Practical Notes on Vitamin C Therapy

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Practical Notes on Vitamin C Therapy

 

Notes On Orthomolecular (Megavitamin) Use of Vitamin C

 

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. "

 

Copyright C 1983, 1994 Andrew W. Saul. From the

book PAPERBACK CLINIC, available from Dr. Andrew Saul,

Number 8 Van Buren Street, Holley, New York 14470.