The vitamin C treatment of whooping cough.

Abbreviations:
SA sodium ascorbate
AA ascorbic acid
LSA liposomal/lipospheric sodium ascorbate
PSA powdered sodium ascorbate
WC Whooping cough

I wrote the original 2012 treatment document, based on Hilary Butler’s 30 years of research and my own experience and knowledge of toxin-mediated diseases.

My motivation to find a solution came from watching two young girls that were close to me, suffer from whooping cough. Neither conventional antibiotics nor homeopathic options helped at all. A skilled and revered homeopath was so concerned, that he even said to take the antibiotics. One girl refused and the other promptly vomited up her first dose and their mother was wise enough not to push the antibiotics. I later learned that there is little to no evidence that antibiotics help the severity or duration of cough in such children.

Both of those children recovered from an illness that neither will ever forget. Their excellent baseline health and nutrition no doubt helped them survive without any huge drama. Watching them cough, made me understand why anyone ever wanted to develop a vaccine against whooping cough. The problem is, the vaccine doesn’t work well at all and has toxicity issues. Had I known about the sodium ascorbate treatment, the girls would have had a much easier time of it.

A study of the medical literature showed that there was scientific rationale for such a treatment, which motivated me to start recommending vitamin C in those who have need, and to write the original document. After several years of expanded understanding of whooping cough in babies as young as 2 weeks of age, and older children, I’ve received hundreds of letters of appreciation telling me how the protocol worked for parents using it on their own.

Broader experience and observation has highlighted individual differences and unique situations, and resulted in technique refinements and improvements to the pre-existing write up. New medical literature references have also been added.

You must carefully read every word of this long document. Please do not jump to the protocol if you do not understand the full picture, you may struggle to work out how, when and why to adjust vitamin C dosing. Your child’s health and recovery is worth a few hours of your time to learn.

If you have a cooperative medical provider, this document can serve as a guideline for them and you to work together. However, as you will see by parents’ experiences on drsuzanne.net, most parents use the document on their own with success. Their stories will give you hope to put aside the negative messages propagated by ignorant and miseducated mainstream media and the conventional medical system.

B. pertussis infection as NOT a walk in the park. For many people it is a severe and worrying cough. If the B. pertussis vaccine was safe and effective, it may have been worth using. However, the B. pertussis vaccine is provably one of the most ineffective. It’s many disadvantages which lend dubious, fleeting protection to the individual, results in numerous doses and boosters from cradle to grave. In fact, the more whooping cough vaccines a person receives, the less effective they become.[1] Diavatopoulis has even compared the acellular vaccine that is used today, to allergy shots, because the cellular immune system responds less and less after successive doses in those who have been primed with acellular vaccines.

Conversely one episode of natural whooping cough renders the recovered person immune far longer than any series of vaccines will.

The information provided here is distilled from a wide body of literature that demonstrates that the ascorbate molecule, in frequent doses, is extremely safe. Experience shows it to be instrumental in the biochemical recovery from Bordetella pertussis (whooping cough) infection. Natural recovery from whooping cough has advantages for an entire life.

Bordetella pertussis infection

While it is not ideal for a newborn infant to catch whooping cough, it can be managed at home. Successful treatment will require diligence and an adult rocking very young infants, at the peak of infection, 24 hours for several days. Babies cannot get vaccinated until they are two months of age, and by then, the cough can be treated much more easily than in a younger infant. After three months, a fully breast-fed baby will respond well. Otherwise healthy babies over six months of age with whooping cough, should not worry any parent if they understand the principles and protocols to deal with the infection, and are well equipped and organized.

B.pertussis bacteria is very tricky, and part of its armor involves several toxins. Toxin production is the major reason for the worst symptoms. Conventional medical doctors don’t know how to address the toxin issue in most infections. They give antibiotics, which have never been shown with any certainty, to limit the duration or severity of whooping cough in well-established disease.

After years of experience treating infants of all ages, it has become evident that there are some exceptions to the antibiotic issue:

• In 2 week to 2 month age babies, if the antibiotic is given at the first sign of cough, the severity of cough can often be decreased. I’ve worked that out with observation and use, but the two doses of antibiotic have to be given at the very first signs of the first phase of the illness. This can only happen if the index case has previously been identified and the parents know what is coming.
• This does not seem to be the case in older babies, where parents almost always report worsening symptoms after the antibiotic has been given. This may be due to starting them after the cough is full blown. I’ve not tried the two days treatment with azithromycin on older babies, because IMO, the risk:benefit is not there at that age. One exception could be someone with cystic fibrosis or other underling lung problems. But again, it will probably only make a difference if the cough is anticipated as a result of knowing that the exposure occurred.
• Antibiotics don’t seem to help whooping cough symptoms in anyone at any age, after it has become a full blown infection.

Is ascorbate a cure? No, but the majority of parents who use it on their infected babies, and young and older children, report a significant decrease in cough intensity, with thinning and loosening of sticky mucus, within the first 24 hours of proper dosing. Ascorbate, in properly spaced, very high oral doses, will get you and your children through the weeks with vastly reduced symptoms while developing lasting immunity that will later protect those around them more effectively than vaccines can.

A 2010 study suggested that natural immunity to whooping cough lasts at least 30 years[2], whereas the immunity from a vaccine lasts three years at most.[3]

Because of the limited duration of transient immunity after vaccination, B. pertussis boosters are now being recommended for 8-12 year-olds, adults, women during each pregnancy, and contacts of newborns before every birth.

If you think that a vaccinated person cannot get whooping cough, in the most severe manner, think again. Most babies over the age of 6 months who get whooping cough are fully and “appropriately” vaccinated. In 2012, a new peer reviewed document from professor of infectious diseases, Dr Maxwell Witt of Keyser Permanente in California showed that B. pertussis runs rampant in fully vaccinated child populations.

“Our data suggests that the current schedule of acellular pertussis vaccine doses is insufficient to prevent outbreaks of pertussis. We noted a markedly increased rate of disease from age 8 through 12 . . . . Acellular vaccines have not been studied for clinical efficacy in north America and no studies exist on long term.”[4]

Quite impressive, right? Table 1 at the end of Dr Witt's document shows the percent of cases in the vaccinated, and it as follows: 86% age 2-7, 86% age 8-12, 62% age 13-18, 81% age 2-18. So now you know who gets more B. pertussis. It is not the unvaccinated. He even says, in the introduction:

“Our unvaccinated and under-vaccinated population did not appear to contribute significantly to the increased rate of clinical pertussis. Surprisingly, the highest incidence of disease was among previously vaccinated children in the eight to twelve year age group.”

The rate of infections in the vaccinated is huge. Look at this chart prepared by the California Department of Public Health, Immunization Branch.

The above chart was last printed in the California department of public health pertussis report[5], November 10, 2011. Thereafter, the report on cases by vaccine history stopped. In fact, word searching for ‘vaccine’ brings up no data in the recent reports. It just says to give the vaccine in infancy and pregnancy.

Graph above from

https://archive.cdph.ca.gov/programs/immunize/Documents/pertussis_report_2017-1-23.pdf

Vaccine defenders will say that the high rate in the vaccinated is just because the majority of people in the population are vaccinated There are known and published reasons why vaccinated children are becoming infected, even at high vaccine compliance rates which I have discussed elsewhere. See here https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLgH2vCx5TOgXZrRRM-ObX7JXt_0Ie8OI0&disable_polymer=true

The fact is that regardless of whether a child is vaccinated or not, everyone needs to be able and ready to treat whooping cough.

Personal protection: Who wins out?

Vaccinated babies, children, and adults are not able to mount the comprehensive bronchial and cellular immunity that a non-vaccinated person naturally develops in the course of the disease.[6] Why? Because the vaccine primes the body to fight B. pertussis toxin and sometimes a couple of other cell antigens, in the blood, but does not provide protection at the lung interface where the real life battle occurs. The ineffective immunity “learned” from the vaccine series (referred to by Dr. James Cherry as “original antigenic sin”)[7], is the same way the body will respond to a subsequent natural exposure.

The learned immune response to an acellular vaccine results in numerous differences compared with the normal response mounted to a natural infection. Some of the key differences in vaccinated people are:

- Antibody preferentially made in the blood rather than the lung interface.
- IgG antibody rather than IgA antibody.
- The wrong type of antibody because the vaccine antigens are not the same shape as the real life antigens.[8]
- A relative, progressive loss of protection with each vaccine dose, because the T cell response is similar to what allergy injections do.[9]
- Far lower complement-mediated killing of bacteria.
- Suboptimal inflammatory responses resulting in impaired lung clearance of bacteria.
- Impaired phagocytosis.

It is well known that never-vaccinated B. pertussis disease-convalesced children, develop important immune responses that the vaccinated do not[10]. The vaccinationists have attempted to compensate for this phenomenon by creating vaccines with multiple antigens. The point they miss is that it is only front line, innate, and naturally acquired complex-cellular and bronchial responses, which give the full protection. It has been shown that response to B. pertussis toxin[11] and adenylate cyclase toxin[12] is far more robust in the unvaccinated, than the vaccinated. Because of this, the naturally immune upon re-exposure, will clear bacteria far more rapidly than the vaccinated. There is an enormous difference between broad, long-lasting immunity from the normal disease, and limited antibody development and short-term pseudo-immunity from the vaccine.

If your child has whooping cough, the doctor will try to make you give antibiotics even though antibiotics do not shorten, or do anything, to lessen the course of the disease once the cough is full blown[13]. Even alternative doctors will suggest it because they don’t know the medical literature and because they want to just DO something. The conventional medical culture does not seem to understand the damage created by antibiotics.

Any antibiotics given during full-blown infection seem to uniformly make things worse. They can make the coughing fits more severe by releasing LPS(lipopolysaccharide) from other gram-negative gut bacteria during the microbial die-off that happens. This will increase the work of the liver in its detoxification of all bodily toxins during a time when lung bacteria are releasing exotoxin hand over fist. Tozzi reported that Children who received an antibiotic had a duration of cough 6 to 11 days longer and spasmodic cough 4 to 13 days longer than untreated patients.[14] The authors insinuated that the sicker patients may have been preferentially treated with antibiotics. However combining that with the Cochrane results[15] and my hands-on experience, leaves me confident that antibiotics are highly unlikely to make the established cough any better.

Convention says that antibiotics stop the recipient from coughing as much bacteria into the environment for others to catch. That is true to an extent, but I’ve seen numerous babies get the antibiotics, continue to cough, get tested again weeks later –and still culture or test positive. There is now a growing issue with antibiotic resistant B. pertussis. Azithromycin appears to be maintaining its strength against the bacteria with only one case reported in the literature of possible resistance.[16] However, I’ve seen babies treated with azithromycin continue to remain infected upon further testing.

If your child has whooping cough, you have the opportunity to control it the first time, so that you don’t have to worry about it for several more decades. Most people who are naturally convalesced and have not been given antibiotics, will not experience the cough at all later in life, because they will be experiencing a series of natural boosters in the environment, since B. pertussis bacteria appears to be continually circulating.

The whooping cough bacteria

First let it be known that the species of bacteria responsible for whooping cough, Bordetella pertussis, has properties that not all bacteria have, and that is what makes it such a problem to deal with: It secretes several toxins, and has adapted to stick to the cells of the airway.

Those parts marked “Nonciliated cells” are the damaged ones. They look like a lawn mower has cut them down.

Most of the respiratory tract lining (from the nose to the bronchi) is covered with hair-like (ciliated) epithelial cells. The cilia beat in one direction, moving mucus towards the throat where it is swallowed. Moving down the bronchi, the cells change in shape but are still ciliated. In health, the bronchial hairs are moving mucus around all the time. It is this continuous movement that keeps the airways free of invasion from pathogens. If the lungs didn't do this, then we would not be able to get rid of the bacteria and viruses we breathe every day.

The lining mucus is part of the innate immune system and is loaded with immune globulins. So you must keep the mucus moving, especially in a sick child. Once the B. pertussis bacteria have a hold on the cilia, it secretes tracheal cytotoxin, which cuts the hairs off, stops them from beating, and destroys the cells underneath[17]. The mucus then stops moving normally and instead, it pools deeper in the lungs. Then it builds up, breathing becomes harder, and the body signals coughing to try to move the mucus out of the way, for proper breathing to occur.

As long as you keep the mucus moving, your baby should not get a secondary infection. Ascorbate and good hydration will help to keep the mucus thin. When you first start to use ascorbate, the mucus may thin out quickly and the person coughing may bring up large quantities of mucus in the first 24 hours. That is a sign of success.

There are two first-line bacterial toxins[18]; pertussis toxin (PTx) which stops the body from sending neutrophils (immune cells) to kill the bacteria, and Adenylate Cyclase Toxin (ACT). ACT inhibits the immune cell function and poisons the immune response[19], acting as a “force-field” to shield the bacteria from the immune system while the bacteria start stripping the lung cilia off of the epithelial cells. Vaccinated children cannot mount antibody to ACT[20]. Ascorbate will help neutralize these toxins while the body is mounting a proper immune response, which takes weeks.

If the disease goes out of control, toxins can enter the blood stream and irritate the body. If the baby's immune system is not so good, or the liver detoxification system is inhibited, then B. pertussis toxins can also get to the brain, but this is very rare. This is one reason why 1 in 200 babies can die—their figures, which I am repeating back to you. What is more likely is that 1 in 200 babies who have received standard medical treatment, or no ascorbate treatment whatsoever, might die. These numbers are used to frighten parents into vaccinating, but the numbers are generated by counting children who’ve been treated conventionally, not by those of us who have successfully treated the infection in breastfeeding infants, with supportive care and ascorbate—at home. Those children rarely land up in the hospital, and thus are not counted in the stats.

If the mucus is not coughed up, other bacteria can grow and cause a secondary bacterial infection, which doctors will want to treat with antibiotics. It is believed that whooping cough can cause long-lasting lung problems, in rare cases. Yes it can, if you treat it the way conventional doctors do, doing nothing other than antibiotics. Just using antibiotics does not deal with the pooling mucus, or manage the cough, or deal with the toxins. If you keep the mucus moving, there should be no further problems other than the cough itself.

Clinical scenario and diagnosis

Whooping cough has two stages. The first stage, colonization, is like a minor cold, which can, but does not always increases in intensity over about a 10-day time frame. Then it seems like the cold is gone and there is nothing to worry about. The second or toxemic stage of B. pertussis begins gradually. The child starts the odd

cough, and after about two weeks, the cough starts to get strong, with prolonged and paroxysmal coughing that often(but not always) ends in a characteristic inspiratory gasp (whoop). The cough is often more prominent at night. If the cough changes, and becomes more of a bark, and more regular—developing a pattern at night of “every hour, on the hour”—then you have to consider that it could be whooping cough.

If you need a laboratory diagnosis, PCR (polymerase chain reaction) and bacterial culture are both available. Both have advantages and disadvantages. The culture test is less reliable than a PCR test. A negative test does not necessarily rule out B. pertussis. Blood testing is sometimes used later in the cough, but most people get their diagnosis by the more reliable PCR method. Read more about available testing on the CDC website.[21]

Most parents benefit from confirming the diagnosis. First off, you know exactly what you are dealing with, and recent contacts can be warned. Secondly, you have a record of infection that can be used as evidence of immunity later. The potential disadvantage of requesting a test is how you could be treated by the consulting doctor. It is not uncommon for parents of both vaccinated and unvaccinated children, to diagnose the cough before the doctor does, and after the doctor has misdiagnosed and misprescribed multiple times. The doctor surprisingly continues to deny parents the right to get their child tested. Often, when this happens, the parents will go to another facility and get the test, which comes back positive.

As the cough becomes more severe, various stimuli can trigger it. A classic way of diagnosis is to touch the middle of the tongue with your finger to see if this starts the cough. Or if eating (i.e., passing food over the tongue) starts a cough, consider whooping cough. If a child happens to be breathing in, as well as eating when the food touches the tongue, and the cough starts on the inhale, there is a possibility of food going down the wrong way. If this happens, you may have to do a gentle push under the diaphragm to have them pass the food back up from the trachea. Running around is another trigger.

If you watch the child, they go cough, cough, . . . cough, cough, cough, cough, cough (and at this point are starting to go pink in the face, and are starting to wonder when they can have an in-breath) cough, cough, and then right at the end, they stop coughing, and the in-breath is really fast, because they want to expand their lungs, and the result can be a “whoop.” Older children don’t whoop much, if at all.

The early progression of cough:

The cough will become more regular and predictable, first at night. You may get coughs every hour, on the hour. This is because it takes around an hour for the mucus to pool deeper inside the lungs.

Usually parents start to suspect whooping cough once the cough becomes regular in the day as well. If you suspect it is whooping cough, write down the time of each coughing spell at the beginning, to see if a pattern establishes. This will help with diagnosis.

Why write it down? Because life will become so hectic you won't be able to remember, and your paper pad will be your memory. It will enable you to look back clearly, without panic, and see what the progression has been.

Once the cough is established, at the end of some coughs, fairly thick mucus might come up. This is because the bacterial exotoxins have eroded most of the hairs in the bronchi that normally sweep the mucus up and around, like a non-stop river to keep the surfaces moist.

The earlier in the illness you start using the ascorbate, the fewer bronchial hairs will be lost. Once bronchial hairs are lost, the cough sounds dry, and that's because the mucus membranes aren't being kept as regularly moist as normal. Most children do not pool mucus, so long as they continually bring it up.

Healthy babies, toddlers, and older children with whooping cough look quite normal between the telltale coughing spells.

Taking care of the caretaker

First, let’s talk about you, the parent. Most people who find this article, have first been terror-stricken by the pronouncements of gloom over their coughing child, and the huge field of fear that exists in the general public. They also may not believe that they can treat the cough without a doctor with a prescription pad, who may also chide them for not vaccinating.

If that describes you, then the first thing you need to do is take some deep breaths and think. If at first, your emotional scale is off the Richter line, that is natural—it can happen to anyone. But it doesn't help the child. You need to stand back and analyze the situation clearly.

Get some paper and a pen. Analyze when symptoms started by thinking backwards, and writing down the progression, working up from the bottom of a piece of paper. Start writing about today, and leave spaces between each day as you write, because you would be amazed at what you remember and can fill in, as time goes by. Fill as many sheets as you can, and when you have worked out when you think exposure was, number the pages from the beginning of the infection to now, then continue on writing down exactly what you see and hear each day. (If you do need professional help, this written record becomes invaluable. Give them a copy to read.)

There are parents all around the world who know that any baby, at any age, can be managed if a mother is supported and knows what to do. A rocking chair is a must for parents and caretakers to conserve their own energy, and be able to easily rock very young babies. This will serve to keep the infant relaxed and the mucus moving.

Powdered sodium ascorbate is good for starting. You should always have this in the house to treat many different external and internal conditions. Make sure you get a non-GMO formulation. We have the most experience with Nutribiotic brand sodium ascorbate. DO NOT USE Ester-C OR Calcium Ascorbate. When using the high doses necessary for most illnesses, nobody needs that much calcium. Besides which, the intestines transport the ascorbate into the body using sodium transporters and for that reason, sodium ascorbate is more compatible biomedically.

Caretakers/parents will find whooping cough stressful. The stress can also take a toll on your health. Eat well, and if you feel you need it, you can take a large dose (one tablespoon) of cod liver oil or omega-3 fatty acid, and 5-10 grams of ascorbate spread out over waking hours. If you are coughing or under a lot of stress, it may also be a good idea to give yourself a loading dose of 5 grams in half a glass of water. If this gives you loose bowels, cut the dose back.

Mix the sodium ascorbate in whatever volume of water works best for you and split it into maybe 4 doses through the day for YOU the adult. You can also make a concentrated shot, or even dilute it much more, depending on how well you tolerate the salty feeling. Regardless of how you take the powder, you must stay hydrated with plain water all day long, especially starting in the morning when your urine is most concentrated. Hydration is important for babies too.

There is one important key for breastfeeding mothers, which I've seen happen numerous times, especially if you, the mother, have whooping cough. YOU need to keep your ascorbate levels consistently high all day and night, because if you don't, your exotoxin can pass on to the baby through your milk. So, you must efficiently neutralize the toxin in your own body.

Types of ascorbate to have on hand

Sodium ascorbate crystalline from a non-GMO source. I recommend Nutribiotic brand available from amazon or iherb.

Liposomal sodium ascorbate. I recommend Livon labs brand lipospheric available from Amazon and iherb. Note that this is a soy-based product and also contains 12% alcohol, about 1/8th tsp per pack. I have not had any problems even in very young babies. For non-soy sensitive children it is ideal. If the child or mother are known to be soy-sensitive, you can locate a sunflower oil based product instead.

A more recent discovery of mine was Sufficient-C brand ascorbic acid. The benefit of this brand is that it tastes amazing. It is a bit more expensive than nutribiotic SA and it is AA not SA, but I recommend you use it for older children and older toddlers who are weaned from breast milk IF you have to give very high doses of PSA or LSA. Why? Because you can hide the PSA and LSA in it. I have yet to see one adult or child say they didn’t love this brand of ascorbic acid. Best of all, it is sweetened with stevia and nothing harmful. It also contains caffeine free green tea extract, L-lysine and bromelain. You can use a 50:50 PSA and Sufficient-C combination, or add some LSA to the sufficient-C to hide the taste of the LSA. The owner is lovely and will offer a discount for larger orders.

General care of the child

Watch the child carefully throughout the day, and write down everything, including how you are feeling. If the child feels hot, go ahead take the temperature. Under no circumstances use cough suppressants of any kind, or acetaminophen, fever reducers, or cold medicines. Parents have been conditioned to fear fever, but fever is the body’s innate mechanism to deal with disease.

However, know that whooping cough bacteria do not permeate into the blood and fevers are not usual in any phase of whooping cough. If the temperature is above normal, other infections should be considered. I have never seen an secondary infection in ascorbate treated children, but in conventionally treated people this can happen, most probably as a result of subclinical scurvy, white blood cell under-function, and antibiotic use which can skew the microbiome.

Let the child play at home but if they run or exert themselves, they will have a cough. Keep the child away from susceptible people, pregnant women, and siblings of very young babies until they are no longer contagious. Contagion in naturally treated children is between 3 and 6 weeks. If the cough is still roaring at 4 weeks, assume the child is still contagious, unless they’ve tested negative.

Vitamin C toxicity?

In the wake of pharmaceutical disaster after disaster in all areas of medicine, it is ironic that there is even discussion of a toxicity level for vitamin C –especially for a sick person. Vitamin C is never a poison in the body, because so many functions of the body require it, and whenever you take too much, you will have an episode of loose bowels, as the excess is removed from the body. This is how you know you’ve had more than enough.

For anyone to consider that vitamin C would have toxicity means that they have limited understanding of the various roles that it has in the body. There is a huge mass of research literature supporting the truth that vitamin C is nontoxic and safe in indicated circumstances, even in mega dose quantities. There is much evidence indicating that vitamin C metabolism changes during infections and this may change the relationship between doses and adverse effects[22]if you are burning through vitamin C. Because your body is requiring more and more, and using huge amounts of it, you will not suffer from toxicity. You will suffer if you don’t use vitamin C.

One of the biggest problems, especially in toxin-producing illnesses like B. pertussis, is that people are hesitant to use the high doses that are needed. They have been brainwashed about how dangerous ascorbate is in large doses. They see 20-30 Grams for an adult or 5 -10 grams for a child as an outrageous amount. These seemingly high doses of ascorbate are often only just enough to keep up, because the body will use it up very rapidly as it works to cope with ongoing toxin production, along with the resultant oxidative stress,. It's like pouring water into a bucket with leaking holes. The vitamin C intake has to increase to keep up with the body’s need for it.

Nobody has ever died of a vitamin C or synthetic ascorbate overdose. The LD50 is a convention used to represent the lethal dose for 50% of a tested population. The LD50 for ascorbate is 11,900 mg/kg, for table salt 3000, acetaminophen 1944, aspirin, 200, caffeine 192 mg/kg. Think about that for a bit. Nobody would think twice before using aggressive caffeine therapy on a premature baby who had respiratory depression after a vaccine[23], or aspirin and acetaminophen for any aches pains or acetaminophen for fever. Why the concern about vitamin C/ascorbate? Ignorance.

It has been reported[24],[25] that people with serious infections can ingest over 50 g/day of vitamin C without gastric problems. This same principle whereby the use of a substance acutely needed by the body will not cause toxicity, applies to a few other nutrients during infection, like vitamin A. You can give a child with measles vitamin A in doses that would normally be considered toxic, because the action of the measles virus pulls vitamin A out of the body hand over fist. All you are doing, is replacing what the infection in the body is mining. Therefore, in the context of measles, high doses of vitamin A will not be toxic.

Kidney Stones

A healthy person doesn’t need mega doses of ascorbate when they are healthy, but only in conditions when such doses are required.

Research shows case reports of oxalate crystal formation in the kidneys of people using high dose ascorbate for various illnesses and in health, but it is very rare and can be prevented. Note that the presence of crystals in the urine does not mean stones will form. The crystals have to precipitate and join together in order to make a stone. Urine pH, citrate concentration, and other factors can control the joining together of crystal-forming elements into a stone.

Existing case reports that implicate ascorbate, do not necessarily prove ascorbate was the only factor.

People who have a condition known as primary oxalosis, are prone to form oxalate in the body. Some people who have fat malabsorption absorb more oxalate from the intestine, and those people will have an underlying risk of oxalate stones. If they ingest ascorbate, the ascorbate will usually be implicated, and in some cases it may contribute.

If kidney stones are a concern, check with your doctor. If you have a history of kidney stones, please inform yourself of the risks and be sure to drink plenty of water and alkalize the urine. I have yet to hear of or witness an infant with kidney trouble or stone formation at the time of or following ascorbate dosing. Could it happen? Yes. It is possible. But when I see an infant blue in the face and know that ascorbate will help, it seems unethical to withhold the treatment. If that same infant were septic, nobody would consider withholding antibiotics even though the chances of anaphylactic shock from antibiotics are about the same as, or higher than the chance of kidney stone formation from vitamin C in that infant. In fact, antibiotics are routinely given to B. pertussis patients despite the lack of evidence that they do anything beneficial to the recipient, once the infection is well established. I always tell parents that stone formation is a potential, but very low risk. I don’t know of any parent who has considered not using ascorbate in their coughing infants, once they learn the physiologic benefit.

If there is concern about kidney stone formation, or kidney failure, do not take vitamin C or ascorbate without consulting your doctor. In older children and adults, hydration with water and fresh lemon will alkalize and dilute the urine, making oxalate stone formation nearly impossible. If there is a known history of a stone forming disorder called hyperoxaluria, then caution should be exercised. However to be safest, keep the urine dilute and alkaline as oxalate stones form in acidic, concentrated urine.

G6PD

Anyone with a very rare disorder called Glucose 6 phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency (G6PDD), which can cause anemia and red blood cells breaking open when certain foods and drugs are given, should not use mega doses of vitamin C, except under specialist care. This issue as well as other toxicity issues are discussed in a previous BLOG[26]. If you or your family has a history of anemia or G6PD deficiency, consult a doctor well informed in vitamin C immunobiology before taking vitamin C. If I suspect there could be a family history, I always send for the blood test as early as possible. People with this disorder can still take moderate doses of ascorbate when they are very ill.

The G6PD gene is carried on the X chromosome but women and girls can still have the disease, so don’t assume it is only a male issue.[27]

How Ascorbate works

Ascorbate, being the anti-oxidant portion of whole vitamin C, is an electron donor, neutralizes toxins in the blood, and will stabilize the child. If you are breastfeeding, you will have to take it yourself and/or give it to the child until the coughing stops. It is better for you to give vitamin C directly to babies, rather than trying to guess how much is coming through breast milk. Even if you take high doses, you will not get the dose you need into the baby.

To read the rest of the article please visit my website at http://drsuzanne.net/2017/10/sodium-ascorbate-vitamin-c-treatment-of-whooping-cough-suzanne-humphries-md/

[1] Diavatopoulos 2017, What Is Wrong with Pertussis Vaccine Immunity?, PMID: 28289059
[2] Wearing, HJ, Rohani P.2009. “Estimating the Duration of Pertussis Immunity Using Epidemiological Signatures.” PLoS Pathog. Oct;5(10). PMID 19876392
[3] Feunou 2010, Long-term immunity against Pertussis induced by a single nasal administration of live attenuated Pertussis BPZE1, PMID:20708998
[4] Witt et.al, 2012. “Unexpectedly Limited Durability of Immunity Following Acellular Pertussis Vaccination in Pre-Adolescents in a North American Outbreak.” Clin Infect Dis. 2012 Jun;54(12):1730-5. Epub 2012 Mar 15.
[5]https://archive.cdph.ca.gov/programs/immunize/Pages/PertussisSummaryReports.aspx
[6] Mills K.,2001. “Immunity to Bordetella Pertussis.” Microbes and Infection, (3)655−677 PMID: 11445452
[7] Cherry AD., 2004 “Determination of Serum Antibody to Bordetella Pertussis Adenylate Cyclase Toxin in Vaccinated and Unvaccinated Children and in Children and Adults with Pertussis.” Clin Infect Dis. Feb 15;38(4):502-7
[8] Eberhardt 2017, “What’s wrong with Pertussis vaccine immunity?”, PMID: 28289058
[9] Ibid Diavatopoulos 2017 PMID: 28289059
[10] Cherry JD et. al., 2004. “Determination of Serum Antibody to Bordetella Pertussis Adenylate Cyclase Toxin in Vaccinated and Unvaccinated Children and in Children and Adults with Pertussis." Clin Infect Dis. Feb 15;38(4):502-7 PMID 14765342
[11] Cherry JD et. al., 2010. “Antibody response patterns to Bordetella Pertussis antigens in vaccinated and unvaccinated young children with Pertussis.”Clin. Vac. Immun. May 17(5): 741-747. PMID 20335431
[12] Ibid Cherry 2004
[13] Altunaiji S et al.,2007.”Antibiotics for whooping cough.”Cochrane Database Syst Rev. Jul 18;(3) PMID 17636756
[14] Tozzi et. al, 2012. “Clinical Presentation of Pertussis in Unvaccinated and Vaccinated Children in the First Six Years of Life.” PMID: 14595048
[15] Ibid Altunaiji 2007.
[16] Guillot et al, 2012. “Macrolide-Resistant Bordetella Pertussis Infection in Newborn Girl, France”. PMID 22608348
[17] Cookson, BT.,1989. “Primary structure of the peptidoglycan-derived tracheal cytotoxin of Bordetella Pertussis.” Biochemistry.Feb 21;28(4):1744-9 PMID 2541765
[18] Carbonetti NH et al., 2005. “Pertussis Toxin and Adenylate Cyclase Toxin Provide a One-Two Punch for Establishment of Bordetella Pertussis Infection of the Respiratory Tract.” Infect Immun. 2005 May;73(5):2698-703 PMID 15845471
[19] Goodwin MS. 1990. “Adenylate Cyclase Toxin Is Critical for Colonization and Pertussis Toxin Is Critical for Lethal Infection by Bordetella Pertussis in Infant Mice.” Infect Immun. 1990 Oct;58(10):3445-7. PMID 2401570.
[20] Ibid Goodwin
[21] CDC last accessed August 24, 2017 https://www.cdc.gov/pertussis/clinical/diagnostictesting/diagnosis-confirmation.html
[22] Harri Hemilä. 2006. “Safety of Vitamin C: Urban Legends”, Department of Public Health, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
[23] DeMeo 2015, Adverse Events After Routing Immunization of Extremely Low-Birth-Weight Infants. JAMA Pediatrics, PMID:26030302
[24] Luberoff BJ (1978) Symptomectomy with vitamin C: a chat with Robert Cathcart, MD. CHEMTECH 8:76-86
[25] Cathcart 1985, Vitamin C: The Nontoxic, Nonrate-Limited, Antioxidant Free Radical Scavenger, Medical Hypotheses 18: 61-77.
[26] Humphries, Suzanne, Aug 3, 2012, “Why is nobody studying vitamin C in whooping cough?” http://www.vaccinationcouncil.org/2012/08/03/why-is-nobody-studying-vitamin-c-in-whooping-cough-by-suzanne-humphries-md/
[27] G6PDdeficiency.org http://g6pddeficiency.org/wp/g6pd-deficiency-home/women-with-g6pd-deficiency/#.WaiJYIpLdE4
[28] Bozonet et.al 2015, Enhanced Human Neutrophil Vitamin C Status, Chemotaxis and Oxidant Generation Following Dietary Supplementation with Vitamin C-Rich SunGold Kiwifruit, Nutrients, PMID:25912037
[29] Schorah 1996 Total vitamin C, ascorbic acid, and dehydroascorbic acid concentrations in plasma of critically ill patients.PMID:8615361
[30] Sagun KC et al.2005. “Vitamin C enters mitochondria via facilitative glucose transporter 1 (Glut1) and confers mitochondrial protection against oxidative injury.” FASEB J. Oct;19(12):1657-67 PMID 16195374.
[31] Okamoto M. 2005. “Is sudden death with vitamin C deficiency caused by lack of carnitine?” J Clin Forensic Med. Jan;13(1):26-9 PMID 16084747
[32] Chatterjee et al. 2008. “Ascorbate sustains neutrophil NOS expression, catalysis, and oxidative burst.” Free Radic Biol Med. Oct 15;45(8):1084-93. PMID 18675339