Christian
Active Member, June10MOTM
Problem with them is that asorbic acid will eat tooth enamel.. So best to swallow them whole... Or crush and dirnk through a straw.
Excellent, around 55mg per kg of bodyweight spread out over 3 serves.
Luckily Vitamin C tablets taste so good!
Wow, That's almost 30 000mg a day for me!
I need to get some micro scales and a pack of straws.
Has anybody had dramas yet with bowl problems? And at how many mg?
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Wow, That's almost 30 000mg a day for me!
I need to get some micro scales and a pack of straws.
Has anybody had dramas yet with bowl problems? And at how many mg?
Posted via Mobile Device
Sticky, did you figure that out using 350mg a day or the 1/6th of that amount he suggested for preventative use?
350mg per kg a day was for treating things like the black plague and death.
Divide your answer by 6
n00bs, apologies if you have posted this already (but i'm too blind to see if it you have!) but what is the maximum amount your body can process within a given timeframe (a day or per serving 3 times a day)?
I ask this because while at the health food shop getting some raw honey this arvo I asked the guy (naturopath, medical herbalist, clinical nutritionist, iridologist, sports therapist etc etc, just to explain he is not just a cashier) and he said while Vit C is the second least toxic of all Vitamins and an overdose is not really an issue, there is no point megadosing because only a certain amount is absorbed and the rest flushed through.
Have you got any thoughts on this?
I assume you have a nice easy answer, considering that phd used infinity mg a day on people
I have also started swallowing and not chewing my Vit C tablets...so thanks for saving me some money at the dentist
"WARNING: KEEP THIS MEDICINE OUT OF THE REACH OF EVERYBODY!
USE VITAMIN C INSTEAD!"
(Linus Pauling, PhD, twice the recipient of the Nobel Prize)
Any physician who gives twelve courses of antibiotics to an infant under a year old is a real quack. I know more than one doctor who does.
Ray, a health professional himself, brought his 11 month old son Robbie to me. The child was very sick, and had been for over a week. No one, and I mean no one, in their family had had any sleep in a long time. They were up night after night with this child, who had a high fever, glazed watery eyes, tons of thick watery mucus, labored breathing, would not sleep, and did little else but cry. Day and night, night and day.
Robbie was under the care of a pediatrician, who had been prescribing serious antibiotics all along. Antibiotics were clearly not working. This was all too apparent to Ray.
"Twelve rounds of antibiotics for a baby under a year old, and all the doctor wants to do is give more antibiotics?" he said. "That makes no sense at all."
"Ray, antibiotics are their knee-jerk answer to a lot of things. There is a saying: 'When the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.'"
"Well, we've thoroughly tried the medical route, and cooperated one hundred percent with the pediatrician. At this point," Ray said, "Robbie is worse, not better. We have got to do something ourselves, and we are going to. My wife is just as emphatic about that as I am."
She was home, taking care of the other children.
I promptly acquainted Ray with the vitamin C quacks.
"So the bottom line is to give Robbie as much vitamin C as he can hold without having loose bowels," Ray said.
"Yes."
"We can do that," he said.
And he did, too.
So now I have a new case history record to offer: 20,000 milligrams of vitamin C daily for a 20 pound baby of 11 months of age. That's how much it took to cure Ray's baby of severe congestion, fever, and listlessness. That is 1,000 milligrams of vitamin C per pound per day; 2,200 mg "C" per kilogram body weight per day, nearly twice what Dr. Frederick Klenner customarily ordered for patients. And even at that huge amount, the baby never had diarrhea!
You have to marvel at where it was all going. More marvelous is how quickly it worked. Ray kept in touch on the phone.
"Robbie was noticeably improved in under twelve hours, and slept through the first night." Ray told me two days later. "He was completely well in 48 hours. Symptom free. Completely well!"
Even without considering the harmful side effects of massive antibiotic therapy, we can look at the futility of all those repeated doses. Antibiotics are either going to work with the first or second round, or they are not going to work at all, period. There is no point in emptying twelve water fire extinguishers on an electrical fire. More of the wrong thing is just more wrong. And in a baby, just plain stupid.
One simply must find the best, safest, and most effective way, especially with infants. The vitamin C quacks (Linus Pauling, Frederick Robert Klenner, Emanuel Cheraskin, William J. McCormick, Irwin Stone, Robert F. Cathcart III, and, ah... me) will tell you that you have a genuine option: consider using vitamin C as your first choice antibiotic.
Taking enough C results in the three C's: patient comfort, low cost, and parental control. Without necessitating the use of invasive technology nor the trauma of hospitalization, parents can regain confidence and mastery over illness to a degree that they might never have thought possible. We have now gone light years beyond the medical profession's customarily paternalistic, condescending attitude towards self-care.
For this reason, vitamin C therapy will be decried and denounced as irresponsible quackery. It takes some real ego strength for a parent to stand firm and say, "This is what I am going to do: I am going to follow the Klenner/Cathcart vitamin C protocol." The vitamin C doctors' shared knowledge of how it is done is the buttress that makes such a stance possible.
When I was a kid, everybody got miracle drugs. From sulfa to Physohex, we followed the crowd from waiting room to prescription counter. Our parents gave us "safe" children's aspirin. Oops, not so safe for high fevers, it was discovered. So then it was children's Tylenol (acetaminophen) for everybody. Hmm: it turns out there's some liver and kidney side effects with that, too. And, as drugs go, acetaminophen is really safe. But drugs all carry side effects; you just choose your poison carefully. Vitamins are vastly safer.
Law: the number one side effect of vitamins is failure to take enough of them.
If you do choose to employ antibiotic drugs, bear in mind that they interfere with normal digestion by killing off beneficial colon bacteria. These are the very bacteria that make vitamin K, the B-vitamins cobalamin and biotin, help us digest many plant and dairy foods, strengthen the immune system, and repress the overgrowth of pathogenic microorganisms. After antibiotic therapy, all persons should take yogurt and an acidophillus supplement for a month or two to help restore a normal, healthy bowel environment. I have found shamefully few doctors who tell this to their patients.
And this is not just about antibiotics. In the 1980 Physicians' Desk Reference, Prednisone didn't even have the "diamond" symbol of a frequently-prescribed drug next to its listing in the table of contents. Now it is used almost indiscriminately. For instance, I know a sixteen year old girl who had a lousy diet, innumerable colds, and chronic bronchitis. After bucketsful of antibiotics, the HMO doctors put her on Prednisone. Prednisone is a drug of desperation. When they pull out the corticosteroids, they don't know what else to do.
Prednisone can cause the following nutritional problems, among others: sodium and fluid retention, potassium loss, osteoporosis, carbohydrate intolerance and increased insulin requirement, and a variety of gastrointestinal complications. Why subject a sixteen year old kid to this?
On the other hand, I have in my possession two United States Pharmacopoeia statements on vitamin C for injection asserting that "there are no counterindications for the use of ascorbic acid (vitamin C)." Additionally, it works. Intelligently employing vitamins can eliminate many dangerous side effects that come from over-reliance on over-the-counter and prescription drugs.
This goes for viruses, too.
Lowered resistance can trigger an outbreak of latent herpes viruses. Marta, age 30, was in her sixth month of a long-desired pregnancy. She came to see me specifically because of genital herpes. Her obstetrician had correctly told her that she could not deliver vaginally as long as there were active lesions. Exposure to herpes constitutes a real danger to a newborn. The doctor had said that if the lesions were inactive, and preferably gone, for a period of so many weeks, he'd OK a natural delivery. Otherwise, it would be a Cesarean for her.
Her question was expected.
"Is there any way to get rid the lesions with nutrition?" Marta asked.
Conformist, party-line dietitians will vigorously deny such a possibility, but then, they don't read their own journals, and certainly not Linus Pauling's books or the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine.
So the truthful answer, the one I'd have to give if under oath, is: Yes, there probably is: very large doses of vitamin C.
I ran this past Marta, and her concern was, once again, entirely predictable.
"Are megadoses of vitamin C safe for the baby?"
I knew that Frederick R. Klenner, MD (the trailblazer of vitamin C quacks) gave large doses to over 300 pregnant women and reported virtually no complications in any of the pregnancies or deliveries (Irwin Stone, The Healing Factor, chapter 28). Indeed, hospital nurses around Reidsville, North Carolina, the region where Dr.Klenner practiced, noted that the infants who were healthiest and happiest were in Klenner's care. The hospital staff dubbed them the "Vitamin C Babies."
Specifically, Klenner gave: 4,000 milligrams during the first trimester, 6,000 mg during the second, and 10,000 milligrams of vitamin C a day - or even 15,000 mg - throughout their third trimester. This was his routine prescription for healthy women. He would respond to any sickness with daily vitamin C injections totaling many times that.
Over a nearly 40 year practice, Klenner (and previous animal studies) rigorously ascertained the safety and effectiveness of vitamin C during pregnancy. Specifically, there were no miscarriages in this entire group of 300 women. There were no postpartum hemorrhages at all. There was no cardiac distress and there were no toxic manifestations (Stone, p. 191). Among Klenner's patients were the Fultz quadruplets, who, at the time, were the only quads in the southeastern U.S. to survive. Upon admission to the hospital for childbirth, Klenner gave all mothers-to-be "booster" injections of vitamin C.
So my answer to Marta's question of safety was an unfettered "yes."
Additionally," I added, "For the ladies who had all the vitamin C, labor was both shorter and less painful."
Soon to be facing her first delivery, Marta had a vested interest in that little side benefit.
"I've never given birth myself," I went on, "But my wife's two deliveries confirmed what Klenner said. Her first labor was two hours and forty-five minutes total, and her second labor was one hour and forty-five minutes from the very onset to "it's a girl."
Wow!" Marta said, happier than ever.
"I hesitate to keep this going, but there's still more. The obstetrical nurses at Klenner's hospital repeatedly verified that stretch marks were seldom seen on Klenner's post-partum patients. I can personally vouch for this being true with my spouse. After two kids, the second with a birthweight of 10 pounds, two ounces..."
Marta's eyes grew large at the very idea.
"...My wife had a single, half-inch stretch mark. Pretty neat, eh?"
Marta nodded several times.
"Well, I really want to get rid of this herpes thing so I can have a natural childbirth," Marta said. I know that herpes is most certainly not safe for the baby. And from what I've read, Cesarean delivery, like all operations, carries risk, too. It seemed that my balance sheet favors trying the vitamin."
"Well," I said, "If you are going to do it, Marta, you might as well do it right. This means building up your C level to saturation. That's bowel tolerance, remember?"
She did.
"And you mean that I might have to take much more than I'd expect to, right?" Marta added.
"Yes," I said. "You do not take the amount of vitamin C you think you should take; rather, you take the amount of vitamin C that the body responds to. When your symptoms leave, that's the right level for you at that time. As you get better, you will not be able to hold as much of the vitamin. The dose is self-adjusting, and you need no equipment to monitor it. Just take as much as you can comfortably hold, just enough to be symptom-free, but not so much as causes loose bowels."
Marta said, "How long will it be before I see any progress?"
"It depends on how much vitamin C you take, and how much vitamin C you need. A dry sponge holds a lot of water. The body seems to have an enormous capacity for vitamin C when infected with a virus. We'll all find out how much you need when we see how much you can comfortably hold. It is not a contest; just do what gets the healing. But it will take time to get to your saturation level."
"What can I expect along the way?" she asked.
"The first thing you will notice is: nothing. There is a latency period, a lag-time, while you load the body with the vitamin. It's a bit like waiting for your computer to load a new program."
"Can you try another analogy?" Marta said.
"Look at it this way," I responded. "Let's say you were in a plane taking off from Buffalo International Airport in the middle of winter. It is snowing, dark, gray, stormy and windy. Your jet takes off, and begins to climb. The wind rocks the plane, the snow and sleet and hail come down, and it's all dismally gray outside. The plane keeps climbing. All you can see out the window is snow, darkness and the wings shaking from the wind. The person next to you is turning a bit green. Up you go, still in the winter storm. Then, all of the sudden, the airplane breaks out on top of the clouds, and like magic, there's bright sunlight and blue sky everywhere. Look down: Far below you is the storm. It's like it never happened, like you were never in it.
"That is exactly what it is like when you reach saturation of vitamin C. At a certain altitude, higher than you expected, your symptoms go away. This characteristically occurs with such ease that it is hard to believe it until you experience it for yourself. Precious few medical professionals have learned this. The medical-dietetic industry has a real fear of flying if vitamin C is the aircraft. Too bad, when it is the safest and fastest plane in the air.
Marta was nobody's fool, and worked closely with her obstetrician. She had heard about something termed "rebound scurvy," and now asked me about it.
"Rebound scurvy, or the rebound effect, is when a person takes a lot of vitamin C, usually with great success, and then abruptly stops taking it. At that instance, symptoms come back, sometimes including a few classic vitamin C deficiency signs. Research shows that such an effect does not occur in the vast majority of situations.
"However, pregnancy is a special case. If the mother takes a lot of C while pregnant, Klenner and others confirmed that her labor and delivery will be shorter, easier and free of complications. If the vitamin helped while Mommy was pregnant, it should most certainly be given to the baby. During gestation, the baby got all the C he needed. But now, baby is on his own: no more C through the placenta and umbilical cord. If the baby is used to, and benefiting from, abundant vitamin C, it obviously should be provided for him individually after birth. Klenner gave newborns about 50 milligrams a day. Not doing that results in a scorbutic baby."
"But doesn't that just mean that the baby is dependent on vitamin C?" Marta said. I told you she was nobody's fool.
"No," I answered. "No more than the baby is dependent on oxygen, or water, or food. Consider this: If you have a really high paying job, and expenses to fit it, and you are suddenly fired, you have a problem. Your problem is not money. Your problem is a lack of money."
Marta smiled comfortably.
"So don't stop a good thing, then," she said.
"That's it," I agreed. "If vitamin C is important enough for the woman to take before giving birth, then it is important enough for the baby to get after it has been born."
"I can see that," she said. "But I'm going to breast feed my baby. Is there vitamin C in breast milk?"
"There is some, but we do not know how much at any given feeding. Keep in mind that the nursing woman is healing up and stressed out. Along with recovering from childbirth, she is adapting to really momentous changes in her lifestyle and sleeping schedule, and everybody knows that taking care of a baby is a tremendous demand on a person. Mom needs a lot of vitamin C herself. So her amount of available surplus C is small. For this reason, breast milk is an unreliable source of vitamin C for babies. However, mother's milk otherwise is the perfect food for infants. You absolutely, positively are making the right decision when you breast feed. Just slip the child a little C each day as you do it. Even a newborn can gum down a tiny bit of a finely-powdered chewable children's C tablet. You can put a little right on the baby's tongue. Vitamin C drops are also available. My own kids got supplemental C from the very first days of their lives."
"What if a baby was formula-fed?" Marta asked.
"Then supplemental C is ever more essential," I said. "Very little of the vitamin is found in formula, especially after it is manufactured, packaged, opened, heated, poured, and oxidized during bottle feeding."
"OK," said Marta. "I guess I should get started."
She did.
It was not that long afterward that I had a follow-up conversation with her.
"The delivery is on," Marta said. "The herpes lesions are all gone, and have been gone since I got to saturation with the C. Do you want to know how much it took?"
"You bet I do."
"44,000 milligrams a day!" she hooted. "Can you believe that? And at that much I hardly had any bowel signs at all. So I dropped it to about 35 to 40 thousand and stayed there. That's it!"
Not quite. A couple of months later, Marta had one of the most adorable baby girls I've ever seen. That Dr. Klenner fellow. I'd have liked to have met him. (For more about Dr Klenner: http://www.doctoryourself.com/klennerbio.html )
Right now there are a whole lot of researchers searching for a good new anti-viral drug. They are the blind leading the blind. They already have one. The pharmaceutical industry's mercenary scientists and their medical doctor clones will, in fact, try everything but megadoses of vitamin C. I think of them as birds that are willing to land on any branch except one. Too bad, because that one branch is the best in the tree.
Saying that make sure your taking a good multi v as rumour has it it can block b 12 uptake.
I believe b12 was what the guy at the shop said was the least toxic..or dangerous of the vitamins.
So I assume that means if you're hitting the Vit C hard then you can hit B12 hard to compensate?
Will have a read of your mega quote after I finish cooking dinner
Most people get enough B12 in their diet. So why take shots? The key is that while most people eat enough B12 rich foods, they have problems with absorption. B12 absorption is a complicated process. When you eat foods that are rich in B12, the vitamin must be separated from the protein. This happens in your stomach when enzymes and acids are secreted. R-protein then takes the B12 and transports it to the small intestine where it mixes with another protein called intrinsic factor. All of these processes must be able to go off without a hitch for your body to properly absorb B12. For those who cannot absorb B12, taking a B12 shot is a great solution to overcome their absorption issues.
..........VITAMIN C, TITRATING TO BOWEL TOLERANCE, ANASCORBEMIA, AND ACUTE INDUCED SCURVY
Robert F. Cathcart, III, M.D. Allergy, Environmental, and Orthomolecular Medicine 127 Second Street, Los Altos, California 94022, USA Telephone 650-949-2822 http://www.orthomed.com
ABSTRACT
A method of utilizing vitamin C in amounts just short of the doses which produce diarrhea is described (TITRATING TO BOWEL TOLERANCE). The amount of oral ascorbic acid tolerated by a patient without producing diarrhea increases somewhat proportionately to the stress or toxicity of his disease. Bowel tolerance doses of ascorbic acid ameliorate the acute symptoms of many diseases. Lesser doses often have little effect on acute symptoms but assist the body in handling the stress of disease and may reduce the morbidity of the disease. However, if doses of ascorbate are not provided to satisfy this potential draw on the nutrient, first local tissues involved in the disease, then the blood, and then the body in general become deplete of ascorbate (ANASCORBEMIA and ACUTE INDUCED SCURVY). The patient is thereby put at risk for complications of metabolic processes known to be dependent upon ascorbate.
INTRODUCTION
Over the past ten-year period I have treated over 9,000 patients with large doses of vitamin C (Cathcart 1, 2, 3, 4, 5). The effects of this substance when used in adequate amounts markedly alters the course of many diseases. Stressful conditions of any kind greatly increase utilization of vitamin C. Ascorbate excreted in the urine drops markedly with stresses of any magnitude unless vitamin C is provided in large amounts. However, a more convenient and clinically useful measure of ascorbate need and presumably utilization is the BOWEL TOLERANCE. The amount of ascorbic acid which can be taken orally without causing diarrhea when a person is ill sometimes is over ten times the amount he would tolerate if well. This increased bowel tolerance phenomenon serves not only to indicate the amount which should be taken but indicates the unsuspected and astonishing magnitude of the potential use that the body has for ascorbate under stressful conditions.
If this massive draw on the small ascorbate stores of the body is not fully satisfied, the condition of ANASCORBEMIA results. The deficit of ascorbate probably starts in the tissues directly involved in the disease and then spreads to other tissues of the body. A condition of localized and then systemic acute scurvy is produced. This ACUTE INDUCED SCURVY leads to poor healing and ultimately to complications involving other systems of the body.
Much of the original work with large amounts of vitamin C was done by Fred R. Klenner, M.D. (6, 7, 8, 9) of Reidsville, North Carolina. Klenner found that viral diseases could be cured by intravenous sodium ascorbate in amounts up to 200 grams per 24 hours. Irwin Stone (10, 11, 12) pointed out the potential of vitamin C in the treatment of many diseases, the inability of humans to synthesize ascorbate, and the resultant condition hypoascorbemia. Linus Pauling (13, 14) reviewed the literature on vitamin C and has led the crusade to make known its medical uses to the public and the medical profession. Ewan Cameron in association with Pauling (15, 16, 17) has shown the usefulness of ascorbate in the treatment of cancer. BOWEL TOLERANCE METHOD
In 1970, I discovered that the sicker a patient was, the more ascorbic acid he would tolerate by mouth before diarrhea was produced. At least 80% of adult patients will tolerate 10 to 15 grams of ascorbic acid fine crystals in 1/2 cup water divided into 4 doses per 24 hours without having diarrhea. The astonishing finding was that all patients, tolerant of ascorbic acid, can take greater amounts of the substance orally without having diarrhea when ill or under stress. This increased tolerance is somewhat proportional to the toxicity of the disease being treated. Tolerance is increased some by stress (e.g., anxiety, exercise, heat, cold, etc.)(see FIGURE I). Admittedly, increasing the frequency of doses increases tolerance perhaps to half again as much, but the tolerances of sometimes over 200 grams per 24 hours were totally unexpected. Representative doses taken by tolerant patients titrating their ascorbic acid intake between the relief of most symptoms and the production of diarrhea were as follows:
TABLE I - USUAL BOWEL TOLERANCE DOSES GRAMS ASCORBIC ACID NUMBER OF DOSES CONDITION PER 24 HOURS PER 24 HOURS normal 4 - 15 4 - 6 mild cold 30 - 60 6 - 10 severe cold 60 - 100+ 8 - 15 influenza 100 - 150 8 - 20 ECHO, coxsackievirus 100 - 150 8 - 20 mononucleosis 150 - 200+ 12 - 25 viral pneumonia 100 - 200+ 12 - 25 hay fever, asthma 15 - 50 4 - 8 environmental and food allergy 0.5 - 50 4 - 8 burn, injury, surgery 25 - 150+ 6 - 20 anxiety, exercise and other mild stresses 15 - 25 4 - 6 cancer 15 - 100 4 - 15 ankylosing spondylitis 15 - 100 4 - 15 Reiter's syndrome 15 - 60 4 - 10 acute anterior uveitis 30 - 100 4 - 15 rheumatoid arthritis 15 - 100 4 - 15 bacterial infections 30 - 200+ 10 - 25 infectious hepatitis 30 - 100 6 - 15 candidiasis 15 - 200+ 6 - 25 FIGURE 1. REPRESENTATIVE DOSES TO TREAT ACUTE SYMPTOMS OF
DISEASE IN PATIENTS VERY TOLERANT TO ASCORBIC ACID
GRAMS ASCORBIC ACID ORALLY PER 24 HOURS
1) Note that disease symptom curves indicate very little effect on acute symptoms until doses of 80-90% of bowel tolerance are reached. Perhaps it is only near tolerance doses that the ascorbate is pushed into the primary sites of the disease. 2) Suppression of symptoms in some instances may not be total; but usually it is very significant and often the amelioration is complete and rapid. 3) Hepatitis may require 30 to 100 grams. TITRATING TO BOWEL TOLERANCE
The maximum relief of symptoms which can be expected with oral doses of ascorbic acid is obtained at a point just short of the amount which produces diarrhea. The amount and the timing of the doses are usually sensed by the patient. The physician should not try to regulate exactly the amount and timing of these doses because the optimally effective dose will often change from dose to dose. Patients are instructed on the general principles of determining doses and given estimates of the reasonable starting amounts and timing of these doses. I have named this process of the patient determining the optimum dose, TITRATING TO BOWEL TOLERANCE. The patient tries to TITRATE between that amount which begins to make him feel better and that amount which almost but not quite causes diarrhea.
I think it is only that excess amount of ascorbate not absorbed into the body which causes diarrhea; what does not reach the rectum, does not cause diarrhea.
It is interesting to know, when one speculates on the exact cause of this diarrhea, that while a hypertonic solution of sodium ascorbate is being administered intravenously, the amount of ascorbic acid tolerated orally actually increases. THE 100 GRAM COLD
When a person is ill the amount of ascorbic acid he can ingest without diarrhea being produced increases somewhat proportionally to the severity or the toxicity of the disease. A cold severe enough to permit a person to take 100 grams of ascorbic acid per 24 hours during the peak of the disease, I call a 100 GRAM COLD.
INDIVIDUAL RESPONSES
Perhaps one of the most important principles in ORTHOMOLECULAR MEDICINE is BIOCHEMICAL INDIVIDUALITY (18). Every individual responds to substances differently. Vitamin C is no exception. However, at least 80% of my patients tolerated ascorbic acid well. Admittedly, there were relatively few older patients in my practice. Infants, small children, and teenagers tolerate ascorbic acid well and can take, proportionate to their body weight, larger amounts than adults. Older adults tolerate lesser amounts and have a higher percentage of nuisance difficulties. Patients with multiple food intolerances may have more difficulties but should attempt taking ascorbate because of benefits often obtained.
For several years while I was treating only sick people with ascorbic acid, I was unaware of the number of people who had nuisance problems with maintenance doses. The tolerance of the sick person to ascorbate is so high as to prevent many of the complaints one would have if he were well. When ascorbic acid is prescribed to a sick person, the beneficial effect is obvious enough so that few complain of the gas and diarrhea. With illness the effects of an overdose do not last long because of the rapid rate of utilization.
It is important for the physician to understand the principles of treating this vast majority of tolerant persons. Patients frequently underdose themselves and need professional guidance to push the doses to effective levels. The small number of persons, especially elderly persons, intolerant to oral doses are in my experience able to take intravenous ascorbate without difficulties. Additionally, patients with severe problems may need to be treated intravenously if very high doses will have to be maintained for some time for adequate suppression of symptoms. ANASCORBEMIA -- ACUTE INDUCED SCURVY
It is well established that certain symptoms are associated with an almost total lack of vitamin C within the body. Symptoms of scurvy include lassitude, malaise, bleeding gums, loss of teeth, nosebleeds, bruising, hemorrhages in any part of the body, easy infections, poor healing of wounds, deterioration of joints, brittle and painful bones, and death, etc. It is thought that this disease only occurs with dietary deprivation of vitamin C. However, an analogous condition is produced as follows:
Well-nourished humans usually contain not much more than 5 grams of vitamin C in their bodies. Unfortunately, the majority of people have far less ascorbate than this amount in their bodies and are at risk for many problems related to failure of metabolic processes dependent upon ascorbate. This condition is called CHRONIC SUBCLINICAL SCURVY (12).
If a disease is toxic enough to allow for the person's potential consumption of 100 grams of vitamin C, imagine what that disease must be doing to that possible 5 grams of ascorbate stored in the body. A condition of ACUTE INDUCED SCURVY is rapidly induced. Some of this increased metabolic need for ascorbate undoubtedly occurs in areas of the body not primarily involved in the disease and can be accounted for by such functions as the adrenals producing more adrenaline and corticoids; the immune system producing more antibodies, interferon (19, 20), and other substances to fight the infection; the macrophages utilizing more ascorbate with their increased activity; and the production and protection of c-AMP and c-GMP with the subsequent increased activity of other endocrine glands (21), etc. Also, there must be a tremendous draw on ascorbate locally by increased metabolic rates in the primarily infected tissues. The infecting organisms themselves liberate toxins which are neutralized by ascorbate, but in the process destroy ascorbate. The levels of ascorbate in the nose, throat, eustachian tubes, and bronchial tubes locally infected by a 100 gram cold must be very low indeed. With this acute induced scurvy localized in these areas, it is small wonder that healing can be delayed and complications such as chronic sinusitis, otitis media, and bronchitis, etc. develop.
I had assumed that much of this ascorbate was used for functions somehow directly related to neutralizing the toxicity of viral and bacterial diseases. When ill, one has the internal sense that something of this nature is happening when bowel tolerance is approached. Recently, however, I had the personal experience of ingesting 48 grams in an hour and a half when I had a sudden hay fever reaction to roses. Upon withdrawal from the roses tolerance dropped rapidly to normal. This experience plus my experiences with many patients under emotional stress, would indicate that the adrenals are capable of utilizing large amounts of ascorbate with benefit if it is made available.
This draw on ascorbate, from whatever source, lowers the blood level of ascorbate to a negligible level. I have coined the term ANASCORBEMIA for this condition. If this anascorbemia is not rapidly rectified by the oral administration of bowel tolerance doses of ascorbic acid or by intravenous administration of ascorbate, the remainder of the body is rapidly depleted of ascorbate and put at risk for disorders of the metabolic processes dependent upon vitamin C.
The following problems should be expected with increased incidence with severe depletion of ascorbate: disorders of the immune system such as secondary infections, rheumatoid arthritis and other collagen diseases, allergic reactions to drugs, foods and other substances, chronic infections such as herpes, or sequelae of acute infections such as Guillain-Barre' and Reye's syndromes, rheumatic fever, or scarlet fever; disorders of the blood coagulation mechanisms such as hemorrhage, heart attacks, strokes, hemorrhoids, and other vascular thrombosis; failure to cope properly with stresses due to suppression of the adrenal functions such as phlebitis, other inflammatory disorders, asthma and other allergies; problems of disordered collagen formation such as impaired ability to heal, excessive scarring, bed sores, varicose veins, hernias, stretch marks, wrinkles, perhaps even wear of cartilage or degeneration of spinal discs; impaired function of the nervous system such as malaise, decreased pain tolerance, tendency to muscle spasms, even psychiatric disorders and senility; and cancer from the suppressed immune system and carcinogens not detoxified; etc. Note that I am not saying that ascorbate depletion is the only cause of these disorders, but I am pointing out that disorders of these systems would certainly predispose to these diseases and that these systems are known to be dependent upon ascorbate for their proper function.
Not only is there the theoretical probability that these types of complications associated with infections or stresses could result from ascorbate depletion, but there was a conspicuous decrease in the expected occurrence of complications in the thousands of patients treated with oral tolerance doses or intravenous doses of ascorbate. This impression of marked decrease in these problems is shared by physicians experienced with the use of ascorbate such as Klenner (8, 9) and Kalokerinos (22). THE MISSING STRESS HORMONE
Stone (11) has described the genetic defect whereby the higher primates lost the ability to synthesize ascorbate. This defect is caused by a mutated defective gene for the liver enzyme, L-gulonolactone oxidase. The higher mammals (except for the higher primates) developed a feedback mechanism which increases ascorbate synthesis under the influence of external and internal stresses (23).
There are many well-established functions of vitamin C that help in the handling of stress. When stressed, the higher mammals can augment these functions by this feedback mechanism. For the higher primates, including humans, ascorbate can amount to the MISSING STRESS HORMONE (4).
I have seen strong clinical evidence that not only does the bowel tolerance to ascorbate increase under stress but that fully satisfying that potential use for ascorbate markedly reduces secondary diseases and complications following stress or primary disease. Since 1970, with teaching the bowel tolerance method of determining proper ascorbic acid doses to patients, I have not had to hospitalize a single patient for an acute viral disease or a complication from such a disease if the patient utilized the method. In some cases, such as with three cases of viral pneumonia, it was necessary to utilize intravenous ascorbate. Admittedly, I have been lucky because no patient has arrived with such severe symptoms as to necessitate immediate hospitalization. There have been many patients where there was no question that they would have required hospitalization in a very short period of time had not ascorbate been administered. Some patients not quite taking bowel tolerance doses, but taking significantly large doses of ascorbate, would not have as dramatic suppression of acute symptoms but would, nevertheless, avert complications. MONONUCLEOSIS
Acute mononucleosis is a good example because there is such an obvious difference between the course of the disease, with and without ascorbate. Also, it is possible to obtain laboratory diagnosis to verify that it is mononucleosis being treated. Early in this study a 23-year-old, 98-pound librarian with severe mononucleosis claimed to have taken 2 heaping tablespoons every 2 hours, consuming a full pound of ascorbic acid in 2 days. She felt mostly well in 3 to 4 days, although she had to continue about 20 to 30 grams a day for about 2 months.
Many cases do not require maintenance doses for more than 2 to 3 weeks. The duration of need can be sensed by the patient. I had ski patrol patients back skiing on the slopes in a week. They were instructed to carry their boda bags full of ascorbic acid solution as they skied. The ascorbate kept the disease symptoms almost completely suppressed even if the basic infection had not completely resolved. The lymph nodes and spleen returned to normal rapidly and the profound malaise was relieved in a few days. It is emphasized that tolerance doses must be maintained until the patient senses he is completely well, or the symptoms will recur. HEPATITIS
Acute cases of infectious hepatitis have responded dramatically. Cases included two orthopaedic surgeons who probably acquired the disease pricking their hands at surgery and being inoculated with a patient's blood. With ascorbate treatment laboratory tests including the SGOT, SGPT, and bilirubins indicated rapid reversal of the disease. In one of these cases, with the doctorpatient and his treating physicians having difficulty believing that the ascorbate was responsible for the improvement, the ascorbate was discontinued. The condition of the patient rapidly deteriorated. The patient's wife took charge and doled out the ascorbate; again the disease rapidly subsided with laboratory findings returning to normal.
Usually oral bowel tolerance doses will reverse hepatitis rapidly. Stools regularly return to normal color in 2 days. It generally takes about 6 days for the jaundice to clear, but the patient will feel almost well after 4 to 5 days. Because of the diarrhea caused by the disease, intravenous ascorbate may need to be used in very severe cases. Often large doses of ascorbic acid, taken orally despite diarrhea, will cause a paradoxical cessation of the diarrhea.
Morishige has demonstrated the effectiveness of ascorbate in preventing hepatitis from blood transfusions (24). UNSICK
The phenomenon of symptoms returning repeatedly if the ascorbate is not continued in high doses is most convincing. It is possible to have symptoms come and go many times. In fact, there is often a feeling when titrating to bowel tolerance that symptoms are beginning to return just before taking the next dose.
Often a patient will sense that he is probably catching some viral disease and that he is in need of large doses of ascorbic acid. If he is experienced in taking ascorbic acid he may be able to suppress more than 90% of the symptoms. He feels that he should take large amounts of ascorbate, does not feel quite right, and may have peculiar mild symptoms. I call this condition UNSICK. Recognition of this state is important because it can be mistaken for more serious conditions. INTRAVENOUS AND INTRAMUSCULAR ASCORBATE
Symptoms from acute viral diseases can most frequently be more permanently eliminated with intravenous sodium ascorbate. While it is true that tolerance doses of oral ascorbate will usually eliminate complications of acute viral diseases; at times, such as with certain cases of influenza, the large amount of oral ascorbate necessary to suppress symptoms over a period of a week or more, sometimes makes intravenous ascorbate desirable. Clinically large amounts of ascorbate used intravenously are virucidal (2, 5, 7, 8).
The sodium ascorbate used intravenously and intramuscularly must contain no preservatives. Usually there is only a small amount of EDTA in the preparation to chelate trace amounts of copper and iron which might destroy the ascorbate. Solutions containing sodium ascorbate 250 or 500 mgm per cc can be obtained. The 250 mgm solutions may be used in young children intramuscularly in doses usually 350 mgm/kg body weight up to every 2 hours. When the volume of the material becomes too great for intramuscular injections, then the intravenous route should be used. Inadequate doses will be ineffective. Quite frequently a child initially refusing oral ascorbate will cooperate after injections if given the alternative. While this method of persuasion seems cruel, it is better than the complications which might otherwise occur. These intramuscular injections can be used in a crisis situation. Kalokerinos (22) describes cases where certain death in infants already in shock has been averted by emergency intramuscular ascorbate.
For intravenous solutions concentrations of 60 grams per liter are made with the 250 or 500 mgm/cc sodium ascorbate diluted with Ringer's lactate, 1/2N saline, 1N saline, D5W, or distilled water for injection. I prefer the latter, but one has to be absolutely sure that an error is not made and pure water given. Ascorbate is more efficient intravenously than orally probably because chemical processes in the gut destroy a percentage of that orally administered. Doses of 400 to 700 mgm/kg of body weight per 24 hours usually suffice. Rate of infusion and the total amount administered can be determined by making sure that symptoms are suppressed and that the patient not become dehydrated or receive sodium too rapidly. Local soreness in the vein caused by too rapid infusion is relieved by slowing the intravenous infusion. One gram of calcium gluconate should be added to the bottles each day to prevent tetany.
I have not yet seen a case of phlebitis develop as a result of ascorbate administration. This rarity of phlebitis possibly suggests that this condition sometimes has something to do with ascorbate depletion.
Frequently I have the patient take oral doses of ascorbic acid at the same time he is taking intravenous sodium ascorbate. Bowel tolerance is actually increased by concomitant use of intravenous ascorbate. Care and experience is necessary with concomitant use because tolerance drops precipitously when the intravenous infusion is discontinued. BACTERIAL INFECTIONS
Ascorbic acid should be used with the appropriate antibiotic. The effect of ascorbic acid is synergistic with antibiotics and would appear to broaden the spectrum of antibiotics considerably. I found that penicillin-K orally or penicillin-G intramuscularly used in conjunction with bowel tolerance doses of ascorbic acid would usually treat infections caused by organisms ordinarily requiring ampicillin or other more modern synthetic penicillins. Cephalosporins were used in conjunction with ascorbic acid for staphylococcus infections. The combination of tetracycline and ascorbate was used for nonspecific urethritis; however, patients who had previously repeated recurrences of nonspecific urethritis found they were free of the disease with maintenance doses of ascorbate. I am not sure that the tetracycline was necessary even in the acute cases, but it was used for legal reasons. Some other cases of unknown etiology such as two cases of Reiter's disease and one case of acute anterior uveitis also responded dramatically to ascorbate.
A most important point is that patients with bacterial infections would usually respond rapidly to ascorbic acid plus a basic antibiotic determined by initial clinical impressions. If cultures subsequently proved the selection of antibiotic incorrect, usually the patient was well by that time.
In the case of a 45-year-old man who had developed osteomyelitis of the 5th metacarpal of the right hand following a cat bite, a partial amputation of the hand had been recommended and surgery scheduled. Consultants agreed. The patient delayed surgery and signed himself out of the hospital. He was given intravenous ascorbate 50 grams a day for 2 weeks. The infection resolved rapidly. While this patient had destruction of the distal end of the metacarpal, there has been no recurrence of the infection (25).
This case illustrates the frequent problem of an indolent infection with an organism non-responsive to the most sophisticated antibiotic treatment which then may respond rapidly to treatment with intravenous ascorbate.
Treating simultaneously with the appropriate antibiotic plus ascorbate has the additional advantage that if, unexpectedly, the infection is actually viral, the infection will be suppressed and the incidence of allergic reaction to the antibiotic reduced. VITAMIN C AND ALLERGY
Patients seemed not to develop their first allergic reaction to penicillin when they had taken bowel tolerance ascorbate for several doses. Among the several thousand patients given penicillin, two cases of brief rash were seen in patients who had taken their first dose of penicillin along with their first dose of ascorbate. If one understands the reasons for bowel tolerance doses of ascorbate, it is obvious that these patients were not as yet "saturated." I saw three patients who had taken penicillin without ascorbate who had developed an urticarial rash. These cases rapidly responded to oral ascorbic acid. Only a single dose of antihistamine was usually used. I would have anticipated longer reactions in most of these cases. I saw one case of a delayed serum sickness type of penicillin reaction in a ten-year-old girl who had not taken ascorbate previously. The rash in this patient did not immediately respond to ascorbic acid. The rash took about two weeks to completely resolve; however, if the ascorbate was not taken regularly to tolerance, the rash would worsen. It was difficult to maintain high doses in this patient.
Patients who had known-previous-allergic reactions to penicillin were never given the antibiotic anticipating that vitamin C would protect them. I suspect that the deficit of body ascorbate produced by disease may have something to do with malfunction of the immune system and the development of allergies. However, whether ascorbate may give some protection from an antibiotic known previously to cause an allergic reaction in a patient, when subsequent reactions might involve anaphylaxis, is a question which must be approached very carefully. Certainly, inadequate doses of ascorbate could be disastrous.
Patients with mononucleosis, untreated with ascorbate, have a very high incidence of allergic reaction to penicillin. It is interesting that this same disease seems to cause some of the highest bowel tolerances of any disease.
As can be seen from the previous discussion of the increasing bowel tolerance phenomenon, there is undoubtedly increased utilization of ascorbate under stressful conditions. If this increased utilization creates a deficit, there may be malfunctions of various systems of the body such as the immune system which are dependent on ascorbate. Therefore, it should not be surprising that certain malfunctions of the immune system and adrenal glands associated with stress might be ameliorated by ascorbate.
Hay fever is controlled in the majority of patients. Bowel tolerance doses are usually required only at the peak of the season; otherwise, more modest doses suffice. Many patients find the effect of ascorbate more satisfactory than immunizations or antihistamines and decongestants. The dosages required are frequently proportional to exposure to the antigen.
Asthma is most often relieved by bowel tolerance doses of ascorbate. A child regularly having asthmatic attacks following exercise is usually relieved of these attacks by large doses of ascorbate. So far all of my patients having asthmatic attacks associated with the onset of viral diseases have been ameliorated by this treatment.
Large clinical studies will be necessary to prove this point, but for now prudent practice would be to take large doses ofascorbate when stressed or when ill.
This theory begins to make some sense of the observation that many patients will develop allergic disorders or other diseases following combinations of stress, disease, and malnutrition. Immunologists should be particularly interested in the control of these allergic problems and particularly the dramatic responses of cases of ankylosing spondylitis, Reiter's disease, and acute anterior uveitis. All three of these problems have a high association with the HLA-B27 antigen. The possibility that ascorbate might have some value in controlling the immune response at the gene level should be thoroughly investigated because there could be some basic implications in histocompatibility (graft acceptance), cancer control, and destruction of foreign invaders. Ascorbate would appear to help stabilize some homeostatic mechanisms. CANDIDA ALBICANS
Yeast infections occur less frequently in patients treated with antibiotics if bowel tolerance doses of ascorbic acid are simul- taneously used. Ascorbic acid seems to reduce the systemic toxicity considerably but does not eliminate the primary infection. It has been helpful to patients with allergic problems secondary to candida.
FUNGUS INFECTIONS
Although ascorbic acid should be given in some form to all sick patients to help meet the stress of disease, it is my experience that ascorbate has little effect on the primary fungal infections. Systemic toxicity and complications can be reduced in incidence. It may be found that appropriate antifungal agents will better penetrate tissues saturated in ascorbate.
TRAUMA, SURGERY, AND BURNS
Swelling and pain from trauma, surgery, and burns are markedly reduced by bowel tolerance doses of ascorbic acid. Doses should be given a minimum of 6 times a day for trauma and surgery. Burns can require hourly doses. Serious burns, major trauma, and surgery should be treated with intravenous ascorbate. The effect of ascorbate on anesthetics should be studied. Barbiturates and many narcotics are blocked, (26) so their use as anesthetic agents will be limited when ascorbate is used during surgery. While practicing orthopaedic surgery, I had some experience with trauma cases in which I used ascorbic acid post-operatively. There was virtual elimination of confusion in elderly patients following major surgeries such as with hip fractures when ascorbate was given. This confusion is commonly ascribed to fat embolization and the subsequent inflammation provoked in the tissues by the emboli. I did several menisectomies where one knee had been done before vitamin C was used, and the other side after vitamin C was used. The pain and post-operative recovery time were lessened considerably. The amount of inflammation and edema following injury and surgery were markedly reduced. The pain medications used were relatively minimal. My limited experience in replacing skin flaps avulsed by trauma indicated a whole degree of lessened difficulties with much greater success.
Anyone who has done animal surgery other than on humans is impressed by the rapid recovery rate. Humans loaded with ascorbate would appear to recover similarly to the animals which make their own ascorbate in response to stress. In the past, vitamin C administered to patients in hospitals post-operatively has been in trivial amounts never exceeding several grams. I predict that reimplantations of major amputations, even transplant surgeries, and especially fine surgeries of the eyes, ears, or fingers will enjoy a phenomenal increase in success rate when ascorbate is utilized in doses of 100 grams or more per 24 hours.
The limited stress-coping mechanisms of humans seems to be the result of rapid ascorbate depletion. With surgery this leads to vascular thrombosis, hemorrhage, infection, edema, drug reactions, shock, adrenal collapse with limited adrenaline and steroid production, etc. CANCER
I have avoided the treatment of cancer patients for legal reasons; however, I have given nutritional consults to a number of cancer patients and have observed an increased bowel tolerance to ascorbic acid. Were I treating cancer patients, I would not limit their ascorbic acid ingestion to a set amount but would titrate them to bowel tolerance. Ewan Cameron's advice against giving cancer patients with widespread metastasis large amounts of ascorbate too rapidly at first should be heeded. He found that sometimes extensive necrosis or hemorrhage in the cancer could kill a patient with widespread metastasis if the vitamin was started too rapidly (16). Hopefully, in the future ascorbic acid will be among the initial treatments given cancer patients. The additional nutritional needs of cancer patients are not limited to ascorbic acid, but certainly the stress involved with having the disease depletes ascorbate levels in the body. Ascorbate should be used in cancer patients to avert disorders of ascorbate deficiency in various systems of the body including the immune system.
BACK PAIN FROM DISC DISEASE
Greenwood (27) observed that 1 gram a day would reduce the incidence of necessary surgery on discs. At bowel tolerance levels, ascorbic acid reduces pain about 50% and lessens the difficulties with narcotics and muscle relaxants (2). It is not, however, the only nutritional support that patients with back pain should receive.
ARTHRITIS
Bowel tolerance is not increased by degenerative arthritis although occasionally ascorbate has some beneficial effect.
Ankylosing spondylitis and rheumatoid arthritis do increase tolerance. Clinical response varies. Norman Cousins (28) curing his own ankylosing spondylitis with ascorbate is not unexpected. With these and other collagen diseases, food and chemical allergies can sometimes be found. It may be that the blocking of allergic reactions with augmented adrenal function is one of the reasons these patients are sometimes benefitted. SCARLET FEVER
Three cases with typical sandpaper-like rash, peeling skin, and diagnostic laboratory findings of scarlet fever have responded within an hour or overnight. I think this immediate response is due to the neutralization of the small amount of streptococcus toxin responsible for the disease. Although I have not seen a case of acute rheumatic fever, I would anticipate rapid effects.
HERPES: COLD SORES, GENITAL LESIONS, AND SHINGLES
Acute herpes infections are usually ameliorated with bowel tolerance doses of ascorbic acid. However, recurrences are common especially if the disease has already become chronic. Zinc in combination with ascorbic acid is more effective for herpes; however, caution and regular monitoring of patients on zinc should be done.
For chronic herpes, intravenous ascorbate may also be of benefit. CRIB DEATHS (SUDDEN INFANT DEATH SYNDROME)
I would agree with Kalokerinos (22) and Klenner (8) that crib deaths are often caused by sudden ascorbate depletions. The induced scurvy in some vital regulatory center kills the child. This induced deficiency is more likely to occur when the diet is poor in vitamin C. All of the epidemiologic factors predisposing to crib deaths are associated with low vitamin C intake or high vitamin C destruction.
MAINTENANCE DOSES
Maintenance doses are established by the patient taking bowel tolerance doses 6 times a day for at least a week. He observes if there is any unexpected benefit such as clearing of sinuses, decrease in allergies, increase in energy, etc. Should any chronic problem be benefitted, then the dose is decreased to the minimum amount producing the effect. Otherwise a dose such as 4 to 10 grams a day divided in 3 to 4 doses is recommended.
In addition, the patient is told to increase the dose on stressful days. If a patient well tolerates ascorbic acid dissolved in water, then after a short period of time his taste will begin to regulate the dosages. Most patients can easily sense their ascorbate needs.
Patients who take ascorbate in large amounts over a long period of time should probably suppliment with vitamin A and a multiple mineral preparation. The "Fortified Formulation for Nutritional Insurance" of Roger Williams (29) is recommended as a base.
COMPLICATIONS
It is my experience that ascorbic acid probably prevents most kidney stones. I have had a few patients who had had kidney stones before starting bowel tolerance doses who have subsequently had no more difficulty with them. Acute and chronic urinary tract infections are often eliminated; this fact may remove one of the causes of kidney stones. Six patients have had mild pain on urination; five of these patients were over fifty and none had stones.
Three out of thousands had a light rash which cleared with subsequent doses. It was difficult to evaluate the cause of this because of concomitant infections. Several patients had discoloration of the skin under jewelry of certain metals. A few patients complaining of small sores in the mouth with the taking of small doses of ascorbate had them clear with bowel tolerance doses.
Patients with hidden peptic ulcers may have pain, but some are benefitted. Mineral ascorbates can be used for maintenance doses in these cases. Two patients who had mild epigastric discomfort with maintenance doses of ascorbic acid who after being given ascorbate by vein for several days were then able to tolerate the acid orally.
It is my experience that high maintenance doses reduce the incidence of gouty arthritis. I have not seen difficulties with giving large amounts of ascorbic acid to patients with gout. Almost all my patients have been Caucasian, so I have no comment on the report that ascorbate can cause certain blood problems in certain non-white groups (30).
There has been no clinical evidence as Herbert and Jacob (31) suspected that ascorbic acid destroys vitamin B12.
If maintenance doses of ascorbic acid in solution are used over very long periods of time I would rinse the teeth after each dose. I would not brush my teeth with calcium ascorbate.
There is a certain dependency on ascorbic acid that a patient acquires over a long period of time when he takes large maintenance doses. Apparently, certain metabolic reactions are facilitated by large amounts of ascorbate and if the substance is suddenly withdrawn, certain problems result such as a cold, return of allergy, fatigue, etc. Mostly, these problems are a return of problems the patient had before taking the ascorbic acid. Patients have by this time become so adjusted to feeling better that they refuse to go without ascorbic acid. Patients do not seem to acquire this dependency in the short time they take doses to bowel tolerance to treat an acute disease. Maintenance doses of 4 grams per day do not seem to create a noticeable dependency. The majority of patients who take over 10-15 grams of ascorbic acid per day probably have certain metabolic needs for ascorbate which exceed the universal human species need. Patients with chronic allergies often take large maintenance doses.
The major problem feared by patients benefiting from these large maintenance doses of ascorbic acid is that they may be forced into a position where their body is deprived of ascorbate during a period of great stress such as emergency hospitalization. Physicians should recognize the consequences of suddenly withdrawing ascorbate under these circumstances and be prepared to meet these increased metabolic needs for ascorbate in even an unconscious patient. These consequences of ascorbate depletion which may include shock, heart attack, phlebitis, pneumonia, allergic reactions, increased susceptibility to infection, etc., may be averted only by ascorbate. Patients unable to take large oral doses should be given intravenous ascorbate. All hospitals should have supplies of large amounts of ascorbate for intravenous use to meet this need. The millions of people taking ascorbic acid makes this an urgent priority. Patients should carry warnings of these needs in a card prominently displayed in their wallets or have a Medic Alert type bracelet engraved with this warning.
CONCLUSION
The method of titrating a patient's dosage of ascorbic acid between the relief of most symptoms and bowel tolerance has been described. Either this titration method or large intravenous doses are absolutely necessary to obtain excellent results. Studies of lesser amounts are almost useless. The oral method cannot by its very nature be investigated by double blind studies because no placebo will mimic this bowel tolerance phenomenon. The method produces such spectacular effects in all patients capable of tolerating these doses, especially in the cases of acute self-limiting viral diseases, as to be undeniable. A placebo could not possibly work so reliably, even in infants and children, and have such a profound effect on critically ill patients. Belfield (32) has had similar results in veterinary medicine curing distemper and kennel fever in dogs with intravenous ascorbate. Although dogs produce their own ascorbate, they do not produce enough to neutralize the toxicity of these diseases. This effect in animals could hardly be a placebo.
It would be possible to conduct a double blind study on intravenous ascorbate; however, doses would have to be determined by someone experienced with this method.
Part of the difficulty many have with understanding ascorbate is that claims for its benefits seem too many. Most of these clinical results merely indicate that large doses of ascorbate augment the healing abilities of the body already known to be dependent upon minimal doses of ascorbate.
I anticipate that other essential nutrients will be found being utilized at unsuspectedly rapid rates in disease states. Compli- cations caused by failures in systems dependent upon those nutrients will be found. The magnitude of supplimentations necessary to avert those complications will seem extraordinary by standards accepted today.
I've been told that by having Heamochromotosis (dont know if thats how you spell it right) being common in my family that having too much Vitamin C in my diet can cause me problems later down the track if its been genetically passed onto me. However I've been told that its a complete load of BS too. My mum, aunt and 2 cousins have had to have blood letting done to counter the effects of having too much iron in their blood, generally through blood donations.
I still take Vitamin C tablets, but only in the morning with brekky, not during the day and give myself a few weeks away from them when I finish the jar.
Interesting read this thread
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