End SIDS Now!

SIDS - Sudden Infant Death Syndrome - is a tragic way for infants to die. The medical establishment seems to have no idea what causes it. Apparently healthy infants just suddenly die in their sleep, with no apparent warning. Two out of every thousand live-born infants die of this syndrome.

Cause Unknown or Cause Ignored?

But is the cause really unknown, or has it been ignored and marginalized? In the 1970s, an Australian doctor named Archie Kalokerinos volunteered to serve the Aboriginal people in the opal mining region of Australia. He found that an astonishing 50% of infants were dying, primarily from SIDS. He noted that the people and their infants were almost completely deficient of vitamin C in their diet, and began a supplementation program. Before long the infant mortality rate had dropped to near zero, and no child subsequently died of SIDS. In 1978, Dr. Irwin Stone, one of the doctors who pioneered research in vitamin C, reported this in a paper presented at the Conference On Controversies In Human And Clinical Nutrition that SIDS was in fact a result of what he called Chronic Subclinical Scurvy (vitamin C deficiency):

The Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) or Crib Death, has been shown by the Australian workers, A. Kalokerinos and G. Dettman, to be a manifestation of infantile scurvy, due to the fact that all infants, born of mothers who depended solely on their diet as their only source of ascorbate, are born with the CSS Syndrome after nine months of intrauterine scurvy (Stone. 1978). SIDS can be prevented by increasing the infant’s intake of ascorbate (Cook, 1978). This has been known and published since 1974 (Kalokerinos, 1974). (Irwin Stone, Eight Decades of Scurvy - The Case History of a Misleading Dietary Hypothesis, 1978).

Many of these infants were dying after receiving government-mandated vaccinations. Dr. Thomas Levy writes:

Vaccinations also generally present some degree of toxin insult to the body. Kalokerinos (1981) observed that vitamin C-deficient Aboriginal infants were often placed into an acute state of scurvy because of the additional vitamin C demands placed on their bodies by the vaccination injections, resulting in sudden death. (Thomas E. Levy, MD, JD, Vitamin C, Infectious Diseases, & Toxins – Curing The Incurable, 2002).

Dr. Kalokerinos wrote about his experience in his first book "Every Second Child," and with the help of other physicians organized a national tour of the U.S. with the other physician who worked with him on vitamin C and SIDS, Dr. Glen Dettman. But the medical profession here and the NIH marginalized and ignored his work.

Fast-forward to 2004. Here we are, thirty years after two courageous doctors found the root cause - and cure - for SIDS. Tens of thousands of infants have died unnecessarily, and more infant deaths seem inevitable. These are tragic deaths that were and are totally preventable. But doctors all over the world are still looking for an elusive cause, there are hundreds of SIDS research sites and support networks, and no one is talking about the vitamin C connection or doing anything about it, with the exception of a few doctors who have been using large-dose vitamin C for years such as Robert Cathcart of Los Altos, California. The medical establishment just refuses to believe that this syndrome could be caused by a simple nutrient deficiency.

Large Amounts of Vitamin C Essential for Health

Vitamin C - an essential nutrient more accurately called ascorbate - is needed by the human body in large quantities for literally dozens of metabolic processes, from tissue repair to recycling of cholesterol to neutralization of free radicals and toxins to the building of antibodies and white blood cells. Most animals - other than humans, primates, guinea pigs, and a couple of rare animals - produce their own vitamin C in large amounts from glucose (a simple sugar found in blood), either in their liver (mammals) or their kidneys (reptiles).

The optimum dose for all of these metabolic processes is about 200-1000 mg per 10 lbs of body weight, depending on the level of stress, activity, environmental toxins, and general health. We "use up" vitamin C faster if we work in a stressful job, exercise heavily, are exposed to toxins, or if we are ill.

If we do not ingest any vitamin C, we get scurvy; we need vitamin C to repair normal microscopic wear and tear of the walls of our arteries, and when they cannot be repaired, they hemorrhage. We literally bleed to death internally.

But what happens if we get some, but not enough? The "Recommended Daily Allowance" of vitamin C is a small fraction of the amount we - and infants - really need. Many metabolic processes will be compromised, but the outward signs won't be obvious. Artery wall repair will happen more slowly, and the human body compensates for this deficiency with a sticky plaque called lipoprotein(a) - the root cause of cardiovascular disease. Antibodies and white blood cells will be built incorrectly or not at all. Cholesterol, needed for nutrient transport, will not be recycled properly.

For infants, this is deadly. Their little bodies have very little reserves to draw upon. Without sufficient vitamin C, their immune systems and arteries are fragile. A single stressful event, a minor fall, a vaccination, a toxic exposure, or a simple virus or bacterial illness could tip the balance and kill them. Metabolic failure, heart failure, toxic trauma to vital organs, hemorrhage - it could happen dozens of ways. Sudden death, with no warning. SIDS.

We Can Eradicate SIDS

It's now time to eradicate this syndrome once and for all. It is time to supplement every child's diet with a minimum of 200 mg of vitamin C per day for each 10 lbs of body weight, and more - up to 1000 mg  per day for each 10 lbs of body weight - for children who are ill or whose immune systems are compromised. For example, you would give a newborn infant (7-10 lbs) a minimum of about 150-200 mg per day.

If a child is ill or stressed, his or her body uses far more than that. It is easy to find out how much vitamin C a child really needs - too much causes a non-harmful, temporary diarrhea, and you just reduce the dosage until the diarrhea subsides. This is called the "bowel tolerance dose" by Dr. Robert Cathcart, who has been treating his patients with large-dosage vitamin C for more than twenty-five years.

Vitamin C that is usable for children is available in liquid form (such as Child-Life Vitamin C liquid) from many health food stores or online. Do not use varieties sweetened with honey or containing a lot of ingredients. Spread out the daily dose in three divided doses. Measure it carefully and mix it with pasteurized orange juice to give it to your child.

Pregnant mothers need to take vitamin C to provide enough to their babies in the womb, using the same formula of 200 mg per 10 lbs of body weight, or about 3000-4000 mg per day, in divided doses, for an adult of typical weight. You should take much more - up to your "bowel tolerance dose" - if you are ill or under stress. Vitamin C deficiency can affect the normal development of the child, so it is important to use supplemental vitamin C during pregnancy and starting immediately after the child is born.

Here's how to do the calculation: take your body weight or the weight of your child, divide by 10, and then multiply by 200 mg to get the minimum dose of vitamin C. So for a child who weighs 20 lbs, you divide 20 by 10, result 2, then multiply by 200, result 400 mg per day minimum dose. For an adult who weighs 150 lbs, divide by 10, result 15, then multiply by 200, result 3000 mg per day minimum dose.

For increased dosage if the child is ill or his or her immune system is compromised, you can provide up to 100-200 mg per 10 lbs of body weight for each individual dose, up to 5 doses per day, checking for bowel tolerance: if diarrhea occurs, reduce dosage until it subsides and then continue with a reduced dosage. Vitamin C can save the child's life in cases of severe influenza or pneumonia. (Always confer with a competent pediatrician if a child is severely ill! It is important to find a pediatrician who believes in vitamin C, so that if the child is hospitalized they will continue with vitamin C supplementation.) Once the child is well, gradually reduce vitamin C to the dosage you use regularly.

For vaccinations: In general, I recommend that parents seriously consider not vaccinating their children, and certainly never to vaccinate against hepatitis B, because the vaccine has a horrific reputation for harming children, and hepatitis B is both extremely rare and also quite curable. Vaccines in general contain both live (but "attenuated") viruses and a brew of toxic chemicals and preservatives, sometimes including mercury (thimerosal). This places a huge burden on the child's immune system, and quickly depletes vitamin C. Many SIDS victims have died shortly after vaccinations.

If you decide to vaccinate your child, increase the vitamin C dose dramatically several hours before and for several days after the vaccination to prevent vitamin C depletion and so that the child's immune and detoxification systems will have a chance to kill the viruses and neutralize the toxins. Demand non-thimerosal, single-dose, single-virus vaccines; the multiple-virus vaccines such as DPT and MMP have the worst reputations regarding harm to infants. Tetanus is probably the only disease for which there is any real justification for vaccination.

Is Vitamin C safe in these doses?

Vitamin C is safe in literally any amounts. As mentioned above, it is an essential nutrient needed in large quantities for dozens of metabolic processes. Many people, including this author, have taken very large doses of vitamin C for many years without any side effects, and live healthier lives as a result. 100,000 mg to 300,000 mg amounts have been given intravenously to people who are very ill with AIDS and other illnesses, with no adverse effects. It does not cause kidney stones, heart disease, or cancer; as a matter of fact, it prevents them. The pharmaceutical industry and its allies have gotten the media to spread false warnings about large-dose vitamin C to the media, and the refutations by prominent researchers and clinicians are never printed.

Eradicate SIDS Now!

Let's make SIDS history! If you are pregnant or you have an infant or older child, please begin vitamin C supplementation now. I have prepared a Microsoft Word version of this document, at http://www.cqs.com/sids.doc for public distribution. Please print, copy, send, and distribute this printable document widely, to your friends and relatives who have children, to everyone you know.

Jonathan Campbell, Health Consultant
January 15, 2004

References:

Hattersley J, The Answer to Crib Death "Sudden Infant Death Syndrome" (SIDS), Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine Volume 8, Number 4, 1993, pp.229-245

Kalokerinos Archie, Every Second Child. Thomas Nelson (Australia) Ltd., Melbourne, 1974.

Kalokerinos Archie, Medical Pioneer of the 20th Century. Biological Therapies Publishing, 2000

Levy Thomas, Vitamin C, Infectious Diseases, & Toxins - Curing the Incurable. Xlibris, 2002.

Stone I, Eight Decades of Scurvy - The Case History of a Misleading Dietary Hypothesis, presentation at the Conference On Controversies In Human And Clinical Nutrition, Boston