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No More War Against Vitamin C

by Bill Sardi
by Bill Sardi

In 1958 Dr. Linus Pauling published his book, No More War.
Today, if Dr. Pauling were still alive, he would probably write a
sequel to that book entitled No More War Against Vitamin C. There is a
renaissance in vitamin C supplementation underway. A series of events
is unfolding so fast it is difficult to stay current on this topic.

It’s a resurgence that would cause Dr. Linus Pauling to be elated,
having started one of these revivals in 1970 with the publication of
his book, Vitamin C and the Common Cold. The consumption of vitamin C
is reported to have jumped then by 300% and a dramatic drop in the
mortality rate from coronary heart disease followed (public health
authorities failed to report this). Dr. Pauling went on to write other
books on vitamin C in 1986 and 1993 regarding cancer and longevity.
During that era, before angioplasty, statin drugs or aspirin therapy
were being touted, the number of annual deaths per 100,000 Americans
due to coronary heart disease dropped from nearly 500 to about 250.
NIH Data

The impetus to take vitamin C pills dwindled in 1992 when National
Institutes of Health researchers, employing studies of no more than 15
people, and measuring blood levels 12 hours after consumption,
errantly concluded high-dose vitamin C, beyond 200 milligrams per day,
was worthless. The government researchers claim excesses of vitamin C
are excreted in the urine. But in April of 2004 researchers published
a paper that escaped public attention. Not only did researchers find
that intravenous vitamin C could reach concentrations in the blood
circulation 140 times greater than oral consumption and should be
re-evaluated as a treatment for cancer (recall now, Dr. Pauling
successfully employed intravenous vitamin C to treat cancer, but his
work was discredited by the Mayo Clinic), but vitamin C pills can
elevate blood levels three times greater than what was previously
thought possible. Annals Internal Medicine 2004 Apr 6; 140 (7):533–7
High-dose vitamin C wasn’t going to waste. For unexplained reasons,
this landmark report never caught the attention of the major news
media nor the National Institutes of Health which continues to
mistakenly maintain that more than 200 milligrams of vitamin C per day
is a waste of money.

Then a landmark report published in the British Medical Journal this
past July revealed that blood vessels at the back of the eyes begin to
narrow before high blood pressure develops. British Medical Journal
2004 Jul 10; 329(7457):79 Any doctor with an ophthalmoscope can
directly visualize these retinal vessels. Patients with narrowed
retinal blood vessels can’t be placed on drugs because their blood
pressure isn’t elevated yet. Modern medicine had made a great
discovery that could lead to the prevention of millions of strokes and
heart attacks, but it didn’t have a therapy in place.

However the report came to the attention of Sydney J Bush, PhD, Doctor
of Optometry, Hull Contact Lens Clinic, in East Yorkshire near London.
Dr. Bush, a devotee of Dr. Pauling, wrote two letters (July 23 and Nov
26) to the British Medical Journal citing his experience snapping
digital photographs of the blood vessels at the back of the eyes while
patients were on a daily regimen of supplemental vitamin C. Dr. Bush
unequivocally shows narrowing of the blood vessels at the back of the
eyes (and presumably throughout the body) can be reversed with 3,000
to 10,000 milligrams of daily vitamin C. The before-and-after photos
below demonstrate the reversal effect of vitamin C. On the left, a
photograph taken in 2002 shows retinal arteries have narrowed and some
have dropped from view. The photo on the right taken in 2004 shows the
arteries have widened and in some places reappeared. The public should
begin to request photos like these from their eye doctors so they can
evaluate the effect of supplemental vitamin C over time.

 
 Left, digital retinal photo taken in 2002 shows narrowed arteries at
 the back of the eyes.
 Right, same eye, photographed (un-retouched) in 2004, shows widening
 of arteries and improved circulation following vitamin C therapy. Some
 blocked arteries opened up again.

Then another stunner – a review of nine previously published studies
found that vitamin C, over 700 milligrams daily, an amount that can
only be achieved by taking vitamin pills, lowers the mortality rate by
about 25% over a 10-year period compared to Americans whose consume
low amounts of vitamin C. Am J Clin Nutrition 2004 Dec;
80(6):1508–20 The average American consumes just 110 milligrams of
vitamin C from their diet. The mortality rate for more than 100
million Americans who consume low amounts of vitamin C would drop even
further if they would take just one 1000-milligram vitamin C pill per
day! This is enough information to create a worldwide shortage of
vitamin C pills alone. But this rapidly unfolding story doesn’t stop
here.

Within days another striking report was issued, this time from the
Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University. In 2001 a report
in Science Magazine scared millions away from high-dose vitamin C. The
false claim was that high-dose vitamin C could damage DNA and possibly
lead to cancer. Now Linus Pauling Institute scientists say that was
only half of the story. Scientists confirmed the results of the
earlier study published in Science, which showed high-dose vitamin C
can form compounds that can potentially damage DNA, but also showed
that vitamin C bonds to other molecules and ends up being a detoxifier
and DNA protector. The researchers emphasized this was not a test-tube
study, as was the 2001 study in Science magazine. Their experiments
showed this is the way the human body utilizes vitamin C. Their study
is published in the current issue of the Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences.

Furthermore, another vitamin C book has been published, as if
to finish what Dr. Linus Pauling started. Written by pharmacologists
trained at the University of Manchester in Great Britain, Drs. Steve
Hickey and Hilary Roberts, its title is arresting. It’s called the
Ridiculous Dietary Allowance (available online at Lulu.com, free for a
limited time, and $6 thereafter). Drs. Hickey and Roberts openly
challenge public health authorities to find error in their book and
call for an immediate re-evaluation of the recommended allowances for
vitamin C (a paltry 90 milligrams) as set by the Food & Nutrition
Board of the National Academy of Sciences. Hickey and Roberts’
recommendation is that all adults supplement their diet with 2500
milligrams or more of vitamin C, taken in divided doses throughout the
day. Hickey and Roberts led a professional challenge this past summer
with their previous book, Ascorbate: The Science of Vitamin C
(www.lulu.com/ascorbate), which twelve noted antioxidant researchers
submitted to the Food & Nutrition Board as they called for a
re-evaluation of the RDA for vitamin C. So far, the Food & Nutrition
Board has been unresponsive.

Even this reporter has offered a new contribution to the understanding
of this simple vitamin, writing an e-book describing how vitamin C
prevents the formation of a particular type of unstable arterial
plaque that triggers blood clots which in turn block coronary arteries
and cause 80 percent of heart attacks. The e-book explains why your
cholesterol number has little to do with preventing a mortal heart
attack. The e-book, How To Lower Your Cholesterol Phobia and Cleanse
Your Arteries of Plaque in 30 Days is a critical review of statin
drugs and evaluates natural therapies like vitamin C for cholesterol
control.

Other misconceptions about vitamin C have now been dispelled. The
false notion that high-dose vitamin C promotes kidney stones, and the
mistaken idea that withdrawal from high-dose vitamin C will cause
"rebound scurvy," have confused the public and their doctors. The long
war against vitamin C should be over. It isn’t. Efforts are now
underway to limit the amount of vitamin C in pills, as if it were some
sort of toxin in high doses. The transient diarrhea experienced when
high-dose vitamin C is employed is just the way the body signals us to
back off the dose a bit. When ill for any reason, or when stressed
physically or emotionally, living cells require much more vitamin C
for maintenance of health. Vitamin C intake levels are dynamic, not
static. If every physician in the country prescribed a 1000-milligram
vitamin C pill to their patients regardless of their state of health,
mortality rates, insurance premiums and Medicare costs would tumble.

December 15, 2004

Bill Sardi send him mail is a consumer advocate and health
journalist, writing from San Dimas, California. He offers a free
downloadable book, The Collapse of Conventional Medicine, at his
website.

Copyright © 2004 Bill Sardi Word of Knowledge Agency, San Dimas,
California. Not intended for commercial use or posting on other
websites. Permission to reprint should be obtained from the author.

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