In my attempts to find vitamins and minerals to repair cartilage, I discovered many other benefits in the treating of chronic disease. The thing that has amazed me is how vitamins and minerals can be used to treat infections. Modern practice of treating infections has recently found that treating sepsis with vitamins can significantly improve the death rate.

“An IV protocol has been shown to dramatically improve chances of survival in septic patients. Giving adult patients 200 mg of thiamine every 12 hours, 1,500 mg of ascorbic acid every six hours, and 50 mg of hydrocortisone every six hours for two days reduced mortality from 40% to 8.5%.” Dr. Mercola on the Dr. Paul E. Marik, Eastern Virginia Medical School, Protocol for Deadly Sepsis.

In 1990, I started to treat a runny nose based on the suggestions of Dr. Linus Pauling. It works beautifully. I take a gram of vitamin C per hour until my nose stops running or I reach bowel tolerance. I discovered that it made the length of time that I had a cold shorten. In 2006 I discovered that vitamin D3 was very significant in building the immune system and for shortening the time for a cold. It was about this time that I read about a researcher at the Medical University of South Carolina that was doing research for vitamin D3 and pregnancy. He was testing the women every three days for serum vitamin D3, 25(OH)D3. On the first day, one of the women had a level of 60 ng/ml. Three days later it was less than 20 ng/ml. The following day she came down with flu symptoms. This indicated to me that the 25(OH)D3 that is stored in the body is used up quickly when pathogens attack.

I tried it the next time I had a cold with 50,000 IU of D3. The cold went away in less than twenty-four hours. This was an intentional attempt at getting a cold by not taken my normal 10,000 IU D3 per day for two weeks. Everyone that I was around seemed to have a cold. This is the only time that I really had a nasty cold since 2004 because I had built my immune system up with vitamins and minerals.

As I continued to research, it was apparent that all vitamins and minerals had significant support of the immune system. Through over 11,000+ hours of research and writing, I had developed a protocol for treating viral infections. It is interesting how research is done. Typically, only one vitamin or mineral is tested at a time. What happens if you increase all the vitamins and minerals for a short time when you get an infection?

I had not had the flu in a very long time. The last time that I remember having the flu was in the early 1990s. This year was much different. I have been under extreme stress this year. With a reduced immune system and not getting a flu shot, the flu attacked twice. The first time was late October. I was in a government office in Martinsville, VA. The person I was to see had gone to the doctor for the flu. I met with her boss for over three hours. That night I got up about three am to go to the bathroom. If not for a nearby rail, I would have crumpled into the floor. I was so dizzy. The glands on my neck were swollen to the size of grapes. I took what I thought would be enough of the vitamins and minerals to aid my immune system. By ten am the next morning all the symptoms were gone. I was amazed.

The second time was a Sunday night in mid-February. I started to feel achy. I took the extra vitamins and minerals. The next morning my lungs were getting infected and my nose was running like a faucet. Again, I took the vitamins and minerals. Just after noon, I started to run a low-grade fever. Again, I took the vitamins and minerals. The fever went away about four pm. I took the vitamins and minerals again before I went to bed. By morning, all the symptoms were gone except for the runny nose. I treated with additional vitamin C, and the runny nose lasted for three more days. I wonder now if I had taken extra vitamins and minerals the next morning if the runny nose would have been resolved. The last day, I took a liposomal vitamin C. I think that it was significant in stopping the runny nose. I have read that this is better than taking an IV vitamin C.

Here are the vitamins and minerals and how I take them:

Warning: Do not do this if you are on an immunosuppressant drug. It would not be good to heal a cold and lose a kidney. See your doctor! Do not do this for more than two days.
50,000 IU of vitamin D3 and 50,000 IU of vitamin A. Vitamin A as retinyl palmitate. Beta carotene does not convert to vitamin A until the body is deficient. Take when first symptoms occur and again in twelve hours and the next day if symptoms are still present. Safety: 100,000 IU of D3 is like a week at the beach and 100,000 IU of vitamin A is a piece of calf liver about the size of your hand. To reach toxicity on vitamin D3 one researcher says that you would have to take 50,000 IU per day for six months. Do not substitute D2 for D3. At higher levels, D2 disturbs human biology.

Vitamin C 1000 mg every hour if you have a runny nose, or you reach bowel tolerance. Minimum is 1000 mg taken morning, noon, and night. Vitamin C, zinc, and magnesium work together to differentiate innate immunity cells. Dr. Linus Pauling, promotor of vitamin C and winner of two Nobel Prizes, took around 16 gm per day. He lived into his 90s.

50 mg zinc. Same time as the vitamin D3 and A

5 mg magnesium per pound body weight per day. Example: 200 lb. person would take 1000 mg. Take as magnesium citrate. Comes as 200 mg capsule. Take one capsule every two hours until you reach the total for the day. Magnesium is the positive ion for over 300 enzymes. (Magnesium citrate can act as a laxative. You may want to increase the amount of time between 200 mg capsules, if you are a smaller person, until you reach the total for the day.)

Multimineral that includes selenium. Usually comes as three caplets per day. Reduce the magnesium intake by how much is in your multimineral. Note: The body does not absorb magnesium oxide, MgO, effectively. Ignore MgO in your calculations.

Vitamin B complex. Same time as the vitamin D3 and A

400 IU Vitamin E. Same time as the vitamin D and A.

Iodine is significant for the immune system because of metabolic processes of the thyroid. If you have thyroid issue don’t take additional iodine without seeing your doctor. I take 12.5 mg of iodide/iodine, as Lugol’s solution, every day. This is approximately the average daily intake of the Japanese.

Don’t take analgesics for elevated temperature unless it is 101 F or more. Heat helps to stop the pathogen. If you reach a 101 F fever, go to the doctor!

Older people may be significantly deficient in all these vitamins and minerals. Therefore, their immunity to pathogens is very low. This is also the case with people with underlying illnesses. It may take longer for their immune systems to respond.

The most important is the combination of vitamin D3 and vitamin A. They work independently and together to produce over 200 antimicrobial peptides (AMP). The most important is cathelicidin antimicrobial peptide (CAMP) that requires 1,25 VDR/RXR (heterodimer of vitamin D3 and vitamin A) complex. CAMP in combination with defencins—also part of AMP—kill all pathogens. You may recognize some of the ones that are synthesized and used as drugs: Gramicidin, bacitracin, polymyxin B, and vancomycin. The beauty is that the human body can produce the AMPs without side effects if given enough vitamins and minerals.

The cause of death from viral infections is the filling of the lungs with fluid. This is from the over production of inflammatory cytokines. This is typically called a “cytokine storm.” Vitamin C alone will help to reduce the storm, but the combination of AMP and vitamin C controls the production of anti-inflammatory and inflammatory cytokines. Organ failure is another cause of death. The vitamins and minerals will act along other pathways to help keep the organs healthy during the infection.

It is a sad state of affairs in how specialization has kept us from putting it all together. There are other reasons that I will not address at this point that has to do with the economy. The present position of your leaders is to maintain the economy without disruption from having a very well population. A population that lives without disease and only suffers a few months before their death. Live without fear for eventually; death comes to all of us. –Mark Pegram

There are tens of thousands of papers and articles on this topic, but no one puts it all together. Here are the ones I read for this article:

https://www.hindawi.com/journals/bmri/2016/1375858/   https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4925964/
https://maxwellbiosciences.com/articles/alzheimers-disease/ll-37-cathelicidin-antimicrobial-peptide-an-alzheimers-disease-therapy-candidate
https://www.jbc.org/content/286/39/34121.long
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4925964/ https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S095528631200109X
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00441-016-2449-z
https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2020/01/14/vitamin-d-protects-against-infections.aspx
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathelicidin
https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2020/02/24/iv-vitamin-c.aspx https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2020/02/04/novel-coronavirus.aspx
https://www.sigmaaldrich.com/technical-documents/articles/biofiles/antimicrobial-peptides.html