Marshall Protocol
…part 2 of Slowburn Treatment for Chronic Disease
UPDATE: Science-Based Medicine (no relation) has a nice balanced post on the Marshall Protocol in which it is pointed out that it has all the tell-tale trademarks of a sCAM (spurious Complementary and Alternative Medicine):
The Marshall Protocol has all the characteristics of modern alternative therapy: a single discoverer, a hitherto undiscovered biology, an unproven therapeutic intervention and one of the most aggravating issues in sCAM’s: Taking a scientific truth the size of a molehill and transmogrifying it into a Cascade Range of exaggerated disease etiology and treatment. Unlike most SCAM’s, however, as best as I can tell Dr Marshall does not seem to be in the business of making a business from his discovery, although he does have patent applications for his protocol.
The Marshall Protocol was originally designed to treat sarcoidosis, an inflammatory condition, and utilised the drug Benicar, subsequent claims that it could also treat non-inflammatory conditions such as CFS and fibromyalgia, smack of the kind of reaching out for a panacea that is common in efforts to find cures for what conventional medicine considers incurable. Indeed, the list of diseases supposedly caused by L-form bacteria continues to grow and includes the spurious condition, mania.
One of the underlying principles of the Marshall Protocol is that patients must avoid vitamin D. Apparently, the patient’s immune system cannot kill L-form bacteria effectively until vitamin D is eliminated from their diet so they must also avoid sunlight as much as possible.
What we refer to as vitamin D is actually a steroid. Marshall argues that his molecular models show that the precursor form of vitamin D will actually inhibit the vitamin D Receptor and consequently the innate immune system. It is possible that any “feel good” effects are simply a result of L-form bacteria surviving and so no spewing out their toxins when they die. But, none of this has been tested or proven in vitro and certainly not in vivo.
A deficiency of vitamin D has been implicated recently as a causative agent in certain forms of cancer, then a treatment that perhaps reduces vitamin D levels below safe thresholds for long periods may indeed effect a resolution of chronic symptoms of one disease or another, but could concomitantly increase one’s cancer risk. That could be a red herring, however, it is thought that vitamin D will temporarily decrease a patient’s level of inflammation but only in the short-term. In the meantime those L-form bacteria could have a field day, if they actually exist.
There is certainly the feeling that long-term, low-level use of antibiotics among individuals with various non-specific disorders could be storing up real problems for the immune system by allowing low levels of real pathogenic bacteria to evolve resistance. And, that’s not to even mention probiotics, which millions of people imbibe on a daily basis in the belief that they will boost levels of so-called good bacteria.
A paper in the Lancet in February 2007, suggested that prescribing antibiotics in healthy volunteers is a very risky strategy. Macrolide [antibiotic] use is the single most important driver of the emergence of macrolide resistance, the researchers conclude, physicians prescribing antibiotics should take into account the striking ecological side-effects of such antibiotics.
Proponents of the Marshall Protocol point out that it uses carefully selected, extremely low-dose antibiotics. Particularly minocycline, which is used long-term for acne treatment and has not evolved resistance yet. Indeed, minocycline is actually one of the few antibiotics active against MRSA (multiple-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) that has not triggered resistance, although it is only weakly active.
Claims that go against the grain of conventional medicine often take years to filter through, especially if those claims suggest a simple answer to a wide range of illnesses. But, more often than not those claims turn out to be nothing more than a sCAM (spurious complementary alternative medicine). Humans have always sought panaceas, an elixir of life, a cure all for our ills. They don’t, unfortunately, exist. I suspect the Marshall Protocol, with its bizarre claims about naked bacteria and vitamin D will fall at the first hurdle when properly tested.
I too am curious as to why Marshall allegedly holds a patent on his eponymous Protocol.
Back to the introduction.
89 Responses to “Marshall Protocol”
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Thanks for the feedback Frans. Not sure about the use of the phrase the “Chinese Cochrane center”, is that an official title or are you speaking figuratively? If the latter how does the actual Cochrane centre feel about the comparison? Just curious.
David,
See: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-07/arf-sat072109.php
The scientists at West China Hospital, which is the Chinese Cochrane center, take the protocol and thus implicitly also Marshall’s views about the role of Vitamin D and hard to culture bacteria in chronic disease very, very serious.
Some results have been presented by cpt Tom Perez -who used to work for the FDA- at The International Congress on Autoimmunity in Porto last year. They will be published later this year, see: http://tinyurl.com/lj4sm7
Sincerely, Frans
Is the Marshall Protocol a panacea? It’s doubtful. Is there any evidence yet?
Many thanks for the update Amy I hope it inspires others to dig deeper. I hope that Harvard researcher who proclaimed Dr Marshall a putative Nobelist hasn’t stymied his chances. The Nobel committee is notoriously reluctant to uphold such prophecies.
db
Hi David,
Awareness of the Marshall Protocol is moving ahead at full speed, not to mention the fact that each day new patients are reporting recovery. The study site is growing at an alarming rate with new patients who want to start the treatment apply for admission to the study daily.
A team from Autoimmunity Research Foundation (the non-profit organization that runs the MP) was just at the Days of Molecular Medicine Conference in Karolinska Sweden (I was among them). Our work got great attention. The following article describes my reaction to the event and has video footage at the end showing bits from our presentations. As you can see, a researchers from Harvard came right out and said, “Wow! Dr. Marshall is going to win the Nobel Prize!.”
http://bacteriality.com/2008/04/25/dmm/
Next Dr. Marshall and team are headed to Porto Portugal in order to attend the 6th International Conference on Autoimmunity where Dr. Marshall will be charing an entire session on vitamin D and the Vitamin D Receptor. I will be presenting a poster that describes the molecular mechanisms which may explain why women are more severely impacted with many “autoimmune” diseases than their male counterparts.
Meanwhile, Dr. Waterhouse is working on a paper on Vitamin D that will be published soon. A group is also co-authoring another paper that will be published in a similar journal that discusses the implications of a huge amount of data collected from the MP study site on patients and recovery rates.
The Foundation’s next project is to use molecular technology to do single DNA sequencing of cells from select people on the treatment. Essentially the study will sequence the DNA in a particular cell. Then, after a study subject has been on the MP for several years, cells in the same area of the body will be sequenced again. It is almost certain that the DNA sequences in the cells will have changed quite a bit because bacterial DNA will no longer be present.
There’s more too, but that’s the main stuff for now!
Best,
Amy