VITAMIN C: ANTIVIRAL AND ANTITOXIN

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VITAMIN C: ANTIVIRAL AND ANTITOXIN

 

 

Archives of Pediatrics NY, Volume 69, Number 4, April, 1952, p 151-155.

 

ASCORBIC ACID (VITAMIN C) AS A CHEMOTHERAPEUTIC AGENT

 

William J. McCormick, M.D.

 

( " Chemotherapeutic " in this article does not refer to treating cancer, but

rather to vitamin C's effectiveness against bacterial and viral infections, and

as an antitoxic agent.)

 

Until recently ascorbic acid has been used primarily and solely for its vitamin

action as an antiscorbutic agent. In such use the daily requirement of the

infant and young child has been placed at 25 to 50 mg. and that of the adult at

75 to 150 mg. The vitamin C properties, Which are mainly prophylactic, are

related primarily to its role in maintaining stability and tensile strength of

connective tissues generally, including the subcutaneous tissues, the

musculature of the vascular and alimentary systems, and the osseous tissues.

This property favors the healing of Wounds, the prevention of hemorrhage and

rupture of connective tissues, and the building of a protective barrier against

infectious invasion. Vitamin C is also known to play an essential part in the

oxidation-reduction system of tissue respiration and to contribute to the

development of antibodies and the neutralization of toxins in the building of

natural immunity to infectious diseases.

 

Aside from these vitamin properties there is a very potent therapeutic action of

ascorbic acid when given in massive repeated doses, 500 to 1,000 mg., q.q.h.,

(every four hours) preferably intravenously or intramuscularly. When thus

administered the effect in acute infectious processes is favorably comparable to

that of the sulfonamide or the mycelial antibiotics, but with the great

advantage of freedom from toxic or allergic reactions. The advantage of

parenteral (injected) administration is obvious when one considers that vitamin,

being water-soluble and having no kidney threshold, is eliminated by this route

almost as rapidly as absorbed from the alimentary system. By intensive

parenteral therapy the blood level can be maintained at a much higher degree of

saturation with resultant increase in antitoxic action.

 

The writer (1) has previously reported spectacular results by this method in the

treatment of tuberculosis, scarlet fever, pelvic infection, septicemia, etc.

Concurrently, by this same method, Klenner (2) has reported dramatic results in

the treatment of virus diseases, including poliomyelitis, encephalitis, measles,

herpes zoster, virus pneumonia, etc. This chemotherapeutic effect of ascorbic

acid results from its chemical action as a reducing or oxidizing agent. In fact,

the decolorization of the test reagent, dichlorphenol-indophenol, is dependent

upon this property. By this means the viral or bacterial toxins are rapidly

neutralized and the febrile process, with its high metabolic rate, is abated,

usually within a few hours of the beginning of treatment. Complete recovery

occurs usually in a matter of days. By this method the writer has been able to

reduce marked leukocytosis in purulent infections to normal within two or three

days. Likewise, Klenner (3) reports the reduction of

pleocytosis of spinal fluid in poliomyelitis to normal within 48 hours, under

intensive ascorbic-acid therapy. This reduction of leukocyte content of blood

and spinal fluid is the best evidence of therapeutic efficacy. Such effects have

never been obtained by the use of sulfonamides or mycelial antibiotics.

 

A point to be noted in this intensive method of therapy is that the urinary

elimination of ascorbic acid, being necessarily heavy, is likely to cause

confusion in case of urinary tests for sugar, since ascorbic acid is an even

more potent reducer of Fehling’s or Benedict’s solution. Thus a positive test

under these conditions does not necessarily indicate sugar. This fact in itself

is further evidence of the efficacy of ascorbic acid as an oxidation-reduction

agent.

 

Not only endogenous, but exogenous toxins are neutralized by this

chemotherapeutic action of ascorbic acid. By this means Klenner has effected

rapid recovery from rattlesnake bite in dogs, and the author has obtained rapid

recovery in a case of scorpion sting by a single intravenous injection of 1,000

mg. Likewise, ascorbic acid has been effectively employed in the treatment of

lead poisoning (4) in painters, and in suppressing toxic reactions in

sulfonamide (5), hormone, salicylate and arsenical therapy (6).

 

Once the acute febrile or toxic stage of an infectious disease is brought under

control by massive ascorbic-acid administration, a relatively small maintenance

dose of the vitamin will be adequate in most cases to prevent relapses, just as

in fire protection small chemical extinguishers may be adequate to prevent fires

in their incipiency, whereas when large fires have developed water from large

high-pressure fire hose becomes necessary.

 

In determining the anti-infectious protective dosage of vitamin C there is

another factor which is not generally considered. When the vitamin is employed

to neutralize toxins of endogenous or exogenous origin, the action is reciprocal

in that the vitamin is also neutralized proportionately, leaving less available

for physiological needs. To illustrate the writer has determined by laboratory

and clinical tests that the smoking of one cigarette neutralizes in the body

approximately 25 mg. of ascorbic acid, or the amount in one medium-sized orange.

 

It will thus be seen how difficult it is to meet the bodily requirement of the

pack-a-day smoker for even the protective level of vitamin C from dietary

sources. It is thus obvious that the steady smoker, who is usually short on his

dietary intake as well, requires much heavier therapeutic dosage of this vitamin

than the non-smoker. This may explain why, according to Mayo-Clinic reports, the

incidence of post-operative pneumonia is four times greater in habitual smokers

than in non-smokers. To prevent post-operative pneumonia, Slotkin and Fletcher

(7) have instituted the use of large doses of vitamin C both pre- and

postoperatively, with 100 per cent success. Prior to this innovation, their

post-operative pneumonia mortality rate was 20 per cent. Pediatric surgeons

might do well to follow this example. Klenner (3) reports that pneumonia never

develops as a complication in measles when intensive vitamin C therapy is

employed early in the disease.

 

During the past century there has been a steady decline in the incidence and

mortality of most all infectious diseases. Epidemiologists generally (8, 9, 10)

admit that the control measures employed " are not adequate in themselves to

explain the recorded decline. " " While the control measures which have been

applied have probably accentuated the decline in young adult life... it seems

reasonable to attribute the general decline to other factors more general in

character and of which but little is really known. "

 

From increasing evidence of the antitoxic and anti-infectious action of vitamin

C, and from personal clinical experience in the prophylactic and therapeutic

application of this vitamin, the author is firmly convinced that the major

factor in bringing about this gradually changing picture in infectious-disease

incidence has been the steady and phenomenal increase in the consumption of

vitamin-C-rich fruits, notably citrus fruits and tomatoes, during the period in

question. This hypothesis would not only account for the gradual decline in

incidence, but would also explain the shift in age incidence of tuberculosis,

diphtheria, poliomyelitis, etc., from the younger to the older age brackets, due

to the fact that in the nursery the full benefit of this nutritional reform is

obtained; whereas, during childhood and early youth perverse dietary habits are

gradually acquired through lack of parental guidance and inadequacy of

public-health education. The increased use of candy, carbonated

beverages, tea, coffee, tobacco and alcohol tends gradually to displace the

more wholesome nutritional habits of early childhood, and malnutrition with

increased susceptibility to disease is the price we pay for this diversion.

 

In conclusion it may be of interest to note that centuries ago observing

physicians detected the predisposing influence of scurvy on the incidence of

infectious diseases. In 1689, Richard Morton, one of the earliest writers on

tuberculosis (then known as phthisis), states in his famous Phthisiologia that

" scurvy is wont to occasion a consumption of the lungs. " Likewise, Boerhaave, a

Dutch physician of international repute in the early 18th century, held to the

view that " gangrenous gingivitis, " then frequently concurrent with diphtheria,

was evidence of a scorbutic background.

 

SUMMARY

 

Clinical and laboratory evidence is cited in support of the author’s advocacy of

intensive vitamin C administration as a chemotherapeutic agent in infectious

diseases.

 

The efficacy of this therapy is dependent upon the potent oxidation-reduction

action of ascorbic acid and the use of massive doses with complete freedom from

toxic or allergic reactions.

 

There is an unusually broad spectrum of antibiotic action in this therapy,

including practically all bacterial and viral infections. It is also highly

potent as an antitoxic agent in exogenous poisoning, organic and inorganic.

 

REFERENCES

 

1. McCormick, W. J.: Vitamin C in the Prophylaxis and Therapy of Infectious

Diseases. Arch. Pediat., 68: 1-9, 1951.

 

2. Klenner, Fred R.: Massive Doses of Vitamin C and the Virus Diseases. Paper

presented at convention of the Tri-State Medical Association of the Carolinas

and Virginia, held at Columbia, Feb. 19-20, 1951.

 

3. Klenner, Fred R.: The Treatment of Poliomyelitis and Other Virus Diseases

with Vitamin C. South. Med. & Surg., Vol. III, No. 7, 1949.

 

4. Holmes, H. N.; Campbell, K. and Amberg, E. J.: Effect of Vitamin C on Lead

Poisoning. J. Lab. & Clin. Med., 24: 1119, 1939.

 

5. McCormick, W. J.: Sulfonamide Sensitivity and C-Avitaminosis. Canad. Med J.,

52: 68-70, 1945.

 

6. Pelner, L: Use of Ascorbic Acid in Reducing Toxicity of Stilboestrol and

Arsenical Therapy. J.A.M.A., 123: 112, 1943.

 

7. Slotkin, G. A. and Fletcher, R. S.: Ascorbic Acid in Pulmonary Complications

Following Surgery. J. Urol., Nov. 6, 1944.

 

8. Ross, Mary A.: Tuberculosis Mortality in Ontario. Canad. Pub. Health J., 25:

73, 1934.

 

9. McKinnon, N. E.: Mortality Reductions in Ontario, 1900-1942, Canad. Pub.

Health J., 36: 423, 1945.

 

10. Davis, Paul V.: Tuberculosis Epidemiology. Dist. of Chest, p. 21, Sept.

1939.

 

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