Vitamin C: Antiviral And Antitoxin

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VITAMIN C: ANTIVIRAL AND ANTITOXIN

 

Antiviral-Antitoxic C

 

 

Archives of Pediatrics NY, Volume 69, Number 4, April,

1952, p 151-155.

 

ASCORBIC ACID (VITAMIN C) AS A CHEMOTHERAPEUTIC AGENT

 

William J. McCormick, M.D.

 

( " Chemotherapeutic " in this article does not refer to

treating cancer, but rather to vitamin C's

effectiveness against bacterial and viral infections,

and as an antitoxic agent.)

 

Until recently ascorbic acid has been used primarily

and solely for its vitamin action as an antiscorbutic

agent. In such use the daily requirement of the infant

and young child has been placed at 25 to 50 mg. and

that of the adult at 75 to 150 mg. The vitamin C

properties, Which are mainly prophylactic, are related

primarily to its role in maintaining stability and

tensile strength of connective tissues generally,

including the subcutaneous tissues, the musculature of

the vascular and alimentary systems, and the osseous

tissues. This property favors the healing of Wounds,

the prevention of hemorrhage and rupture of connective

tissues, and the building of a protective barrier

against infectious invasion. Vitamin C is also known

to play an essential part in the oxidation-reduction

system of tissue respiration and to contribute to the

development of antibodies and the neutralization of

toxins in the building of natural immunity to

infectious diseases.

 

Aside from these vitamin properties there is a very

potent therapeutic action of ascorbic acid when given

in massive repeated doses, 500 to 1,000 mg., q.q.h.,

(every four hours) preferably intravenously or

intramuscularly. When thus administered the effect in

acute infectious processes is favorably comparable to

that of the sulfonamide or the mycelial antibiotics,

but with the great advantage of freedom from toxic or

allergic reactions. The advantage of parenteral

(injected) administration is obvious when one

considers that vitamin, being water-soluble and having

no kidney threshold, is eliminated by this route

almost as rapidly as absorbed from the alimentary

system. By intensive parenteral therapy the blood

level can be maintained at a much higher degree of

saturation with resultant increase in antitoxic

action.

 

The writer (1) has previously reported spectacular

results by this method in the treatment of

tuberculosis, scarlet fever, pelvic infection,

septicemia, etc. Concurrently, by this same method,

Klenner (2) has reported dramatic results in the

treatment of virus diseases, including poliomyelitis,

encephalitis, measles, herpes zoster, virus pneumonia,

etc. This chemotherapeutic effect of ascorbic acid

results from its chemical action as a reducing or

oxidizing agent. In fact, the decolorization of the

test reagent, dichlorphenol-indophenol, is dependent

upon this property. By this means the viral or

bacterial toxins are rapidly neutralized and the

febrile process, with its high metabolic rate, is

abated, usually within a few hours of the beginning of

treatment. Complete recovery occurs usually in a

matter of days. By this method the writer has been

able to reduce marked leukocytosis in purulent

infections to normal within two or three days.

Likewise, Klenner (3) reports the reduction of

pleocytosis of spinal fluid in poliomyelitis to normal

within 48 hours, under intensive ascorbic-acid

therapy. This reduction of leukocyte content of blood

and spinal fluid is the best evidence of therapeutic

efficacy. Such effects have never been obtained by the

use of sulfonamides or mycelial antibiotics.

 

A point to be noted in this intensive method of

therapy is that the urinary elimination of ascorbic

acid, being necessarily heavy, is likely to cause

confusion in case of urinary tests for sugar, since

ascorbic acid is an even more potent reducer of

Fehling’s or Benedict’s solution. Thus a positive test

under these conditions does not necessarily indicate

sugar. This fact in itself is further evidence of the

efficacy of ascorbic acid as an oxidation-reduction

agent.

 

Not only endogenous, but exogenous toxins are

neutralized by this chemotherapeutic action of

ascorbic acid. By this means Klenner has effected

rapid recovery from rattlesnake bite in dogs, and the

author has obtained rapid recovery in a case of

scorpion sting by a single intravenous injection of

1,000 mg. Likewise, ascorbic acid has been effectively

employed in the treatment of lead poisoning (4) in

painters, and in suppressing toxic reactions in

sulfonamide (5), hormone, salicylate and arsenical

therapy (6).

 

Once the acute febrile or toxic stage of an infectious

disease is brought under control by massive

ascorbic-acid administration, a relatively small

maintenance dose of the vitamin will be adequate in

most cases to prevent relapses, just as in fire

protection small chemical extinguishers may be

adequate to prevent fires in their incipiency, whereas

when large fires have developed water from large

high-pressure fire hose becomes necessary.

 

In determining the anti-infectious protective dosage

of vitamin C there is another factor which is not

generally considered. When the vitamin is employed to

neutralize toxins of endogenous or exogenous origin,

the action is reciprocal in that the vitamin is also

neutralized proportionately, leaving less available

for physiological needs. To illustrate the writer has

determined by laboratory and clinical tests that the

smoking of one cigarette neutralizes in the body

approximately 25 mg. of ascorbic acid, or the amount

in one medium-sized orange.

 

It will thus be seen how difficult it is to meet the

bodily requirement of the pack-a-day smoker for even

the protective level of vitamin C from dietary

sources. It is thus obvious that the steady smoker,

who is usually short on his dietary intake as well,

requires much heavier therapeutic dosage of this

vitamin than the non-smoker. This may explain why,

according to Mayo-Clinic reports, the incidence of

post-operative pneumonia is four times greater in

habitual smokers than in non-smokers. To prevent

post-operative pneumonia, Slotkin and Fletcher (7)

have instituted the use of large doses of vitamin C

both pre- and postoperatively, with 100 per cent

success. Prior to this innovation, their

post-operative pneumonia mortality rate was 20 per

cent. Pediatric surgeons might do well to follow this

example. Klenner (3) reports that pneumonia never

develops as a complication in measles when intensive

vitamin C therapy is employed early in the disease.

 

During the past century there has been a steady

decline in the incidence and mortality of most all

infectious diseases. Epidemiologists generally (8, 9,

10) admit that the control measures employed " are not

adequate in themselves to explain the recorded

decline. " " While the control measures which have been

applied have probably accentuated the decline in young

adult life... it seems reasonable to attribute the

general decline to other factors more general in

character and of which but little is really known. "

 

From increasing evidence of the antitoxic and

anti-infectious action of vitamin C, and from personal

clinical experience in the prophylactic and

therapeutic application of this vitamin, the author is

firmly convinced that the major factor in bringing

about this gradually changing picture in

infectious-disease incidence has been the steady and

phenomenal increase in the consumption of

vitamin-C-rich fruits, notably citrus fruits and

tomatoes, during the period in question. This

hypothesis would not only account for the gradual

decline in incidence, but would also explain the shift

in age incidence of tuberculosis, diphtheria,

poliomyelitis, etc., from the younger to the older age

brackets, due to the fact that in the nursery the full

benefit of this nutritional reform is obtained;

whereas, during childhood and early youth perverse

dietary habits are gradually acquired through lack of

parental guidance and inadequacy of public-health

education. The increased use of candy, carbonated

beverages, tea, coffee, tobacco and alcohol tends

gradually to displace the more wholesome nutritional

habits of early childhood, and malnutrition with

increased susceptibility to disease is the price we

pay for this diversion.

 

In conclusion it may be of interest to note that

centuries ago observing physicians detected the

predisposing influence of scurvy on the incidence of

infectious diseases. In 1689, Richard Morton, one of

the earliest writers on tuberculosis (then known as

phthisis), states in his famous Phthisiologia that

" scurvy is wont to occasion a consumption of the

lungs. " Likewise, Boerhaave, a Dutch physician of

international repute in the early 18th century, held

to the view that " gangrenous gingivitis, " then

frequently concurrent with diphtheria, was evidence of

a scorbutic background.

 

SUMMARY

 

Clinical and laboratory evidence is cited in support

of the author’s advocacy of intensive vitamin C

administration as a chemotherapeutic agent in

infectious diseases.

 

The efficacy of this therapy is dependent upon the

potent oxidation-reduction action of ascorbic acid and

the use of massive doses with complete freedom from

toxic or allergic reactions.

 

There is an unusually broad spectrum of antibiotic

action in this therapy, including practically all

bacterial and viral infections. It is also highly

potent as an antitoxic agent in exogenous poisoning,

organic and inorganic.

 

REFERENCES

 

1. McCormick, W. J.: Vitamin C in the Prophylaxis and

Therapy of Infectious Diseases. Arch. Pediat., 68:

1-9, 1951.

 

2. Klenner, Fred R.: Massive Doses of Vitamin C and

the Virus Diseases. Paper presented at convention of

the Tri-State Medical Association of the Carolinas and

Virginia, held at Columbia, Feb. 19-20, 1951.

 

3. Klenner, Fred R.: The Treatment of Poliomyelitis

and Other Virus Diseases with Vitamin C. South. Med. &

Surg., Vol. III, No. 7, 1949.

 

4. Holmes, H. N.; Campbell, K. and Amberg, E. J.:

Effect of Vitamin C on Lead Poisoning. J. Lab. & Clin.

Med., 24: 1119, 1939.

 

5. McCormick, W. J.: Sulfonamide Sensitivity and

C-Avitaminosis. Canad. Med J., 52: 68-70, 1945.

 

6. Pelner, L: Use of Ascorbic Acid in Reducing

Toxicity of Stilboestrol and Arsenical Therapy.

J.A.M.A., 123: 112, 1943.

 

7. Slotkin, G. A. and Fletcher, R. S.: Ascorbic Acid

in Pulmonary Complications Following Surgery. J.

Urol., Nov. 6, 1944.

 

8. Ross, Mary A.: Tuberculosis Mortality in Ontario.

Canad. Pub. Health J., 25: 73, 1934.

 

9. McKinnon, N. E.: Mortality Reductions in Ontario,

1900-1942, Canad. Pub. Health J., 36: 423, 1945.

 

10. Davis, Paul V.: Tuberculosis Epidemiology. Dist.

of Chest, p. 21, Sept. 1939.

 

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