Can high blood pressure be controlled by repressing infections from common herpes and cold viruses?

May 16, 8:18 PMSacramento Nutrition ExaminerAnne Hart

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Cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection is associated with cardiovascular diseases. So far no drugs have been discovered that permanently get rid of CMV once it's in the body.

It's there for a lifetime. Yet research suggests that monolaurin offers some degree of immune support for the cytomegalovirus, according to the article and description of studies on using monolaurin to destroy viruses at:  Monolaurin – A Natural Immune Boosting Powerhouse, Friday, October 31, 2008 - by: Byron J. Richards, CCN.

Now Harvard scientists announced on May 14th 2009 that they recently found in mice (but not yet in humans) a common virus that played a role in high blood pressure. And people have been treating viruses with oregano oil, too for decades.

There's a race on to see what really works. For years integrated, complementary, and alternative medicine have emphasized that common virus infections, such as cytomegalovirus (CMV) also  found in herpes and cold viruses, affect other factors that lead to calcified arteries, heart disease and obesity in humans and animals.

CMV might be at least temporarily deactivated with either monolaurin from coconut oil or a few drops of oregano oil from organic wild oregano. But who's looking?

Will further testing undoubtedly lead to more drugs to suppress virus outbreaks rather than research with medicinal plants? Just follow the money and read the progress of the research. See the article published May 15th 2009 titled, “Cytomegalovirus Infection Causes an Increase of Arterial Blood Pressure” published in PloS Pathogens, a peer-reviewed open access journal published by the Public Library of Science.

The CMV viruses are persistent infections that remain in the body without symptoms until the immune system goes down as people age, have impaired immune systems, or receive organ transplants. More than half of U.S. adults already have CMV, acquired in youth, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. See the May 14th 2009 Newsday article,  “Mouse study suggests common virus might play role in high blood pressure,” by Lauran Neergaard, AP Medical Writer.

According to the abstract of the study "Cytomegalovirus Infection Causes an Increase of Arterial Blood Pressure” published in PloS Pathogens, “Expression of viral genes and viral persistent infection of blood vessel endothelial cells resulting in an increased expression of inflammatory cytokines, including renin and Ang II, may underpin the molecular mechanism by which CMV infection induces an increase in blood pressure.”

In the study, healthy mice were divided into two groups. One group was fed a normal diet and the other group a high-cholesterol diet for four weeks. When scientists injected CMV into half of each group and then after several weeks took the blood pressure of the mice, the blood pressure rose only for the CMV-infected mice.

The rodents that weren’t infected with CMV didn’t get high blood pressure. The blood pressure rose the highest in the mice fed a high-cholesterol rodent diet. Some quickly developed artery plaques, according to the journal PLos Pathogens, published by the Public Library of Science.

Researchers even found the virus quickly infected the lining of the rodents’ blood vessels. If the same results show up in humans with the same CMV as the mice had, doctors would then have a better understanding of how heart disease is related to low-level inflammation of the arteries.

The infected mice had three different inflammatory molecules develop in their carotid arteries. When the researchers put some human cells into their lab dishes, the realized that the same CMV increased the production of renin.

The main culprit in a common type of high blood pressure that may not respond well to the ‘water pills’ might be when renin production is increased so much that the renin activats a molecular pathway leading to high blood pressure. The solution usually is to find a way to decrease the renin.

Another approach might be to suppress the CMV inflammation. The virus stays with humans throughout their life. But is there a way to keep the virus from inflaming the inside of human arteries?

The problem with high blood pressure is that it’s so common. It’s believed to be caused by a gene variant that regulates how well the kidneys retain or resist salt. Often it’s passed from one family member to the next. But is it the gene passed on from parent to child or the virus?

With one in three adults in the USA having high blood pressure, controlling it is big business. If viruses are responsible for causing heart disease and the risk factors for it, such as high blood pressure, is there a way to keep the virus quiet or crack open the shell of the virus with a simple plant extract?

Viruses such as facial herpes stay in a person's body for a lifetime, mostly latent. When the immune system goes down, the virus awakens, and the person suffers an outbreak. Other viruses in the CMV group don't have outbreaks. They stay quiet and do their damage by causing inflammation inside arteries and blood vessels.

Inflammation may play a role in hypertension as much as genetic factors, but tests on humans are in the future. Scientists already have found that a cold virus called adenovirus is linked to obesity.

Another virus also has been linked to calcification of arteries. Antibiotics won’t help much if the culprit is a virus.

Scientists already know that antiobiotics don’t revent heart attacks. But what if high blood pressure and heart disease isn’t caused by bacteria, but by a virus?

Does the virus switch on the epigenetic tags on genes that create the risk factors? No one knows. The study is a start. But tests with humans won’t be forthcoming right away.

So what can you do to put a lid on sleeping viruses already in your system such as facial, mouth, back and chest herpes (simplex)? What can you do to stop other CMV viruses from silently inflaming the inside of your blood vessels and hardening your arteries with calcified fats?

Is there a 'natural' plant-based way to at least keep a Cytomegalovirus (CMV) quiet and not inflaming your arteries? That’s when monolaurin comes to mind and oregano oil.

Since it will take years before human tests are done on the Cytomegalovirus (CMV), think about monolaurin, derived from anti-virual coconut oil. And oregano oil. Since big business is sometimes about inventing a costly, synthetic drug that will most likely be used to control CMV, is anyone thinking of the alternatives, perhaps testing monolaurin and oregano oil or other oil and plant extracts on Cytomegalovirus (CMV)? 

On pages 81, 82, and 87 of the book, The High Blood Pressure Hoax, by Sherry A. Rogers, M.D. (2005) I read several interesting sections on how monolaurin has been "able to dissolve the protective mebrane from 14 types of human viruses." One of those 14 viruses mentioned in the physician's book is the flu virus. Another source on swine flu breaking news is the Scence Insider blog on science agencies reporting the latest news on swine flu that's not in the usual mass media.

Monolaurin is called a virustatic agent. What virustatic agents do is "directly block the replication of viruses." The good thing is that monolaurin doesn't let you develop any type of drug resistance.