From Cancer to Polio
Megavitamin therapy is the most exciting area of nutrient therapy and the most controversial. There is a mystique about megavitamins. The name itself implies power and extremism and there are, indeed, reports of benefits in almost every medical disorder. Low doses of nutrients are established in the prevention and treatment of specific deficiency diseases. Megadoses, however, offer benefits beyond vitamin action and into the realm of pharmacologic or drug therapy.
This is not a small subject so let me offer a few applications to illustrate the scope of meganutrient therapy: Vitamin A in preventing post-operative immune deficiency; also in preventing and even reversing certain cancers. Carotene in preventing certain cancers and in reducing cardiovascular disease. Vitamin E in peripheral vascular disease and lung disorders due to smog or high altitude. Vitamin K to promote healing of bone fractures. Vitamin B1 as an adjunct in treating lead poisoning. Vitamin B2 in combatting adverse effects of psychiatric drugs. Niacin for lowering blood cholesterol, and in treating schizophrenia. Pantothenic acid to bolster adrenal steroid output and combat allergy and stress. Folic acid in preventing birth defects and in treating 'restless legs.' Vitamin B6 in pre-menstrual syndrome, autism and epilepsy. Vitamin B12 in depression and fatigue syndrome. Biotin in some cases of epilepsy and diabetes. Ubiquinone in congestive heart failure. Carnitine for extra reserve athletic performance. Choline for tardive dyskinesia and, finally, inositol for diabetic neuropathy.
Then there are the amino acids: tryptophan for insomnia, tyrosine for depression, taurine and GABA for irritability, arginine for muscle enhancement, lysine to suppress herpes virus, DMG (dimethyl glycine) as an immune enhancer, DMAE (dimethyl aminoethanol or Deanol) for depression, cystine or acetyl cysteine to detox lead, mercury and other heavy metals and histidine for rheumatoid arthritis!
Large doses of essential fatty acids of the omega 3 series are useful in arthritis, eczema and allergy. The omega-6 fatty acids, particularly GLA (gamma linolenic acid) are often effective in pre-menstrual syndrome and to promote weight loss.
The undoubted "king" of the meganutrients is ascorbic acid, vitamin C. As a vitamin it is essential to the manufacture of collagen, the protein glue that holds our tissues together. It is also essential to the production of hydroxyl ions by the white blood cells. Hydroxyl ions have the same action as bleach: they kill germs. This is one of our most important immune defenses. In scurvy, vitamin C deficiency disease, gums bleed, old scars separate and the immune system fails. The clinical picture is similar to AIDS!
At high concentration vitamin C shows strong anti-viral action. In the 1930's researchers demonstrated the power of vitamin C against hepatitis, herpes and polio viruses. Claus Jungeblut was able to demonstrate a protective action of vitamin C against paralysis in monkeys infected with the polio virus. Unfortunately, the American polio researcher, Alfred Sabin, was unable to duplicate these results and this line of research was dropped. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19870431/
However, a small town doctor, Frederick Klenner, faced with paralysis and death among his patients, experimented with vitamin C therapy in large doses, up to 200 grams per day by injection and by mouth. Of 60 cases treated in 1948, all recovered without paralysis. He concluded: "To those who say that Polio is without cure, I say that they lie. Polio in the acute form can be cured in 96 hours or less. I beg of someone in authority to try it."
Dr. Klenner used heroic doses of vitamin C and he accomplished heroic results in a number of treatment resistant disorders: hepatitis, viral pneumonia, measles and snakebite, for instance. Unfortunately his scientific papers have been ignored by the medical establishment. As Robert Landwehr points out in his recent review in the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine, not one dime of the millions spent by the March of Dimes was allocated to prove or disprove Klenner's claim.
Klenner went on to review the failure to confirm the findings of Jungeblut: "His results were indecisive because the amount of vitamin C given was inadequate to cope with the degree of infection. Sabin's results were not as suggestive as Jungeblut's because he, Sabin, used a greater dose of virus and less vitamin C."
Vitamin C therapy has been surrounded by controversy ever since Dr. James Lind's discovery of citrus juice therapy for scurvy in 1747. It took over 40 years before his research was accepted and lemon and lime juice made available to sailors in the British Navy but this was still in time to give the Limeys a secret advantage over the forces of Napoleon. By eliminating scurvy the British Navy was able to stay at sea, win battles and carry out blockades. This changed the course of history. However the message took a long time to reach American shores and there were over 30,000 cases of scurvy reported in our Civil War. It was not until 1895 that the U.S. Army introduced anti-scurvy rations!
Now it has been over 75 years since the studies by Dr. Klenner and 55 since Vitamin C and the Common Cold was published by Dr. Linus Pauling. Though Dr. Pauling's book triggered a landslide of public interest in vitamin C, the medical and scientific communities responded with a backlash of criticism that actually cut off much of his research funding. What a pity!
The medical world still has had a hard time accepting the fact that vitamin C can and does reduce the degree of illness caused by viruses, such as the Common Cold and the Flu. More controversy and derision of Dr. Pauling erupted upon publication of Cancer and Vitamin C 1979. In collaboration with Dr. Ewen Cameron he showed megadose vitamin C treatment offers a seven-fold increase in life-span for terminal cancer patients. Because of the anti-inflammatory and analgesic effects of megadose vitamin C, most of these patients required little or no pain medications.
Only recently does it seem that the tide has turned. The National Cancer Institute actually sponsored a conference on the relation between vitamin C and cancer. Dr. Gladys Block reviewed 46 different studies and found that vitamin C had a protective and preventive effect in 33 of them. Some in the cancer research establishment publicly acknowledge that Dr. Pauling's work was just too far ahead of its time!
In 1990 he published, with his colleague, Matthias Rath, an hypothesis that may explain the pivotal role of vitamin C in atherosclerosis. Dr. Rath's research showed that the low density lipoprotein (LDL) that carries cholesterol is not deposited in the arterial plaque but instead, lipoprotein(a) is responsible. Pauling and Rath have proposed that it is also a substitute for vitamin C. Because ascorbate is required for manufacture of collagen and elastin, the materials that make up the blood vessel wall, low blood ascorbate weakens the blood vessels. Lipoprotein(a) is nature's attempt to repair the damage; however if too much finds its way into the arterial walls, plaque formation is initiated. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2143582/
The only animals that have lipoprotein(a) in their blood are those that have lost the genetic ability to manufacture vitamin C. When guinea pigs are fed a low ascorbate diet, corresponding to the usual human intake, they develop arterial plaque, similar to ours. Large doses of vitamin C cause regression of the plaque in guinea pigs. There is evidence that this is so in humans as well.
Megadose ascorbate has been reported of benefit in many conditions: stress, pain, mental illness, allergy, infection, diabetes, arthritis, cancer, cardiovascular disease, stroke, head injury, burns, cataract and in general for its anti-inflammatory, anti-tissue damage, anti-aging effects. That is exciting but controversial: large scale, double blind studies have not been performed to corroborate these observations, the collective impressions and case reports of a large number of clinicians!
And there is always the question of vitamin overdose. Is vitamin C dangerous? I have seen one report of a death after a 40 gram intravenous megadose of ascorbate in a very sick patient with damaged kidneys. Also, there is a suspicion that megadose ascorbate can cause kidney stones. I have been suspicious of this in only a few of the thousands of patients I have examined. It is known that urinary oxalate does increase significantly when vitamin C intake exceeds 4 grams per day but it is also believed that the oxalate forms in the test tube upon heating and does not form in the urinary tract!
At doses as low as 2 grams per day vitamin C can cause diarrhea. While this is inconvenient, some physicians use bowel tolerance to identify the best dose in case of infection. I agree that in serious illness, megadoses of ascorbic acid deserve a try; however my own experience with nutrient therapy based on laboratory measurement of vitamins, minerals, etc. suggests that it is also possible to obtain good results by combined nutrient therapy at moderate rather than megadose levels. As a rule, I recommend heroic megadoses in short term and crisis situations, where there isn't time to risk a treatment failure. I do not recommend long term megadoses except under close medical supervision and laboratory follow-up!
It has been our good fortune that Dr. Pauling remained vital and productive even past 90 years of age. Does the fact that he took a megadose of vitamin C, 18 grams daily, give him an advantage? Does the anti-oxidant, cell membrane protective action of ascorbate have an anti-aging effect? There is considerable evidence that these speculations are correct.
For more information about Dr. Linus Pauling, Dr. Kunin and Dr. Block see THIS VIDEO in our Dr. Kunin Videos section of olaloa.com.
Copyright @ Dr. Richard A. Kunin, 2020
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