Did 1918 Spanish Flu Deaths Result From Aspirin-Induced Scurvy (Vitamin C Deficiency)?
- From: "Ir. Hj. Othman bin Hj. Ahmad" <othmana@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 12 Oct 2009 07:05:42 -0700 (PDT)
An interesting thing noted here is that drugs can cause Vitamin C
deficiency and this makes platelets disappear.
My wife had been taking methotrexate weekly for more than 10 years and
for a few months never took any Vitamin C supplements. That could
explain here sudden drop in level of blood platelets to 7, which is
much much below the dangerous level. You could die if it drops to
below 5.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/sardi/sardi125.html
Did 1918 Spanish Flu Deaths Result From Aspirin-Induced Scurvy
(Vitamin C Deficiency)?
by Bill Sardi
Recently by Bill Sardi: The American Flu Charade
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The Daytona Beach News Journal cites the death of a 15-year-old New
Smyrna Beach high school student, a confirmed swine-flu victim. The
report says: "This student struggled with medical conditions his
entire life. He was at higher risk for medical
complications." [Daytona Beach News Journal, October 8, 2009]
A Texas 8th-grader was diagnosed with the flu on Wednesday at the
doctor’s office and denied the anti-viral drug Tamiflu because she
wasn’t "high risk." Her mother was advised to continue monitoring her
daughter whose condition worsened with "crackling sounds in her
lungs." She was finally hospitalized on Saturday. This otherwise
healthy child succumbed to the flu by Sunday morning. [WFAA-TV 11 news
Sept 30, 2009]
The CDC also just released a report showing a striking mortality rate
among pregnant women. Among 100 pregnant women hospitalized due to
influenza infection, 28 died. This is an unprecedented 28% mortality
rate! [Washington Post October 2, 2009] There is no way to confirm
this alarming report since it is not cited in a published report that
can be examined. A CDC transcript only says "28 pregnant women have
died." (Scare tactic by the CDC?) A published report does show 6 of 45
pregnant women infected with the pandemic H1N1 virus infection died
during the period from April 15 to June 16, 2009. [Lancet 374; 451–57,
2009] However, no data is provided that vaccination prevented the
women who survived from a fatal consequence.
These reports are being released in the news media’s effort to launch
the nation’s flu vaccination program, in hopes that more Americans
will elect to undergo vaccination and flu-related deaths may be
prevented. While vaccination for the flu may avert flu symptoms or
viral infection altogether, will vaccination actually prevent flu-
related deaths? Maybe not.
What Americans are hearing from the Centers for Disease Control via
the news media is that "Two-thirds of the U.S. children who have died
of H1N1 complications had high-risk medical conditions, but another
third were healthy before getting flu. Most of the latter group
probably died from co-illnesses: H1N1 and a bacterial infection
working together, health officials said." [Knox Tennessee News Nov. 8,
2009]
Would the flu vaccine in fact prevent deaths in immune-compromised
subjects? That can only be assumed. In fact, it is inappropriate to
administer the nasally-instilled "live" flu vaccine to subjects with
weakened immunity.
Missing factor
There seems to be something missing in explanations why otherwise
healthy and younger adults die from the flu. Does a dark angel just
come visit these kids that die and take them? Fearing a repeat of the
1918 Spanish flu, which resulted in millions of deaths worldwide, what
could be done to avert a similar deadly pandemic now?
Dr. Karen M. Starko MD provides us with some important clues. She
hypothesizes the high mortality rates due to the 1918 Spanish flu
resulted from the over-use of aspirin. The evidence Dr. Starko
provides is compelling.
* Physicians of the day were unaware that the recommended
medication regimens (8.0–31.2 grams per day, or 8000 to 31,200
milligrams) during that time period produce aspirin levels associated
with hyperventilation (33%) and fluid accumulation in the lungs
(pulmonary edema 3%) of subjects.
* Accumulation of fluid in the lungs was recently found in 46% of
26 aspirin-intoxicated adults. In lab experiments, aspirin increases
lung fluid and impairs clearance of mucus.
* In 1918 aspirin was recommend by the US Surgeon General, the US
Navy, and the Journal of the American Medical Association just prior
to the October death spike.
* Bayer first introduced water-soluble aspirin tablets in 1900.
Farbenfabriken Bayer’s worldwide distribution of aspirin had been
accomplished in the same year as the flu pandemic. Aspirin sales more
than doubled from 1918 to 1920.
* The US Army camp with the highest mortality rate had ordered
100,000 aspirin tablets.
* Young children were not given aspirin as widely as young adults,
which may explain why the young had a lower mortality rate in the 1918
flu. [Clinical Infectious Diseases 2009; 49: online Sept. 29]
The descriptions of flu-related, aspirin-induced lung disease by Dr.
Starko are gripping. She cites records of doctors describing aspirin
lung as looking like "the lungs of the drowned." There were small
hemorrhages in the lungs which appeared "dark and red and wet,
dripping wet."
Dr. Starko cites doctors who described "frothy, blood-tinged fluid" in
the lungs of patients who had died during the 1918 flu outbreak. There
were also frank lung hemorrhages.
Dr. Starko goes on to describe aspirin-induced symptoms to include
brain swelling, pinpoint red dots on the skin called petechiae, blue
coloration of the skin and mucus membranes (cyanosis), along with
vomiting and nose bleeds. These are not symptoms characteristic of the
flu.
Another common finding among records of mortal flu cases in 1918 was
brain swelling, called cerebral edema. Cerebral edema also occurs with
the use of aspirin and in Reye’s syndrome. [Acta Neurologica
Scandinavia Supplement 2007; 186:45–56]
This is exactly how a patient with severe vitamin C deficiency
(scurvy) dies. In scurvy capillaries are weak and red blood cells leak
into surrounding tissues, like the brain, lungs and eyes, which was
observed among the 1918 flu victims.
Yes, aspirin depletes the body of vitamin C. Aspirin is known as one
of the most powerful drugs at depleting vitamin C in normally healthy
individuals. [Journal Clinical Pharmacology 1973; 13: 480] Modern
medicine appears to have overlooked this well-documented fact.
The volume of literature that confirms aspirin depletes vitamin C is
extensive.
A study of rheumatoid arthritis patients is instructive. Rheumatoid
patients often exhibit low vitamin C blood levels. In one early study
the only rheumatoid patients with normal vitamin C levels were those
taking vitamin supplements. In this study, significantly low blood
platelet levels were found only in those rheumatoid patients receiving
high-dose aspirin – 12 or more tablets per day. Poor blood clotting
and low blood platelet levels, characteristic of scurvy, were also
prevalent in this group. [Lancet 1971 May 8; 1(7706):937–8]
A major drawback of aspirin therapy is that it may induce bleeding
gastric ulcers. When buffered (alkalinized) aspirin plus vitamin C is
employed, there is a measurable reduction in microscopic bleeding in
the gastric tract, better than buffering alone. [Alimentary
Pharmacology Therapy 2004 Feb 1; 19(3):367–74] As aspirin-induced
gastric bleeding may induce anemia or even death, it is odd modern
medicine does not mandate incorporation of vitamin C into aspirin
tablets.
Another way aspirin depletes vitamin C from the body is via excretion
in the kidneys. Vitamin C is a water-soluble nutrient that is readily
excreted in the urine and which requires repeated oral intake
throughout the day to maintain adequate levels. Aspirin increases the
excretion of vitamin C via the kidneys. [Proceedings Society
Experimental Biology Medicine 1936; 35: 20]
Vitamin C and white blood cells
Relying upon blood plasma levels of vitamin C among aspirin users to
determine vitamin adequacy can be misleading. In healthy individuals,
blood plasma levels of vitamin C do rise when taking aspirin and
supplemental vitamin C. Everything appears normal. However, aspirin
blocks the entry of vitamin C into white-blood cells, which goes
unmeasured. Vitamin C adequacy in the blood plasma serves to distract
a physician from the dire state of vitamin C depletion in the white
blood cells.
A shortage of vitamin C in white blood cells reduces their activity
against viral attack. [Annals New York Academy Science 1975 Sept 30;
258: 355–76]
In a decades-old study, the concentration of vitamin C in white blood
cells was measured in patients with gastrointestinal hemorrhage. The
white-blood-cell vitamin C concentration was 14.2 micrograms per 108
cells versus 23.7 micrograms in healthy individuals. Vitamin C
concentration in white blood cells was found to be lowest among
aspirin users in this study. [Lancet 1968; 292 (7568); 603–606]
In an experiment conducted among healthy adults, the acidity of
acetylsalicylic acid (aspirin) apparently aided the absorption of
ascorbic acid (vitamin C) so that the combined administration of 600
mg of aspirin with 500 mg of vitamin C produced a greater increase in
blood plasma vitamin C levels than with vitamin C alone, but the
aspirin completely arrested uptake of vitamin C into white blood
cells! [Annals New York Academy Science 1975 Sept 30; 258: 355–76]
The flu and vitamin C deficiency
One explanation why the elderly are typically more prone to die of the
flu may be that the concentration of vitamin C in blood plasma and
white-blood cells progressively diminish during life, reaching minimal
levels at the age of 60. [Journal Vitamin Nutrition Research 1971;
41:258]
Furthermore, senior adults are more likely to be plagued with the
aches and pains of old age and reach for an aspirin tablet more often
than younger adults. Additionally, older adults take more drugs, many
which deplete vitamin C, such as tetracycline antibiotics, iron,
estrogen replacement and steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. Cigarettes
and alcohol are also vitamin C destroyers. [British Medical Journal
1975; 1 (5951) 208]
Concern over high mortality rates among pregnant women may be
explained by a shortage of vitamin C. Vitamin C levels decrease during
ovulation and during pregnancy. [Annals New York Academy Science 1975
Sept 30; 258: 355–76]
In a more recent experiment, mice were genetically altered so they did
not synthesize vitamin C in their liver as most other animals do
(guinea pigs, primates, and humans are an exception as they don’t
naturally produce vitamin C within the liver and must completely rely
upon the diet for vitamin C). These vitamin C-deficient mice were
inoculated with influenza virus and experienced massive damage to
their lungs compared to vitamin C-adequate mice. Researchers concluded
that supplemental "vitamin C is required for an adequate immune
response and in limiting lung pathology after influenza virus
infection." [Journal Nutrition. 2006 Oct; 136(10):2611–6]
Aspirin, influenza, Reye’s syndrome link to vitamin C deficiency
Another flu/aspirin-related condition is Reye’s syndrome. Aspirin use
by children during viral infections is not advised because this can
result in a potentially fatal outcome. Health authorities warn that
aspirin is NOT to be used during episodes of fever-causing illness.
Reye’s syndrome was first described by Dr. R. Douglas Reye of
Australia in 1963. [Lancet 1963; 2: 749–52] It is said the origin of
Reye’s syndrome is still unknown. Reye’s syndrome is often
misdiagnosed and it can occur without the use of aspirin. [Archives
Pediatrics 2002 Jun; 9(6):581–6] In light of what has been learned
here, this suggests an underlying vitamin C deficiency may be involved
in unexplained cases of Reye’s syndrome.
While Dr. Reye’s receives credit for his description of this aspirin-
related syndrome in more recent times, descriptions of similar
syndromes date back to 1929 in the medical literature. Sadly, modern
medicine has missed the vitamin C connection to this syndrome for
decades.
Reye’s syndrome was killing a lot of children, with mortality rates
ranging from 17.8% to 89.6% depending upon severity, up until the
early 1980s when health advisories warned of this aspirin-related
problem. An analysis of 1134 Reye’s syndrome cases revealed an
alarming 31.3% overall mortality rate. Beginning in 1986 the labels on
aspirin bottles warned of this problem and the number of Reye’s cases
dropped considerably. [New England Journal Medicine 1999 May 6; 340
(18):1377–82]
Bird flu mortality and Reye’s syndrome
The deadly H5N1 avian flu virus is reported to have a 60% mortality
rate (6 in 10 infected die), but fortunately has poor human-to-human
transmission.
It is interesting to note that the very first confirmed death from
H5N1 involved a 3-year-old boy with good past health who developed
pneumonia with accompanying complications of Reye’s syndrome. [Journal
Paediatric Child Health. 1999 April; 35(2):207–9] Inquiry of the
child’s use of aspirin or supplemental vitamin C was not recorded, nor
was blood sample drawn to obtain a vitamin C level.
Another study involving the first confirmed H5N1 influenza diagnoses
was comprised of 7 patients over the age of 13 with 4 deaths, and 5
patients under the age of 5, one who died with Reye’s syndrome
associated with intake of aspirin. [Lancet. 1998 Feb 14; 351(9101):467–
71]
An intriguing case of mortal H5N1 flu infection was reported in 1998
involving a 3-year-old child in Hong Kong. The H5N1 virus was isolated
from tracheal aspiration samples. The young patient had no direct
contact with affected chickens. Since the H5N1 flu virus has poor
human-to-human transmission, doctors were puzzled by this case.
[Lancet. 1998 Feb 14; 351(9101):472–7] This report would be better
explained by examination of aspirin or anti-inflammatory drug use and
leukocyte (white-blood cell) vitamin C concentration.
Conclusions
If overuse of aspirin during the 1918 Spanish flu was the primary
cause of flu-related death as Dr. Karen Starko contends, then modern
medicine has missed a large lesson on how to prevent flu-related death
– that it was aspirin-induced scurvy that heightened mortality during
this worldwide flu pandemic, maybe not the flu itself. If this
hypothesis is true, then preventable mortality continues today. Many
hundreds of thousands have needlessly succumbed to a vitamin C
deficiency induced by self-treatment with aspirin and/or modern
medicine’s continued failing to practice nutritional medicine.
It is not like vitamin pills could have averted the vitamin C-related
deaths then. Vitamin C had not been discovered till ~1928 by Hungarian
researcher Albert Szent-Györgyi and was not commercially available
till a few years later. Vitamin C-rich foods like citrus fruits would
have had to be relied upon then. But 8 decades later, physicians
aren’t routinely screening their flu patients for aspirin use and
aren’t advising their patients to take supplemental vitamin C.
The facts are clear – a pharmaceutical company widely promoted aspirin
pills – a pill that depletes vitamin C from the human body, a pill
that prevents blood clots, helps to reduce the risk for heart attacks
and gastric cancer, and is a trusted pain reliever, but its biggest
drawback is that it depletes vitamin C. This drawback could have
deadly consequences.
The prevalence of vitamin C-deficiency related to aspirin use is
unmonitored. Over 50,000 tons of aspirin is produced annually, which
is equivalent to 50 billion aspirin tablets. About 1 trillion aspirin
tablets have been swallowed since its first availability in the early
1900s.
Aspirin kills thousands of people annually, mostly from gastric-tract
hemorrhages. [Annals Internal Medicine 1997; 127: 429–38]
More deaths may be attributed to aspirin use than previously
recognized. The footprints of this vitamin C deficiency syndrome are
all over the diagnostic flu map, yet they have been missed for
decades.
According to listings at the National Library of Medicine (PubMed),
there are over 2000 published reports concerning Reye’s syndrome, but
no published studies involving Reye’s syndrome and vitamin C
deficiency. There are only six published studies involving flu
mortality and vitamin C. With a research budget in the billions of
dollars, the National Institutes of Health is remiss in not delving
into the connection between vitamin C deficiency, aspirin use, flu-
related death and Reye’s syndrome.
Researcher John T. Ely, emeritus professor at the University of
Washington, says white blood cells multiply more rapidly and ingest
and eradicate viruses more effectively when vitamin C concentrations
are high. Dr. Ely emphasizes the human immune system "must have
ascorbic acid (vitamin C) to prevent and/or cure
influenza." [Experimental Biology Medicine (Maywood) 2007 July; 232(7):
847–51]
In regard to my series of articles critical of flu vaccination posted
at LewRockwell.com, an online blogger writes: "Bill Sardi doesn't know
what it is like to have a family member die of the flu." That is
precisely my point here. The public assumes the vaccines prevent
death.
Vaccines may reduce symptoms and prevent infection, if the vaccinee is
able to generate sufficient antibodies, and if the vaccine contains a
strain of the virus currently in circulation (not so in this year's
seasonal flu vaccine), and if the dosage is correct (many need two
inoculations to develop immunity), and if there is no treatment
resistance, and if, and only if, nutritional status is adequate to
avert a fatal outcome.
There is only contrived evidence vaccines prevent death. There is
incontrovertible evidence that a shortage of vitamin C, emanating from
poor diet, smoking, overuse of alcohol, aspirin, or vitamin-depleting
drugs (the very drugs they treat flu patients with – steroids,
antibiotics, etc.), is likely the primary cause of flu-related
mortality.
What this report alleges is that modern medicine casts a blind eye at
nutritional medicine because they need deaths, published in the news
media, to frighten the public into vaccination. This morning I read
news reports saying another 16 American children died of the H1N1
pandemic flu.
Fear is the pandemic. Health agencies and the news media are doing
their best to spread it. The facts are stark – regardless of the
evidence provided, the Centers for Disease Control and the World
Health Organization aren't going to rush to recommend vitamin C pills.
These so-called health agencies are obliged to produce profits for the
vaccine makers, who in turn pay off politicians in the nation's
capitol, in what becomes circular profiteering by politician and drug
manufacturer.
Fear clouds the mind. People ask, "if not vaccines, what are we to do,
take a useless vitamin C pill? Are we going to let our children die?"
Their minds have been inoculated with the thought that vitamin C is a
weak player next to a killer pandemic virus. In fact, as revealed in
this article, the lack of vitamin C may be attributed to most of the
flu deaths over the past century.
How much clearer can I make my plea? The first vaccine made available
is the nasally-instilled live-virus vaccine which induces viral
shedding for 5 days following inoculation and spreads the disease to
family members, teachers, grandmothers, everybody. The vaccine
industry knows how to jump start a flu season – begin with the live-
virus vaccine. Don't fall victim to this evil vaccination scheme. The
deaths will continue till health authorities address nutritional
status. A 100% vaccination rate would not quell mortality rates.
To minimize the risk of flu-related death, the public is going to have
to take matters into their own hands and proceed with unguided use of
supplemental vitamin C. Asking doctors about vitamin C to treat the
flu will produce a predictable answer – "that idea is unproven." It is
just that doctors are ignorant on this point, not that there is no
credible evidence.
As a final note, it needs to be said that vitamin C should be
incorporated into aspirin pills, to avert or minimize serious side
effects such as gastric or brain hemorrhage, or at least aspirin pills
should be labeled to inform consumers of the hazards posed by its
depletion of vitamin C.
Modern medicine’s narrow approach, to treat every disease as if it
were a drug deficiency, has resulted in a steep price for humanity. It
is obvious millions have died prematurely since vitamin C was first
discovered over 80 years ago. Brave and resolute men and women, Albert
Szent-Györgyi, Irwin Stone, Linus Pauling, Ewan Cameron, Emil Ginter,
Matthias Rath, Andrew Saul, Tom Levy, Steve Hickey, Raxit Jariwalla,
John T. Ely, Hilary Roberts, and others promoted the idea of vitamin C
therapy but were readily dismissed, even belittled.
It is said, you don’t die of the flu – you die of the subsequent fluid
accumulation in your lungs (pneumonia) and secondary bacterial
infection as a result of the flu. In this regard, the discoverer of
vitamin C, Albert Szent-Györgyi MD, PhD, said this: "If you do not
have sufficient vitamins and get a cold, and as a sequence pneumonia,
your diagnosis will not be ‘lack of ascorbic acid’ but ‘pneumonia.’ So
you are waylaid immediately." [The Healing Factor, Irwin Stone, 1972]
Addendum: Does vaccination prevent flu-related death?
Given this author’s negative tack on flu vaccination, frequent
challenges are received for me to disclose data on whether the flu
vaccine saves lives or not.
The question of whether flu shots avert flu-related death is a
difficult question to answer.
Not every influenza virus, nor every pneumonia death, is confirmed by
laboratory testing. The Centers for Disease Control employs
statistical methods, not body counts, to come up with flu-related
mortality figures.
Some guesstimates indicate large numbers of vaccinated populations
having been spared their lives. However, one group of researchers
report that excess deaths attributable to influenza have only been 5–
10% on average in flu seasons in the past several decades. They argue
that flu shots could not possibly have prevented more deaths than the
5%–10% of excess deaths in the population. [Archives Internal Medicine
2005; 165(3):265–272; Lancet Infectious Diseases 2007; 7(10):658–666;
New England Journal Medicine 2007; 357(26):2729–2730] It’s obvious
some pseudoscience has been produced.
While observational studies indicate mortality rates during flu
seasons are much lower in vaccinated elderly groups, and Kaiser health
plan doctors found elderly patients who died were less likely to have
been vaccinated (45% versus 63% among survivors), recently
investigators found that the vaccinated had relatively low mortality
(death) and morbidity (disease) compared to the unvaccinated, even
before the start of the flu season, which would certainly skew the
data for analysis. Much of the difference in mortality between
vaccinated and unvaccinated groups may be attributable to what is
called selection bias.
Kaiser Health Plan researchers suggest vaccination prevents ~25 deaths
per 100,000 elderly people vaccinated in a study year. If this figure
is projected to larger senior-adult populations, then flu vaccination
would prevent ~250 deaths per 1 million vaccinees and 2500 deaths
among 10 million vaccinees. The Kaiser study guesstimates, if no
elderly patients were vaccinated the excess mortality rate during the
flu season would be ~9.8% and with 60% vaccination coverage, this
figure would drop to ~4.6%, a relative 47% reduction. Of course, these
numbers are guesstimates because the number of deaths among the
unvaccinated has to be estimated. In the Kaiser study, about 4000
elderly people had to be vaccinated for 1 flu-related death to be
prevented. One can easily see the flaw in these estimates when one
considers in many past flu seasons the vaccine didn’t match the flu
strain in circulation. Furthermore, the Kaiser study had no way to
determine if a deceased patient had actually received a flu shot in a
non-Kaiser facility (nursing home) where Kaiser doesn’t monitor
vaccination rates. So some vaccine failures may not have been
reported. [American Journal Epidemiology 2009 September 1; 170(5): 650–
656]
.
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