St. John's Wort and 600 nm Light Exposure: Natural Cure for Herpes, HIV, Hepatitis, and Orthopoxvirus Infections
Wavelengths of light between about 580 - 620 nm is yellow-ish. This is the type of light that works with St. John's Wort to release superoxide anions that have the ability to kill herpes, the chickenpox virus, HIV, hepatitis, and more.St. John’s Wort, also known as Hypericum perforatum is an herb that hit the mainstream pop media several decades ago when it was marketed as an herbal antidepressant. But actually, where St. John’s Wort really shines is in its ability to penetrate and heal nerve tissues, cancer, and infection. But much of the magic of St. John’s Wort actually has to do with the natural substance “hypericin” that’s found in this plant. Hypericin is a deep red color and it reacts with yellow light (at a wavelength of about 600 nm) to produce reactive oxygen species molecules that have the ability to kill herpes viruses, cancer, cells, and a variety of other infectious pathogens. If you don’t know what a reactive oxygen species medicine is just yet, don’t worry. We’ll talk more about that below.
Hypericum perforatum has been used for centuries an as herbal medicine in China and the Far East, but today, people in the west can also benefit from St. John’s Wort if they know how to use it properly. St. John’s Wort can be administered as a stand-alone medicine or, if you’d like keep things natural, you could spend time sun-bathing to receive full-spectrum light (which includes light at the 600 nm wavelength) starting about 30 minutes after you take a dose, to get the best results from this herbal remedy for herpes, HIV, chickenpox (Varicella zoster), and even hepatitis C.
Hypericum perforatum contains hypericin, a bright red substance that has antiviral, antibacterial, antifungal, anticancer, and antidepressant effects. Its deep red color and its ability to penetrate certain types of cells, such as cancer cells, nerve tissues, and more makes it ideal as a “photosensitizer”. Photosensitizing agents that have the ability to “stain” tissues and cells (like methylene blue or the hematoxylin found in Palo de Campeche and other related tree species) tend to be powerful anticancer, antiviral, or antibiotic agents when combined with light of a specific color of the spectrum. In this case, the bright red color of hypericin bright red interacts with a yellow-ish 600 nm wavelength of light to produce certain powerful health effects in the body.
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Hypericin in St. John’s Wort as a Cure for Herpes / Herbal Remedy for HIV / Herbal Remedy for Hepatitis C
A number of the herbal remedies for herpes also function as herbal remedies for HIV and sometimes also hepatitis as well. Studies have also shown that the hypericin in St. John’s Wort functions as a cure for chickenpox and other orthopoxviruses that have a “capsid”. Studies have shown that St. John’s Wort is an important herbal remedy for herpes, HIV, and hepatitis, but also low back pain and sciatica. It does so many things, but how does it work? For herpes, St. John’s Wort has a mechanism of action that has proven effective time and again – it releases reactive oxygen species medicines that kill the virus.
One of the active substances in St. John’s Wort that is able to cure herpes, HIV, or hepatitis is hypericin although there may be other substances in St. John’s Wort with powerful healing abilities as well. For those who are doing this treatment at home, St. John’s Wort should be used as a whole-plant herbal antiviral for herpes. Choose a product with a 0.3% standardized quantity of hypericin.
How Hypericin works as a stand-alone medicine is not well understood yet, but it can be used without combining it with light therapy. However, it’s interaction with light is what’s really caught the interest of scientists and it’s likely that most people who work with St. John’s Wort will have underwhelming results without light exposure of some kind. St. John’s Wort is often misunderstood as we mentioned above, but it definitely has a place in any at home herpes protocol. Though the whole herb, Hypericum perforatum, and hypericin in particular act as an MAOI and as an antidepressant, its effects are dissimilar from antidepressant drugs that you might get from a doctor. This herb seems to impact a number of different neurotransmitter systems including the serotonergic system, the dopamine and catecholamine system, and also the glutamatergic system while the vast majority of antidepressant drugs tend to affect only the serotonin system. St. John’s Wort often functions best as an herbal remedy for depression when it’s used with amino acids such as 5-HTP, and N-Acetyl-Cysteine (with supplements of vitamin C 3000 mg, the B-complex vitamins, and vitamin E 500 IU), but, in fact, most people with depression could also benefit from spending time exposing their skin the sun. It’s very likely that for depression, St. John’s Wort would work best when taken 60 minutes before going out to sunbathe for 30-60 minutes.
While St. John’s Wort works to relieve depression directly through its activity in a number of the neurotransmitter systems, for herpes, HIV, and cancer, something different is happening in terms of its medicinal function when this plant is used to treat infections like herpes. Most of the studies into hypericin involve the administration of hypericin followed by administration of a certain wavelength of light (in this case yellow light). This may sound super-technical to some readers, but it’s possible to get the right wavelengths of light by purchasing a very simple light-therapy device online. These devices are just like any other switch-on, switch-off light that you might have in your house except they’re designed to apply light to areas of the body. As such, hypericin-mediated photodynamic therapy can be done easily at home, just be sure to choose a light-therapy device that produces a yellow-ish light wavelength somewhere between 580-620 nm light. Essentially “photodynamic therapy” sounds a lot more complicated than it really is.
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How to Use Hypericin with Light for Photodynamic Therapy at Home
Hypericin is a powerful fluorescent photosensitizer that has been successfully used to treat cancer in particular because hypericin naturally gravitates toward cancer cells. But hypericin has been studied for its ability to kill herpes viruses naturally as well and also the HIV virus and pathogens that cause hepatitis. It works because the deep red chromophores of hypericin interact with yellow-light to produce a class of medicines known as Reactive Oxygen Species medicines. There are a number of medicines in this class and most of them are available for people to use at home. Reactive Oxygen Species medicines have extremely broad medicinal action against most pathogens including viruses, bacteria, parasites, fungi, yeast (in some cases), protozoa and more. Reactive Oxygen Species medicines are also powerful chelating agents that bind with toxins like heavy metals (but also other types of toxins) to carry them safely out of the body. Our white blood cells produce reactive oxygen species that kill invading pathogens. Other reactive oxygen species that kill pathogens in the body are produced in response to our bodies being exposed to the full-spectrum light of the sun. In any case, reactive oxygen species are some of the most important natural antibiotics that our bodies produce.
The hypericin in St. John’s Wort reacts with 580-620 nm light to produce reactive oxygen species that can kill herpes viruses, HIV, hepatitis C, and also cancer cells. Hypericin may be effective against the herpes virus in particular and abut also other pathogens in part because of its ability to interact directly with human nerve cells. When hypericin stains a nerve cell that is then activated with light with a wavelength around 600 nm, it produces reactive oxygen species that can kill herpes viruses (and other pathogens) that have created colonies in nervous system ganglia and in other nervous system tissues.
Is Sunlight Exposure Safe while Taking St. John’s Wort?
St. John’s Wort can, in some cases, make some people more susceptible to sunburn and a number of mainstream websites caution against the use of St. John’s Wort and sunlight exposure. But if you have a disease like herpes that lays dormant in nervous system tissues, and then “comes to the surface” when activated, it’s important that we look closely at some important facts before jumping to the conclusion that sun plus St. John’s Wort is “bad”.
Let me explain.
Politically-speaking, plants that cure cancer (as well as other medicines) are hidden from the public. A massive amount of money is mobilized each year to keep cancer cures under wraps. Doctors who attempt to treat their patients with a cure for cancer are politically burnt at the stake and their names and reputations are ruined. They’re licenses typically get revoked. So an herb like St. John’s Wort that has the ability to cure cancer when patients are exposed to around 600 nm light, a wavelength that is a part of the full-spectrum sunlight, could destroy the cancer industry (which is one of the most profitable industries on the planet behind the petroleum industry). So there are reasons why warnings about sun-exposure and St. John’s Wort exist, but if a sunburn is a detoxification reaction and a sign that the body is removing toxins or dead pathogens and attempting to heal itself, then our thinking about herpes requires a paradigm shift.
But let’s also think critically for a moment about the skin and diseases that are activated or deactivated by sunlight. Let’s start by considering the fact that lycopenes, a substance found in tomatoes and tomato paste, can protect most people from sunburn. At a dose of 16 mg per day of lycopene with 10 grams of olive oil over the course of 10 weeks, participants in one scientific study were able to achieve protection from sunburn without the use of sunscreen. A different study showed that 55 grams of tomato paste (again containing 16 mg of lycopene in total) with olive oil daily was enough to protect the skin from sunburn without sunscreen and also to protect against other forms of skin damage from the sun.
So now we can put all the fear-mongering about the need for sunscreen to the side and we can also take a deep breath and relax in regard to melanoma and other forms of skin cancer. As it turns out baking soda is a cure for melanoma (I’ve seen it work many times for cancer clients) as well as other forms of skin cancer, and now with this new data about lycopenes and the humble tomato, we can move on to a discussion about the Big Picture in terms of the skin and what a sunburn actually is.
Most of us have been taught that a sunburn happens because of sun exposure. The sun is either too intense or we’re exposed to too much of it. But is that really true? Let’s digress momentarily into a discussion about psoriasis, a skin disease that also involves the digestive system and typically, the joints. People with psoriasis get severe, painful psoriatic “plaques” on the skin. Many psoriasis sufferers also experience severe digestive issues and also arthritis. I should also mention that one of the most important diets for psoriasis sufferers is a diet that excludes nightshades and tomatoes (thus lycopenes). But interestingly, psoriasis sufferers also tend to benefit tremendously from sunlight and seawater exposure. This is true to such an extent, in fact, that there are special psoriasis treatment centers set up along the Dead Sea in the country of Jordan to treat psoriasis patients with nothing more than sunbathing and hours and hours spent in the sunlight. Click here to read more about sunlight for psoriasis sufferers here.
But wait…let’s review for a second. Psoriasis sufferers are allergic to tomatoes so they can’t eat lycopenes to protect their bodies from a dreaded sunburn. Yet, these people can often literally cure psoriasis permanently with nothing more than 2 weeks of intense, long-term time in the sun combined with seawater exposure (the salts in the seawater act as trace minerals that are detoxifying to the body).
So what’s going on here?
Let’s open our minds a bit further for a moment now and consider the possibility that a sunburn is something that happens when our bodies need to detoxify. It’s true that some skin types are more prone to sunburn than others. Everybody has a different melanin profile that determines how their bodies interact with sunlight. But let’s just assume that sunburns are not just about the quantity of sun exposure or the intensity of the sunlight that we receive regardless of our skin type, but rather that a sunburn is an expression of “detoxification”. Some people have difficulty removing toxins through the other organs of detoxification such as the liver, the kidneys, or the intestines. These people will tend to suffer from dermatological issues like psoriasis, cystic acne, or yes – sunburns – because the skin is used by these people as a vital organ of detoxification. If this theory holds true, the sun would act as a “detoxifying” medicine – completely the opposite of what the sunscreen industry (nay, Big Pharma), would have us believe.
So now, let’s turn back to herpes, and consider the fact that the emergence of a skin-lesion of a certain characteristic shape, size, appearance, and location on the body is what brings this diagnosis to light (no pun intended). What if herpes skin lesions represent a type of “detoxification” of herpes viruses that are being removed from the body through the skin for lack of other organs of detoxification to release them? Let’s say, in this new model of herpes, that all or most people are infected with a herpes virus of some kind, but that in people who have an “active” infection, a lymphatic channel inside the body leads from the location where herpes tend to reside as a low-level infection or colony in the body to specific areas such as the genital area or the areas around the lips. When herpes viruses die and then reach critical mass in the areas of the body that they colonize, and if the liver, the kidneys, or the intestines are not able to remove them fast enough for some reason, the body may divert them to the skin via these lymphatic channels.
If this model holds true, a person who gets herpes lesions would also fit another profile. They would have issues with detoxification, a topic that we’ve covered already in regard to heavy metal exposure (click here to read more about herpes and heavy metals). People who have a lot of heavy metals stored in their tissues tend to be “backed up” in terms of their detoxification pathways. So perhaps the presence of herpes lesions is nothing more than a block or rather, an inability to release dead or dying herpes viruses through other organs of detoxification.
This doesn’t change the fact that people experience neuropathies and other painful symptoms associated with herpes infection. But what if some of these symptoms of herpes were actually symptoms of heavy metal exposure? It is possible, after all, that some of the herpes symptoms are caused by heavy metal toxicity as heavy metals do tend to cause nervous system and nerve-related issues.
So now, let’s look more closely at St. John’s Wort again as a reactive oxygen species medicine. Reactive oxygen species are able to 1) kill herpes viruses and 2) remove / chelate heavy metals. But St. John’s Wort and specifically hypericin, the bright-red substance that releases reactive oxygen species, works best when the body is exposed to yellow light (a wavelength of light in sunlight) in a combination treatment known technically as “photodynamic therapy”. A normal person who works with St. John’s Wort may, in fact, get a sunburn because they’re taking this herb. The sunburn though, may not be due to too much sun exposure per se, but rather, the sunburn may be the body’s way of using sunlight – the energy generated by our cells as a result of sunlight and also the reactive oxygen species killing power of sun light – to move toxins out of the body via the skin.
A person who gets herpes lesions, in fact, may experience a herpes flare if they go into the sunlight with or without St. John’s Wort because sunlight exposure does, in fact, promote the production and release of reactive oxygen species that kill herpes and other types of infectious pathogens. But if this model that I’ve outlined above is true and correct, dear reader, you’ll have to decide whether to expose your body to sunlight or not to avoid herpes flares. Let me put it this way, what if a herpes flare is actually a sign that the body is beginning to overcome the herpes infection? That might change your relationship with herpes lesions and also sunlight. And it would certainly change the way that you work with herbs like St. John’s Wort to cure herpes.
St. John’s Wort for Herpes and Other Reactive Oxygen Species Medicines
St. John’s Wort accumulates in human cells that fit a specific profile. Hypericin is particularly drawn to sick human cancer cells, for example, but also nervous system cells. It tends to accumulate in the cell membranes where the lipids are located. This herb causes the production of singlet oxygen species and superoxide anions, two reactive oxygen species that are powerful against a very broad range of infectious pathogens. Another powerful reactive oxygen species medicine that produces the superoxide anion is Chlorine Dioxide Solution (CDS) / Miracle Mineral Supplement (MMS). For more information about how CDS / MMS releases superoxide anions to cure herpes, click here. There are also other reactive oxygen species medicines like ozone that release singlet oxygen species. Click here to read more about ozone therapy for psoriasis and how singlet oxygen species work in this context. But there are other reactive oxygen species as well such as the super-powerful hydroxyl ion released by cleavage of hydrogen peroxide (once again when sunlight exposure is involved the results are better). Click here to read about the use of food grade hydrogen peroxide for Crohn’s disease and other serious digestive problems.
Any of these reactive oxygen species medicines could be used to cure herpes, but reactive oxygen species are, by their nature, delicate and prone to cancellation by either antioxidants (like vitamin C or vitamin E – there are many antioxidants) or even by other reactive oxygen species medicines. So, if you plan to work with the reactive oxygen species medicines to cure herpes, you’ll need to be meticulous about dosing of the medicine and make sure that you don’t consume foods or beverages, other supplements, or other medicines at the time when you administer the reactive oxygen species medicine, so as to prevent canceling out its medicinal effects.
Reactive oxygen species have other activities in the body besides just killing pathogens. They also act as cellular signaling molecules – a sort of messaging system between cells to keep cellular activity coordinated – among other things. It’s usually wise to work with a reactive oxygen species medicine for about 3 weeks, and then take 1 week off to work with a different protocol to give cells an opportunity to work within the natural milieu of your body sans any interference from reactive oxygen species from the outside. Choose a different herpes protocol for your “week off from reactive oxygen species” that permits for the use of antioxidants to help the cells restore and rebuild. There are many to choose from.
A lot of people get very enthusiastic to overcome herpes naturally using something like St. John’s Wort and the other reactive oxygen species medicines, but it is essential to keep in mind that herpes may very well be one of the diseases of detoxification. Lydian and I keep an open mind about diseases like herpes and assume that there may be more than one cause and that there is no one-size-fits all treatment for health problems in general, but if you’re working with the Disease-of-Detoxification Model of Herpes, then you need to also ascribe to the idea that it is counterproductive to push your detoxification organs (the liver, the kidneys, the large intestines, and the skin) beyond their capacity to remove toxins and dead pathogens. In other words, slow and steady wins this race. If you overtax your poor liver and your kidneys, you can give yourself a fever, flu symptoms, and other discomforts that will discourage you in a general way. It’s better to go slow and be consistent in your efforts to cure herpes.
St. John’s Wort and the studies on hypericin (as well as studies regarding psoriasis and even scientific research into sunlight exposure and infertility) can teach us to think about herpes in an entirely different way. Instead of being stuck in the quagmire of propaganda that Big Pharma has created around herpes (and around sun exposure, sunburn, and even skin cancer), we can endeavor to think about it according to one or more other models that may work better to heal this disease. For example, what if your herpes lesions were a sign that your body’s immune system is killing more herpes viruses? What if those lesions are a sign that you’re beginning to win the battle against herpes rather than a sign that you’re simply “infectious”? How does that change your ability to be patient with your body and observe the patterns around what causes these lesions to occur?
Though it may take you one or even several years to overcome herpes permanently as a disease of detoxification, if you knew that the herpes flares themselves were indicative of something that’s killing this virus, you become the scientist studying your own body.
Also, if this model is true and correct for you, what does it mean when you take a medicine like acyclovir (or any of the other anti-herpes drugs) that stops the herpes flares?
St. John’s Wort Dose: How Much St. John’s Wort for Herpes?
Start with a low dose and increase it over time. If you experience a powerful reaction such as anxiety or sunburn after using St. John’s Wort and yellow spectrum light exposure, cut the dose in half and administer this dose plus light exposure for one week. If you take the halved dose and experience anxiety or a sunburn, halve the dose yet again and use this dose for one week. Then, increase the dose incrementally until you get up to 1000 mg (standardized to 0.3% hypericin) per day. Some people may require less of a dose (between 300-1000 mg) and that’s okay too.
Administer your St. John’s Wort dose 60 minutes before you go out into the sun or 60 minutes before you plan to administer yellow light to your body. Administer yellow light to areas that are host to infection.
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St. John’s Wort, Lysine, and a Low Arginine Diet
St. John’s Wort and hypericum are active against HSV-1 and HSV-2 and it may also be effective against other types of herpes virus. Studies have shown, for example, that treatment-resistant Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is also susceptible to hypericin. Indeed, orthopoxviruses like Varicella zoster, the virus that causes chicken pox, is also susceptible to St. John’s Wort.
As it turns out, in fact, L-lysine and a low arginine diet combined with St. John’s Wort with 600 nm light exposure is also a cure for chicken pox and CMV because these viral infections are caused by viruses with a capsid protein coating that’s similar to the capsid coating on the herpes virus. L-lysine interferes with the formation of the capsid proteins and DNA of the virus by competing with arginine. The herpes virus, CMV, and the chicken pox virus all require arginine as an essential amino acid so, by following a low-arginine diet that restricts viral access to this required nutrient makes the virus weak. And then, adding L-lysine supplements at a dose of 3000 mg per day makes is another hit against these viruses. Add a reactive oxygen species medicine into this mix (in this case, St. John’s Wort and sunlight exposure or 600 nm light) and you have a protocol that could overcome herpes as well as these other viral infections in many patients.
Again though, remember that most protocols involving reactive oxygen species should be rotated 3 weeks on with 1 week off and a new and different protocol. People who are open to exploration of new treatments for herpes and who believe that herpes can be cured are the most likely to find a combination treatment that will work for them (HINT: the vast majority of our clients need combinations of treatments to overcome diseases like herpes).
Final Words…
By itself, without sunlight or yellow-light wavelength exposure, hypericin causes an inhibition of viral adsorption and virucidal activity. It tends to inactivate enveloped viruses most readily. But hypericin is much more effective when it is administered along with 580 - 620 nm light. St. John’s Wort is an herbal remedy for HIV / AIDs and hepatitis that should be administered along with sunlight exposure or exposure to yellow light around 600 nm wavelength for best results. Scientists have shown that hypericin associates quickly with human cell membranes within 30 minutes after administration (it can take up to 30 minutes to digest the supplement so plan to expose as much of your skin as possible to light at 60 minutes are your St. John’s Wort dose).
St. John’s Wort works as an herbal remedy for HIV by inhibiting retrovirus assembly at the cell membrane. Hypericin directly inactivates mature, properly assembled virions.
Hypericin is also an herbal remedy for leukemia and other forms of cancer.
In closing, it’s important, once again, to emphasize the fact that when you’re working with reactive oxygen species medicines, you need to avoid other medicines, foods, or supplements that might interfere with the creation or perpetuation of the reactive oxygen species. To learn more about how to dose Chlorine Dioxide Solution (which produces the superoxide anion to cure herpes and other diseases) and avoid canceling out its effects, click here to download this book series.
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Resources:
Cao, K. et al. (2022). Hypericin blocks the function of HSV-1 alkaline nuclease and suppresses viral replication. Retrieved October 20, 2024 from https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35811028/
Nelson, E. O. et al. (2020). Resolution of Recurrent Oro-facial Herpes Simplex Using a Topical Botanical Gel: A Case Report. Retrieved October 20, 2024 from https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7309665/
Clewell, A. et al. (2012). Efficacy and tolerability assessment of a topical formulation containing copper sulfate and hypericum perforatum on patients with herpes skin lesions: a comparative, randomized controlled trial. Retrieved October 20, 2024 from https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22270204/
Weber, N. D. et al. (1994). The antiviral agent hypericin has in vitro activity against HSV-1 through non-specific association with viral and cellular membranes. Retrieved October 20, 2024 from https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/095632029400500204
Ran, H. U. et al. (2004). Antiviral activity of complex of Hypericum perforatum L. extract and lysine hydrochloride on herpes virus. Retrieved October 20, 2024 from https://manu41.magtech.com.cn/Jweb_clyl/EN/abstract/abstract12583.shtml
Jendzelovska, Z. et al. (2016). Hypericin in the Light and in the Dark: Two Sides of the Same Coin. Retrieved October 23, 2024 from https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4859072/
Kubin, A. et al. (2005). Hypericin – the facts about a controversial agent. Retrieved October 23, 2024 from https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15638760/
Tabassum, H. and Hamdani, M. (2014). Plants used to treat skin diseases. Retrieved October 23, 2024 from https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3931201/
Meruelo, D. et al. (1988). Therapeutic agents with dramatic antiretroviral activity and little toxicity at effective doses: aromatic polycyclic diones hypericin and pseudohypericin. Retrieved October 23, 2024 from https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC281723/
Pedrazini, M. C. et al. (2022). L-lysine: Its antagonism with L-arginine in controlling viral infection. Narrative literature review. Retrieved October 23, 2024 from https://bpspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/bcp.15444
