> In the United States, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) limits the quinine content in tonic water to 83 ppm[3] (83 mg per liter if calculated by mass), while the daily therapeutic dose of quinine is in the range of 500–1000 mg,[4] and 10 mg/kg every eight hours for effective malaria prevention (2100 mg daily for a 70 kg adult).[5] It is often recommended as a relief for leg cramps, but medical research suggests some care is needed in monitoring doses.[6] Because of quinine's risks, the FDA cautions consumers against using "off-label" quinine drugs to treat leg cramps.[7]
For malaria prevention that's 25 liters of tonic or about about 200 gin and tonics per day.
Great news. I'll only have to cut down a little.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/foodanddrinknews/10...
The amount of quinine in tonic water off the mixers shelf is definitely not enough to have a medical impact. The flip side of how bitter it is, is that you need very little quinine to get the flavoring. "Real" tonic water like brits drank in india or whatever is muuuuch more bitter than the stuff you get today.
Maybe if you drank tonic syrup straight.
It is even used as the normalizing reference index for a common bitterness index, at least according to Wikipedia.[1]
> In capsule form it's not used much any more for malaria because the taste of the dust on the outside of the capsule made people throw up.
I would suspect that it is not used widely anymore for prophylaxis because there is chloroquine-resistant malaria parasites all over the (malarial) world.[2]
The sell coated capsules, which are't bitter; these have been around for a while [3]
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitterant [2] https://www.cdc.gov/malaria/malaria_worldwide/reduction/drug... [3] https://books.google.com/books?id=AjxrAAAAMAAJ&newbks=1&newb...
Yes, that and other reasons. Quinine used to be over-the-counter in the US; people took it for leg cramps. But they made it Rx-only in the 80s (or 90s; not certain) because it can have dangerous side-effects (including cardiac issues) in some people. It's kind of a nasty drug, but it's better than malaria. There are now better drugs for the conditions Quinine was used for.
Make that a zinc lozenge, though. Zinc works by coating the esophagus, and killing the virus on contact there. Zinc pills that you simply swallow don't work at all.
I recommend the nasty zinc supplements: they're cheap, pack a lot of zinc and you'll know when you feel them work. One bottle of 100 tablets 50 mg Zinc gluconate costs for $7 should last you through years of pandemics. In contrast a package of 25 Zicam sugary zinc lozenges costs $15.
I usually split or even quarter a 50 mg zinc tablet - they're that bitter. Don't take too much b/c they may dull sense of smell. Some people claim to have lost their sense of smell due to zinc overdosing. I usually don't take zinc but for this pandemic I've committed to an occasional nasty disgusting fragment of a zinc tablet each day.
Best is to lie down on your back and allow the zinc lozenge or zinc pill to dissolve in your mouth slowly so you can coat the epithelial cells in the mouth, throat and nose. You could gargle with the zinc and then swallow it.
In any case, swallow the zinc b/c that will allow it to be absorbed by the stomach and intestines and then move to your bloodstream, where it can deactivate some virus (more below).
But new virus production occurs inside each cell in the cytoplasm, and little zinc normally passes through the cellular membrane.
Chloroquine and other quinine compounds apparently "punch holes" in the cellular membrane and allow Zn++ ions to flood through. Once inside the cytoplasm Zn++ halts viral replication.
Tonic water has very low levels of chloroquine/quinine but it is by no means established that the full 500 mg chloroquin/day dose used for malaria is necessary to stop covid-19. Probably less, perhaps even far less, will create enough ionic "gateways" to move Zn++ through the cells' membranes. But, in any case, this requires adequate zinc as Zn++ in your system.
And the Zn++ on your throat will inactivate most viruses that land in your throat, nose and mouth anyway.
And I was glad to see it go out of use cos it caused crazy itching in many people.
Touching water was like pouring fuel on fire.
Anyway, even though I hated it, Chloroquine really worked while it worked.
Basically it was invented by the British to not die in India. We like to call it our national drink ;)
You're going to need more than one ;)
There isn't enough quinine in tonic water to benefit you and the alcohol is going to leach nutrients that your body needs, lower your white blood cell count, kill good flora in your mouth, lower your body's immune response, and leave you more susceptible to catching the virus.
You shouldn't present nonsense as fact, it doesn't help anyone, and in this case is actively dangerous.
The scientific studies being cited for these COVID-19 vaccines using Chloroquine specifically state zinc supplements by themselves are not ionized and are therefore useless for fighting the virus. Even though zinc entering cells is a key part of how it works, zinc can't enter the cells in question unless it's properly ionized, which is why they use Chloroquine... an ionized zinc delivery system... jumping to "lets all take some Zinc pills with gin & tonic" is irresponsible advice IMO.
These sorts of Naturopathy proposals is exactly how we got COVID-19 in the first place (ie, people eating Pangolins in east asia for Chinese medicine purposes - the most trafficked animal in the world - which just happens to be infected with a coronavirus that matches 99%+ to the one currently making the rounds).
This sort of weak adherence to a scientific approach to medicine + some vague historical reasoning is the problem, not the solution.
Also: Gargling a zinc/water solution has an astringent effect and removes the bacterial film in your throat, which seems to help in the initial phase of an infection.
There was a video of a doctor breaking down the biochemistry of it that got posted here the last time Chloroquine came up, which I can't find just now.
If it were only just as easy as taking zinc pills... I take vitamins daily already just to be safe (there's far more than coronaviruses floating around). I just don't expect them to be enough to prevent something as serious as COVID-19. There's a reason Chloroquine is being studied and not zinc by itself and is 100x more expensive to buy on the internet than zinc supplements, even before it became a meme. It's just not that simple.
That hasn't stopped naturopathy from spreading before though.
Given that the common cold without any treatment typically lasts around 5 days or so, it might point to some efficacy of the treatment.
I bought some cinchona bark (cut, but is powdery) and they have a recipe on the bag but no specification of strength or how much to drink.
Remember, it’s this kind of thing that brought us HIV so it could get even worse.
Chloroquine used to be taken daily in many of the tropical Britain colonies suffering from malaria.
chloroquine in the form of quinine is where the gin and tonic drink came from. Quinine mixed with carbonated water was drunk as a prophylactic.
The quinine tasted so terrible it had to be cut with something to make it tolerable - gin! That’s where gin and tonic came from - anti malaria treatment in the British colonies.
If you look at tonic water even today you’ll find quinine listed as an ingredient.
As a cheap, safe bet it’s not unreasonable to start having a g&t each day along with a zinc pill.
The more you know.