Quinacrine, Mast cell activation syndrome, Parasites, Dysbiosis, Chronic illness, Lyme, EMF/precautions, Retroviruses

Bios and Photos in July 2018

Quinacrine for Complex Chronic Illnesses

By Dietrich Klinghardt, MD, PhD, and Christine Schnaffner, ND

Introduction

At the Sophia Health Institute, we continue to treat patients with complex chronic illnesses; whether we call it persistent Lyme, MSIDs, CIRs…the patients who come to us are suffering. Their symptoms often include brain fog, poor memory, migraines, seizures, chronic sinusitis, swollen lymph nodes, chronic pain, shortness of breath, heart palpitations, reflux, bloating, constipation, diarrhea, neuropathy, hopelessness, and despair. Like many of us in the field, we see the patients who are stuck, plateaued; no matter what we try, there is very little symptom improvement. Having these patients requires us to continually search and try to understand what we are missing. And then every so often we find a new remedy or treatment that for some of those who are stuck works like a miracle—they get their life back. The correct use of an old malaria drug—quinacrine—has been one of those discoveries. A patient with a resistant tapeworm brought the information about this drug to us. It not only helped her but many others.

In this article, we reintroduce this old medication and how it may help your patients.

Quinacrine

Quinacrine/mepacrine (trade name Atrabine) is an anti-malarial drug that Bayer patented in 1931. It is known and accepted as a treatment of leishmaniosis, giardiasis, subcutaneous lupus erythematous, discoid lupus, pneumothorax prophylaxis, malaria, and malaria prophylaxis. It also treats tapeworms and schistosomiasis and improves EHS (electro hypersensitivity syndrome).

Quinacrine is known to reduce inflammation, reduce phospholipase A2, and upregulate p53. It also makes our cell membranes more flexible and less resonant with microwave radiation.

Quinacrine shows a 100% clearance rate in refractory giardiasis after treatment with metronidazole, tinidazole, and nitromidazole has failed. Refractory giardiasis occurs in about 20% of cases treated and is common in our patient population.

There are well known applications of other anti-malarial medications for Lyme as well as connective tissue disease.

Pharmacokinetics

Quinacrine is rapidly absorbed in the gastrointestinal tract with plasma levels increasing two-to-four hours after administration and reaching a peak in 8-12 hours. It concentrates most highly in the following tissues: liver, spleen, lungs, adrenal glands, skin, fingernails, hair, and pancreatic islet cells. Quinacrine’s half- life is between five to fourteen days, depending on the dosing regimen. When a patient stops consumption, plasma concentration falls by 10% daily. The renal system is the primary route of elimination for quinacrine. This remedy has a long half -life of several weeks which allows for a slow build-up of tissue levels. The die-off effects do not come all at once but are staged over a few weeks and easier to alleviate than with other approaches.

Side Effects

Quinacrine is a yellow powder and can turn the skin, nails and urine temporarily yellowish which typically occurs one-to-two weeks post treatment. This yellowing of the skin is not jaundice (but always check liver enzymes anyway). Quinacrine accumulates as granular deposits in the skin and nail. After completing the course of medication, the skin discoloration usually resolves within a few weeks; however it may persist for up to four months post treatment. Anecdotally, one patient sped up the clearance of the yellow dye with regular far infrared sauna and R-lipoic acid.

Quinacrine may cause a short psychotic episode if the die-off is in the CNS. Research suggests that B vitamin deficiency may make patients more susceptible. Use caution with patients who are prone to anxiety, depression, hallucinations, or psychosis and load all patients with B vitamins prior to prescribing.

Rare adverse eye symptoms may include corneal edema and/or retinopathy but only with prolonged or high dose therapy. However, it appears to create much less oculotoxicity than chloroquine and less often.

Dosing

We have quinacrine compounded at Care First Pharmacy. For some patients we do a loading dose of 200 mg every 15 minutes to a total of 800 mg. The target dose is 100 mg three times per day for 10 days. Sometimes, if the chronically ill patient has amazing improvement with this approach, we might have patients on several months of treatment (if well tolerated). We have also seen patients respond to lesser doses: 50 mg twice per day for 14 days. Consider multiple rounds if well tolerated with longer pauses between rounds.

Mast Cell Activation Syndrome Case Report

One patient had been sick for about 3.5 years prior to the mepacrine.  Her top symptoms included burning of the peripheral nerves, itching, prickly arms, legs and torso and at its worst brain burning when she would eat ANY food (even low histamine).  She was down to white rice and ghee for one year and white rice and potatoes for the last year.  She struggled with a number of health issues secondary to the nutritional deficiencies of her long-term diet void of nutrients. She was very chemically sensitive and needed to sleep 10-12 hours/night and was down to 106 lbs (Currently at 125 lbs).

She started mepacrine at 100 mg twice a day, no loading dose.  Her histamine symptoms disappeared! The effect was immediate.  As she started titrating down (due to substantial skin yellowing), she started noticing some breakthrough histamine symptoms (itching, prickly). She is still on a low histamine diet due to the breakthrough symptoms.

She also had a root canal removed at the same time that she started the mepacrine.

She made the switch from 75 mg/day of mepacrine to 100 mg/day of Plaquenil.  The yellowing decreased substantially.

Prior to the mepacrine, she did several rounds of anti-parasitics (Alinia, albendazole, mebendazole, ivermectin) with little change in histamine issues but improved health in other ways.

Another important factor in her case is that she is committed to daily meditation practices recommended by Joe Dispenza, DC, which made a big difference for her with respect to her internal psychological energy metabolism and her mindset. She learned to self-induce a parasympathetic state and not be physically addicted to stress-related adrenaline anymore. However, the breakthrough only occurred after adding the mepacrine into her overall regime.

Chronic Parasites and Constipation Case Report

Another patient had been sick for 30 years, however, actively in treatment for six years. She lived and travelled with her own colon-hydrotherapy instrument. Her life depended on it. Without it she felt so awful that “life was not worth living.”

Her top symptoms included chronic parasitic infections in the gut with chronic constipation.

Prior to mepacrine she had been on optimum doses of Alinia, fenbendazole, Biltricide, ivermectin, and a short course of Paramomycin. All of these medications had been helpful, but she needed on average four times the dose given in the average patient prescription in order to feel somewhat okay about living.

She did the recommended tapeworm loading dose of 200 mg every 15 minutes for 800 mg, then 100 mg three times per day for one month. She felt reborn. She came off the mepacrine for one month and had a minor relapse of gut symptoms. She then restarted the medication and progressively increased the dose to 400 mg at bedtime and noticed a shift around her typical dreaded full moon symptoms (insomnia, food cravings, etc). She stayed at this dose for three months. She is unique in that she could handle and needed higher doses of most medications prescribed. She experienced yellowing of eyes and nails and no other side effects. Being on mepacrine was “the best she ever felt” in over 30 years.

Six months later, she stopped medication and has not needed any other pharmaceuticals since. In fact, she is enjoying her newly found freedom and is also off all vitamins and supplements, other than a few herbal tinctures.

She now reports that she is living the best life she could ask for, following a strict dietary regimen that works for her, and her gut and bowel movements are the best they have ever been.

Mepacrine was not the sole solution in her case but was critical in eradicating the resistant parasites that she was struggling with.

Chronic Gut Dysbiosis Case Report

The following case taught me (CS) the true healing potential that is possible with mepacrine.

I had seen this patient for two years; and prior to seeing me, she had been in treatment for two-to-three years. Significant to her case is that her husband is from South Africa, and she had traveled to South Africa the year she fell ill.

Her first symptoms began in 2014 with anxiety and depression, then escalated over the next four years to chronic pain, fatigue, and psychotic episodes. She had chronic insomnia, nightmares, suicidal thoughts, loss of appetite, digestive issues, lost weight, low blood pressure, social anxiety, could not listen to music or watch television, could not tolerate loud sounds or bright lights. She was not able to read properly and sometimes had seizures and was unable to speak. Prior to seeing me she had tried IV antibiotics and anti-parasitics, including Alinia (which caused seizures and psychotic episodes).

The two years of treatment included herbal and prescription strategies to treat Lyme and co-infections, viruses, parasites, and heavy metal toxicity. She also had cavitation surgery for non- healing jawbone infections.

She tended to be sensitive to treatment, so I started her slowly with only 50 mg twice per day for 14 days. The first week she felt worse, weak, and nauseous. She felt like her health was going backwards, and her old symptoms were escalating. But then in the second week, she started to feel better. She had more energy, she was able to sleep, she regained her appetite. Within the month, she was able to function like her old self again, to drive, socialize, eat out, and then enrolled in some community college classes. She no longer has anxiety or depression. The episodes of chronic pain were less and shorter in duration but would flare up occasionally, especially at night. 

When asked what else she would like to share about her experience, she said, “It is a miracle and I couldn’t be happier. It came out of nowhere. I didn’t think I was ever going to get well again. It makes me wonder about how many people out there with similar symptoms to mine could be helped by treating possible infectious causes of their conditions.”

This case was one of the highlights of my career thus far.

Word of caution, like any drug or therapeutic strategy what is miraculous for one patient could feel poisonous to another. We have had a range of case reports from no change to – rarely – nausea, vomiting, and intolerance to the medication.

Protocol Update

In our previous articles, we have included updates to the protocols we are using at Sophia Health Institute.

. We continue to be inspired by the work of Dr. Judy Mikovits and have seen positive results with our retroviral protocol. New additions to our protocol, include a liposomal preparation of anti-retroviral herbs (BiopureUS: En-V tincture): bitter melon, green tea, olive leaf, reishi, St. John’s wort, stinging nettle. All of these have been found effective in the peer-reviewed literature. We continue to use organic Chinese skullcap tincture and started to add in BiopureUS organic Baikalin powder, an extract of Scutellaria baicalensis. Baikalin extract is not only helpful for the immune system but also can permeate the blood brain barrier. It is known to be neuroprotective and helpful for increasing blood flow as well as increasing memory. The full protocol is as follows: 1. Cistus incanus tea (6-8 cups/day) 2. Baikalin powder (½ tsp twice daily) 3. Broccoli sprout extract capsules (3 twice daily) 4. En-V tincture (2-3 dropperful twice daily) 5. Pantethine (1000 mg twice daily) 6. Selenium (up to 800 mcg/day).

We have seen solid positive results with the Klinghardt/BioPure Lyme approach: 1. Biopure Cocktail (4 dropperful am, 2 dropperful pm) 2. Biopure sublingual Hyaluronic Acid (1 dropperful 4 times/day) 3. Mediterranean Cistus tea sweetened with “Organic Whole Leaf Stevia.” For resistant Babesia we add artemisinin powder (600 mg/day). For Bartonella we add the Biopure Liposomal Calendula tincture (1 dropperful 3 times/day) and liposomal propolis (4 dropperful/day). Most importantly we realized that aluminum (Al) toxicity is an important and frequent growth factor for Lyme disease. We use the Sophia aluminum detox tincture and the ionic footbath to decrease the Al body burden, an important part of the treatment of chronic persistent Lyme.

With 5G coming, we need to continue to educate patients on the important of EMF precautions as well as internal protections. We recommend patients eliminate Wi-Fi in their home, keep cell phone usage to a minimum, always keep cell phones off your body and away from your head. Other responsible use of technology recommendations include using only red night lights, no alarm systems, no baby monitors, no cordless phones, no smart LEDs, and not using “internet of things” technologies in your home.

In order to create a low EMF healing environment at home, we may recommend shielding paint (Y-shield), window films, Stetzer filters, and turning off the fuses at night.

Our internal protection protocol includes decreasing heavy metals using Biopure cilantro, ionic foot baths, binders, coffee enemas, colonics, metal detox agents (DMSA, EDTA, DMPS), Biopure propolis (CAPE), Biopure rosemary tincture, membrane stabilizing oils (Biopure Liposorb/Lipowell), and melatonin.

We have been using melatonin in several forms: melatonin (Biopure Liposomal Melatonin, transdermal melatonin up to 250 mg/mL (VitaHealth Apothecary, New York), and melatonin suppositories. Melatonin is hugely beneficial; it is neuroprotective, detoxes the brain from heavy metals and pathogens, supports optimal functioning of the glymphatic system, is anti-cancer, and mitigates peroxynitrite and other damaging effects from electromagnetic radiation.

Conclusion

In patients that have failed reasonable treatment attempts for chronic persistent illness, quinacrine is a unique anti-malarial drug that can be extremely effective and should be considered as treatment option for difficult and seemingly unsolvable clinical situations.