Epicor and Coconut Oil

I have just finished a Coagulase Negative Staphylococcus protocol and oxymatrine treatment. In 3 to 4 weeks time I will hopefully be starting on Low Dose Naltrexone.

I didn’t want to sit idly by over this time without trying any new treatments. I have a list of further treatments that I plan to try however didn’t want to ‘waste’ only a month on these treatments as I believe they are worthy of a 3 month trial. I therefore decided to find some treatments that aren’t related to any serious CFS studies, haven’t got an overwhelming anecdotally backed CFS patient approval however show a degree of promise through their mechanisms. This is how I arrived at trying Epicor and Coconut oil.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Coconut Oil

I am going to take 3 tablespoons of coconut oil a day for a month. The coconut oil I will be using will be Extra Virgin and unrefined. I was originally going to try taking Monolaurin, as this is effective against some lipid coated viruses, which category includes the AIDS virus. (The retroviral similarities between XMRV and AIDS are yet to be established and the possible causality between XMRV and CFS is yet to be established. Despite this, looking at anti-retroviral and AIDS treatments does prove interesting.) Monolaurin is a derivative of coconut oil however adequate studies haven’t been performed to highlight the effectiveness differences between the two against various viruses

I don’t expect to improve on the coconut oil and if I do turn out to be XMRV positive I don’t suspect coconut oil will be dramatically effective against it. The analogy I make is coconut oil against XMRV may be like trying to extinguish a fire by showing the fire a picture of water. Although I am somewhat sceptical about improving on coconut oil, I believe it is a worthwhile interim treatment while waiting for some more serious treatments such as LDN.

 The Herxheimer effect and side effects are commonly reported with coconut oil as a treatment and therefore I will be building the dose up from 1 tablespoon to 3 tablespoons over the time frame of a week. It is claimed that some of coconut oil’s properties include it being antiviral, antibacterial, antifungal, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory and immune enhancing. A list of peer reviewed studies of coconut oil can be found here: http://www.coconutoil.com/peer_reviewed.htm

Coconut oil is available in abundance from supermarkets to health food stores. This factor in tandem with its inexpensive cost make it an easy treatment form to try.

 

GcMAF

While reading on the Prohealth forums, the compound GcMAF came to my attention.

This compound has been shown to be effective against a variety of cancers and HIV. It is one of the most amazing medicinal cures that I have ever read about. The bad news is that it is scarcely available. I would give my right leg to try GcMAF. I would love to try it and for once I would be fairly confident that a medicine would at least improve my condition. To obtain GcMAF for cancer seems to be bordering on impossible and therefore to obtain it for CFS seems to be impossible (at least at present.) GcMAF has yet to be approved for commercialisation however will hopefully be approved some time in the not too distant future. I would love to hear from you if you have any ideas of how to obtain GcMAF.

These are some links to information about GcMAF

Look for Harmod’s response titled ‘About GcMAF’ (you will need to scroll down)

http://wwwprohealth.com/me-cfs/blog/boardDetail.cfm?id=1379980

An article that emphasizes what an amazing compound GcMAF is can be found here:

http://www.thenhf.com/articles/articles_919/articles_919.htm

Another article that is more sceptical about some of the claims made about GcMAF can be found here:

http://scienceblog.cancerresearchuk.org/2008/12/03/cancer-cured-for-good-gc-maf-and-the-miracle-cure/

 A list of some of the GcMAF studies can be found here:

http://www.thedcasite.com/Yamamoto_file/Yamamoto.html

GcMAF essentially works by activating macrophages which know what pesky things don’t belong in the body and destroys them. Due to GcMAF being near impossible to obtain, I decided to research alternative ways to activate macrophages in the body. This is what led me to trying Epicor.

 Epicor

Epicor is derived from dry fermentation of the yeast ‘Saccharomyces cerevisiae.’ Studies have shown Epicor increases mucosal immune protection, reduces anti-inflammatory activity and has an antioxidant potency 3 times that of any fruit. Anecdotal evidence also claims that it reduces sinus related symptoms (which I hope will occur in my case however am doubtful about.)

Epicor’s specific immune system boosting properties include

• Increasing natural killer cell function (with some studies showing this occurs by 4 fold.)
• Increasing natural killer cell function within 2 hours of taking the supplement
• Activating B cells
• Balancing the CD4 and CD8 ratio
• Regulating IgA levels

 

The dosage of Epicor taken is dependant on several factors, mainly what condition you are trying to treat and weight. The Epicor supplements that I will be taking contain 500mg in each tablet. A recommended dosing guide on Beta Glucan (which is similar in some ways, yet ultimately different to Epicor) can be found here (partway down the page): http://alternativecancer.us/betaglucan.htm#Ease

I will be starting off with 1x500mg tablet a day and increase it up to 3x a day (all 3 tablets taken at the same time rather than 3 separate times a day.) This increase in dosage will be dependant on side effects. It is important to take Epicor on an empty stomach so I will be taking it half an hour prior to breakfast.

 

Conclusion

I would be surprised if either the coconut oil or Epicor improved any of my CFS symptoms. Despite this, they have potential mechanisms to improve my symptoms and that is why I am going to take them. I will start taking both the coconut oil and Epicor on the 1^st of February 2010. They are mainly an interim treatment until I hopefully get my hands on some Low Dose Naltrexone and start this in approximately a month.

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