Functional Again

Thanks Glenn. I’m certain Godfrey was right. Wouldn’t it be great if provocative letters such as this could still be published without censorship and vilification?

With outbreaks of meningococcal B in many parts of the world I was reminded that in 2004, New Zealand GP Dr Mike Godfrey published a provocative letter in the New Zealand Medical Journal titled "Haemorrhagic meningococcal meningitis: is it scurvy?", NZMJ Vol. 117 No. 1200 on 20 August 2004.

Writing during New Zealand’s 1991-2007 meningococcal B epidemic, he proposed that the haemorrhagic symptoms of meningococcal disease might be a form of "acute scurvy" and argued that the rapid depletion of Vitamin C during a severe infection leads to a breakdown of blood vessel integrity, mirroring the clinical presentation of scurvy.

One mechanism for disease susceptibility might be vitamin C deficiency suggesting adequate levels on the diet may help ward off complications. He also suggested that the disease only becomes severe ("fulminating") when the liver is overwhelmed by toxins, which he believed Vitamin C could mitigate.

Godfrey argued that high-dose Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) could be an effective, safe, and cheap therapy for meningococcal disease. The letter is on page 121-122 at this link:https://nzmj.org.nz/media/pages/journal/vol-117-no-1200/01f3bb390e-1696470820/vol-117-no-1200.pdf

She was right.

TikTok · TFM Report 274 likes, 40 comments. “My past predictions have just been confirmed by the REM magazine! Estates & POA listings are 10% higher than last year and 78% higher than a decade ago!! Gee…I wonder why???”

This is on my mind. The root causes we try to unpick for families here at Functional Again.