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A. Jair Montes Arias[1][2]
I found some data that I believe it could help in this topic. My intention is to help.
I am very conscious that a more rigorous study is needed, but the time and the context don’t allow me to do that.
I) It seems that there is a significant effect of natural herbal drinks to fight against the coronavirus in its early stage:
1) Cities from the Andean highlands of Peru: Some cities in the Andean highlands in Peru show a very low number of infected people by COVID 19, in comparison to the number of cases in the coastal region and the jungle zone.
Source: Ministry of Health, Peru
The graphic below is the one with which I started all this research. This graphic was elaborated by my friend Derry Quintana, who also works at Central Reserve Bank of Peru, BCRP.
With my friends from BCRP, we concluded that there is an effect of the cities which are above the 1000 meters above sea level.
However, I think that the consumption factor of herbal drinks could help to explain better this effect than the altitude of the cities. Therefore, I used Brazil to observe and isolate the effects of drinking natural herbal drinks in a better way.
Although I am from Lima, my grandparents emigrated from the interior of the country. I have a lot of family in Huancayo and I know that - in the Andean highland cities - they drink a lot of herbal beverages, such as eucalyptus or chamomile.
2) Western China
The pattern in China is interesting and how the regions of the west, which are the ones who drink Tibetan tea, have much far fewer cases. Tibet only had one confirmed case. Usually in China, the pattern of food is very different among regions. This is what I learned in conversations with my friends in the Master in Finance at MIT.
3) Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay
These are three of the countries in which the consumption of mate is very common.
The webpage (https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/) shows the low cases of these countries in the region.
Especially, Argentina caught my attention, because it has a critical status in economic terms. I traveled to this country in 2019 and, for what I observed through those days, I can imagine that its citizens have gone to work because many of them have to work in order to pay for their daily expenses. However, there is a factor that has prevent that there are not as many infections as in Lima, Peru.
FYI: In this trip of 2019, I noticed that almost everyone drinks mate very frequently.
About Argentina, a friend of a friend wrote the following:
“In Argentina, the lockdown is less restrictive than in Peru. It also has some places which were critical points for the contagion because of the bank queues. However, the negative impact is not so big as it is in Lima, Peru. One of my friends who is a doctor told me that they have 5000 ICU’s beds and a lot of them are available.”
In addition, I called a friend of MIT from Paraguay: ‘There are low cases and most of them were imported from other countries.”
Paraguayans drink a cold version of mate: Terere
Although they sometimes share the glass when they drink mate, it seems that the effect of the herb is stronger.
4) Cities of the southern Brazil
I looked for a big country to isolate effects and that only in some cities they drink beverages such as mate. After a lot of time of analysis, I found that Brazil is a case that worth to study. The finding was very interesting.
After this step, I sorted the number of cases (Normalized it by population)
As I was expecting, the last places are mainly the states which drink mate!
5) Madagascar
Madagascar has had a lot of success with herbal beverage made of the artemisia plant to fight the coronavirus, which already have shown to be a good medicine against this virus.
6) Case of a former Minister of the healthcare sector from Peru recovered from the coronavirus:
6.2) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRd6dsITLb4
In the interview she mentioned:
- “We should not wait for the results of the exams, the symptoms rule. We should no wait” (This is in the same page o what the report of the BBC mentioned about the weaknesses of the virus at the begging)
- “Headache and muscle fatigue. We also begin to sweat"
- “Hydrate: ... flaxseed / lemon verbena” (Herb drinks)
6.3) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRd6dsITLb4
I also found this on the comments of the Youtube video from a user.“I chose for hot drinks made of ginger, lemon in pieces and green tea; also, I had to drink vitamins supplements and a lot of cold water. It has been 31 days since I caught the virus, I recovered, but I cannot be a 100% sure of this; this is why I am still following the safety and prevention measures at home and outside of it”.
It seems that there is a significant effect of natural herbal drinks to fight against the virus:
1) Cities from the highlands of Peru (Eucalyptus / Chamomile)
2) Western China (Tea)
3) Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay (Mate)
4) Cities from Southern Brazil (Mate)
5) Madagascar (Artemisa)
6) Success case of former Minister from the Healthcare sector of Peru (Linseed / Lemongrass)
Likewise, what I have learned during my Eurotrip 2018, the european countries do not drink herbal beverages. In my experience - I can be wrong - when I traveled around some countries in Europe, they basically drink coffee when they are cold.
II) It looks like the best moment to attack the virus is during its first 30 hours
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200403-coronavirus-will-hot-drinks-protect-you-from-covid-19
This article mentions that there is not effect of hot drinks / herbal drinks. I think they did not consider the data disaggregated by cities, but rather they assume the entire country as a homogeneous group. Furthermore, I paid attention to this sentence: "Some initial studies have suggested it can take up to 30 hours from the first cells being infected, to the point where the virus bursts out to infect more cells."
That sentence possibly indicates that the virus should be killed within the first 30 hours, before the virus develops. Then it is much more complicated since the virus begins to develop in the body.
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Greetings! I hope to give valuable information through this research. I spent a lot of time working on this.
I have a huge interest to support Peru and the world! I work on the finance field, but I used my knowledge into a health issue thanks to the influence of my family environment.
I based all this article in conclusions of my friends from BCRP + conversations with my current students from Universidad del Pacifico (Financial Economics II, section A, 2020.1) + the experience from my parents (doctor and dentist) in medicine + my experience working with data and talking with friends from Universidad del Pacifico and the Master in Finance at MIT.
PS. Not many people know this: I am economist, dedicated to the Finance field, but some people of my family are related to the healthcare sector (Medicine and Dentistry). Furthermore, I learned the importance of the natural herbs, because a great part of my family is from Huancayo. My grandfather (Adolfo Arias Arana, my best friend forever) was from Huancayo, Peru and he passed away in 2019. However, he taught me many lessons during my life.
My four grandparents already passed away, but they taught me the importance of natural plants. This research is a tribute to them: Adolfo Arias Arana / Teresa Paz Porras / Mercedes Adrianzén de Montes / Elías Montes Munive
Best regards,
Jair Montes Arias, CFA, FRM, CQF
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Research Sources
1) Cities from the highlands of Peru
Made by FJRA, https://covid19.minsa.gob.pe/sala_situacional.asp
Graph from Derry Quintana
2) West of China
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_pandemic_in_mainland_China
3) Argentina, Paraguay y Uruguay
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
4) Cities from southern Brazil
https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regi%C3%B3n_Sur_de_Brasil
5) Madagascar
6) Case of a former minister of the healthcare sector from Peru recovered:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRd6dsITLb4
[1] Grateful to my father, Alfredo Montes Adrianzen, who helped me with incredible ideas because of his job: he is an incredible doctor. Grateful to my mother, Ana María Arias Paz, who helped me with incredible ideas because of her knowledge of Peruvian cases: she is an incredible dentist.
[2] Grateful to Erick Infante Acosta, who helped with the translation of the original text.
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