• IATROGENESIS: When Modern Medicine Makes Things Worse In The COVID-19 Era

    Posted December 31, 2020: by Bill Sardi

    Iatrogenic: relating to illness or death caused by medical examination or treatment

    Schools of pharmacy teach health professionals about drug/drug interactions.  Drug incompatibilities are screened by computer to minimize any adverse reactions caused by one drug interfering with another.  But drug/nutrient interactions are largely ignored.

    One of the most dangerous drug/nutrient interactions are medications that interfere with an essential B vitamin – thiamine vitamin B1.  B1deficiency, known as beriberi, can result in death.

    Common medications use to treat blood pressure, diabetes, mental depression, infection, irregular heart rhythm, have just now been discovered to deplete vitamin B1 via interference with internal transporters of this essential nutrient.  A list of these drugs is provided below.

    Among them: metformin, the anti-diabetic drug millions of adults are prescribed; and sertraline, a common anti-depressant; and verapamil for angina chest pain.

    I visited the online Drug Interaction Checker at WebMD.com and none of the above vitamin B1-robbing drugs were listed as agents that induce a shortage of vitamin B1. The most careful physician may be misled into thinking these FDA-approved drugs are implicitly safe.

    Vitamin B1 is required for healthy function of the autonomic nervous system.  The autonomic (automatic) nervous system is what unconsciously controls heartbeat, respiration, digestion, elimination, bladder control, and all of the senses of taste, smell, touch (pain), hearing and eyesight.

    A vitamin B1 deficiency is also strongly linked with mental depression, headaches, sleep disturbance (sleeplessness and oversleeping), mental confusion, memory loss (it is posed as the primary cause of Alzheimer’s disease as well as Parkinson’s disease).  A B1 shortage is also associated with loss of speech, unstable walking (ataxia), muscle shrinkage (atrophy), loss of blood sugar control (diabetes), and is involved in cases of autism.

    Patients with low thiamine levels will need to consciously control their breathing and they may die of breathlessness if they try to go to sleep (unconscious state).  This is precisely what is going on in ICUs across the country, mistakenly diagnosed as COVID-19 coronavirus infection.

    B1 deficiency may result in loss of control of the immune system which is controlled by the hypothalamus in the brain.  This can result in fever, diarrhea and vomiting that mimics a viral infection.   Beriberi masquerades as COVID-19 symptoms.

    Sick individuals may mistakenly think they have a viral infection and reach for over-the-counter remedies such as Nyquil that has 10% alcohol content, which makes matters worse.

    Dr. Derrick Lonsdale, the world’s leading vitamin B1 expert and author of the medical texts A NUTRITIONIST’S GUIDE TO THE CLINICAL USE OF VITAMIN B1 and THIAMINE DEFICIENCY DISEASE, DYSAUTONOMIA, AND HIGH CALORIE MALNUTRITION, and who was first to use the term “high calorie malnutrition” to describe the modern version of beriberi where the masses consume empty calories but stuff their stomachs to satisfy hunger, agrees the current COVID-19 plague is simply a B1 deficiency.

    While most physicians in developed countries are only familiar with beriberi in the context of alcohol abuse which impairs B1absorption, physicians are clueless to the modern version of this nutrient deficiency disease whose onset is hastened by consumption of alcohol, refined sugar and carbohydrates (bread, rice, pasta, cereal) and coffee and tea.  Use of diuretics (water pills) that wash away B vitamins and acid blockers for heartburn further impair B1 absorption.  Now add prescription drugs to the list of B1 blockers.

    Imagine you or a loved one are in the intensive care unit, battling a life-threatening respiratory infection, or at least your doctors think it is a respiratory infection.  And you have high blood pressure, a racing heart, high blood sugar.  You are likely to be prescribed a B1 blocking drug that could further exacerbate your condition.

    The failure to recognize beriberi, has been found to be a “nation-ruining” disease that has mortal consequences.  Locking down healthy human populations produces what also known as “prisoner of war disease,” aka beriberi.

    The influence vitamin B1 has over the body is so broad it crosses all of the medical specialties in organized modern medicine.  For example, low vitamin B1 is widely known to cause heart failure, symptoms for which are treated by cardiologists.

    A B1-deficient patient may see a psychologist or psychiatrist about mood problems.  A gastroenterologist examines a B1-deficient patient because of irregularity (constipation or loose stool).  An ear-nose-and-throat doctor about ringing in the ears (tinnitus); a pain specialist about unexplained body aches (fibromyalgia).  These medical specialists are clueless as to the central cause of these system-wide problems.

    Unsuspecting doctors believe vitamin B1 deficiency, called beriberi, is a disease of the past because B1 is added back in food fortification to flour after vitamin B1-rich bran is removed.

    But the Food & Nutrition Board, that established the current requirements for B1 nutriture, didn’t calculate for dietary factors or drugs that interfere with B1 absorption, transport and availability.

    Alcohol is the primary B1blocker.  Around 14 million Americans adults have alcohol use disorder.  Now, in the COVID-19 lockdown, alcohol consumption is up by 500%.  People are drinking high-balls at home.

    Sugar is another B1 blocker along with chocolate, coffee and tea.

    Obesity is another B1 destroyer.  One study reveals 29% of obese subjects were thiamine deficient.

    The world is being fooled by beriberi as it was over 100 years ago when it was first linked with polished white rice that had bran removed.  Alcohol (sake) drinking navy sailors in Japan were its victims.

    Modern medicine wears blinders to nutritional medicine.  The ethical dictum “first do no harm” is violated by the use of these B1-blocking drugs.

    Drugs That Impair Transport of Thiamine (Vitamin B1)

    Source: American Journal Clinical Nutrition, Volume 110, 2020

    Hydroxychloroquine (Plaquenil) – anti-parasitic

    Sertraline (Zoloft) – anti-depressant; panic disorder; post-traumatic stress

    Amitriptyline (Elavil) – antidepressant; anxiety; bipolar; hyperactivity

    Metformin (Glucophage) – anti-diabetic

    Amoxapine (Asenden) – anti-depressant

    Penicillamine (Cuprimine, Depen) – rheumatoid arthritis; Wilson’s disease

    Verpamil (Verelan, Calan) – Calcium blocker; blood pressure/angina

    Quinidine (no brand) – heart rhythm drug

    Quinapril (Accupril) – blood pressure

    Didanosine (Videx) – anti HIV

    Posaconazole (Noxafil)- anti fungal

    Telmisartan (Micardis)- blood pressure

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