Vitamin C Infusions Could Be Essential for Treatment of Sepsi

Earlier this year, a Virginia doctor claimed to have found that vitamin C could be an essential part of treatment for sepsis, a life-threatening complication of infection in which the pathogenic load and immune response are too great. As sepsis kills thousands every year, including over 44,000 in the U.K., it’s time to take notice of the power of vitamin C. [1]

Dr. Paul Marik, a critical care specialist, says he came up with the treatment as a last resort when a 48-year-old woman arrived with a case of sepsis that would have otherwise killed her. Her kidneys and lungs were failing; but after his “outside the box” treatment, she left the hospital after two days.

The treatment? An injected infusion of vitamin C, a low dose of steroids, and vitamin B1, also known as thiamin. [1]

While other experts believe that this is “too good to be true,” Dr. Marik has already published some results of his own research showing that this was not a once-off miracle. In his team’s retrospective, before-after clinical study, 47 consecutive patients were treated with this infusion over a seven-month time frame and were compared with 47 control (no infusion) patients from the previous seven months. [2]

Study Results

The treated group had a mortality rate of only 4 out of 47 patients (8.5%), compared to 19 out of 47 (40.4%) in the control group. This is about an 80% reduction! No patients in the treated group developed progressive organ failure. All treated patients also stopped needing vasopressors after an average of 18 hours, whereas the control patients used them for an average of 54 hours, a bit over two days.

Although these findings were described as preliminary and in need of larger follow-up studies, they were clinically significant and seen as a way to prevent organ failure and death from sepsis. [2]

The dismissal of this case as “too good to be true” is also frustrating because of just how far research on vitamin C and infections goes back. In an article from over 60 years ago, a doctor describes studies and cases of vitamin C injections resolving a range of infections.

One case, which was similar to prior research, saw a young girl’s chickenpox disappear in a day or 2 as opposed to the typical “7 to 9 days.” Children with polio and encephalitis from severe cases of infections were also described as having rapid, uneventful recoveries after beginning vitamin C injections. Even a baby recovered from measles in 60 hours, without developing a rash or having to deal with a fever for long.

Many studies and case reports on vitamin C and infections came in the decades after, including three controlled studies analyzed in a review showing an 80% drop in pneumonia incidence. In another study of several hundred young adults, vitamin C administration cut cold and flu symptoms by 85%.

Even a report on New Zealand’s 60 Minutes of a man saved from viral pneumonia by vitamin C after doctors initially refused to administer it seems to have failed to change opinion on using the vitamin as a mainstream medical treatment.

However, despite censorship and narrow-mindedness, there’s real hope for the future when it comes to using natural medicines in the fight against infections, whether they be deadly or just inconvenient.

Sources:

[1] Independent

[2] ScienceDirect

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Fears of Tick-Borne Powassan Virus Increasing, Experts Warn

After working in the garden or taking a walk in the woods, it’s a good common practice to check your body for ticks; but it’s not just Lyme disease you have to worry about anymore. Experts are warning that the Powassan virus, a tick-borne virus that can cause dangerous inflammation in the brain, may be transmitted even faster than Lyme. [1]

Powassan is still considered a rare disease; but a recent study of ticks in Maine, as well as a few widely-reported cases of human infection, suggest that the virus may becoming more common.

The Powassan Threat

Source: U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – Powassan virus neuroinvasive disease cases reported by state, 2004–2013

The Powassan virus can cause encephalitis, or swelling of the brain, and it kills approximately 10-15% of people who become sick, according to the CDC. Half of those infected are left with permanent neurological problems. [1] [2]

Read: Powassan Virus: ‘Ticks Now Carrying Virus Worse than Lyme Disease‘

Dr. Jennifer Lyons, Chief of the Division of Neurological Infections and Inflammatory Diseases at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, says:

“About 15% of patients who are infected and have symptoms are not going TO? survive. Of the survivors, at least 50% will have long-term neurological damage that is not going to resolve.” [2]

First identified in 1958, Powassan was recognized in the type of deer ticks that bite humans and also carry Lyme disease in the mid-1990s. Over the past decade, the CDC has received about 75 reports of the virus in humans, primarily in the Northeast and Great Lakes region. [1]

Scientists at the Maine Medical Research Center decided to test ticks at various sites from across the state after a Maine woman died a few weeks after being bitten by a tick and contracting Powassan virus in 2013. Two other cases were also identified.

The researchers said they “were kind of surprised” that they found as much of the virus as they did. Out of 203 different pools of adult ticks – meaning all of the ticks collected from a given area – 15 tested positive for Powassan. The researchers also found that populations of deer ticks were increasing in several areas of the state.

Now scientists are especially concerned because experts are predicting that 2017 will be an especially bad year for ticks in the Northeast. Not only is the virus transmitted much faster than Lyme, it’s also deadlier. Animal studies show that Powassan virus could be passed from tick to host after only about 15 minutes of attachment. It takes 24 hours for Lyme disease to be transmitted.

Symptoms

Source: Valley News Live

Not everyone who is infected with Powassan will show symptoms. Those who do typically become sick a few days to about a week after being bitten by an infected tick. For the most part, people who become ill experience flu-like symptoms. Lyons says that these can include:

“muscle aches and pains; maybe you have a little rash on your skin, but almost certainly, you’ll have a fever and the headache.” [2]

Those who become seriously ill will do so “very quickly over the next couple of days,” Lyons explains, adding:

“You start to develop difficulties with maintaining your consciousness and your cognition. … You may develop seizures. You may develop inability to breathe on your own.” [2]

There is no way of preventing or treating Powassan virus. Says Lyons:

“There are some experimental therapies we try when somebody comes in and they get here early enough and we get the therapy started early enough, but we have no idea if any of that works.” [2]

Prevention

The best way to avoid Powassan (and Lyme, for that matter) is to prevent being bitten by a tick. Avoid highly brushy areas when you’re in the woods. Wear long sleeves and pants whenever possible, use natural tick repellent, and check your entire body for the blood-sucking insects after being outdoors.

Read: How to Keep Ticks off of You, and Get Rid of Them If Needed

Don’t be afraid of “catching” Powassan virus. Your chances of being infected are very low. Take the right preventative measures and you should be fine.

Dr. Susan Paskewitz, Chair of the Department of Entomology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, says:

“I don’t think people need to be fearful of it because it is so rare, but it is out there and it is one more reason for people to do those careful tick checks at the end of the day, or try to reduce your contact with them to begin with.” [3]

Sources:

[1] Time

[2] CNN

[3] CBS News

U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Valley News Live

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About Julie Fidler:
	Julie Fidler is a freelance writer, legal blogger, and the author of Adventures in Holy Matrimony: For Better or the Absolute Worst. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband and two ridiculously spoiled cats. She occasionally pontificates on her blog.

Thousands Sue Merck for Shingles Vaccine “Causing What It’s Supposed to Prevent”

Attorney Troy Bouk was recently interviewed by Ring of Fire’s Farron Cousins to discuss the shingles vaccine Zostavax, the issues related to its effectiveness and the problems that are associated with the product, including the fact that the drugmaker’s vaccine seems to cause the very affliction that it seeks to prevent — and, according to a massive lawsuit, thousands of victims agree.

While we have everyone from attorneys to biologists, to political scientists who contribute to the Free Thought Project, none of us are doctors, so we do not make recommendations about what you and your family should do in regards to vaccination. That being said, the drug makers have an incentive for you not to see this information which means it will not be reported on in the mainstream media as their advertising dollars are tied directly to these companies. So, we find that it is our duty to spread this information and with your help sharing it, we can have a massive effect.

In the interview with Cousins, Bouk explained that Zostavax is made with a live strain of the shingles virus and described the complications that are associated with shingles. Shingles is caused by the varicella-zoster virus, which is the same virus that causes chicken pox. The varicella-zoster virus lies dormant in people who have had chicken pox, but sometimes the virus reawakens and produces shingles.

The virus often manifests as a painful rash, and can also lead to encephalitis, vision loss and postherpetic neuralgia. Bouk said that the virus sometimes “tends to get into your central nervous system, and then, once in there, it wreaks some havoc by usually causing swelling which ends up with these other medical problems. That’s the situation with the vaccine itself, is that Merck hasn’t warned anyone about those indications.”

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Cousins asked Bouk about the effectiveness of Zostavax, to which Bouk replied:

“The FDA has approved the vaccine for people 50 years of age and older, whereas the CDC only recommends that those individuals 60 years of age and older get it. The reason is that once you have had the Zostavax shot, the FDA says it only lasts for about four years. It’s not proven to last any longer than that. Let’s say you’re 55 years old. It may stay in your system till you’re 60, but you actually are at the greatest risk of getting shingles when you’re in your 60s. That’s why the CDC recommends that you really don’t get it until you’re in your 60s, because that’s probably when you’re going to need it the most.”

Book’s claim regarding the CDC’s recommendation is indeed correct. According to the CDC’s website, the agency specifically advises Zostavax to be given to people aged 60 and older and does not provide a recommendation for people between the ages of 50 and 59. The CDC warns that people in the 50-59 age group who receive the Zostavax shot may lose the vaccine’s protection benefits by the time they reach age 60, stating that “adults vaccinated before age 60 years might not be protected later in life when the risk for shingles and its complications are greatest.”

Despite the CDC’s caution against administering Zostavax to people under 60, the FDA approves the vaccine for people age 50 and older, and Merck uses the FDA’s approval to market the vaccine to that age group. Zostamax sales reached $749 million in 2015.

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The true efficacy of Zostavax is unclear. The CDC states that the drug “reduced the risk of shingles by 51%” based on a study of 38,000 people age 60 and up. Reuters reported that Zostavax’s effectiveness “varies between 18 and 70 percent, and it declines noticeably in older people.”

A second shingles vaccine from drug manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline, Shingrix, may be available if the FDA approves their filing. Shingrix, a two-dose vaccine, distinguishes itself from Zostavax because it’s derived from a protein of the virus rather than a live strain. The efficacy of Shingrix is more impressive, as Reuters noted that “in clinical trials, GSK’s vaccine remained 90 percent effective in people over age 70, even four years after injections.”

Merck has explicitly stated that those who receive the Zostavax vaccine “may still get shingles.” However, Bouk argued that some people may be contracting shingles as a side effect of the vaccine itself due to the live virus strain in the vaccine, not because people are experiencing shingles despite the vaccine.

Bouk went on to say that “there is a study out there that shows that in 50% of the patients that actually get the vaccine, that sometimes they don’t get shingles — the virus goes straight to manifesting in the central nervous system. It’s possible that you could get the vaccine and get meningitis or encephalitis without ever actually exhibiting shingles.” Bouk advises that patients weigh the risks of Zostavax before receiving the vaccine.

While GSK seeks approval of Shingrix, which could lead to their product edging out Zostavax, a large number of claims have been filed against Merck. The Mark J. Bern Partners law firm “is currently representing nearly 5000 claimants and has thousands more filings to follow.”

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Marc J. Bern said that his firm has been “investigating this drug for quite some time. We steadfastly believe in the merits of this litigation. This vaccination is at best 50 percent effective. Either it is not effective or it causes shingles or a host of other side effects.” Bern added that “what is most troubling is that Merck had a better alternative on hand when this product was released.”