Vitamin C: The Real Story, the Remarkable and Controversial Healing Factor
Vitamin C: Putting the "C" in Cure
Quantity and Frequency are the Keys to Ascorbate Therapy
Orthomolecular Medicine News Service, December 15, 2009
Reprinted with permission from Orthomolecular Medicine News Service
Comment by Andrew W. Saul
Editor-In-Chief, Orthomolecular Medicine News Service
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:
📋 Case Study: 11-Month-Old Infant Recovery
🏥 Initial Condition
- • Very sick for over a week
- • High fever, glazed watery eyes
- • Thick watery mucus, labored breathing
- • Would not sleep, constant crying
- • 12 rounds of antibiotics in 11 months (ineffective)
💊 Treatment Protocol
Bowel tolerance quantities of oral vitamin C every 15 minutes
- • Dosage: Just over 2,000 mg vitamin C per kg body weight per day
- • Total daily: ~20,000 mg/day
- • Remarkable: No bowel-tolerance loose stools despite high dose
✅ Results
- • Immediate: Noticeably improved in hours
- • Night 1: Slept through the night
- • 48 Hours: Completely well
"With such a little body, you have to marvel at where all that ascorbate 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."
📊 Dr. Klenner's Dosage Protocol
👨⚕️ Dr. Frederick Robert Klenner, MD
Duke University School of Medicine graduate, board certified in diseases of the chest
Standard therapeutic dose: 350 mg vitamin C per kg body weight per day, divided doses
| Vitamin C Total | Body Weight | Number of Doses | Amount per Dose |
|---|---|---|---|
| 35,000 mg | 220 lb | 17-18 | 2,000 mg |
| 18,000 mg | 110 lb | 18 | 1,000 mg |
| 9,000 mg | 55 lb | 18 | 500 mg |
| 4,500 mg | 28 lb | 9 | 500 mg |
| 2,300 mg | 14-15 lb | 9 | 250 mg |
| 1,200 mg | 7-8 lb | 9 | 130-135 mg |
Important Note: Although these quantities may seem high, Dr. Klenner actually used as much as four times as much for serious viral illness, administered by injection. The oral doses listed above are, for the doctor, comparatively moderate.
⏰ Frequency of Dose
🔑 Key Principle: Divided Doses
For those unable to obtain intravenous vitamin C, it is essential to pay special attention to one of the most important aspects of vitamin C therapy: dividing the dosage improves absorption and retention of vitamin C. High oral doses of vitamin C yield higher blood levels of the vitamin, and dividing the oral doses maintains those higher levels.
Expert Opinion - Hilary Roberts, PhD:
"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. 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.'"
🌟 Vitamin C: Nature's Broad-Spectrum Medicine
Vitamin C, in very high doses, has been used to successfully treat several dozen illnesses, with a published, peer-reviewed literature spanning the last 60 years. Therefore, the effectiveness and safety of megadose vitamin C therapy should, by now, be yesterday's news.
👥 Key Figures in Vitamin C Research
Dr. Frederick Robert Klenner
Pioneer in high-dose vitamin C therapy for viral diseases
Dr. Robert F. Cathcart
Orthopedic surgeon who administered huge doses to tens of thousands of patients for decades, without generating a single kidney stone
Dr. Irwin Stone
Biochemist who first introduced Linus Pauling to vitamin C, author of The Healing Factor: Vitamin C against Disease
Dr. Linus Pauling
Nobel Prize winner, author of How to Live Longer and Feel Better, cites Stone thirteen times
🛡️ Preventive Doses
Dr. Klenner's Recommendations
- • Adults: 10,000 to 15,000 mg/day for prevention
- • Children: Their age in grams (e.g., 2 years old = 2,000 mg/day)
- • Older children: Level off at about 10,000 mg/day
Andrew Saul's Simple Rule
"Take enough C to be symptom free, whatever that amount may be."
Personal testimony: "I raised my children all the way into college and they never had a dose of any antibiotic. Not once."
🚫 Bias Against Ascorbate Therapy
Research Quality Test
When you pick up a health or nutrition book and need to know really fast if it is any good or not, just check the index for these four key names:
Dr. Thomas Levy, MD explains:
"I could find no mainstream medical researcher who has performed any clinical studies on any infectious disease with vitamin C doses 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."
The Power of "Cure"
"It is high time for medical professionals to welcome vitamin C megadoses and 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.'"
— Andrew W. Saul, Ph.D.
📚 References
(1) Bowel tolerance information: Vitamin C Titration
(2) Dr. Klenner's biography: Klenner Bio
(3) Klenner FR. The significance of high daily intake of ascorbic acid in preventive medicine
(4) Hickey S and Roberts H. Ascorbate: The science of vitamin C. 2004
(5) Vitamin C conditions treated: Vitamin C Research
(6) Stone's The Healing Factor: Free Online Reading
(7) Pauling L. How to Live Longer and Feel Better, revised edition, 2006
(8) Levy TE. Vitamin C, Infectious Diseases, and Toxins: Curing the Incurable. 2002
Nutritional Medicine is Orthomolecular Medicine
Orthomolecular medicine uses safe, effective nutritional therapy to fight illness.
For more information: www.orthomolecular.org
The peer-reviewed Orthomolecular Medicine News Service is a non-profit and non-commercial informational resource.
Editorial Review Board:
Carolyn Dean, M.D., N.D.
Damien Downing, M.D.
Michael Gonzalez, D.Sc., Ph.D.
Steve Hickey, Ph.D.
James A. Jackson, PhD
Bo H. Jonsson, MD, Ph.D
Thomas Levy, M.D., J.D.
Jorge R. Miranda-Massari, Pharm.D.
Erik Paterson, M.D.
Gert E. Shuitemaker, Ph.D.
Andrew W. Saul, Ph.D., Editor and contact person.
Email: [email protected]
To Subscribe at no charge: Subscribe Here
The above provides a general overview on this topic and may not apply to everyone. Any treatment protocol should be discussed with a qualified healthcare practitioner. Please refer to: Medical & Legal Disclaimer.