by Dr.Harald Wiesendanger– Klartext
What the mainstream media is hiding
Is multiple sclerosis finally curable? The “Coimbra Protocol” of a Brazilian neurologist relies on high-dose vitamin D. A 57-year-old MS patient who accepted it got rid of almost all symptoms – since then, he has made it his life’s work to announce the good news to those affected. Is he too blue-eyed?
John Ottwell had suspected for a long time that he wasn’t really healthy. The 57-year-old antique dealer tired quickly. It was becoming increasingly difficult for him to concentrate. Limbs tingled strangely. His left leg felt temporarily numb and paralyzed. Sometimes his vision was double or blurred, as if through a fog.
What was really going on with him only became apparent in 2014 after he staggered to an emergency room in St. Louis, Missouri, with symptoms akin to a stroke. An MRI showed foci of inflammation in the brain, spinal cord, and optic nerves. They pointed unequivocally to multiple sclerosis: the autoimmune disease that attacks the medullary sheaths, the outer layer of nerve fibers in the central nervous system.
A year and a half after that diagnosis, John Ottwell was confined to a wheelchair despite having a common MS drug, Copaxone, injected into his stomach three times a week. “Its side effects felt like I was constantly battling a bad flu,” he says. Electrical muscle stimulation (EMS) and the “Stone Age Diet” by doctor Terry Wahls, who claims to have cured herself of advanced MS according to the paleo principle, brought nothing to Ottwell, just as little as other recipes for changing diet.
Unfortunately, medication cannot stop or even reverse the progression of multiple sclerosis, but at least it can be slowed down by 40 percent, doctors had assured him. But there was no question of that: “I felt the disease rapidly destroying my body. And I realized there was nothing I could do about it.” Involuntary movements became more and more common. He kept stuttering, coughing, choking, jerking, and convulsing. The loss of memories was particularly bad for him because he used to take great pride in his excellent memory. “My mind was so bad; my brain was slow. I put my credit card on my lap, looked at four numbers, picked up the phone to enter them, but could only remember two out of four numbers.”
John Ottwell felt more than limited by his MS symptoms. They robbed him of his dignity – for example, when he urinated involuntarily, defecated, or scratched his scalp so hard that blood ran down his face.
After all, MS is “not a death sentence,” and he should be grateful for that, Ottwell heard. He took such consolation as a mockery: should he be happy not to die from it immediately but to suffer from it for years to come? “MS is a judgment of suffering,” he says. “You can be immobile in a nursing home for ten years. It’s a terrible disease that will gradually deprive you of your physical and mental abilities – a slow ordeal.”
He had nothing left to lose.
He desperately researched the Internet for a way out that conventional medicine could no longer offer him. That’s when he became aware of vitamin D: a hormone our body produces in the skin when exposed to sunlight; it is also found in food in smaller amounts. Ottwell learned that higher levels of vitamin D lowered the risk of developing multiple sclerosis, that it helps to contain flare-ups and even brought the symptoms into remission.
Finally, Ottwell came across the Coimbra Protocol: a therapeutic approach that relies on high doses of vitamin D over a more extended period of time.
“Oh my god, it works!”
In April 2017, Ottwell began implementing this protocol. And “Within 41 days, I wanted to go outside and yell, ‘It works. It works. Oh my god, it works!'”
Six years later, almost all of his MS symptoms have disappeared. “When something comes back that seemed lost, that’s a victory,” he says. “Various abilities took months and years to come back. But within two and a half years, everything was back except my walking ability. My left leg is still paralyzed. Fifteen years of misdiagnosis can do that to you.”
Image: “When I got healthy, I knew I had found my calling: to shake the pharmaceutical industry to its foundations – and educate those affected about Coimbra.” Ottwell set up a YouTube channel (“MS, there is hope!”) and founded a Facebook group. Here he plans to publish interviews with doctors using the protocol to treat their MS patients and with people whose symptoms have improved dramatically thanks to Coimbra. For example, he gave the floor to a young man who was playing the piano again after being unable to lift his head. He introduced a woman who woke up blind on her 40th birthday; now she went back to work, running more than four miles a day – and presented an MRI of her brain, which showed no signs of the disease. Ottwell’s ever-growing collection of cases shows that the sooner you start Coimbra, the better your chances of a full recovery.
Image; “I could present hundreds of cases.” Three MRI examples from John Ottwell’s case collection in which large white lesions disappeared without a trace after the patients followed the Coimbra protocol
So far, however, Ottwell’s good news has met with disappointingly little response. By July 2023, he was “followed” on Facebook by just under 700 people, and his group there has 312 members; his YouTube channel only has 426 subscribers. Does that discourage him? Not in the slightest. At first, he explains, he thought naively: “Everyone will listen to me.” But even fellow sufferers mocked him: he was not credible because he was not a doctor. “No, I’m not wearing a white coat that says Dr. Ottwell,” he says. “One reason the Coimbra Protocol will prevail is that Big Pharma is pumping us full of drugs” – which earns the industry €21 billion a year – “and we’re still not doing any better. My job is to stop this nuisance to oppose.” (1)
Many skeptical patients demand scientific studies from him. He has none, just a wealth of moving case reports. But “if you’re in a wheelchair, you don’t care about the studies,” says Ottwell. “You just want to get well.”
There are definitely presentable research results – but hardly anyone knows them, neither MS patients nor their specialists who are equipped with pharma-sharpened tunnel vision. As early as 2009, at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology, a study caused a stir, according to which high doses of vitamin D drastically reduce the rate of relapses in MS patients. Patients in the high dose group – between 14,000 and 40,000 international units (IU) daily, equivalent to three to eight drops – had lower rates of recurrence, and their T-cell activity (2) decreased significantly compared to the group taking took lower doses. (3) A year later, another study showed that very high doses of vitamin D reduced MS relapses by almost 60% compared to a placebo group. (4)
Where did the Coimbra Protocol come from?
The Brazilian neurologist Dr. Cicero Coimbra for a long time. “It is the most important regulator of the activity of the immune system,” explains the professor at the University of São Paulo. “Without it, our body cannot regulate thousands of biological functions in the cells of the immune system, i. H. stimulate or reduce.”
As early as 2001, Coimbra used high doses of vitamin D in Parkinson’s patients, with 10,000 international units (IU) per day. Coimbra turned to multiple sclerosis because it is by far the most common neurological disease. Almost three million people are said to be affected worldwide, around 250,000 in Germany alone. Coimbra’s treatment protocol for MS is a dose of 40,000 to 300,000 IU per day, with regular laboratory testing, physician-supervised care, a low-calcium, non-dairy diet, drinking at least 2.5 liters per day, and supportive dietary supplements that vary depending on the patient vary. These include magnesium, vitamins B2 and B12, omega-3, the trace element chromium picolinate, selenium, the ammonium compound choline, and coenzyme Q10.
On its website, Coimbra explains: “When we started vitamin D and discovered how effective it was, we made a life decision. We left academia behind – this thing with the drugs here, the drugs there, the launches of drugs, the testing of new drugs, and the supposedly satisfactory results. We put it all aside and only thought about what is in the interest of the patient who is in our practice at that moment. (…) That was very gratifying.”
A Cochrane review of twelve randomized smaller studies up to autumn 2017, with a total of 933 MS patients, found “no evidence.” (5). Since then, seven other studies have yielded disappointing to contradictory results. However, Prof. Coimbra was not involved in any of them – he would probably have found them all to be defective. He doubts that controlled studies can do justice to his treatment protocol at all (6): After all, it provides for a highly individual dosage for each patient – not only of vitamin D but also of a large number of other supplements that are coordinated with one another.
One of the first German doctors to use the Coimbra Protocol was the neurologist and nutritionist Dr. Dirk Lemke from Bensheim in Hesse. In the first hundred MS patients he treated with it, he determined highly gratifying, almost spectacular response rates over a one-year observation period, as he reported in the autumn of 2019 at the Congress of the Society for Evolutionary Medicine and Health (EMG). (7) Lemke had collected a large number of functional parameters for all hundred, for example: How often can a patient raise their thighs to 90 degrees, how often can they stretch their knees while sitting, how often and how high can they lift their feet? Does he drag a leg when climbing stairs, or does he manage to take the steps with alternating steps? How far can he walk with and without sticks? How many minutes can he walk without a break? What about his dizziness, his spasticity, coordination of movements, and sensitivity? From this, the doctor determined an “overall status”: All in all, the disease did not progress in a single patient; five percent confirmed a partial standstill, and 95 percent even a complete one. This corresponded to 50 to 100% improvements in the individual parameters. With such a track record, what conventional MS therapists can even come close to?
Image: How are Coimbra patients doing under medical supervision? Changes in 8 functional parameters in 100 MS patients by the German doctor Dr. Dirk Lemke. Left bar: improvements. Middle orange bar unchanged state. Right brown bar: deterioration
Hope also in other autoimmune diseases
Just as effective as in MS, the Coimbra protocol appears to reduce or even eliminate the symptoms of other progressive autoimmune diseases – in 95% of all cases, the neurologist assures. In 2013, he conducted a study on the effects of prolonged high-dose vitamin D supplementation in nine psoriasis and 19 vitiligo patients. They received 35,000 IU daily for six months, along with a low-calcium diet and high fluid intake. In the meantime, the condition of the patients improved significantly without any negative side effects. (8) The Coimbra website also provides information on the positive effects of high doses of vitamin D on rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, psoriasis, and Crohn’s disease. Of the 5,200 patients treated by Coimbra up to 2016, a whopping 95% are said to have experienced a total remission.
Prof. Coimbra is not alone with such insights. As early as 2011, a study by the Ohio State University Medical Center on 209 patients with systemic lupus erythematosus found that most of the participants lacked vitamin D. The more vitamin D was in the blood, the less pronounced the lupus symptoms were. (9)
Why does vitamin D, of all things, help so effectively with autoimmune diseases? Prof. Coimbra sees it as “the greatest regulator of the immune system” – it “modifies the function of thousands of genes in every cell of the immune system. It is a substance that has no other comparable substance.” For comparison: “Imagine a high-rise building with many rooms. Imagine that thousands of doors in this skyscraper can only be opened or locked by a single key. You can compare this skyscraper to every cell in the immune system and the key to vitamin D. A deficiency in this one substance results in catastrophe for the immune system!”
What exactly does vitamin D do in the immune system? According to Prof. Coimbra, “It generally modulates its activity. And we know that vitamin D specifically suppresses the type of immunological response that causes autoimmune diseases. It is called the “Th17 reaction”. Virtually all autoimmune diseases are caused by such an abnormal response. Vitamin D is, as far as I know, the only substance capable of selectively inhibiting this particular response without also affecting the other responses of the immune system.” (10)
Who Offers the Coimbra Protocol?
More than 100,000 MS patients worldwide are said to have been treated according to the Coimbra protocol. As a map on CoimbraProtocol.com shows, well over a hundred doctors are already following this therapeutic approach: almost 60 in Europe – 13 in Germany, 4 in Austria, 2 in Switzerland – almost 80 in South America, and around 10 in North America. (11) Ottwell is frustrated that there aren’t more. But their number will increase rapidly, he is confident: “We know that vitamin D heals people. To withhold it on purpose would be a malpractice,” he says. “I’ve seen MRIs that work wonders.” The truth will get around and prevail sooner or later.
Among the doctors in the “Ways Out” therapist network, the well-known holistic doctor Dr. Thomas Heintze Vitamin D for an important element of an effective, sustainable MS therapy concept. In his practice, “Vitamin D is individually dosed after measuring the current level. (…) According to recent studies, every 20 ng/dl increase in vitamin D decreases the (MS) relapse rate by 50-70%, up to a level of around 60 ng/dl. Therefore we recommend the substitution of vitamin D until an ideal value in the upper recommended range of 60-80 ng/dl is reached. Heintze Vitamin C and vitamin E, coenzyme Q10, alpha-lipoic acid, zinc, calcium-EAP – EAP stabilizes the cell membrane, protects the myelin sheaths of the nerve cells, and is successful in about two-thirds of patients.”
As a precaution
The further away from the equator people live, the more difficult it is for their body to produce enough vitamin D itself, thanks to exposure to sunlight. However, it is difficult to compensate for a deficit through food alone. The German Nutrition Society considers 800 IU daily to be sufficient, but getting even so little from food alone requires an almost masochistically constructed menu. You would have to eat 400 grams of mackerel, four kilos of pork escalope, 20 chicken eggs, 20 liters of milk, or 600 grams of avocado. It would be easier with plenty of oily fish, brie cheese, and shiitake mushrooms, but these are not for everyone. Dietary supplements and other preparations can be used to achieve the recommended units. But how much is still safe? How much is too much?
“A physiological, safe dose of vitamin D,” clarifies Prof. Coimbra, “is around 10,000 IU/day,” which equates to two drops, or 0.25 milligrams. “That is the amount that our body produces itself when it is exposed to the midday sun for 20 to 30 minutes. At this daily dose, no precautions or medical supervision are required.”
But can it be much more? Isn’t too much vitamin D dangerous in the long run? Health authorities and medical professionals close to the industry are stirring up panic – grotesquely because the risk of dying from the side effects of a drug is 62,000 times higher than with dietary supplements. Many scientists and experienced doctors have long given the all-clear. Meanwhile, it has been shown that higher doses of vitamin D can also be administered safely and have a positive effect. Only then does its full therapeutic potential unfold.
Moreover, more recent studies show that much higher vitamin D doses of up to 60,000 IU/day with accompanying regular laboratory checks of the calcium and parathyroid hormone levels did not trigger hypercalcemia or any other harmful effects. (12)
Of course, there is no such thing as “the” ideal dose of vitamin D, as Coimbra emphasizes. “The appropriate vitamin D level is individual.” For example, it depends on body weight. If vitamin D is incorporated into fatty tissue, it is no longer available. The higher the body mass index (BMI), the more vitamin D should be taken. (13)
This is one of the reasons why no one affected should dare to go it alone but must remain under medical supervision and guidance, accompanied by close laboratory controls. Physical characteristics, existing underlying diseases and ongoing therapies, medication, and nutritional supplements must be considered. “Each case is unique,” emphasizes John Ottwell. He takes one tablet four times a day with the optimal dosage of vitamin D that has been determined for him and other supplements that are personally tailored to him. He drinks two and a half liters of water daily because one of the side effects of high doses of vitamin D is increased calcium levels, which can cause osteoporosis or kidney stones. Quarterly he has blood drawn for laboratory tests.
When asked about the risks, Prof. Coimbra himself clarifies: “Possible side effects of taking high doses of vitamin D over a long period of time are an excess of calcium in the blood (hypercalcaemia) or in the urine (hypercalciuria) and a loss of bone mass. Calcium excess is easily avoided with a diet free of dairy and calcium-rich foods and with regular laboratory testing to ensure calcium levels are under control. The protocol instructs patients to do daily aerobic exercise, such as B. 30 minutes of brisk walking, to avoid losing bone mass. Those unable to do aerobic exercise may eventually need medications like bisphosphonates to prevent osteoporosis.”
Rare horror stories in which plenty of vitamin D at some point led to medical emergencies almost always revolve around patients who administered overdoses over a longer period of time on their own or inadequately monitored: for example, the 39-year-old MS patient presented in the specialist magazine Swiss Medical Forum, who was hospitalized with severe hypercalcemia and renal failure after ingesting 100,000 units a day for several months. (14)
Side effects, including threatening ones, can occur from time to time with the Coimbra Protocol but should be put in relation to what pharmaceutical products tend to do to MS patients. (15) Notorious side effects of Avonex injections include major depression, seizures, liver damage, allergic reactions, and heart failure. Natalizumab and aletuzumab increase the risk of encephalitis. Other hyped hopefuls often cause hives (urticaria), joint and muscle pain, slow or racing heartbeat, eczema, herpes, inflammation of the stomach lining, underactive or overactive thyroid gland, and reduced white blood cell and lymphocyte counts. Occasionally, but certainly more frequently than unwanted Coimbra side effects, common MS medications cause: macular edema, polyneuropathies, and even “anaphylactic,” i.e., sudden, severe, life-threatening allergic reactions.
And what can an MS patient hope for when he bravely accepts such risks and tortures with unshakable trust in conventional medicine? In contrast to the “Coimbra Protocol,” its flare-ups are at best less frequent, shorter, and milder, and the deterioration slows down – but still, no pharmaceutical product can prevent or even reverse progression completely.
Incidentally, the muscular symptoms of the 39-year-old Coimbra victim had, according to their own statements, at least decreased significantly; he could walk better and exercise regularly, he assured.
John Ottwell is no longer the only person with MS who publicly testifies about how much he owes to Prof. Coimbra’s approach. Dozens of impressive testimonials and acknowledgments can be found here and here. In her book “Multiple Sclerosis and (a lot) of Vitamin D” (16), Ana Claudia Domene reports on her eight years of experience with this treatment method: “Year after Year, the imaging studies confirm that I made the best possible decision. Many lesions have simply disappeared; others are still there, like scars, but there has been no progression of the disease. No progress at all! That fact alone is cause for celebration. My deepest gratitude goes to this doctor who dedicated his life to his patients.”
Unmistakable indication of how beneficial the “Coimbra Protocol” is: the industry-related Wikipedia does not devote a single line to it.
“Combined with high costs”?
The accusation that the “Coimbra Protocol” does not exist for nothing seems downright ridiculous. “The whole procedure is associated with high costs, which the patient has to bear himself,” complains the neurologist Prof. Mathias Mäurer, chief physician at the Würzburg-Mitte Clinic, in all seriousness. “According to internet research, in the first year, you pay 400 to 1,000 euros for the laboratory tests and the hours of treatment with so-called ‘certified’ doctors; After that, you can expect treatment costs between 100 and 300 euros/year, the expenses for vitamin D itself vary between 20 and 200 euros per month.” What the professor fails to mention is that the average costs per conventionally treated MS patient are between 28,000 and 28,000 euros and 63,000 euros per year, depending on the severity of the disease. A pack of “Gilenya” from Novartis, with 98 capsules for three months, is only available for over 6300 euros; 33,000 euros have to be shelled out for the annual dose of “Ocrevus” from Roche; in 2017, a whopping 2,663 euros had to be paid for a single 10-milligram tablet of Mavenclad from Merck. Added to this are the indirect costs of care and disability pensions. In a health economy that is doing better the worse we are, protracted, excruciatingly slowly progressing autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis open up a veritable gold mine. Both the recovered and the dead, on the other hand, are unprofitable.
Better to avoid driving single-track.
At least in, Dr. Heintze’s practice does not open up orthomolecular medicine – not only with vitamin D, as mentioned – by any means the silver bullet in MS treatment. It offers one of several proven tools that are more or less promising depending on the patient. The wise pragmatist chooses and combines them undogmatically. In the case of multiple sclerosis, for example, Heintze also uses acupuncture, homeopathy, autohemotherapy, phytotherapy, movement therapy, and neural therapy on a case-by-case basis. What made Ottwell healthy doesn’t have to redeem everyone who shares his diagnosis. Who can rule out from the outset that he belongs to those five percent where even Prof. Coimbra himself fails? Nowhere in medicine are there panaceas for everyone. Even when it comes to getting well, many roads lead to Rome (17) – and hardly any less to nowhere unless you turn around early to reorient yourself. In MS, as in medicine in general, stubborn method fetishism is more often fatal than effective.
(Harald Wiesendanger)
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Remarks
1 Zit. nach Epoch Times, “A Simple Protocol Is Stopping the Progression of MS”, 27.8.2022, https://www.theepochtimes.com/health/a-simple-protocol-is-stopping-the-progression-of-ms_4676266.html?utm_source=brightnoe&src_src=brightnoe&utm_campaign=bright-2023-04-05&src_cmp=bright-2023-04-05&utm_medium=email&est=mG5ZhG50rVeSG9MHo9L9PNSY5Es7Iz4hhKLnAyVkE1LdmR146J%2FqJCKMH3FvZM96FUa9Whs%3D
2 Bestimmte T-Zellen des Immunsystems beeinträchtigen die myelinbildenden Zellen. Darüber hinaus richten sie„Kollateralschäden“ bei Nervenzellen oder deren Fortsätzen an. Siehe https://www.uni-wuerzburg.de/aktuelles/pressemitteilungen/single/news/multiple-s-1/ und die dort genannten Quellen.
3 Jodie Burton: “Is Vitamin D a Ray of Hope for Patients With MS?” Neurology Reviews 7;17.7 (2009), S. 1-16, https://www.mdedge.com/neurology/article/72716/multiple-sclerosis/vitamin-d-ray-hope-patients-ms
4 Jodie Burton u.a.: „A phase I/II dose-escalation trial of vitamin d3 and calcium in multiple sclerosis“, Neurology 74 (23), Jun. 2010, S. 1852-1859, doi: 10.1212/WNL.0b013e3181e1cec2. Epub 2010 Apr 28, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20427749/
5 Jagannath, V.A. et al.: Vitamin D for the management of multiple sclerosis. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Stand Okt. 2017; https://a-turl.de/9trm
6 D. Rotter: „Vitamin D – Heilmittel für MS und Autoimmunerkrankungen? Interview mit Dr. Coimbra über hochdosiertes Vitamin D für Multiple Sklerose und andere Autoimmunerkrankungen“, ohne Datum; https://www.vitamind.net/interviews/coimbra-ms-autoimmun/
7 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4orV6qtc_6s, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zXpKT0APwg&t=5s (ib. ab 24:30 und 28:20)
8 Danilo C. Finamor: „Coimbra. A pilot study assessing the effect of prolonged administration of high daily doses of vitamin D on the clinical course of vitiligo and psoriasis.” Dermato-Endocrinology 5 (1) 2013), S. 222–234.
9 C.C. Mok/Brad H. Rovin u.a.: „Vitamin D Deficiency As Marker for Disease Activity and Damage in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus“, Lupus 21(1) 2012, S. 36-42, doi: 10.1177/0961203311422094. Epub 2011 Oct 12, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21993384/
10 Siehe https://www.vitamind.net/interviews/coimbra-ms-autoimmun/. In diesem Interview erläutert Prof. Coimbra medizinische Einzelheiten.
11 Stand: Ende Juli 2023.
12 P. McCullough/J. Amend: „Results of daily oral dosing with up to 60,000 international units (iu) of vitamin d3 for 2 to 6 years in 3 adult males“, The Journal of Steroid Biochemistry and Molecular Biology 173, Oktober 2017, S. 308-312, doi: 10.1016/j.jsbmb.2016.12.009. Epub 2016 Dec 21, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28012936/
13 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U93z9MleSkk, Min. 27:30
14 https://medicalforum.ch/de/detail/doi/smf.2020.08365; weiterer Fall: A. Frei u.a., Swiss Medical Forum 2018; 18: 885-8; s. auch https://www.arznei-telegramm.de/html/2023_04/2304030_01.html, https://www.medical-tribune.de/medizin-und-forschung/artikel/hoch-dosiertes-vitamin-d-gefaehrdet-nicht-nur-ms-patienten
15 Siehe z.B. https://www.jphres.org/de/ratgeber/medikamente-multipler-sklerose-hilfe/
16 Ana Claudia Domene: Multiple Sclerosis and (lots of) Vitamin D: My Eight-Year Treatment with The Coimbra Protocol for Autoimmune Diseases (2016), https://www.amazon.de/-/en/Ana-Claudia-Domene/dp/1519165315
17 Mehrere Beispiele https://www.stiftung-auswege.de/diagnosen/m/multiple-sklerose-ms.html aus der Online-Fallsammlung https://www.stiftung-auswege.de/veranstaltungen/diagnosen.html meiner Stiftung Auswege https://www.stiftung-auswege.de/ bestätigen dies.
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