Some of the most common myths about vitamin C include:
1. There are no studies on vitamin C
2. There is no proof that vitamin C works
3. Vitamin C is not safe
4. Vitamin C causes kidney stones
5. Our need for vitamin C is met by diet
6. Vitamin C just makes expensive urine
7. If vitamin C really worked we would all be using it
Vitamin C at an appropriate dose:
Vitamin C can be taken as ascorbic acid powders or tablets, and also by IV. Liposomal vitamin C gives a clinical response similar to vitamin C given by IV, or even superior to it in some cases - and it is vastly more affordable and accessible.
Dosage and frequency are everything when it comes to vitamin C!
Dr Levy explains that 6 grams of vitamin C daily in divided doses (or 2 grams of liposomal vitamin C) is a good starting point for a healthy adult but that as we each have different needs for vitamin C which change over time, ideally we should each start by working out our bowel tolerance dose of vitamin C using sodium ascorbate power.
(Liposomal vitamin C doesn't cause loose stools, as almost all of it is absorbed by the body. So this form of vitamin C is not helpful in determining the bowel tolerance dose of vitamin C; the dose our body needs at any one time.)
Dr Levy recommends working out your bowel tolerance dose monthly or even weekly (if you are very ill or your illness is unstable). He also recommends paying close attention to how you feel and letting this be a guide to how appropriate your current dosage is. If you feel good at a certain dosage of vitamin C, then you raise it a little more and find no increased benefit, then you are probably taking as much as your body can use.
When you have worked out your necessary dosage, you can take it as sodium ascorbate or liposomal vitamin C or a combination of the two. 1 gram of liposomal C = 3-4 grams of sodium ascorbate powder, 2 grams = 9-10 grams of power, 3 grams = 12-18 grams of power, says Levy.
What vitamin C experts such as Pauling, Levy, Cathcart and others are discussing is not just any old vitamin C dosage. Dosages must be appropriate to how much stress you are under and given regularly and for a long enough duration. The more stress your body is under, the more it will need. 6 grams daily is an absolute minimum effective dose and many of us need far more. Dosages as high as 200 - 300 grams may be necessary for a period of time when used to fight acute infections or toxic exposures.
Dr Levy says in the book that the amount of water needed to but out a blaze, depends on the size of the fire - and so it is with vitamin C. The dose is everything with vitamin C. Taking small amounts just will not have the same effect as taking the appropriate dose.
Properly dosed vitamin C is essential. But Dr Levy also explains that taking broad spectrum antioxidants with it is a very good idea, as they all work together in a synergistic way. Liposomal GSH is particularly important. A basic supplement regime focusing on the major vitamins and minerals (A, Bs, D, E, magnesium, etc.) is also important long-term and will help ensure you get the most from your vitamin C regime etc. Toxic exposures must also be reduced as much as possible.
Some conditions can be cured with high dose vitamin C, if enough is given, early enough. This includes polio and glandular fever/mono and hepatitis. Others can be put into a stable state by high dose vitamin C - such as AIDS. Vitamin C can also prevent many diseases. At the very least, high dose vitamin C will improve symptoms and quality of life. High blood levels of vitamin C reduces mortality form ALL causes. Vitamin C is man's primary defence against toxins, pathogens and oxidative stress.
Treating the causes of disease is so much more effective than just blindly drugging symptoms. The real causes of disease are pathogens, toxins (both of which cause massive oxidative stress) and nutrient deficiencies.
The claims about vitamin C in Dr Levy's recent book 'Primal Panacea' are supported by more than 1000 published peer reviewed studies.
The research on vitamin C is convincing and like anyone that has tried high dose vitamin C at at least a bowel tolerance level, I have also seen it make a noticeable difference in my own life and the lives of those of my friends that have tried it. We are brainwashed to always be excited about and focused on the newest and sexiest and most exotic new drugs and other treatments, but in reality it is the boring unsexy stuff like making sure you have enough of all the major vitamins and minerals it needs which really gets the big results!
High dose vitamin C doesn't fit the current lucrative 'treat but don't cure' model of medicine, so patients must push for it. The fight has to start with us.
As Dr Levy eloquently explains in his recent book, government and the traditional medicine industry are looking for cures about as diligently as crack dealers are searching for a non-addictive form of cocaine! The commonly help belief that drug companies and governments are focused on trying to cure all sorts of diseases is called into question by this book, and rightly so. This book talks about the massive conflict of interests at work in medicine and research, and provides some absolutely shocking facts and figures.
We need to push for high dose vitamin C to become more commonly accepted and also just for it to stay LEGAL!
Optimal vitamin C levels can't help but help, no matter what diagnosis you have or even if you don't yet have a correct diagnosis. It is inexpensive to try too with ascorbic acid costing just 3 cents a gram and not at all risky either, or difficult. Vitamin C is one of the safest substances to take there is.
'Man's body was designed to function best with high blood and cellular levels of vitamin C - synthesised as needed by the liver. Due to an inborn error of metabolism, the vast majority of us no longer have the ability to make it, but that does not lessen our need for vitamin C or the benefits derived form it.' Dr Levy
“Modern medicine’s narrow approach, to treat every disease as if it were a drug deficiency, has resulted in a steep price for humanity. It is obvious millions have died prematurely since vitamin C was first discovered over 80 years ago. Brave and resolute men and women, Albert Szent-Györgyi, Irwin Stone, Linus Pauling, Ewan Cameron, Emil Ginter, Matthias Rath, Andrew Saul, Tom Levy, Steve Hickey, Raxit Jariwalla, John T. Ely, Hilary Roberts, and others promoted the idea of vitamin C therapy but were readily dismissed, even belittled.” Bill Sardi, author of You Don't Have to Be Afraid of Cancer Anymore
'I could also spend millions to prove that the small amounts of these nutrients will not prevent car accidents. Who is funding all these silly studies? No orthomolecular physician ever claimed that giving 200 IU of vitamin E and 500 mg of C cured anything.
Perhaps you should write a paper with tongue in cheek in which you announce, “Antibiotics Do Not Cure Infection”. Then, report somewhere hidden in the paper that you only gave them 200 or even 20,000 IU of a drug that requires doses of one million or more. Such reporting is a superb example of the cynical, expensive and sleazy research so loved by Big Pharma. This is because it delays the real introduction of good medicine, in the same way that tobacco companies denied smoking causes cancer and we supposedly needed more and more and more research to prove anything.
All this allows the companies to add millions of dollars to their coffers. Their defense is delay, delay and delay. The only objective of Big Pharma is to make money, lots and lots of it. How dare we try to prevent them from doing so?' Abram Hoffer, M.D., Ph.D.
Vitamin C is involved in almost every bodily process and helps our bodies maintain homeostasis. Irwin Stone explains in his book on vitamin C that, 'Throughout the evolution of the vertebrates, including the mammals, Nature has used ascorbic acid to maintain physiological homeostasis.
In simple nontechnical terms, this means that when stressful situations arose which disturbed the biochemical equilibrium of the animal, ascorbic acid was produced in increased quantities to get things running normal again. The amount of ascorbic acid produced is related to the severity of the stresses and if enough was produced soon enough, then the animal was able to survive the bad biochemical effects of the stresses. If, however, the enzyme system for producing ascorbic acid was overwhelmed or poisoned by the stresses and too little ascorbic acid was produced, then the animal succumbed.
Man, unable to produce his own ascorbic acid, could not take advantage of this natural protective process. Instead stresses only further depleted his low stores of this vital metabolite. Now he can easily duplicate this time-tested defensive mechanism by reaching for the bottle of ascorbic acid and swallowing additional quantities whenever he is subjected to biochemical stresses. In duplicating this normal process for combating stresses, man has one great advantage over the other mammals -- he can get an unlimited supply of ascorbic acid without being dependent upon an enzyme system which may not produce enough, quickly enough. All man needs to know is how much to take.
'Over the past ten-year period I have treated over 9,000 patients with large doses of vitamin C. The effects of this substance when used in adequate amounts markedly alters the course of many diseases. Stressful conditions of any kind greatly increase utilization of vitamin C. Ascorbate excreted in the urine drops markedly with stresses of any magnitude unless vitamin C is provided in large amounts. However, a more convenient and clinically useful measure of ascorbate need and presumably utilization is the BOWEL TOLERANCE. The amount of ascorbic acid which can be taken orally without causing diarrhea when a person is ill sometimes is over ten times the amount he would tolerate if well. This increased bowel tolerance phenomenon serves not only to indicate the amount which should be taken but indicates the unsuspected and astonishing magnitude of the potential use that the body has for ascorbate under stressful conditions.' Dr Robert F. Cathcart
VITAMIN C, TITRATING TO BOWEL TOLERANCE, ANASCORBEMIA, AND ACUTE INDUCED SCURVY and The Ascorbate Effect in Infectious and Autoimmune Diseases by Robert F. Cathcart, M.D.
Ascorbate: The Science of Vitamin C by Dr Hickey and Dr Roberts,
VITAMIN C: The Real Story by Steve Hickey, PhD and Andrew Saul,
Orthomolecular Medicine For Everyone: Megavitamin Therapeutics for Families and Physicians by Abram Hoffer,
Fire your doctor! : how to be independently healthy by Andrew W. Saul
The healing factor: Vitamin C against disease by Irwin Stone
How to live longer and feel better by Linus Pauling
Clinical Guide to the Use of Vitamin C The Clinical Experiences of Frederick R. Klenner, M.D. and Observations On the Dose and Administration of Ascorbic Acid When Employed Beyond the Range Of A Vitamin In Human Pathology By Fred Klenner, MD.
Vitamin C & Treatment of Cancer: Part I by Gary Null, PhD
Vitamin C, RDA's and Politics by Steven Wm
The excellent Vitamin C Foundation site.
Recommended Pauling Therapy Dosage for Heart Patients and Prevention
The Many Faces of Vitamin C by Dr Thomas Levy
Multiple Sclerosis Treated with Injectable Vitamin B1 & Liver Extract by Dale Humpherys
About "Objections" to Vitamin C Therapy by AW Saul
Spencer A, Saul AW. Vitamin C and cardiovascular disease, Orthomolecular Medicine News Service, June 22, 2010
Saul AW 2010, RDA for vitamin C is 10% of USDA standard for Guinea pigs. Orthomolecular Medicine News Service, Feb 4, 2010.
Saul AW. How to destroy confidence in vitamins when you do not have the facts. Orthomolecular Medicine News Service, Jan 11, 2010.
Saul AW. Putting the “C” in cure: Quantity and frequency are the keys to ascorbate therapy. Orthomolecular Medicine News Service, Dec 15, 2009.
Saul AW. High-dose vitamin C therapy for major diseases. International Symposium on Vitamin C. Seoul, Korea. Sept 25, 2008. Summary of presentation
Saul AW. High-dose vitamin C therapy proven effective. Orthomolecular Medicine News Service, Jan 5, 2010.
Saul AW. 2007, Hidden in plain sight: the pioneering work of Frederick Robert Klenner, M.D. J Orthomolecular Med, 2007. Vol 22, No 1, p 31-38.
Duffy SJ, Gokce N, Holbrook M, Huang A, Frei B, Keaney JF Jr, Vita JA. 1999, Treatment of hypertension with ascorbic acid. Lancet. 1999 Dec 11;354(9195):2048-9.
Intravenous nutrient therapy: the "Myers' cocktail" by Alan R. Gaby
Pharmacokinetics of vitamin C: insights into the oral and intravenous administration of ascorbate
Dr Levy’s presentation to the 35th Annual Cancer Convention pt3-4 (a video which talks about liposomal vitamin C)
List of international suppliers of liposomal vitamin C sachets from Livon labs
Click here to read an except form one of Dr Levy’s books on vitamin C.
PC Liposomal Encapsulation Technology by Robert D. Milne, see also: http://www.vitaminc.co.nz/pdf/LIPOSOMAL-ENCAPSULATION-ROBERT-D.-MILNE-MD.pdf
Click here and here to read about the possible role of high dose vitamin C in treating polio and other viral diseases.
Click here to read about Linus Pauling’s high dose vitamin C/lysine cardiac protocol.To choose another HHH page to view, please click on the Home or Site map page
Note that the aim of this site is to provide a starting point for health and healing research for ill people; especially very overwhelmed and disabled ill people. This site provides recommendations, summaries and reviews of books but is not meant to be a replacement for actually reading some of these wonderful health books if the reader is at all well enough to do so. (Plus getting individualised advice from a doctor that is also an orthomolecular medicine expert if possible). There is no substitute for reading as many of these books as you can. The HHH site can only really hint at their full brilliance. The amount of insight, scientific references, logic, intelligence, compassion and experience in the recommended books will most likely amaze you. HHH aims to encourage people to do their own reading and learning, and to always make up their own minds. All content copyright Jodi Bassett 2006 - 2014.