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Ascorbate: The Science of
Vitamin C |
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Ascorbate: Science of Vitamin C |
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ASCORBATE:
THE SCIENCE OF VITAMIN C "It's not what we don't know
that harms us, but what we do know that ain't so." (Mark
Twain) What is it about a little
left-handed molecule of six carbons, six oxygens, and eight hydrogens that ticks off so many in
the medical community? Maybe
it's cases like this one: Ray, a health professional I know, had an 11-month
old son who was very sick 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 and labored breathing. The child
would not sleep, and did little else but cry. The baby was under the care
of a pediatrician,
who, in the infant's eleven months on earth, had already prescribed twelve rounds of some very serious antibiotics. That they
clearly
were not working was all too apparent to Ray, who out of desperation
decided to try something he previously had been taught to not try: bowel tolerance quantities of oral ascorbate. Ray and his wife gave their baby some vitamin C about every 15 minutes. As a result,
the baby was noticeably improved in a matter of hours, and slept through the
night. With frequent
doses continuing, the child was completely well in 48 hours. Ray
calculated that the baby had received just over 2,000 mg vitamin C per kilogram body weight per day. This is even more than what Dr. Frederick
Robert Klenner customarily ordered for sick patients. Remarkably,
at 20,000 milligrams of vitamin C/day, that 20-pound baby never had diarrhea. With such
a little body, you have to marvel at where all of it was going. Of course,
it is the opinion of those who promulgate the US RDA and related nutritional
mythology that almost all of that baby's vitamin C went uselessly into the toilet. Ray and his wife would tell you differently.
They would say that
their sick child soaked it up like a sponge, and then promptly got better. For the
layman unable to obtain intravenous vitamin C, one of the most important
parts of Hickey and Roberts' new book, Ascorbate:
The Science of Vitamin C, is its attention to oral
administration, divided dosing, absorption, and vitamin C retention time in the bloodstream. With
simple graphs
and uncomplicated language, the authors illustrate 1) how high oral doses of
vitamin C yield higher blood levels of the vitamin, and 2) how dividing the oral doses maintains those higher levels. Although
initially seeming
almost too obvious to mention, these are not self-evident concepts. Government-based intake standards such as the RDA hinge
on ignoring them. Hickey
and Roberts zero in on this serious public health error. Their critical analysis
of research studies purporting to justify a mere 100 or 200 mg/day ascorbate dose is worthy of Linus Pauling himself. Dr. Roberts
says: "Stressed
and even mildly ill people can tolerate 1,000 times more vitamin C,
implying a change in biochemistry that was ignored in creating the RDA. The
RDA concept does not differentiate between short and long- term effects of deprivation. The possibility that sub-clinical
scurvy causes chronic disease has enormous implications for health. In setting
the RDA, unsubstantiated
risks of taking too much vitamin C have been accorded great
importance, whereas the risks of not taking enough have been ignored. Real scientists understand that 'no scientific proof' is
a fancy way of saying 'we don’t like this idea.' Furthermore, there is no clear mechanism
for the RDA to be modified when new scientific evidence emerges." Ascorbate: The Science of Vitamin
C is a
compellingly written, fast-paced inspection of belief-based bias that permeates the scientific
method. It is not a tirade; Hickey and Roberts simply tell it the way it is. They are
well qualified to do so. Steve Hickey has a PhD in Medical Biophysics
from the initially
trained as a biologist specializing in pharmacology, later switching to biomechanics and medical physics. In addition to degrees in
physiology and
computer science, Hilary Roberts' on the effects of early life malnutrition. She spent ten years in
research and teaching at the university. When
asked how he and his coauthor came to write the book, Dr. Hickey said:
"Since Linus Pauling's death, there seemed to be a great deal of misinformation. The NIH had performed some questionable experiments and were
making the apparently ridiculous statement that blood plasma and tissues became saturated with low doses of vitamin C. There was no mainstream
research on high doses and the establishment was making wild extrapolations from their low dose data. We could not see
how a clinical
trial with 200 mg of vitamin C, for example, could be used to suggest that higher doses were not effective. The work of
physicians like Robert
Cathcart, Archie Kalokerinos and Abram Hoffer
intrigued us. The reported effects, especially of intravenous vitamin C, were
astounding. It was difficult to find any reason to explain the lack of scientific
follow-up. We had
friends and relatives that were sick or dying from diseases that high dose vitamin C was claimed to cure. Eventually we felt we
had no choice but to write the book." Dr.
Roberts adds: "Most RDA standards are based on data which was not measured in actual experiments on real people. Even the small
amount of data from
the 19–30 year old subjects, who were measured, is based on neutrophils, a white blood cell type that is known to have unusual
vitamin C
biochemistry, along with an exceptional ability to pump the vitamin into itself. Neutrophils have ascorbate
levels from 25-60 times that of the surrounding plasma. This cell type is not a reliable model for the
whole body." Additional
topics discussed in Ascorbate: The
Science of Vitamin C include
infectious disease, oxidation and illness, the safety of vitamin C, and a
presentation of the authors' dynamic flow model of continual vitamin C-mediated
tissue reduction. The book contains substantial sections devoted
to cardiovascular disease, with the welcome inclusion of an efficient discussion of the roles of vitamin E and lysine. Two
excellent chapters
on cancer take the starch right out of the Mayo Clinic
"refutations" of the Pauling/Cameron vitamin C studies. The authors state that Dr. Charles
"Moertel's switch to oral does would clearly
have biased the results"
even though Pauling "stated clearly that intravenous doses are more
effective than oral doses and explained the reasons for the difference." Ascorbate: The Science of Vitamin
C contains 575
references, and especially good ones. Though not alphabetized, all are keyed to the
text with numbered footnotes. For a book this important, the index
could be and should be more detailed. A glossary is included for the general
reader. All will
enjoy the well-selected epigrams that form the chapter lead-in quotes. The
authors expert command of their topic has enabled them to successfully encompass an enormous, and enormously important, subject.
To make a
216-page book this comprehensive, and also so exceptionally comprehensible as well, is no small achievement. I wish
I'd had a book of this caliber back in the 1970's when my kids were infants. I raised my children all the way into college without a
single dose of any antiviral, antihistamine, or antibiotic. What they did get were megadoses of vitamin C. We, like so many other parents, learned the
principles
of vitamin C therapy (quantity, frequency, and duration) at our kids' bedsides at three in the morning. Now, the pioneering work of megascorbate orthomolecular physicians has been concisely summarized and very skillfully explained in Ascorbate:
The Science of Vitamin C. It is a thorough,
up to date and very readable analysis of what, to some, may still appear to be a controversial topic. Those who
use it know that taking enough C results in 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. For this reason, vitamin C therapy
will, at least in some quarters, continue be decried and denounced as
irresponsible. 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/Pauling/Cathcart vitamin C protocol." Hickey and Roberts' review of vitamin C
research is a solid buttress that makes such a stance possible. No bias or
belief system can
withstand their first-rate presentation of the safety and effectiveness of megadoses of ascorbate. Hickey S
and Roberts H. Ascorbate: The science
of vitamin C. 2004. ISBN 1-4116-0724-4.
Reviewed
by Andrew W. Saul. You might also enjoy reading DOCTOR
YOURSELF (http://www.doctoryourself.com/saulbooks.html)
and FIRE YOUR DOCTOR! (http://www.doctoryourself.com/review.html)]
Copyright 2005 by Andrew W. Saul. |
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AN IMPORTANT NOTE: This page is not in any way offered as prescription, diagnosis nor treatment for any disease, illness, infirmity or physical condition. Any form of self-treatment or alternative health program necessarily must involve an individual's acceptance of some risk, and no one should assume otherwise. Persons needing medical care should obtain it from a physician. Consult your doctor before making any health decision. Neither the author nor the webmaster has authorized the use of their names or the use of any material contained within in connection with the sale, promotion or advertising of any product or apparatus. Single-copy reproduction for individual, non-commercial use is permitted providing no alterations of content are made, and credit is given. |
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