The
new findings from two academic institutions in Hamburg and Heidelberg, Germany, published in May 2009 in the “Proceedings of the National Academy of Science USA” - that green tea extracts can inhibit the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) - may come as a surprise to many people, but not to us.
The researchers from these institutions published scientific proof that EGCG (Epigallocatechin Gallate) – a natural component of green tea – can be used as an effective antiretroviral agent to reduce sexual transmission of HIV. The study has shown that EGCG can neutralize a small protein (peptide) present in human semen that promotes HIV infection. This peptide can boost infectivity of HIV by forming a network of fibrils that can trap the virus and attach it to the surface of target cells, thereby promoting viral infection of these cells.
The researchers found that in the presence of EGCG such a fibril network cannot be formed, thus suppressing the ability of the virus to infect the cells. The scientists suggest that EGCG can be administered as a component of anti-microbial agents, e.g., in vaginal creams. Since EGCG is very stable in an acidic milieu, such as the vaginal environment, it can be used to abolish the pro-HIV infectivity properties of semen and prevent the spread of HIV.
However, the effectiveness of EGCG against HIV reported in this work is, of course, not new. It was obvious from many earlier scientific publications. The German scientists merely provided more information about the possible mechanisms by which EGCG can prevent HIV infection.
Our own recent studies with chronically HIV infected cells have shown that green tea extract also has another effect: it suppresses the production of the virus inside the cells. This suppression can be further enhanced by combining green tea extract with ascorbic acid and other nutrients such as lysine. Moreover, our scientific approach has expanded beyond individual nutrient effects, such as the one presented in the German study. We have introduced the principle of biological
synergy, which enables the achieving of better physiological effects with lower nutrient doses and the preserving of metabolic balance - the basis of all healthy cellular functions.
Also, EGCG is not the only effective nutrient in the fight against HIV. Various
studies conducted as long as two decades ago have documented that vitamin C and N-acetylcysteine can inhibit many metabolic stages related to HIV infectivity and its replication in the cells. The work substantiating the anti-HIV effectiveness of vitamin C was conducted in 1990 by Dr. Raxit Jariwalla and his research team and endorsed by the Nobel Laureate Dr. Linus Pauling. The studies documenting the anti-HIV potential of N-acetylcysteine were also published in the early 1990s, at Stanford University in California.
All these and many other findings challenging pharmaceutical-based medicine and its
antiretroviral (ARV) drugs business were ignored by mainstream medicine for two decades. Moreover, the scientific pioneers of this research were vigorously fought by the pharmaceutical lobby promoting patented chemotherapy drugs to fight AIDS. As a result of this opposition, millions of AIDS patients have been dying unnecessarily and the cost of
toxic ARV drugs is strangulating the economies of many countries, especially in the developing world.