Letter from the Publisher

Nicholas Gonzales, MD, Passes

Dr. Nicholas Gonzales, a leading alternative cancer physician in New York City, died from an apparent cardiac arrest on July 21. His death was unexpected, given that he was in good health and not being treated for a heart condition. Gonzales’s patients will continue to receive his specialized treatment protocols under the care of his partner, Dr. Linda Isaacs. Gonzales was a proponent of the cancer treatment theory of dentist William Donald Kelley. Kelley, who claimed to have cured himself of pancreatic cancer by using a specialized diet, pancreatic glandular supplements, and enzymes, developed a unique system of nutritional metabolic cancer treatment. Gonzales, trained in immunology at Cornell and Sloan Kettering, studied Kelley’s theory, protocols, and cancer cases, and treated patients employing Kelley’s protocols. He observed early in the 1980s that many different cancers were responsive to the specialized diet and intensive pancreatic supplementation. Gonzales’s work was so well thought of that it was considered an important treatment to review by the US Congressional Office of Technology Assessment. Its study of unconventional cancer treatments was published in 1989.

Gonzales submitted more than 100 of his pancreatic cancer case histories to the NIH Cancer Division for review. His treatment success for pancreatic cancer was better compared with patients who received only conventional care. Gonzales and Isaacs refined and modified the Kelley protocols, developing improved regimens that had demonstrable results in a wide range of malignancies.

The cancer establishment, as expected, criticized his work, and Gonzales was frequently investigated. He persevered and his center treated thousands of patients. In the past few years, 60 Minutes interviewed him; Diane Sawyer attempted to belittle his work, but Gonzales held his own. He was frustrated by a negative review of his work conducted by a urologist at Columbia University and unsuccessfully attempted to coerce a retraction.

Gonzales was personable and very highly respected; he will be deeply missed by his patients, friends, family, and colleagues.

Recent Deaths of Alternative Medical Practitioners

Beside Gonzales, in mid-June another MD, Dr. Jeff Bradstreet, died – but not of natural causes. Bradstreet was found dead in a North Carolina river by a supposedly self-inflicted chest gunshot wound. Bradstreet practiced medicine in Georgia and Florida; it is unclear why he was in North Carolina. The family disputes the claim that this was a suicide; however, police have not deemed it a homicide. The authorities, weeks before his death, apparently raided Bradstreet’s medical practice; details of why he was being investigated have not been made public.

Bradstreet was well known for his antivaccination stance. According to Natural News, he was particularly critical of the MMR vaccine, linking it to the increasing epidemic of autism.¹ Bradstreet has children with autism; he devoted much of his practice to studying autism and its causes. He testified at the US House of Representatives about the vaccine–autism connection. Furthermore, according to Natural News, Bradstreet had been working with an unapproved treatment for cancer known as GcMAF (globulin component macrophage activating factor).² GcMAF has been touted as a nontoxic immune-system booster effective in the treatment of cancer, AIDS, and other conditions. However, the “miracle” nature of GcMAF has set off alarm bells for the medical authorities; importation of GcMAF has been banned. Natural Newsas well as other alternative medicine reports have charged that not only was Bradstreet murdered, but his murder was instigated by his unconventional medical work.

Bradstreet’s death, however, is not the only mysterious death of an alternative practitioner this summer. Teresa Sievers, another doctor practicing holistic medicine in Florida, was attacked and killed in an expensive neighborhood near where she lived, according to the Free Thought Project.com.³ Further details of Sievers’s murder are that she had been murdered by head trauma with a hammer, but the police have no suspects, according to Natural News. Sievers was the parent of two young daughters; local authorities are puzzled why she had been so brutally slain.Bruce Hedendal, DC, PhD, of Miami Beach, was also found dead, of unknown causes, in his automobile on June 21. Hedendal strongly advocated and used alternative therapies with his patients and was known for his antivaccination stance. Two other physicians practicing integrative medicine in separate areas of Florida, Dr. Barron Holt and Dr. Lisa Riley, also died in the same time period.

Natural Newsand other e-reports have suggested that there is a conspiracy to kill these alternative medical practitioners. However, the only active homicide case is Sievers. She may have been the victim of domestic violence. Bradstreet does appear to be the victim of foul play, but the authorities have not deemed his case murder. As for the other doctors, might there just be a coincidence that a number of practitioners just died of natural causes in the same time period? Alternative doctors frequently face persecution by medical boards and insurance companies, but it is not reasonable to think that these practitioners were all targeted.

Sepsis in the Hospital and Intravenous Vitamin C

One of the earliest “unproven” treatments that I used in my medical practice was the administration of intravenous ascorbic acid. IV vitamin C was a major component of the “Myers cocktail,” an IV push of vitamin C, calcium, magnesium, and B vitamins, used to treat adrenal gland fatigue. Vitamin C, additionally, was administered in high doses in an IV drip over 1 to 2 hours for acute and chronic infection, inflammation, chronic fatigue, and cancer. Frederick Klenner, MD’s articles in the 1950s on the management and treatment of polio using intravenous ascorbic acid pioneered its use. Similar papers reporting effectiveness of IV ascorbic acid appeared in the ensuing decades by practitioners in the US and abroad. Ascorbic acid was a remarkably safe treatment and could be administered in very high doses intravenously compared with when it was used orally. However, Robert Cathcart, MD, treated patients with high doses of vitamin C both intravenously and orally; he advised the use of oral vitamin C to “bowel tolerance,” enabling round-the-clock vitamin C treatment. The 1979 study by Ewan Cameron, MD, and Linus Pauling, PhD, reported that intravenous vitamin C improved survival of cancer patients. While Charles Moertel at the Mayo Clinic attempted to disprove Cameron and Pauling’s work with placebo-controlled studies in the 1980s, Pauling’s review of Moertel’s data revealed that the majority of patients treated with ascorbic acid did indeed have improved morbidity and greater survival.

Although the biochemistry, mechanism of action, and physiologic activity of ascorbic acid have been extensively reported in the literature, as detailed in book compilations by Thomas Levy, MD, the medical profession has largely ignored ascorbic acid’s role in the treatment of patients experiencing severe infection and sepsis in the hospital setting. The Townsend Letter is pleased to publish an interview by Kirk Hamilton, author of Expert Interviews and the Clinical Pearls Database, of Alpha Fowler, MD, professor of medicine at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, on the use of high-dose intravenous ascorbic acid in sepsis. Fowler and his colleagues have been studying the use of parenteral ascorbic acid in experimental animals with sepsis. Their studies published during the past 5 years have shown that animals treated with vitamin C had greater survival, reduction in inflammation markers, and less organ failure.

In 2014 Fowler and his colleagues published a phase I safety trial of IV ascorbic acid in humans with sepsis.⁴ The vitamin C was administered in relatively low doses compared with what most physicians use in their integrative practices. The study was placebo controlled, with treatment arms of approximately 1000 mg and 3500 mg administered in D5W every 6 hours. Compared with the placebo, dextrose in water, septic patients in both treatment cohorts had greater survival and reduction in inflammation. Additionally, the patients who were treated with the higher dose of IV ascorbic acid had the best outcomes.

Fowler’s work, published in the Journal of Translational Medicine, is transformational – an “unproven” treatment becomes nearly “proven.” He intends to organize a multi-institution, placebo-controlled, phase II study of IV ascorbic acid in sepsis. His paper should be shared with physicians and nurses in the ICU and the pediatric ICU at every hospital.

Lithium’s Role in Brain Health

In the late 1800s, medicine came to appreciate the stimulating pharmacologic effect of cocaine; it eventually was manufactured as a drug to be used in a variety of procedures. Around the same period, a soft drink manufacturer created a cola drink – popularized, undoubtedly, by the inclusion of cocaine. Only in the 1950s did Coca-Cola remove cocaine from its proprietary recipe ingredients. Early in the 20th century, another manufacturer created a lemon-lime soda that was also highly acclaimed by the public. 7-Up was a tasty option for individuals wanting a non-cola pop; however, some of 7-Up’s acclaim may have been due to the inclusion of the mineral lithium. Like Coke, 7-Up removed lithium from its recipe in 1950. Cocaine’s effect on mood was widely appreciated; lithium’s, not so much. However, before lithium came to be known as a psychiatric drug, it had a widely touted reputation of ameliorating gout, long before the drug allopurinol was patented. However, in the 1940s, when the medical profession began to counsel reducing sodium intake, the substitution of lithium salts was advised instead. Unfortunately, some individuals overdosed on lithium salts, poisoning themselves. In 1949 an Australian physician observed that lithium could be a potential treatment for a severe psychiatric disorder, manic depression. It would be another 20 years before the FDA approved high-dose lithium for psychiatric treatment in the US.

While high-dose lithium has remained a mainstay drug for manic depression, it has been fraught with treatment failure as well as potential adverse effects, not the least of which is kidney toxicity. In this issue of the Townsend Letter, James Greenblatt, MD, reports on the medical use of “low-dose” lithium. Greenblatt is an assistant professor of psychiatry at Tufts University School of Medicine and chief medical officer at Walden Behavioral Care in Waltham, Massachusetts. Greenblatt’s use of low-dose lithium has had remarkable success in treating many psychiatric conditions in adults and children, with minimal adverse effects. Greenblatt also reports on lithium’s use in the preservation of memory and its role in the treatment of dementia.

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Also be sure to read the brilliant article by Nicola Ducharme, ND, “‘Lyme Brain’: Causes and Solutions.” She theorizes that cognitive dysfunctioning follows from the brain’s exposure to the pathogen, demyelination, inflammation, and neurotoxin exposure. Ducharme suggests that a variety of non-drug agents that will calm and rebuild the “Lyme brain.”

Jonathan Collin, MD

Notes

1. Wilson J. Ex-Merck employee turned anti-vaccine activist now terrorized by Big Pharma Black Ops branch [online article]. NaturalNews.com. Aug. 10, 2015.

http://www.naturalnews.com/050728_Big_Pharma_black_ops_Merck_employee_Brandy_Vaughan.html#ixzz3iSlfE9wn.

2. Wilson J. Revealed: Cancer industry profits ‘locked in’ by nagalase molecule injected into humans via vaccines…spurs tumor growth…explains aggressive vaccine push [online article]. NaturalNews.com. July 27, 2015.

http://www.naturalnews.com/050582_nagalase_GcMAF_cancer_industry_profits.html#ixzz3hKJyJcy5.

3. Vibes J. 3 alternative health doctors found dead in the last 2 weeks after run-ins with the Feds [online article]. The Free Thought Project. thefreethoughtproject.com. July 2, 2015.

http://thefreethoughtproject.com/3-alternative-health-doctors-dead-run-ins-feds.

4. Fowler AA 3rd, Syred AA, et al. Phase I safety trial of intravenous ascorbic acid in patients with severe sepsis. J Transl. Med. Jan. 31, 2014;12:32.