Mainstream newspaper: Vitamin C may be a life-saver

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[Nice to see this in mainstream news!]

 

Vitamin C may be a life-saver

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health_medical/story.jsp?story=628538

 

Mega-doses of Vitamin C can counter avian flu, hepatitis and herpes, and

can even control the advance of Aids

By Jane Feinmann

 

12 April 2005

 

Imagine that a deadly virus is sweeping the world, killing and maiming

hundreds of thousands of children. Nothing seems able to stop it - until

a doctor stands up at the American Medical Association and reports on 60

cases involving severely infected children, all of whom have been cured.

Yet his work, subsequently reported in a peer-review journal, is

ignored, leaving the virus to wreak havoc for decades.

 

This isn't a docudrama about some futuristic plague - it's a true story

about what happened in June 1949 when polio was at its peak. Dr

Frederick Klenner, a clinical researcher from Reidsville, North

Carolina, reported that a massive intravenous dose of Vitamin C - up to

20,000mg daily for three days (today's recommended daily allowance is

60mg) - had cured 60 of his patients. The findings were published in a

medical journal, yet there was virtually no interest. Apart from a

couple of minor trials, no attempt was made to find out if they had any

scientific substance.

 

Relating this curious incident in a new book, Vitamin C, Infectious

Diseases & Toxins: Curing the Incurable, Dr Thomas Levy, a US

cardiologist, admits to being gripped by a range of emotions when he

came across Klenner's work and other studies that replicated it. " To

know that polio had been easily cured yet so many people continued to

die, or survived to be permanently crippled by it, was difficult to accept. "

 

Levy argues that the medical profession has routinely ignored research

showing that high doses of Vitamin C can combat bacteria, toxins and

severe viral infections including avian flu, SARS, hepatitis and herpes.

And this is not a case of doctors sniffing at anecdotal evidence from a

handful of enthusiasts. " Vitamin C is possibly the best-researched

substance in the world. There are more than 24,000 papers and articles

on the authoritative clinical website, Medline. Yet virtually the all

the evidence has been dismissed. " Levy even claims that Aids can be

controlled if a high enough dosage of Vitamin C is maintained.

 

This is not the first time doctors have had their cages rattled over the

benefits of Vitamin C. The controversy has been simmering since 1753,

when just a couple of sucks of a lime were shown to prevent scurvy. In

the 1950s the chemist Linus Pauling, a double Nobel prize-winner,

promoted the use of mega-doses of Vitamin C, but his research was

rubbished by clinicians.

 

Recently, the anti-Vitamin C sentiment has grown. It has been blamed for

causing the formation of kidney stones, and a study published in the

journal Science in 2001 found that even 200mg doses of Vitamin C

" facilitated the production of DNA-damaging agents associated with a

variety of cancers " . This finding was widely interpreted as proving that

Vitamin C causes cancer.

 

Britain's Food Standards Agency recommends taking a maximum of 1,000mg

of Vitamin C a day. But a directive going through the European

Parliament aims to reduce this to less than 100mg in an attempt to

harmonise dosages across the Continent. Despite being dubbed " illegal "

by the advocate general of the European Court of Justice last week, the

directive could still be passed.

 

The controversy has not put off consumers, many of whom take Vitamin C

to ward off colds. The 1,000 mg capsule is the most popular single

vitamin in Britain, with the 500mg version second.

 

Some people argue that we can get sufficient Vitamin C from a diet rich

in fruit and vegetables, but Levy disagrees. The problem, he says, is

that a genetic design fault makes us unable to synthesise our own

Vitamin C. Levy claims that while recommended daily allowances of 60mg

are enough to prevent the development of scurvy in otherwise healthy

people, much higher levels are required to maintain health when an

infection strikes. At such times, the body begins to " metabolise

unusually large amounts of vitamin C, keeping stores so depleted that

the recommended daily allowance will not even prevent many of the

symptoms of scurvy from developing " .

 

Levy claims that the reason why most animals stay healthy throughout

their lives, while humans spend years coping with one or more chronic

diseases, is that animals make their own Vitamin C. The wild goat, for

instance, makes around 13,000mg a day, rising to 100,000mg when faced

with life-threatening infectious or toxic stress, according to a 1961

study published in the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.

 

So, is Levy right? Should everyone be taking mega-doses every day and

having intravenous infusions when they fall ill? Possibly.

 

Dr Rodney Adeniyi-Jones regularly gives 20,000mg doses to people with

arterial disease and as part of a flu treatment protocol, describing its

effects as " beneficial... but not miraculous " . And Professor George

Lewith of the Centre for Complementary and Integrated Medicine says that

while Vitamin C is not a panacea, it does have clinical benefits

depending on the dosage. " There may be doses that are therapeutic, while

another dose may be damaging for the same condition. It is not a

dose-response curve as with pharmaceuticals, and we need to be cautious

until this is better understood. "

 

But he also warns that: " Many of the [Vitamin C] trials have been badly

done and what evidence exists is mixed. Both those in favour and against

high doses frequently misinterpret the data. "

 

Levy may well be seen to have an axe to grind, yet the evidence seems to

support his view that apart from causing diarrhoea, mega-doses of

Vitamin C are not toxic. He says that a series of studies published in

leading journals have shown that, far from causing cancer, Vitamin C is

a safe supplement for chronic cancer patients. Further large studies

suggest that supplements do not put a normal person at greater risk of

developing kidney stones.

 

According to Levy, the problem is not that people might take too much,

but that they won't take enough - and thus won't get the desired

effects. " There's a popular medical view that taking Vitamin C just

makes expensive urine. Some of it is lost in urine, but the more you

consume, the more stays in your body. "

 

With a new book on the way claiming that Vitamin C deficiency is also a

primary cause of cardiovascular disease, Levy cannot be accused of

underselling his case. Nor can he overcome the fact that proper clinical

trials are still desperately needed. Considering its overall safety,

there appears to be no good reason why anyone with a chronic or acute

health problem should not try, at the very least, a couple of week's

regime of two or three 1,000mg tablets of Vitamin C a day.

 

Need to Know: So how much should you take?

 

* For a cold

 

Three 1,000mg doses a day, according to the campaign group Consumers for

Health Choice.

 

* For flu

 

Although it's more serious, the viral load is similar, according to

research, and taking up to 20,000mg a day could be beneficial.

 

* For shingles

 

Research has shown that this painful post-viral condition can be pretty

well cured by an injection of 3,000mg of vitamin C. Taking four 1,000mg

tablets orally for three days could be worthwhile as well.

 

* For a hangover

 

Taking 1,000mg daily in the week before a booze-up reduces stress on the

liver. If you're drunk and want to look sober, a large dose of vitamin C

will prevent drunken behaviour, according to a 1986 study, " Alcohol and

Alcoholism " .

 

* To maintain your health

 

A 1,000mg daily dose is regarded as safe by the Food Standards Agency,

and adequate to keep sufficient vitamin C in the plasma and tissues. " We

believe this is absolutely safe and definitely beneficial to people's

health, " says Sue Croft of Consumers for Health Choice.