"Study details how antibiotics benefit pathogen growth by disrupting oxygen levels, fiber processing in the gut"

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/05/160502215707.htm

The article shows that in the case of salmonella, oxygen levels were disrupted in the opposite way of what I was thinking about botulism when mulling clue about Dan's line of thinking of polio, but it's concern with oxygen disruption I think is a good clue in and of itself. Salmonella is obviously not the only bad bug, so it raises the question about which bad bugs are anaerobic vs aerobic, as well as the question what would happen after repeated rounds of different families of antibiotics, as well as all the chemicals we put in our stomach, and than on TOP of the vaccines.

The page the article was on had another couple of nice bacteria articles on it, not related:

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/04/160428095248.htm
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/03/160307113301.htm
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/12/141216113017.htm

An interesting historical perspective on a geographical medical problem that was not natural to the U.S. until the 1700s and Atlantic trade, according to the author. One gets excited while reading the article that there is some really good relevant break-out information here, but holds one's breath because, well, one knows how these things go and certain points hover with that shadowy personality raising the hair on one's neck. I hold my breath, almost to the end, wait for it, wait for it . . . . . . bam! Ohhh, so close. I told you so, I tell myself. There it is! Oh so predictable, and a new schill writer takes her place on stage, standing proudly with her graduation certificate in hand. She faces forward, not noticing Nova and PBS taking bows behind her as the suits slip away quickly, efficiently, down the back stairs. Mom and Dad clap wildly, so proud.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/next/nature/how-a-worm-gave-the-south-a-bad-name/

A must read, even if only for the historical perspective of epsom salts and thymol, and how thymol was dropped in favor of a chemical.

If you want to know the true cause of polio you guys are all looking at the wrong things.

Yes poisoning is important but you should look to the opossum to understand how it manifests in so many people.

You see, this animal plays dead (where we get the phrase "playing possum") when under threat because its predators don't like old meat and will pass it by thinking it has been dead for a long time.

But the interesting part is that this is all played out from the possum's sub-conscious. Whilst it consciously detects the predator it has no choice about the paralysis (for example if a human walked by 5 minutes later they could pick up a stiff possum by the tail). Once the danger has passed the creature will gradually regain its movement.

The same thing happens with humans (and lots of animals) when trapped in a corner with no escape.

Our sub-conscious mind causes paralysis because there is literally no other course of action.

As you can imagine this is particularly true for small children being held down for a set of vaccines or some other poisoning.

The trauma *plus* the poisons lead to a *permanent* state of paralysis rather than a short lived one.

The same is true as to why vaccines lead to autism. The particular trauma suffered by the child is that of a feeling of abandonment (actually there are several traumas). In the ordinary course of events the child would heal quickly but when mixed with a poisoning the child never recovers.

That is why detoxing can help but only if at the same time the child resolves the initial trauma. So that is why parents of autistic children get such varied results from detoxing protocols and different diets etc.

Yes, I had my tonsils out too - repeated infections. Ice-cream and popsicles to cool the post-surgery sore throat. My siblings did not. I remember my mother reading me a children book (was it a Golden Book, or a Curious George?) about what to expect in the hospital when having tonsils out, a real hospital facemark was tucked in a pocket in the book, with reassurances in the book that all children get ice-cream after their tonsils get out.

Then, in adolescence I was the one with strep all the time, antibiotics galore, i.e. getting the tonsils out didn't seem to have prevented the occurrence of sore throats or the need for antibiotics in myself.

In botulism, it's the toxic byproducts produced that are the problem. The bacteria could survive in anaerobic conditions. You don't give honey to a baby under one due to a risk of botulism - I've heard time and time again. Never knew why until this little brainstorming session you've spawned here. Babies' initial digestive system is not as acidic as an adults. It becomes more acidic as they mature.
If it was more acidic, the botulism bacteria would be more easily handled. Also, I'm sure most people here know that the populations of bacteria that survive digestion are different in each subsequent part of the gastro system. Oxygen levels decrease significantly along the way, so that further along, you have bacteria that are more anaerobic versus in the mouth/throat/stomach.

From wiki on the history of pasteurization vs sterilization:
"Unlike sterilization, pasteurization is not intended to kill all micro-organisms in the food."
"Tin can production was not common until the beginning of the 20th century"
From that site, it is very evident different foods need different temperatures, and that different bacteria are destroyed at different temperatures.

Before then, I suppose pickling and fermentation were the popular food preservation method, taking advantage of acidity and probiotics before the whys and whatfors were all lined up.

https://sites.google.com/site/briannespoliopbl/home/properties-of-enterovirus-poliovirus-environment

what happens to IgA antibodies and polio viruses at various ph levels?

Can't wait to see where all this is leading!

Hi Birgit

I don't think the virus was in the sugar -- stay tuned!

OK, for some reason I'm now remembering the burning throat and sore chest I had when once venturing out to jog (extreme exertion for me and extremely rare event) during a Thanksgiving break when the temperature was rather frosty, and wonder if in some way eating something icy (possibly hard on throat tissues, etc), maybe even more so on a hot day (?), is a small factor increasing susceptibility here.

I know it was a frequent occurrence for me to get an icecream-freeze headache and/or an ache in the throat eating icecream "too fast" as a kid (though my most painful memory is swallowing a rather slippery large piece of ice).

Not that my memories go far enough back to judge if this seems particularly relevant to the polio epidemics.

TC that is just an amazing thought about ice cream after tonsillitis! i remember getting mine out and also getting ice cream but would never have made the connection. i'm going to hold that thought as i continue down this path....thank you!

@dan I'm thinking about how to analyze multiple-infection rates in different years, have also asked a friend who knows more about this kind of statistics than I do...

Interesting article:

http://www.ehdp.com/out/jmb_2003_v11_p232-240.pdf

Journal of Medical Biography Volume 11 November 2003

What was the cause of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s paralytic illness?

Maybe, there was really some kind of real science reason that polio was put on a sugar cube!

http://www.vaccinationcouncil.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/diet-and-polio-Van-Meer-science.pdf

Not cases of absence of polio nor absence of sugar consumption, but there are significant differences in sugar consumption and the incidence of polio described in paragraph on page 6, "Split populations."

tim, i'd be glad to explain my chain of reasoning and evidence at the end. of course, it may be mistaken but it's a scenario and i would welcome disputations and alternate ideas based on all the evidence i considered. the figures you cite came from a foldout chart in the 1917 monograph. it also said that in the 1907 new york state outbreak, "there were some 2,000 children in 752 families in which there occurred one case each. In less that 18 instances more than one case developed in the same family." in 1912 in new york state, which had 604 cases, there were three instances of two cases in the same family. math isn't my strong suit but could we do a comparison this way? in 1916 about 1 in 25 families in which a child developed paralytic polio had at least one more child affected the same way. in 1907, the ratio was 1 in 42 (or fewer), and in 1912 it was 1 in 200. of course we don't know all the family sizes, but assuming for now they are roughly the equal in the three epidemics, is the comparison valid and in your view does it still point to some sort of stronger genetic or environmental risk in 1916? i'm going to fiddle with the wording and interested in what you think. -- dan

@dan I'm loving this too, looking forward to the whole series! I hope you will add a section at the end about how the various pieces of information came in and led you to your hypothesis.

Re multiple deaths or paralysis in the same family, it's hard to know what to expect, re "In 8,635 families where the disease appeared, 8,287 had but one case each. When there were more than one cases, in nearly all instances the onset was so close together that simultaneous infection was suggested."

I've seen estimates that 95% of polio infections are relatively asymptomatic, so might not be diagnosed. If that's accurate, then you'd expect only 1 in 400 two-person families to have both diagnosed, only 1 in 140 a 3-person family to have two diagnosed, etc.

So it looks like 450/8635 or 1 in 20 families had two or more diagnosed cases. This seems high and suggests some shared environmental or genetic risk, but it's not so easy to figure out what it should be if the risk was totally independent...we'd have to try to estimate it more accurately based on average family size, risk for children vs adults, etc.

Jenny my mothers 1st cousin Ewan Cameron wrote along with Linus Pauling "Cancer and Vitamin C" which I never new about until I started to look into Autism. Not bad for a local, from the Scottish Island of Lismore. Familiar story to all writing in contrast to the Pharma line, he was more or less forced out of the UK and teamed up with Linus Pauling.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cancer-Vitamin-Discussion-Prevention-Treatment/dp/094015921X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1462047177&sr=8-1&keywords=CANCER+AND+VITAMIN+C

MMR RIP

This is so interesting! This kind of writing is as suspenseful as a good fiction drama. The book Age of Autism forever changed my opinion of non-fiction. Non-fiction in the hands of the right writer can come across as a thriller!

There are some specific ideas about vitamin C and sugar competing in the immune system, I think it can even effect the activation of macrophages and maybe increasing IgA (reminding me once again of the book that mentioned that IgA controls polio, and reminding me of the doctor who used vitamin C to remediate polio but was ignored by a govt favoring the new polio vaccine), though it doesn't sound like this is what you're focusing on Dan. Starting to sound like something analogous to what microbes do in the presence of heavy metals or maybe chemicals?

"
http://www.vitalhealthoptions.com/vitaminC1.pdf

Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C), first demonstrated to strengthen immunity in 1942, plays multiple important roles in health.1 In his book Reishi, Ancient Herb for Modern Times, Kenneth Jones reports; “Vitamin C reduces the high molecular weight of polysaccharides. As Vitamin C breaks up these sugars, their viscosity or stickiness drops and their bioavailability increases. Once the polysaccharides are reduced ... they are rendered more accessible to the immune system cell called the ‘macrophage.’ When this immune cell becomes activated, an array of other defenders is signaled to go into action to protect the body against disease.”2 Examples of other benefits include: 1) maintenance of oral mucosal integrity; 2) erythropoietic (red blood cell) activity; 3) supports health of endothelial cells (lining of blood and lymphatic vessels, heart, eye, and body cavities);3,4 4) iron absorption;5 5) leukocyte function;6 6) support of natural killer cell activity and T and B cell function;7 7) statistically significant increase in the serum levels of IgA, IgM and C-3 complement;8 and 8) significant synergistic enhancement of immune benefits offered by maitake mushroom fraction-D.9"

I've wondered of late whether botulism is similar in nature? metal cans and microbes? The symptoms are worthy of interest:

"Early symptoms are marked fatigue, weakness and vertigo, usually followed by blurred vision, dry mouth and difficulty in swallowing and speaking. Vomiting, diarrhoea, constipation and abdominal swelling may also occur. The disease can progress to weakness in the neck and arms, after which the respiratory muscles and muscles of the lower body are affected. The paralysis may make breathing difficult. There is no fever and no loss of consciousness."

And there is that pesky question boiling in my mind about oxygen/lack of it and whether/what microbes in the gut affect it's availability in the gut and blood and organs and (brain) tissues:
About botulism, for example: From WHO "Human botulism is a serious, potentially fatal disease. However, it is relatively rare. It is an intoxication usually caused by ingestion of potent neurotoxins in contaminated foods. Person to person transmission of botulism does not occur.

Clostridium botulinum produces spores that are heat-resistant and exist widely in the environment, and in the absence of oxygen they germinate, grow and then excrete toxins. There are seven distinct forms of botulinum toxin, types A–G. Four of these (types A, B, E and rarely F) cause human botulism. Types C, D and E cause illness in other mammals, birds and fish.

Botulinum toxins are ingested through improperly processed food in which the bacteria or the spores survive and produce the toxins. Though mainly a foodborne intoxication, botulism can also be caused by intestinal infection in infants, wound infections, and by inhalation."

ie botulism doesn't just come from contaminated food, is not transferred person to person,and thrives in anaerobic environments, and can simply come from a gut infection!

Also, chemicals in tampons possibly making HPV strains harder to eradicate by the body naturally? Are the chemicals blocking antibody or oxygen process in the vaginal/cervix/uterine areas?

It's all fascinating, looking forward to the next segment.

I want some more please.

Fascinating series, very interested to see where this ends up.

The idea that eating junk food (a processed food diet) leaves one weak and susceptible to disease has been around a long time and certainly seems to make sense. The suspect foods are almost always refined sugar and white flour. It stands to reason that a huge dose of sugar leaves one with a weakened immune state, even if temporarily so.

Consider how animals in zoos become sick, obese, listless, don't reproduce, etc. when fed manufactured "chow". Most zoos now feed animals their natural diet from the wild as it's clear it results in healthier animals. Yet for humans, processed crap in a box is still supposedly good for you.

Two great reads on this are Weston Price's "Nutrition and Physical Degeneration; A Comparison of Primitive and Modern Diets and Their Effects" (1939)

PDF copy available here:
http://www.naturalhealingtools.com/articles/weston_a_price.pdf

And Arnold DeVries's "Primitive Man and His Food" (1952)

Free PDF copy available here on request:
https://soilandhealth.org/copyrighted-book/primitive-man-and-his-food/

Both authors make very strong cases that deviating from our natural diet leaves people highly susceptible to infectious disease that their immune system would otherwise fight off. Sugar plays a prominent role in many historical examples.

Dr. Benjamin Sandler gave radio talks in 1949 about how sugar increased the risk of serious cases of polio. Those in that area greatly decreased their sugar consumption, and in a polio epidemic, had a fraction of the cases of crippling polio that the counties outside that area did.

I think polio used to be a mild, universal disease that all adults had natural immunity to, but the advent of pesticides, insecticides, flush toilets, and cheap, easily-available sugar turned it into a crippling monster.

Wow -- Like a mystery film noir! Awesome research and love the old photos and clips. Keep it coming, Dan!

It feels as if someone has just pulled away my mystery novel in the middle of the story and handed me an ice cream cone to pacify my eager mind for more of the mystery. MORE MORE PLEASE!