update 22/3/2014: the March equinox:Vaccines and antivirals for preventing and treating influenza in healthy adults have very modest benefit. as the seasonal flu epidemic wanes in the northern hemisphere and approaches in the south, Authorities eg the US CDC continue relentlessly to promote mass flu vaccination. The South African Authority NICD recommends vaccination for anyone at high risk ie the elderly, infants or the sick, and carers. It also recommends antivirals eg Tamiflu for infection- but the BMJ recently publishes Study claiming Tamiflu saved lives was based on “flawed” analysis. a 2012 BMJ report by the samemedical journalist Zosia Kmietowicz notes Cochrane group rejects Roche’s offer of “advisory board” to discuss analysis of oseltamivir data. The 2011 Cochrane question remains unresolved: Does Oseltamivir Tamiflu Really Reduce Complications of Influenza?
But current Cochrane review of controlled trial publications to 2013 confirms “Vaccination of pregnant women is recommended internationally, while healthy adults are targeted in North America. The overall efficacy of inactivated vaccines in preventing confirmed influenza has a NNV of 71 (95% CI 64 to 80). . Live aerosol vaccines have an overall effectiveness corresponding to a NNV 46 (95% CI 29 to 115). Vaccination had a modest effect on time off work and had no effect on hospital admissions or complication rates. Inactivated vaccines caused local harms. CONCLUSIONS: Influenza vaccines have a very modest effect in reducing influenza symptoms and working days lost in the general population, including pregnant women. This review includes 90 studies, 24 of which (26.7%) were funded totally or partially by industry. Out of the 48 RCTs, 17 were industry-funded (35.4%).
A current German review Methodological quality of systematic reviews on influenza vaccination. Fourty-six systematic reviews fulfilled the inclusion criteria. Average methodological quality was high but variability was large (AMSTAR range: 0-11). Quality did not differ significantly according to vaccination target group. Cochrane reviews had higher methodological quality than non-Cochrane reviews (p=0.001). this was due to better study selection and data extraction, inclusion of unpublished studies, and better reporting of study characteristics (all p<0.05).
20/1/2014 Protecting us from the new year northern hemisphere viruses: natural antibiotics- Vitamins C & D: avoiding vitamin denialism as cause of more deaths.
Abstract: The Semmelweis Reflex is about rejecting, deriding important new scientific discoveries or any serious sincere statement/action. I didnt fully appreciate the importance of that age-old human (mostly male) evil – mocking, martyrdom and murder by denialism- until I started this review of the current flu season threat and the role of supplements, and researched pioneer medical martyrs Drs Ignaz Semmelweis, Jack Drummond and Linus Pauling as paradigms of the scourge of modern vested-interest denialism and falsehoods, in medicine as much as politics, religion etc..
In fact, just as it is negligence to deny (as Semmelweis’s persecutors did) gloving up or properly washing hands between examining patients , or ensure that every adult has bloodpressure checked occasionally, it is clearly bad practice not to ensure that everyone – especially the young and old, takes a multinutrient plus extra vigorous dose vitamins D3 and C, plus some protective herbs- garlic, cinnamon, ginger, origanum; and fish oil and/or coconut oil if not both; and drastically cut down sweetness intake- especially fructose, sucrose and aspartame that now pervade all mass- produced food and drinks..
update 21 January 2014 : URGENT: THE 2014 FLU EPIDEMIC: “High H1N1 prevalence and mortality rates a concern: Type A (H1N1) influenza, the commonest flu virus in Canada this year, has a higher than anticipated mortality rate causing some to wonder if it’s virulence has increased. The worrisome factor “is the reported mortality rate,” says McGill University. As of Jan. 13, there were twenty confirmed deaths in Canada attributed to H1N1. “There are more deaths than what we expect for the regular H1N1 influenza, The strain this year could be more virulent . 96% of this year’s lab -confirmed influenza is H1N1. The virus is unusual in that it appears to affect younger people more than other strains of seasonal influenza. People 20 to 65 are being hit harder than usual, comprising 52% of flu cases. However, if you look at Europe, it’s still H3N2. Its an example of how you never know what the flu is going to do.” Alberta confirmed a death on Jan. 8, due to the virus H5N1, an avian virus. The deceased woman had recently returned from China. The mortality rate is higher with H5N1 than H1N1, “but fortunately, it’s not an easy virus to transmit”. So far, it seems that there are no cases of H5N1 transmission from human-to-human. It seems like the cases of H5N1 are few and far between and related to contact with birds in China. Patrick Janukavicius, Montréal, Quebec. In the same period, at least 20 children have reportedly died of the same strain in USA.
update 12 Jan 2014 THE ANTIFLU VACCINE DECEPTION: this review by Doc Joe Mercola stresses the disease-mongering myths, futility and risks in real life of flu vaccination and antiflu drugs eg Tamiflu ; and the overwhelming importance of natural immune boosters like Vit D3 & C, zinc, selenium, herbs, and hygienic prevention.
1 Jan 2014 CURRENT INFLUENZA STATUS: The 22 December solstice is the sun at its southern nadir seen from planet Earth, the onset respectively of real winter in the Northern hemisphere, and real summer in South Africa. Last year the Gregorian New Year heralded a fierce flu season in the northern hemisphere, and as usual feathered- and jet-propelled air travel brought the corresponding surge at the bottom of Africa.
And ominously, the Plagues & Pandemics (Howard Phillips 2012) of temperate climates that did so much historically to mould global demography not least the past 360 years in South Africa ( –STDS- pox, bubonic, polio, cholera, influenza, and now tuberculosis, Mad Cow disease, and HIV-AIDS). and especially antibiotic-resistant germs – are all on the increase despite (or because of) the increasingly futile $trillion armamentarium of 20th century designer vaccines and other antimicrobials..
Pneumonia is a welcome friend of the old, often rapidly relieving prolonged degenerative incapacity; such ending mostly by virus respiratory infection the gateway for the final bacterial infection.
Unlike the selflimited coronavirus common cold, breath-and hand-borne type A influenza, although usually mild in the well, is the commonest trigger in the frail. Many of us in our (grand)parents’ time lost relatives in the 1918/1919 “Spanish” H1N1 flu pandemic. But that was a unique global catastrophe because it killed mostly armies of healthy men, and then young working adults, apparently from cytokine storm, with 30 % of the workforce out for up to3 weeks if not 20% mortality. This is harrowingly described in the recently published Letters ( to his Mother) of Dr Arthur Conan Doyle, who lost – apart from his first wife to TB- more young relatives to the flu than to warfare.
The recent spring months here – apart from seasonal allergies -have seen declining viral respiratory illness in Cape Town, with the upper respiratory accent often shifted down to more gastritis-enteritis .
But New Year 2014 UK and northern North America forecast and are having a wet if not white New Year. ‘Flu rates are reported already high and rising in USA and Canada– mostly influenza A H1N1(swine-avian flu-the main 1918/19 killer); including already 6 deaths in USA and 3 in Canada.
but not in Europe, where the influenza (A > B) prevalence is still low and slightly more H3N2 than H1N1; in UK there has rather been been increase in RSV respiratory syncytial virus bronchitis in infants. . .
In fact by 28 December the exploding H1N1 deathtoll had hit 13 in Texas alone; especially in youths; with increasing Tamiflu resistance reported eg in Missisippi.. On 24 Dec the USA CDC mailed an emergency Advisory Notice to Clinicians: Early Reports of pH1N1-Associated Illnesses for the 2013-14 Influenza Season: From November through December 2013, CDC has received a number of reports of severe respiratory illness among young and middle-aged adults, many of whom were infected with influenza A pH1N1 pdm09 virus. Multiple pH1N1-associated hospitalizations, including many requiring intensive care unit (ICU) admission, and some fatalities have been reported. While it is not possible to predict which influenza viruses will predominate during the entire 2013-14 influenza season, pH1N1 has been the predominant circulating virus so far. For the 2013-14 season, if pH1N1 virus continues to circulate widely, illness that disproportionately affects young and middle-aged adults may occur.
Our regional South African Communicable Diseases Institute says , “H1N1 was documented here from April to September. But of 2566 pts with severe respiratory illness for January to October 2013 enrolled and tested at the five sentinel sites, only 6% were positive for influenza – mostly virus -H1N1. A pneumonia case in Cape Town was found to be due to Leigionnaire’s.
Now from China 147 human cases of avian influenza H7N9 have been confirmed including 48 deaths. – especially from poultry contact. No vaccine is currently available for avian influenza (H7N9) virus.
SAPA–AFP, 10 December 2013: Resistant flu virus keeps contagiousness. A mutant form of the H7N9 flu virus that is resistant to frontline drugs is just as contagious as its non-resistant counterpart, according to a study, published inthe journal Nature Communications. The virus has claimed dozens of lives since its outbreak in February. H7N9 is believed to have spread to humans from poultry, where it circulates naturally. The World Health Organisation (WHO) said on its website that “so far”, no evidence has emerged of “sustained” transmission of H7N9 among people.
And H7N1 and H7N7 has broken out in ostriches in South Africa,
So never mind the common cold coronaviruses and many other prevalent infections, increased caution is due against all common diseases at this season- both the USA H1N1 swine flu circulating the past few years, and now the Chinese H7N9 flu. . And the MERS-Co Virus Middle-East SARS-type outbreak has not gone away… 9 new cases reported the past week or two from the KSA alone .–the-deadly-middle-east-coronavirus-outbreak/
A current NEJM has a new report of a trial of quadrivalent Vaccine for Prevention of Mild and Moderate-to-Severe Influenza in Children by vaccine manufacturers GSK. The vaccine reduced severity by perhaps 70%- but at a cost of 1.5% serious adverse events, 50% more than the control group (hepatitis A vaccine only). The question remains- why risk flu vaccine’s ~1.5% serious adverse events when a single high dose of vitamin D3 300 000iu even just annually, and regular vitamin C with a multivite including zinc and selenium (at trivial cost ) largely cover one against a multitude of infections including AIDS and TB, and all degenerative health problems?
PRECAUTIONS:
Is it coincidence, or divine evolution, that we have had available at low cost for about 60 year (never mind zinc, selenium, iron, iodine, vitamins A and vitamin E) two safe natural major antimicrobials in vigorous safe dose – vitamins C and D3? Medico-Pharma Big Business and governments have been heavily discrediting and ruthlessly suppressing these for their own profiteering vested interest even as plagues of HIV, TB, influenza rage, and Big Business determinedly profits hugely from killer smoking and alcohol sales despite increasing marketing restriction? South Africa- a major producer of alcohol and tobacco-smoke, and fossil-fuel-burning power stations, factories and motorvehicles – continues to lead the world with the highest road and respiratory death rates despite zealous attempts to reduce their lethal use.
Apart from optimal hygiene including avoiding livestock and poultry contact, smoking, alcoholism and pollution including swimming and sick buildings- air-conditioning- what can we take to minimize avoidable influenza ie immune depletion risk? apart from enough sunshine, exercise, rest, sleep, walking barefoot, not carrying a cellphone, and good mixed fresh organic diet? The clinical benefit of influenza vaccines is anything but proven, and the adverse risks appreciable.
Big Business and thus governments and the media profit from illness, so they keep publishing articles promoting Big Business: new antibiotics, vaccines and other synthetic drugs that do not prevent or cure but if anything perpetuate chronic degenerative obesity-diabetes-vascular-respiratory,- digestive-arthritic-cancer diseases; – and GMO-genetically modified preserved food and bottled drinks stuffed with slow poisons like refined cornstarch – fructose; salt; sucrose and cereals, soya, Roundup, antibiotics, preservatives, estrogenics, aspartame, and especially boiled and baked omega6 and sugars; instead of marine omega3 and MCT- medium chain triglyceride virgin coconut oil, and unrefined cereals eg oats, wholewheat bread etc..
Big Business and it’s cash-cow Disease Industry decries the natural healthgiving lowsugar Asian/ Mediterranean diet-organically pastured and grown livestock meat and dairy products, lightly cooked if not raw (oily) fish, fruit and nuts, coloured veggies, and plenty of oils in their natural plant form. These were the norm till food processing became Big Business in our lifetime post WW2, and the developed world was bluffed by Organized Medicine, the Food Barons and Big Pharma with the masterly fiction of Ancel Keyes, into jettisoning the natural longevity “sea and farm” diet of the east eg Japan, and West eg Mediterranean (fresh produce & cholesterol-rich dairyproducts, meat and fish) for the Diet Deception (Gary Taubes, Tim Noakes) and Bad Pharma ( James le Fanu, Ben Goldacre) of Ancel Keyes‘ low-fat high-refined cereals, margarine; and the cholesterol -busting and psychotropes/ painkillers /antidementia/antivascular/ antidiabetic disease Designer Drugs-for-all myths.
It spends multimillions promoting alcohol, smoking and ever-newer designer prescription drugs and vaccine, and disinformation on old well-proven cheap drugs like reserpine, amilozide, metformin, natural physiological human hormone replacement, natural antioxidants and anti-inflammatories , and decrying ineffective but deliberately lowdose and isolated or imbalanced vitamins and minerals .
The ATBC vits A+E trial (isolated highdose vits A and E) was one such farce in very high risk smokers in an icy climate. . Others have been the recent Norwegian trial using only up to 1000iu vit D supplement a day,
and the current Annals Int Medicine editorial review of three new articles condemning multisupplements: , on which Mike Howard publishes a scathing critique –
*a commercial multisupplement in the TACT post-heart attack trial – but the composition of the multisupplement included only deficiency-disease prevention microdoses of micronutrients including 100iu vitamin D3/d and equally negligible vitamin K- not pharmacological doses of key vitamins eg vits B, C, D & K2 that are well proven to greatly reduce infections and chronic degenerative diseases ;
* the Physicians’ Health Study randomized elderly professional men to placebo or combinations of vitamin C (500 mg synthetic ascorbic acid), vitamin E (400 IU of synthetic alpha-tocopherol), beta-carotene (50 mg Lurotin), and a multivitamin (Centrum Silver – this included anti-deficiency disease low dose of all common vits and minerals BUT only 400iu Vit D3), .
* The third study- on lowdose (traditional anti-deficiency disease) Vitamin and Mineral Supplements in the Primary Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease and Cancer was simply a literature review of 26 best-quality published trials of microdoses – not pharmacological safe macrodoses.
ie these three trials published in this Annals Internal Medicine issue to please Big Pharma advertisors to discredit supplements shared the usual problem of now well-known futile lowdose supplement doses at least of vitamins D3 and K, if not also vitamin C in the multigram dose scientifically promoted by the Drs Stone- Klenner-Pauling followers.
Sir Jack Cecil Drummond (1891-1952) was one of the world’s pioneer 20th century biochemists and nutritionists in UK, from 1916- 1952 discovering or defining and promoting under his world-famous biochemist professors Rosenheim, Halliburton and Funk the role especially of vits A, B, C and E. Thanks to his and Churchill’s forceful vision and foresight, he oversaw food supply and diet and thus keeping Britons healthy through and after WW2. He was so successful in promoting healthy cheap and unpatentable micronutrients and natural fresh food (in the face of the mushrooming megaprofit processed food and designer drug industry) that it speculatively led to his and his family’s 1952 assassination by competing interests in France –The Vitamin Murders, Fergusson 2007. .
MURDER BY DENIALISM: It is incontrovertible common cause that irrational and often jealous medical denialism costs endless lives:
* Scurvy prevention: Dr James Lind (who did the first ever recorded clinical trial) showed by 1750 that sailors’ scurvy on long sea voyages was preventable; but despite his pioneer discovery, the British navy cost the lives of thousands more seamen from scurvy when the Admirals neglected for 50years until the Napoleonic Wars to supply the fresh produce- eg limes – that rapidly cured and prevented the lethal scourge.
This despite the fact that another UK navy surgeon Dr John Woodall had already over 130 years earlier- by 1617 – published in UK The Surgeon’s Mate stating We have in our owne country here many excellent remedies generally knowne,- Scurvy-grasse, Horse-Reddish roots, Nasturtia Aquatica, Wormwood, Sorrell, and many other good meanes… to the cure of those at home…and Sea-men returned from farre who by the only natural disposition of the fresh aire and amendment of diet, nature herselfe in effect doth the Cure (of scurvy- for which antiscorbutic citrus had been known since antiquity) without other helps. the Lemmons, Limes, Tamarinds, Oranges, and other choice of good helps in the Indies… do farre exceed any that can be carried tither from England.
* Childbed fever prevention: in 1865 Dr Ignaz Semmelweis (1818 -’65) an AustroHungarian Roman Catholic ob-gyne in Vienna, was locked up, and beaten to death within weeks, because he showed – to the outrage of his peers- that handwashing with chlorinated lime eradicated the epidmic puerperal fever (three times that in the midwives’ ward) in the doctors’ labour wards; 70years before Thir Reich terrorists took charge, his senior colleagues reacted violently to his progressive promotion of (what was already more advanced British and French) hygiene and science, and his urging them to wash their hands after examining corpses before examining women in labour.. . Tragically for Semmelweis and new mothers in the Hapsburg empire then, Pasteur (b 1822) and Lister (b 1827) ‘s germ antiseptic discoveries were already being implemented further west, but had not yet been publicized.
*metformin after centuries of use as an antidiabetic herb galega officinalis, and its extraction as an antidiabetic in 1922, came into increasing use globally from the 1950s as the best treatment for type 2 diabetes, but the USA- to protect their own new patent antidiabetic drugs – ruthlessly suppressed its use there (like that of the natural salt lithium for manic depression) for 40years till the mid-1990s.
*AIDS and ART denialism: until 5 years ago in South Africa the overwhelming-majority “people’s” government (with the country’s vast resources), and its successive “health” ministers, cost the lives of an estimated 300 000 AIDS victims through sufferers – indigent state dependents- being denied antiretroviral ART drugs, (never mind still till now denied quality education and civil security, and thus adequate basic nutrition, and meaningful housing, jobs and thus hope.) Genocidal AIDS denialism about which the still-ruling (since 1994) leadership cadre did nothing until under intense international pressure and repeated Constitutional Court orders, combined with political rival factioneering in the ruling party, they ousted the denialist president and his denialist Disease Minister in 2008.
DENIALISM TARGETS IN NUTRITION:
VIGOROUS VITAMIN C ASCORBIC ACID PHARMACOTHERAPY : Much effort and Big Pharma money has been spent to denigrate the irrefutable science-based work (between their advocacy years shown) of Drs Irvine Stone (1934-1984), Fred Klenner(1948-74) and Linus Pauling (1970-1991) of antibiotic dose >50 to 1000 mg/kg/d pure vitamin C (not the antiscurvy 10mg/d) – as a universally needed essential in primates. We primats, like guineapigs and a few birds and fish species, are among the few that do not make their own since we lost the needed gene and thus enzyme in our evolution..
It took about 150 years after Lind’s publication for the antiscorbutic factor to be named as vitamin C by Dr Jack Drummond, another 10 years for it to be assayed and its structure proven- but despite the pioneering clinical work of Dr Fred Klenner in the 1950s proving the lifesaving benefit of tens of grams a day intravenously, it took another 20 years before Dr Linus Pauling took up Dr Irvine Stone’s conviction and put highdose vitamin C on the world Nobel prize map; just on Pubmed, vitamin C has >51 000 citations since 1921, and intravenously in 763 entries since 1946, with Dr Fred Klenner reporting it intravenously asmajor antibiotic in the Southern Medical journal from 1948..
The 2009 book Injectable Vitamin C and the Treatment of Viral and Other Diseases collection of medical journal papers from the 1930s to 2006 details the exhaustive scientific evidence proving the uniform benefit of even 1gm a day vit C both as an antimicrobial antiinflammatory antioxidant and immunomodulator against major crippling / lethal diseases from polio to tuberculosis, pneumonia, hepatitis, rabies, encephalitis, neuritis, poisoning, cancer, and pancreatitis;
and the persistent resistance of the FDA and other multinational Regulators to recognize (so as to protect their domestic patent drug manufacturers- Big Pharma and their politician and civil service lobbyists )- such uniquely safe and effective natural drug therapy. The final chapters of that 2009 book pose the crucial questions of overwhelming vested interest by the organized medical – hospital –pharmaceutical mega-industry and governments in not eradicating preventable disease, the Big Pharma banning of natural effective remedies- The Origin of the 42-Year Stonewall of Vitamin C, and Medical Resistance to Innovation,
The University of Oregon, the Riordan-Gonzalez group and more recently Hemila and Chaker‘ and Ullah et al’ s 2012 reviews have published much validating what Drs Goodall, Lind, Drummond, Stone, Klenner, Pauling and Cameron started.
VIGOROUS VITAMIN D3 CHOLECALCIFEROLPHARMACOTHERAPY costing wholesale ~ <US$0.5/month for ~200 000iu /month in South Africa) reduces serious infection by perhaps 90% ie 9fold: . eg 80iu/kg/d – 500iu/d (15000u/month) for an infant, 50 000iu/wk or 200 000iu/mo for an adult; who if obese, may need two to three times the average dose, to achieve the (?) optimal 25OH vit D level of around 70ng/ml for health, higher for any acute or chronic chronic illness.The modern prophets of vitamin D3 have been the three pre-WW2 doyens :
Prof Chris E Nordin (MB ChB 1950) working in bone physiology for 60 years now; 84 papers on vitamin D on Pubmed
Prof Walter Stumpf (1927-2012; MD 1952) the recently deceased professor at North Carolina University, neuropsychiatrist and radiobiologist in his 60year medical career with over 500 publications (76 on Vit D on Pubmed) including early discovering that vitamin D targets all systems and diseases; professor-walter-e-stumpf-ahead-of-his-time/ and https://healthspanlife.wordpress.com/tag/stumpf-dr-walter/
paralled by Prof Robert Heaney (MD 1951) at Creighton University, osteoporosis and nutrition authority with 119 vitamin D papers on Pubmed since 1982, over 400 publications to date;
succeeded by Prof Mike Holick (PhD 1971, MD 1976) with 391 publications on vitamin D since 1970 on Pubmed, who has done more than most to show that the maximum daily body production of vitamin D3 with plenty of sunlight is enough to prevent rickets and reduce all disease, but nowhere near the pharmacologically therapeutic 80iu/kg/d needed to maintain a vigorous all-disease protective bloodlevel of 60-100ng/ml.
and Dr John Cannell (MD 1976, registered psychiatrist from 1993, nutritionalist), a legendary whistleblower . who successively campaigned against #cigarette smoking; and uncovered: # the cigarette-smoking (Black Lung) compensationitis fraud of miners’ pneumoconiosis; #the fictitious inflated “above national average” school results (Lake Woebegone) that all states were inventing and reporting (as is still happening – mass government deception- in South Africa) ; then the
# recovered memory therapy (RMT) scandal – a form of psychotherapy in which patients recovered memories of abuse that they had no previous memory of. Such therapy resulted in false memory syndrome (FMS) of events that never occurred as well as an epidemic of multiple personality disorder (MPD), a rare disorder historically conceived of as being a hysterical disorder. Unfortunately, many MPD patients believed the psychiatrist conducting the RMT and went home to falsely accuse their parents and others of horrendous acts that never occurred. Cannell teamed up with two Harvard professors to write a peer reviewed paper on RMT, debunking the witch-hunt; then since the 1990s researching and promoting # vitamin D deficiency as major cause of much psychopathology including autism, and vigorous vitamin D therapy to correct multiple diseases, through the Vitamin D Council. He has (co)authored some 13 papers, and published a book. .
Now a major longterm German Cancer Research screening program has just publishd the 2002-2013 ESTHER study (Perna ea) of 10 000 citizens followed with serial 25OH vit D levels; to assess the association of apparently unsupplemented vit D levels with fatal and nonfatal CVD in the same study population. Follow-up data, including survival status, up to over 9 years. Comparing subjects with 25(OH)D levels below 12ng/ml and above 20ng/ml resulted in the lower vitamin D level cohort showing a higher hazard ratio of 1.27 (95% confidence interval = 1.05-1.54) for total CVD and 1.62 (1.07-2.48) for fatal CVD in a model adjusted for important potential confounders. No significant association for nonfatal CVD was observed. In dose-response analysis, we observed an increased cardiovascular risk at 25(OH)D levels below 30ng/ml. Results for CHD and stroke were comparable to the results obtained for the composite outcome CVD. Our results support evidence that low 25(OH)D levels are associated with moderately increased risk of CVD, BUT the observed association is much stronger for fatal than for nonfatal events.
But the benefit of sunlight in healing tuberculosis has been used for well over a century; while the Google antibiotic benefit of calciferol on Pubmed goes back at least to 1950.
In a prospective 16 mo trial in press from Australia, vit D3 even just 60 000iu/month (ie 2000iu/day) halved antibiotic use in seniors. (Tran, Neale ea 2014) Effect of vitamin D supplementation on antibiotic use: a randomized controlled trial.
Since the toxic dose of vitamin D long term reportedly may be as high as 600 000iu/day or a blood level well >150ng/l , imagine how much better the antimicrobial benefit of vitamin D3 at 80 to 100iu/kg/day or pro rata – even higher eg 10 000+iu/day for obese people who sequester more vit D in fat. .
Dr Robert F Cathcart wrote 30 to 20 years ago in Med Hypotheses. 1981 Vitamin C, titrating to bowel tolerance, anascorbemia, and acute induced scurvy The amount of oral ascorbic acid tolerated by a patient without producing diarrhea increase somewhat proportionately to the stress or toxicity of his disease. Bowel tolerance doses of ascorbic acid ameliorate the acute symptoms of many diseases. Lesser doses often have little effect on acute symptoms but assist the body in handling the stress of disease and may reduce the morbidity of the disease. However, if doses of ascorbate are not provided to satisfy this potential draw on the nutrient, first local tissues involved in the disease, then the blood, and then the body in general becomes deplete of ascorbate (Anascorbinemia and Acute Induced Scurvy). The patient is thereby put at risk for complications of metabolic processes known to be dependent upon ascorbate. 1984 Vitamin C in the treatment of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). evidence is that massive doses of ascorbate (50-200 grams per 24 hours) suppress the symptoms of the disease and can markedly reduce secondary infections. In combination with usual treatments for the secondary infections, large doses of ascorbate will often produce a clinical remission which shows every evidence of being prolonged if treatment is continued. .. despite continuing laboratory evidence of helper T-cell suppression. There may be a complete or partial destruction of the helper T-cells during an initial infection that does not necessitate a continuing toxicity from some source to maintain a permanent or prolonged helper T-cell suppression. However, it is possible ascorbate may prevent that destruction if used adequately during that prodrome period. Emphasis is put on the recognition and treatment of the frequent intestinal parasites. Food and chemical sensitivities occur frequently in the AID syndrome and may aggravate symptoms considered to be part of the AID syndrome. A topical C-paste has been found very effective in the treatment of herpes simplex and, to a lesser extent, in the treatment of some Kaposi’s lesions. Increasingly, clinical research on other methods of treating AIDS is being “contaminated” by patients taking ascorbate. 1991 A unique function for Vitamin C is as reducing substance, electron donor. When vitamin C donates its two high-energy electrons to scavenge free radicals, much of the resulting dehydroascorbate is re-reduced to vitamin C and therefore used repeatedly. Conventional wisdom is correct in that only small amounts of vitamin C are necessary for this function because of its repeated use. The point missed is that the limiting part in nonenzymatic free radical scavenging is the rate at which extra high-energy electrons are provided through NADH to re-reduce the vitamin C and other free radical scavengers. When ill, free radicals are formed at a rate faster than the high-energy electrons are made available. Doses of vitamin C as large as 1-10 g per 24 h do only limited good. However, when ascorbate is used in massive amounts, such as 30-200+ g per 24 h, these amounts directly provide the electrons necessary to quench the free radicals of almost any inflammation, and reduces NAD(P)H and therefore provide the high-energy electrons necessary to reduce the molecular oxygen used in the respiratory burst of phagocytes. In these functions, the ascorbate part is mostly wasted but the necessary high-energy electrons are provided in large amounts.
A recent review from Atlanta Kearns ea found 30 papers which aggregate to show that annual vitamin D3 dose (not D2) of optimally 300 000 to 500 000iu (wholesale cost ~R5 in South Africa) for deficient adults is best for avoiding poor patient compliance with minimal risk and major benefit.
THE INFERIORITY OF VITAMIN D2 SUPPLEMENT: It should be noted that the long-used Lennon’s Strong Calciferol datasheet (1974 updated 2004) does not indicate that this 50 000iu tablet labelled ‘calciferol’ is in fact vitamin D2 (ergocalciferol), not the fourfold more potent cholecalciferol D3 formed by sunlight in the skin. This is disclosed only on the Lennons website.. and in the South African Medicines Formulary. So ‘Strong Calciferol’ in South Africa (actually the D2 not D3 form of calciferol) is convenient but seriously deceptive mislabeling- much weaker than the ideal vitamin D3, and therefore its effect unpredictable compared to D3- in fact Dierkes ea Norway show that giving D2 may actually lower 25OH vit D level in the blood.. Sadly, despite this being reported to the local manufacturers and authorities, no correction of the clinically serious misperception created by the Strong Calciferol label and insert has been issued to health practitioners by the Medicines Control Council and the manufacturer Aspen-Lennons.
A recent 8yr study in Cape Town blacks Reciprocal seasonal variation in vitamin D status and tuberculosis notifications in South Africa Martineau, Nhamoyebonde ,Wilkinson ea confirmed that vitamin D deficiency (serum 25(OH)D <20 mg/L) is associated with susceptibility to tuberculosis (TB) in HIV-uninfected people in Cape Town as it is Europe. Vitamin D deficiency was present in 62.7% of 370 participants and was associated (OR ~5.4) with active TB in both HIV-uninfected and HIV-infected -(P < 0.001) people. Vitamin D status varied according to season: 25(OH)D concentration was double in summer-January- March compared to winter (23 vs 12ng/l; P < 0.001). Reciprocal seasonal variation in TB notifications was observed:lowest in autumn and highest in spring October through December (4,2 vs. 5; P < 0.001). Vitamin D deficiency is highly prevalent among black Africans in Cape Town and is associated with susceptibility to active TB both in the presence and absence of HIV infection.
Antimicrobial implications of vitamin D is detailed by Youssef, Peiris ea (USA Dermato-Endocrinol 2011) against all microorganisms – viruses, fungi, bacteria, protozoa (except perhaps leishmaniasis) as both profound prevention and therapy; in many cases without commercially invented marketed antimicrobials to which there is growing and deadly microbial resistance, let alone toxicity.. There is evidence that seasonal vitamin D deficiency status contributed greatly to the 1918/19 flu-pneumonia pandemic (Grant & Giovannucci 2009).
and finally, a month ago JAMA published from the universities of Miami, Harvard and Florida Effect of Micronutrient Supplementation on Disease Progression in Asymptomatic Antiretroviral-Naive HIV-Infected Adults in Botswana A Randomized Clinical Trial, that Micronutrient deficiencies occur early in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection, and supplementation with micronutrients may be beneficial; however, its effectiveness has not been investigated early in HIV disease among adults who are antiretroviral therapy (ART) naive. 2 year supplementation with either daily vitamins BCo, C and E, selenium alone, or B,C,E with selenium vs placebo: study conducted in 878 patients infected with HIV subtype C with a CD4 cell count greater than 350/μL who were not receiving ART between 2005 and July 2009. Results participants receiving the combined supplement of vitamins plus selenium vs placebo had half the risk of reaching CD4 cell count 250/μL or less (adjusted hazard ratio [HR], 0.46); and secondary events of combined outcomes for disease progression or AIDS-related death, whichever occurred earlier [adjusted HR, 0.56); . There was no effect of supplementation on HIV viral load. Multivitamins alone and selenium supplementation alone were not statistically different from placebo for any end point. Reported adverse events were adjudicated unlikely related to the intervention, and there were no notable differences in incidence of HIV-related and health-related events among study groups.Conclusions and Relevance In ART-naive HIV-infected adults, 24-month supplementation with a single supplement containing vitamins BCo,C,E and selenium was safe and significantly reduced the risk of immune decline and morbidity. Micronutrient supplementation may be effective when started in the early stages of HIV disease.
THE PARADOX OF THE GLUCOSE- ASCORBIC ACID- CHOLESTEROL- STEROID CASCADE: Is it coincidence, or evolution, that the basic animal fast-energy circulating anabolic substrates are glucose, fatty acids and aminoacids? from which basic glucose C6H12O6 ( from ingested fructose C6H12O6 and sucrose C12H22O11, or fats or protein) the liver manufactures the basic cardinal steroid cholesterol C27H46O. Then from cholesterol we metabolize by adding or splitting off carbon molecules the crucial anabolic and regulating human hormones- 1. ouabain C29H44O12 the adrenal hormone made also in the hypothalamus and heart ; adrenal), 2. active calciferol C27H44O the strengthening and reproductive secosteroid; 3 the prime sex/ reproductive steroids pregnenolone C21H32o2, and thence progesterone C21H30O2, testosterone C19H28O2, DHEA C19H24O2. and thence estradiol C18H24O2. and 4 the prime adrenal mineralo/glucocorticoid steroids cortisol C21H30O5, aldosterone C21H28O5.
But we primates and a few other species lost the ability to synthetise on demand in quantities of grams a day the crucial vitamin C ascorbic acid C6H8O6 that is key to all the above. And vested interests in the Disease Industry want us to believe the biological nonsense heresy that we must ingest minimal unprocessed foods- cholesterol, fats (especially dairy, marine oil Omega3 and medium-chain triglyceride- coconut oil) and abundant vitamins C and D3, but eat abundant processed foods- refined plant Omega6, refined carbs- fructose, sucrose, fruit juice, cooldrinks, cereals, confections- which overload causes insulin resistance and thus lipidemia, obesity- metabolic syndrome -diabetes, cancer and cardiovascular disease.
The Semmelweis reflex: A current Wiki essay sums up the current genocidal problems of deliberate deceptions/denialism in Diet, Vitamins and causality – for ruthless profit and possibly cynical eugenics: “The Semmelweis effect is a metaphor for the reflex-like tendency to reject new evidence or new knowledge because it contradicts established norms, beliefs or paradigms.The term originated from the saga of Dr Ignaz Semmelweis, who discovered that childbed fever mortality rates reduced ten-fold when doctors washed their hands with a chlorine solution before examining patients. His hand-washing suggestions were rejected by his contemporaries, often for non-medical reasons. For instance, some doctors refused to believe that a gentleman’s hands could transmit disease (see Contemporary reaction to Ignaz Semmelweis). In his book The Game of Life, Timothy Leary provided the following polemical definition of the Semmelweis reflex: “Mob behavior found among primates and larval hominids on undeveloped planets, in which a discovery of important scientific fact is punished”. The expression has found way into philosophy and religious studies as “unmitigated Humean skepticism concerning causality“.[2]”
Idealism, ethics may evolve; but the problem of human bigotry, self-interest and subjective ie personal bias do not diminish, they spread. It is classic that Semmelweis (1818-1865) the observant innovative Catholic medical scientist of his time (before microbes and antiseptics were known) was fatuously condemned not just by his jealous competing Vienna colleagues, but even by his progressive and reformist Copenhagen contemporary obgyn Prof Carl Levy (1808-1865)- who outlived him by only 4 months;
ironically at the same time that their Copenhagen contemporary Dr Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) was increasingly isolating himself on the lonely ethical journey against the convenience lazzez- faire tide, writing for ethical life and religion against the hypocrisy of the Church and becoming the father of both reformist theology and psychology. But unlike Semmelweis who was way ahead of the bioscience and humanity of his time, Kierkegaard stuck to and isolated himself in promoting the incompatible ie blind-faith-based religion – the dilemma of Abraham’s conviction (or delusion) to sacrifice his son- and ethical morality;
and closely followed by Rudolph Steiner (1861-1925) another more profound European thinker who bridged science, spirituality, progressive education, architecture, agriculture, natural medicine, nutrition, and social reform;
contrary to the rationalists of the 19th Century “Age of Enlightenment” and since, like British historian-philosopher -ethicist Winwood Reade (1838 – 1875) who published the enduring secularist’s bible The Martyrdom of Man (1872), of which Churchill wrote 25 years later “he was right but wrong to say it” on the book’s critique of the wrongs of war and religion, of mankind’s selfishness, corruption and destructiveness (by the greedy aggressive acquisitive minority) against the weak masses and the environment) that carries on worse in the 21st century than even the 20th century; and 150 years later bioscientist and philosopher Stephen Jay Gould (1941-2002) rationalized sadly the non-overlapping Magisteria of Science and Faith, objective “provable” science – which in fact is seldom immutably constant as is mathematics- and purely faith-based “unprovable” religious belief.
It was only a year ago that Richard Conniff published his column on Strange Behaviours, The Medical Martyrs. And the medical hero martyrs in this review- Semmelweis, Margaret Sanger, Drummond and Pauling – never made it onto his list.
But then nor did the modern medical freedom fighters Steve Biko, Agostinho Neto, Che Guevera. Jonas Savimbi, Neil Aggett, and the living spouse of Steve Biko, Dr Mamphele Ramphele….
Women of the Century apart (like Margaret Sanger, Marie Curie, Eleanor Roosevelt, Golda Meir, Indira Gandhi, Helen Keller, Benazir Bhutto, Mother Theresa, Aung San Suu Kyi -many of whom have been martyred), it is a philosophical debate whether among the men the medical martyr Semmelweis (1818-1865) ranks with his 19thC contemporaries- Lincoln (1809-1865), Kierkegaard(1813-1855), Pasteur (1822-95), Lister (1827-1912) ; and his successors (and 20th C leading achievers): Koch(1843-1910), Edison(1847-1931), Steiner (1861-1925), Gandhi(1869-1948), Weizmann(1874-1952), Churchill (1874-1965), Einstein (1875-1955), Jung (1875-1961), FD Roosevelt(1882-1945), JK Galbraith(1908-2006), Martin Luther King (1929-68), Pauling and Mandela as arguably giant enduring male leaders -innovators- teachers and achievers of the past two centuries.
Unlike eg Socrates, Hippocrates and Jesus of Nazareth, one of the five greatest polymath medical and ethical sages of all time Rabbi Dr Moses Maimonides (RamBam) avoided martyrdom by burying himself in practicing selfless medical service for sultan and peasants alike, and jurisprudence for his GreekoRoman based Islamic-Sephardic times and philosophy, like his guru predecessor Avicenna and his contemporary savant Averroes. .
CONCLUSION: Today it can be argued that the denial of effective phamacotherapeutic doses of especially vitamins C and D3, let alone supportive doses of balancing vits (A, B1,3,5,6,9 & 12, E and K2); the often-crucially deficient minerals (eg magnesium, sulphur, phosphate, iodine, zinc and selenium), and biologicals like human transdermal balanced HRT, coenzyme Q10, alphalipoic acid, milk thistle, cinnamon, fish oil, chondroglucosamine, DMSO, coconut oil, is a repetition of denialism of the germ theory, and of optimal physiological human micronutrition as well as macronutrition. .
– especially when patients are poor and thus malnourished, and plagued by diarrhoea and stress, TB, lipidemic vascular disease and cancer; and when antiretroviral ART- although life-saving- is even more diabetogenic and neurotoxic than untreated AIDs.
Even transdermal administration is better than nothing, perhaps better (for the frail and noncompliant eg oldies) than oral or injection eg of vitamins D3 & C and progesterone , metformin, (in addition to the usual magnesium chloride, vits A, BCo & E) may be beneficial whether by patch or cream for both healing, infection, calming, heart, circulation, infection, arthritis, osteoporosis, and neuritis, applied under coconut oil, codliver oil and DMSO as further analgesic, anti-inflammatory, memory and absorption enhancers.
REFERENCES: New reviews bear out the major benefits of micronutrient supplements selenium, zinc, silver, vits A, B, C, D, E; and DMSO, sutherlandia and aloe against HIV-AIDs. and co-infection;
Micronutrient supplementation for children with HIV infection. Irlam JH, Rollins NC ea . Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2013 Oct 11;10:CD010666.
Effect of micronutrient supplementation on disease progression in asymptomatic, antiretroviral-naive, HIV-infected adults in Botswana: a randomized clinical trial.Baum MK, Marlink R ea .JAMA. 2013 Nov 27;310(20):2154-63. .
Preliminary trial of aloe vera gruel on HIV infection.Olatunya OS, Oyelami OA. ea, J Altern Complement Med. 2012 Sep;18(9):850-3. doi: 10.1089/acm.2010.0735.
In vitro effects of Sutherlandia frutescens water extracts on cell numbers, morphology, cell cycle progression and cell death in a tumorigenic and a non-tumorigenic epithelial breast cell line.Stander A, Joubert AM. ea, J Ethnopharmacol. 2009 Jul 6;124(1):45-60
Sulfur in human nutrition and applications in medicine.Parcell S.Altern Med Rev. 2002 ;7(1):22-44.
Coconut (Cocos nucifera L.: Arecaceae): in health promotion and disease prevention.DebMandal M, Mandal S.Asian Pac J Trop Med. 2011 Mar;4(3):241-7
below are some of the most recent 94 studies of vitamin D and human infectionin published just in 2013:
New insights on the role of vitamin D in the progression of renal damage: Kidney Blood Press Res. 2013;37:667-78. . Lucisano S, Santoro D.ea Many studies indicate relationship between hypovitaminosis D and survival, vascular calcification, bone mineral metabolism, immune, cardiovascular and endocrine. Vitamin D analogs reduces proteinuria, in particular through suppression of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS) and exerts anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory effects. In particular vitamin D deficiency contribute to an inappropriately activated RAAS, as a mechanism for progression of chronic kidney disease (CKD) and/or cardiovascular disease. Human and experimental models of CKD showed that vitamin D may interact with B and T lymphocytes and influence the phenotype and function of the antigen presenting cells and dendritic cells, promoting properties that favor the induction of tolerogenic T regulators rather than T effectory. Interstitial fibrosis may be prevented through vitamin D supplementation. .
Should vitamin D supplementation be a regular part of asthma care? Gordon BR.Otolaryngol Clin North Am. 2014 Feb;47:97-108. .Vitamin D (vitD3) deficiency occurs frequently and has profound effects on health, especially asthma.
Vitamin D in asthma and future perspectives.Huang H, Zarogoulidis K. ea Drug Des Devel Ther. 2013 Sep 23;7:1003-13.
vitamin D deficiency associated with development of Acinetobacter baumannii infections in critically ill patients?; Türkoğlu M, Aygencel G et al.; Journal of Critical Care 28 (5), 735-40 (Oct 2013)
Association between vitamin D and hepatitis C virus infection: a meta-analysis. Villar LM, Romero-Gomez M. ea World J Gastroenterol. 2013 Sep 21;19(35):5917-24.
Association between prehospital vitamin D status and hospital-acquired bloodstream infections. Quraishi SA, Christopher KB. Ea, Am J Clin Nutr. 2013 Oct;98(4):952-9.
Human parvovirus B19 associated dilated cardiomyopathy. Jain P, Jain A, Khan DN, Kumar M. BMJ Case Rep. 2013 Aug 5;2013.
The role of vitamin D supplementation in the risk of developing pneumonia: three independent case-control studies. Remmelts HH, van de Garde EM ea .Thorax. 2013 Nov;68(11):990-6.
Correlation between serum vitamin D level and severity of community acquired pneumonia in young children Ren J, Sun B, Miao P, Feng X. Zhongguo Dang Dai Er Ke Za Zhi. 2013 Jul;15(7):519-21. Chinese. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23866270
Role of vitamins D, E and C in immunity and inflammation. Shaik-Dasthagirisaheb YB, Pandolfi F. J ea Biol Regul [Correlation between serum vitamin D level and severity of community acquired pneumonia in young children].Homeost Agents. 2013 Apr-Jun;27(2):291-5.
Pre-hospital vitamin D concentration, mortality, and bloodstream infection in a hospitalized patient population.Lange N, Christopher KB ea. Am J Med. 2013 Jul;126(7):640.e19-27.
Vitamin D deficiency in HIV infection: an underestimated and undertreated epidemic. Pinzone MR, Nunnari G. eA Eur Rev Med Pharmacol Sci. 2013 May;17(9):1218-32.
Vitamin D deficiency and sudden unexpected death in infancy and childhood: a cohort study.Cohen MC, Offiah A, Sprigg A, Al-Adnani M. Pediatr Dev Pathol. 2013 Jul-Aug;16(4):292-300.
Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 and the risk of pneumonia in an ageing general population.Aregbesola A, Tuomainen TP. ea J Epidemiol Community Health. 2013 ;67:533-6.
Treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis.Nunn A, Phillips PP, Abubakar I.Curr Opin Pulm Med. 2013 ;19(3):273-9.
Role of vitamin D in children with respiratory tract infection.Esposito S, Baggi E, Bianchini S, Marchisio P, Principi N. Int J Immunopathol Pharmacol. 2013 J26(1):1-13.
Tuberculosis incidence correlates with sunshine: an ecological 28-year time series study.Koh GC, Dedicoat M. PLoS One. 2013;8:e57752.
Improving outcomes in patients with psoriasis.Tidman MJ. Practitioner. 2013 ;257:27-30, 3.
vitamin C refs & infection:
Authors’ perspective: What is the optimum intake of vitamin C in humans? Frei B, Birlouez-Aragon I, Lykkesfeldt J. Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr. 2012;52(9):815-29.
Micronutrients at the interface between inflammation and infection—ascorbic acid and calciferol. Parts 1 & 2: .Ströhle A, Wolters M, Hahn A. Inflamm Allergy Drug Targets. 2011 ;10:54-74- FULL TEXT IS ON LINE. .
Vitamin C for preventing and treating tetanus Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2008 Apr 16;(2):
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