On World Heart Day - IHPT

On World Heart Day - Intravenous Hydrogen Peroxide Therapy

Intravenous Hydrogen Peroxide Therapy by Ron Kennedy, M.D., Santa Rosa, California Bio-oxidative medicine is the addition of oxygen directly to the tissues of the body in the form of singlet oxygen (lone oxygen atoms) in a highly reactive state. To more fully understand the chemistry involved, review: Bio-oxidative Medicine. In living systems oxygen (as O2) is transported by hemoglobin, a protein found in red blood cells. This is a highly efficient way of conducting oxygen from the lungs to the tissues of the body and insuring it does not react with anything along the way. Because it is bound by hemoglobin, it is unable to react to anything else until it is released by the hemoglobin (which then picks up carbon dioxide and transports it to the lungs). In bio-oxidative medicine, oxygen is introduced directly into the body as hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) or as ozone (O3). Although ozone is used safely and with great benefit throughout Europe and in many other parts of the world, the medical establishment in the United States refuses to recognize it as a valid therapy and actively persecutes doctors who use it. Luckily, hydrogen peroxide is not treated in this way, even though it is an equally powerful oxidative approach. The chemical reaction looks like this: H2O2 _ H2O + O- This is chemical shorthand to indicate that in the body, hydrogen peroxide is converted to water and singlet oxygen. This singlet oxygen located at the end of this reaction is a powerful oxidizing agent. It is the active agent in hydrogen peroxide therapy. Hydrogen peroxide is infused into the circulatory system through a vein in the arm. It drips in over a ninety-minute period. Five cc of pharmaceutical-grade, three-percent hydrogen peroxide are put in 500 cc five percent glucose in water as a carrier solution. Two grams of magnesium chloride are added along with a small amount of manganese to prevent vein sclerosis. In the blood, it encounters two enzymes: catalase and cytochrome-C. Catalase drives the above reaction to completion immediately. That part of the hydrogen peroxide that binds with cytochrome-C, however, is not allowed to become water and singlet oxygen for a period of forty minutes. After forty minutes of being bound to cytochrome-C this enzyme begins to act like catalase and breaks down the hydrogen peroxide to water and singlet oxygen. By this time, the hydrogen peroxide/cytochrome-C complex has been spread throughout the body. In this way the benefits of hydrogen peroxide are made available to all cells. The effect of singlet oxygen in the human body is twofold. It kills, or severely inhibits the growth of, anaerobic organisms (bacteria and viruses that use carbon dioxide for fuel and leave oxygen as a by-product). This action is immediate, on contact with the anaerobic organism. Anaerobic bacteria are pathogens, the organisms which cause disease. All viruses are anaerobic. Aerobic bacteria (those that burn oxygen for fuel and leave carbon dioxide as a by-product — as humans do) found in the human intestine are friendly bacteria, which aid in digestion. These organisms thrive in the presence of hydrogen peroxide. The second effect of hydrogen peroxide is that it provides singlet oxygen, which, in turn, transforms biological waste products and industrial toxins into inert substances by oxidizing them. This makes them easy to handle for the kidneys and liver. It doubles the rate of enzymatic metabolism in the mitochondria within each cell, thus enabling the body to cleanse itself of toxins and still have plenty of energy to handle the business of living from moment to moment. This increase in metabolism probably accounts for some of the antibacterial, antifungal, and antiviral effects of hydrogen peroxide. Hydrogen peroxide is a part of normal metabolism. Your body produces it constantly. There are units in certain white blood cells called "peroxisomes," which produce H2O2. These white cells then engulf bacteria which cause disease and mix them together with these peroxisomes. They both then disappear as the singlet oxygen from H2O2 destroys the bacteria or virus. This happens naturally, without any help from outside sources of hydrogen peroxide. When an infective disease becomes obvious to the person who has the infection the hydrogen peroxide defense mechanism already has been overwhelmed by the number of viruses or bacteria involved, and the immune system is into its secondary line of defense: the tedious process of analyzing the invading organism and making antibodies, which deal specifically with that organism. The invention of man-made antibiotics, beginning in the 1920s, was a revolution in medical science. However, as a strategy for fighting infection it is clearly second best, as the body itself demonstrates. When the body is challenged with an infection, it first turns to hydrogen peroxide. Only when this fails does it turn to its own antibody production. Conditions which can be treated with H2O2 include those conditions which can be treated with antibiotics, but without the serious toxicity often associated with laboratory produced synthetic antibiotics. Some of these conditions are candidiasis (yeast), viral infections, influenza, the common cold, sinus infection, Epstein-Barr virus and gangrene. Hydrogen peroxide also has been found to dissolve cholesterol and calcium deposits associated with atherosclerosis. Therefore, it is a good treatment for vascular disorders. This can result in lessening or disappearance of angina, leg pain and transient ischemic attacks to the brain, which cause dizziness. It also can help reverse some of the damage left over by a stroke, if treatment is instituted early enough. Research in the 1960s at Baylor University showed conclusively that intra-arterial hydrogen peroxide dissolves plaque in large arteries. This makes H2O2 a wonderful complement to EDTA in the treatment of vascular disease, as EDTA has been shown to clear small vessels and create collateral circulation around large vessel blockages. This combination is called "Chelox Therapy." It also clears the lungs, in cases of emphysema, by producing oxygen bubbles in the alveoli (tiny air sacs in the lungs), literally lifting the mucus deposits up, so they can be coughed out. Hydrogen peroxide has a remarkable clearing effect on the skin. After only a few intravenous treatments the skin takes on a translucent clarity usually seen only in children. In addition, hydrogen peroxide benefits asthma, leukemia, multiple sclerosis, degenerative spinal disc disease and high blood pressure. It is particularly effective with asthma, arthritis and back disorders. All of these illnesses have a component of toxicity from accumulated pesticides, preservatives and organic industrial pollutants. Often the clearing of these toxins is enough to allow the body to heal, or at least partially repair itself. Obviously, where there is anatomic change such as in disc disease, this anatomic change will not be altered. However, what the person with disc disease, arthritis and other such illnesses is interested in is the disappearance of pain and the return of function. This often is possible with hydrogen peroxide. Some doctors believe AIDS and cancer can be helped with hydrogen peroxide. The theory which explains benefits enjoyed by people with these conditions is that the cancer cell and the AIDS virus both are anaerobic and do not do well when exposed to singlet oxygen supplied by the hydrogen peroxide to water and oxygen reaction. Much more research needs to be done in this area. Claims of cure should not be made unless they can be rigorously substantiated with cause and effect proven beyond any reasonable doubt. At the present time, we can say only that the oxidative therapies are valuable, arresting disease processes, but not necessarily curative. Who will make use of hydrogen peroxide, and who will write it off as a hoax and pay for far more expensive, less effective, perhaps even damaging therapies? I saw a bumper sticker on a car at my son's school a few days ago: which read: "DO YOU THINK EDUCATION IS EXPENSIVE? TRY IGNORANCE!" People who will benefit from any of the therapies which are simple, effective and yet downplayed by the medical establishment, are those people who have educated themselves. Those who refuse to educate themselves, never read, never try anything out of the mainstream of thought and insist on thoughtlessly following the "expert's advice," will pay through the nose for therapies which drain their resources and deliver half-baked results. It may be there is a segment of the population which is capable of nothing more. God bless those folks. Here is this doctor's advice: think for yourself. If hydrogen peroxide is so effective, why is it not made use of in "modern" medicine? The reason is simple. Hydrogen peroxide cannot be patented. It is present in the ocean, it is present in rainwater, it is present in vegetables, it is present in every cell of your body right now. It must be classified as a food, because it is part of all fresh food of plant origin. Because it is produced in the human body, it is undeniably safe. Since it is a food and cannot be patented, there is no big profit to be made on it. Pharmaceutical companies slave away to develop drugs which, although they may be less effective, can be patented. When a company can patent a drug it has a monopoly on the production and sales of that drug for seventeen years, time enough to make a fortune, as well as pay back the multiple millions of dollars it costs to produce the research to satisfy the FDA the drug is "safe." By the way, approximately 125,000 Americans die yearly from drugs approved for safety by the FDA. Some of these deaths are due to individual unique ("idiopathic") reactions. Bruce Lee, a martial artist without equal, and a promising actor with a brilliant career in front of him, died in 1973 in the prime of life at age 32 from taking an FDA-approved headache pill, Equagesic. Any time a drug is synthesized in the laboratory and not derived from nature, this kind of reaction is a possibility. There are uncounted hundreds of thousands of lives lost each year from toxicity well-known to the FDA, toxicity which is printed right on the package insert which comes with the drug. Most of these drugs are "chemotherapeutic agents," like AZT and Tamoxifen, designed to treat (not really) terminal conditions. They do not work to cure these conditions, but they do treat the conditions, getting rid of the patient by destroying the immune system — no more disease, but no more patient either. What happens after a new drug is developed, tested and approved is that an advertising blitz is aimed at doctors to persuade them to prescribe this new "miracle" drug. Doctors do listen to this sort of thing. They cannot avoid listening, because drug company sales representatives by the thousands fan out across the country delivering literature on the new "miracle" drug to doctors' offices. They leave free samples to get doctors in the habit of prescribing this drug. They make appointments with doctor to bend his/her ear with a high- pressured sales speech. Doctors hate this, and they love it. They hate to give up their time to the drug reps, they hate the high pressured presentations, and they love the free samples. This transaction between drug reps and doctors is a major source of the continuing medical education which doctors receive. This is their main line to learning what is "new," and what is new is considered to be what is better! Such folly! So how does hydrogen peroxide work? How can something so simple and so common as H2O2 be responsible for the outlandish claims made for it and the outrageous results reported by people suffering from such diverse disorders? There has been much written about the possible benefits of shark cartilage in the treatment of cancer recently. The reasoning goes that because sharks do not get cancer they must have a secret, which may be contained in their cartilage. It is conveniently overlooked that whales don't get cancer, dolphins don't get cancer, starfish don't get cancer, octopi don't get cancer. In fact, none of the creatures of the sea (except those living in polluted water) get cancer. There may be something to shark cartilage. Sharks can live in polluted water and still are cancer resistant. The most common denominator is that all these creatures swim in sea water, which is rich in H2O2. Were it not for industrial pollutants, herbicides, pesticides and food additives, we might be able to add "and human beings do not get cancer." However, even if we stopped polluting the environment and ourselves right now, we still would have environmental contaminants in our air and food chains for hundreds of years, so the diseases caused by these things likely are to be around for at least that long. The task now is to see if we can find some means of treatment and protection from this disaster until we can finally clean up our planet. The most fundamental feature of a cancer cell is that it is relatively anaerobic. It needs sixty percent less oxygen than a normal healthy cell. It does very poorly in the presence of excess oxygen. All of this points toward the oxidative therapies as a decent treatment for cancer and a decent preventive measure as well. Apparently, cancer is the cell's attempt to survive under conditions of a low supply of oxygen. If your cells are well oxygenated, they have no reason to transform into cancer cells. It may be that the way toxins promote cancer is by interfering with the use of oxygen by cells. Most diseases we assume inherent to being human are results of the polluted chemical soup we all live in during this modern industrial age. Anything which allows the body to cleanse itself of these toxins will deliver you to the pristine condition of health you were meant to enjoy. Fasting will help, a pure diet of plant origin will help, vitamin supplementation will help, EDTA will help, intestinal cleansing programs and colon therapy will help, and so will hydrogen peroxide. Any of these approaches will help cleanse your body of toxins such as pesticides and preservatives, which are laced into the food you buy off the grocery store shelf. When toxins are released from the cells of the body, they must cross the space between those cells and the outside. Ultimately, they exit the body through the lungs, the liver, the kidneys, and the pores of the skin. Detoxification can feel temporarily worse than the disease. It may be accompanied by headache, fatigue, grouchiness, insomnia and body pains for days or even, in very diseased states, weeks. Hydrogen peroxide is no exception. Be prepared for these kinds of results on your trip to a clear state of health. People have been traveling to the baths at Lourdes, in southwest France at the base of the Pyrenees Mountains, since 1858 when a girl is said to have seen there a vision of the Virgin Mary. The waters at the baths in Lourdes are believed by many people to have miracle healing powers. Perhaps it is no coincidence these waters are loaded with, you guessed it, hydrogen peroxide. People go there to bathe in and drink the water. How does one take hydrogen peroxide? You can go to Lourdes, or you can go to a good organic grocery store and buy a bottle of food grade (35%) hydrogen peroxide, dilute it and drink it, or bath in it. If you go to Lourdes, be prepared to shell out thousands of dollars. If you go to the grocery store, be prepared to pay a few dollars. Be sure to dilute it, because the 35% solution will cause burning of the skin on application, or internal damage, if you try to drink it. If you take it orally, you should dilute it approximately ten drops in an eight ounce glass of water, two or three times each day, on an empty stomach (three hours after your last meal). If you take it with food in your stomach, the hydrogen peroxide will react with the food, and you will not get the benefit from it. Even if you take it on an empty stomach it reacts to the cells of the stomach wall, as well as whatever food fragments still are present, and you receive not only hydrogen peroxide into your circulation, but also oxidation products of H2O2 plus sluffed off cells from the lining of your stomach and miscellaneous food. Because of these considerations I cannot, and I do not, recommend you take H2O2 by mouth. I believe intravenous H2O2 to be far superior to the oral route of administration. However, because people do report good results with the oral route, I cannot recommend you absolutely do not take it by mouth. This is a gray area. To benefit your body, the H2O2 must reach your circulation, where it can be broken down by catalase and bound by cytochrome-C for distribution throughout your body in the following forty minutes. You should not eat anything for at least twenty minutes after taking the H2O2. You will notice hydrogen peroxide, even in this very dilute state, tastes terrible. It makes many people nauseated. You may be able to mask this effect by taking it with fresh lemon or berry juice or with aloe vera juice. You also can bathe in hydrogen peroxide by putting a pint in your bath water. Be sure to stir it up well before getting in to avoid burning your skin. Many people with arthritis swear by this treatment. If you are confronting a serious illness, or if oral and topical applications are not getting the job done, you can turn to intravenous infusion of hydrogen peroxide. Intravenous H2O2 is far more powerful than the oral ingestion or topical application. For this form of treatment, you must find a physician who is familiar with the proper preparation of pharmaceutical grade H2O2 in a bottle of sterile, isotonic intravenous fluid. The infusion lasts ninety minutes. You will notice a warm feeling during treatment, not much more. The main effect of hydrogen peroxide infusions is that you regain your health. Treatments are one to three times per week, occasionally five times per week for an acute illness and, just as with chelation therapy with EDTA, the number of treatments needed depends on the nature of the illness with which you are dealing. From ten to fifty treatments will get the job done in most cases, and you should be able to maintain on oral hydrogen peroxide or the occasional intravenous infusion after that. As I alluded to above, there is an exciting new development in the treatment of vascular disease, Chelox Therapy, which involves the combination of treatment with EDTA and H2O2, not in the same infusion, or even on the same day for that matter, but separated by at least one day. These two therapies work in different ways and cross react with each other, causing a thirty percent incidence of intravenous thrombosis. They can be given in combination to the same patient but not on the same day. The combination of these two therapies, given correctly, has been found to be more powerful than either one used alone. To find a doctor who can offer you intravenous hydrogen peroxide therapy, consult Bio-oxidative Medicine. 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