Was the Baby Shaken or Barlow's Disease (infantile scurvy)
Posted: Wed Mar 31, 2004 5:59 pm
From 2002
http://www.findarticles.com/cf_dls/m0IS ... icle.jhtml?
term=
Was the Baby Shaken? (Letters to the Editor).(Letter to the Editor)
Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients, Jan, 2002
Editor:
Child abuse laws have given rise to many accusations of "Shaken Baby
Syndrome," which has become a popular diagnosis to explain infant deaths,
and even for living infants who are brought to an emergency room following
a fall. Much is made of the finding of pinpoint petechial hemorrhages in
the retina at the back of the eye, but the existence and the extent of such
hemorrhages are dependent on the capillary strength or fragility, the
strength or weakness of the smallest blood vessels, which can be affected
by many different conditions. In fact, an infant can die with extensive
retinal hemorrhages, a blood clot under the capsule of the brain, extensive
bruises, broken bones and sores that will not heal, due to Barlow's
disease, without having been subjected to anything but the tenderest of
loving care.
Barlow's disease is another name for infantile scurvy or vitamin C
deficiency, which was a well-recognized condition among bottle-fed infants,
both in Europe and in the United States in the first half of the 20th
century It occurred not only among the poor who did not know or could not
afford to buy orange juice as a supplement to the milk diet, but also among
the infants of some affluent members of society who boiled the milk to
destroy the germs of tuberculosis, so destroying all vitamin C. Other
infants developed Barlow's disease due to the feeding of a commercial "malt
soup," whose alkalinity destroyed vitamin C.
Today Barlow's disease is rare, but could perhaps still occur if people
were to go overboard with heating the baby's bottle in a microwave oven, or
if they do not know that natural apple juice is a very poor substitute for
orange juice. One hundred grams of fresh orange juice (3-1/4 fluid ounces)
contains about 49mg of vitamin C, but nowadays it is the fashion to give
infants apple juice instead; unfortunately there is only 1 mg of vitamin C
in the same amount of fresh apple juice, so unless the parent knows to buy
apple juice with added vitamin C, there can be a risk of vitamin C deficiency.
People will rightly say that severe vitamin C deficiency is rare in the
Western world today; not only is it rare, it is even more rarely diagnosed,
as the bleeding gums which are so characteristic of adult scurvy are never
seen in toothless infants. It is bacteria in the crevice between the tooth
and the gum that cause local infection; infection causes local vitamin C
depletion and vitamin C deficiency predisposes to infection, so a vicious
cycle can develop, leading to the foul mouth and the bleeding gums of
scurvy This does not occur in edentulous infants. Multiple bone fractures
and sub-periosteal hemorrhages do occur in Barlow's disease, but all too
often now the sub-periosteal hemorrhages, lifting the growing sheath right
off the surface of the bone, are thought to be the result of the fractures,
instead of being recognized as revealing their cause. Even this X-ray
finding, formerly known as being characteristic of the healing phase of
scurvy, is now often said to be evidence of child abuse. Of course vi tamin
C deficiency is not the only cause of spontaneous bone fractures in
infants; they also occur in osteogenesis imperfecta or fragilitas osseum;
moreover, capillary fragility occurs in many other conditions ranging from
measles to thrombocytopenic purpura.
Our recent knowledge of the role played by an increased blood histamine
concentration, or histaminemia, as the leading cause of capillary fragility
in vitamin C deficiency, enables us to understand the additive effect of
all other causes of histaminemia. We now know that the bruising and
bleeding of scurvy result from an increase in the blood histamine
concentration, which causes the endothelial cells lining the inside of the
blood vessels, to become separated from one another; there is no change in
the blood clotting mechanism, but a profound disturbance of the endothelial
architecture. It is now known that the blood histamine level begins to
increase as soon as the plasma ascorbic acid or vitamin C concentration
falls below the normal level of 1mg per 100ml, even though frank scurvy
does not occur until it falls below one fifth of that value. Blood plasma
vitamin C levels and whole blood histamine levels show a remarkable inverse
relationship, both in guinea pigs and in humans, but many toxins and other
fac tors, including vaccinations and inoculations also cause an increase in
the blood histamine level.
We are all aware of the effects of increased tissue histamine
concentrations, revealing themselves as nettle rash, hay fever or asthma,
but an increased blood histamine level can be a silent killer. We now must
appreciate that the degree of the histaminemia and the resultant capillary
fragility can result from a concatenation of circumstances. We may have an
infant with a borderline vitamin C depletion, which on its own would have
been relatively innocuous, now becoming more severe as a result of
infection or some other stress; even the common cold or coryza can halve
the blood plasma vitamin C concentration in 24 hours. Furthermore, we now
know that heavy metals like mercury copper, or even iron in excess can
deplete vitamin C reserves, so we have to wonder about the effects of the
mercurial antiseptic thimerosol used in some pediatric inoculants.
Moreover, it has been shown that the toxins or toxoids of the usual
inoculants cause increased blood histamine levels in animals. So we must
consider the effects o f all the inoculants given together to an infant
already ill or vitamin C depleted; the blood histamine level, the capillary
fragility and the likelihood of petechial hemorrhages will be the result of
all these factors added together.
We should no longer be looking for one cause in the death or the injury of
an infant. We should take into account all the factors leading up to an
event or to the final demise. Now, with so many inoculants being given at
the same time, we must consider their collective toxicity. All bacterial
inoculants are toxoids or toxins, but they vary in toxicity and sometimes
the toxicity of two toxins may be greater than the sum of the two.
Fortunately these questions can be sorted out, and one way to do it is by
measuring the blood histamine levels before and at different times after
single or multiple inoculations. Also it will be possible to study the
protective effects of vitamin C in reducing the histaminemia. Ascorbic acid
aids the conversion of histamine to hydanton-5-acetic acid for elimination
and has been shown to protect against the toxicity of inoculations, both in
animals and humans. Even some soldiers going to the Gulf War suffered
severe reactions to some of their inoculations, so this matter is of conce
rn to the armed forces as well as the rest of us.
Physicians are aware of the fact that vitamin C deficiency impairs the
hydroxylation of the amino acids proline and lysine, which are essential
building blocks for the synthesis of collagen and that fibroblasts and
related chondroblast, osteoblast and odontoblast cells manufacture collagen
as the foundation for fibrous tissue, cartilage, bone and tooth dentin
respectively Moreover, we have known that the larger blood vessels are
encased by an outer coat of fibrous tissue, but the bleeding of scurvy
comes from the capillaries and smallest venules which have very little in
the way of a collagen sheath. It is the inverse relationship between the
vitamin C and the blood histamine level that is not widely known; as a
result, there is little understanding of the way in which vitamin C
depletion, infection and toxins or toxoids have an additive effect leading
to capillary fragility, easy bruising and retinal petechiae.
All mammals except us, the apes, monkeys, guinea pigs and a mutant rat make
their own ascorbic acid from simple sugars in the liver, so they do not
need vitamin C in their diet. Monkeys, apes and guinea pigs make up for
this defect by eating plenty of fresh fruit and greens, but we suffer when
we try to live on stored foods from the center of the supermarket. We are
defective mammals, lacking fur and lacking the ability to make our own
vitamin C. We take great care to provide ourselves with clothes and housing
to make up for our lack of fur, but we do not always take enough care to
make up for our inborn error of metabolism. It is odd that medical schools,
which teach so much about DNA and the genetic code, do not pay more
attention to teaching nutrition and about a major human genetic defect
shared by us all.
The pertinence of these observations can be readily appreciated when one
considers the grave injustice suffered by Alan Yorko of Orlando, Florida,
who was accused of "Shaken Baby Syndrome," convicted and sentenced to life
imprisonment for murder.
After becoming pregnant Francine Yurko became sick and remained so during
her pregnancy, often to the point of dehydration, going from her original
weight of 130 lbs., down to 120 lbs., at one point and finally coming back
to her original weight of 130 lbs. at the time of delivery. She said she
was too sick to take her vitamins. When one considers that the currently
recommended weight gain for pregnancy is 25 to 30 lbs., it is clear that
she was malnourished and so was her unborn child. The infant was born
prematurely, weighting 5 lbs. 8 oz. And had several medical problems
including respiratory distress syndrome, pneumonitis and jaundice. The
jaundice was still evident four weeks after leaving hospital; its health
was further impaired when it received 6 inoculations (for diphtheria,
whooping cough, tetanus, influenza B, oral polio vaccine and hepatitis B)
at 8 weeks of age. Eleven days later the infant developed a high-pitched
cry and his skin became warm to touch. Having been warned at an earlier
office vis it that these things might ensue, Francine Yurko was not overly
alarmed.
Two days later when Alan Yurko was alone at home caring for the infant and
his four year-old daughter, the infant wheezed, gagged and stopped
breathing, so he picked him up by the heels and slapped him on the bottom
to get him breathing again. He rushed the infant to the hospital, but three
days later it suffered another respiratory arrest in hospital and died at
10 weeks of age. Severe anemia, with a hemoglobin of 7.8 grams and the
jaundice were entirely consistent with Barlow's disease. The only visible
mark on his body when he was admitted to hospital was a small bruise on the
right lower eyelid where his feeding bottle had hit him when his sister
dropped it.
Post mortem examination showed two more bruises on the temporal areas of
his head and fresh bleeding into the right eye, but not the left. Cerebral
edema and fresh subdural hemorrhages were present, especially on the right
side of the brain, but also at the base of the brain, where pontine
hemorrhage could well have accounted for his fever of 105[degrees]F. There
were healing fractures at the costochondral junctions of the 5th, 6th and
7th ribs on the left side. Fracture of the 10th rib may have occurred as a
result of handling during the autopsy. Diffuse interstitial pneumonitis was
also observed.
A diagnosis of "shaken baby syndrome" was made by the pathologist, in
concordance with the child abuse laws which require the reporting of child
abuse whenever there is a suspicion of it. The prosecutors suspected both
parents of child abuse, but Francine Yurko refused to implicate her husband
and Alan Yurko refused to plead guilty to a lesser charge, because he knew
he was innocent. Clearly this infant's death resulted from a connection of
unfortunate circumstances causing vitamin C deficiency and capillary
fragility.
Many of us would say that it was unwise to give inoculations to a premature
infant, especially when it was poorly, but it is easy to be wise after the
event. No one should ever be accused of child abuse on such flimsy
evidence, and certainly not without a blood analysis for vitamin C and for
histamine. If there is any justice in this world Alan Yurko should be
released from prison and so should all others falsely accused of child abuse.
Alan Clemetson, MD
Professor Emeritus
Tulane University School of Medicine
COPYRIGHT 2002 The Townsend Letter Group
COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Sheri Nakken, R.N., MA, Classical Homeopath
Well Within & Earth Mysteries & Sacred Site Tours (worldwide)
Vaccination Information & Choice Network
http://www.nccn.net/~wwithin/vaccine.htm
http://www.nccn.net/~wwithin/homeo.htm
homeopathycures@tesco.net
ONLINE Introduction to Homeopathy Classes
ONLINE Introduction to Vaccine Dangers Classes
ANY INFO OBTAINED HERE NOT TO BE CONSTRUED AS MEDICAL
OR LEGAL ADVICE. THE DECISION TO VACCINATE IS YOURS AND YOURS ALONE
Voicemail US 530-740-0561 UK phone from US 011-44-1874-624-936
http://www.findarticles.com/cf_dls/m0IS ... icle.jhtml?
term=
Was the Baby Shaken? (Letters to the Editor).(Letter to the Editor)
Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients, Jan, 2002
Editor:
Child abuse laws have given rise to many accusations of "Shaken Baby
Syndrome," which has become a popular diagnosis to explain infant deaths,
and even for living infants who are brought to an emergency room following
a fall. Much is made of the finding of pinpoint petechial hemorrhages in
the retina at the back of the eye, but the existence and the extent of such
hemorrhages are dependent on the capillary strength or fragility, the
strength or weakness of the smallest blood vessels, which can be affected
by many different conditions. In fact, an infant can die with extensive
retinal hemorrhages, a blood clot under the capsule of the brain, extensive
bruises, broken bones and sores that will not heal, due to Barlow's
disease, without having been subjected to anything but the tenderest of
loving care.
Barlow's disease is another name for infantile scurvy or vitamin C
deficiency, which was a well-recognized condition among bottle-fed infants,
both in Europe and in the United States in the first half of the 20th
century It occurred not only among the poor who did not know or could not
afford to buy orange juice as a supplement to the milk diet, but also among
the infants of some affluent members of society who boiled the milk to
destroy the germs of tuberculosis, so destroying all vitamin C. Other
infants developed Barlow's disease due to the feeding of a commercial "malt
soup," whose alkalinity destroyed vitamin C.
Today Barlow's disease is rare, but could perhaps still occur if people
were to go overboard with heating the baby's bottle in a microwave oven, or
if they do not know that natural apple juice is a very poor substitute for
orange juice. One hundred grams of fresh orange juice (3-1/4 fluid ounces)
contains about 49mg of vitamin C, but nowadays it is the fashion to give
infants apple juice instead; unfortunately there is only 1 mg of vitamin C
in the same amount of fresh apple juice, so unless the parent knows to buy
apple juice with added vitamin C, there can be a risk of vitamin C deficiency.
People will rightly say that severe vitamin C deficiency is rare in the
Western world today; not only is it rare, it is even more rarely diagnosed,
as the bleeding gums which are so characteristic of adult scurvy are never
seen in toothless infants. It is bacteria in the crevice between the tooth
and the gum that cause local infection; infection causes local vitamin C
depletion and vitamin C deficiency predisposes to infection, so a vicious
cycle can develop, leading to the foul mouth and the bleeding gums of
scurvy This does not occur in edentulous infants. Multiple bone fractures
and sub-periosteal hemorrhages do occur in Barlow's disease, but all too
often now the sub-periosteal hemorrhages, lifting the growing sheath right
off the surface of the bone, are thought to be the result of the fractures,
instead of being recognized as revealing their cause. Even this X-ray
finding, formerly known as being characteristic of the healing phase of
scurvy, is now often said to be evidence of child abuse. Of course vi tamin
C deficiency is not the only cause of spontaneous bone fractures in
infants; they also occur in osteogenesis imperfecta or fragilitas osseum;
moreover, capillary fragility occurs in many other conditions ranging from
measles to thrombocytopenic purpura.
Our recent knowledge of the role played by an increased blood histamine
concentration, or histaminemia, as the leading cause of capillary fragility
in vitamin C deficiency, enables us to understand the additive effect of
all other causes of histaminemia. We now know that the bruising and
bleeding of scurvy result from an increase in the blood histamine
concentration, which causes the endothelial cells lining the inside of the
blood vessels, to become separated from one another; there is no change in
the blood clotting mechanism, but a profound disturbance of the endothelial
architecture. It is now known that the blood histamine level begins to
increase as soon as the plasma ascorbic acid or vitamin C concentration
falls below the normal level of 1mg per 100ml, even though frank scurvy
does not occur until it falls below one fifth of that value. Blood plasma
vitamin C levels and whole blood histamine levels show a remarkable inverse
relationship, both in guinea pigs and in humans, but many toxins and other
fac tors, including vaccinations and inoculations also cause an increase in
the blood histamine level.
We are all aware of the effects of increased tissue histamine
concentrations, revealing themselves as nettle rash, hay fever or asthma,
but an increased blood histamine level can be a silent killer. We now must
appreciate that the degree of the histaminemia and the resultant capillary
fragility can result from a concatenation of circumstances. We may have an
infant with a borderline vitamin C depletion, which on its own would have
been relatively innocuous, now becoming more severe as a result of
infection or some other stress; even the common cold or coryza can halve
the blood plasma vitamin C concentration in 24 hours. Furthermore, we now
know that heavy metals like mercury copper, or even iron in excess can
deplete vitamin C reserves, so we have to wonder about the effects of the
mercurial antiseptic thimerosol used in some pediatric inoculants.
Moreover, it has been shown that the toxins or toxoids of the usual
inoculants cause increased blood histamine levels in animals. So we must
consider the effects o f all the inoculants given together to an infant
already ill or vitamin C depleted; the blood histamine level, the capillary
fragility and the likelihood of petechial hemorrhages will be the result of
all these factors added together.
We should no longer be looking for one cause in the death or the injury of
an infant. We should take into account all the factors leading up to an
event or to the final demise. Now, with so many inoculants being given at
the same time, we must consider their collective toxicity. All bacterial
inoculants are toxoids or toxins, but they vary in toxicity and sometimes
the toxicity of two toxins may be greater than the sum of the two.
Fortunately these questions can be sorted out, and one way to do it is by
measuring the blood histamine levels before and at different times after
single or multiple inoculations. Also it will be possible to study the
protective effects of vitamin C in reducing the histaminemia. Ascorbic acid
aids the conversion of histamine to hydanton-5-acetic acid for elimination
and has been shown to protect against the toxicity of inoculations, both in
animals and humans. Even some soldiers going to the Gulf War suffered
severe reactions to some of their inoculations, so this matter is of conce
rn to the armed forces as well as the rest of us.
Physicians are aware of the fact that vitamin C deficiency impairs the
hydroxylation of the amino acids proline and lysine, which are essential
building blocks for the synthesis of collagen and that fibroblasts and
related chondroblast, osteoblast and odontoblast cells manufacture collagen
as the foundation for fibrous tissue, cartilage, bone and tooth dentin
respectively Moreover, we have known that the larger blood vessels are
encased by an outer coat of fibrous tissue, but the bleeding of scurvy
comes from the capillaries and smallest venules which have very little in
the way of a collagen sheath. It is the inverse relationship between the
vitamin C and the blood histamine level that is not widely known; as a
result, there is little understanding of the way in which vitamin C
depletion, infection and toxins or toxoids have an additive effect leading
to capillary fragility, easy bruising and retinal petechiae.
All mammals except us, the apes, monkeys, guinea pigs and a mutant rat make
their own ascorbic acid from simple sugars in the liver, so they do not
need vitamin C in their diet. Monkeys, apes and guinea pigs make up for
this defect by eating plenty of fresh fruit and greens, but we suffer when
we try to live on stored foods from the center of the supermarket. We are
defective mammals, lacking fur and lacking the ability to make our own
vitamin C. We take great care to provide ourselves with clothes and housing
to make up for our lack of fur, but we do not always take enough care to
make up for our inborn error of metabolism. It is odd that medical schools,
which teach so much about DNA and the genetic code, do not pay more
attention to teaching nutrition and about a major human genetic defect
shared by us all.
The pertinence of these observations can be readily appreciated when one
considers the grave injustice suffered by Alan Yorko of Orlando, Florida,
who was accused of "Shaken Baby Syndrome," convicted and sentenced to life
imprisonment for murder.
After becoming pregnant Francine Yurko became sick and remained so during
her pregnancy, often to the point of dehydration, going from her original
weight of 130 lbs., down to 120 lbs., at one point and finally coming back
to her original weight of 130 lbs. at the time of delivery. She said she
was too sick to take her vitamins. When one considers that the currently
recommended weight gain for pregnancy is 25 to 30 lbs., it is clear that
she was malnourished and so was her unborn child. The infant was born
prematurely, weighting 5 lbs. 8 oz. And had several medical problems
including respiratory distress syndrome, pneumonitis and jaundice. The
jaundice was still evident four weeks after leaving hospital; its health
was further impaired when it received 6 inoculations (for diphtheria,
whooping cough, tetanus, influenza B, oral polio vaccine and hepatitis B)
at 8 weeks of age. Eleven days later the infant developed a high-pitched
cry and his skin became warm to touch. Having been warned at an earlier
office vis it that these things might ensue, Francine Yurko was not overly
alarmed.
Two days later when Alan Yurko was alone at home caring for the infant and
his four year-old daughter, the infant wheezed, gagged and stopped
breathing, so he picked him up by the heels and slapped him on the bottom
to get him breathing again. He rushed the infant to the hospital, but three
days later it suffered another respiratory arrest in hospital and died at
10 weeks of age. Severe anemia, with a hemoglobin of 7.8 grams and the
jaundice were entirely consistent with Barlow's disease. The only visible
mark on his body when he was admitted to hospital was a small bruise on the
right lower eyelid where his feeding bottle had hit him when his sister
dropped it.
Post mortem examination showed two more bruises on the temporal areas of
his head and fresh bleeding into the right eye, but not the left. Cerebral
edema and fresh subdural hemorrhages were present, especially on the right
side of the brain, but also at the base of the brain, where pontine
hemorrhage could well have accounted for his fever of 105[degrees]F. There
were healing fractures at the costochondral junctions of the 5th, 6th and
7th ribs on the left side. Fracture of the 10th rib may have occurred as a
result of handling during the autopsy. Diffuse interstitial pneumonitis was
also observed.
A diagnosis of "shaken baby syndrome" was made by the pathologist, in
concordance with the child abuse laws which require the reporting of child
abuse whenever there is a suspicion of it. The prosecutors suspected both
parents of child abuse, but Francine Yurko refused to implicate her husband
and Alan Yurko refused to plead guilty to a lesser charge, because he knew
he was innocent. Clearly this infant's death resulted from a connection of
unfortunate circumstances causing vitamin C deficiency and capillary
fragility.
Many of us would say that it was unwise to give inoculations to a premature
infant, especially when it was poorly, but it is easy to be wise after the
event. No one should ever be accused of child abuse on such flimsy
evidence, and certainly not without a blood analysis for vitamin C and for
histamine. If there is any justice in this world Alan Yurko should be
released from prison and so should all others falsely accused of child abuse.
Alan Clemetson, MD
Professor Emeritus
Tulane University School of Medicine
COPYRIGHT 2002 The Townsend Letter Group
COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Sheri Nakken, R.N., MA, Classical Homeopath
Well Within & Earth Mysteries & Sacred Site Tours (worldwide)
Vaccination Information & Choice Network
http://www.nccn.net/~wwithin/vaccine.htm
http://www.nccn.net/~wwithin/homeo.htm
homeopathycures@tesco.net
ONLINE Introduction to Homeopathy Classes
ONLINE Introduction to Vaccine Dangers Classes
ANY INFO OBTAINED HERE NOT TO BE CONSTRUED AS MEDICAL
OR LEGAL ADVICE. THE DECISION TO VACCINATE IS YOURS AND YOURS ALONE
Voicemail US 530-740-0561 UK phone from US 011-44-1874-624-936