Over the past several months, there have been many guesses about a new virus, Sars-Cov-2 (SC2). Research and some publications (academic, pre-prints, and blogs) have suggested various hypotheses. The prominent issue to be explained properly was the puzzle of hypoxia (lack of sufficient oxygen) that manifested in an unusual way: often the sick were still chatting away happily while their oxygen saturation dropped to dangerous lows. This later came to be known as happy hypoxics because with the level of hypoxia they showed, they should have been incomprehensible or unconscious, and not be walking and chatting with doctors or with friends on the phone. Yet they were and this was never seen before.
While most medical facilities rushed to judgment and labelled the hypoxia as ARDS and caused by pneumonia, the symptoms didn’t quite fit the diagnosis. Pneumonia usually starts as unilateral viral, taking on one of the lungs and not both. Later it may become bilateral as it turns to bacterial. However, regardless whether it is viral or bacterial, cough with heavy phlegm and sputum is strongly associated with pneumonia. Yet in the case of Covid-19, the cough is unproductive and dry. It is nothing like pneumonia.
ARDS seemed more on target with the symptoms, except for the big difference that in the case of ARDS, the patient is not talking, walking, happy hypoxic, but is barely conscious. So nothing we knew as a “disease” fit the bill as Covid-19 took hold. Ventilators clearly weren’t helping. Most patients on ventilators died–some hospitals reporting an astronomical, over 80%, death-rates of those placed on ventilators.
There were lots of discussions about hemoglobin and how the virus somehow takes hemoglobin out of the red blood cells; discussions about too many red blood cells plugging up the whole body and circulation, and other similar points of views. Then, all of a sudden some doctors discovered that many patients suffered blood clotting problems. This article still discusses lung problems and coagulation as two different problems. This article discusses the clotting in the lungs as pulmonary embolism, as if it were distinct from Covid-19. And here we can see the first signs of actual understanding. Indeed, when we talk about coagulation of the blood, we need to look at what is causing the blood clotting, where in the body, and how. Crucially, kidney failure was starting to become frequent and dialysis machines started to clog up with the platelets, which formed the blood clots. What was happening?
Sometimes, in late 2019, a new virus, which we now call Sars-Cov-2, launched an attack from somewhere in China—or at least this is how we understand. It attacked silently at first. By silence I mean that no one really understood that this was a new virus; many facilities everywhere thought they were dealing with the flu. After all, this was flu season.
I am not going to touch up on politics and will stick strictly to the virus and the disease it is causing, which is called Covid-19. As I am sure by now you know that it is a corona virus, I am not going to spend too much time on explaining what the virus looks like. It is pretty actually, with spikes.
Looks are deceiving though because it is not a pretty virus though it seems extremely efficient and effective. Continue reading →
I received this post in my Stanton Migraine Protocol migraine group on Facebook, and I am sharing it with the permission of the author, TK, posted on 4/17/2020 (if you are a group member, you can see the post here–this is only visible to members):
I got an email today from the Migraine World Summit (MWS), asking for my input after they wrapped up their conference. I have mixed feelings about them. When I first discovered their work in 2017 I was so sick, and desperate, and lonely in my condition which I knew no one else with, and which felt so isolating. Their serious attention to migraine and the compassion they offered was a lifeline. I especially appreciated MWS’s work destigmatizing and supporting the emotional difficulty of migraine. That conference led me to see a neurologist for the first time, and that visit, while empowering in some ways, was so disappointing to me (“here, take Topomax”) that I renewed my own search for a natural remedy. That led me to Angela Stanton and SMP. So while the MWS is misguided in their foundational beliefs about migraine, I do credit them with helping me start taking charge of my own condition. I believe they mean well, despite being under Big Pharma’s spell. That’s why I took the time to write some comments/feedback for next year’s event. Here’s what I submitted:
“I know that you will probably write me off as a crazy Stanton cult member, since this is the constant refrain from many in the pharmaceutical-devoted wing of the migraine world, so I’m not sure it’s even worth my time. But I feel so sad for those who never consider the Stanton Migraine Protocol, or write it off as “snake oil” because they are threatened by the idea that we could understand and manage our brain chemistry rather than just survive or medicate it. I have been kicked out of FB groups (managed by big Pharma) and had comments blocked, just for mentioning to others that the Stanton Migraine Protocol has changed my life and to look into it. I have sensed a similar lack of openness from the MWS. Angela Stanton is a pioneer and pioneers in any field are often pariahs at the outset. There’s a reason her research goes against the conventional wisdom–because the conventional wisdom has failed to explain, cure or support so many of our conditions. If you want to show that you are truly open to the cutting edge of science and health, I suggest you invite Angela Stanton to speak at your next summit about her migraine protocol. I doubt your big Pharma sponsors will let her slip in, b/c what she advocates is so threatening to the status quo—that we don’t need drugs to moderate migraine. Only a different understanding of neurochemistry, nutrition and metabolism. Stanton has been a speaker at countless other health conferences and is very involved in the Keto, low carb, and metabolic health scene. She’s no outlier anymore, and your resistance to including her is soon going to look foolish. I hope you reconsider. If you do, and I see her included next year, I will happily eat my words, and definitely support and attend. Thanks for your time and for what I believe is well intentioned work on behalf of our wellness.”
If anyone else has gotten the MWS survey and has a few extra minutes, I encourage you to submit your own version of the above! I know it’s unlikely, but we can be like the million little rain drops that erode a stone… Plus, when Angela’s work is someday recognized as the important shift that it is and becomes mainstream, I want to know I did everything I could to help get the word out! (I like being on the cutting edge. 😁)
The following is from an email I received from one of the most well-known doctors in the US–name will remain hidden–who wrote that the author of this note wanted it to be shared widely everywhere. And I can see why. Hence the entire blog below this is a giant quote (you can download the original here: Three U.S. hospitals use IVs of Vitamin C and other low-cost):
“Three U.S. hospitals use IVs of Vitamin C and other low-cost, readily
available drugs to cut the death-rate of COVID-19 — without ventilators!
March 30, 2020
“If you can administer Vitamin C intravenously starting in the Emergency Room and every 6 hours thereafter, while in the hospital, the mortality rate of this disease and the need for mechanical ventilators will likely be greatly reduced,” says Dr. Pierre Kory, the Medical Director of the Trauma and Life Support Center and Chief of the Critical Care Service at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. He explains that it’s the inflammation sparked by the Coronavirus, not the virus itself, that kills patients. Inflammation causes a condition called Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS), which damages the lungs so that patients, suffering fever, fatigue, and the sense that their inner chest is on fire, eventually cannot breathe without the help of a ventilator. Continue reading →
I am an ER MD in New Orleans. Class of 98. Every one of my colleagues have now seen several hundred Covid 19 patients and this is what I think I know.
Clinical course is predictable.
2-11 days after exposure (day 5 on average) flu like symptoms start. Common are fever, headache, dry cough, myalgias(back pain), nausea without vomiting, abdominal discomfort with some diarrhea, loss of smell, anorexia, fatigue.
Day 5 of symptoms- increased SOB, and bilateral viral pneumonia from direct viral damage to lung parenchyma.
Day 10- Cytokine storm leading to acute ARDS and multiorgan failure. You can literally watch it happen in a matter of hours.
81% mild symptoms, 14% severe symptoms requiring hospitalization, 5% critical.
Keto & Carnivore: Electrolytes, Water Retention & More
New video is out, this is the full video–slightly over an hour. I you prefer to watch on YouTube, please do.
Vanessa is an excellent interviewer, who a lot of fun to talk to. She knows the material really well and asked some awesome questions. We had a nice chat. We covered a lot of subjects that covers electrolytes, hydration, edema, protein consumption, and a lot more.
I hope you enjoy the discussion.
If you have any questions, please ask here or post a comment at YouTube. I answer questions there as well as here.
Comments are welcomed and are monitored for appropriateness
If you prefer to watch it on YouTube, please click here.
The Interview
This interview was for MeatRX members. MeatRX is a place for many thousands of people who have been eating a heavy meat-based diet, primarily carnivore, though not all. I am hypercarnivore and seasonally move to ketogenic diet and sometimes to the low carbs high fat. Continue reading →
A 10-minute short clip introduction to the interview I had yesterday with Vanessa, aka the KetogenicGirl.
The whole interview was over an hour–it will be up later I suppose. The subject was electrolytes and hydration.
I definitely have to figure out a better lighting… it was very sunny outside with the sun directly hitting the webcam, so I had to close the shades and use a bright reading light… that’s clearly not working too well.
Not sure when the rest of the video will be uploaded–the interview was well over an hour long. Vanessa is such a lovely person. We had a super great time!
Here I quote a few sentences from the article and the picture is partly whited out because of copyright protection; this magazine is by subscription only. If you are interested to read the original article (in Dutch), here is link to magazine and look for the article title: Migraine behandelen en voorkmen zonder medicijnen. I also add a bit of extra to place the article into context. Continue reading →
