Effects of BITC
24/08/10 16:48
Remember I told you that it was too soon to tell? It is still too soon to tell, but we are getting some reports in from people who are using this supplement transdermally. They are all positive reports, but the reason that it is still too soon to tell is because these people who are taking BITC are also taking other medications. It’s called “mixing variables” and you really can’t do it and expect any definitive answers.
I’m going to be as vague as possible here, to protect the privacy of the CF people involved, but I’ll give you a quick rundown of a few of the people using transdermal BITC:
There’s one very sick young man who has both one of the major pathogens that colonize in these patients lungs, and liver problems associated with the disease. At 20mg, he started seeing improvements in the color and amount of his sputum, and improvements in cough frequency. The pathogen that he cultivates is resistant to antibiotics, but he was put on yet another antibiotic at about the same time he started BITC, so we don’t know which was responsible for this improvement. He’s on 27mg right now, and his sputum has recently increased as well as his cough frequency. He was put on another antibiotic that his pathogen was previously resistant to, but he is again showing improvement.
This is not quite the “poof” that we had hoped for, but because this young man was what we call “end stage,” it is difficult to determine what a “poof” would look like in him, at this point. And, since we cannot see any test results and are left to judge only by gross measurements such as sputum color and production, and cough frequency, we really don’t know what’s going on. SOMETHING’S causing an improvement, but we don’t know what, because of the mixed variables.
Another young man also cultured a bacterial pathogen known to favor the airways of CF patients. The only changes he saw were an increase in energy (might be a placebo effect) and a “sinking” of his stools. Anyone familiar with the stools of CF patients knows that they usually float because they have so much fat in them. This young man was used to his stools floating over the years, so it was a bit of surprise to him when they started sinking in the toilet bowl. We’ve seen this time and time again in CF patients who are taking this supplement orally, so it is not a surprise to us that it would happen when taken transdermally. It is caused by an increase in the pancreatic enzyme responsible for fat absorption.
However, this young man has also experienced, recently, a bout of aspergillus. I suspect that there is a relationship between this fungus and bacteria, where if you kill the bacteria, the aspergillus can flourish. This is because there is competition for nutrients in the airways, between these invaders. Whether this is true or not, I don’t know; I’m just guessing. At any rate, this young man is treating the aspergillus that he just now found out that he’s been culturing for a while, and he’s better.
Another young man has CF related diabetes. After an initial normalizing of his blood glucose levels, the last I heard his levels spiked again one morning. I don’t know yet about subsequent readings, but I will soon find out.
There are others to report on, but in the service of brevity, I report on only three. There are no real “poofs” here; there is a reason to suspect that BITC is acting in a systemic manner because the changes are controlled by different systems.. Our problem is that we don’t know much about absorption; there is no real ability to control that variable. We don’t even know for sure how these people are mixing BITC, before it is applied to the skin. Or how they are applying it. These people are scattered over several continents. And, every single one of these outcomes could be due to a placebo effect, or to other variables.
No one has yet gone for PFT testing. We have no info on that yet, and even if we did, we can’t say that it would be definitive, in terms of the effects of BITC, unless it jumped very radically (because these kids’ PFTs don’t jump very radically with current mainstream therapies). So, once again, we are waiting.
If we could have a test as to whether BITC induces the expression of MRP in CF cells (and extrapolate from that, the dosage required), then we would know something. We are, right now, though, simply flying along in the dark.
We’re pretty pitiful, aren’t we? But, at least, we’re flying.
I’m going to be as vague as possible here, to protect the privacy of the CF people involved, but I’ll give you a quick rundown of a few of the people using transdermal BITC:
There’s one very sick young man who has both one of the major pathogens that colonize in these patients lungs, and liver problems associated with the disease. At 20mg, he started seeing improvements in the color and amount of his sputum, and improvements in cough frequency. The pathogen that he cultivates is resistant to antibiotics, but he was put on yet another antibiotic at about the same time he started BITC, so we don’t know which was responsible for this improvement. He’s on 27mg right now, and his sputum has recently increased as well as his cough frequency. He was put on another antibiotic that his pathogen was previously resistant to, but he is again showing improvement.
This is not quite the “poof” that we had hoped for, but because this young man was what we call “end stage,” it is difficult to determine what a “poof” would look like in him, at this point. And, since we cannot see any test results and are left to judge only by gross measurements such as sputum color and production, and cough frequency, we really don’t know what’s going on. SOMETHING’S causing an improvement, but we don’t know what, because of the mixed variables.
Another young man also cultured a bacterial pathogen known to favor the airways of CF patients. The only changes he saw were an increase in energy (might be a placebo effect) and a “sinking” of his stools. Anyone familiar with the stools of CF patients knows that they usually float because they have so much fat in them. This young man was used to his stools floating over the years, so it was a bit of surprise to him when they started sinking in the toilet bowl. We’ve seen this time and time again in CF patients who are taking this supplement orally, so it is not a surprise to us that it would happen when taken transdermally. It is caused by an increase in the pancreatic enzyme responsible for fat absorption.
However, this young man has also experienced, recently, a bout of aspergillus. I suspect that there is a relationship between this fungus and bacteria, where if you kill the bacteria, the aspergillus can flourish. This is because there is competition for nutrients in the airways, between these invaders. Whether this is true or not, I don’t know; I’m just guessing. At any rate, this young man is treating the aspergillus that he just now found out that he’s been culturing for a while, and he’s better.
Another young man has CF related diabetes. After an initial normalizing of his blood glucose levels, the last I heard his levels spiked again one morning. I don’t know yet about subsequent readings, but I will soon find out.
There are others to report on, but in the service of brevity, I report on only three. There are no real “poofs” here; there is a reason to suspect that BITC is acting in a systemic manner because the changes are controlled by different systems.. Our problem is that we don’t know much about absorption; there is no real ability to control that variable. We don’t even know for sure how these people are mixing BITC, before it is applied to the skin. Or how they are applying it. These people are scattered over several continents. And, every single one of these outcomes could be due to a placebo effect, or to other variables.
No one has yet gone for PFT testing. We have no info on that yet, and even if we did, we can’t say that it would be definitive, in terms of the effects of BITC, unless it jumped very radically (because these kids’ PFTs don’t jump very radically with current mainstream therapies). So, once again, we are waiting.
If we could have a test as to whether BITC induces the expression of MRP in CF cells (and extrapolate from that, the dosage required), then we would know something. We are, right now, though, simply flying along in the dark.
We’re pretty pitiful, aren’t we? But, at least, we’re flying.