Welcome to Alchemist Lab, The Premier Provider of Personalized Natural Health Care for Hepatitis and Other Infectious Diseases.

Alchemist Lab, founded and operated by Steven Finkbine, L.Ac., specializes in and offers information, treatment, natural health care products (herbs and supplements), and hope for patients suffering from a variety of acute and chronic health conditions and medical needs.

We at Alchemist Lab set ourselves and the AlchemistLab.com Web site apart in that we are dedicated to providing individualized and sophisticated protocols to naturally treat a variety of chronic illnesses. Click the “MORE” link in this post to learn more about natural health care approaches to treating Hepatitis C and Hepatitis B, the Herpes Family [CMV (Cytomegalovirus ); EBV (Mononucleosis); Herpes Simplex I & II; Varicella (Shingles], Lyme Disease and Neurological Disorders / Neurological Diseases [Multiple Sclerosis (MS); Parkinson’s Disease; Peripheral Neuropathy; Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS or "Restless Legs")].

Diseases and Conditions that you’ll find help with at AlchemistLab.com:

Hepatitis

Hepatitis C
Hepatitis B

Detoxification

Herpes Family

CMV (Cytomegalovirus )
EBV (Mononucleosis)
Herpes Simplex I & II
Varicella (Shingles)

Lyme Disease

Neurological Disorders / Neurological Diseases

Multiple Sclerosis (MS)
Parkinson’s Disease
Peripheral Neuropathy
Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS or “Restless Legs”)

Take a look around. You’ll find a wealth of information about using a natural, safe approach to treat Hepatitis C as well as other illnesses.  Alchemist Lab’s therapeutic approach focuses on herbs and supplements, the highest quality of which are available though our online store. We also provide personalized recommendations for complementary health approaches from diet and lifestyle to acupuncture to Western medicine, to help treat and heal whatever ails you.

The Alchemist Lab Apothecary / Store

One of the central aspects of the AlchemistLab.com Web site is out Apothecary / Store. We feature the highest quality natural herbs and supplements that we’ve sourced from around the world, along with our proprietary herbal mixtures, which are concocted to taste good as well as be highly effective in their results.

We’re working to make all of our products available online, here at the Alchemist Lab Apothecary / Store. However, PLEASE NOTE that if a product mentioned in a treatment protocol at this site is not in the online store yet, we stock anything that we recommend. You can order any of the contents of the online Apothecary Store and any other herbs and supplements we carry by phone: 877 – 454 – HERB  (877 – 454 – 4372).

About Steven Finkbine

Alchemist Lab is owned and operated by Steven Finkbine L.Ac. who has devoted his career to researching, understanding and treating Hepatitis C and other viral and infectious diseases.

Steven Finkbine provides private consultations with you (and your doctors, family and/or care-takers if you desire) world-wide via phone, email, and fax, and designs a highly personalized treatment regimen to help you bring your disease under control and then bring yourself to your optimal health and wellness.

Patients wishing to see Steven in person can do so at his private clinic:

Dragon Heart Healing Arts in Fairfax, CA.

On March 26, 2010, Alchemist Lab launched the new, updated version of our AlchemistLab.com Web site in a blog format, and it will be updated frequently to better match the pace of new developments in natural health care and the diseases we treat.

Although for many years we have clinically treated a wide range of illnesses at both the Dragon Heart Healing Arts Clinic and with individual Alchemist Lab patients around the world, on the prior version of the AlchemistLab.com Web site we chose to focus our energies solely on Hepatitis C.

The new edition of he Web site branches out to feature information about the treatment of a much wider variety of diseases and health issues, including Hepatitis C and Hepatitis B, Detoxification, Herpes, Lyme Disease, and Neurological Disorders and Diseases, and more.

You’ll want to:

Visit this site often. Regularly, we’ll be adding new information about natural health care that will be of great benefit to you. You’ll also want to return to learn more about and order all of the fine natural herbs and supplements we carry in our Apothecary / Store.

Subscribe to receive your regular e-mail updates. Just use the submission form at the top right of most pages on this site to enter you’re first name and primary e-mail address, and we’ll keep you updated via e-mail. You can unsubscribe at any time, of course.

Subscribe to this Web site via RSS. CLICK HERE or on the “RSS” feed button at the top of this site to add the Alchemist Lab Web site to your RSS reader, so you receive immediate updates of any additions to this site.

Read These Recent Articles:

Understanding Liver Disease Blood Tests

Natural Antivirals for Treating Hepatitis and Other Infectious Diseases

High-Fructose Corn Syrup: As Damaging to the Liver as Alcohol

Featured Supplements and Natural Health Care Information

Our Store:
The Alchemist Lab Apothecary Store: Purchase Natural Herbs and Supplements

Featured Information:
Learn About Hepatitis

Supplements:
Naringenin
Quercetin (Optimized)
Jungle Brew Herbal Combination

Explore the AlchemistLab.com Web Site

AlchemistLab.com is the online home of Alchemist Lab, the premier provider of natural health care alternatives for the treatment of Hepatitis and other infectious diseases, neurological diseases and natural detoxification.

Make sure to read the “Welcome” posts immediately below. Then scroll down to read the most recent articles, which we’ll be posting regularly. Use the  menus above and to the right to navigate around the site to find the information, herbs and supplements you’re looking for.

Blood tests are essential monitoring tools in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases that affect or are affected by the blood in your body. Patients suffering from diseases of the liver – also known as hepatic diseases – must monitor their blood on a regular basis at intervals determined by their health care provider, according to the type of disease, its severity and its progression.

At Alchemist Lab, we use blood tests as an important aspect of determining the best natural approach to treating each patient with Hepatitis or other infectious disease.

In this article, you’ll learn about the use of blood tests as an indicator of the stage of Liver Disease, as well as how to interpret the results (“numbers”) associated with several of the most common tests. In addition, we’ve provided a guide to some treatment protocols (natural supplements) that we prescribe for blood-related conditions.

Blood Tests as an Indicator of the Stage of Liver Disease

When a patient has blood tests to better understand their liver disease, quite often they – as well as their doctors – focus first on liver enzymes and viral load as a measurement of how the patient is doing. While the amount of enzymes reflects inflammation, this doesn’t answer the “big picture,” which is the stage of liver fibrosis.

This begs the question: What tests best impart clues as to the stage of liver disease?

At Alchemist Lab, we look at the following tests to get a sense of the progression of liver damage: platelets, albumin, alpha-fetoprotein, ammonia, prothrombin time and bilirubin are blood tests that reflect the stage of liver fibrosis. Of these, platelets, albumin, and bilirubin are routinely performed. Prothrombin is becoming increasingly more common in blood panels. Red and white blood cells also will often drop as liver gets fibrotic; however, many other conditions can influence red and white blood cell count, so they are not reliable markers of the stages of liver disease.

Using blood tests to ascertain the stage of disease is by no means definitive. New blood tests that will give better information are currently under development.

The first of these is called Fibrosure, which is highly inaccurate, and we at Alchemist Lab consider it worthless as a measure of liver disease stage. This test has a 29% rate of being off by at least two stages, often indicating that liver disease is worse than it actually is and frightening people, in our experience. The value of the Fibrosure test lies in it being a very good idea that will eventually be implemented effectively by tests to come.

A new version of this test called the Fibrospect is out, though we have not seen it used enough with our patients to know how accurate it is.

Combining the results of blood tests with a patient’s signs and symptoms can be very accurate in indicating the stage of liver disease. For example, if blood platelet count is below 70, albumin below 3.3, accompanied by swollen abdomen and legs (ascites), this clearly indicates that the patient has cirrhosis (stage 4).

Comprehending Blood Test Numbers

Another aspect of comprehending blood tests is knowing what the numbers mean – how low is low, how high is high. In our opinion, the best labs will alert the patient when a value on their test is truly critical.

Here are some indications of various blood tests and what the measurement ranges mean

Blood Platelets:

Every lab’s reference blood platelet range varies somewhat from other labs. The Alchemist Lab perspective on platelet count is as follows:

Normal: 140 to 400

Low: 100 to 140

Of-Concern Low: 70 to 100

Critically Low: Under 70

Danger Zone: Under 50

Alpha-fetoprotein (A-F):

Alpha-fetoprotein reference ranges can differ more dramatically between labs, ranging between 6.6 and 12 in what is considered high. What is more important is what is considered the danger zone for alpha-fetoprotein measurements.

Normal: Under 9

Elevated: 9 to 200

Beginning Stage of Danger Zone: 200 to 400

Danger Zone: Over 400

In all the years of practicing, we at Alchemist Lab have only seen one person who actually had liver cancer whose Alpha-fetoprotein value was under 200 (161). In the majority of cases of frank liver cancer we have seen, the A-F value was over 1000. Yet we routinely see patients who have been told that they are dying when their A-F levels are 25.

Albumin

Albumin, which is made in the liver, is the most abundant protein found in the blood. Albumin maintains osmotic pressure. When Albumin levels drop too low, fluid leaks out of blood vessels and causes ascites (fluid accumulation in the abdomen) and swelling of the legs.

Creating an accurate scale for albumin as an indicator of liver disease is more challenging, as we at Alchemist Lab have seen edema and ascites in patients with greater variation, including albumin levels well into the normal range.

In treating Hepatitis we at Alchemist Lab have never encountered excessive levels of albumin that can be problematic. In one scale, over 5.4 is high. We have also seen fluid accumulation cases in patients with low-normal albumin levels.

Here is a rough guide for how to use albumin levels as a measure of liver health.

Strong: 4.5 to 5.0

Good: 4.0 to 4.4

Low-Normal: 3.5 to 3.9

Low: 3.0 to 3.4

Critically Low: Under 3

Prothrombin Time (PT)

Prothrombin Time measures one of the pathways of blood coagulation – how long it takes for blod to clot. The liver synthesizes Factor VII, which is an integral part of this process. Factor VII is also Vitamin K dependent.

Tissue Factor (TF) is found outside of blood vessels. When bleeding happens, Factor VII binds with Tissue Factor, which initiates clotting.

Normally the liver has massive blood flow. As it gets damaged and fibrotic, blood does not move through the liver as easily. When this happens, the body compensates by creating additional distended blood vessels – called varices – to bring more blood to the liver.

Advanced liver disease can translate into high prothrombin, as Factor VII can be in short supply. This is critically important, as bleeding to death is a very real possibility, especially given that varices are more fragile than normal blood vessels.

For Prothrombin Time we simply call out-of-range-high an advanced warning sign of fibrotic damage.

Alchemist Lab Treatment Protocols for Blood-Related Conditions

Supplements to treat both low platelet levels and high prothrombin time levels are:

Super K (Vitamin K)

Red Root Herbal Combination

Tian Qi

Supplements to treat low albumin levels are:

Chlorella

Red Root Herbal Combination

Supplements to treat high alpha-protein levels are:

Coriolus

Red Clover Combination

Super Artemisinin

Tian Qi

Super K

At Alchemist Lab, we’re always looking for the best natural treatment protocols for hepatitis and other infectious diseases, and the conditions and symptoms that accompany those illnesses.

This article features some recent additions to our Apothecary – three antiviral supplements that we recommend and prescribe for treating hepatitis and other infectious diseases.

Naringenin

The first antiviral supplement is the bioflavinoid Naringenin, which is the bitter principle (constituent) of grapefruit.

The Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) moves from cell to cell by latching onto very low density lipoprotein (vLDL, which is thought of as the “bad” cholesterol). Naringenin inhibits the cellular secretion of vLDL. So like statin drugs, Naringenin has the ability to lower HCV viral loads by interfering with the ability of the virus to move.

Quercetin (Optimized)

Quercetin is another bioflavinoid that is most well known for treating allergies.

HCV depends upon two different heat shock proteins (HSP #40 & 70) for viral replication. Quercetin inhibits the synthesis of these HSPs, thus lowering viral load.

The other important ramification of how Quercitin works in the body is that by affecting a cellular mechanism rather than the virus directly, viral resistance is not a factor.

Jungle Brew Herbal Combination

Our favorite recent addition to our antiviral supplements is our proprietary Dragon Heart Jungle Brew Herbal Combination (“Jungle Brew” for short).

Many of our best products at Alchemist Lab (such as Oxymatrine, and now Jungle Brew) were introduced to us when we followed up on reports by patients, who asked us to evaluate what they read on the Internet. We are both skeptical and open-minded in tracking down claims of herbal antiviral success.

Originally we at Alchemist Lab saw reports of high-dose Phyllanthus (Chanca Piedra) and Uncaria Tomentosa (Cat’s Claw) being used to knock out the Hepatitis C Virus (HCV), and our research indicated that these two natural herbs indeed offer an effective natural treatment.

Jungle Brew is a mixture of herbs from the rainforest of South America, including Uncaria Tomentosa and Phyllanathus Niruri.

Phyllanthus is broadly distributed around the world, including growing in India and Indonesia. We chose South America as a fresher, cleaner source of medicines, especially since we work with companies providing South American herbs that we trust more than their Asian counterparts. In developing the formula for Jungle Brew, we added in Jergon Sacha, Picao Preto, Sarasparilla, Honeysuckle Bud, and Patrinia Alba.

Jungle Brew has wide applicability in treating several infections, including Hepatitis B & Hepatitis C, Lyme Disease and fungal infections.

Patients we’ve prescribed Jungle Brew have reported extremely positive feedback. For example, one patient reported that his fungal nails started clearing up when he added this natural herbal mixture to his extensive treatment protocol. Hence we started using Jungle Brew as an antifungal, often adding in Pau D’arco as well for this purpose.

Although patients are reporting excellent results with Jungle Brew, we’re still fine-tuning this herbal formula. Mulungu and Amargo are two herbs that we’re testing and tasting for possible inclusion later. Tasting, because at Alchemist Lab we pride ourselves on creating herbal formulas that taste good (or are at least palatable) instead of the bitter taste that many people associate with herbal formulas.

Seeking Patient Feedback

At Alchemist Lab, we’re constantly seeking the very best natural treatments and constantly seeking to improve – especially when it comes to our own Dragon Heart proprietary herbal formulas.

We welcome your feedback about your experience with any of the products mentioned in this article. We’re especially interested in learning about any changes in viral loads as indicated by lab reports. Please visit the “Contact Alchemist Lab” page to find out out to contact us by phone, fax and via e-mail.

It’s reported that Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), the two health champions of the Senate, will introduce a new bill that will protect supplements.

This new bill, called the “Dietary Supplement Full Implementation and Enforcement Act of 2010″ (DSHEA) will regulate dietary supplements rather than trying to throttle the industry. McCain may end up as a sponsor of this new bill by including the provision that requires the FDA to notify the Drug Enforcement Administration if any supplement contains anabolic steroids. This is a reasonable proposal and satisfies his biggest beef which was the steroid scandal in baseball.

Another very dangerous piece of legislation, the FDA Food Modernization Act (Senate Bill 510, also known as the “Food Safety Bill”) has been altered to exempt dietary supplements from the language that would have harmonized American regulations to the Codex Alimentarius.

The Codex Alimentarius was developed to establish international food safety standards and to regulate ingredients in food products. There exists apprehension that the Codex standards are moving in the direction of the very restrictive European rules on supplements and that if America harmonizes with the Codex it would be the basis of severe restrictions on dietary supplements here in the U.S.

The House version of the “Food Safety Bill” has already passed. We need to make every effort to make sure the House version does not become law. Senators Hatch & Harkin are also the leaders in the battle to modify Senate Bill 510 so that it doesn’t restrict your access to supplements, and they deserve our support.

Additional Resources about the “Food Safety Bill” and Dietary / Nutritional Supplements:

The Alliance for Natural Health USA (ANH-USA) is an organization spearheading this battle for retaining your rights to use the nutritional supplements that form the basis for a natural approach to health care.

Read more in the following two articles about this issue at the ANH-USA Web site:

“ANH-USA Victory! Supplements Are Exempted From Codex Language in Food Safety Bill” (Published April 13, 2010)

“New Senate Supplements Bill Expected” (Published April 20, 2010)

CLICK HERE to learn more about the Codex Alimentarius at Wikipedia

CLICK HERE to read the proposed Bill.

The Federal Drug Administration (FDA) already has the power to outlaw supplements, evidenced by its ruling related to Ephedra. The problem with this bill is that it sets up a potentially arbitrary process and makes it too easy to ban supplements. It would give the FDA the authority to ban supplements as well as to set potencies.

Currently the FDA already requires all manufacturing companies to maintain records of any serious adverse reactions to its products. This new bill would require that all “non serious adverse events” also be reported to the federal government.

One obvious fault to requiring that non-serious adverse reactions, including headache, be recorded is that it’s often not possible to draw a direct cause-and-effect relationship between the supplement and – for example – a headache, which might have been caused by something else. If in our Dragon Heart Healing Arts clinic we prescribe a supplement and the patient gets a headache, how do we know that the remedy that we prescribed caused that particular headache, especially if the patient was prescribed and began to use more than one supplement at the same time? How do we even know that there was a connection between the supplement and the headache at all, which could have been caused by any number of other factors?

This bill, if enacted, would enable pharmaceutical companies to file to obtain reports on adverse OR non-adverse reactions using the Freedom of Information Act, and use this information to petition the FDA to restrict a particular supplement. This bill would also make it easier for large for-profit pharmaceutical companies to file use patents on supplements and convert them into drugs.

Fortunately, right now America is, more free than much of the world in terms of consumer access to potent (highly effective) vitamins and supplements. Much of this is due to the DSHEA Act of 1994 which governs current supplement law. This freedom is under considerable pressure from pharmaceutical companies with a profit motive, and also by some well-meaning politicians with specific concerns about protecting the public against against some specific harmful supplements, but whose proposed laws would also unduly and unnecessarily impact your ability to benefit by using supplements that are not only not harmful, but quite helpful.

In a related issue, there is an international effort under the auspices of the United Nations (UN) and World Health Organization) WHO to regulate the food supply, which includes herbs and other nutritional supplements. I’ll be writing more about the Codex Alimentarius (Latin for food code) in a future article.

CLICK HERE to visit the Life Extension Action Alert Network for readers who wish to learn more about the Dietary Supplement Safety Act (DSSA) and to to take action on this threat:

High-fructose corn syrup is as damaging to the liver as alcohol.

Although you might consider this a controversial statement, understanding it is actually quite simple:  Both corn syrup and alcohol are metabolized by similar pathways in the liver.

This article focuses on the results of the intake of high levels of corn syrup, which is highly concentrated fructose. Fruit also contains fructose, but fruit also contains fiber that slows the absorption of fructose. Flooding the body with fructose beyond its adaptive mechanisms is what causes problems; not eating fruit.

Fructose is metabolized by the liver and is stored as fat in amounts that common table sugar (glucose) is not. Glucose metabolism is bottlenecked by a regulatory enzyme that raises insulin, which elevates leptin levels, which in turn suppressive appetite. Both alcohol and high fructose lack the regulatory framework that governs glucose metabolism.

Recent animal studies have confirmed that high fructose consumption leads directly to fatty liver. Research in adult humans consuming fructose-sweetened beverages for just ten weeks found that they gained belly fat, raised triglycerides, and became more insulin resistant.

Excessive fructose increases uric acid, which in turn raises blood pressure.  Uric acid inhibits nitric oxide which is a prime mechanism for lowering blood pressure.

Fructose also increases inflammation in the liver by initiating an enzyme that is appropriately named “Junk 1.”

The Hepatitis C virus rides on a carrier of vLDL (very low density lipoproteins), which is how it moves from cell to cell.  At the very end of the fructose pathway is vLDL, where fructose produces high levels of bad cholesterols.

Therefore, at Alchemist Lab, we prescribe:

Lowering or fully eliminating products containing high-fructose corn syrup from your diet.

Eating more fruits and vegetables as a means of getting your natural source of both fructose and fiber.

Taking Naringenin (the substance that makes grapefruit taste bitter) to inhibit the formation of vLDL, which in turn reduces high levels of bad cholesterols and helps keep bad cholesterol levels lowered.

CLICK HERE to learn more about and purchase Naringenin.