Insulin potentiation therapy has
existed since the 1920s. Needless to say, much about it has changed and
evolved over these more than 70 years. But the basic protocol has
stayed the same: insulin injection, development of hypoglycemia, and
absorption of substances along with sugar.
Dr. Perez
Garcia 1 documented his practice of IPT in his 1953
book "Terapia Celular" or "Cellular
Therapy".
The practice of
Dr. Perez Garcia y Bellon 2 in 1975 was documented by Dr. SGA in a
wonderful paper.
Here are
some of the ways IPT has been different in the past. Some of them are of
mere historic interest. Others give us clues to the full range of
possibilities for IPT, many of which are not now being used, but which may be
useful when we want to "push the envelope" of IPT into new territory in the
future.
1. Different names: Donato Perez Garcia MD
1 called his method "Terapia Celular" or "Cellular
Therapy". This shows that he saw his method as mainly
treating the whole body at the level of each cell
At a later time, he and his son Dr. Perez Garcia y Bellon 2
called it
"Donatian Therapy" after their mutual first name (now also held
by Dr. Perez Garcia 3 and his son). It reflects the
informal first-name affection and gratitude that their happy patients had for
them. And it probably reflects their feeling of pride in their treatment,
and their hope that the therapy, once its value had been universally recognized,
would be named after its discoverer.
For one of its main applications, Drs. Perez Garcia
1 and 2 called it "Cellular Cancer Therapy Through Modification
of the Blood Physico-Chemical Constants". This was a more
specific name, with a more specific expressed theory of how IPT
works. The theory is controversial and probably too specific.
And this name has way too many words for anything but a book title.
Jean-Claude Paquette MD slightly modified
Dr. Perez Garcia 1's original cell-focused name, adding insulin as a dominant
element: "Thérapie Insulino-Cellulaire" or "T.I.C."
in French, and "Insulin-Cellular Therapy" or "ICT"
in English. A more compelling name that expressed both the agent
and the target of the therapy.
In the 1970s and 1980s,
SGA MD began
calling the method "Insulin Potentiation Therapy" or "IPT".
This more kinetic name emphasizes the agent and the action.
This name ignores the cellular target of the therapy, and may not include all
aspects of the action going on (more
discussion of this). But this appears to be the name that will
stick. It has now been used in numerous publications for some 20 years,
and the one living IPT pioneer, Dr. Perez Garcia 3, is
committed to using it. Worldwide publication of this website named
IPTQ.com
will certainly help reinforce the use of this name.
2. Different insulins.
All types of insulin that have been tried have worked fine for IPT,
according to Dr. Perez Garcia 3. For most of
the history of IPT, only cow and pork insulin have been available. In the
1980s, genetically engineered insulin and eventually human-based insulin became
available (Humulin ®) and Drs. Perez Garcia 2 and 3 tried and
adopted it quickly. In the 1990s, Lilly came out with a fast-acting
human-based insulin (Humalog ®) that saves up to 20
minutes for each IPT treatment. This is now becoming the preferred insulin
for use in IPT because it speeds up the process.
3. Different insulin doses. The first
time Dr. Perez Garcia 1 injected himself (not recommended!), it was 10 units of
insulin. Depending on his weight, this was probably about 0.15 units of
insulin per kilogram of body weight, enough to create mild hypoglycemia that could be assuaged with food
and sweet drinks. As his experience with patients grew, he gave larger
doses, sometimes very large. At one time the dose he used in his practice
was enough to send a patent into insulin shock -- very deep hypoglycemia where
the patient can lose consciousness -- and he brought them back quickly with
intravenous glucose before convulsions could develop. Over the years, the
Drs. Donato have reduced their recommended dose to a safer level, finding that
it works just as or almost as well. In recent decades, the most
common dose has been 0.3 to 0.4 units of insulin per kilogram, sometimes going as low
as 0.1 units per kilogram.
4. Different sugars. Dr. Perez Garcia 1
brought
his first induced hypoglycemias to a close with food and sugar-saturated drinks. [I have an old magazine article in which
Dr. Perez Garcia y Bellon 2 talked of
giving patients honey.] He later moved to a quicker and more controlled method --
injecting hypertonic glucose intravenously. This is the method still used
today, with sugar drinks offered afterwards so the patient can satisfy any
remaining craving and bring blood sugar level back to normal. The
relative importance given to intravenous and oral sugars may have changed over
time.
5. Different medications. IPT
potentiates and delivers medications, and helps in detoxifying and balancing the
functions of the body. A wide variety of different medications have been
used in IPT. Different ones have been used as the doctors have tried
them, as old products went off the market, and new products were
introduced. In 1939 Dr. Perez Garcia 1 patented a combination of glucose,
calcium chloride, and arsenic drugs for treatment of neurosyphilis. There
are many recipes of drug combinations that have been found useful for IPT
treatments of different diseases. And in prescribing the medications for
an individual patient's treatment, the doctor has complete freedom to choose
from any drugs that he thinks could help, while considering the existing
knowledge and experience of what drugs have been found to work best with IPT.
Intramuscular injection. |
Intravenous injection through butterfly needle.
|
Intravenous injection using IV bag, line, and
saline
drip.
|
6. Different administration methods.
At first Dr. Perez Garcia 1 tried injecting insulin intramuscularly. This worked,
but the timing of development of hypoglycemia could vary. He settled on
intravenous insulin administration because the timing and the effects were more
repeatable and controlled.
In his early practice, Dr. Perez Garcia 1
probably injected insulin and medications
directly into a vein. In later years, Drs. Perez Garcia 1 and 2 used a
"butterfly" needle for intravenously administering insulin,
medications, and glucose. This is a disposable needle that is inserted in
a vein and held to the arm with a butterfly-shaped bandage. It has a valve
to keep the needle closed except during an injection. The big advantage of
this device is that the vein is only found and punctured once, yet many syringes
can be inserted and discharged over time. This device could still be useful in developing regions where cost and availability of supplies is a major
consideration.
However, the current IPT method is to use a standard
intravenous bag and line, with saline drip. This helps keep the vein open,
makes injection more convenient, and is gentler for the patient.
As already discussed, intravenous glucose, and orally ingested sugars have
had varying relative importance in IPT.
Drs. Perez Garcia 1 and 2 often mixed medications with glucose before intravenous
injection. Now Drs. Perez Garcia 2 and 3 find it simpler, and perhaps more
effective, to inject the medications first, and immediately afterwards inject
glucose.
For treating neurosyphilis, Dr. Perez Garcia 1
used a large dose of insulin to enable
the body to accept a larger-than-normal dose of very toxic drugs, kill
the disease organisms, and then eliminate the drug from the body before it killed the
patient. Now IPT doctors generally give a smaller dose of insulin to
deliver a smaller-than-normal and less toxic dose of drugs.
Medications have always come packaged for different administration
routes. So the IPT doctors have had to incorporate all of these rooutes into their
practice. Oral and intramuscular drugs are given at the time of insulin
injection, and intravenous drugs are given at the therapeutic moment, just
before glucose injection. Given a choice, the doctors prefer the
intravenous form of a drug, because its effect can be better controlled.
7. Different diagnosis methods. The IPT
doctors have always used the standard diagnosis methods of the time,
x-rays, CAT scans, MRI, and lab tests. In the 1960s, Drs. Perez Garcia 1 and 2
invented and experimented with a simple colorimetric electrochemical blood
analysis method. They claimed to have preliminary evidence that
this method could diagnose cancer and precancerous states, as well as other
diseases. This method and device
(called the "Oncodiagnosticator" tm)
has not been used in a clinic since around 1985. But
if it actually works, there could be potential applications in today's world,
after updating it with current technology and biomedical
knowledge.
[A small preliminary study by SGA MD, at
McGill University in 1975, found no predictive value. But the method has
not, to my knowledge, been tested in any other laboratory. ]
Most IPT
doctors prefer less invasive diagnostic
techniques when they are available. For breast cancer, they generally recommend fine needle biopsy
rather than surgical biopsy. It is far less traumatic and disfiguring, and
apparently is very effective.