Paralytic Polio & Sugar

http://www.vran.org/vaccines/polio/vaccine_pol.htm

Another important discovery was forwarded by North Carolina physician, Dr.
Benjamin Sandler, MD, who found that polio could be prevented by a diet
that eliminated refined carbohydrates, sugar, candy, cookies, pop and ice
cream, which were ingested in enormous quantities in the summer months when
polio was rampant. His research showed that hypoglycemia (low blood sugar)
was a common disorder in children and adolescents and was at the root of
polio attacking this age group. Low blood sugar is readily induced by wrong
diet, followed by over-exertion. Many people followed Sandler's
recommendations, and the incidence of polio in North Carolina dropped from
2,402 cases in 1948 to 214 cases in 1949 when the country as a whole showed
an increase in the number of cases in that time frame. (4)

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http://www.duffyslaw.com/current16.htm

THE POLIO SCAM


A very significant effect on the early Polio numbers resulted from the
efforts of Benjamin Sandler MD who conclusively proved that sudden high
doses of dietary sugar caused Polio. His diet was widely published in every
major newspaper in the country and summer sales of high sugar junk foods
were outlawed in his small North Carolina community stopping new cases of
Polio. He published a book entitled, “Diet Prevents Polio” another proof of
the poison cause of Polio.

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http://www.mercola.com/2000/dec/24/polio_sugar.htm

Sugar Increases Polio Risk

The following is a chapter from the book Diet Prevents Polio written by
Benjamin P. Sandler, M.D., and published in 1951, at the height of the
polio epidemic. Many thanks to The Soil And Health Library and Steve
Solomon for making this information available.

Low Blood Sugar And Susceptibility To Polio

During my research I observed a large number of patients who had symptoms
that were caused by low blood sugar. They complained of the symptoms
previously described, namely, headache, dizziness, weakness, fatigue,
abdominal pain, nervousness, palpitation, frequent sweats, and occasional
fainting spells. Most of these patients were malnourished, which,
physiologically, meant subnormal liver glycogen storage. Their diet was
deficient in protein and consisted largely of the cheaper starchy foods.

I noted that these patients also had poor resistance to infections such as
colds, sore throat, grippe, influenza, bronchitis, and pneumonia. By
increasing the protein content of their diet and by reducing the sugar and
starch content, they improved considerably. They became stronger, more
vigorous and buoyant, and had fewer infections.

A few of these patients had had polio in childhood. Observations of these
patients over a long period of time led me to suspect that their
susceptibility to infection was possibly due to their poor diet with its
high sugar and starch content. Their increased resistance to infection with
a better diet confirmed this suspicion. It then occurred to me that their
susceptibility to polio could be explained on a similar dietary basis.

Specifically, I suspected that children and adults contracted polio because
of low blood sugar brought on by a diet containing sugar and starch. I
reasoned that the polio virus was able to cross tissue barriers, reach the
brain and spinal cord, invade the nerve cells, damage or destroy them and
cause paralysis. And I further reasoned that if the blood sugar never fell
below 80 mg. polio could never result.

I suspected that during a polio epidemic only those children and adults who
experienced periods of low blood sugar would contract the disease and that
those individuals who were in actual contact with the virus but who
maintained normal blood sugar levels would not contract the disease.

Thus, it remained to prove that low blood sugar could be a factor in
susceptibility to polio. And, after this had been proved, the following
questions had to be answered:

*What causes low blood sugar in humans?
* How can low blood sugar be prevented?

The prevention of low blood sugar would thus mean the prevention of polio.

Before describing the experiments performed, I should like to make a
preliminary summary and state without reserve that:

1. Low blood sugar is a factor of susceptibility to polio.
2. Low blood sugar occurs frequently in children and adults and is
caused chiefly by a dietary error, namely, the consumption of sugar and starch
3. Correction of this dietary error will prevent low blood sugar and
thus prevent polio.

An experimental method to prove that low blood sugar was a factor of
susceptibility to polio was readily available. In 1938, the only laboratory
animal that could contract polio by experimental inoculation was the
monkey. All other laboratory animals were completely resistant to the polio
virus. The rabbit is one of these resistant animals.

Without knowing the blood sugar range in the monkey and rabbit, it was
suspected that the blood sugar in the monkey reached lower levels than in
the rabbit. These suspicions were found to have a basis in fact through the
investigations of Drs. Jungeblut and Resnick of Columbia University who
studied blood sugar levels in monkeys, and through the investigations of
Drs. du Vigneaud and Karr of Cornell University who studied blood sugar
levels in rabbits. (See in previous chapter, Fig. 4).

In monkeys, blood sugar values as low as 50 mg. were observed, whereas in
the rabbit, values below 100 mg. were never observed. In numerous
determinations made on rabbits I have never obtained values below 100 mg.

It was therefore concluded that the susceptibility of the monkey to the
polio virus was due to the fact that its blood sugar fell to subnormal
values, and that the resistance of the rabbit might be associated with the
fact that its blood sugar never fell below 100 mg, and that at this
concentration cellular oxidation of glucose in the nervous system and other
organs would be maintained at such a level as to enable the cells to
protect themselves against invasion by the virus.

Physiologists have stated that the normal blood sugar level of 80 mg. holds
true for all mammals.

The next step was to lower the blood sugar of the rabbit to subnormal
values with insulin injections, and then inoculate the rabbit with polio
virus. This was done and it was found that the rabbits became infected and
developed the disease.

The details of these experiments were published in the American Journal of
Pathology, January, 1941. Some rabbits showed signs of infection 8 to 10
hours after inoculation. I wish to stress this short period of incubation
in the rabbit because it demonstrates that polio can develop in a short
period of time. This is important, as we shall learn later, when we discuss
the onset of polio in humans within 24 hours after severe physical exertion.

The rabbit is also resistant to the dog distemper virus. One of the largest
research laboratories has conducted much research with this virus and when
I informed the members of the staff about my success in inoculating rabbits
with polio virus after lowering the blood sugar, they inoculated rabbits
with the dog distemper virus after insulin and reported to me that they
observed signs of infection in the rabbit for the first time. This
corroborating experiment indicates that low blood sugar may cause
susceptibility to many infections.

I was thus satisfied that low blood sugar was a factor of susceptibility to
the polio virus in monkeys, and that rabbits could be rendered susceptible
after their blood sugar was lowered with insulin (Insulin, as you probably
know, is the hormone which diabetics inject into themselves in order to
keep their blood sugar within normal range. It is a quick-acting drug and
can lower the blood sugar within an hour or so after injection). I
concluded that the concept that low blood sugar created susceptibility to
polio in both monkeys and rabbits could be applied to humans as well.
What Causes Low Blood Sugar in Humans?

The next step in the solution of the polio problem was to find out the
causes of low blood sugar in humans. Fortunately the answer to this problem
was already at hand. It has been found that the consumption of sugar and
starch and foods containing these substances were the chief cause of low
blood sugar. The accompanying charts show clearly how the blood sugar is
controlled by what we eat. These graphs were obtained from patients whom I
was studying and treating for low blood sugar (Figs. 5 & 6).

You will note that when these patients drank a solution of pure glucose
they had a period of low blood sugar which began one to two hours after the
glucose was taken and which lasted for one to two hours, and longer.

This study of the blood sugar is called the "glucose tolerance test" and is
employed for the detection of hypoglycemia or hyperglycemia. You will note
that when they ate a meal containing sugar and starch they also had periods
of low blood sugar which came on an hour or so later and which lasted for
from one to two hours. The low blood sugar was more marked and lasted for a
longer time after the glucose solution than after a meal containing starch.

It is an established fact that this paradoxic depressant effect on the
blood sugar level is more readily exerted by sugar than it is by starches.
I have observed these results in hundreds of cases and similar results have
been obtained by other investigators.

It is a surprising paradox: the more sugar (and starch) you eat, the more
likely you will develop low blood sugar. Drs. E. P. McCullagh and C. R. K.
Johnston have shown how the glucose tolerance test is readily influenced by
diet. Thus the second problem: What can cause low blood sugar in the human?
was solved.
How Can Low Blood Sugar be Prevented?

The third problem, "How can low blood sugar be prevented?" was the only one
left and this, too, was readily solved. It had been found by other
investigators that a meal consisting of protein, fat, and carbohydrates,
but with no sugar or starch, never caused low blood sugar. The addition of
sugar and starch to such a meal could readily produce low blood sugar.
Figs. 5 and 6 show clearly how the blood sugar is maintained at 80 mg. and
higher after a meal containing no sugar and little or no starch, whereas,
in the same individual, a meal containing sugar and starch will cause low
blood sugar.

Thus I arrived at a simple formula for preventing polio: eliminate from the
diet sugar and foods containing sugar, and reduce the consumption of foods
containing starch.

Since eating sugar and starch during a meal may cause low blood sugar after
one to three hours, and since elimination of sugar and starch prevents low
blood sugar, the invasion of the body by the polio virus will be prevented
by a diet containing no sugar and no starch. Protection against polio would
thus begin on the very day such a diet was started and protection would
last just as long as such a diet was adhered to.

I have found that a diet completely free of sugar and starch and consisting
of proteins, fats, and non-starchy vegetables, may be adhered to for years
with beneficial effect and absolutely without harmful effect. There is no
supporting evidence to indicate that sugar and starch are necessary for
health or for energy purposes. The human is a carnivore and can thrive on
protein and fat alone, if necessary.

The Eskimos thrive well on meat and fish which yield only protein and fat,
and polio is unheard of among them. American and European explorers in the
Arctic regions have lived on meat and fish for as long as 18 months and
have maintained perfect health all the time on such a diet. Vilhjalmur
Stefansson, the Arctic explorer, has described his existence on such a diet
in great detail. He states that he was in perfect health on such a diet
which consisted of protein and fat alone.

Eskimos who live on meat and fish are not susceptible to infectious
diseases. They do become susceptible when they live amongst white men and
eat the white man’s diet with its sugar and starch. It is true that the
Eskimo’s fresh contact with the white man exposes him to infectious
diseases to which he (the Eskimo) has not had the opportunity to become
immune. The presence of sugar and starch in the Eskimo's new diet is of
greater significance. A US public health officer stationed in Alaska has
blamed this dietary factor for the great susceptibility of the Eskimo to
tuberculosis.

A low carbohydrate meal elevates and stabilizes the blood sugar levels.
This stabilizing effect is important because some of the symptoms of low
blood sugar are due to rapid fall in blood sugar level which accompany wide
fluctuations in blood sugar levels following the ingestion of sugar and
starch.

Diet Prevents Polio, by Benjamin P. Sandler, M.D., and published in 1951 by
The Lee Foundation for Nutritional Research, Milwaukee, WI