Tag: vitamins

Basic prevention

Claus Hancke

July 28, 2021

In March 2020, politicians shut the world down on pandemic orders from the WHO.
It did not take many seconds from the shutdown before the talk went on that vaccines had to be developed that could free us from this covid-19 disease.
It was established from the outset that the disease could neither be prevented nor treated. There was only isolation until the saving vaccine came.
It was “The one-legged stool”, as mentioned in our newsletter feb. 21, 2021.

If anything was fake news, it was this.
But for inexplicable reasons it became the standing narrative, which was so sacred that one was shamed and censored if one doubted this worldview.

All over the world, doctors were prevented from rescuing their patients by early prevention and treatment of covid-19.
It sounds crazy that one has censored and prevented harmless methods of prevention and treatment before it goes so wrong that the patient has to be hospitalized.
Do the authorities really want people to get so ill that they have to be hospitalized?
Some of these harmless methods are even well documented, yet it is branded as “fake news” when it is publicly mentioned and the doctors in question are quarantined on Facebook and YouTube.

However, measures such as shutdowns and face masks are blindly accepted, even though there is very little documentation of the effect.
Health authorities as well as politicians from all over the world have loudly and sacredly emphasized that we must follow the science, and the world’s all-round experts have been shown on TV to give the authorities’ actions a tinge of science.

But when it comes to shutdowns, mink killings, face masks, PCR testing and the so-called vaccine, which is in fact a gene therapy, these highly praised scientific principles have failed.
We have even come so far that the population must be humiliated with testing or subjected to experimental gene therapy in order to preserve its civil rights.
Every thinking person must ask oneself: Tell me, what is going on?

If you want to try to get an overview of this madness, it is recommended to spend time watching: https://www.markmallett.com/blog/following-the-science/, which is a serious TV review of the conflict between science and the active deception of the authorities.

The Vitality Council is fortunately uncensored, and in the newsletter May 2020, there was a comprehensive overview of the supplements with which one could prevent a serious Covid-19 course.
The main thing is that the immune system must not lack these basic nutrients. On the other hand, a well-functioning immune system has the great advantage that it can quickly adapt to a new mutation of the virus and adjust its counter-attack to it.
A vaccine is specially designed for a specific type of virus, and must be reconstructed and adjusted if a new VOC (“virus of concern”, ie mutations that are viewed with concern) varies so much from the previous one that the vaccine does not work.
We see this at this time at home and abroad, where fully vaccinated people are admitted with severe covid-19.
This would not happen if the entire population had a well-functioning immune system that can quickly adjust the target to the new variant.
Then you only need to vaccinate the 2% who are in the absolute risk group.

But one thing is to prevent serious flu or Covid-19. Something else is the prevention of the major killer diseases like cancer and cardiovascular disease.
These disorders have been underdiagnosed during the Covid-19 pandemic, which must necessarily become a problem for the healthcare system in the coming years.
But then it is fortunate that many of the supplements that the Vitality Council recommended 1½ years ago also reduce the risk of these diseases.
This is not really so strange, for many diseases start with the process called inflammation. And it can be prevented to a great extent.
Regarding Covid-19, it starts with the immunological reaction to viral infection, the excessive reaction, the cytokine storm and then the whole inflammatory process.
In cardiovascular disease it starts with inflammation of the vessel wall and oxidation of LDL cholesterol, and in cancer it starts with inflammation of the cells in an oxygen-poor area, which then changes the metabolism in the mitochondria from aerobic and efficient energy production to anaerobic sugar fermentation and low energy production.
Therefore, if you focus on inhibiting the inflammatory processes that should not be in the body, then you are well on your way to preventing the large, life-threatening diseases, and at the same time you get to inhibit the development of viral diseases so that they do not develop in a fatal direction.
Therefore, if I have to come up with an all-round recommendation as a basis, then it will be:

  • A multivitamin-mineral product without iron
  • Plus extra Selenium, so the daily dose comes up to 150 µg
  • Plus extra vitamin D, so the daily dose is up to 100 µg (this is only the maintenance dose if you are not in deficit. Otherwise you need more.)
  • Plus extra vitamin C, so the daily dose comes up to 2,000 mg
  • Plus extra Magnesium, so the daily dose comes up to 500 mg
  • Fish oil (but not necessary if you eat fatty fish every day)
  • Lactic acid bacteria

This basic supplement can ensure that you do not run a deficit for the body’s performance of tits basic functions, including the processes of the immune system.

If, on top of this, you are exposed to infection, which we have all been at intervals in the last 1½ year, then you can for a period supplement with:

  • Vitamin A: 1 mg
  • Vitamin B6: 5 mg
  • Vitamin C: 3,000 mg
  • Vitamin D3: 100 µg
  • Selenium: 100 µg
  • Zinc: 30 mg.
  • Echinacea 20 drops 2 x dgl.

This ensures that the immune system is well-supplied, despite increasing consumption, and then inhibits the cytokine storm, which can be life-threatening for the elderly and weak.

And the very basics of a good immune system are of course:

  • A healthy diet
  • Daily exercise
  • 7-8 hours of sleep
  • Freedom from smoke
  • Moderation
  • A positive outlook on life

Take care of yourself and others.

Claus Hancke MD
Specialist in general medicine

A second wave of Corona epidemic is coming

Claus Hancke

That is why we need to be prepared

May 20, 2020

The Corona virus will return. Of course it will.

When and how bad it will be, we do not know, but it will come.

Curiously enough, most people expect the second wave this fall – what we are not being told is that this is because the population’s vitamin D level again will be low at that time that we also call the “flu season”.

One of Europe’s experts capabilities on Covid-19, Professor Christian Drosten of the Charité Institute at the University of Berlin, even thinks that the second wave could be tougher than the current one.

But should we then sit with our hands in our laps and wait for a vaccine?’
No, no and again no.

We must, of course, do everything we can to boost every Dane’s immune system so that we are “armed to the teeth” and can prevent a severe epidemic.

Well, isn’t it precisely an overreaction of the immune system (a cytokine storm) that kills lung patients? Yes. If they are vitamin-depleted, then it will happen.

However, several of the vitamins and minerals I have mentioned will specifically inhibit this cytokine storm from the activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome, which releases the inflammatory cytokines. Here, vitamin D and magnesium, selenium and the antioxidant vitamins are particularly important as they inhibit this cytokine storm and the subsequent inflammatory microcoagulation seen in the pulmonary vessels. It was described a week ago thoroughly in the Lancet by Prof. Dennis McGonagle and colleagues. They describe how there is actually inflammatory coagulation in the pulmonary vessels, rather than a pneumonia. Of course, this causes oxygen deficiency and such coagulation cannot be treated with a respirator. McGonagle and colleagues call it a diffuse alveolar and pulmonary interstitial inflammation in COVID-19 resulting in a macrophage activation that triggers extensive immunothrombosis.

Thus, according to this article, it is an inflammation-triggered immune response that leads to microcoagulation in the lungs, and that is what Covid-19 patients die from. This is interesting because this reaction can be dampened by vitamin D, selenium, magnesium and vitamin C.

Some of these substances have direct antiviral properties. We see this confirmed in the few scientific studies that are already published, as mentioned in the previous newsletters. The higher the level of intake (within a safe limit), the lower the mortality rate. Therefore, it is important to have high enough vitamin / mineral content for the immune system to be so effective that it will not cause severe lung disease. The more effectively we can prevent disease, the less we need treatment. The previous three newsletters have dealt with Vitamin D, Selenium and Zinc. Now we come to one of the cornerstones of human survival, namely Vitamin C. It is also called “ascorbic acid” after “a-scorbut”, ie against scurvy.

In the past, just as with other vitamins, these were believed to only protect against a deficiency of that vitamin. Thus, it was believed that vitamin C merely protected against scurvy, ie vitamin C deficiency.

However, the past 60-70 years of research have shown that vitamins (and certain minerals) have completely different and quite potent therapeutic properties when dosed accordingly.

Vitamin C is essential for our immune system, which has been documented in over 1,000 scientific articles. Finding evidence is not difficult. Rather, one must know how to limit oneself when searching.

Some of these articles are listed in the literature list. I have included a few old ones for historical reasons. After all, it is interesting that Frederick Klenner with high-dose vitamin C cured children from active polio, while here in Denmark we put them in iron lungs (the respirator of that time), while letting the virus rage in the body. Klenner killed the virus.

Another classic is Nobel Laureate Linus Pauling’s classic “The common cold …”, which created a great debate for and against.
Since that time, the scientific evidence has been well established and unanimously shows that vitamin C is essential for a well-functioning immune system.

Vitamin C has many extraordinary properties in that it can not only prevent disease but also be used in disease treatment.

If we are to concentrate on the current Covid-19 pandemic, then several serious studies around the world are using ascorbic acid intravenously to treat severe Covid-19 disease.

Contrary to the often heard mantra, “we have no treatment to offer Covid-19 patients”.

Well, we have.

It is true, however, that there are no gold standard randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled studies published in reputable, peer-reviewed, medical journals. But come-on.

This is a completely harmless treatment with an extremely cheap, natural vitamin for a potentially fatal disease.

If the seriously ill Covid-19 patients have to wait for the above publication, then they will be dead. Why not try it when it can never hurt them? If doctors are nervous about the legal aspect, use Article 37 of the Helsinki Declaration on compassionate care. Here, the doctor’s judgment applies.

The theoretical basis for the antiviral effect of vitamin C is present, along with a second-to-none safety track record. There is even more than 70 years of clinical experience from doctors who have used ascorbic acid for a variety of diseases, including severe viral infections. In addition, a large number of scientific studies, which more than indicate that Vitamin C has a place in the treatment of viral infections.

The least that could be done was to do a pilot study with 10 patients hospitalized with severe Covid-19 disease and compare with 10 who did not receive vitamin C. All 20 patients would receive the standard treatment available today.
Then you can compare mortality, hospitalization time, and recovery time.
The study can be completed in a month within a general medical department’s budget. It can hardly be more simple.

But that is perhaps the problem.

The first four newsletters have dealt with optimization of the immune system using vitamin D, Selenium, Magnesium, Zinc and Vitamin C.

The next newsletter will summarize our knowledge of the Covid-19 pandemic and conclude with a comprehensive overview of what you can take if you want to be highly equipped with an optimally functioning immune system as the next virus threat approaches.

Take care of yourself and others,

Claus Hancke, MD,
Specialist in general medicine

Refs.

  • Alberto Boretti, Bimal Krishna Banik (2020) Intravenous vitamin C for reduction of cytokines storm in acute respiratory distress syndrome PharmaNutrition. 2020 Jun;12:100190.  Published online 2020 Apr 21.
  • Cannell JJ, Zasloff M, Garland CF et al. (2008) On the epidemiology of influenza. Virol J. 2008;5:29.
  • Carr AC, Maggini S. Vitamin C and immune function. Nutrients 2017;9(11):1211.
  • Chambial S et al (2013) Vitamin C in Disease Prevention and Cure: An Overview. Indian J Clin Biochem. 2013 Oct; 28(4): 314–328.
  • Gerber, WF (1975) Effect of ascorbic acid, sodium salicylate and caffeine on the serum interferon level in response to viral infection. Pharmacology, 13: 228
  • Gonzalez MJ, Berdiel MJ, Duconge J (2018) High dose vitamin C and influenza: A case report.  J Orthomol Med. June, 2018, 33(3).
  • Gorton HC, Jarvis K (1999) The effectiveness of vitamin C in preventing and relieving the symptoms of virus-induced respiratory infections. J Manip Physiol Ther, 22:8, 530-533
  • Hemilä H (2003) Vitamin C and SARS coronavirus Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, Volume 52, Issue 6, December 2003, Pages 1049–1050
  • Hunt C et al. The clinical effects of Vitamin C supplementation in elderly hospitalised patients with acute respiratory infections. Int J Vitam Nutr Res 1994;64:212-19.
  • Kennes B, Dumont I, Brohee D, Hubert C, Neve P (1983) Effect of vitamin C supplements on cell-mediated immunity in old people. Gerontology. 29:305-310.
  • Klenner F 1949, Southern Medicine & Surgery, Volume 111, Number 7, July, 1949, pp. 209-214
  • Li W1, Maeda N, Beck MA. (2006) Vitamin C deficiency increases the lung pathology of influenza virus-infected gulo-/- mice, J Nutr. 2006 Oct;136(10):2611-6.
  • McGonagle D et al, 2020, Immune mechanisms of pulmonary intravascular coagulopathy in COVID-19 pneumonia. Lancet May 7, 2020:1-9
  • Pauling L (1971) Vitamin C and the common cold Can Med Assoc J. 1971 Sep 4; 105(5): 448, 450.
  • Wintergerst ES, Maggini S, Hornig DH (2006) Immune-enhancing role of vitamin C and zinc and effect on clinical conditions. Ann Nutr Metab. 50:85-94.
  • Yejin Kim, Hyemin Kim, Seyeon Bae et al. (2013) Vitamin C is an essential factor on the anti-viral immune responses through the production of interferon-α/β at the initial stage of influenza A virus (H3N2) infection. Immune Netw. 13:70-74.

Contradictions about vitamins

Claus Hancke

 April 26, 2012

One may wonder about the Danish newspapers’ poor interest in the latest vitamin report. First of all, the report predicts dead to those who take vitamin pills, secondly, the turn-over for vitamins is one and a half billion kroner a year. The subject must interest many.

Here the report itself will not be discussed. It is already commented. On the other hand, attention must be paid to a very serious issue concerning the marketing of the report: The contradictory statements that a prominent researcher has used the report to make.

The statements are from chief physician Christian Gluud from Rigshospitalet. He has previously said peculiar things. It’s hard to forget how he on television declared antioxidants (like vitamin E and vitamin C) to be carcinogenic, even when they occur in fruit and vegetables. However, in fruit and vegetables there was, he believed, “a lot of other substances that might either correct the potential damage caused by the antioxidants or that could completely neutralize them.”

You might consider this amusing statement the next time you eat broccoli. It is thus an antidote to vitamins, you are eating!

Currently, Gluud said on TV that his latest study, which combined the results of different trials, is based on trials with commonly recommended vitamin doses. And yet, in almost all trials, there were used from five to twenty times the recommended dose or more.

Gluud has further said (the news program Deadline 2.4.2012) that his group has revealed that, for example, the antioxidants Vitamin C and selenium are directly life threatening, as they increase mortality by 4%. And yet, his report frees both of the two antioxidants for this accusation.

In the TV2 news (22.3.2012) Gluud said that “it’s quite common vitamin pills in very common doses that give the increased mortality.” But in an interview with Medwatch.dk he said the opposite: He could not comment on that subject – that multivitamins increase mortality – because no one had studied it!

If you ask chief physician Gluud, you may obviously get the answer that his current state of mind indicates. One moment, common vitamin pills are dangerous poisons, the next, it is not known, and at one time, selenium and vitamin C are poisonous, but at another time and towards another audience – those who read the report – they are harmless.

The contradictions do not prevent Gluud from hoping that the report will have “a practical and industry related consequence,” as he says. What that means is easy to understand. Gluud is/has been chairman of a lobby group that has sought to influence the European Commission to prevent the free sale of vitamins. They must be made into drugs, which in practice will push small vitamin companies out of the lucrative market, which alone in Europe is more than $ 20 billion a year.

When a researcher is politicizing, he invariably throws a dubious light over his research, justly or not. Worse, however, is when the researcher is facing the public, on a topic of great importance, against better knowledge.

In doing so makes him disqualified.

By. Niels Hertz, M.D

Early old age without vitamins and minerals

Niels Hertz

January 15, 2007

Without sufficient vitamins and minerals, old age comes too early. This is because the organism ignores the future when resources are limited. If it needs to, it does what is best for the present.

Keep an eye on Bruce Ames, the American biochemist and professor from Berkeley University. He is the man behind the worldwide renown Ames test, a quick method of establishing whether or not substances in food and the environment are cancerous, which is to say whether or not they cause mutation. He is also the author of uncountable numbers of scientific articles and has proposed some very important hypothesises in the field of nutrition. In 1999 President Clinton handed him the “American Nobel prise,” the National Medal of Science, for his contributions. At an age of 78, Ames is still extremely active.

Ames is among those who insist that there is, in uncountable ways, relationships between shortages of vitamins and minerals and cancer, mutations, and aging. But earlier than others, he also sought to explain these relationships bio chemically. It is highly important that we turn to long term studies involving thousands of people for these biomechanical mechanisms to be tested. When Ames invented his mutation test, he simplified detection of cancerous substances with one blow. Long term animal studies became unnecessary. Now he also wants to make long term human studies unnecessary in the study of nutritional deprivation.

The relationship between nutritional deprivation and cancer has been documented with extensive references in last November’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. For example, mutations, cancer, and early aging are seen early in association with magnesium deficiency. Vitamin D deficiency is believed to be the reason for 29% of all cancer in men. There is a relationship between deficiency of n-3 fatty acids from fish oil and malignant melanoma (skin caner), between selenium deficiency and cancer, and between potassium deficiency and heart disease. Lack of the B vitamin folic acid, vitamin B12, thiamine, and niacin also are associated with mutations and cancer. Even iron deficiency leads to mutations.

If all of this, and more, is an expression of a causal relationship, then nutrient deficiency should naturally be combated. Deficiency is, as we all know, extremely widespread. We receive large amounts of carbohydrates and fats, but few vitamins and minerals. One in every two Americans receive less magnesium than recommended, 90% receive too little vitamin E, 30% receive too little vitamin C, and so on… and so on.

Mutations can wait
If these many nutrient deficiencies are really the reasons for cancer, aging, and mutation, than what is the explanation? According to Ames, cells, and therefore the organs that they compose, prioritise when they temporarily or permanently lack something. A cell which as a result of a deficiency cannot accomplish all of its tasks, choose, for example, to prioritise the production of energy over the reparation of mutations. Correspondingly, scarce resources cause the organism to prioritise the production of red blood cells over the production of white blood cells, which is to say over immune system maintenance. The principle behind this is the same as when blood is directed to vital organs, such as the heart and lung, after blood loss. The organism must survive now, even though the price is weakening in the long term.

Prioritising is nonetheless only one reason for mutation and aging. A more direct connection is that nutrient deficiencies cause problems for the cells’ energy factories, the mitochondria. They are weakened by vitamin B (biotin) deficiency, pantoic acid deficiency, riboflavin deficiency, B6 deficiency, among others. Without these nutrients, the mitochondria cannot produce the enzymes necessary for energy production. Without energy nothing works in the cell, including the defence against mutation

Ames and others are now trying to find out how much nutrients we need to hold the number of mutations to a minimum and to keep the our mitochondria intact. This is not easy, but it is easier than undertaking expensive, and in many ways, uncertain, decade(s) long population studies. Also, who would finance such expensive studies?

In recent years we have seen a number of studies of supplementary vitamins E and C, selenium, beta-carotene, and vitamin A. Many of these were poorly done, more have been misinterpreted, and some have been proven. Few have become wiser. Is this the way forward? Or has Ames again shown a better shortcut?

While we wait for better knowledge, we should, according to Ames, take reasonable supplements of vitamins and minerals. Everything points towards that this is wise. And there are no risks.

By: Niels Hertz, MD

Reference:
Ames B. Low micronutrient intake may accelerate the degenerative diseases of aging through allocation of scarce micronutrients by triage. PNAS 2006; 103:17589-94.

www.pnas.org

Vitamins in general, Research references

Admin

January 1999

1. Ames BN, Berkeley, Univ. CA et al. High-dose vitamin therapy stimulates variant enzymes with decreased coenzyme binding affinity (increased K-m): relevance to gentic disease and polymorphisms. Am J Clin Nutr, 2002, vol.75, 616-58.
2. Fairfield KM, Fletcher RH, Harvard Medical School, Vitamins for Chronic Disease Prevention in Adults, Scientific Review, JAMA, vol. 287, 3116-26, 2002. (152 refs.)
3. Fletcher RH, Fairffield KM, Vitamins for Chronic Disease Prevention in Adults, Clinical Applications, JAMA, vol. 287, 3127-29, 2002. (23 refs.)

 

Sources
Joseph E. Pizzorno Jr., Michael T. Murrey & Melvyn R. Werbach.