Interesting vitamin C safety info

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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 ing, 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.

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

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 ing 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.

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 W. Saul. From the book PAPERBACK CLINIC,

available from Dr. Saul, Number 8 Van Buren Street, Holley, New York

14470.