SIDS – TranscendingSquare

March 29, 2020March 31, 2020

Cytokine Storm, SIDS, autism and Vitamin C

The over-reaction of the immune system to any infectious stimulant whether an infection or vaccines, may be a cause of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) (1) and the encephalopathy (2) that is a frequent factor in later development of autism. (3)

Sudden Infant Death Syndrome may be a toxin overload as success was achieved with mattress covers in Australia that prevented volatile chemicals or mold spores from reaching the baby. Crib mattresses often contain vinyl or fire retardants and a used mattress likely has mold even if not obvious. It can be healthy for infants to sleep on their belly as helps with even muscle development and skull shape. Babies that are held or left in the same position all the time can development flattened areas on the skull and limit muscle development. See previous post1, post2, post3.

Giving infants and children vitamin C prior to vaccines orally with juice may be protective against the harmful excess production of inflammatory cytokines. Giving a larger amount intravenously for adverse reactions may also be protective against the cytokine overreaction from worsening as the larger amount of vitamin C has an inhibitory effect on the production of them as well as helping as an antioxidant to detoxify the ones already made in excess. Giving extra vitamin C before vaccines was found to be protective even in lab animals that genetically can make vitamin C. (4)

Cytokine Storm over-reactions may be more of a risk due to genetic differences in as many as 10-15% of the population. (5) Symptoms of a Cytokine Storm reaction can include: “high fever, enlarged spleen, excessive bleeding, low counts of all types of blood cells (red, white and platelets) and, potentially, multiple organ failures.” (5) Diarrhea is unpleasant and can kill if it continues for long however multiple organ failures is more deadly.

Providing vitamin C as a protection against the risk of an overreaction of the immune system would be low cost and has had a low risk of side effects. Diarrhea occurs if excess is taken by mouth so there is little risk of too much being absorbed in the GI tract, and adverse reactions to higher doses of vitamin C given as intravenous therapy have not been prevalent (1%) in studies using the treatment as an addition to chemotherapy treatments. (6)

“Phase I studies of IV C alone & in combination with chemotherapy have reported excellent safety profiles 1–8,33. A survey of providers who used IVC for 9328 patients reported an adverse event rate of 1.0% 68..side effects of IVC…nausea, dizziness, dry mouth, perspiration, & weakness. 6,7” (6)

Giving vitamin C to infants and children would be providing them with a nutrient than most animals can produce for themselves. Humans had a genetic change that caused a loss of the ability. Giving vitamin C to infants and children might also help protect against a potentially fatal or brain damaging over-reaction of the immune system. If 10-15% of the population are genetically more at risk for the excess production of cytokines, (5) , then a government policy that mandates vaccinations would be genetically targeting those individuals for increased risk of an adverse reaction or death – a genocide.

Learning more about the gene differences involved in the increased risk for a Cytokine Storm reaction, and screening the population for the genes would also be helpful so those individuals would know that they have increased risk of death if they have an infection or strong immune reaction to something.

The Committee to Review Adverse Effects of Vaccines that was asked to assess the research on autism and vaccines did not say there was no risk of autism from vaccines – they said there was a lack of evidence – more research was needed.

“The committee particularly counsels readers not to interpret a conclusion of inadequate data to accept or reject causation as evidence either that causation is either present or absent. Inadequate data to accept or reject causation means just that—inadequate. It is also important to recognize what our task was not. We were not charged with assessing the benefits of vaccines, with weighing benefits and costs, or with deciding how, when, and to whom vaccines should be administered.“
Committee to Review Adverse Effects of Vaccines
Board on Population Health and Public Health Practice, Institute of Medicine (7)

Disclaimer: This information is provided for educational purposes within the guidelines of Fair Use. It is not intended to provide individual guidance. Please seek a health care provider for individualized health care guidance.

Reference List

Siri Hauge Opdal, PhD., Chapter 30: Cytokines, Infection, and Immunity, from the book SIDS Sudden Infant and Early Childhood Death: The Past, the Present and the Future. Duncan JR, Byard RW, editors., Adelaide (AU): University of Adelaide Press; 2018 May. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK513388/
Cytokine Storm, ScienceDirect.com, https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/cytokine-storm
Kern JK, Geier DA, Homme KG, Geier MR. A ten year longitudinal examination of the incidence rate and age of childhood encephalopathy diagnoses in an autism spectrum disorder diagnosed cohort. Acta Neurobiol Exp (Wars). 2020;80(1):66–75. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32214276/
C. Alan B. Clemetson, M.D., Rapid Response: The prevention of vaccine reactions. BMJ 2004;328:51 https://www.bmj.com/rapid-response/2011/10/30/prevention-vaccine-reactions
University of Alabama at Birmingham, Here’s a playbook for stopping deadly cytokine storm syndrome. Nov 11, 2019, theivcenter.net, https://theivcenter.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Vit-C-and-Cancer-Support.pdf
E. Klimant, H. Wright, D. Rubin, et al, Intravenous vitamin C in the supportive care of cancer patients: a review and rational approach. Curr Oncol. 2018 April;25(2):139-148, https://theivcenter.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Vit-C-and-Cancer-Support.pdf
Institute of Medicine (U.S.). Committee to Review Adverse Effects of Vaccines. Adverse effects of vaccines : evidence and causality / Committee to Review Adverse Effects of Vaccines, Board on Population Health & Public Health Practice ; Kathleen Stratton … [et al.], eds. ISBN 978-0-309-21436-0 (PDF) https://www.nap.edu/read/13164/chapter/1

May 14, 2016November 3, 2017

Current recommendations in the U.S. for preventing SIDS; a link

Newborns and younger babies may be at more risk of SIDS when placed to sleep in side positions or on the stomach. The Back to Sleep educational campaign was associated with reducing rate of SIDS deaths by half. Risk of flat head or other misshaping problems increases in babies who are still swaddled, or wrapped tightly, for sleeping when older, at later ages of 6 months and up. This article also includes an overview of current recommendations for helping prevent deaths due to SIDS. Read more: [http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/10/health/swaddling-sids-study/index.html?sr=twCNN051416swaddling-sids-study0101PMVODtopPhoto&linkId=24502440]

*This post is a follow-up to a recent post on Antimony, SIDS, Autism and Mattress Covers: [https://transcendingsquare.com/2016/05/12/antimony-sids-autism-and-mattress-covers/]

/Disclaimer: Opinions are my own and the information is provided for educational purposes within the guidelines of fair use. While I am a Registered Dietitian this information is not intended to provide individual health guidance. Please see a health professional for individual health care purposes./

May 13, 2016November 3, 2017

Once you’ve seen one flat-headed baby you’d rather prevent the problem

I may have been in need of a magnesium bath when I wrote the last post or I may have seen too many babies with flat heads or with little plastic helmets during my career. Their poor little heads weren’t flat on top, they were slightly flattened at the back where normally you have a curve.

I helped approximately 10,000 children and 3000 babies and their parents during a fifteen year career in prenatal health education, so Back to Sleep was an educational public health campaign that I had to talk about regularly at work. And then as helmeted babies became a regular sight talking about Tummy Time during the day and support pillows for necks and heads was added to the job.

To find out later that more than 2000 infants a year might be saved from SIDS by simply using an inexpensive mattress cover or switching to a mattress made with organic material is either exciting or devastating news. Or both.

Disclosure: One of my work-my-way-through-college jobs was sewing covers for all natural organic cotton futon mattresses — they smell great and feel like you’re sleeping on a cloud — while still new, then they get kind of matted down but they still smell good — but they can mold if you have them on the floor and they can’t air out. So I may have some predisposed bias against synthetic crib mattresses that are treated with fire retardant or mattresses that are ruined with mold — Disclosure: mold gives me very severe migraines.

May 12, 2016November 3, 2017

Antimony, SIDS, autism and mattress covers

SIDS, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, is the primary cause of death among infants and children under age one — in the United States. In New Zealand, however, SIDS rates have dramatically declined since 1994 when a specially designed mattress cover was developed to help protect infants in their cribs from toxic fumes released from the mattress due to chemical additives or molds. Antimony is one of the chemicals that may be a common risk to infants. Chemicals added to reduce risk of the mattress catching fire may be gradually released and absorbed through the infant’s skin or be breathed by the baby.

In the United States a “Back to Sleep” educational campaign was developed to try to reduce the rate of SIDS deaths because the problem was associated with infants sleeping on their stomachs. That position would place their nose and mouth more directly into the mattress where the toxic chemicals tend to be most prevalent. The “Back to Sleep” campaign and the tendency to leave infants sitting in their infant seats for long periods of time may also have led to more flat-headed babies. Specially shaped neck and head support pillows were developed and sold to worried parents to then prevent the flat-headed problem.

Antimony is a heavy metal which may also be associated with autism risk. Wrapping a mattress in a protective cover is a non-toxic, completely safe and low cost investment that might help protect against SIDS risk and possibly reduce the long term build up of toxins that might increase autism risk. However the United States health guidelines have not endorsed/accepted/supported the simple solution that has been saving the lives of infants in New Zealand since 1994. Research there has proven statistical significance of the method.

The U.S. may be dragging it’s collective heals because of fear of liability or fear of agreeing that fire retardant chemicals that were supposed to save lives may be costing lives — speculation doesn’t save many lives but wrapping an infant mattress in a specially designed cover might. Replacing infant mattresses between infants might also help. The mold risk may be an increased problem for second or third children — who tend to have an increased risk to die from unknown causes while asleep (SIDS) compared to the firstborn infant.

Tweets on the topic from my social media Twitter account; #1, 2 and 3 are to the same link, “Has the Cause of Crib Death, SIDS, been Found?; and #5 and 7 are to a link that sells the specially designed BabeSafe brand mattress covers; the link to which I found on #4, prevent-SIDS.org website’s article “BabeSafe Mattress Wrapping Success”; and #6 is to an Autism website that mentions antimony and fire retardants as a possible risk but which does not mention the New Zealand SIDS research or specially designed mattress covers; #7 is a Tweet where I combined a different autism prevention article with the BabeSafe mattress cover link (#5):

Wrapping crib mattresses to reduce toxic off-gassing has reduced SIDS rate in New Zealand. https://www.healthychild.com/has-the-cause-of-crib-death-sids-been- .
#SIDS “no babies have died sleeping on a properly wrapped mattress.” 2,100 babies die/yr in U.S. https://www.healthychild.com/has-the-cause-of-crib-death-sids-been-found/ … via @HealthyChild.
Has The Cause of Crib Death (SIDS) Been Found? /statistics~1 billion x level generally required/ https://www.healthychild.com/has-the-cause-of-crib-death-sids-been-found/ … via @HealthyChild .
BabeSafe Mattress Wrapping Success #SIDS http://www.prevent-sids.org/babesafe-mattress-wrapping-success.htm … .
“Babe-safe mattress covers,” made to the New Zealand design to safely reduce off-gassing toxins, #SIDS http://www.eves-best.com/babesafe-mattr
Aluminum, Antimony, Autism and Answers http://www.ageofautism.com/2007/08/aluminum-antimo.html … .
Minimizing Risks | Autism Research Institute http://www.autism.com/prevention #autism #SIDS /babesafe covers decrse antimony http://www.eves-best.com/babesafe-mattress-covers.htm … .

Infants, at least some of them, some of the time, like to sleep on their stomachs. Do they have to move to New Zealand in order to have that freedom? Or in a free country couldn’t parents have the right to buy their infant a specially designed mattress cover that might help protect them from volatile chemicals and molds that might be off-gassing from the mattress and increasing risk of SIDS and autism?

Freedom was a core principle for our nation’s Founding Fathers. They might have voted for the right to wrap mattresses rather than enforcing an educational message designed to reduce health risks but may have led to increased risks of flat-headed-ness. Flat-headed babies sometimes have their skull shape round out again without intervention beyond encouraging the parent to hold their baby more and to use the specially designed neck and head supports and to make sure baby has ‘tummy time’ while awake, but sometimes the infants have to wear specially designed football like helmets for weeks or months in order to encourage the skull to grow into a more typical shape.

Encouraging baby in “Tummy time” can then sometimes become a challenge if the infant gets so used to the back position that they lose muscle strength and interest in spending time on their tummies. The position is important for increasing neck, back and arm strength necessary for learning how to roll over and press up to a hands and knee position for learning how to crawl. And learning how to crawl has been associated with improved skills in coordination between the right and left halves of the body and with more advanced skills later in life such as reading and writing. The “Back to Sleep” education campaign was started in the U.S. in 1994. [http://www.medcentral.org/main/Whatssoimportantaboutcrawling.aspx ] The mattress cover campaign that started around the same time in New Zealand had a much more significant reduction in infants dieing from SIDS and probably didn’t lead to as many babies developing flattened heads.

We don’t know what we don’t know until we learn it the hard way or listen to other people who have also experienced the problem and developed sensible solutions.

Guessing, but an educated guess — if the infant has any asthma or other respiratory issues the BabeSafe Mattress Covers might also help their health. Mold and volatile chemicals can add to asthma and breathing difficulties.