The use of free electrons as "poor man's antioxidant therapy" and other uncommon uses of electricity in clinical medicine. Dietrich M. Klinghardt, MD, PhD This lecture was presented at the scientific meeting of the Great Lakes College of Clinical Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA, September 19, 1997. Antioxidant therapy: Even though this term is used at virtually every medical meeting that I have attended over the last few years, "antioxidant therapy" has only recently entered the medical textbooks. Most discussions of the topic have been in the alternative medical press and lay press (1). Neither Harrison's "Principles of Internal Medicine" from 1990, the last edition of "The New American Medical Dictionary" by R. Rothenberg, MD, 1992, or the Merriam-Webster Pocket Dictionary, 1991, contain any reference to "antioxidant therapy." A still well respected 1982 textbook on neurotoxicity mentions the word once without explanation (2). Basic Chemistry: What is an "antioxidant?" The word implies that there is such a thing as an "oxidant" which I failed to find in the medical literature entirely. Let us look at the term "oxidation." The word was coined in Chemistry where scientists tried to understand the basic reactions that oxygen engages in with other substances (3). When elemental oxygen combines with hydrogen, a new substance is formed: water. In this process hydrogen is "oxidized" and oxygen is "reduced." Physics was able to explain this type of reaction in plain terms: a substance that becomes oxidized looses electrons, a substance that is reduced gains electrons. There is no oxidation without a reduction! Each atom has a certain number of electrons floating around it. If the hydrogen atom (it consists of 1 proton and 1 electron) would be the size of a ball with 1 mile diameter, the proton would be the size of a golf ball, the electron would be 1 mile away. That means that most "matter" is composed of empty space. Hydrogen has in it's monatomic form 1 electron in it's circuit, oxygen seven. However, everything in nature strives to become stable. Small atoms like Hydrogen are not stable with 1 electron in the outer sphere. The stable number is 2 (or 0). Therefore hydrogen combines with another hydrogen and shares it's electron. Now both together have 2 electrons orbiting around both of them, giving them the feeling of stability. With the elements of higher atomic number the stable electron number is 8. Elemental Oxygen has only 6 electrons in it's outer shell and needs 2 (or give off 6) to be satisfied. It combines with 2 hydrogen atoms: they both have 1 electron to offer which they do. So oxygen ends up - most of the time - with 8 electrons, hydrogen with 0 (which is also a stable number). The price that oxygen pays for this transaction is that the hydrogen is now "co-valently" bonded. It can only give off the hydrogen - if it can gain the electrons from elsewhere without paying the price of eternal bondage. Biology and Medicine: In living organisms, many oxidation/reduction reactions occur at any moment. In general, oxidation reactions are catabolic in nature - they break down things: "oxidative damage" from sun exposure ages the skin, products of oxidation cause arthritis and inflammation, oxidized fats are "bad fats," oxidized glutathion doesn't do the magic - it's the reduced glutathion only. Oxidized iron (Fe3+) is implied with the causation of cancer, reduced iron (Fe2+) is essential for our health. In this case, Fe3+ means that this iron atom is missing 3 electrons in it's outer shell in order to be stable, Fe2 only 2. Fe2+ is less electropositive (or more electro-negative). In short: products of oxidation are bad for our health and age us (even though many of them are a necssessary part of our biochemistry). Oxidants or oxydating substances are electron thieves. The opposite is true for reducing agents, also called "Antioxidants." Antioxidants are electron donors. Vitamin C, E, b-Carotene, Selenium, reduced Glutathion-SH and many other nutrients and substances belong in this category. Bob Cathgart, MD, one of the pioneers in I.V. vitamin C therapy could show that vitamin C exerts it's antioxidant effect by giving off 2 electrons per vit. C molecule (4). When we do a vitamin C flush or infuse high does of vitamin C way above the RDA, we are not trying to substitute a malnourished patient with a vitamin - we are trying to pump electrons into his/her tissues to undo "oxidative damage" or more simply put - we are trying to supplement electrons. Antioxidants or reducing agents have in general an anabolic tissue repairing effect. The citric acid cycle - those biochemical reactions in the mitochondria that are responsible for the formation of ATP, our body's energy fuel - is nothing else but a way to transport free electrons down a cascade of steps, which in itself produces energy: the electron is picked up by vitamin E and selenium, passed on to Ascorbate, then Glutathion, then to NADH (from vit. B3) to the folds ("christae") of the inner lining of the mitochondria where the cytochromes such as Coenzyme Q10 reside. Where do the electons come from? They have to be delivered to the cell piggyback on atoms, molecules and substances ("antioxidants") and in the form of free electrons. These appear when the electric field has traveled along a nerve and through its charge has "knocked off" an electron from one or several of the minerals in or at the cell membrane. In the recent decades, there has been an increasing shortage of electrons in our natural environment: xenobiotics cause oxidative damage (use up electrons), radiowaves and alternating electromagnetic fields (electromagnetic pollution) from household appliances, portable phones, etc. have been shown to consume electrons in living organisms. Physical exercise is a generator for electrons through friction and motor nerve activity. We are as a humanity less physically active than at any other time before. The processing of foods often causes - but not always - oxidative damage. The good news: refrigeration slows down oxidation. The gradual reduction of heart disease in Western countries has been conclusively linked to refrigeration - not to cholesterol (5). The solution: Based on these observations, the author has concluded that it should be beneficial to pump free electrons into the body. The cathode (negative pole) of a battery gives off electrons. Even though the electric field in a wire travels at near the speed of light, the electrons travel slowly at about 1 foot/hour (6). The author investigated several instruments that use non-alternating currents (dc). To assess the effectiveness of various instruments and techniques, we used several indicators for oxidative stress: 1. darkfield microscopy (including dryfield-test "HLB" (Heitan-Legarde-Bradford) for observation and quantification of "reactive oxygen toxic species", in short called "rots-masses" (7) 2. pH measurements of urine/saliva and blood - using the BTA-instrumentation (8) 3. Indicators in the SMAC 24 blood-serum profile that are generally accepted as being linked to oxidative stress ("Carbon Based Corp. blood test - Antioxidant Panel") (9) 4. Clinical findings (levels of fatigue, cyanotic lips/fingernails, insomnia, fibromyalgia-type pains, etc.) We found the instrument named "Electro-Bloc," a pulsed dc-squarewave TENS device, to be the most effective instrument at the time of this presentation (10). Treatment time is 1 hour twice/week. The cathode has to be placed over a large vein in order to pump in the electrons. The femoral vein, posterior tibial vein and antecubital vein are all well suited. The cathode should be made from metal - we have used silver coins, copper coins and aluminum foil the size of a penny. The anode is best placed over both stellate ganglions using a Y-adaptor. Electricity follows the path of least resistance. The most conductive "tissue" is the blood inside the large veins and arteries. With this electrode placement, the electric current runs into the femoral (or other) vein, up the portal vein or other large veins, to the subclavian vein and from here on up the anterior neck veins exiting near the stellate ganglion. All substances in the blood and also the living cells (red cells, lymphocytes, bacteria, etc.) are exposed to the generated electric field and to the "infused" electrons, which can exert their antioxidant effect here. Another effective placement is: one electrode on each ankle over the posterior tibial artery/vein. In this case the current travels from the ankle up to the bifurcation in the pelvis and down the artery and vein on the opposite side. A third placement has been worked out by a team (T. Charters/ Louisa Williams) and is described elsewhere under the name MIT - microbial inhibition technique (11). Dr. Williams could demonstrate clinically that the MIT treatment had a dramatic antibiotic and antifungal effect. Results: Clinical improvements and improvements in objective criteria have been outstanding and achieved with far less comparable effort and cost than with oral or I.V. nutrient therapy. The author will present several cases from his practice. Complications/observations: On several occasions patients experienced significant emotional releases and mood swings which were ultimately evaluated as beneficial and healing. I.V. electron therapy appears to tremendously enhance nutrient uptake and drug uptake - "drug uptake enhancement" (12). One cancer patient experienced a tremendous reduction in tumor size while undergoing the same chemotherapy that was previously unsuccessful. Patients seem to increase their respective intracellular minerals rapidly while undergoing this treatment (as judged by repeated DMPS challenge/urine tests and intracellular red/white cell minerals). Accidentally we found what could be predicted by simple physics: the positive electrode mobilizes heavy metal stores by displacing positively charged minerals into the venous/lymphatic system. This can lead to the picture of acute heavy metal toxicity and is easily remedied by the I.V. injection of 3mg DMPS/ kg bodyweight. I call this process now "Electro-mobilization" of toxic metals. Autonomic response testing (ART) (12) can be used to accurately predict where the deposits are and which metal is stored (13). A case is presented: a 40 year old female, who was a former world class athlete, had suffered for 8 years from chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia. Her symptoms started shortly after her dentist had replaced several silver amalgam fillings with new amalgam. Several DMPS injections, a D-penicillamine challenge test with DMSA, failed to promote any significant excretion of mercury or other toxic metals. After autonomic response testing revealed selective Hg accumulation in the pelvis, electromobilisation of Hg was attempted followed by I.V. injection of 250mg of DMPS. The 24 hour urine collected thereafter contained 309 ug of Hg, which is a highly significant amount. The patient became asymptomatic after a course of l2 similar treatments.  The anode also causes vaso-dilation (10) and an effective sympathetic ganglion block. This property can be used to selectively increase blood flow and drug uptake in certain areas. The cathode causes vasoconstriction when a small electrode for electron pumping is used. In this case, the positive electrode (anode) should always be over a sympathetic ganglion to achieve a systemic anti-vasoconstrictive effect. Conclusion: Electric antioxidant therapy and electric drug - uptake - enhancement are two valuable applications of physics in Medicine which should be explored further. Literature: 1. Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients: several articles on antioxidant therapy over the years. The journal is so full of advertisements that I could not find the address and place of publication of the journal after a longish search through the July 1997 issue 2. Mechanisms of Actions of Neurotoxic Substances: K. Prasad/A. Vernadakis, Raven Press, New York, 1982 3. General, Organic & Biochemistry: Bettelheim and March, Harcourt Brace College Publishers, Florida, 1995 4. Robert Cathgart, MD, personal communication 1987 5. Kevin Treacy, MD, Surfer's Paradise, Gold Coast, Australia, personal communication (publication on the topic is in preparation), 1996 6. Conceptual Physics: P. Hewitt, Addison-Wesley Publishing, 1992 7. Literature by Robert Bradford Foundation, 1180 Walnut Avenue, Chula Vista, CA 92011 8. Biological Terrain Assessment: Whole Health Center, PO Box 560, Payson, AZ 85547 9. Carbon Based Corporation, Telephone 1-800-722-8327 10. Electric Pain Control: F. L. Jenkner, Springer Verlag, Wien 1995 11. Microbial Inhibition Technique: Research and Instruction-Booklet by L. L. Williams, 4100 SW Edmunds, Suite 101, Seattle, WA 98116 12. Autonomic Response Testing: Course Manual 1997, American Academy of Neural Therapy, 410 E. Denny Way #18, Seattle, WA 98122 13. Drug Uptake Enhancement Techniques for Brain Detoxification: paper presented at the annual meeting of the International and American Association of Clinical Nutritionists, August 30, 1997