Sugar Increases Polio Risk -- Lessons For Other Viral Infections

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Sugar Increases Polio Risk -- Lessons For Other Viral Infections

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The following is a chapter from the book Diet Prevents Polio written by

Benjamin P. Sandler, M.D., and published in 1951, at the height of the polio

epidemic.

Low Blood Sugar And Susceptibility To Polio

During my research I observed a large number of patients who had symptoms

that were caused by low blood sugar.

They complained of the symptoms previously described, namely:

 

* headache

* dizziness

* weakness

* fatigue

* abdominal pain

* nervousness

* palpitation

* frequent sweats

* occasional fainting spells.

 

Most of these patients were malnourished, which, physiologically, meant

subnormal liver glycogen storage. Their diet was deficient in protein and

consisted largely of the cheaper starchy foods.

I noted that these patients also had poor resistance to infections such as

colds, sore throat, grippe, influenza, bronchitis, and pneumonia. By

increasing the protein content of their diet and by reducing the sugar and

starch

content, they improved considerably. They became stronger, more vigorous and

buoyant, and had fewer infections.

A few of these patients had had polio in childhood. Observations of these

patients over a long period of time led me to suspect that their susceptibility

to infection was possibly due to their poor diet with its high sugar and

starch content.

Their increased resistance to infection with a better diet confirmed this

suspicion. It then occurred to me that their susceptibility to polio could be

explained on a similar dietary basis.

Specifically, I suspected that children and adults contracted polio because

of low blood sugar brought on by a diet containing sugar and starch.

I reasoned that the polio virus was able to cross tissue barriers, reach the

brain and spinal cord, invade the nerve cells, damage or destroy them and

cause paralysis. And I further reasoned that if the blood sugar never fell

below 80 mg polio could never result.

I suspected that during a polio epidemic only those children and adults who

experienced periods of low blood sugar would contract the disease and that

those individuals who were in actual contact with the virus but who maintained

normal blood sugar levels would not contract the disease.

Thus, it remained to prove that low blood sugar could be a factor in

susceptibility to polio. And, after this had been proved, the following

questions

had to be answered:

* What causes low blood sugar in humans?

* How can low blood sugar be prevented?

The prevention of low blood sugar would thus mean the prevention of polio.

Before describing the experiments performed, I should like to make a

preliminary summary and state without reserve that:

1. Low blood sugar is a factor of susceptibility to polio.

2. Low blood sugar occurs frequently in children and adults and is

caused chiefly by a dietary error, namely, the consumption of sugar and starch

3. Correction of this dietary error will prevent low blood sugar and

thus prevent polio.

An experimental method to prove that low blood sugar was a factor of

susceptibility to polio was readily available.

In 1938, the only laboratory animal that could contract polio by

experimental inoculation was the monkey.

All other laboratory animals were completely resistant to the polio virus.

The rabbit is one of these resistant animals.

Without knowing the blood sugar range in the monkey and rabbit, it was

suspected that the blood sugar in the monkey reached lower levels than in the

rabbit.

These suspicions were found to have a basis in fact through the

investigations of Drs. Jungeblut and Resnick of Columbia University who studied

blood

sugar levels in monkeys, and through the investigations of Drs. du Vigneaud and

Karr of Cornell University who studied blood sugar levels in rabbits.

In monkeys, blood sugar values as low as 50 mg. were observed, whereas in

the rabbit, values below 100 mg. were never observed. In numerous

determinations made on rabbits I have never obtained values below 100 mg.

It was therefore concluded that the susceptibility of the monkey to the

polio virus was due to the fact that its blood sugar fell to subnormal values,

and that the resistance of the rabbit might be associated with the fact that

its blood sugar never fell below 100 mg, and that at this concentration

cellular oxidation of glucose in the nervous system and other organs would be

maintained at such a level as to enable the cells to protect themselves against

invasion by the virus.

Physiologists have stated that the normal blood sugar level of 80 mg. holds

true for all mammals.

The next step was to lower the blood sugar of the rabbit to subnormal values

with insulin injections, and then inoculate the rabbit with polio virus.

This was done and it was found that the rabbits became infected and developed

the disease.

The details of these experiments were published in the American Journal of

Pathology, January, 1941.

Some rabbits showed signs of infection 8 to 10 hours after inoculation. I

wish to stress this short period of incubation in the rabbit because it

demonstrates that polio can develop in a short period of time. This is

important, as

we shall learn later, when we discuss the onset of polio in humans within 24

hours after severe physical exertion.

The rabbit is also resistant to the dog distemper virus. One of the largest

research laboratories has conducted much research with this virus and when I

informed the members of the staff about my success in inoculating rabbits

with polio virus after lowering the blood sugar, they inoculated rabbits with

the dog distemper virus after insulin and reported to me that they observed

signs of infection in the rabbit for the first time.

This corroborating experiment indicates that low blood sugar may cause

susceptibility to many infections.

I was thus satisfied that low blood sugar was a factor of susceptibility to

the polio virus in monkeys, and that rabbits could be rendered susceptible

after their blood sugar was lowered with insulin

(Insulin, as you probably know, is the hormone which diabetics inject into

themselves in order to keep their blood sugar within normal range. It is a

quick-acting drug and can lower the blood sugar within an hour or so after

injection).

I concluded that the concept that low blood sugar created susceptibility to

polio in both monkeys and rabbits could be applied to humans as well.

What Causes Low Blood Sugar in Humans?

The next step in the solution of the polio problem was to find out the

causes of low blood sugar in humans. Fortunately the answer to this problem was

already at hand.

It has been found that the consumption of sugar and starch and foods

containing these substances were the chief causes of low blood sugar.

When patients drank a solution of pure glucose they had a period of low

blood sugar which began one to two hours after the glucose was taken and which

lasted for one to two hours, and longer.

This study of the blood sugar is called the " glucose tolerance test " and is

employed for the detection of hypoglycemia or hyperglycemia. When they ate a

meal containing sugar and starch they also had periods of low blood sugar

which came on an hour or so later and which lasted for from one to two hours.

The low blood sugar was more marked and lasted for a longer time after the

glucose solution than after a meal containing starch.

It is an established fact that this paradoxic depressant effect on the blood

sugar level is more readily exerted by sugar than it is by starches. I have

observed these results in hundreds of cases and similar results have been

obtained by other investigators.

It is a surprising paradox: the more sugar (and starch) you eat, the more

likely you will develop low blood sugar.

Drs. E. P. McCullagh and C. R. K. Johnston have shown how the glucose

tolerance test is readily influenced by diet. Thus the second problem: What can

cause low blood sugar in the human? was solved.

How Can Low Blood Sugar be Prevented?

The third problem, " How can low blood sugar be prevented? " was the only one

left and this, too, was readily solved.

It had been found by other investigators that a meal consisting of protein,

fat, and carbohydrates, but with no sugar or starch, NEVER caused low blood

sugar.

The addition of sugar and starch to such a meal could readily produce low

blood sugar.

Thus I arrived at a simple formula for preventing polio: eliminate from the

diet sugar and foods containing sugar, and reduce the consumption of foods

containing starch.

Since eating sugar and starch during a meal may cause low blood sugar after

one to three hours, and since elimination of sugar and starch prevents low

blood sugar, the invasion of the body by the polio virus will be prevented by a

diet containing no sugar and no starch. Protection against polio would thus

begin on the very day such a diet was started and protection would last just

as long as such a diet was adhered to.

I have found that a diet completely free of sugar and starch and consisting

of proteins, fats, and non-starchy vegetables:

May be adhered to for years with beneficial effect and absolutely NO harmful

effect.

There is NO supporting evidence to indicate that sugar and starch are

necessary for health or for energy purposes.

The human is a carnivore and can thrive on protein and fat alone, if

necessary.

The Eskimos thrive well on meat and fish which yield only protein and fat,

and polio is unheard of among them.

American and European explorers in the Arctic regions have lived on meat and

fish for as long as 18 months and have maintained perfect health all the

time on such a diet. Vilhjalmur Stefansson, the Arctic explorer, has described

his existence on such a diet in great detail. He states that he was in perfect

health on such a diet which consisted of protein and fat alone.

Eskimos who live on meat and fish are not susceptible to infectious

diseases. They do become susceptible when they live amongst white men and eat

the

white man’s diet with its sugar and starch. It is true that the Eskimo’s

fresh

contact with the white man exposes him to infectious diseases to which he

(the Eskimo) has not had the opportunity to become immune.

The presence of sugar and starch in the Eskimo's new diet is of greater

significance. A US public health officer stationed in Alaska has blamed this

dietary factor for the great susceptibility of the Eskimo to tuberculosis.

A low carbohydrate meal elevates and stabilizes the blood sugar levels.

This stabilizing effect is important because some of the symptoms of low

blood sugar are due to rapid fall in blood sugar level which accompany wide

fluctuations in blood sugar levels following the ingestion of sugar and starch.

Diet Prevents Polio, by Benjamin P. Sandler, M.D., and published in 1951 by

The Lee Foundation for Nutritional Research, Milwaukee, WI

 

__

Dr. Mercola's Comment:

Wow. This 50 year old article is a real gem, an absolute classic. It was

written a few years before I was born, and it holds one of the major keys to

good health.

Dr. Sandler was generations ahead of his time. He used basic common sense to

provide irrefutable evidence of the importance of severe restrictions of

grains and sugars to avoid polio.

Polio, however, is just one example of a viral infection, and I assure you

that the dietary principles elaborated by Dr. Sandler also hold true for the

other infections that we acquire.

So, by cutting back (hopefully eliminating) the breads, pastas, sweets and

sugars this holiday season and in the future we WILL absolutely and

unequivocally reduce our risk of coming down with the old winter flus, coughs

and colds.

Will following the _diet_ (http://www.mercola.com/nutritionplan/index.htm)

provide absolute protection? Certainly not. Other factors, such as sleep,

stress, exposure to toxins, and exercise also play a role. But for the most

part,

you will practically eliminate your risk of ever getting sick again by

following the _diet_ (http://www.mercola.com/nutritionplan/index.htm) .

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