044. Can Papaya Leaves Help Cure Dengue?

Can Papaya Leaves Help Cure Dengue?

By Health India.Com

Pavitra Sampath
October 4, 2013

The capital is grappling with the burden of dengue, and with the numbers steadily rising, people are looking for alternative methods to treat the disease. One such, much talked about remedy is, the use of papaya leaf juice to heal the body ravaged by dengue. While some people claim that it is simply a belief, others swear by the remedy. So, what is the truth? In this post we demystify the clutter.

Truth or hoax?

While some people say that it is simply a hoax, there might be some truth to papaya leaf juice’s claim to fame after all. A number of scientific papers have proved that papaya leaf juice is actually beneficial for the body. One of the first papers to talk about the benefits of the papaya leaf juice was a study by Dr. Nam Dang at the University of Florida Research Center. He found that the papaya leaf juice was capable of fighting cancer, was non-toxic to the body and had the capability to improve one’s immunity. While the plant’s leaf is well known for its curative properties in diseases like malaria and cancer, Dr Sanath Hettige, a general physician in Sri Lanka, found that the juice of young leaves can be used to treat dengue. His paper was published in the Sri Lankan Journal of Family Physicians in 2008.

How does it work?

Papaya leaves are known to be packed with the enzymes like chymopapin and papain which, according to Dr. Sanath Hettige, normalize the platelet count, improves the clotting factor, i.e. helps the blood clot normally, improves one’s liver function and repairs the damage to the liver done by dengue, therefore helping an ailing person recover from the disease. 

How to use the papaya leaf?

The young leaves from a fruit-bearing papaya plant should be used. According to Dr. Hettige, the leaves of the Red Lady Papaya Plant, found commonly in India, are more effective. The important fact is that one should choose leaves that are not too old, neither too young. Now, take only the leafy part and not the stalk, and wash them well with water. Crush the leaves using a wooden mortar and pestle without any additives like water, salt or sugar. Once they are crushed, squeeze out the juice with clean hands and drink it two times a day. Do not add any salt or sugar to the drink. According to Dr. Hettige, an adult should have 10 ml of the juice twice a day (or at eight hour intervals), children between the age of five and 12 should have 5 ml of the juice twice a day, and those below 10 years of age should be given 2.5ml of the juice. 

At what stage should a patient ideally have the juice?

According to Dr. Sanath, it is best the patient start having the juice as early as possible. This means that when they notice the first symptoms of dengue fever (when their platelets show a decline in numbers below 150000 cu mm or when the packed cell volume goes above 10%). It is also beneficial at later stages, but if the condition has progressed and has led to organ failure, the juice is not very effective.

Link: http://health.india.com/diseases-conditions/can-papaya-leaves-help-cure-dengue/


Reproduced here by courtesy of Health India. Com.


Comment From The Editor:

The effectiveness of papaya leaves in the treatment of dengue is not a hoax but a truth. The people of Kerala have been using this remedy for a very long time. Allopathic doctors will not permit its entry into their hospitals. In their hospitals, what they do is supplying patients with blood bags, i.e. extracted platelets to supplement blood components and raise platelet count. Platelets are not easy to get from hospital blood banks. Only if we can donate blood ourselves or present enough healthy and fit people to donate blood would they give an equal quantity of blood platelets, after deducting their margins. It is a very costly treatment. Most people cannot afford it. They die out. We cannot present any blood donor; they have to belong to the same blood group as the patient. Health authorities in Kerala never reveal the numbers of patients who die in their hospitals due to inability to afford blood refill. Government hospitals do not have enough blood for all and even if they have, the hospital bureaucracy will not okay it in time before the patient dies. Private hospitals will provide blood but will realize enormous sums for it. Poor people have no way to recover from dengue. So, they take papaya juice to hospitals, private or governmental, and administer it to their beloved relatives there, secretly. If the doctor, nurse, security guard or nursing attendant sees this, the patient would be summarily discharged, without excuses. Their argument is that papaya leaf does not belong to the allopathic system of treatment and so, they cannot permit it in. Besides, they will say, the doctor is responsible for the treatment of the patient; if the bystander also decides to treat him, who will answer for the life of the patient? But people continue to do this and patients continue to recover from dengue. When they heal, the credit goes to blood bags, and not to papaya leaves. 99 percent of dengue recoveries in Kerala hospitals are due to papaya and not to blood bags. How sad and horrible it is for a relative to have to administer the most effective native drug in the world for the treatment of dengue to a patient, taking utmost care not to be seen doing it! They cry in their agony to save the patient and loath the whole allopathic establishment, bureaucracy and government for forcing them to do this in this way.

There is no vaccine for dengue as it is caused by different viruses. Every doctor and health authority knows this but they still deny papaya juice to patients. It is their insincerity and betrayal of people. Everyone knows that in these hospitals they are not treating dengue but ordering blood bags. A very good and dedicated doctor in Peroorkada Government Hospital in Trivandrum once wrote a letter in a news paper about how he had to administer papaya juice secretly in a government hospital like doing a punishable crime to save the life of his own child. The newspaper published this letter but we never heard any authority repeating it. He was hushed up by the Indian Medical Association, we have to believe, for this organization never took this up and inform people of the effectiveness of papaya leaves. They live in blissful ignorance of almost all their medicines and drugs being coming from plant preparations. But when some pharmaceutical company patents this native plant and put medicine in the market, they will prescribe it the instant. If a poor man administers the same medicine to his dying relative in a hospital, that is a heinous crime in their eyes which make them angry and discharge the patient. There is a chief minister, a health minister, a health secretary and a health director in Kerala who, if you ask them about papaya leaves, will pretend they are hearing about papaya leaves for the first time. And people are relying on them for for their lives. If they do not have the will power for okaying the official entry of papaya leaves into hospitals like decent men, why hold on to those chairs?