Vitamin C, Infectious Diseases, and Toxins: Curing the Incurable

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Infectious Diseases and Toxins

 

Vitamin C, Infectious Diseases, and Toxins: Curing the

Incurable, by Thomas E. Levy, M.D., J.D.

http://www.tomlevymd.com

 

[Philadelphia, PA: Xlibris Corporation. 2002.

www.Xlibris.com 1-888-795-4274. 451 pages. ISBN:

1-4010-6964-9 (Hardcover); 1-4010-6963-0 (Softcover)]

 

The effectiveness and safety of megadose vitamin C

therapy should, by now, be yesterday’s news. Yet I

never cease to be amazed at the number of persons who

remain unaware that vitamin C is the best

broad-spectrum antibiotic, antihistamine, antitoxic

and antiviral substance there is. Equally surprising

is the ease with which some people, most of the

medical profession, and virtually all of the media

have been convinced that, somehow, vitamin C is not

only ineffective but is also downright dangerous.

 

Therefore I am always glad to find yet another

impeccably qualified physician who publishes to set

things straight. Thomas E. Levy, a practicing

physician for 25 years, is a board-certified internist

and a fellow of the American College of Cardiology. He

is also an attorney. What’s more, he’s a really fine

writer. Dr. Levy’s new book, Vitamin C, Infectious

Diseases, and Toxins: Curing the Incurable has

immediately made my most select list of absolutely

required reading.

 

That list is rather short, and here’s why. When you

pick up a health or nutrition book and need to know

really fast if it is any good or not, just look for

these three key words: Klenner, Stone, and Pauling. If

a book has negative things to say about Linus Pauling,

you are not likely to find a fair hearing for

vitamins. Irwin Stone, the biochemist who first put

Dr. Pauling onto vitamin C, is the author of The

Healing Factor: Vitamin C Against Disease (1972).

Pauling cites Stone thirteen times in his landmark How

to Live Longer and Feel Better (1986), a

recommendation if there ever was one. But the key

figure, chest specialist and ascorbic acid megadose

pioneer Frederick R. Klenner, M.D. is usually omitted

entirely from most orthodox nutrition, health or

medical texts. To me, that is tantamount to deleting

all the Shakespeare from an English Lit course. The

importance of Klenner’s clinical observations showing

vitamin C’s power against infectious and chronic

disease is extraordinary. Dr. Levy intends that you

become familiar with Klenner’s work, and Vitamin C,

Infectious Diseases, and Toxins accomplishes this

purpose with distinction.

 

Without hedging, Dr. Levy explains why, even in his

subtitle, he uses the word " cure " as boldly as Dr.

Klenner ever did:

 

" It is completely appropriate to use the term " cure "

when, in fact, the evidence demonstrates that a given

medical condition has clearly and repeatedly been

cured by a specific therapy. . . Avoiding the use of a

term such as " cure " when it is absolutely appropriate

does as much harm as using it inappropriately. Not

realizing the incredible ability of vitamin C to cure

a given infectious disease just perpetuates the usage

of so many other needlessly applied toxic drugs and

clinical protocols. If the shoe fits, wear it, and if

the treatment works, proclaim it. " (p 15)

 

And this is precisely what Dr. Levy does.

 

" Properly dosed vitamin C will reliably and quickly

cure nearly all cases of acute polio and acute

hepatitis. Polio babies are completely well in less

than a week and hepatitis patients are sick for only a

few days, not several months. " (p 19)

 

Knowing full well how the medical profession will

react to such statements, Dr. Levy writes:

 

" Unquestioning faith in the " established " medical

knowledge is so deeply ingrained that many doctors

simply will not even consider reading something that

comes from sources that they do not consider worthy of

producing new medical concepts. And if they do…they

quickly dismiss it as just being ridiculous if it

conflicts with too many of the concepts that most of

their colleagues and textbooks embrace. " (p 22)

 

Aside from personally conducing their own mostly

pre-Medline journal search, the primary way patients

(and through them, their physicians) have been exposed

to Dr. Klenner’s work has been through Lendon Smith’s

68-page Clinical Guide to the Use of Vitamin C: The

Clinical Experiences of Frederick R. Klenner, M.D..

(1988)

 

My college students’ avoidance response when I trot

out " old " megavitamin studies is nothing compared to

the sheer hostility I have received from academic

colleagues. Once one of my undergraduates submitted a

paper in another class discussing some 20 fairly old

medical references she had found on vitamin C as a

cure for polio. That course’s instructor told me

privately that the student’s work was absurd, and he

literally described her a " dial tone. " I recall a

nutritional presentation I made to a hospital staff.

All was going well until I mentioned using vitamin C

as an antibiotic, as Dr. Klenner did. The mood changed

quickly. And how many of us have heard this old saw:

" If vitamin C was so good, every doctor would be

prescribing it! "

 

Acceptance is not helped by the fact that most of Dr.

Klenner’s papers were published between 25 and 55

years ago. Says Dr. Levy:

 

" Many physicians have outright disdain for any medical

literature that is more than a few years old. It

almost seems that even the best scientific data is

considered to have a " shelf life, " and . . . will

never be appreciated unless a " modern " researcher

decides to repeat the study and " rediscover " the

information. " (p 27)

 

And when such modern " reproductions " are done, they

commonly use far too little vitamin C:

 

" I could find no mainstream medical researcher who has

performed ANY clinical studies on ANY infectious

disease with vitamin C does 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. Klenner would

often use daily doses of vitamin C on a patient that

would be as much as 10,000 times more than the daily

doses used in some of the many clinical studies in the

literature. " (p 28-29)

 

Because there are few families that will not be

affected by serious infectious illness, the individual

topics Dr. Levy addresses (in Chapter 2, constituting

130 pages) are especially important. These include

measles, mumps, viral encephalitis, herpes,

mononucleosis, viral pneumonia, chickenpox, Ebola, and

of course influenza. He has included a fairly lengthy

section on AIDS. Rabies is an intriguing entry, even

to those already willing to concede that vitamin C is

an effective antiviral.

 

Non-viral diseases discussed include diphtheria,

tuberculosis (in considerable detail), strep,

brucellosis, typhoid, dysentery, malaria, trichinosis,

and the always-controversial subjects of tetanus and

pertussis. Not unexpectedly, Dr. Levy seems to incline

towards the non-traditional viewpoint on vaccination,

although since the book lacks an index, his statements

on this specific subject take a moment to locate. As

vitamin C is such a good antibiotic and antiviral, a

deemphasis on vaccination can be seen to make sense.

 

Ascorbic acid, that Swiss Army knife among nutrients,

has been unjustly dismissed in part because of the

implausibility of such very great utility. A human

body of tens of trillions of cells operates thousands

of biochemical reactions on less than a dozen

vitamins. Is it so very surprising that one nutrient

would have so many benefits?

 

" The Ultimate Antidote " (Chapter 3, 103 pages)

considers vitamin C as an antitoxin. This chapter

will, as Mark Twain put it, gratify some and astonish

the rest. The effects of alcohol, the barbiturates,

carbon monoxide, cyanide, aflatoxin, a variety of

environmental poisons including pesticides, even

acetaminophen poisoning in cats, mushroom poisoning,

and snake venoms are all shown to respond to vitamin C

megadose therapy. Mercury, lead, and the effects of

radiation receive special and really eye-opening

attention.

 

If there is a greater calling than healing the sick,

it is teaching people how to do it themselves. Abram

Hoffer and Lendon H. Smith are perhaps the two

foremost examples of physician-authors who have

focused on directly instructing their readers how to

use megavitamins correctly and directly. I think Dr.

Levy is another of these natural born teachers, and

this may be most apparent in the book’s section of

" Practical Suggestions " (Chapter 5). General readers,

having just learned that high oral doses of ascorbate

are effective for self-medication, will appreciate

receiving the benefits of Dr. Levy’s professional

experience. Physician readers will especially welcome

his injection instructions. I would like to see this

important chapter greatly expanded.

 

A book this good deserves a more eye-catching, upscale

cover to attract bookshelf attention and get to those

who most need it. I hope the next edition will also

add some visual aids. Opponents to medical use of

vitamin C will almost certainly demand expansion of

Chapter 4 ( " The Safety of High Doses of Vitamin C " ) to

include more negative studies and more commentary on

possible negative effects of massive doses of

ascorbate. Dr. Levy does in fact devote considerable

attention to hemochromatosis, immune system concerns,

G6PD deficiency, allegations of DNA damage and kidney

stone formation, the rebound effect, and vitamin C’s

prooxidant characteristics. I doubt if any chapter of

any length would satisfy vitamin therapy’s harshest

critics. Furthermore, they can always find abundant

(if mostly unfounded) ammunition in practically any

medical or nutrition textbook in print. In Levy’s

book, there is a welcome emphasis on the positive side

of vitamin C megadoses, and that is 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. " I

do not think Dr. Klenner would dispute that. And there

is no doubt whatsoever that Dr. Klenner would

wholeheartedly approve of Dr. Levy stating this (p

36):

 

" The three most important considerations in effective

vitamin C therapy are " dose, dose, and dose. If you

don’t take enough, you won’t get the desired effects.

Period! "

 

Dr. Levy’s book presents clear evidence that vitamin C

cures disease. It contains over 1,200 scientific

references, presented chapter by chapter. It does not

mince words. It is disease specific. It is dose

specific. It is practical. It is readable. It is

excellent.

 

(This review was originally was published in the

Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine, Vol. 18, No. 2,

2003, p 117-118. It is reprinted here with permission.)