| Vitamin
C, Colds and Acute Induced Scurvy
by Jim English
Vitamin
C is one of the most widely used and highly valued vitamins in the
world. Vitamin C became popular in 1970, when Linus Pauling published
his groundbreaking work, ÒVitamin C and the Common Cold.Ó Vitamin
C sales skyrocketed, with some impressive results, including a staggering
40% drop in the number of deaths attributed to heart disease in
the next decade. Scientists now estimate that over 250,000 lives
are saved every year because of the efforts of Linus Pauling and
other dedicated researchers to educate the public about the benefits
of vitamin C. Based on these statistics, it has been estimated that
if everyone in the United States took several hundred milligrams
of vitamin C a day, over 100,000 lives and $100 billion in health
care costs would be saved each year.
Not
only can vitamin C help us feel better and live longer, but it has
also been proven to support numerous functions that can help us
attain optimal health, including:
This premier antioxidant nutrient protects us from the ravages of
free radicals that, if left to destroy cell membranes and damage
DNA, lead to the development of degenerative diseases and accelerated
aging.
Vitamin C helps manufacture collagen, the basic cellular ÒcementÓ
that keeps muscles, tendons, bones, teeth and skin healthy and strong,
and aids in the repair of blood vessels and broken bones.
Vitamin C benefits heart conditions of all kinds, normalizes blood
pressure, reduces cholesterol levels, and aids in the removal of
cholesterol deposits from arterial walls.
Despite these and other numerous health benefits,
this basic nutrient is constantly under attack from those who argue
that all good nutrition begins and ends with a fork. And is it possible
to get optimal amounts of vitamin C from food alone? It has been
shown that even the best diet cannot begin to provide the minimum
levels of vitamin C (500 to 1,000 mg per day) that research has
proven can help us fend off illness, degenerative diseases and premature
aging. In fact, a recent study has shown that men who take vitamin
C supplements live, on average, six years longer than those who
only get their vitamin C from dietary sources.
Vitamin C, also called ascorbic acid, is a powerful water-soluble
antioxidant vital for the growth and maintenance of all body tissues.
Though easily absorbed by the intestines, vitamin C cannot be stored
in the body, and is excreted in the urine within two to four hours
of ingestion. Human history has been deeply influenced by vitamin
CÑor more accurately, by a frequent and disastrous lack of this
vital nutrient. In his book The Healing Factor: ÔVitamin CÕ
Against Disease, the late biochemist Irwin Stone stated: Ò...the
lack of this molecule [vitamin C] in humans has contributed to more
deaths, sickness, and just plain misery than any other single factor
in manÕs long history.Ó
The first breakthrough in vitamin C research occurred in 1926, when
the Hungarian scientist, Albert Szent-Gyšrgyi, MD, PhD, traveled
to Cambridge University to conduct research on the chemical processes
that caused fruits and vegetables to turn brown. Szent-Gyšrgyi first
succeeded in isolating a white crystalline substance from the adrenal
gland of cows, which he referred to as Cx11. Later, in 1928, Szent-Gyšrgyi
isolated these same crystals from the juice of potatoes and cabbages,
and renamed the substance hexuronic acid. Szent-Gyšrgyi later collaborated
with the famed English chemist W. Haworth, and together they finally
determined the chemical structure of hexuronic acid (C6H8O6). Finally,
in 1932, after producing the first pure crystals of vitamin C, Szent-Gyšrgyi
and Haworth once again renamed the substance, and, in recognition
of its role in preventing scurvy, called it ascorbic acid, from
the Latin word, ascorbic, which means Òwithout scurvy.Ó
Five years later, in 1937, Szent-Gyšrgyi was awarded
the Nobel Prize in Medicine Òfor his discoveries in connection with
the biological combustion processes, with special reference to vitamin
C and the catalysis of fumaric acid.Ó
Vitamin C is utilized by virtually every part of the human body.
In fact, there are few, if any, biological functions that do not
require vitamin C.
- Vitamin C is a water-soluble antioxidant to
protect cells from free radicals. Vitamin C also prevents oxidative
damage that leads to the development of atherosclerosis.
- Vitamin C is vital to the immune system, aiding
white blood cells that attack and destroy cancer cells, viruses,
bacteria, parasites and other pathogens. Vitamin C also promotes
wound healing and acts to control the release of histamine.
- Vitamin C is used by the body to produce collagen,
used by connective tissues to give strength and shape to our tissues,
such as muscles, blood vessels, bones and teeth.
- Vitamin C helps the body utilize folic acid
(required for maintaining our DNA) and regulates the uptake of
iron (needed for production of hemoglobin, the oxygen-carrying
part of blood cells).
- Vitamin C is important for the synthesis of
neurotransmitters, such as noradrenaline (for energy and mood)
and serotonin (for sleep, well-being and pain control).
Large doses of vitamin C (two grams or more per day) can dramatically
shorten both the duration and severity of a cold if taken at first
sign of symptoms. Most studies show that vitamin C therapy can result
in milder symptoms while reducing the duration by about a third.
More than twenty studies have found that preventive
vitamin C supplementation reduces the annual number of colds in
children. One study of over 600 children, between the ages of 8
and 9 years, found that 1,000 mg of vitamin C a day for three months
reduced the severity and duration of colds, but not the number of
colds. Based on these findings, it makes more sense to increase
vitamin C intake at the onset of cold symptoms rather than as a
preventive measure.
To understand how vitamin C can help us recover
from colds, flu and other forms of infection, we need to understand
that vitamin C takes on a new role when the body is under attack.
Often we may begin to notice that we are starting to feel ill, only
to have the symptoms quickly disappear within a day or so. This
is what is supposed to happen when our immune system is healthy
and well supported. At the first sign of an attack, all of the components
of the immune complex move quickly to identify, target and kill
the invading pathogens.
Just as often we donÕt get better and our symptoms
worsen as we are caught up in a cold or flu infection that can last
for days or weeks. What has happened is that invading viruses have
slipped past our first lines of defense and are damaging mitochondria,
the cells that produce energy. This damage results in a flood of
free radicals that quickly use up all of the vitamin C in the affected
area, like the nose and throat. Dr. Robert Cathcart, a pioneer in
the field of orthomolecular medicine, refers to this condition as
Òacute induced scurvy.Ó
When vitamin C is depleted in the affected area,
the body can no longer mount an effective response until it has
produced enough antibodies to attack and destroy the virus. In the
meantime the condition has time to spread to the sinuses, ears,
lungs, etc. This also allows bacteria to take advantage of the situation,
potentially causing secondary infections, such as bronchitis, pneumonia
or worse.
Cathcart believes that taking moderate doses of
vitamin C (200 to 2,000 mg per day) in such conditions may prevent
the spread of the infection to other areas of the body, but will
do little to shorten the course of the illness. On the other hand,
Cathcart argues that taking massive doses of vitamin C (megadoses)
can force enough electrons into the affected tissues to neutralize
all the free radicals and support the white cells that Òcome out
fighting mad and destroy all the viruses.Ó ÒIt does not matter that
the disease is moderately advanced,Ó states Cathcart, if sufficient
C is used, Òthe cold will be shortly terminated.Ó
Building on the groundbreaking work of Linus Pauling, Irwin Stone,
and other orthomolecular physicians, Cathcart has helped to shape
our understanding of megadose vitamin therapy, which uses vitamin
C in doses higher than those required for normal cellular functions.
When taken in very high (ten to one hundred grams or more per day,
depending upon the person and the illness) vitamin C works in a
uniquely different way to fight off serious illness.
WeÕve seen that vitamin C is required to help
protect the body from the ravages of free radicals and for the constant
repair of our connective tissues. And, except for losses due to
collagen formation, most of the time vitamin C is recycled by the
bodyÕs antioxidant system. But when the body is challenged by cancer,
colds, or other diseases, vitamin C takes on a new role. Dr. Cathcart
describes the process in the following way, using the term ascorbate,
which is just another technical term for vitamin C:
- Free radicals are molecules that have
lost an electron and they are very reactive because they
want an electron in the worst way.
- Vitamin C (ascorbate) donates its two
spare electrons to neutralize two dangerous free radicals.
- When vitamin C (ascorbate) loses its
electrons it is turned into a form of vitamin C called dehydroascorbate.
- Dehydroascorbate has a half-life in
the body of only a few minutes.
- If dehydroascorbate does not regain its
two electrons from the mitochondria within a few minutes,
it is irreversibly lost (mitochondria are tiny structures
in every cell that act like powerhouses that provide cellular
energy and aid in recycling vitamin C).
- White blood cells need vitamin C (ascorbate)
in order to kill viruses, bacteria, parasites, fungi, cancer
cells, etc.
- When the mitochondria are damaged (by
cancer, viruses, bacteria, etc.), they are unable to provide
the electrons needed to turn dehydroascorbate back into
vitamin C.
- These damaged mitochondria produce more
free radicals.
- Free radicals turn on antibodies and
increase inflammation.
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In essence what Cathcart and other supporters of megadose therapy
are claiming is that when we become seriously ill the body is overwhelmed
by a flood of free radicals that quickly use up all of the available
stores of vitamin C. This impairs the immune response, which depends
on vitamin C to mount an effective defense against the invading
organisms (or tumor, in the case of cancer).
By ingesting
or infusing large amounts of vitamin C, as in the earlier cancer
study by Pauling and Cameron, the aim is to saturate the body with
enough electrons to destroy all of the free radicals being generated
in the tissues affected by the disease. In short, the body is using
the electrons donated by vitamin C, and then tossing away the dehydroascorbate.
Megadose vitamin C therapy continues to be
a highly controversial topic. Traditional medicine tends to view
vitamin C as a nutrient that is only useful for preventing scurvy.
In The Third Face of Vitamin C, published in 1993, Dr.
Cathcart detailed his clinical experience treating over 20,000 patients
with high doses of vitamin C over a 23-year period. Cathcart found
that doses of up to 200 or more grams per day were effective in
treating clinical diseases involving free radicals. The list of
diseases involving free radicals includes infections, cardiovascular
diseases, cancer, trauma, burns (both thermal and radiation), surgeries,
allergies, autoimmune diseases and aging.
Megadose
therapy has caught the interest and fired the imagination of many
eminent researchers. The late Irwin Stone pioneered the early use
of high dose vitamin C for treating diseases. His close friend,
Dr. Frederick Klenner conducted much of the original clinical research
on vitamin C megadose therapy, reporting that most viral diseases
could be cured when patients were treated with intravenous sodium
ascorbate in amounts up to 200 grams per day.
Klenner
is credited with bringing megadose therapy to the attention of Linus
Pauling. Pauling went on to conduct research with Ewan Cameron showing
that high dose vitamin C therapy doubled the life span of cancer
patients. Based on their work a large number of physicians now routinely
use massive doses of vitamin C in their clinical practice for the
treatment of a wide variety of diseases.
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