Spironolactone? What the heck is that? A miracle drug?

There is a relatively new application discovery on an existing drug called: Spironolactone aka Aldactone.

Previously the drug was used to reduce fluid build up in heart disease. Researchers have discovered that it also blocks the virus replication stage of ALL Herpes viruses. Wow! For diseases like Fibromyalgia and Lupus, this is profound. One has to wonder for ITP, maybe remissions, maybe not. Who knows. Finding spin off drug relatives, with less side effects, seems to be the current research focus.

Works great for roughly half of those with Fibromyalgia.
"Breathtaking Option for Treatment Resistant Fibromyalgia"
painmuse.org/?p=4054

Some details.
"Hidden in plain sight: Well-known drug could yield new treatment for herpes viruses"
www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/03/160314161234.htm

Interview with the Univ. of Utah research doctor.
"HEART DRUG COULD BE BASIS FOR NEW TREATMENT AGAINST EPSTEIN BARR VIRUS, HERPES VIRUSES"
healthcare.utah.edu/the-scope/shows.php?shows=0_i56hti5y

Here is a list of potential disease benefactors of this discovery. Pretty much, any auto immune disease. Being auto immune, certainly ITP is a possibility.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herpesviridae#Research

Cheers to no more chronic ITP.

See my topic post of "Tavalisse gave me my life back" to read this veteran's severe ITP recovery testimony. Been there and done it all folks for nearly 5 years. Tried them all. Last med was N-Plate tier 2. 967+ platelet spike gave me a nice new Aortic stent and a near leg amputation. Because of all my ITP history, and exhaustion of safe and effective, long-term, lower tier meds my insurance finally approved what I will now call my $11k (market price) Golden Bottle of 100mg Tavalisse twice a day. Cheaper than N-Plate. Works in the spleen folks. Yes, that's right - the first drug that gets to the root of the problem without getting a splenectomy and inviting Pneumonia some day afterwards! More than a month now of 300+ average count weekly. Took a month before anything showed on my CBC, and then a month later my Dr. said be patient give it time. She knew something I didn't this time around, and blammo! 300+ per week out of nowhere! Very consistent. average is between 228 lowest thus far to 340 highest. Very stable. I'm living now like it used to be before my 5 years of HELL with severely chronic ITP. Spread my story. Help the others ASAP! It's a new 2018 approved drug and barely anybody on here even knows about it, or mentions it. Look it up! Designed just for ITP and the spleen. It's saving my life big time with no weekly hospital injections, etc. like N-Plate. I'm even going down to less blood tests now. It's wonderful!

medlineplus.gov/druginfo/meds/a601111.html

Nice to hear camperguy65.

MelA, yes Spironolactone does have some side effects preventing long term use. Apparently those side effects aren't such a big deal when one has heart disease.

To add a bit on Epstein Barr Virus (EBV).

Found this jewel from Sandi on (1) EBV infection and (2) Vitamin D deficiency leading to Autoimmunity. As many here may already know, I'm a big believer in Vitamin D for control of the Flu virus already. Icing on the cake with this one.
pdsa.org/discussion-group/6-general-itp-discussion/16141-new-articles-posted-here-update-6-28-17.html#37717

Here is a recent study abstract, out just last month, on EBV. Tried to find the full text, but nothing. Apparently includes discussion of vitamin supplements and EBV.
"Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) reactivation and therapeutic inhibitors."
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31315893

New study.
Recall that the drug Spironolactone blocks Herpes viruses like (EBV) Epstein Barr Virus, aka 'Mono'. It does this by targeting their 'SM' protein - which is required for replication. New research now indicates the protein 'XPB' can also be used to control these viruses.

"A new way to control Epstein-Barr virus"
medicalxpress.com/news/2020-05-epstein-barr-virus.html

Apparently a drug better (less symptoms) than Spironolactone has not been found. So, with this new study, a search for a drug which blocks XPB can be sought which should work as well as Spironolactone.

Hi Hal and everyone!

Just thought I'd pop by and saw this thread. I'm a life long acne sufferer and have been on spiro at least 4-5 times in my life. It's easy to tolerate at doses up to 100mg, and then after that it tends to cause very low blood pressure and a few other complications (irregular periods, tarry stools, etc.) at least in my case. It's an anti-androgen, which is why it's used to treat acne as well as PCOS-related infertility. I had no idea it worked against viruses.

Is the link with ITP just the idea that it can prevent a virus-induced drop?