Chronic Fatigue

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Chronic Fatigue

 

 

CHRONIC FATIGUE AND IMMUNE DYSFUNCTION SYNDROME

(CFIDS): ALTERNATIVE APPROACHES

Looking for a medical cure for Chronic Fatigue

Syndrome is a bit like trying to buy a new Buick from

a Ford dealer: it just isn't possible. The first rule

of fishing is to put your hook in the water, because

that is where the fish are. Let's consider nutrition

research and see what REAL options are available for

the CFIDS patient that has been told to " learn to live

with it. "

 

Vitamin A as CAROTENE:

Chronic fatigue syndrome encompasses a depressed

immune function. Your immune system is stronger when

beta-carotene is adequately supplied by the diet.

And, not at all surprisingly, Vitamin A deficiency

weakens immune function. (Chandra, R. K. " Nutrition

and Immunity: Basic Considerations, Part 1, "

Contemporary Nutrition, Vol 11, No. 11, 1986) " Fewer

than 10% of us actually consume " adequate "

beta-carotene. " (Patterson, B. H. et al, " Fruit and

Vegetables in the American Diet: Data from the NHANES

II Survey, " American Journal of Public Health, 1990,

80:1443-1449). This means that supplements are

virtually essential.

 

For example: after surgery, the body's inventory of

lymphocytes does NOT decrease (as it otherwise will)

when large doses of Vitamin A are given. (Cohen, B. et

al: Reversal of Postoperative Immunosuppression in Man

by Vitamin A, " Surgery, Gynecology and Obstetrics,

149:658-662, 1979.)

 

Beta-carotene supplements in particular have been

shown to strengthen the immune system by helping the

body to build more helper T cells. (Alexander, M et

al: " Oral Beta-carotene Can Increase the Number of

OKT4 Cells in Human Blood, " Immunology Letters,

9:221-224, 1985.) The amount used in this

well-controlled study was 180 milligrams of

beta-carotene per day. This is, theoretically at

least, the equivalent of 300,000 I.U. of vitamin A per

day! Even AIDS patients have benefitted from dosages

such as this (Graham, N. American Journal of

Epidemiology, December, 1993). Surely AIDS is the

ultimate immune dysfunction.

 

The body (ideally) can derive 10,000 I.U. of Vitamin A

activity from each 6 milligrams of beta-carotene

consumed. The actual yield is almost certainly lower,

however. Studies using small amounts of beta carotene

(20 mg or so) are likely to show no benefit even

though the " theoretical " yield would be over 30,000

I.U. of Vitamin A activity. 30,000 I.U. is six times

the US RDA for vitamin A. Either that isn't enough,

or beta-carotene isn't converted nearly as efficiently

as supposed. Or both.

 

The safest way to give Vitamin A is as beta-carotene,

as the body will convert it into Vitamin A as needed

and overdose is automatically avoided. Excessively

large does of preformed, fish oil Vitamin A may

actually depress immune function; huge doses of

beta-carotene do not appear to have that negative

effect.

 

Vitamin B-COMPLEX:

The very discovery of the B-vitamins is a story of

fatigue itself. The disease " Beri-beri " means " I

cannot, I cannot, " relating to severe weakness and

exhaustion. This " incurable " condition was found to

be simply a deficiency of thiamine (B-1). Eating

whole brown rice, instead of polished white rice, was

enough to effect a remarkable cure from fatigue which

no drug on Earth could obtain.

 

Here's another one: Pellagra is niacin (vitamin B-3)

deficiency. Niacin deficiency results in (among other

things) weakness and lassitude (Williams, S. Nutrition

and Diet Therapy, 7th Ed., Mosby, 1989, p. 201).

 

Why?

 

In your body, food must be broken down into simple

molecules like glucose, and in your cells, energy must

be released from glucose. A major part of this

complex process is called the citric acid or Krebs

cycle. This entire, elaborate energy-releasing

pathway grinds to a complete halt without the

B-complex vitamins. Your body without enough

B-vitamins is like a huge, rusty ferris wheel without

oil. It's there, but it's not moving.

 

The four B-vitamins most involved with our cellular

energy cycle are thiamin, niacin, pantothenic acid and

riboflavin. I have focused on the first two, as the

last two are actually hard to NOT get, even in

American diets. Riboflavin is in all milk products,

which cover a multitude of dietary sins for many of

us. Pantothenic acid is found in all cells in all

forms of life, so it cannot easily be avoided in food.

 

 

Scientific research indicates, over and over again,

that B-complex (and other) vitamin deficiencies weaken

immunity. A considerable number of supporting

references appear in Nutritional Influences On

Illness, by M. R. Werbach, M.D. (Keats, 1988). This

book is a valuable collection of nutrition research

abstracts (summaries). Pages 243-251 and 418-423 can

be applied to CFIDS.

 

Nutritionists, dietitians and physicians often

discount these findings by maintaining that vitamin

deficiencies are extinct in our modern civilization.

For example, FDA has now actually deleted B-vitamin

information from food nutrition labels because they

perceive it to be unnecessary! Such opinion does not

stand up to close examination of the scientific

literature, which confirms widespread nutritional

failings coast to coast. Nor does it explain the

large number of CFIDS patients who have taken large

quantities of vitamin supplements and noticed

remarkable improvements.

 

It is common supplemental practice to include a

B-complex vitamin with every meal. Even more frequent

doses have been known to help more severe cases.

 

VITAMIN C:

Very large doses of vitamin C have been successfully

used to boost the immune system for 50 years.

Frederick R. Klenner, M.D. pioneered megavitamin C

therapeutics back in the 1940's, giving thousands of

milligrams of vitamin C by injection for a wide

variety of viral illnesses. In his 1948 paper on

treating viral pneumonia with vitamin C, he writes:

 

This picture will then develop to the

point where

severe frontal headache is noted along

with a feeling

of weakness in the lower extremities so

marked that

the patient complains of a dragging

sensation when

moving about in bed. This weakness

persists for some

days... The patient can hardly support his

body weight

without the fear of buckling at the knees.

(p 36)

 

The purpose of this paper is to outline a

new and

different form of treatment for this type

of virus

infection which in 42 cases over a

five-year period

has given excellent results... The remedy

used was

Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) in massive

doses. (p 37)

 

(Klenner, F. R. " Virus Pneumonia and its

Treatment

with Vitamin C, " Southern Medicine and

Surgery,

February, 1948, pp 36-46.

 

One cannot easily help but draw a significant parallel

with CFIDS symptoms. If chronic fatigue is to a

lesser or greater extent caused by a virus, the

immune-building and virus-stopping properties of large

doses of vitamin C need to be revisited.

 

Viral pneumonia is a worthy foe, but the supreme test

for vitamin C must surely be AIDS.

 

Robert F. Cathcart, M.D. has published his successes

with enormous doses of Vitamin C against many viral

illnesses. Even among his patients with fully

developed AIDS, improved length of life and quality of

life are the rule, not the exception. Often,

increased energy levels and increased resistance to

disease can be demonstrated in AIDS patients only with

the highest doses of Vitamin C imaginable: up to

200,000 milligrams of vitamin C daily. It is likely

that CFIDS requires a lot of vitamin C as well, but

almost certainly less than this. (Murray, F. " Vitamin

C and AIDS: Another Direction? " Today's Living,

September, 1987, pp 5-25)

 

The question, of course, is HOW much Vitamin C does

one need, exactly? Too little and you miss maximum

benefits; too much is wasteful. Dr. Cathcart gives

Vitamin C to bowel tolerance, which is the maximum

amount the body can take without having diarrhea. Any

person can monitor this level at home, all by

themselves. Dr. Cathcart says that the sicker you

are, the more " C " you can (and will) hold. As you get

better, you will not be able to hold as much, so down

comes the dose to an amount, again, just below that

which would cause loose bowels. It is a self-adjusting

process. ( " Vitamin C in Massive Doses Does Work, "

Today's Living, December, 1981, pp 10-11, 60-64)

 

This brilliant, Nobel Prizeworthy finding is simple,

relatively inexpensive and remarkably safe. According

to the many persons I have interviewed, the " take all

the Vitamin C you can possibly hold " plan also WORKS.

Still, it is the one principle most consistently

overlooked, even by doctors and authors writing about

nutritional therapies for CFIDS! I now judge a

nutrition book not by its cover but by checking to see

if Cathcart's bowel-tolerance principle is in the

Vitamin C section. If not, the reader is missing out

on one mighty effective therapy, unless s/he reads

Cathcart, R. F. " Vitamin C in the Treatment of

Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, " Medical

Hypotheses, 14:423-433, 1984 and Pauling, Linus How

To Live Longer and Feel Better (Freeman, 1986).

 

CFIDS is not AIDS, of course. I use this as an

extreme case of immune failure and the fatigue that is

known to accompany both AIDS and pneumonia.

Mononucleosis is even more closely related to CFIDS.

What does Dr. Cathcart do for that?

 

Again, the therapy is Vitamin C to bowel tolerance.

Same reasons, same procedure, same results. Dramatic

response to aggressive Vitamin C therapy has followed

patients taking a tablespoon of vitamin C crystals

every hour. That is close to 12,000 mg/hour, or about

150,000 mg/day. Dr. Cathcart reports cures of

mononucleosis in a matter of a few days at this rate

of intake.

 

I have witnessed such swift recoveries myself. And, I

personally have taken 2,000 mg of Vitamin C every 5

minutes when I had viral pneumonia. You see, when you

are sick, you need (and can hold) an awful lot of

Vitamin C without diarrhea. You take enough C to be

symptom free, whatever that amount might be! Then,

one's maintenance dose is just enough " C " to keep you

well, but not enough to cause loose bowels.

 

MAGNESIUM:

Magnesium is a catalyst for literally thousands of

biochemical reactions in each of your body cells.

Along with CALCIUM, magnesium is necessary for nerve

conduction and muscular activity. Calcium deficiency

is almost universal: according to the Arthritis

Foundation, Americans consume only about 550

milligrams of calcium daily. This is one-third to

one-half BELOW the modest US RDA! Magnesium

deficiency may run as high as 99% among U.S.

teenagers. (MRCA Census for the calendar year 1975,

General Mills, Inc., Minneapolis, MN, 1980) These are

reasons why a calcium-magnesium supplement should be

included as a first-line measure against chronic

fatigue. 800 mg calcium and 300 to 400 milligrams

magnesium are common daily therapeutic levels. The

dose should be divided among and taken with meals.

 

CHROMIUM:

Organic chromium supplements increase immune function

in animals. Both stress and infection increase the

amount of chromium required for good health.

( " Chromium Improves Immune Responsiveness, " Manitoba

Co-Operator, December 2, 1993) On top of that, the

U.S. Department of Agriculture found that 90% of us

are eating chromium-deficient diets. (Anderson, R.

and Kozlovsky, A. " Chromium Intake, Absorption, and

Excretion of Subjects Consuming Self-Selected Diets, "

American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 41:6, pp

1177-1183, 1985) High sugar intake actually drains

the body of chromium. (Anderson, R. " Chromium

Metabolism and Its Role in Disease Processes in Man, "

Clinical and Physiological Biochemistry, 4:31-41,

1986) Americans consume over 120 POUNDS of sugar PER

PERSON per year. That is a third of a pound of sugar

EACH DAY! And if you are not eating that much sugar,

then someone else is eating more.

 

200 to 400 micrograms of organic chromium daily is a

safe and worthwhile measure to try. Chromium

polynicotinate or chromium picolinate are probably the

best forms to take as supplements. No fair nibbling

on a car bumper, because that is the toxic, or

hexavalent, form of chromium.

 

ZINC:

Zinc may be " tail-end Charlie " of the nutritional

alphabet, but it is near the top in importance. Of

the trace minerals, only iron is found in you in

greater quantity. Oddly enough, it is excessive iron

consumption that can reduce your zinc absorption from

food. Women, in particular, often need supplemental

iron, for they lose iron in their menstrual flow each

month. But a woman is more than a foundry, and merely

giving her giant amounts of iron, in supplements or

even iron-fortified foods, does not answer all her

metallic needs. She needs zinc, too. (Incidentally,

Vitamin C supplements substantially increase your iron

absorption. Many anemic persons can get more iron

just by taking more vitamin C. Isn't that ironic?

Ha!)

 

So, have you seen many " zinc-enriched " foods lately?

Neither have most Americans, for we do NOT even get

the US RDA of zinc (which is a very low 12 to 15

mg/day). Nationwide zinc deficiency almost surely has

contributed to CFIDS. It is well known that zinc is

needed for dozens of the body's enzyme systems.

Reduced immune function follows zinc deficiency

(Bogden, J. D. et al, " Zinc and Immunocompetence in

the Elderly: Baseline Data on Zinc Nutriture in

Unsupplemented Subjects, " American Journal of Clinical

Nutrition, 46:101, July 1987). Zinc is absolutely

essential for lymphocytes, T-helper cells,

T-suppressor cells, and natural-killer cells. Alcohol

knocks zinc out of our bodies. Even if you have a

blood test showing nearly normal plasma zinc levels,

you may still have too little zinc in the cells

themselves. This means your immune system may be

seriously weakened and tests may not reflect it. Does

this sound familiar to chronic fatigue patients?

(Prasad, A. S. " The Role of Zinc in Human Health, "

Contemporary Nutrition, 16:5, 1991)

 

How well does zinc work clinically? Zinc has been

shown to shorten the duration of the common viral

cold by over 50% (Elby, G. A.; Halcomb, W. W.; and

Davis, D. R. in Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy,

cited by Medical World, February 13, 1984). Zinc

displays antiviral activity, according to B. D. Korant

et al in Nature, vol. 248. Duchateau et al

demonstrated improved immune response with about 400

mg/day. ( " Beneficial Effects of Oral Zinc

Supplementation on the Immune Response of Old People, "

American Journal of Medicine, Vol. 70, May 1981)

Several clinical studies on zinc are well summarized

by J. Challem and R. Lewin in Let's Live, June 1983

( " Fight Infections With Zinc " ) and by Frank Murray in

Better Nutrition For Today's Living, July 1990, pp 12,

13 and 26. At doses of 50 to 150 milligrams per day,

zinc is completely safe to take. Long-term doses over

300 to 600 mg/day, especially of non-natural zinc

sulfate, may cause copper or iron deficiency anemia

(the reverse of what too much of THESE minerals do to

zinc levels!)

 

OK, here we go again. Here is yet another nutrient

that is essential to the immune system, deficient in

our diets, and available as a supplement. I think we

are on to something here.

 

The first rule of testing an electrical appliance is

to be sure it is plugged in. You would be surprised

how many service calls would be avoided if this were

done first. The first rule of CFIDS should be to plug

in the minerals and vitamins.

 

If you are sick and tired of being sick and tired,

knowing about therapeutic nutrition may perk you up.

 

A lot.

 

 

Copyright C 1999 and prior years Andrew W. Saul.

From the books QUACK DOCTOR and PAPERBACK CLINIC,

available from Dr. Andrew Saul, Number 8 Van Buren

Street, Holley, New York 14470.