Vitamin C and its Misunderstandings

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Orthomolecular Medicine News Service, October 12, 2010

About " Objections " to Vitamin C Therapy

(OMNS October 12, 2010) In massive doses, vitamin C (ascorbic acid) stops

a cold within hours, stops influenza in a day or two, and stops viral

pneumonia (pain, fever, cough) in two or three days. (1) It is a highly

effective antihistamine, antiviral and antitoxin. It reduces inflammation and

lowers fever. Administered intravenously, ascorbate kills cancer cells without

harming healthy tissue. Many people therefore wonder, in the face of

statements like these, why the medical professions have not embraced vitamin C

therapy with open and grateful arms.

Probably the main roadblock to widespread examination and utilization of

this all-too-simple technology is the equally widespread belief that there

must be unknown dangers to tens of thousands of milligrams of ascorbic acid.

Yet, since the time megascorbate therapy was introduced in the late 1940's

by Fred R. Klenner, M.D. (2), there has been an especially safe, and

extremely effective track record to follow.

Still, for some, questions remain. Here is a sample of what readers have

asked OMNS about vitamin C:

Is 2,000 mg/day of vitamin C a megadose?

No. Decades ago, Linus ing and Irwin Stone showed that most animals

make at least that much (or more) per human body weight per day. (3,4)

Then why has the government set the " Safe Upper Limit for vitamin C at

2,000 mg/day?

Perhaps the reason is ignorance. According to nationwide data compiled by

the American Association of Poison Control Centers, vitamin C (and the use

of any other dietary supplement) does not kill anyone. (5)

Does vitamin C damage DNA?

No. If vitamin C harmed DNA, why do most animals make (not eat, but make)

between 2,000 and 10,000 milligrams of vitamin C per human equivalent body

weight per day? Evolution would never so favor anything that harms vital

genetic material. White blood cells and male reproductive fluids contain

unusually high quantities of ascorbate. Living, reproducing systems love

vitamin C.

Does vitamin C cause low blood sugar, B-12 deficiency, birth defects, or

infertility?

Vitamin C does not cause birth defects, nor infertility, nor miscarriage.

" Harmful effects have been mistakenly attributed to vitamin C, including

hypoglycemia, rebound scurvy, infertility, mutagenesis, and destruction of

vitamin B-12. Health professionals should recognize that vitamin C does not

produce these effects. " (6)

Does vitamin C . . .

A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled 14 day trial of 3,000 mg

per day of vitamin C reported greater frequency of sexual intercourse. The

vitamin C group (but not the placebo group) also experienced a quantifiable

decrease in depression. This is probably due to the fact that vitamin C

" modulates catecholaminergic activity, decreases stress reactivity, approach

anxiety and prolactin release, improves vascular function, and increases

oxytocin release. These processes are relevant to sexual behavior and mood. "

(7)

Does vitamin C cause kidney stones?

No. The myth of the vitamin C-caused kidney stone is rivaled in popularity

only by the Loch Ness Monster. A factoid-crazy medical media often

overlooks the fact that J. McCormick, M.D., demonstrated that vitamin C

actually prevents the formation of kidney stones. He did so in 1946, when he

published a paper on the subject. (8) His work was confirmed by University

of Alabama professor of medicine Emanuel Cheraskin, M.D.. Dr. Cheraskin

showed that vitamin C inhibits the formation of oxalate stones. (9)

Other research reports that: " Even though a certain part of oxalate in the

urine derives from metabolized ascorbic acid, the intake of high doses of

vitamin C does not increase the risk of calcium oxalate kidney stones. . .

(I)n the large- scale Harvard Prospective Health Professional Follow-Up

Study, those groups in the highest quintile of vitamin C intake (greater than

1,500 mg/day) had a lower risk of kidney stones than the groups in the

lowest quintiles. " (10)

Dr. F. Cathcart said, " I started using vitamin C in massive doses

in patients in 1969. By the time I read that ascorbate should cause kidney

stones, I had clinical evidence that it did not cause kidney stones, so I

continued prescribing massive doses to patients. Up to 2006, I estimate that

I have put 25,000 patients on massive doses of vitamin C and none have

developed kidney stones. Two patients who had dropped their doses to 500 mg a

day developed calcium oxalate kidney stones. I raised their doses back up to

the more massive doses and added magnesium and B-6 to their program and no

more kidney stones. I think they developed the kidney stones because they

were not taking enough vitamin C. "

Why did Linus ing die from cancer if he took all that vitamin C?

Linus ing, PhD, megadose vitamin C advocate, died in 1994 from

prostate cancer. Mayo Clinic cancer researcher G. Moertel, M.D., critic

of

ing and vitamin C, also died in 1994, and also from cancer (lymphoma).

Dr. Moertel was 66 years old. Dr. ing was 93 years old. One needs to

make up ones own mind as to whether this does or does not indicate benefit

from vitamin C.

A review of the subject indicates that " Vitamin C deficiency is common in

patients with advanced cancer . . . Patients with low plasma concentrations

of vitamin C have a shorter survival. " (11)

Does vitamin C narrow arteries or cause atherosclerosis?

Abram Hoffer, M.D., has said: " I have used vitamin C in megadoses with my

patients since 1952 and have not seen any cases of heart disease develop

even after decades of use. Dr. Cathcart with experience on over 25,000

patients since 1969 has seen no cases of heart disease developing in

patients who did not have any when first seen. He added that the thickening of

the vessel walls, if true, indicates that the thinning that occurs with age

is reversed. . . The fact is that vitamin C decreases plaque formation

according to many clinical studies. Some critics ignore the knowledge that

thickened arterial walls in the absence of plaque formation indicate that the

walls are becoming stronger and therefore less apt to rupture. . . Gokce,

Keaney, Frei et al gave patients supplemental vitamin C daily for thirty days

and measured blood flow through the arteries. Blood flow increased nearly

fifty percent after the single dose and this was sustained after the

monthly treatment. (12). "

What about blood pressure?

A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study showed that

hypertensive patients taking supplemental vitamin C had lower blood pressure.

(13)

So why the flurry of anti-vitamin-C reporting in the mass media? Negative

news gets attention. Negative news sells newspapers, and magazines, and

pulls in lots of television viewers. Positive drug studies do get headlines,

of course. Positive vitamin studies do not. Is this a conspiracy? You mean

with unscrupulous people all sitting around a shaded table in a darkened

back room? Of course not. It is nevertheless an enormous public health problem

with enormous consequences.

150 million Americans take supplemental vitamin C every day. This is as

much a political issue as a scientific issue. What would happen if everybody

took vitamins? Perhaps doctors, hospital administrators and pharmaceutical

salespeople would all be lining up for their unemployment checks.

A skeptic might conclude that there is at least some evidence that the

politicians are on the wrong side of this. After all, the US RDA for vitamin C

for humans is only 10% of the government's USDA vitamin C standards for

Guinea pigs. (14) But conspiracy against nutritional medicine? Certainly not.

Couldn't be.

References and Additional Reading:

(1) Cathcart RF. Vitamin C, titration to bowel tolerance, anascorbemia,

and acute induced scurvy. " Medical Hypothesis 7:1359-1376, 1981.

_http://www.doctoryourself.com/titration.html_

(http://www.cihfimediaservices.org/12all/lt/t_go.php?i=109 & e=MjYyMjM= & l=-http--w\

ww.doctoryourself.com/titration.html)

See also: _http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v05n09.shtml_

(http://www.cihfimediaservices.org/12all/lt/t_go.php?i=109 & e=MjYyMjM= & l=-http--o\

rthomo

lecular.org/resources/omns/v05n09.shtml) and

_http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v05n11.shtml_

(http://www.cihfimediaservices.org/12all/lt/t_go.php?i=109 & e=MjYyMjM= & l=-http--o\

rthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v05n11.shtml