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Infectious Diseases and Toxins |
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Infectious Diseases and Toxins |
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Vitamin C, Infectious Diseases, and
Toxins: Curing the Incurable,
by Thomas E. Levy, M.D., J.D. http://www.tomlevymd.com [ The effectiveness and
safety of megadose vitamin C therapy should, by now, be yesterday’s news. Yet
I never cease to be amazed at the number of persons who remain unaware that
vitamin C is the best broad-spectrum antibiotic, antihistamine, antitoxic and
antiviral substance there is. Equally surprising is the ease with which some
people, most of the medical profession, and virtually all of the media have been
convinced that, somehow, vitamin C is not only ineffective but is also
downright dangerous. Therefore I am always
glad to find yet another impeccably qualified physician who publishes to set
things straight. Thomas E. Levy, a practicing physician for 25 years, is a
board-certified internist and a fellow of the That list is rather
short, and here’s why. When you pick up a health or nutrition book and need
to know really fast if it is any good or not, just look for these three key
words: Klenner, Stone, and Pauling. If a book has negative things to say
about Linus Pauling, you are not likely to find a fair hearing for vitamins.
Irwin Stone, the biochemist who first put Dr. Pauling onto vitamin C, is the
author of The Healing Factor: Vitamin C Against Disease (1972).
Pauling cites Stone thirteen times in his landmark How to Live Longer and
Feel Better (1986), a recommendation if there ever was one. But the key
figure, chest specialist and ascorbic acid megadose pioneer Frederick R.
Klenner, M.D. is usually omitted entirely from most orthodox nutrition,
health or medical texts. To me, that is tantamount to deleting all the
Shakespeare from an English Lit course. The importance of Klenner’s clinical
observations showing vitamin C’s power against infectious and chronic disease
is extraordinary. Dr. Levy intends that you become familiar with Klenner’s
work, and Vitamin C, Infectious Diseases, and Toxins accomplishes this
purpose with distinction. Without hedging, Dr. Levy
explains why, even in his subtitle, he uses the word "cure" as
boldly as Dr. Klenner ever did: "It is completely
appropriate to use the term "cure" when, in fact, the evidence
demonstrates that a given medical condition has clearly and repeatedly been
cured by a specific therapy. . . Avoiding the use of a term such as
"cure" when it is absolutely appropriate does as much harm as using
it inappropriately. Not realizing the incredible ability of vitamin C to cure
a given infectious disease just perpetuates the usage of so many other needlessly
applied toxic drugs and clinical protocols. If the shoe fits, wear it, and if
the treatment works, proclaim it." (p 15) And this is precisely
what Dr. Levy does. "Properly dosed
vitamin C will reliably and quickly cure nearly all cases of acute polio and
acute hepatitis. Polio babies are completely well in less than a week and
hepatitis patients are sick for only a few days, not several months." (p
19) Knowing full well how the
medical profession will react to such statements, Dr. Levy writes: "Unquestioning faith
in the "established" medical knowledge is so deeply ingrained that
many doctors simply will not even consider reading something that comes from
sources that they do not consider worthy of producing new medical concepts.
And if they do…they quickly dismiss it as just being ridiculous if it
conflicts with too many of the concepts that most of their colleagues and
textbooks embrace." (p 22) Aside from personally
conducing their own mostly pre-Medline journal search, the primary way
patients (and through them, their physicians) have been exposed to Dr.
Klenner’s work has been through Lendon Smith’s 68-page Clinical Guide to
the Use of Vitamin C: The Clinical Experiences of Frederick R. Klenner, M.D..
(1988) My college students’
avoidance response when I trot out "old" megavitamin studies is
nothing compared to the sheer hostility I have received from academic
colleagues. Once one of my undergraduates submitted a paper in another class
discussing some 20 fairly old medical references she had found on vitamin C as
a cure for polio. That course’s instructor told me privately that the
student’s work was absurd, and he literally described her a "dial
tone." I recall a nutritional presentation I made to a hospital staff.
All was going well until I mentioned using vitamin C as an antibiotic, as Dr.
Klenner did. The mood changed quickly. And how many of us have heard this old
saw: "If vitamin C was so good, every doctor would be prescribing
it!" Acceptance is not helped
by the fact that most of Dr. Klenner’s papers were published between 25 and
55 years ago. Says Dr. Levy: "Many physicians
have outright disdain for any medical literature that is more than a few
years old. It almost seems that even the best scientific data is considered
to have a "shelf life," and . . . will never be appreciated unless
a "modern" researcher decides to repeat the study and
"rediscover" the information." (p 27) And when such modern
"reproductions" are done, they commonly use far too little vitamin
C: "I could find no
mainstream medical researcher who has performed ANY clinical studies on ANY
infectious disease with vitamin C does that approached those used by Klenner.
Using a small enough dose of any therapeutic agent will demonstrate little or
no effect on an infection or disease process. Klenner would often use daily
doses of vitamin C on a patient that would be as much as 10,000 times more
than the daily doses used in some of the many clinical studies in the
literature." (p 28-29) Because there are few
families that will not be affected by serious infectious illness, the
individual topics Dr. Levy addresses (in Chapter 2, constituting 130 pages)
are especially important. These include measles, mumps, viral encephalitis,
herpes, mononucleosis, viral pneumonia, chickenpox, Ebola, and of course
influenza. He has included a fairly lengthy section on AIDS. Rabies is an
intriguing entry, even to those already willing to concede that vitamin C is
an effective antiviral. Non-viral diseases
discussed include diphtheria, tuberculosis (in considerable detail), strep,
brucellosis, typhoid, dysentery, malaria, trichinosis, and the
always-controversial subjects of tetanus and pertussis. Not unexpectedly, Dr.
Levy seems to incline towards the non-traditional viewpoint on vaccination,
although since the book lacks an index, his statements on this specific
subject take a moment to locate. As vitamin C is such a good antibiotic and
antiviral, a deemphasis on vaccination can be seen to make sense. Ascorbic acid, that Swiss
Army knife among nutrients, has been unjustly dismissed in part because of
the implausibility of such very great utility. A human body of tens of
trillions of cells operates thousands of biochemical reactions on less than a
dozen vitamins. Is it so very surprising that one nutrient would have so many
benefits? "The Ultimate
Antidote" (Chapter 3, 103 pages) considers vitamin C as an antitoxin.
This chapter will, as Mark Twain put it, gratify some and astonish the rest.
The effects of alcohol, the barbiturates, carbon monoxide, cyanide, aflatoxin,
a variety of environmental poisons including pesticides, even acetaminophen
poisoning in cats, mushroom poisoning, and snake venoms are all shown to
respond to vitamin C megadose therapy. Mercury, lead, and the effects of
radiation receive special and really eye-opening attention. If there is a greater
calling than healing the sick, it is teaching people how to do it themselves.
Abram Hoffer and Lendon H. Smith are perhaps the two foremost examples of
physician-authors who have focused on directly instructing their readers how
to use megavitamins correctly and directly. I think Dr. Levy is another of
these natural born teachers, and this may be most apparent in the book’s
section of "Practical Suggestions" (Chapter 5). General readers,
having just learned that high oral doses of ascorbate are effective for
self-medication, will appreciate receiving the benefits of Dr. Levy’s
professional experience. Physician readers will especially welcome his
injection instructions. I would like to see this important chapter greatly
expanded. A book this good deserves
a more eye-catching, upscale cover to attract bookshelf attention and get to
those who most need it. I hope the next edition will also add some visual
aids. Opponents to medical use of vitamin C will almost certainly demand
expansion of Chapter 4 ("The Safety of High Doses of Vitamin C") to
include more negative studies and more commentary on possible negative
effects of massive doses of ascorbate. Dr. Levy does in fact devote
considerable attention to hemochromatosis, immune system concerns, G6PD
deficiency, allegations of DNA damage and kidney stone formation, the rebound
effect, and vitamin C’s prooxidant characteristics. I doubt if any chapter of
any length would satisfy vitamin therapy’s harshest critics. Furthermore,
they can always find abundant (if mostly unfounded) ammunition in practically
any medical or nutrition textbook in print. In Levy’s book, there is a
welcome emphasis on the positive side of vitamin C megadoses, and that is
their power to cure the sick. Cure is by far the best
word there is in medicine. It would seem that you cannot spell
"cure" without "C." I do not think Dr. Klenner would
dispute that. And there is no doubt whatsoever that Dr. Klenner would
wholeheartedly approve of Dr. Levy stating this (p 36): "The three most
important considerations in effective vitamin C therapy are "dose, dose,
and dose. If you don’t take enough, you won’t get the desired effects.
Period!" Dr. Levy’s book presents
clear evidence that vitamin C cures disease. It contains over 1,200
scientific references, presented chapter by chapter. It does not mince words.
It is disease specific. It is dose specific. It is practical. It is readable.
It is excellent. (This review was
originally was published in the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine, Vol. 18,
No. 2, 2003, p 117-118. It is reprinted here with permission.) Andrew Saul is the author of the books FIRE YOUR DOCTOR! How to
be Independently Healthy (reader reviews at http://www.doctoryourself.com/review.html
) and DOCTOR YOURSELF: Natural Healing that Works. (reviewed at http://www.doctoryourself.com/saulbooks.html
) For ordering
information, Click
Here . |
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