February 1, 2009
-Posted here
Dr. John Cannell, MD
-Vit D CouncilNatural Antibiotic:
Vitamin D Fights Severe Infections
Vitamin D has to do with absorption of calcium
into the bones - it will even take the mineral out
of the soft tissues to do its building job, if not
enough is around from foods we eat. But vitamin D as
an antibiotic? It might seem somewhat far fetched
but the evidence is hard to overlook, says Dr. John
Cannell of the
Vitamin D Council, described as "a group of
concerned citizens that believe many humans are
needlessly suffering and dying from Vitamin D
deficiency."
Vitamin D myths, facts and statistics -
News Target
The idea that vitamin D is a largely overlooked
nutrient is not really new. According to an article
by Mike Adams with Dr Michael Holick,
"Vitamin D prevents osteoporosis,
depression, prostate cancer, breast cancer, and
even affects diabetes and obesity. Vitamin D is
perhaps the single most underrated nutrient in
the world of nutrition."
With antibiotic overuse, especially in farm
animals, resulting in more and more strains of
bacteria developing resistance to what once killed
them, a new and simple way of fighting serious
infections would not be a bad thing at all. Dr.
Cannell has done some good detective work and he
says that it might just be that fighting infection
with pharmacological doses of vitamin D is not such
a new idea after all.
I won't spoil the fun though ... you will have to
read his article.
- - -
The Vitamin D Newsletter
June/July 2006
Dr. Liu and colleagues at UCLA, publishing in
this March's edition of the prestigious journal
Science, showed that vitamin D might be, in effect,
a potent antibiotic. Vitamin D increases the body's
production of naturally occurring antibiotics:
antimicrobial peptides. Antimicrobial peptides are
produced in numerous cells in the human body where
they directly and rapidly destroy the cell walls of
viruses and bacteria, including tuberculosis.
Furthermore, Liu showed that adding vitamin D to
African American serum (African Americans have
higher rates of TB) dramatically increased
production of these naturally occurring antibiotics.
Science. 2006 Mar 24;311(5768):1770-3.
Plenty of you have e-mailed me that high
(pharmacological) doses of vitamin D (1,000 to 2,000
units per kg per day for three days), taken at the
first sign of influenza, effectively reduces the
severity of symptoms. However, has anyone ever
studied giving 100,000, 200,000, or 300,000 units a
day for several days to see if vitamin D induces
antimicrobial peptides to help fight other
life-threatening infections? (By the way, doses up
to 600,000 units as a single dose are routinely used
in Europe as "Stoss" therapy to prevent
vitamin D deficiency and have repeatedly been
shown to be safe for short-term administration.) No,
you say, studies of "Stoss" therapy in serious
infections have never been studied or reported in
reputable journals. Well, maybe such treatment has
been studied - and reported in the best journals -
by way of the weirdest medical invention ever
patented in the USA.
Before I get into that, I want to compliment the
English for their sense of fair play. Last month I
pointed out that the English discovered activated
vitamin D (calcitriol) before the Americans. It's
important because I suspect the Nobel Committee will
get around to awarding a Prize for vitamin D
sometime in the next several decades, especially if
vitamin D turns out to function like an antibiotic.
Well, I got an email from an English scientist who
pointed out that it was an American who first
discovered calcitriol - but none of the ones I
listed. He pointed out that Dr. Tony Norman was
actually the first to discover calcitriol - in a
series of experiments starting in 1968. Too often,
we only think of Dr. DeLuca's and Dr. Holick's lab
when we think of vitamin D, while Dr. Norman's
lab at UC Riverside is overlooked. He has
authored 486 papers about vitamin D beginning in
1963 when he was a student in Dr. DeLuca's lab. (By
the way, Dr. DeLuca also trained Dr. Holick as he
has many vitamin D researchers) When a Nobel Prize
is awarded, how will they choose? I don't know -
perhaps they should all share it. I do know that I
love the English sense of fair play.
Before I get into this, be warned that what follows
is bizarre. It might not make much sense in the
beginning. However, if you'll bear with me, you'll
see where I'm going. Remember how Professor Reinhold
Vieth has written about the complete absence of
studies using pharmacological doses of vitamin D
(100,000 to 300,000 units a day for several days) in
serious diseases. Are there frequently fatal
illnesses, such as peritonitis (generalized
infection in the abdominal cavity), septicemia
(infection of the blood), pneumonia (the Captain of
the Men of Death), etc, in which pharmacological
doses of vitamin D may be clinically useful when
added to conventional treatment?
We know that vitamin D has profound effects on human
immunity. Quite recently, three independent groups
have reported that vitamin D triggers the release of
these powerful natural antibiotics called
antimicrobial peptides. If you gave someone large
doses of vitamin D, would their bodies make large
amounts of antimicrobial peptides?
My attempts to answer that question led me to some
very strange research. Did you know that when some
people get an infection, they go to an alternative
health care provider and have their blood
irradiated? I'm not kidding. About 300 cc of their
blood is removed, irradiated with UVB and UVC, and
then returned to their body. Today, alternative
health practitioners call it "Photoluminescence
Therapy." When results appeared in the best American
medical journals, it was called the "Knott Technic."
By the way, I'm not talking about "photopheresis,"
Dr. Richard Edelson's irradiation of some blood
components to treat cutaneous T cell lymphoma, used
today in 150 medical centers around the country. I'm
talking about Knott's irradiation of whole blood to
treat life-threatening infections, used in hospitals
around the country in the 1930's, 40's and early
50's. In the 1940's, at least one prestigious
American hospital even had a "Department of Blood
Irradiation."
Knott EK, Hancock VK. Irradiated blood
transfusion in treatment of infections. Northwest
Med.1934; 33: 200-204.
It began in the 1920's. Seattle scientist Emmett
Knott knew that sunlight and UV light was being used
to successfully treat infectious diseases. The 1903
Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded to Dr. Niels
Finsen for his discovery that artificial UV
radiation of the skin cured tuberculosis of the
skin. If skin infections could be treated by
irradiating the skin, Dr. Knott thought blood
infections might be cured by irradiating the blood!
Knott built an apparatus that would remove about 5%
of the blood volume, anti-coagulate it, expose it to
UVB and UVC radiation, and then pump the irradiated
blood back into the body. Depending on the patient's
weight, about 300 cc of blood is removed and
circulated in thin glass tubing while being
irradiated by ultraviolet light. The blood is then
returned to the patient and the process is repeated
a number of times, depending on the seriousness of
the condition being treated. Sounds crazy?
Knott EK. Development of ultraviolet blood
irradiation. American Journal of Surgery 1948;
76(2): 165-171.
However, a couple of things caught my eye. First,
the "Knott Technic" didn't really work on test
animals until Knott began using ultra-thin quartz
glass tubing. (Regular glass blocks UV radiation but
quartz glass does not.) Second, Knott added a series
of baffles to ensure all the blood came in direct
contact with the interior surface of the quartz
tube. (The heme molecule would absorb UV light if
the blood was not agitated). Third, according to a
book by Dr. William Douglas, the procedure rapidly
cured both rickets and tetany. (Of course, a common
cause of rickets and tetany is vitamin D
deficiency.) Fourth, according to Douglas, Knott's
early animal studies showed this procedure could
maintain serum calcium in animals whose parathyroid
glands were surgically removed. (We used to use
pharmacological doses of vitamin D in humans who
have had their parathyroid glands removed in order
to maintain serum calcium.) Finally, when Knott
experimented on dogs, he found that irradiating 100%
of their blood volume (10 sessions with 10% of the
blood removed and irradiated each time) cured
experimentally induced infections, but all the dogs
died 5-7 days later with cardiac arrhythmia, low
blood pressure, respiratory depression, loss of
reflexes, loss of muscle tone, followed by coma and
death. (This is the clinical course in fatal
hypercalcemia - the cause of death in severe vitamin
D toxicity.) If the "Knott Technic" cured rickets
and tetany, maintained serum calcium in
parathyroidectomized animals, and caused
hypercalcemia with over-irradiation, it must have
delivered pharmacological amounts of vitamin D into
the circulation. See where I'm heading?
Into the Light, Tomorrow's Medicine Today
Some of you may know that many substances develop
vitamin D activity when irradiated. Milk used to be
irradiated to fortify it with vitamin D, now the
vitamin D is just added. The famous
Harry Steenbock of the University of Wisconsin,
found many things develop vitamin D activity when
irradiated, including olive oil, cereal products,
orange juice, and egg yolk. (He patented the
procedure of irradiating things, including
ergosterol to make ergocalciferol or vitamin D2, and
gave the proceeds - which were enormous - to the
University of Wisconsin.) However, I couldn't locate
a study that sought to discover if human blood makes
vitamin D when it is irradiated. To find out, I
looked in what must be the first vitamin D textbook
ever published in English (Blunt and Cowan, 1930). I
learned two interesting things. One, wavelengths
between 250 and 280 nm (UVC) were more effective in
curing rachitic rats than was the UVB range (pp.
74). Two, recrystalized red blood cells made lots of
vitamin D when irradiated (pp. 135). However, to my
knowledge, no one has ever directly tested the
theory that irradiating blood delivers vitamin D to
the circulation. The entire idea is so weird, who
would ever do that?
Blunt K, Cowan R. Ultraviolet Light and
Vitamin D Nutrition. 1930; The University of Chicago
Press, Chicago Illinois.
About now, you may be wondering if I've lost my
mind. Why would anyone care if irradiating blood
triggers vitamin D production when vitamin D
supplements will do the trick? The reason it's
important is that hundreds of studies have been
published, many in the best journals, describing
clear-cut antibiotic-like actions following blood
irradiation. Remember when I said Dr. Reinhold Vieth
has complained that pharmacological doses of vitamin
D have never been tested in clinical trials. Well,
maybe they have, and on lots of frequently fatal
infections - but no one knew blood irradiation was
actually delivering hundreds of thousands of units
of vitamin D to desperately ill patients. That is,
no one knew it was pharmacological doses of vitamin
D actually being tested.
I'll concentrate on just a few of the published
studies. In 1942, Professor George Miley at
Hahnemann Hospital in Philadelphia reported using
the "Knott Technic" on 103 patients with
life-threatening infections. Remember, all they had
at the time was sulfa drugs so most of these
patients usually died. He classified the patients as
early, moderately advanced, and moribund (close to
death). The diagnosis included sepsis, septic
abortion, peritonitis, pneumonia, appendicle
abscess, pelvic abscess, wound infection,
septicemia, and similar conditions. He treated all
of them with ultraviolet blood irradiation and
reported that all 20 of the early patients, 46 of 47
of the moderately advanced patients, and 17 of 36
moribund patients fully recovered - such results
were unheard of at the time.
Miley GP. The Knott Technic of Ultraviolet
Blood Irradiation in Acute Pyogenic Infections. New
York State Journal of Medicine. 1942;42(1):38-46.
Miley and Christensen went on to report what might
be the largest case series ever published by The
American Journal of Surgery. They reported treating
445 patients with a variety of life-threatening
infections over six years. All of the early, 98% of
moderately advanced, and 45% of moribund patients
recovered after treatment with Knott hemo-irradiation
- results that would rival those obtained today. The
only side effect noted was a curious flushing of the
skin that occurred in most treated patients and
lasted up to 30 days. They also noted that treatment
of staph aureus septicemia with sulfa drugs reduced
effectiveness of hemo-irradiation.
Miley GP, Christensen JA. Ultraviolet blood
irradiation therapy: further studies in acute
infections. American Journal of Surgery 1947; 73:
486-493.
Miley and Rebbeck also reported on 40 patients with
generalized peritonitis (a usually fatal infection
of the abdominal cavity). All 23 moderately advanced
patients and 9 of 17 moribund patients recovered
after blood irradiation.
Miley GP, Rebbeck EW. The Knott Technic of
Ultraviolet Blood Irradiation as a Control of
Infection in Peritonitis. Review of
Gastroenterology. 1943;10:1.
In 1948, Miley and Christensen reported the
technique had near miraculous results on viral
pneumonia, including influenza. Within a few days of
one treatment, fever disappeared and symptoms
abated. For those of you who haven't tried it, 1,000
to 2,000 units per kg per day of vitamin D, early in
the course of influenza or influenza-like illnesses,
has very similar effects.
Miley GP, Christensen JA. Ultraviolet blood
irradiation therapy in acute virus-like infections.
Review of Gastroenterology 1948; 15; 271-277.
Dr. Rebbeck, from the "Department of Blood
Irradiation," at Shadyside Hospital in Pittsburgh
went on to independently confirm Miley's reports of
successful treatments in acute peritonitis,
puerperal (childbirth) sepsis, post-abortion sepsis
- even 6 of 8 patients survived E-coli septicemia, a
routinely lethal infection. Of interest, the two
patients who died from E-coli septicemia had
autopsies: one had a sterile bloodstream and the
other showed the E-coli was gone but staph aureus
was present.
>
In the late 40's and 50's, articles in the American
Journal of Surgery reported that the technique was
useful in a variety of ailments. Olney reported that
viral hepatitis responded.
>
Let me say again, I'm not advocating blood
irradiation. I'm only interested in the research
because it may mean pharmacological doses of vitamin
D acts as a broad-spectrum antibiotic by ramping up
production of the body's own antimicrobial peptides.
If the "Knott Technic" creates pharmacological
amounts of vitamin D, then maybe that's its
mechanism of action. If so, thousands of desperately
ill patients with life-threatening infections in
ICU's all over the world might be saved if short
pharmacological courses of vitamin D were added to
standard treatment with conventional antibiotics.
So what ended research on ultraviolet blood
irradiation in the United States? First, more
antibiotics became available, with much improved
results (that was before many bacteria developed
resistance to antibiotics). Second, Knott's proposed
mechanism of action - directly killing bacteria in
the irradiated blood or sterilization of the blood -
was proven wrong. When you think about Knott's
reasoning, it never made any sense. Only a small
portion of the blood volume is irradiated so
bacteria in the un-irradiated blood would be free to
reproduce inside the body. No, direct sterilization
of the blood was never a reasonable mechanism of
action. However, without a viable mechanism of
action, the procedure was doomed, at least in
America.
>- J Bacteriol. 1944 Jan;47(1):85-96.
>
- Archives of Physical Medicine
1948;19:358-65
>
Another critical study was funded in part by the
American Medical Association and appeared in its
journal. Again, they found that blood irradiation
didn't sterilize the blood. They also administered
Knott hemo-irradiation to 68 patients with a wide
range of diseases and found it safe, but
ineffective, although none of the treated patients
died. Although the JAMA article was its death knell
in the USA, the authors concluded with the sentence,
"A longer and more extensive program of study is
warranted before in vivo ultraviolet irradiation of
blood can be finally either accepted or rejected."
J Am Med Assoc. 1952 Jul 26;149(13):1180-3.
After its death in the USA, the Germans revived it,
then the Russians. One of the German studies was
exceptionally well controlled, finding ultraviolet
blood irradiation compared favorably to infrared and
sham ultraviolet blood irradiation as well as
whole-body skin irradiation - which will produce
physiological amounts of vitamin D. Therefore, if it
works by a vitamin D mechanism, it is producing
pharmacological amounts of vitamin D. To this day,
it remains a treatment modality in Russia where it
is often added to standard treatment of severe
infections. Russian scientists have reported it
helps improve standard treatment of numerous
infections including tuberculosis, just what the
UCLA group recently suggested about vitamin D. I've
only included the few Russian studies with
abstracts; hundreds more have been published without
abstracts, so many my wife refuses to read anymore
of them to me
>
-
Kariakin AM, Kucher VV, Susla PA, Kofman BL. [Hemosorption
and ultraviolet irradiation of the blood in the
treatment of acute septicemia] Vestn Khir Im I I
Grek. 1983 Apr;130(4):109-12.
>
-
Petukhov VA, Perekokin NN, Gorelenko AG, Koloda
AS. [Ultraviolet irradiation of the blood] Vestn
Khir Im I I Grek. 1987 Jan;138(1):66-7.
>
-
Butylin LP, Volobuev NN, Tikhonov KS, Sinani MB.
[Ultraviolet irradiation of the blood in the
complex treatment of suppurative-inflammatory
diseases] Klin Khir. 1989;(1):27-9.
>
-
Scherf HP, Baumler H, Meffert H, Turowski A,
Schmidt HH, et al. [Serial infrared and
ultraviolet whole body irradiation and placebo
and ultraviolet irradiation of autologous venous
blood in peripheral arterial occlusive disease.
1. Treadmill ergometry, metabolic, rheologic and
hemodynamic parameters] Z Gesamte Inn Med. 1989
Apr 1;44(7):201-7.
>
-
Riabtsev VG, Gorbovitskii EB, Myslovatyi BS,
Masiukevich AV, Ronami VG. [Hemosorption and
ultraviolet irradiation of the blood in the
complex treatment of peritonitis] Vestn Khir Im
I I Grek. 1989 Apr;142(4):84-7.
>
-
Kibirev AB, Kochulanov AN, Strelets BM,
Grebenkina LA. [The ultraviolet irradiation of
autologous blood and endolymphatic antibiotic
therapy in treating pneumonia in patients with
craniocerebral trauma] Zh Vopr Neirokhir Im N N
Burdenko. 1990 May-Jun;(3):11-4.
>
-
Zalesnyi SA, Khankoev IM, Grechishkin AI,
Krasnopol'skii IS, Sitnik SD. [Hemosorption and
ultraviolet irradiation of blood in the complex
treatment of suppurative and septic diseases in
children] Vestn Khir Im I I Grek. 1990
Jun;144(6):79-81.
>
-
Piksin IN, Atiasov NI, Kiseleva RE, Romanov MD,
Dorofeeva LS, et al. [Ultraviolet irradiation of
blood in surgery] Khirurgiia (Mosk). 1990
Nov;(11):100-4.
>
-
Paleev NR, Cherniakov VL, Vetchinnikova ON.
[Ultraviolet irradiation of the blood in the
treatment of pyo-inflammatory complications in
patients with terminal renal failure] Vestn Akad
Med Nauk SSSR. 1991;(3):15-20.
>
-
Sukhodub LF, Tertyshnyi NG, Duzhyi ID,
Pliskachev VM. [Ultraviolet irradiation of blood
in patients with pulmonary tuberculosis] Probl
Tuberk. 1991;(7):65-8.
>
-
Kalinkin VN, Mezentsev GD, Kashuba EA,
Konovalova LA, Shatilovich LN. [Autotransfusion
of ultraviolet-irradiated blood in destructive
pneumonia of young children] Khirurgiia (Mosk).
1991 Aug;(8):14-20.
>
-
Sychev MD, Manucharov NK, Tomaev KB, Litvin AA.
[Extracorporeal methods for detoxification in
the combined treatment of gunshot peritonitis]
Voen Med Zh. 1992 Jan;(1):44-5.
>
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Potashov LV, Reshetov AV, Tone RV, Vismont VG.
[The efficacy of the ultraviolet irradiation of
the blood in the combined treatment of
erysipelatous inflammation] Vestn Khir Im I I
Grek. 1992 Jul-Aug;149(7-8):84-8.
>
-
Zhadnov VZ, Mishanov RF, Kuznetsov AA, Shprykov
AS, Ryzhakova TM. [Effectiveness of chemotherapy
in combination with electrophoresis and
ultraviolet irradiation of blood in newly
diagnosed patients with destructive pulmonary
tuberculosis] Probl Tuberk. 1995;(3):20-2.
>
-
Kuvshinchikova VN, Shmelev EI, Mishin VIu.
[Effectiveness of extracorporeal ultraviolet
blood irradiation in treatment of chronic
obstructive bronchitis in pulmonary
tuberculosis] Probl Tuberk. 1998;(3):48-50.
>
-
Kravets VP, Kravets AV. [Extracorporeal
ultraviolet irradiation of blood in combined
treatment of patients with peritonitis] Klin
Khir. 2002 Jul;(7):19-20.
>
Perhaps I've lost my mind and need to see one of my
psychiatric colleagues. Another possibility is that
pharmacological doses of vitamin D (via hemo-irradiation)
have been tested in life-threatening infections and
found to be safe and remarkably effective, first in
the USA, then in Germany and finally in Russia. We
will never know until the Food and Nutrition Board
starts living in the 21st Century. Their Upper Limit
of 2,000 units a day effectively prevents vitamin D
researchers from testing pharmacological doses of
vitamin D, while drug manufacturers test
pharmacological doses of vitamin D analogs all the
time.
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