Fwd: [SSRI-Research] Notes On Orthomolecular (Megavitamin) Use of Vitamin C

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Fri, 28 Nov 2003 17:58:20 -0500

[sSRI-Research] Notes On Orthomolecular (Megavitamin) Use of Vitamin C

 

Notes On Orthomolecular (Megavitamin) Use of Vitamin C

http://www.doctoryourself.com/ortho_c.html

 

Vitamin C (ascorbate, ascorbic acid) has varying activity in the body at

varying levels of intake. At low levels of consumption, vitamin C is like a

trace nutrient: you need very little of it to stay alive, but without any at

all you die. Even a few milligrams a day will suffice to preserve life. At

moderate levels of consumption, say 500 to 1,500 mg per day for an adult,

the vitamin works to build health in a positive sense. statistically, fewer

colds will be reported; incidence, severity and duration of influenza will

be less. (Stone, The Healing Factor, 1972 and Pauling, Vitamin C, the Common

Cold and the Flu, 1976). But it is at high levels, say 8,000 to 40,000 mg

per day for an adult, that we begin to obtain therapeutic properties for the

vitamin.

 

At the proper (high) level, vitamin C has anti-histamine, anti-toxin, and

anti-biotic properties. The pharmacological effects of a vitamin at high

concentration do not disqualify our continuing to call it, and think of it,

as a vitamin. Money still buys things even if you have a lot of it; its

nature has not changed but its power has. If it takes 50 gallons of gas to

drive from New York City to Albuquerque, you simply are not going to make it

on 10 gallons, no matter how you try. Likewise, if your body wants 35,000 mg

of vitamin C to fight an infection, 7,000 mg won't do. The key is to take

enough C, take it often enough, and take it long enough.

 

QUANTITY, FREQUENCY and DURATION are the keys to effective orthomolecular

use of vitamin C. So many people hold a philosophical viewpoint such as " I

shouldn't have to take so much of a vitamin. " That's certainly true; you do

not have to. This is America, where everyone has the right to be sick if

they want to. But if you want swift recovery, and if you want to use vitamin

C, you might just as well use it effectively. What we are interested in is

results. High doses of vitamin C gets those results as well or better than

any broad-spectrum drug on the market. Rather than take what we think the

body should require, we take the amount of C that the body says it wants.

 

The safety of vitamin C is extraordinary. There is not one case of vitamin C

toxicity anywhere in the world's medical literature. There is not one case

of vitamin C-caused kidney stone ever proven, to the best of my knowledge.

Vitamin C has been used to prevent and cure the formation of kidney stones

since William J. McCormick, M.D. used it in 1946 (Medical Record 159:7, p

410-413). 10,000 mg of ascorbic acid per day does not significantly increase

urinary excretion of calcium (Linus Pauling Institute Newsletter " Effect of

High Intake of Ascorbic Acid on Excretion of Calcium " by Dr. C. Tsao, 2:3,

1983). Daily doses of over 120,000 mg have been used with safety by medical

doctors, and guinea pigs have been given the human daily dose equivalent of

500,000 mg without harm. The major side effect of vitamin C overload is an

unmistakable 5-times-an-hour diarrhea. This indicates absolute saturation,

and the daily dose is then dropped to the highest amount that will not bring

about diarrhea. That is a THERAPEUTIC level. Robert Cathcart, M.D. of

California routinely employs high-ascorbic acid therapy with his patients

with success (Journal of Orthomolecular Psychiatry, 2nd Quarter, 1981).

Frederick R. Klenner, M.D. of North Carolina has seen cures of diphtheria,

staph and strep infections, herpes, mumps, spinal meningitis, mononucleosis,

shock, viral hepatitis, arthritis and polio using high doses of vitamin C

(Journal of Preventive Medicine, Spring, 1974). Dr. Klenner says: " Ascorbic

acid is the safest and the most valuable substance available to the

physician " and " If you want results, use adequate ascorbic acid. "