stevestory
Posts: 13407 Joined: Oct. 2005
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snopes:
Quote | Two additional health-related uses for hydrogen peroxide should also be examined, even though neither of them was mentioned in this list of tips: injecting and swallowing hydrogen peroxide. While such treatments do have their advocates (who in turn claim such dosings will cure everything from AIDS to cancer), both uses amount to quackery. The proponents of "oxygen therapy" assert they are boosting the body's ability to destroy disease-causing cells, but there is no medical proof to support such use. Moreover, according to the American Cancer Society (ACS), both such uses are dangerous. Quote |
Hydrogen peroxide can be harmful if swallowed. Drinking the concentrated solutions sold in some health food stores (35%, or "food grade" hydrogen peroxide) can cause vomiting, severe burns of the throat and stomach, and even death. Direct skin contact or breathing the vapors of hydrogen peroxide can also be harmful.
Hydrogen peroxide injections can have dangerous side effects. High blood levels of hydrogen peroxide can create oxygen bubbles that block blood flow and cause gangrene and death. Destruction of blood cells has also been reported after intravenous injection of hydrogen peroxide. |
The ACS also notes "The medical literature contains several accounts of patient deaths attributed directly to oxygen therapy."
One such case was the 14 March 2004 death of Katherine Bibeau of South Carolina. The coroner who handled the case attributed her death to the intravenous infusion of hydrogen peroxide Ms. Bibeau had been receiving as a treatment for her multiple sclerosis. Hydrogen peroxide destroys blood platelets, the cells that coagulate to stop bleeding, and puts oxygen into the bloodstream that can form bubbles which stop the flow of blood to organs, said Clay Nichols, the pathologist on the case.
As to what to make of the numerous claims asserted of the hydrogen peroxide, in the main, most external uses of household-strength hydrogen peroxide are relatively harmless (if not necessarily helpful), but internal use should be shunned. Gargle with it, wipe wounds with it, foam the wax out of your ears with it, bleach your hair and your clothes with it, but don't drink it or let someone shoot it into your veins.
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linky
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