Rabies

(Preventable; Curable-?, Reversible-?)

Rabies is an especially feared viral disease that results in a relentless and almost invariably fatal encephalitis. The incubation period preceding development of initial symptoms is unusually long, averaging from one to two months. Traditional therapy is directed at attempting to prevent the viral penetration of the nervous system after initial exposure to the virus, using vaccines and other forms of immunotherapy. The Cecil Textbook ofMedicine asserts that rabies cannot be cured once the disease has already invaded the nervous system.

Klenner did not report on the treatment of any rabies patients in his publications. As might be expected considering the successes he had with so many other viral diseases, Klenner was very adamant that the administration of the proper amounts of vitamin C would destroy all viruses encountered. The only "failures" that Klenner ever had were overcome by giving more vitamin C, often by the intravenous route.

Amato (1937) demonstrated that the rabies virus could be inactivated (killed) by vitamin C. Much later, Banic (1975) studied the effects of vitamin C on the rabies virus with guinea pigs. With 48 animals in the test group (using vitamin C) and 50 animals as a control group (without vitamin C), Banic found a statistically significant greater survival rate among the vitamin C-treated animals versus those who received no vitamin C. He concluded that vitamin C was effective in the prevention of rabies. Banic also noted that no therapeutic effect for "continued" vitamin C usage was achieved in animals that had already developed paralysis. However, Banic used only 100 mg of vitamin C per kilogram animal body weight administered intramuscularly twice daily for seven days. Recall that Klenner would use as much as 700 mg of intravenous vitamin C per kilogram body weight in some of his patients. Also, Klenner's dosing would be repeated as often as every two hours until a favorable clinical response appeared. Furthermore, Klenner would often add significant amounts of oral vitamin C to go along with the intravenous doses. Had Banic used a more aggressive dosing of vitamin C, his results could certainly have been even more dramatic. When one considers that variable degrees of paralysis associated with other viral diseases were also completely reversed by Klenner-sized doses of vitamin C, higher dosing by Banic could likely have salvaged some of the animals even after the paralysis had developed.

In any event, there is absolutely no justification for not treating all rabies victims with high doses of intravenous vitamin C. Even if the medical practitioner still wants to heed the present recommendations of using an extended vaccine therapy that is highly toxic in itself, the co-administration of vitamin. C should be mandatory.

Even though rabies certainly appears to be a preventable disease, the studies Simply have not been conducted that would justify calling rabies either a reversible or a curable disease with the administration of vitamin C. However, this would appear to be due only to the lack of documented attempts to treat rabies with large doses of intravenous vitamin C. There is no reason to suspect that rabies would not respond in as equally dramatic a fashion as the other life-threatening viral diseases already discussed.

Viral Encephalitis

(Curable and Preventable)

Viral encephalitis refers to a viral infection and inflammation of the brain. Depending upon how far the infection has progressed, the patient may be confused, lethargic, or even comatose. Fever and headache are almost always present, and the remainder of the symptoms will depend largely upon which virus is responsible for the infection. Virtually any virus has the capability of infecting the brain if there exists enough compromise of the patient's immune system. The Cecil Textbook ofMedicine lists over 40 different viruses that can infect the central nervous system, adding that more than 50 viruses have been found to be associated with such infections. The central nervous system refers to the brain and all of its directly related nervous tissues. Except for the viral encephalitis that can be associated with a herpes infection, the recommended treatment from the medicine textbooks for viral encephalitis in general is once again supportive and aimed at relief of symptoms only. Although most cases of encephalitis are not fatal statistically, the encephalitis associated with AIDS or rabies is almost always uniformly fatal. Furthermore, encephalitis associated with certain other viruses has anywhere from a 10% to a 50% rate of fatality. For this reason, encephalitis is never a condition for which one can assume a favorable outcome. The offending virus in many cases of encephalitis goes undiagnosed, and all cases should be treated as vigorously as possible. .

Klenner (July 1949, 1951, 1953, June 1957, 1958, 1960, 1971) reported a great deal of success in treating viral encephalitis with vitamin C. Once again, high enough doses of vitamin C given over an adequate period of time will routinely cure this disease. Klenner termed the response that he repeatedly witnessed when treating viral encephalitis with vitamin C as "dramatic". Even though it may seem that some given patients should already have progressed too far to be brought back with vitamin C therapy, Klenner never reported this happening, and many of his patients had very advanced infections. Indeed, Klenner repeatedly cured patients who were already comatose with encephalitis.

The dramatic response of viral encephalitis to vitamin C is especially impressive when one considers how many medicines cannot penetrate into the nervous system either partially or totally. This blockade to certain substances and medicines is called the blood-brain barrier, and many molecules are incapable of gaining access to the brain and nervous tissues to any significant degree because of this barrier. However, ready access to the nervous tissues by vitamin C represents one more reason why it is such an ideal therapeutic agent.

Klenner reported on the complete cure of six cases of viral encephalitis. Two were associated with viral pneumonia, while one followed measles, one followed mumps, one followed chickenpox, and one followed a combined presentation of measles and mumps. The encephalitis patient following the mumps was a 12-year-old boy who developed a headache one week after his mumps had seemed to resolve. Within 12 hours of developing the headache, the boy had become lethargic and had a fever of 105°F. Upon being admitted to the hospital he was given an injection of 2,000 mg of vitamin C. Repeat injections of 1,000 mg of vitamin C were then given every two hours. Following the third vitamin C injection, the boy was, in Klenner's words, "sitting up in bed, laughing, talking, begging for food and completely without pain." The boy was discharged 24 hours later, continuing on a maintenance regimen of vitamin C for 48 hours to guard against any possible relapse.

Klenner also described the dramatic responses of two patients who developed encephalitis as a complication of viral pneumonia. A 28-year-old woman first had fever, chills, and a head and chest cold for 14 days. She then developed a severe headache for the last three days of this illness. Klenner commented that she was in a "stupor" when first seen and had a "white foam" in her mouth. Temperature measured in her armpit was 106.8°F, even though she had already been through extensive courses of penicillin, streptomycin, and sulfa drug antibiotics. Since she was also very dehydrated, she was given her first 4,000 mg dose of vitamin C in 1,000 cc of intravenous fluids. Eleven hours later her temperature was down to 100°F, and 15 hours after the first dose of vitamin C further doses of 2,000 to 4,000 mg were given every two to three hours "depending upon the response." The patient had clinically recovered after only 72 hours, although maintenance vitamin C was given for two more weeks. Her abnormal chest X-ray took another three months to completely normalize. Klenner commented that in five other cases with viral lung involvement the resolution of the chest X-ray could be expected to lag behind the normalization of the clinical symptoms, depending upon how abnormal the chest X-ray had become.

Another dramatic case of viral encephalitis treated by Klenner involved a 19-month-old baby. This baby had been sick with a "little cold" for about two weeks when a fever began over the prior 24 hours. Twelve hours before admission the baby had some focal seizures involving the right arm and leg. Klenner described the baby as an "undernourished infant, lying rigid in its mother's arms, skin cold to touch, color cadaver-like, eyes closed, grade-2 mucopurulent nasal discharge, throat red." The temperature was 103.8°F, and Klenner further commented that some areas of skin over the infant's back resembled "rigor mortis." A 1,000 mg dose of vitamin C was given intramuscularly and repeated every four to six hours. Klenner noted that with the first vitamin C injection the baby "did not move and the sensation was like that of sticking an orange." Two hours after this first injection the baby took 240 cc of orange juice, its first nourishment in 24 hours. Total paralysis of the right arm and right leg was noted at this time, but this lost function was subsequently regained within about 12 hours of admission. The rest of the recovery was uneventful.

Klenner (1960) compiled one study that dealt solely with viral encephalitis as a complication of pneumonia. One patient, a 58- year-old female, had suffered with a head and chest cold for 10 days. She was hospitalized after having a "convulsive seizure," and was given 24,000 mg of vitamin C in an intravenous infusion for a total of three doses at eight-hour intervals. A 4,000 mg oral dose of vitamin C was given every four hours, and 24 hours after admission the patient had developed a complete paralysis of her right arm and right leg. Fortunately, this completely resolved after 48 more hours. Although the patient had associated cardiac problems, her viral infection nevertheless completely resolved.

Klenner described another dramatic case. A 23-year-old male was brought to the emergency room in a "semi-coma." His friends had found him unconscious in a telephone booth. It was later determined that the man had been bothered with a cold for two weeks and a severe headache for the past five days for which he had consulted another physician earlier on the same day. Upon admission 30,000 mg of vitamin C was given in an infusion of 350 cc of glucose and water. Five more doses were repeated at eight-hour intervals. He was also given 4,000 to 6,000 mg orally every four to six hours. After six days of hospitalization his parents had him transferred to a teaching hospital, which verified the diagnosis of viral encephalitis. He received no further treatment there and was discharged to home.

Klenner treated another patient, a 22-year-old male, initially described as being unconscious at another emergency room. When Klenner saw him, however, he was wildly delirious, thrashing about and needing to be subdued. History later revealed that the man had endured a dull to severe headache for several days. He later collapsed, and the ambulance driver actually thought the man was dead, but still n~eded to be pronounced dead by a doctor. A 100,000 mg dose of vitamin C was given by vein over the first 24 hours. A 4,000 mg oral dose every four to six hours followed this and led to the patient's recovery.

Ironically, even Klenner didn't always use enough vitamin C. His own seven-year-old son developed lethargy and fever after about six weeks of flu-like symptoms. The child had received only "moderate" doses of vitamin C for those weeks along with sulfa drugs, which had some minimal effectiveness until the traditional breakthrough symptoms of encephalitis appeared. Klenner then gave 6,000 mg dose of vitamin C intravenously every six hours. A 10,000 mg dose of vitamin C was also given by mouth, and recovery was noted to be complete by 24 hours.

Klenner also described an especially deadly syndrome of viral encephalitis that he attributed to an "insidious" virus. As mentioned previously, few cases of viral encephalitis get specifically diagnosed with regard to the precise identity of the infecting virus. Klenner frequently saw viral encephalitis that started with either the "flu" for two to four days prior, or with a mild cold that lingered for several weeks prior to presentation. Klenner further noted that the onset of the encephalitis was typically heralded by any of a number of symptoms, including seizures, extreme excitability and agitation, severe chills, strangling while trying to eat or drink, collapse, and I or stupor. He repeatedly observed that viral encephalitis presenting in such a manner was especially capable of killing the patient in very short order. Klenner felt the syndrome was similar if not identical to the syndrome of acute hemorrhagic encephalitis. Any time hemorrhage complicates any disease process, it is a very strong indication that the body stores of vitamin C have been especially severely depleted, and because death can be rapid, the initial and subsequent vitamin C dosing must be even more aggressive than usual. Klenner was particularly sensitized in this regard, as he reported that he had seen children die "within 30 minutes to two hours" after being admitted to the hospital for encephalitis without receiving vitamin C. In his paper of October, 1958 dealing with viral encephalitis Klenner asserted that, in spite of the very real possibility of sudden death, he had never yet failed to see full recovery from encephalitis with the use of very large doses of vitamin C.

Klenner also treated a 16-month-old infant who suddenly collapsed and was unconscious after having had a mild cold for two weeks prior to presentation. The baby received 2,000 mg of vitamin C intramuscularly and regained consciousness in ten minutes. An additional 2,000 mg was injected after the baby was moved to the hospital room. These injections were continued every two hours for five doses, and then extended to every four hours for 12 more doses. The fever noted on admission had normalized within 60 hours, and discharge was on the seventh day. Klenner also often used antibiotics along with vitamin C if he had any suspicion at all that any superimposed bacterial infection was playing a role in the illness.

One especially interesting case treated by Klenner was a 73- year-old male who ended up being hospitalized three times in a 24-day period. The patient was first brought in by ambulance unconscious after having a cold for 10 days, followed over the next few hours by a severe headache, a chill, and then sudden unconsciousness. Fever, rapid heart rate, and rapid breathing rate were all noted on admission. An initial dose of 20,000 mg of vitamin C was slowly infused. This was repeated eight hours later. The patient regained consciousness about 18 hours after admission, and he was discharged on the third hospital day. Two weeks later, the patient presented in a similar fashion, was treated the same way, and then went home on the fourth hospital day. Once again the patient was readmitted a week later in a similar state, except that he was conscious. On this third visit he received virtually the same treatment except that the 20,000 mg dose of vitamin C was increased to 24,000 mg. He was discharged on the third hospital day, with a 10,000 mg daily dosage of vitamin C being prescribed. The patient remained well, and had no further relapses. Once again, this case report from Klenner demonstrates unequivocally that enough vitamin C must be used for a long enough period of time, or the viral disease will not be eradicated and can be expected to recur.

Klenner is particularly emphatic about the treatment of viral encephalitis when he asserts that it must be treated "heroically." In contrast to other less grave diseases, Klenner is absolutely clear that the initial doses of vitamin C must be given by needle (intravenous or intramuscular), and the subsequent initial dosing must be maintained around the clock on an uninterrupted schedule.

Destro and Sharma (1977) reported on their experience in treating bacterial and "viral" meningitis with vitamin C. As diseases go meningitis is closely akin to encephalitis, since both infections involve the central nervous system. The doses of vitamin C necessary to properly treat a case of meningitis are comparable to those needed for a case of encephalitis. These researchers found fIno appreciable ameliorating effect" of the vitamin C that they administered compared to placebo.

However, none of Klenner's work was cited in their bibliography, which was readily apparent from the vitamin C doses they used. They never exceeded an initial intravenous dose of 100 mg/kg (Klenner would go as high as 700 mg/kg), and their subsequent doses were only 50 mg/kg.

Also, the frequency of dosing was less often than that of Klenner, who continued to dose vigorously until the patient clearly improved and the fever came down. only then did Klenner start spacing out his doses as infrequently as Destro and Sharma.

Given these comparisons with Klenner's dosage levels, the lack of effect that these, researchers found was exactly what would be expected. Klenner and many other clinicians repeatedly emphasized that if you don't use enough vitamin C, especially in life-threatening infectious diseases, you will see little or no beneficial effect. It is truly a shame that these researchers were not aware of Klenner's work, as a replication of Klenner's protocols would have been invaluable in educating the medical world on what properly dosed vitamin C could achieve.

As a specialist in both cardiology and internal medicine, I have had the opportunity to witness at least two cases of aggressive encephalitis, presumably viral in origin. One case was a friend of the family with a history of headaches over a short period of time before he went to his doctor and ended up in the hospital. When I visited him, he was already intermittently slipping into unconsciousness. He was in a complete coma by the next day, and died about a week later. In the second case I was the treating physician. A middle-aged man was noted to be "not right" by his wife. He seemed perfectly normal to me, but I did a spinal tap since the wife was so concerned. A few cells were seen in the spinal fluid, which represented only the most minimal of abnormalities. Nevertheless, I trusted the wife's intuition and admitted her husband to the hospital. Within 24 hours; he was dead. I stayed up all night helplessly witnessing his rapid deterioration. Even today, it amazes me that a virus can take someone's life so quickly. Viral encephalitis is a very dangerous disease, capable of progressing to death very quickly. Klenner's observations on this disease are especially impressive to me, and I only wish I had known then what I know now.

Viral encephalitis, which can be rapidly fatal or often leave its victim with a variable degree of brain and neurological damage, is another disease that is completely curable by the aggressive dosing of vitamin C. Also, using the same reasoning that was utilized on the previously discussed viral diseases, viral encephalitis is a completely preventable disease when adequate doses of vitamin C are taken on a regular basis.

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the above is an excerpt from:

CURING THE INCURABLE – Vitamin C, Infectious Diseases, and Toxins

Thomas E. Levy, M.D., J.D.

Library of Congress Number: 2002093697

ISBN: Hardcover 1-4010-6964-9

Softcover 1-401 0-6963-0

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

ACKNOWLEGMENTS

Frederick R. Klenner, M.D., to whom this book is dedicated, deserves the greatest credit for its writing. Without his keen insights and willingness to look beyond the limits of traditional medical teachings, the ability of vitamin C to cure some "incurable" infections and poisonings would remain completely unknown today. The primary purpose of this book is to clearly lay out the large body of scientific documentation showing that Dr. Klenner's principles of vitamin C therapy were completely right and need to be properly applied across the world.

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