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Publications (83)
Background
Intravenous vitamin C (IVC, ascorbate [Asc]) and alpha-lipoic acid (ALA) are frequently coadministered in integrative oncology clinics, with limited understanding of combination effects or drug-drug interactions. As high-dose IVC has anticancer activity through peroxide (H2O2), it is hypothesized that IV ALA, a thiol antioxidant, might h...
Background and Aim
Functional bowel disorders (FBDs), including irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and others, are conditions without a physically identifiable etiology that, as a result, are difficult to treat. Alternatives to traditional medical interventions are needed because IBS patients require more of physician time and higher healthcare spendin...
Neoadjuvant cisplatin based chemotherapy is considered standard of care for patients with locally advanced bladder cancer (BCa). However, upwards of 50% of patients are ineligible due to poor performance status, underlying kidney disease, peripheral neuropathy, hearing loss and/or cardiac disease. There are currently no accepted alternative regimen...
Purpose:
Intravenous vitamin C (IVC) is used in a variety of disorders with limited supporting pharmacokinetic data. Herein we report a pharmacokinetic study in healthy volunteers and cancer participants with IVC doses in the range of 1-100 g.
Methods:
A pharmacokinetic study was conducted in 21 healthy volunteers and 12 oncology participants. H...
e16540
Background: Neo-adjuvant cisplatin-based chemotherapy (NAC) is considered standard of care for patients with locally advanced disease. However, ̃40% of patients are cisplatin ineligible (CI) due to renal insufficiency, hearing loss or poor performance status. Gemcitabine and carboplatin (GCa) has limited success in this setting. Patients usu...
Background:
Related to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic leading to COVID-19 illness, patients with cancer comorbidity are known to have a higher risk of developing severe viral-related events, including death. To date, there are few treatments with proven efficacy for COVID-19. Vitamin C administered intravenously (IVC) has been extensively investigated in...
Currently available anti-viral drugs may be useful in reducing the viral load but are not providing the necessary physiological effects to reduce the SARS-CoV-2 complications efficiently. Treatments that provide better clinical outcomes are urgently needed. Vitamin C (ascorbic acid, AA) is an essential nutrient with many biological roles that have...
The current health system is dysfunctional, not adequately serving patients or protecting healthcare providers. The problem is multilayered and can be attributed in part to consolidation of healthcare businesses by pharmacies, insurers, and health delivery systems. The health system within is also disintegrating with less focus on the patient, less...
Motivational interviewing is a form of patient encounter that is patient-centered and goal-oriented. Motivational interviewing empowers practitioners to help patients become motivated for change.
Nutritional diagnosis terminology is discussed. Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) codes and International Classification of Disease (ICD) are discussed in context of nutritional-related metabolic injuries to guide therapy, intervention, and counseling for disease management.
Patient self-care record-keeping and instructions are provided to augment information collected during patient encounters. Patient record-keeping includes a diet diary with specialized handouts with visuals to guide food choices for meal planning. Instructions are provided for gluten-free and dairy-free specialized diets.
A table of specialized diets is included to guide the practitioner. Two patient handouts are available to help overcome difficulties with patient compliance when specialized diets are recommended.
Legal and administrative documents are provided that include a form for consent to share medical information.
Systems biology is an approach that attempts to understand the complexity and interconnectedness of systems rather than a reductionist single-focused approach. Tools are provided to guide the practitioner in the inclusive and systematic patient interview and examination so that the whole person is evaluated.
Patient assessment tools and practitioner checklists are provided to help practitioners comprehensively evaluate nutritional chronic disorders. These tools keep practitioners organized when preparing for patient appointments, during the intake, and after the visit to adequately record the salient details.
The promise of poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase inhibitors (PARPis) in the management of epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) is hampered by the limited clinical activity against BRCA wild-type or homologous recombination-proficient EOC. In order to decrease the resistance and increase the efficacy of PARPis, combination treatments of pharmacological ascorba...
This textbook is a practical guide to the application of the philosophy and principles of Integrative and Functional Medical Nutrition Therapy (IFMNT) in the practice of medicine, and the key role nutrition plays in restoring and maintaining wellness. The textbook provides an overview of recent reviews and studies of physiological and biochemical c...
Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA) has a dismal prognosis and is often discovered at an advanced stage with few therapeutic options. Current conventional regimens for PDA are associated with significant morbidity, decreased quality of life, and a considerable financial burden. As a result, some patients turn to integrative medicine therapies as...
Pancreatic cancer is among the most lethal cancers with poorly tolerated treatments. There is increasing interest in using high-dose intravenous ascorbate (IVC) in treating this disease partially because of its low toxicity. IVC bypasses bioavailability barriers of oral ingestion, provides pharmacological concentrations in tissues, and exhibits sel...
Importance:
In a prespecified subgroup analysis of participants not on statin therapy at baseline in the TACT, a high-dose complex oral multivitamins and multimineral regimen was found to have a large unexpected benefit compared with placebo. The regimen tested was substantially different from any vitamin regimen tested in prior clinical trials....
INTRODUCTION: Ayurvedic medicine utilizes constitutional prakruti (mind-body archetypes) to create patient-specific treatment plans based on physiological and psychological characteristics. Analyzing crossover between Ayurvedic prakruti and integrative medicine diagnosis is fertile ground for furthering our understanding and appreciation of how Eas...
Echinacea has a long history of medical use in the United States. Starting in the 1950s and increasing in recent decades, the immune-stimulating abilities of Echinacea have caught the attention of the medical community. Some Echinacea products have shown in international clinical trials that they are useful for treating and preventing upper respira...
Objective
To determine historical disparities in tuberculosis morbidity between Native American youth attending off‐reservation government boarding schools and the non‐Native American population. ∧ Findings are placed within the context of documented health disparities in Native American populations, with implications for modern health.
Methods
An...
Context:
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is currently on the rise, now affecting approximately 1 in 68 children in the United States according to a 2010 surveillance summary from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This figure is an estimated increase of 78% from the figure in 2002. The CDC suggests that more investigation is need...
Introduction: Treatment with edetate disodium has been in use for nearly 60 years for cardiovascular disease despite safety concerns, including deaths from hypocalcemia. No careful prospective evaluation of safety had been reported prior to the NIH-sponsored Trial to Assess Chelation Therapy (TACT).
Methods: In TACT, 1,708 post-MI patients age ≥ 50...
Introduction: Trials of conventional dose vitamin therapy have been largely negative for coronary prevention. TACT studied an ultra-high dose regimen of oral multivitamins and multiminerals (MVM) in post-MI patients. Patients off statins were a pre-specified subgroup.
Methods: 1708 patients were randomized in a double-blind factorial trial, to EDTA...
Neurocardiogenic syncope (NCS) is a common clinical condition characterized by abrupt cardiovascular autonomic changes resulting in syncope. This is a recurring condition with mixed results from current strategies of treatment.
Subjects with a diagnosis of NCS were screened and enrolled. All the participants were given a DVD containing yoga videos...
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is the most common neuropsychiatric disorder in children and is increasing in prevalence. There has also been a related increase in prescribing stimulant medication despite some controversy whether ADHD medication makes a lasting difference in school performance or achievement. Families who are appreh...
Background:
Disodium ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) reduced adverse cardiac outcomes in a factorial trial also testing oral vitamins. This report describes the intent-to-treat comparison of the 4 factorial groups overall and in patients with diabetes.
Methods:
This was a double-blind, placebo-controlled, 2 × 2 factorial multicenter rando...
Background:
The National Institutes of Health.funded Trial to Assess Chelation Therapy (TACT) randomized 1708 stablecoronary disease patients aged .50 years who were .6 months post.myocardial infarction (2003.2010) to 40 infusions ofa multicomponent EDTA chelation solution or placebo. Chelation reduced the primary composite end point of mortality,...
Integrative medicine is a quickly expanding field of health care that emphasizes nutrition as a key component. Dietitians and nutritionists have an opportunity to meet workforce demands by practicing dietetics and integrative medicine (DIM). The purpose of this article is to describe a DIM education program and practicum. We report the results of a...
Ascorbate (vitamin C) was an early, unorthodox therapy for cancer, with an outstanding safety profile and anecdotal clinical benefit. Because oral ascorbate was ineffective in two cancer clinical trials, ascorbate was abandoned by conventional oncology but continued to be used in complementary and alternative medicine. Recent studies provide ration...
Whether high-dose multivitamins are effective for secondary prevention of atherosclerotic disease is unknown.
To assess whether oral multivitamins reduce cardiovascular events and are safe.
Double-blind, placebo-controlled, 2 x 2 factorial, multicenter, randomized trial. (ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT00044213) SETTING: 134 U.S. and Canadian academic and...
Background
Tumor resistance to platinum-based drugs has been an obstacle to the treatment of ovarian cancer. Extract of the plant Rauwolfia vomitoria has long been used by cancer patients. However, there have not been systematic studies of its anticancer activity.Objective
In an effort to enhance the effectiveness of platinum-based drugs, we invest...
Abstract not available.
Objective:
A simple method of using fingerstick blood glucose (FSBG) monitors to estimate blood ascorbate values after high-dose intravenous (IV) ascorbate infusion is evaluated as a substitution for high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) measurement.
Methods:
In 33 participants, readings from FSBG monitors were taken before and after IV...
Lack of effective therapy is a major problem in the treatment of pancreatic cancer. In the present study, we investigated a natural product, the extract of Pao Pereira (Pao), for its anti-pancreatic cancer effect in vitro and in vivo, either alone or in combination with the first-line chemotherapeutic drug gemcitabine (Gem). Pao induced dose-depend...
Chelation therapy with disodium EDTA has been used for more than 50 years to treat atherosclerosis without proof of efficacy.
To determine if an EDTA-based chelation regimen reduces cardiovascular events.
Double-blind, placebo-controlled, 2 × 2 factorial randomized trial enrolling 1708 patients aged 50 years or older who had experienced a myocardia...
Background:
Treatment for pancreatic cancer with pharmacological ascorbate (ascorbic acid, vitamin C) decreases tumor progression in preclinical models. A phase I clinical trial was performed to establish safety and tolerability of pharmacological ascorbate combined with gemcitabine in patients with biopsy-proven stage IV pancreatic adenocarcinoma...
Objectives:
The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of yoga on atrial fibrillation (AF) burden, quality of life (QoL), depression, and anxiety scores.
Background:
Yoga is known to have significant benefit on cardiovascular health. The effect of yoga in reducing AF burden is unknown.
Methods:
This single-center, pre-post study enrol...
Pharmacologic concentrations of ascorbate have been shown to act as a pro-oxidant anti-cancer agent. Our previous work has showed that pharmacologic ascorbate worked synergistically with gemcitabine in 8 pancreatic cancer cells lines, and in gemcitabine responsive and non-responsive mouse tumor models. This study aimed to investigate the mechanisms...
Purpose To evaluate extracts from two medical plants Pao Per-eira (Pao) and Rauwolfia vomitoria (Rau) for their anti-tumor effects in various types of pancreatic cancers and ovarian cancers. Methods Five pancreatic cancer and three ovarian cancer cell lines were tested that exhibited different resistance to the 1st line chemo-drug gemcitabine (Gem,...
TACT is an National Institutes of Health-sponsored, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, 2 × 2 factorial clinical trial testing the benefits and risks of 40 infusions of a multicomponent disodium EDTA chelation solution compared with placebo and of an oral, high-dose multivitamin and mineral supplement. TACT has randomized and will follow...
Common gastrointestinal (GI) diseases, such as irritable bowel syndrome and gastroesophogeal reflux disease, and other less common GI diseases, like gastroparesis, are believed to result in 50 million visits per year to conventionally trained physicians. It is estimated that these visits cost approximately $90 billion per year in the USA alone. As...
Recent studies have revealed the scientific basis for the use of intravenous (i.v.) vitamin C or ascorbic acid (ascorbate) in treating cancers, and raised the possibility of using i.v. ascorbate as a prooxidant anticancer therapy. Through the production of H2O2, pharmacologic ascorbate can induce some cancer cell death in vitro and inhibit a number...
In 1928, white Indian agents became convinced that the conditions on the Potawatomi reservation in northeast Kansas were not conducive to good health. The agents commissioned the "Pottawatomie Indian Survey", a house to house analysis of the health status of the people on the reservation. This article examines the results of that 1928 survey. Eye m...
This article provides an overview of imaging modalities that aid in diagnosing, staging, and assessing therapeutic response in prostate cancer. Prostate cancer is the second most common type of cancer in American men and the second leading cause of cancer death among men. Prostate cancer is difficult to diagnose in early stages, and advanced diseas...
Two popular complementary, alternative, and integrative medicine therapies, high-dose intravenous ascorbic acid (AA) and intravenous glutathione (GSH), are often coadministered to cancer patients with unclear efficacy and drug-drug interaction. In this study we provide the first survey evidence for clinical use of iv GSH with iv AA. To address ques...
Conventional treatment approaches have had little impact on the course of pancreatic cancer, which has the highest fatality rate among cancers. Gemcitabine, the primary therapeutic agent for pancreatic carcinoma, produces minimal survival benefit as a single agent. Therefore, numerous efforts have focused on gemcitabine combination treatments. Usin...
Anecdotal information and case reports suggest that intravenously administered vitamin C is used by Complementary and Alternate Medicine (CAM) practitioners. The scale of such use in the U.S. and associated side effects are unknown.
We surveyed attendees at annual CAM Conferences in 2006 and 2008, and determined sales of intravenous vitamin C by ma...
Ascorbate (Vitamin C) has been shown to act as a pro‐oxidant agent under pharmacological concentrations, and thus can cause cancer cell death in vitro and inhibit tumor growth in animal models, through formation of H2O2. The cell death mechanisms induced by ascorbate need to be further elaborated.
The goal of our study was to determine whether asco...
Ascorbic acid is an essential nutrient commonly regarded as an antioxidant. In this study, we showed that ascorbate at pharmacologic concentrations was a prooxidant, generating hydrogen-peroxide-dependent cytotoxicity toward a variety of cancer cells in vitro without adversely affecting normal cells. To test this action in vivo, normal oral tight c...
In Irritable Bowel Syndrome, the gut-associated immune system may be up-regulated resulting in immune complex production, low-grade inflammation, loss of Class I bacteria, and translocation of inflammatory mediators and macromolecules outside of the GI lumen. Since food intolerance may be one of the reasons for this upregulation, our goal was to in...
Label claims were evaluated for five probiotic products. Specific oligonucleotide primers were designed for 11 species from the Bifidobacterium, Lactobacillus, and Streptococcus genera. Polymerase chain reaction, gel electrophoresis, and amplicon excision with DNA sequencing were performed: Sequence analysis and DNA homology comparisons followed. B...
Probiotic microflora display numerous health benefits beyond providing basic nutritional value. They cooperatively maintain a delicate balance between the gastrointestinal tract and immune system. When this balance is disrupted, disease and inflammation result. Inflammation and over stimulation of the immune system by pathogenic bacteria are compet...
Because of poor overall survival in advanced ovarian malignancies, patients often turn to alternative therapies despite controversy surrounding their use. Currently, the majority of cancer patients combine some form of complementary and alternative medicine with conventional therapies. Of these therapies, antioxidants, added to chemotherapy, are a...
At the present time, many cancer patients combine some form of complementary and alternative medicine therapies with their conventional therapies. The most common choice of these therapies is the use of antioxidants.
A review of four common antioxidants is undertaken, which includes vitamin E (mixed tocopherols and tocotrienols), beta-carotene (nat...
Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSE), which include Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, are diseases characterized by progressive deterioration in the central nervous system with neuronal degeneration, vacuolatization of the neuropil, and gliosis. Little is known about the pathogenic mechanisms of infecti...
