105-14.

(5.) NIH consensus statement on management of hepatitis C: 2002. NIH Consens State Sci Statements 2002;19:1-46.

COPYRIGHT 2005 American Academy of Family Physicians
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