Klenner Published How to Cure Polio in 1949.

[Guest guest]

This shows Vitamin C as a broad spectrum Anti Viral in 1949.

To bad that it was suppressed.

 

Dr.Klenner treated 1000's of patients successfully with Vitamin C.

 

Frank

 

 

The Origin of the 53-Year Stonewall of Vitamin C.1949 — a year in medicine which

will live in infamy..Klenner Published How to Cure Polio in 1949.

 

 

http://www.orthomed.com/polio.htm

 

 

July, 1949 SOUTHERN MEDICINE & SURGERY 209

 

The Treatment of Poliomyelitis and Other Virus Diseases with Vitamin C

 

Fred R. Klenner, M.D., Reidsville, North Carolina

 

IN A PREVIOUS REPORT dealing with the antagonistic properties of ascorbic acid

to the virus of atypical pneumonia, mention was made of the fact that other

types of virus infections had responded favorably to vitamin C. This paper is to

present these findings as well as the results of subsequent studies on the virus

of poliomyelitis, the viruses causing measles, mumps, chickenpox, herpes zoster,

herpes simplex and influenza. Further studies with the virus of atypical

pneumonia will also be discussed.

 

These observations of the action of ascorbic acid on virus diseases were made

independently of any knowledge of previous studies using vitamin C on virus

pathology, except for the negative report of Sabin after treating Rhesus monkeys

experimentally infected with the poliomyelitis virus. A review of the literature

in preparation of this paper, however, presented an almost unbelievable record

of such studies. The years of labor in animal experimentation, the cost in human

effort and in " grants, " and the volumes written, make it difficult to understand

how so many investigators could have failed in comprehending the one thing that

would have given positive results a decade ago. This one thing was the size of

the dose of vitamin C employed and the frequency of its administration. In all

fairness it must be said that Jungeblut noted on several occasions that he

attributed his failure of results to the possibility that the strength of his

injectable " C " was inadequate. It was he who

unequivocally said that ''vitamin C can truthfully be designated as the

antitoxic and antiviral vitamin. "

 

In developing this paper it was felt that, since all virus infections were more

or less akin, only one of this family would be considered in detail.

Poliomyelitis, because of its prevalence and the seriousness of the problem it

presents, was chosen as the disease to be so treated.

 

Poliomyelitis is in most instances an acute febrile disease of sudden onset,

with symptoms of a systemic infection which either abruptly abort or develop to

hyperesthesia, asymmetry of reflexes and flaccid paralysis or palsies of muscle

groups. It affects individuals of all ages, but mainly children, as do more

common childhood diseases to which class it most likely belongs. Only slight

contact between the carrier of the virus and the susceptible person suffices in

some cases for the transfer of the causative organism. In this respect and also

in that the virus can be demonstrated in the nasal washings as early as six days

before onset of symptoms, poliomyelitis resembles measles. We never have an

epidemic of poliomyelitis preceding an epidemic of measles; the opposite is

frequently true. This grouping of the virus organisms is too often repeated not

..to carry some significance. For example, atypical pneumonia and influenza are

caused by closely allied viruses; so are chickenpox,

herpes zoster and herpes simplex; so are measles, mumps and poliomyelitis. The

incubation period depends on the mode of entry. In experimental animals. Fraser

and others showed that the average was 6.6 days with intracerebral inoculation

and ten days when the intravenous route was used. Howitt mentions that the virus

reaches the nervous system sooner after intranasal than after intravenous

instillations. Transmission (Brodie, 1934) is by means of droplets from the

mucous membrane of the upper respiratory tract. Infection by means of raw milk,

human feces and house flies is highly improbable.

 

The research of Flexner, Dark and Amoss in 1914 proved that poliomyelitis is a

disease of the entire nervous system, that the sensory ganglia are the seats of

early and profound histological changes. The disease is significant mainly for

the paralysis produced through injury to the motor neurons of the spinal cord

and brain. This is caused by a special affinity of the virus for a certain type

of nerve tissue. Experiments show the cerebral cortex to be the most

unsatisfactory site for growth, that large amounts of the virus placed in this

area are apt to disappear in a short time. Observations in monkeys and in man

show that the anterior horn cells, particularly those of the lumbar cord, are

the most favorable sites for proliferation of the virus.

 

In all clinically ill patients the virus eventually travels in the course of its

invasion by several channels. The virus can make a direct assault through the

olfactory bulb, to the brain, medulla and spinal cord. The virus can enter the

blood stream directly or through the lymph channels. Following damage to the

natural protective barrier, the choroid plexus, it can make its way to the

central nervous system, or it can be excreted back onto the nasal mucous

membrane where it will pick up the direct route of the olfactory bulb.

 

Clark, Turner and Reynolds (1926, 1927, 1929) concluded that the virus chiefly

travels by the direct route to the brain. Lennette and Hudson ( 1935) confirmed

this theory and reported their studies indicating that human infection is

chiefly through the nasopharynx. Brodi and others showed that by section of the

olfactory tracts in monkeys infection by the direct route was prevented. It is

of more than mere academic interest that while the nasal mucosa of the monkey

contains branches of the 5th and 7th cranial nerves and that in addition, since

the virus can readily gravitate from the nasopharynx to the tonsil bed with its

nerve supply, if the olfactory tracts are cut no infection will occur. The most

likely explanation is that the olfactory is non-medullated, the neurons lie in

the nasal mucosa and are thus exposed to the virus. The sciatic nerve (Brodi)

will transport the virus only when it has been injured, suggesting that lack of

myelin may render the healthy olfactory nerve

vulnerable to the virus.

 

The most important of the secondary routes of infection is by the excretion of

the virus from the blood stream onto the nasal mucosa. Lennette and Hudson

(1934, 1935) demonstrated in monkeys that by sectioning the olfactory tracts and

then inoculating by the intravenous route with the virus of poliomyelitis, they

could prevent infection.

 

This would fit in with the work of Jungeblut and others that the spread of the

virus through the central nervous system is along nerve tracts, rather than by

means of the cerebrospinal fluid, the infection to become manifest when the

first cell group is reached, and by relays of fibers, reaches the mid-brain.

Here numerous fiber-paths run in all directions and the virus is carried by both

motor and sensory axons, causing disease at many levels of the brain and cord.

 

Since there is always a period of septicemia in the first few days of

poliomyelitis, it might be that this is the all-important route and that the

virus is grown on a living tissue, the blood, and then is deposited out on the

surface of the olfactory bulb. From this we conclude that the time to destroy

the virus is during this incubation period which varies more with virulence and

power of multiplication than with size of initial dose.

 

The second flanking maneuver of importance is through the choroid plexus. It is

the function of the choroid plexus and the pial lymphatic vessels to exclude the

virus present in the blood from the nervous system. Once these protective

structures are injured, however, the exclusion ceases and infection can follow

readily. Changes in the structure or function of the meningeal choroid plexus

complex, too slight to be detected in the cerebrospinal fluid or as

morphological alterations, materially diminish its protective power. Flexner and

Amoss injected large doses of the virus intravenously, then tested the

cerebrospinal fluid and found no virus after the first 48 hours; virus in small

amounts at the end of 72 hours; after 96 hours evidence of free access to this

system. The virus was still present 19 days later when paralysis was beginning.

 

Poliomyelitis in man is always more severe if exercise is taken at time of the

infection. Here one must consider the factor of filtration of the virus through

the choroid plexus as being increased due to the elevation of the vascular bed

pressure. Also, that, by the acceleration of the blood flow caused by greater

oxygen demand in physical effort, a marked increase in the percentage of the

virus deposited on the nasal mucosa would result.

 

We must agree with Fairbrother and Hurst that too little consideration has been

given to the pathology of the nervous system and in particular to the drainage

of the tissue fluids. These men confirmed the earlier work of Schroder, who

stressed that the normal flow of these fluids is along the perivascular spaces

from the center of the cord outward, and that any inflammatory exudate occupying

these spaces must be swept into the pial meshes; further that meningeal

infiltration may seem nothing more than a drainage of cells from the interior of

the cord. Fairbrother and Hurst found that meningeal infiltration does not occur

in monkeys until the perivascular infiltration beginning in the deeper vessels

reaches the surface.

 

The presence of the filterable microorganism or virus of poliomyelitis upon the

mucous membrane of the nose and throat does not necessarily lead to infection.

It may give rise to a class of healthy carriers who are themselves immune. Amoss

and Taylor found a secretion of the mucous membrane capable of neutralizing or

inactivating the virus, this property absent altogether from the secretions of

some persons, in those of others present at one time and not at another. It is

probable that in actively immune animals the passage of the neutralizing

substance from the blood into the cerebrospinal fluid would continue as long as

the inflammation present in the meninges rendered the structures easily

permeable to the protein constituents of the blood. This secretion X could not

have the properties of a true antibody. The virus of poliomyelitis is

intracellular from the time it invades the terminal cells of the olfactory

system until the end of the disease, except when crossing the synaptic

junctions between cells. This explains why the virus cannot be neutralized by

antibodies in the serum. Further protection is afforded the virus by the

functional barrier between the circulating blood and the central nervous system.

 

Since immunization against poliomyelitis comparable to that against other

bacterial diseases is still a matter of the future, it suggested itself that

some antibiotic could be found that would destroy this scourge while in the

phase of blood-stream invasion. Sabin's negative report on the value of ascorbic

acid on the poliomyelitis virus stopped Jungeblut's work, but we were cognizant

of its dramatic effect on the virus causing atypical pneumonia, and so kept up

hope. These results were so consistently positive that we did not hesitate to

try its effectiveness against all type of virus infections. The frequent

administration of massive doses of vitamin C was so encouraging in the early

days of the 1948 epidemic of poliomyelitis that a review of the literature was

begun. Heaslip, in the Australian Journal of Experimental Biology & Medicine

reported a mean urinary output of vitamin C under a load test of 19.9 per cent

in 60 poliomyelitis cases, as contrasted with a mean figure of 44.3

per cent in 45 healthy contacts. This was suggestive of some relationship

between the degree of vitamin C saturation and the infectious and non-infectious

state. He was also able to show a correlation between the severity of the attack

and the level of urinary excretion of the vitamin. This would indicate that a

deficiency of vitamin C in the diet predisposed to infection and to severity of

attack. Sabin reported no appreciable difference in infectivity of poliomyelitis

in monkeys with much or no vitamin C in the diet. Many others, however, have

reported that a " deficient vitamin C nutrition increases susceptibility to

infection, " and many others that animals dying from the effects of the

poliomyelitis virus show a reduction of vitamin C in the tissues. Heaslip found

a definite relationship between the severity of the infection and the level of

vitamin C nutrition. It is consistent with accepted physiological action of

vitamin C to expect and anti-edema effect in any given affected

area. It is worthy of note that bacterial toxins can cause losses of from 50 to

85 per cent of the vitamin C normally contained in the adrenals. Jungeblut's

investigations seemed to justify the conclusion that vitamin C was the

" antibiotic " that would destroy the virus organism. He stated that the

prophylactic and therapeutic administration of synthetic or natural vitamin C

had given evidence of having distinct therapeutic properties in experimental

poliomyelitis, and that the proper injection dose was directly proportional to

the speed of the infection and the stage at which the process had arrived.

Jungeblut stated in 1937 that the parental administration of natural vitamin C

during its incubation period of poliomyelitis in monkeys is always followed by a

distinct change in the severity of the disease; that after the fifth day of the

disease distinctly larger doses are required. He realized, at that early date,

that for a fast progressing infection such as results from the R. M.

V. strain, very large doses—400 mg. crystalline C maximum in a 24-hour

period—of vitamin C would be required; for the Aycock virus with its slower

infection potential small amounts of the vitamin would suffice. Even with almost

infinitesimal amounts—100 mg. ascorbic acid for each 24-hour period—he was able

to demonstrate that the non-paralytic survivors in one series was six times as

great as in the controls. In our work we shall speak of six, ten and 20 thousand

mg. in a similar time period.

 

Harde et al. reported that diphtheria toxin is inactivated by vitamin C in vitro

and to a lesser extent in vivo. I have confirmed this finding, indeed extended

it. Diphtheria can be cured in man by the administration of massive frequent

doses of hexuronic acid (vitamin C) given intravenously and/or intramuscularly.

To the synthetic drug, by mouth, there is little response, even when 1000 to

2000 mg. is used every two hours. This cure in diphtheria is brought about in

half the time required to remove the membrane and give negative smears by

antitoxin. This membrane is removed by lysis when " C " is given, rather than by

sloughing as results with the use of the antitoxin. An advantage of this form of

therapy is that the danger of serum reaction is eliminated. The only

disadvantage of the ascorbic acid therapy is the inconvenience of the multiple

injections. This concept of the action of vitamin C against certain toxins has

led to treating other diseases producing exotoxins. For years it

has been our knowledge that vitamin C in 500 to 1000 mg. doses injected I. M.

would cure bacillary dysentery of the Shiga type. Children having 10 to 15

bloody stools per day have cleared in 48 hours under this schedule while at the

same time reverting to normal feedings. This dual action of vitamin C against

certain toxins and the virus organism becomes more intelligible with the work of

Kligler, Warburg and others who believed that the detoxification effected by

hexuronic acid is brought about by a direct combination of the vitamin with the

toxin or virus, this followed by oxidation of the new compound which destroys

both the virus or toxin and the vitamin. Borsook et al. decided that the main

chemical action of ascorbic acid is as a powerful reducing agent, and the virus

causing poliomyelitis is known to be susceptible to the oxidizing action of

various agents. It is in point here to remark that vitamin C is an integral part

of the oxidation-reduction system of the body, thus

playing a definite part in natural resistance.

 

In the poliomyelitis epidemic in North Carolina in 1948, 60 cases of this

disease came under our care. These patients presented all or almost all of these

signs and symptoms: Fever of 101 to 104.6°, headache, pain at the back of the

eyes, conjunctivitis, scarlet throat; pain between the shoulders, the back of

the neck, one or more extremity, the lumbar back; nausea, vomiting and

constipation. In I5 of these cases the diagnosis was confirmed by lumbar

puncture; the cell count ranging from 33 to 125. Eight had been in contact with

a proven case; two of this group received spinal taps. Examination of the spinal

fluid was not carried out in others for the reasons: (1) Flexner and Amoss had

warned that " simple lumbar puncture attended with even very slight hemorrhage

opens the way for the passage of the virus from the blood into the central

nervous system and thus promotes infection. " (2) A patient presenting all or

almost all of the above signs and symptoms during an epidemic of

poliomyelitis must be considered infected with this virus. (3) Routine lumbar

puncture would have made it obligatory to report each case as diagnosed to the

health authorities. This would have deprived myself of valuable clinical

material and the patients of most valuable therapy, since they would have been

removed to a receiving center in a nearby town.

 

The treatment employed was vitamin C in massive doses. It was given like any

other antibiotic every two to four hours. The initial dose was 1000 to 2000 mg.,

depending on age. Children up to four years received the injections

intramuscularly. Since laboratory facilitates for whole blood and urine

determinations of the concentration of vitamin C were not available, the

temperature curve was adopted as the guide for additional medication. The rectal

temperature was recorded every two hours. No temperature response after the

second hour was taken to indicate the second 1000 or 2000 mg. If there was a

drop in fever after two hours, two more hours was allowed before the second

dose. This schedule was followed for 24 hours. After this time the fever was

consistently down, so the drug was given 1000 to 2000 mg. every six hours for

the next 48 hours. All patients were clinically well after 72 hours. After three

patients had a relapse the drug was continued for at least 48 hours longer—1000

to 2000 mg. every eight to 12 hours. Where spinal taps were performed, it was

the rule to find a reversion of the fluid to normal after the second day of

treatment.

 

For patients treated in the home the dose schedule was 2000 mg. by needle every

six hours, supplemented by 1000 to 2000 mg. every two hours by mouth. The tablet

was crushed and dissolved in fruit juice. All of the natural " C " in fruit juice

is taken up by the body; this made us expect catalytic action from this medium.

Ruin, 20 mg., was used with vitamin C by mouth in a few cases, instead of the

fruit juice. Hawley and others have shown that vitamin C taken by mouth will

show its peak of excretion in the urine in from four to six hours. Intravenous

administration produces this peak in from one to three hours. By this route

however, the concentration in the blood is raised so suddenly that a transitory

overflow into the urine results before the tissues are saturated. Some

authorities suggest that the subcutaneous method is the most conservative in

terms of vitamin C loss but this factor is overwhelmingly neutralized by the

factor of pain inflicted.

 

Two patients in this series of 60 regurgitated fluid through the nose. This was

interpreted as representing the dangerous bulbar type. For a patient in this

category postural drainage, oxygen administration, in some cases tracheotomy,

needs to be instituted, until the vitamin C has had sufficient time to work—in

our experience 36 hours. Failure to recognize this factor might sacrifice the

chance of recovery. With these precautions taken, every patient of this series

recovered uneventfully within three to five days.

 

In the treatment of other types of virus infections the same " fluid " dose

schedule was adopted. In herpes zoster 2000 to 3000 mg. of vitamin C was given

every 12 hours, this supplemented by 3 000 mg. in fruit juice by mouth every two

hours. Eight cases were treated in this series, all of adults. Seven experienced

cessation of pain within two hours of the first injection and remained so

without the use of any other analgesic medication. Seven of these cases showed

drying of the vesicles within 24 hours and were clear of lesions within 72

hours. They received from five to seven injections. One patient; a diabetic,

stated that she was always conscious of an uncomfortable feeling, but that it

was not an actual pain. Although nine-tenths of the vesicles cleared in the

usual 72-hour period, she was given 14 injections, the last seven of only 1000

mg. This extra therapy was given because of a small ulceration, an inch in

diameter, secondarily infected by rupture of the vesicles by a corset

stave prior to the first visit. Vitamin C apparently had no effect on this

lesion, which was healed in two weeks under compound tincture of benzoin locally

and penicillin and sulfadiazine by mouth. (The patient objected to taking

penicillin by needle.) One of the patients, a man of 65, came to the office

doubled up with abdominal pain and with a history of having taken opiates for

the preceding 36 hours. He gave the impression of having an acute surgical

condition. A massive array of vesicles extended from the dorsal nerve roots to

the umbilicus, a hand's breadth wide. He was given 3000 mg. of vitamin C

intravenously and directed to return to the office in four to five hours. It was

difficult to convince him that his abdominal pain was the result of his having

" shingles. " He returned in four hours completely free of pain. He was given an

additional 2000 mg. of vitamin C, and following the schedule given above he

recovered completely in three days.

 

In herpes simplex it is important to continue the treatment for at least 72

hours. We have seen " fever blisters " that appeared healed after two injections

recur when therapy was discontinued after 24 hours. Vitamin C in a strength of

1000 mg. per 10 c.c. of buffered solution gave no response when applied locally.

This was true no matter how often the applications were made. In several cases

10 mg. of riboflavin by mouth t.i.d. in conjunction with the vitamin C

injections appeared to cause faster healing.

 

Chickenpox gave equally good response, the vesicles responding in the same

manner as did those of herpes. These vesicles were crusted after the first 24

hours, and the patient well in three to four cays. We interpreted this

similarity of response in these three diseases to suggest that the viruses

responsible were closely related to one another.

 

Many cases of influenza were treated with vitamin C. The size of the dose and

the number of Injections required were in direct proportion to the fever curve

and to the duration of the illness. Forcing of fruit juice was always

recommended, because of the frequency and ease of reinfection during certain

periods of the year.

 

The response of virus encephalitis to ascorbic acid therapy was dramatic. Six

cases of virus encephalitis were treated and cured with vitamin C injections.

Two cases were associated with virus pneumonia; one followed chickenpox, one

mumps, one measles and one a combination of measles and mumps. In the case that

followed the measles-mumps complex, definite evidence was found to confirm the

belief that massive, frequent injections are necessary in treating virus

infections with vitamin C. This lad of eight years was first seen with a

temperature of 104°. He was lethargic, very irritable when molested. His mother

said he had gradually developed his present clinical picture over the preceding

four or five days. His first symptom was anorexia which became complete 36 hours

before his first examination. He next complained of a generalized headache,

later be became stuporous. Although very athletic and active, he voluntarily

took to his bed. He was given 2000 mg. of vitamin C intravenously

and allowed to return home because there were no available hospital

accommodations. His mother was asked to make an hourly memorandum of his conduct

until his visit set for the following day. Seen 18 hours after the initial

injection of vitamin C, the memorandum revealed a quick response to the

antibiotic—after two hours he asked for food and ate a hearty supper, then

played about the house as usual and then, for .several hours, he appeared to

have completely recovered. Six hours following the initial injection, he began

to revert to the condition of his first visit. When seen the second time

temperature was 101.6°, he was sleepy but he would respond to questions. The

rude irritability shown prior to the first injection was strikingly absent. A

second injection of 2000 mg. vitamin C was given intravenously and 1000 mg. of

" C " prescribed every two hours by mouth. The next day he was fever and

symptom-free. As a precautionary measure a third 2000 mg. was given with

direction to

continue the drug by mouth for at least 48 hours. He has remained well since. A

lad of 12 years had generalized headache a week after having mumps, this

followed by malaise, and in 12 hours a lethargic state and a fever of 105°.

Admitted to hospital he was given 2000 mg. of vitamin C then, and 1000 mg. every

two hours. Following the third injection he was sitting up in bed, laughing,

talking, begging for food and completely without pain. He was discharged 24

hours following admission clinically well. Since relapses do occur if the drug

is discontinued too soon, he was given 2000 mg. of vitamin C every 12 hours for

two additional days.

 

The use of vitamin C in measles proved to be a medical curiosity. During an

epidemic vitamin C was used prophylactically and all those who received as much

as 1000 mg. every six hours, by vein or muscle, were protected from the virus.

Given by mouth, 1000 mg. in fruit juice every two hours was not protective

unless it was given around the clock. It was further found that 1000 mg. by

mouth, four to six times each day, would modify the attack; with the appearance

of Koplik's spots and fever, if the administration was increased to 12 doses

each 24 hours, all signs and symptoms would disappear in 48 hours. If the drug

was discontinued or reduced to three or four doses each 24 hours following the

disappearance of Koplik's spots, within another 48-hour period the fever, the

conjunctivitis and Koplik's spots would be back.

 

It was our privilege to observe this picture over and over in two little

volunteer girls for 30 days. These " research helpers " were my own little

daughters. The measles virus was eventually destroyed in this instance by

continuing 12,000 mg. by mouth each 24 hours for four days. We interpreted this

result to indicate that on withdrawing the drug with the cessation of signs and

symptoms, a small quantity of the virus remained, which after another incubation

period produced anew the first stage of measles; when the drug was continued

beyond the clearing stage the virus was destroyed in toto. No case of

post-measles bronchopneumonia was seen. The " measles-cough " of measles

bronchitis was over with after three or four 1000 mg. injections of " C " at

6-hour intervals. This was true even when other medications well above the

calculated dose range for cough had had no effect. Whenever a patient presented

a mixed-virus infection, such as receding mumps and developing measles, it was

found that

double the calculated dose of vitamin C was necessary to obtain the usual

results.

 

Of mumps, 33 cases were treated with ascorbic acid. When vitamin C was given at

the peak of the infection the fever was gone within 24 hours, the pain within 36

hours, the swelling in 48 to 72 hours. Two cases were complicated with orchitis.

A young man of 23 years developed bilateral orchitis one Friday morning, by

seven o'clock that night he was in severe pain, had a fever of 105 " and was

nursing testicles the size of tennis balls. Vitamin C was started at this

time—1000 mg. every two hours, intravenously. The pain began to subside

following the first injection and ceased in 12 hours. There was no fever after

36 hours. The patient was out of bed feeling his old self after 60 hours. He had

received 25,000 mg. of " C " in this 60-hour period. An experiment involving three

cousins: One, a boy of seven, had the old routine of bed rest, aspirin, and warm

camphor oil applications and iodex to the swollen glands. This child had a rough

time for a week. A second boy, aged 11, was allowed to

develop mumps to the point of maximum swelling without any therapy, then given

vitamin C, 1000 mg. intramuscularly, every two to four hours. This lad was

entirely well in 48 hours. To the third patient, a girl of 9, vitamin C was

given on the up curve when the swellings were 60 per cent of the expected, and

the temperature recorded at 102.3°. The dose was 1000 mg. of vitamin C given

intravenously every four hours. This child was well and remained so from the

third day of treatment.

 

Further studies on virus pneumonia showed that the clinical response was better

when vitamin C was given to these patients according to the dose schedule

outlined for poliomyelitis. Where pneumonitis was demonstrated, the clearing of

the chest film was parallel with the clinical recovery. In cases of

consolidation of entire lobes the x-ray clearing lagged days behind the clinical

response. In these cases 1000 mg. of " C " should be given every 12 hours for at

least a week after the patient is apparently well. There was no change in the

results as given in a previous paper; the patients were well in the third day of

treatment.

 

In using vitamin C as an antibiotic no factor of toxicity need be considered. To

confirm this observation 200 consecutive hospital patients were given ascorbic

acid, 500 to 1000 mg. every four to six hours, for five to ten days. One

volunteer received 100,000 mg. in a 12-day period. It must be remembered that 90

per cent of these patients did not have a virus infection to assist in

destroying the vitamin. In no instance did examination of the blood or urine

indicate any toxic reaction, and at no time were there any clinical

manifestations of a reaction to the drug. When vitamin C was given by mouth one

per cent of these patients vomited shortly after taking the drug. In half of

these cases the vomiting was controlled by increasing the carbohydrate content

of the mixture. This reaction was not interpreted as representing a toxic

manifestation; rather it was thought to be due to a hypersensitive gastric

mucosa. The dose was reduced from 1000 to 100 mg. in young children showing this

complex; vomiting occurred as before. However, in these same patients

administration of massive, frequent doses of vitamin C by needle affected a cure

of the infection without causing vomiting.

 

From a review of the literature one can safely state that in all instances of

experimental work with ascorbic acid on the virus organism the amount of virus

used was beyond the range of the administered dose of this vitamin. No one would

expect to relieve kidney colic with a five-grain aspirin tablet; by the same

logic we cannot hope to destroy the virus organism with doses of vitamin C of 10

to 400 mg. The results which we have reported in virus diseases using vitamin C

as the antibiotic may seem fantastic. These results, however, are no different

from the results we see when administering the sulfa, or the mold-derived drugs

against many other kinds of infections. In these latter instances we expect and

usually get 48- to 72-hour cures; it is laying no claim to miracle-working then,

when we say that many virus infections can be cleared within a similar time

limit.