"Germs" Help The Body Produce Vitamin C: Breakthrough Discovery

Photo Credit:http://www.greenmedinfo.com/blog/germs-help-body-produce-vitamin-c-breakthrough-discovery


 'Groundbreaking new research indicates that humans are capable of synthesizing vitamin C via their highly complex and capable microbiome.
We live in a time and age where decades old assumptions about the human body are being overturned on a surprisingly regular basis. 

For instance, bodily cells were recently found to communicate inheritable information to sex cells (e.g. sperm) capable of being passed down to the next generation, effectively overturning Darwinian concepts of inheritance in favor of the long denied Larmarckian view. 

Last year, edible plant material was found to 'talk' to the cells in our body via nanoparticles known as exosomes that regulate the expression of our DNA, as well as other important physiological pathways.'

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Can we please hear both sides

Another pertussis cluster has led to the banning of non-vaccinated children from a school district in the Tucson area.  In all the news reports the issue of "non-vaccinated children" is the target or emphasized catch phrase.

I recall writing an article in the mid 90s after interviewing a California (MD) pediatrician who also included homeopathy in his practice.  His emphasis was that it is the non vaccinated child who is always the healthiest and has the most resistance to disease.

From NHN 2008: New Focus: Responding to Specific Queries

Now the idea today is that it is the non-vaccinated adult whose childhood vaccine has worn off and has not gotten a booster shot may be the new target.  Or it could be a combined attack.

A funny way to approach public health if you ask me, after spending the bulk of my work over decades with a strong public health focus.

Sadly little has changes at WA DOH since Selecky's departure.  Inslee replaced her with another non- responsive bureaucratic hack.

Maybe, prhaps, this article will get some courageous health care providers thinking outside the box and give this a shot.

But alas, "here we are."***

While it is a tragedy that people are dying from the current pertussis outbreak, I believe it is important for facts rather than propaganda be provided to the community at large.
The AMA (American Medical Association) knew in the late 1920s that pertussis vaccine caused neurological problems.
Now we know that the pertussis vaccine is often associated with whooping cough outbreaks and many who have had the vaccine contract the disease.
And of course the friendly people at WA DOH are announcing everywhere that the only thing that will help this is to get the jab.

New Article re: WA DOH Vaccines and Fluoride

What’s in That Vaccine

I encourage people to get the facts before you get the shot because the government or anyone giving out these vaccines is required by law to explain it to you, and give you the risk and benefit data as well.  Usually you are not provided with this information in my experience.
You are probably not told that for whooping cough especially, that vitamin C is a valid and effective help.  Vitamin A in the oil form (not single beta carotene) in short runs of high doses will help fight off pneumonia, and it works well with vitamin C.  Usually I use liposomal vitamin C and Hanna Kroeger’s Sunny A.

Babies Sleep Better If They Are Drugged And Vaccinated In The Afternoon

Here is some information from a 1937 medical journal addressing this concern -

“Ascorbic acid has a definite effect in shortening the period of paroxysms from a matter of weeks to a matter of days. We have not checked by cough plates or otherwise in this preliminary work to see whether the infectivity subsides simultaneously with the spasmodic symptoms, but are continuing with a larger series of cases in which these and other tests will be employed.

TABLE

Case	Age (years)	Sez	Contact	Duration of Symptoms	Treatment		Results
1 R.T.	6	M	School	6 weeks—typical	150 mg. per day		7 days—cough reduced markedly 10 days—cough disappeared
2 C.H.	1�	M	Unknown Temperature 102 F. Bronchopneumonia when men	3 weeks—typical 10 days “fever” at home	inhalations sinapisms expectorants	}3 days	No effect 7 days—temperature normal, cough reduced 14 days—cough disappeared
					175 mg. daily—11 dys
3 M.C.	12	M	School	10 days—typical	200 mg. daily		6 days—cough reduced 13 days—only occasional night coughs 15 days—all cough absent
4 J.P.	6	F	School	over 4 weeks— typical	200 mg. daily		3 days—cough less, no vomiting 7 days—occasional cough
5 B.O.	2�	M	Known case	2 weeks—typical	250 mg. daily		5 days—cough disappeared
6 H.F.	7	M	School	2 weeks—typical	375 mg. daily		4 days—cough less 9 days—night cough only 11 days—all cough absent
7 E.H.	22		Maid Child in house had whooping cough	4dys., paroxysmal cough, vomited once, no whooping	500 mg. daily—3 days 125 mg. daily.		4 days—cough less, no vomiting 6 days—coughed only once in 2 days 11 days—cough absent
8 B.P.	4	M	Known case	10 days—typical	500 mg. daily—4 days 250 mg. daily—4 days		5 days—cough disappeared
9 M.W.	6�	F	School	2 weeks—typical	500 mg. daily—4 days 250 mg. daily—5 days		4 days—cough reduced 7 days—coughed once in 24 hours 9 days—cough disappeared
10 W.C.	4�	F	Sister (Case 9)	1 week—typical	500 mg. daily—4 days 250 mg. daily—5 days		Same as for Case 9

The dosages used have been empirical with a tendency to use larger doses early in the disease as our experience of its effects progressed. The acid is available at reasonable prices, and the danger of overdosage seems negligible. Animals have received 2,000 times their estimated requirements without any deleterious effects. Any excess is excreted by the kidneys.

---

CONCLUSIONS

1. A method has been described for the treatment of whooping cough by ascorbic acid (vitamin C).
2. Ascorbic acid definitely shortens the paroxysmal stage of the disease, particularly if relatively large doses are used early in the disease.

The ascorbic acid used by us was the Hoffmann-LaRoche product sold under the trade name of “Redoxon”. Grootton and Beszonoff ⁴ have shown that the product is identical chemically, physically and biologically with the original product prepared by Szent-Gy�rgi.

---

REFERENCES

1. , T.: Vaccination against whooping cough, J. Am. M. Ass., 1933, 101: 137.
2. , F.: Internat. Med. Digest, 1936, 29: 121.
3. , H. H.: Whooping cough. Clin. J., 1936, 65: 246.
4. , O. and Beszonoff, N.: Action de la vitamine C sur la toxine diphth�rique, et sensibilit� du bacille de la coqueluche vis-a-vis de l’hydroquinol et de le vitamine C. Ann. de l’Inst Pasteur, 1936, 56: 413.
5. , P. and Sala, T.: Rev. fran�. De P�d., 1921. 4: 509. (Quoted by Grootton and Beszonoff).
6. , J. and Niederberger, W.: Vitamin C In der Pneumonie-Behandlung., M�nch. med. Wochschr.. 1936, 83: 2074.
7. , A.: Beobachtungen �ber Ascorbins�urewirkung bei der krupp�sen Pneumonie, Wien. Arch. f. inn. Med., (in press). (Quoted by Gander and Niederberger).
8. , G. J. and Daniels, A. L: Vitamin C studies with children of pre-school age, J. Nutrit., 1936. 12: 15.
9. , O. A. and King, C. G.: The distribution of vitamin C in plant and animal tissues and its determination, J. Biol. Chem., 1933. 103: 687.
10. , M. Almaden, P. and King, C.G.: Vitamin content of human tissues, J. Biol. Chem., 1934, 106: 525.

---

From The Canadian Medical Association Journal, Volume 37, August 1937, Number 2, pp. 134-136″

This article was originally entered here in April 2012: 
http://blog.seattlepi.com/naturalnotes/2012/04/04/can-we-please-hear-both-sides/

*** with thanks to Baba Ram Das and Bill Greenberg, MD (Harvard)

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A Different Way of Approaching Drug Resistant TB

Over many years we have covered the topic of vitamin C and its benefits in health and disease.  We have also written on the benefits of garlic for drug resistant TB and how microbiological research proved this.  As this kind of science continues to be rejected by mainstream medicine and Big PhRMA we can only hope the information presented here helps you to be able to speak out to your health care providers about broader care options.  Please use the search function to locate our earlier vitamin C posts and TB related coverage. You can find more about vitamin C on our web site, http://leaflady.org, and our Whooping Cough article on the Seattle PI web site, Natural Notes blog.  Thanks for reading.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis is extraordinarily sensitive to killing by a vitamin C-induced Fenton reaction. 

Nat Commun. 2013;4:1881. doi: 10.1038/ncomms2898.

Vilchèze C, Hartman T, Weinrick B, Jacobs WR Jr.

Source

Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, 1301 Morris Park Avenue, Bronx, New York 10461, USA.

Abstract

Drugs that kill tuberculosis more quickly could shorten chemotherapy significantly. In Escherichia coli, a common mechanism of cell death by bactericidal antibiotics involves the generation of highly reactive hydroxyl radicals via the Fenton reaction. Here we show that vitamin C, a compound known to drive the Fenton reaction, sterilizes cultures of drug-susceptible and drug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the causative agent oftuberculosis. While M. tuberculosis is highly susceptible to killing by vitamin C, other Gram-positive and Gram-negative pathogens are not. The bactericidal activity of vitamin C against M. tuberculosis is dependent on high ferrous ion levels and reactive oxygen species production, and causes a pleiotropic effect affecting several biological processes. This study enlightens the possible benefits of adding vitamin C to an anti-tuberculosis regimen and suggests that the development of drugs that generate high oxidative burst could be of great use in tuberculosis treatment.

PMID:

 

23695675

 

[PubMed - in process]

More background information

Drug-Resistant TB “Extraordinarily Sensitive” to Vitamin C

Monday, 24 June 2013 21:00 By John Otrompke, Contributing Writer

Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C) crystals. Courtesy Visuals Unlimited

Researchers looking for options to control multi-drug resistant tuberculosis were surprised to learn that vitamin C given along with iron, could wipe out a wide variety of strains---at least in vitro.
Reporting in Nature last month, Dr. William Jacobs, Jr., professor of microbiology, immunology & genetics at Yeshiva University, NYC, said, "Mycobacterium tuberculosis is extraordinarily sensitive to killing by a vitamin C-induced Fenton reaction."
The findings suggest that tuberculosis could be prevented or treated in populations with subclinical infections using simple and inexpensive nutritional supplements---an important discovery in a time when antibiotic-resistant strains are on the rise. This has not yet been tested in infected humans, but it's certainly plausible.
"The bactericidal activity of vitamin C against M. tuberculosis is dependent on high ferrous ion levels and reactive oxygen species production, and causes a pleiotropic effect affecting several biological processes," Dr. Jacobs and his colleagues noted.
Making a Killing
"We started our research about two years ago, when we made a surprise discovery," he Dr. Jacobs told Holistic Primary Care. "We predicted that if we added isoniazid and cysteine to isoniazid-sensitive tuberculosis in culture, the bacteria would develop resistance. We knew isoniazid acts as a reducing agent, generating reactive species, so we tried another agent, vitamin C, to replace cysteine, but instead of causing resistance, we ended up killing off the culture--- something totally unexpected."
He cautioned that scientists don't yet know whether patients vulnerable to tuberculosis should take vitamin C. "We know that for this killing to occur, you also need to take the element iron along with vitamin C; this is something that could be explored, maybe in synergy with existing drugs, since one third of the world's population is sub-clinically infected with tuberculosis."
The problem, he says, is that "it would cost a lot of money to research further, and drug companies are not inclined to do that research because they can't get a return on their investment, since vitamin C is not patentable," he explained.
Meanwhile, the researchers at Yeshiva are trying to replicate their findings in vivo. "We've done the experiment in mice just a few months ago, and it did not work," said Jacobs. "But mice metabolize vitamin C differently from humans; mice make vitamin C, whereas humans can't."
Dr. Jacobs' team has also tested Vitamin E, but it didn't kill tuberculosis."
He is hoping to continue the work on vitamin C, suggesting that the combination of ascorbic acid and iron might help boost the efficacy of drug regimens.
"Vitamin C is safe and inexpensive, so drug companies should go head and do a clinical trial, although we don't know how the vitamin C would get to where tuberculosis is, in a macrophage in the patient's lungs," he said.
No Resistance

Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Image courtesy CDC

TB doesn't appear to develop resistance to vitamin C. "In a genetics lab, we typically discover things by isolating resistant mutants. We tried to find resistant mutants to vitamin C numerous times, but we've been unsuccessful, which is exactly what you'd want in a good drug," Dr. Jacobs explained.
However surprising, these findings are not the first time a study has shown that vitamins are helpful in combating TB. "For example, vitamin D actually turns on macrophages to kill TB, but that is a different mechanism; vitamin D actually stimulates an immune response," Dr. Jacobs said. The vitamin C and iron combo has a more direct cytotoxic effect.
"We need more funds to explore this; right now is a very difficult time at the National Institutes of Health to get grants. Typically the NIH will fund 25% of grants, but because of budget cuts they're only funding 6% of grants, and typically to develop a drug for use in people would cost half a billion dollars," explained Dr. Jacobs. However, it shouldn't be nearly as expensive to research the viability of vitamin C as a therapy for TB.
"If I had the money, I would go ahead and think abut doing this as an early bacteriocidal therapy. First, I would just monitor the amount of vitamin C in a patient's blood, when we gave it to them. Before a patient newly-infected with TB started on standard therapy, I would like to do a two-week trial with vitamin C as one of agents. That way, we could test a new regimen, to see if the tuberculosis got killed or not, and then go back and start them on standard therapy."

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