The clinical course of interstitial pneumonia alias chronic fatigue syndrome under the control of megadose vitamin C infusion system with dehydroepiandrosterone-cortisol annex.

The year 1995 marked the onset of interstitial pneumonia spread in Nagoya, Japan. For the last 9 years, we have been accumulating clinical experience with the disease control using the combination of prophylactic use of anti-biotics and regular practice of megadose vitamin C infusion with either dehydroepiandrosterone-annex or dehydroepiandrosterone-cortisol annex. The purpose of this study is to assess the usefulness of our new treatment system for the control of interstitial pneumonia alias chronic fatigue syndrome. The results obtained are given as follows: i) The long-term maintenance of the above treatment system was effective not only for decreasing the risk for recurrence of active form pneumonia, but also for prevention of malignancy emergence in aged patients with interstitial pneumonia. ii) Evidence is presented to indicate that interstitial pneumonia was associated with increased risk for depression of which the emergence is a candidate subject causally related to the long-term use of glucocorticoid. iii) A patient with both interstitial pneumonia and depression was found to be less responsive to our treatment system. It is suggested that the use of more dehydroepiandrosterone at the sacrifice of cortisol in the infusion annex may be a choice for the control of both interstitial pneumonia and depression. iv) The description of chronic fatigue syndrome as regards the endocrinological, epidemiological and psychiatric characteristics are in good agreement with our experience on patients having interstitial pneumonia, evidence in support of our proposal that there is no convincing reasoning to separate chronic fatigue syndrome from interstitial pneumonia. v) The long-term practice of our treatment system for the control of interstitial pneumonia (an autoimmune disease) was found to suppress the inflammatory process but not the fibrotic process in the long run. vi) A few innovations were made in our treatment system to reduce the risk of bleeding or thrombosis--vascular complications of pneumonia. vii) The merit of our treatment system is to create a new hormonal environment to improve the state of immunodeficiency by use of a non-steroid substance--vitamin C which encounters little resistance from the feedback mechanism of steroid metabolism in the in vivo system.