Toxic Shock Syndrome: Way Beyond Tampons

If you've heard of Toxic Shock Syndrome, you might think you can only get it from tampons, but the bacteria that cause this problem are surprisingly common and we still don't know why they sometimes turn deadly.

Hosted by: Stefan Chin

----------
----------
Dooblydoo thanks go to the following Patreon supporters: Lazarus G, Sam Lutfi, D.A. Noe, الخليفي سلطان, Piya Shedden, KatieMarie Magnone, Scott Satovsky Jr, Charles Southerland, Patrick D. Ashmore, charles george, Kevin Bealer, Chris Peters
----------
Looking for SciShow elsewhere on the internet?
----------
Sources:
------
Images:

[sdnicholls]

I had TSS in 1986 when I was 16. I thought I was dying. Like the video said, it came on out of nowhere to me having a temp of 105, throwing up and my entire body hurt. I would scream if you barely touched me... I was the first diagnosed case in my city/county and it took a couple of days to even diagnose. At first it was even misdiagnosed with my parents being told I had the flu then mono b4 finally being told I had TSS. I was unconscious for over 24 hours after being admitted to the hospital & was there for 10 days. I never wore another tampon again even though I changed every 3-4 hrs and never slept with one. Thanks for the video because it is really not discussed as much as it should be since it can kill you if left untreated.

[lunieplays]

Well, there's my anxiety trigger for the day.

[aboringed]

This would always scare me when I wore tampons.

[emmethefangirl]

Eh, I rarely use tampons anyways. I mainly just use pads.

[katiobrien]

I learn something from every one of your videos. I'm always glad to see my notifications for your videos pop up. You guys do a great job.

[indigodragon]

Guess I’m starting my monthly “watches period videos while on period.” Seriously. This is getting ridiculous. Literally every month, at the perfect time, one of the channels I’m subscribed to posts a video related to menstruation. Creepy.

[marlenewaldthaler]

I had it. With both Staph and Strep at the same time infecting a lymph knot in my armpit. I survived it, but it took me two years to recover, since every time I stopped the antibiotics, I'd get another illness from that. Thanks for this video, it's so hard to get reliable info!

[AngiePup]

I'm never using tampons.. staying with my pads

[nathanlucas]

Thank you for doing this! I always wanted to know more about this!

[esecallum]

Sepsis1 is a progressive disease process caused by an aggressive, dysfunctional immune response to an infection in the bloodstream. It starts with symptoms of infection that can progress to septic shock.

Unless treated — and the earlier the better — sepsis can result in extremely low blood pressure that is unresponsive to fluid replacement, weakening of the heart, and multiple-organ failure.

Sepsis is a common hospital-acquired infection, 2, 3 but common illnesses such as bronchitis, pneumonia, strep throat or kidney infection can also turn septic, as can localized infections caused by bacteria, fungi or viruses.

The condition becomes particularly problematic and deadly if the infection involves methicillin-resistant or vancomycin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA or VRSA) bacteria.

Each year, an estimated 1 million Americans get sepsis4 and up to half of them die.5, 6, 7 Treatment can be a challenge, and is becoming even more so as drug-resistant infections become more prevalent.

According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, sepsis is the most expensive condition being treated in U.S. hospitals, costing more than $20 billion in 20118 and $24 billion in 2014.9

The good news is a critical care physician just may have found a way to save tens of thousands of lives and billions of dollars each year using two readily available vitamins and a steroid.

Vitamin C and Thiamin — An Inexpensive Cure for Sepsis

Vitamin C is well-known for its ability to prevent and treat infectious diseases. Previous research has shown it effectively lowers pro-inflammatory cytokines and C-reactive protein.10, 11, 12 Influenza, 13 encephalitis and measles14 have all been successfully treated with high-dose vitamin C.

Studies have even shown vitamin C is selectively cytotoxic to cancer cells by generating hydrogen peroxide when administered intravenously (IV) in high doses. It also has a number of heart and cardiovascular benefits.

The anti-infective power of vitamin C has now been demonstrated yet again by Dr. Paul Marik, a critical care doctor at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital in East Virginia.

Last January, when faced with yet another deathly ill patient, Marik decided to try a combination of intravenous (IV) vitamin C with hydrocortisone as a last-ditch effort to save the woman’s life.15

He’d recently read a colleague’s paper on vitamin C, and he knew vitamin C acts like the steroid hydrocortisone, so on a hunch, he administered the two together. It worked. While everyone expected her to die, the woman made a remarkable overnight recovery. As reported by NBC4i News:16

“The staff couldn’t believe it, so they tried it again and again — with the same results. They added a third element, thiamine, to the IV treatment as well. Today, they have used the treatment on about 150 patients and they say the result is the same …

A researcher at Old Dominion University, John Catravas, Ph.D., … did an independent lab study that confirms the treatment’s effectiveness.”

Interestingly, Marik used a relatively small amount of vitamin C — only 1.5 grams IV. Most natural medicine physicians tend to use 25 grams or more when giving IV vitamin C, more than 20 times the dose used here. One can only wonder how much more effective a larger dose would be.

It’s All About the Right Combination of Ingredients


Download Video as MP4
For the first two or three patients, only vitamin C and hydrocortisone were used. Marik then decided to add thiamine for a number of reasons. Importantly, it’s required for metabolism of some of the metabolites of vitamin C.

Research has also shown many patients with sepsis are vitamin deficient, and when thiamine is given, it reduces mortality. Septic shock patients who receive thiamine have also been shown to have a reduced risk of renal failure.

Marik’s retrospective before-after clinical study, 17, 18 published in the journal Chest, showed that giving patients IV vitamin C with hydrocortisone and thiamine (vitamin B1) for two days reduced mortality nearly five-fold, from 40 percent to 8.5 percent.

Of the 50 patients treated, only four died — and none of them actually died from sepsis. They died from their underlying disease.

Interestingly, further lab testing found that while neither vitamin C nor hydrocortisone alone are able to prevent cell death following exposure to toxins produced by bacteria, when given in combination, the concoction does protect the cells. Turns out Marik’s hunch had been a truly inspired one.

Other research has also shown thiamine reduces mortality from sepsis and helps protect against renal failure, which is why Marik decided to add it to his mixture.

The treatment has now become part of the hospital’s standard of care for sepsis, and will hopefully become standard of care for sepsis elsewhere as well. As noted by Marik, sepsis kills about 1, 000 people each day in the U.S. — that’s like having three jumbo jets crash each day.

Sepsis kills more than breast cancer, colon cancer and AIDS combined, and here’s a treatment that is not only profoundly effective, but also has no side effects and is inexpensive, readily available and simple to administer. Patients and doctors really have nothing to lose by trying it.

ow you can protect your health and life in the event you have to spend time in a hospital.

[censusgary]

I was a young person in the early 1980s, during the big scare about tampons causing toxic shock. I didn’t know anyone who got toxic shock syndrome, but there was a lot of publicity and a lot of worry about it. Then the AIDS pandemic and the crack plague came along (both largely thanks to Reagan and Bush), and we forgot what we were scared of back in simpler times.

35 or so years on, the fact toxic shock syndrome is about as common in males as females suggests that tampons may not have ever played such a big part. Presumably all those males are getting it without using tampons, so at least some significant portion of the female cases must not be tampon-related, either.

[Hdidbi_]

I thought I was gonna die if I left my pad in during my sleep without waking up to change it, back then they left them in for days oh god😭

[ramelep]

This was great!!! Truly informative.thank you

[leilanipalmer]

I have a fever Rn, idk if it’s cuz I’m ill but it started as soon as I started using tampons which was a few days ago as pads were just annoying me. So I’m so confused. And apparently a sign of tss is a fever

[monicag.k.tambajong]

Being in a country where women mostly use pads instead of tampons, my first reaction to the title was 'what does TSS have to do with tampons?!' 🤔

[deepfriedsalt]

Huh, I just assumed that toxic shock syndrome was a catch all term for excessive toxic material in the blood stream. It's very counterintuitive to give a broad sounding name to a very specific form of sepsis/septicaemia.

[lyndiss.]

Hey I know it's not really related to this video, but can SciShow do an episode on the achievements the 2018 Nobel laureates had done? You can even skip the peace prize! I just wanna know what they do.... Explained by you guys!

[bam]

I had only put my tampon in for less than 30 mins & I was nearly fainting on the floor. I felt a rush of heat through my body. I instantly became diaphoretic. My whole body was becoming immobile and It felt like I was being smothered with a pillow. I couldn’t breathe. Thankfully I managed to have enough strength to reach & pull the tampon out . As soon as it was out it was like I could breath again and the pillows was lifted from my face. I immediately could breath and the faint feeling resolved. It was a very scary experience.

[jrpierce]

Do a video on autonomic dysreflexia AD

[hannahk]

Let me pause while I change my tampon. Thanks for the reminder scishow