Abstract: Treating mammals having ischemic bowel with a therapeutic quantity of pyruvate enterally or parenterally will retard neutrophil infiltration and retain morphology during and following the bowel ischemia. The pyruvate is introduced into the patient enterally or parenterally during the bowel ischemia or the succeeding bowel reperfusion and, preferably, prior to the bowel ischemia. The pyruvate dosage is from 1% to 20% by weight of the patient's caloric intake.

Abstract: Certain incidents in mammals trigger the generation of free-radicals which are associated with cell death. Animals experiencing such medical incidents are dosed with pyruvate salts or esters in an amount of 5 to 20 weight percent of the total carbohydrate intake. The dosage of pyruvate may be provided to the animal before the medical incident, during the medical incident and after the medical incident. In addition to the known property in pyruvate for scavenging free-radicals, this disclosure points out the unexpected effectiveness of pyruvate as an inhibitor of free-radical generation.