Hydrogen Peroxide Medical Miracle

Book by William Campbell Douglass, MD © 1996, Book Review by Denice Moffat

The use of Hydrogen Peroxide is a somewhat controversial topic in the world of alternative medicine, but Dr. Douglass points out in his book that there are over 6,100 articles in the scientific literature dating from 1920 on the scientific applications of hydrogen peroxide.

Hydrogen peroxide has been used for pollen and food allergies, multiple sclerosis, Epstein – Barr virus, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, scleroderma, thyroid disease, stomach ulcers, arteriosclerosis, bronchiectasis, emphysema, arteritis, varicose veins, pneumonia, asthma, COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease), flu, yeast/Candida, warts and moles, gum disease and bad breath.

Studies have shown that the tissue oxygen levels with intravenous hydrogen peroxide equaled that of hyperbaric chamber treatment (which are WAY more expensive by the way!)

Hydrogen peroxide is produced by killer cells (a type of white blood cell) in your body. These cells, (called PMN’s or polymorphonucleocites) engulf bacteria, combine oxygen with water to make hydrogen peroxide, and kill the bacteria with an oxygen burst. The PMNs also kill viruses, some parasites and yeast in the same manner.

Hydrogen peroxide is necessary for the manufacture of certain hormone-like prostaglandins which can help with pain in the body.

Vitamin C helps the body produce hydrogen peroxide naturally. Note, this does not include Ascorbic Acid which is only one synthetic molecule of the Vitamin C complex—you’d have to use natural forms of Vitamin C like whole foods, rose hips, and Acerola.

Tissues are more sensitive to radiation treatment if the oxygen supply to those tissues is maximized.  Cancer only grows in low oxygenated areas. Neuroblastoma cells (a brain cancer caused by a virus) were inhibited by H2O2 in some lab experiments.

In humans, cats and horses catalase is abundant in both the plasma and red cells. Hydrogen peroxide will help those with rheumatoid arthritis because of this.

Dogs and chickens have low catalase levels so they have a poor tolerance to H2O2. In fact you can kill them with hydrogen peroxide if you are not careful (especially when giving it intravenously). These species develop pulmonary edema and methemoglobinemia with peroxide use.

They taught us in veterinary school that giving 3% (over the counter strength) hydrogen peroxide was one technique to use to get a dog to vomit. Being the experiential person that I am—I often taste the supplements, herbs and medications before giving them to a pet so that I know what they will feel and taste—I decided to see what would happen when I took the recommended dog dose on a full stomach one evening after dinner. . . Well, I decided not to do THAT again, and understood why the dogs would try to bite me when I tried to get the second dose syringe of H2O2 down their throat! I was nauseous for a good 6 hours—and I didn’t even vomit! Back to the drawing board for emetics (vomit inducers)!

Random Tidbits on H2O2 (from Chapter 7): You’ll like this one—people drink coffee in the morning because it makes them feel good, but it’s not just the caffeine doing this. Roasting coffee beans gives them a hydrogen peroxide generating system. Hmmm. Coffee is actually good for us? I just read the other day that light-roast has more caffeine than dark-roast coffee, but maybe dark roast is better for you. Who knows!

Dr. Douglass’ book says that taking too much hydrogen peroxide of any strength orally on an empty stomach can cause a Herxheimer reaction. He says that skin eruptions, boils, fatigue, sleepiness, nausea or diarrhea are good signs that the hydrogen peroxide is working but that none of these commonly happen.

Intravenous hydrogen peroxide helps to dissolve plaque buildup within blood vessels. Investigators reported that the improvement was not temporary. Autopsies done a year after the hydrogen peroxide treatments showed as much cleaning out of the arteries as in those patients who died just weeks following the procedure.

I’ve seen hordes of people in the Mexican Chelation Clinics opt for this treatment instead of getting stents, bypasses or their veins roto-rootered out, but I don’t know if it has really worked for them.

Although Dr. Douglass alluded to the fact that you could take hydrogen peroxide orally (he recommended the 3% over-the-counter variety,) I suspect he was not being totally open about this. I wondered if he had gotten into trouble with telling people about his methods in the past because on page 73 he states:

“The enthusiasts for H2O2 by mouth say it will cure everything from arthritis to old age—will it cure the ulcer infection? I’m not recommending it; (his italics) I just thought I would mention it. If you try this, do not use more than 20 drops of H2O2 per glass of water.”

And on page 137 he states, “I have not endorsed peroxide by mouth and I have never endorsed the use of so-called food grade peroxide. When giving a dosage, I am merely trying to prevent people from killing themselves, as a friend of mine almost did with massive doses of “food grade” peroxide. Because it was labeled as food, he thought it must be safe—a logical, but erroneous conclusion.”

In later chapters he discusses several case studies where hydrogen peroxide had “cured” the health challenge (including AIDS) but I was not convinced that a cure had been reached for some of the cases he discussed. I’m not discounting his work, I’m just saying that a long-term follow up had not been done and sometimes placebo affect and other lifestyle changes will be effective enough to temporarily alleviate many symptoms of disease.

The book did have some great information though and I do know of some clinics in the United States that perform IV hydrogen peroxide treatments at their chelation clinics. If you’d like to find a practitioner in your area that does this, check out the ACAM (American College for the Advancement of Medicine) site to find a practitioner in your area at: https://www.acam.org/dr_search/  (type in CT for Chelation Therapists.)

One thing that bothered me about this book is that some of the medical words were misspelled. Kind of doesn’t give you a sense of security about the medical procedures he discusses, but I suspect the book was self-published.

Helpful Links and References:

• Herxheimer Reactions: /BasicsofHealth/healing_crisis_process.htm