Health & Wellness
A drink using artemisia plant extracts was promoted by its leader, President Andry Rajoelina.
There's no evidence so far that this plant - whose compounds do work against malaria - can combat Covid-19, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
So what do we know about the plant and its properties?
Where does the plant come from?
Artemisia annua is originally from Asia, but grows in many other parts of the world with sunny and warm conditions.
It's been used in Chinese traditional medicine for more than 2,000 years for treating a number of diseases, including malaria, as well as to relieve pain and combat fever.
In Chinese medicine, it is known as "qinghao."
It is also called sweet wormwood or annual wormwood, and is used as an alternative therapy - and even put into some alcoholic drinks.
Could artemisia work against Covid-19?
President Rajoelina of Madagascar said in April this year that trials conducted on the Covid-Organics drink - which uses artemisia - showed its effectiveness against the disease. He repeated this claim in September.
But no evidence has been shown publicly for this.
And the exact composition of the drink is not known, although the government says more than 60% is derived from the artemisia plant.
Madagascar has also started producing capsules and a solution that can be injected, on which clinical trials have begun.
German and Danish scientists have been testing extracts from artemisia annua plants, which they say showed some effectiveness against the new coronavirus in a laboratory setting.
The research - which hasn't been independently reviewed by other scientists - found that these extracts showed anti-viral activity when used with pure ethanol or distilled water.
These researchers are working with the University of Kentucky to carry out human clinical trials at some stage.
China has been conducting its own tests, based on traditional medicines that use the artemisia annua plant.
And scientists in South Africa have been doing laboratory tests on artemisia annua and another variety of the plant - artemisia afra - for effectiveness against Covid-19. But there are no results as yet.
What does the WHO say about artemisia?
The WHO says it hasn't yet had detailed information about the Madagascar tests.
Jean-Baptiste Nikiema of the WHO's Africa region told the BBC the organisation may get involved later on in trials - depending on what information they get about the early trials.
At the moment, the WHO says there is no evidence that artemisia-derived products work against Covid-19.
It adds that all medicinal plants "should be tested for efficacy and adverse side-effects" through rigorous clinical trials.
How is it used against malaria?
The active ingredient found in the dried leaves of artemisia annua is called artemisinin, and it does work against malaria.
Chinese scientists pioneered the discovery of its properties when they were searching for a cure for malaria in the 1970s.
Artemisinin-based combination therapies - known for short as ACTs - are recommended by the WHO against malaria, especially those types now resistant to chloroquine, which is one of the main drug treatments for the disease.
ACTs contain derivatives of artemisinin combined with other substances, and these reduce the number of malaria parasites in the body.
Increased access to ACTs in malaria-endemic countries has been cited as a key factor in helping reduce the global toll of the disease in the last 15 years.
What are the risks of drug resistance?
Because artemisia annua extracts have started appearing more widely as remedies for malaria, such as in tea, there's concern that unregulated usage could allow the malaria parasite to develop resistance.
There are a number of countries in south-east Asia where this resistance has already been observed.
"We know that over time the [malaria] parasite will start to resist, but this time [period] needs to be as long as possible," says Jean-Baptiste Nikiema of the WHO.
The WHO now discourages the use of non-pharmaceutical forms of artemisinin, concerned that it could lead to growing malarial resistance.
Reader Comments
First, deny it works at all.
Then, when the fact it works is undeniable?
The WHO now discourages the use of non-pharmaceutical forms of artemisinin, concerned that it could lead to growing malarial resistance.They've got it covered coming and going. (And, of course, the last thing they wish to have happen is that folks might have increased 'malarial resistance.' )
R.C.
RC
What I meant - we are gaslighted again. There is no Covid-1984 epidemic. No need for a "cure".
For those who don't believe me - I have some precious Letters Of Indulgence to sell, to save your souls from hell/purgatorium. Only 999$ each ...
What I meant - we are gaslighted again. There is no Covid-1984 epidemic. No need for a "cure".Indeed-o.
It's a sales hook. You can't find anything these days that doesn't mention the word 'coronavirus', much in the same way that you can't find a record from 1965 that didn't have "Baby, baby, baby!!!", or "Hey hey hey!!!" in the chorus.
Artists have always used substances to get a leg up.I use a fermented malt/hops brew ...
There's nothing trivial about brewers yeast.
I managed to get a source of clean, loose, untampered-with Russian brewers yeast off the internet.
I've only been having, like, two or three tablespoons a day and within about a week I've gained this Herculean physique without even having done any exercise. It's bizarre.
Not that I'm into anything like that particularly. Bodybuilding, etc. I couldn't give a crap. I only bought the stuff 'cause I watched one of Elliot's videos about thiamine....[Link] and I thought brewers yeast would give me a leg up in that department.
And then that happened. LOL.
I've only been having, like, two or three tablespoons a day and within about a week I've gained this Herculean physique without even having done any exercise. It's bizarre.
I managed to get a source of clean, loose, untampered-with Russian brewers yeast off the internet.And I thought they are more into the heavy stuff ... самогон. From potatoes, grains, bread, whatever.
But gonna research it. I am not at all in need to loose weight, to put it that way.
I must add that result is probably due to 'in combo with my current diet'.
The only reason I chose brewers yeast was because I wanted to up my 'B's', but I didn't want to take pills.
I do take supplements, but only the 'au sauvage' kind: Magnesium oil, Lugol's iodine, ascorbic acid, coconut oil, vodka, that kind of thing.
The only stuff I could find out that mirrored the result I had was from a somewhat inarticulate bodybuilder guy on YouTube who goes by the name of 'genetic beast'....[Link]
And then I read about this Muscle Beach guy from the 1940's, whose name escapes me. He did bodybuilding in the old school, Weston A. Price way, i.e. brewers yeast, raw milk, raw meat, raw eggs, etc. I think he said he picked that up from hanging out with huge Samoan guys in the war, who he noticed used to eat everything raw.
That 1940's guy looked pretty amazing. Not weird and distorted like modern day bodybuilders. If I can find a link to that article I'll put it up later. It's getting nigh on impossible to find anything on the web these days.
Also, ascorbic acid, coconut oil, vodka, Hell, add some sugar, on the rocks, and you've got a drink.
R.C.
This is why in Greece, France, Italy, Spain, etc, it's traditional to have a digestif after a meal.
This puritanical modernistic disdain for alcohol, I'll never understand.
Alcohol is functional medicine.
So I looked up Armand Tanny. Lots of ogle images. This apparently photoshopped one*, apparently imitating stereotypical Greek statues of Achilles as I recall, caught my eye. [Link]
Which caused me to think of a certain Olympic sport and this [Link] which inevitably led down the page, and I got confused.
Is explication, clarification possible?
Confused in Cocoa
R.C.
*And rather badly. Can anyone imagine throwing that from the other side of one's head?
RC
The point being, once your 'planetary body' is more than 'full', the surplus can be used to make 'higher being bodies'.
In direct contradiction to vegan idiocies about veganism, self-starvation and 'spiritchewallady'.
Although, allegedly, the Injuns had a thing about something that roughly translates into modernese as fat/protein balance.
Which is supposedly why they never ate rabbit.
The only stuff I could find out that mirrored the result I had was from a somewhat inarticulate bodybuilder guy on YouTube who goes by the name of 'genetic beast'....[Link]At about 8:45, he says it promotes weight loss
I've always been in the low 20 BMI range, only veganism helped me to get far below ...
That 1940's guy looked pretty amazing. Not weird and distorted like modern day bodybuilders.Had read some articles about bodybuilder in the days a while ago. Seeing them eat would give vegans a heart attack.
I think Stench Herbivore is a good anti-example of distorted modern day bodybuilder. And what happens if you take steroid far beyond the roid-rage stage ...
Had read some articles about bodybuilder in the days a while ago. Seeing them eat would give vegans a heart attack.That Armand Tanny guy was basically doing an early version of the Aajonus Vonderplanitz thing, by the sounds of.
At about 8:45, he says it promotes weight lossDunno about that. I read that some guy fed brewers yeast to his kitten every day, when it grew to be a cat, it weighed 23lbs. LOL.
That Genetic Beast guy is probably right about that break/build thing, and a few other things, and wrong about other stuff.
You have to seperate the fine from the course.
Dunno about that. I read that some guy fed brewers yeast to his kitten every day, when it grew to be a cat, it weighed 23lbs. LOL.I suppose he meant "support a healthy body fat ratio", and assumed American viewers.
For the cat - probably some species from the larger family of felines. Like e.g. Lynx rufus. The weight would match.
If you look at some of those online mumsie forums, there are a lot of anecdotals from lactating mothers saying they're producing twice as much milk since they started taking brewers yeast.
Although, why that should be the case is unclear to me.
I also came across a study saying that BY eats cancer cells...[Link]
I might push the envelope with this stuff to see when, where, or if the negative shows up.
BTW, is yeast VEGAN ???Is anything?
Careful not to alarm your GF with your new Mighty Thor-like shoulders.
"Has something changed around here???"
LOL.
Probably a good idea to avoid any BY that is 'fortified' or 'de-bittered'.
Also, as the stuff is so high in protein, might be an idea to balance out with plenty of saturated fats: cream, butter, coconut oil, whatever.
But seriously, that was the only near source without additives ...
I'm not entirely sure how this whole business of 'denaturing' protein works, but I wonder if you could get even more amino action out of BY by mixing it with vinegar?
If I remember correctly, heating above 43..45°C will "denature" proteins. Like egg getting stiff. And as a side note, I digest raw eggs much quicker than in boiled or fried form. And get hungry again...
Maybe there's some fault in the language here re: 'digestion', 'absorbtion', 'de-nature', etc
And one observation I made relatively early, and is echoed by many anti-vegan youtubers: The caloric value of a food is measured in a chemistry manner, by literally burning it in a calorimetric bomb - to mostly CO2, water, and N2. Doesn't quite sound like what's happening in our stomach and gut, or does it ? How about eating caloric dense diesel fuel or paraffine wax ???
OTOH, try eating muesli, and watch the dump sometimes later. It passes almost undigested, you can still see the flake structures.One needs a thorough brainwash to believe driving large amounts of useless gunk through your guts does anything good.
BTW, Vegan Phobic had a nice "vegan shit" compilation video.
How about eating caloric dense diesel fuel or paraffine wax ???I never thought about calories. I always assumed 'calories' were just invented by an evil food scientist to sell fat women a bunch of stuff.
As for the 'crude oil' approach. Sometimes I think that works out OK. F'rinstance, you couldn't get anything more crude and synthetic than ascorbic acid, but my body instantly know what to do with it.
I never thought about calories. I always assumed 'calories' were just invented by an evil food scientist to sell fat women a bunch of stuff.Exactly. Vegans/Weightwatchers and Chronometer are like Catholics and the bible.
You cannot help people that are afraid of their own thoughts.
In a way, I feel sorry for vegans. Probably more so for the women than the men.
A lot of them seem to start out following these 'I'm a pretty girl' impulses typical of young women, that are not necessarily unreasonable impulses for young women to have....
"I'm a pretty girl. Look at these pretty blueberries", etc.
Then when the 'pretty' thing stops working, the vegan deterioration sets in and fillers and filters are employed to no avail, it suddenly becomes 'all about the animals'.
When an experiment is not working, you find a way to make it work in a timely fashion, or you close down the lab.
It seems to me, what stops a lot of vegans from closing down the lab is reliance on heavy-duty, reality-defying so-called anti-depressants (employed 'cause they got depressed due to being malnourished on a vegan diet).
The interesting thing about being on a high protein diet is, you can probably take the Latin 'pro' in protein quite literally, in that protein has a positive nature, which means you are likely to attract the opposite in your life, i.e. a lot of negatory stuff in terms of 'attacks', etc.
Worthwhile trying to get your head around Gurdjieff/Ouspensky concepts re: 'reconciling force within triads' as regards that.
In a way, I feel sorry for vegans. Probably more so for the women than the men.Girls are a difficult topic, for sure ...
A lot of them seem to start out following these 'I'm a pretty girl' impulses typical of young women, that are not necessarily unreasonable impulses for young women to have....
In my experience, they are easier to manipulate, and have a stronger "follow the herd" instinct. Might have been good evolutionary, a few millenia ago.
A second incentive might be a feeling of inferiority. Just like Muslims in Western Europe, who are hardly the cream of their country of origin. The belief to belong to "the right religion" gives a warm, fuzzy feeling of moral superiority, even in the face of real-word contradictions. Like the abysmal education and income conditions of said muslims, or physical/mental performance of Vegans.
The belief to belong to "the right religion" gives a warm, fuzzy feeling of moral superiority, even in the face of real-word contradictions.I think most people like to think that they're 'in the right'.
Girls are a difficult topic, for sure ...As regards the topics we're discussing, I think boys are just as easy to manipulate as girls....
In my experience, they are easier to manipulate, and have a stronger "follow the herd" instinct. Might have been good evolutionary, a few millenia ago.
Vegan Cuck Compilation....[Link]
As regards the topics we're discussing, I think boys are just as easy to manipulate as girls....Since you brought it up ...
Vegan Cuck Compilation...
Combining this with MGTOW, I think those cucks are betas, desperate for a shot. Which is quite ironic, because of: [Link]
Guys that make themselves skinny, weak and subservient to appeal to the maternal streak in women, so they can be 'looked after'.
There's a price to pay for that.
Mind you, there's a price to pay for everything in this life.
Codis: Vegan Cuck Compilation..Sad.
R.C.
Obviously, I haven't had a lifelong career looking at people's stools, but....
If you eat a raw steak, it just feels like you've absorbed it.
Also, I read some anectdotals about doctors in the Vietnam war, who when they had little access to medical supplies, they would put a raw steak on a gash or whatever, and not only would the steak heal the wound, it would actually disappear into the body.
I don't know whether that was 'War-is-Hell urban myth', or not.
Germ-of-truth-and-a-pinch-of salt, maybe.
I wonder if regularly imbibing a combination of Brewers Yeast and Absinthe could lead to a kind of 'musclebound Arthur Rimbaud' scenario?
LOL.
Hmm. "a French poet known for his influence on modern literature and arts, prefiguring surrealism."
I instantly get the impression that he was a soyboy before there were soyboys?
Whatever. I'll take this:
It was many and many a year ago,Poe, of course.
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of Annabel Lee;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me....
RC
We seem to have gone way off topic as regards Artemisia.To get back to topic (and avoid evil drugs ):
Artemisia Vulgaris is traditionally used in my region of origin as a condiment for very fatty meats (like goose), as it supports fat digestion.
Not sure how much Artemisia absinthium the commercially available vermouth beverage contains - if any at all.
Poe, of course.I thought that was 'Eastwood', but I guess that's just 'cause he got there 'first'.
I instantly get the impression that he was a soyboy before there were soyboys?Nah. Early all-above-the-body-artemesian-stream-of-consciousness purveyor.
Of course, the difficulty with reading poetry in translation is: who are you listening to? The poet? The translater? Both?
It's a peculiar fact that Petula Clark's Sixties hits sound a lot better in French than they do in English, just as Kraftwerk sound a lot better in English than they do in German.
Not so in America though. American absinthe is all ersatz crap.
First I'll acquire some, then desiccate/dry it, and insufflate big time, right?
RC
For Petula Clark fans only....[Link]
But if you wish, you can smoke everything. My grandfather smoked walnut leaves as ersatz tabacco.
Long, long ago, (2006? 09? 11?) I watched the TV Miniseries version of Tinker Tailor with Alec Guinness. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tinker_Tailor_Soldier_Spy_(miniseries)
I just was again so watching for the first time since.* Amazing that it was in 1979 - I surely didn't see it then, for that was in my compleat anti-video phase.
What is cool is that I've since then acquired conversability (not the word I'm looking for, that**) which now helps me comprehend very many / most? of those subtle expressions that I should have recognized before, but did not, such as, just now, how someone 'acquired the purple'***
Where did I learn such? From sundry sources, which include, you, Joe, Niall, sundry UK SOTTites, et al., and so I have been following the story far, far better than I did before. Are you familiar with that story? That or other versions? (I've also learned that there was another version ~2010. I have still never read the book, nor seen another, but I am again impressed with how phenomenally well that film is made (online link [Link] ) compared with anything on TV.
I came across an interview where the latest George Smiley, Gary Oldman extolled the virtues of that production. Your thoughts?
R.C.
*Brit speak - I'd normally say/write 'since then'.
**There I go again.
*** Id., plus (r est assured, old chum, you won't meet another Florida surfer with the same conundrum. )
rc
I saw the Oldman version, which was a pretty good aesthetic exercise in Harry-Palmer-London-drab, if nothing else.
RC
LOL. I've just recalled having that street theatre row with the bar manager in The Coach and Horses in Greek Street the other week over having turned that particular watering hole into a social distancing, Guantanamo Bay nightmare.
She didn't seem to understand that I've been drinking in that pub since I was 17, and that my father drank in that pub, and that it meant something, y'know?.....[Link]
In May 2019, the Coach and Horses was granted a nudist licence, allowing patrons and employees to be naked while in the pub.[10]OMG...
Although, I mixed cider vinegar with some raw eggs and that definitely came with an extra blast.
Tasted pretty nice too.
That's a lot of protein to take in one hit. Probably a good idea to augment with a lot of fatty, squishy, liquid-y stuff.
Bon appétit.
Probably no Erik Satie....[Link]
"There's something in the water".
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