Jones,
Very nice analysis!
Some years back my family physician was a skeptic regarding Cathcart's work.
I was then the only member of the family taking C in large daily doses. A
few years later, having seen each person in the family except me several
times, he asked for copies of Cathcart's papers. He said he was going to
give a talk to the local medical society about Vitamin C.
Mark
From: "Jones Beene" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: vortex-l@eskimo.com
To: <vortex-l@eskimo.com>
Subject: Re: OT: Bird Flu and Vitamin C
Date: Fri, 28 Oct 2005 09:14:29 -0700
There is a huge (and possibly underappreciated) implication of Dr.
Cathcart's influenza claims - relative to Vitamin C and influenza:
In his 1981 paper, "Titrating to Bowel Tolerance, Anascorbemia, and Acute
Induced Scurvy" ... the claim is made that massive doses of Vitamin C are
tolerated in infection- situations where the C is rapidly depleted by the
disease itself - and that these diseases induce scurvy..."
OK, in case you didn't "get it" ....and "it" is partly semantic... when one
get's a life-threatening form of flu - the death istself will be from
"scurvy" - since the virus itself lacks the genertic mechanism to actually
halt life processes in cells. The virus depletes Vitamin C and that next
depletes collagen, and if it (collagen) is not replaced fast enough - the
victim essentially dies from scurvy - i.e. hemorrhaging (bleeding) to
death.
Although this may be "just" a semantic distinction - I found it hard to
believe at first, because the medical profession igores even the semantic
implications, and has never been a big fan of vitamin therapy (in
general)... but they are the experts, correct?
Nevertheless, I wanted to do a more thorough internet search on the
connection of flu with scurvy - and in keeping with Stephen Lawrence's
observation that:
"But then, what about that 1918 flu? Why was it so deadly? Well, it was a
hemorrhagic disease -- alveolar hemorrhage was one thing it caused, and
that's a big problem for the victim. It also caused a raging fever, and it
caused a wicked bad headache."
Note these are prime symtoms of scurvy. Scury is the prototypical
hemorrhagic disease, but then again the word "scurvy" is more about
symptoms than a disease agent, right? .
Before the Lind-Lime citrus treatment, in naval history we find that on
every long voyage scurvy would strike. DaGama lost 100 of 160 men to scurvy
during one ten-month voyage. Soldiers bogged down in European war often
suffered the same fate: wounds that wouldn't heal, muscle pain, headaches,
bleeding gums, spitting blood, abnormal fatigue, kidney failure, blood in
urine, pneumonia and, finally, death. Curious that the symproms of
scurvy... and the more deadly forms of flu are almost identical.
Did many - even most -of the 1918 victims really die of scurvy? Well, yes,
and that is not really controversial on one basic level, more semantic than
explicative, since "scurvy" is really about the inevitable symtoms of
Vitamin C deficiency. But how does influenza itself cause this deficiency
in Vitamin C and do the victims die of scurvy?
Here is some technical information - which makes this Cathcart proposition
(that in flu, one dies from scurvy) seem likely. Vitamin C (ascorbic acid),
a reducing agent, is necessary to maintain the enzyme prolyl hydroxylase in
an active form, most likely by keeping its iron atom in a reduced state.
Note the improtance of *iron* here and the iron-hemoglobin red blood cell
connection... and also in the combined collagen connection. Collagen is
what keeps the blood vessels healthy and intact under the pressure of
"pumping". When collagen is depleted we essentially bleed to death from too
much blood "pressure" on weakened blood vessels. And it all goes back to
Vitamin C.
The precursor molecule to the protein collagen, "procollagen," contains an
unusual amino acid sequence in that every third amino acid is a glycine and
contains a high frequency of two amino acids not found in any other
proteins - hydroxyproline and hydroxylysine. These latter two amino acids
are converted from proline and lysine, respectively, after the procollagen
molecule has been synthesized. The hydroxylation of proline and lysine in
procollagen is carried out by the enzyme prolyl hydroxylase using vitamin C
as a cofactor.
Without the vitamin C cofactor, the conversion is extremely slow and blood
vessels cannot be "repatched" fast enough with new collagen. IOW the flu is
not attacking healthy cells and killing them but it is binding to vitamin C
selectively, as the is the "other" use which the body makes of this vitamin
- and depleteing it from it use with collagen.
A vitamin C deficiency results in an underhydroxylation of proline and
lysine in collagen which results in a lower melting temperature of the
resulting collagen fibers which causes a breakdown of the protein collagen
needed for connective tissue, bones and dentin, the major portion of teeth.
Collagen is a cementing material that binds cells together, and is an
essential connective tissue protein in the body. Whenever the body is
wounded, collagen glues the separated tissues together to form a scar.
A lack of collagen causes the walls of the body's blood capillaries to
break down and hemorrhaging occurs in cells throughout the body. When
capillaries lose the "glue" that holds them together, symptoms of scurvy
appear.
It is looking to this non-medically-trained observer like Dr. Cathcart's
flu ==> scurvy connection is right-on. Perhaps it is only part of the
bigger picture - but if your physician does not mention massive vitamin C
therapy for flu, either alone or in addtion to anti-virals - in my opinion
that is negligent, and tantamount to malpractice, unless of course there is
some evidence in the literature which is contrary to Cathcart's claims.
Jones
