Notes On Orthomolecular (Megavitamin) Use of Vitamin C
http://www.doctoryourself.com/ortho_c.html
By Andrew W. Saul
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 antihistamine, antitoxin,
antibiotic, and antiviral 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."