Attack on Viruses
Vitamin
C and Colds
________________
The advocacy
of Vitamin C for the prevention
and treatment of colds has
received more publicity
than perhaps any other health-related
subject. Since the publication
of Linus Pauling's book,
"Vitamin C the Common
Cold and the Flu (1970,
Freeman & Co.)(164),
debates on the merits and
appropriate doses of Vitamin
C have raged within the
research establishment and
amongst the public. Despite
such universal bombardment
via every kind of media,
old ideas die hard; it continually
astonishes me how a majority
of people, convinced that
the body "only stores
150 mg Vitamin C and excretes
the rest", content
themselves with rather small
doses (500 mg/day) and wonder
why they haven't experienced
the wondrous effects of
Vitamin C rhapsodized by
enthusiastic advocates.
The research
history concerning the use
of Vitamin C against colds
and viruses is actually
almost half a century old.
The detailed historical
description of the various
research trials conducted
since the 1940's makes compelling
reading, and the reader
is enthusiastically encouraged
to review the evidence presented
by Drs. Irwin Stone and
Linus Pauling in their respective
books(164,166,200). A summary
of placebo controlled trials
with Vitamin C and colds
(Table 5) is hereby reprinted
from Dr. Pauling's "How
to Live Longer and Feel
Better", 1986(166):
Table 5: Controlled Studies
Related to Vitamin C and
Colds
______________________________________________
% Decrease
in
Study Illness per person
___________________
Glazebrook & Thomson
(1942) 50
Cowan, Diehl, Baker (1942)
31
Dahlberg, Engel, Rydin (1944)
14
Franz, Sands, Heyl (1954)
36
Anderson et al. (1975) 25
Ritzel (1961) 63
Anderson, Reid, Beaton (1972)
32
Charleston, Clegg (1972)
58
Elliott (1973) 44
Anderson, Suranyi, Beaton
(1974) 9
Coulehan et al. (1974) 30
Sabiston & Radomski
(1974) 68
Karlowski et al (1975) 21
Clegg & Macdonald (1975)
8
Pitt & Costrini (1979)
0
Carr et al (1981) 48
Average
34
__________
From "How
to Live Longer and Feel
Better" Linus Pauling,
1986(166)
It should
be borne in mind that NONE
of the above studies REALLY
tested Vitamin C's effect
against colds to the limit,
in that the above studies
used relatively low doses
for relatively short time
intervals. The types of
data that would be really
convincing would use doses
of 3-5 g per day over an
extended period of time,
at least one year.
The Vitamin C Recipe Against
Colds
__________________________________
Depending
on your biochemical individuality,
your own protective dose
of Vitamin C, which should
prevent colds may range
from 1-3-5 g per day. However,
as will be discussed in
Chapter 12, this level will
vary according to the degree
of stresses in your life,
including physical, infectious,
environmental and emotional.
But generally, a "maintenance"
dose of Vitamin C should
offer significant protection
against colds. However,
when your resistance is
lowered due to any number
of factors, this is what
to do with respect to Vitamin
C. This regime is again
borrowed from Drs. Stone
and Pauling(164,166,200):
1. At the
first signs of cold, ie
scratchy or sore throat,
malaise, sniffles, fever,
etc., take 1-2 g Vitamin
C. It is important to "catch"
the cold at the onset of
a cold, not to wait until
it takes hold.
2. Repeat
taking 1-2 g Vitamin C about
every hour. Usually, after
several hours, symptoms
subside and relief is felt.
Take a total of 5-20 g Vitamin
C per day, depending on
the severity of symptoms.
A very severe cold may require
more Vitamin C, perhaps
as much as 50-100 g. To
be more precise, what you
are trying to achieve is
to take Vitamin C to "bowel
tolerance level", the
optimum level for Vitamin
C's efficacy. More about
this in Chapter 12.
3. Continue
taking 5-20 g Vitamin C
for an extended period beyond
that of the cold. Symptoms
may return if the Vitamin
C is suddenly withdrawn
or reduced too early. Taper
off the dosage gradually,
until at your maintenance
dose of 1-3-5 g per day.
For instance, it you were
taking 2 g Vitamin C 7 times
per day, for a total of
14 g per day, after a week,
take 2 g 5 times per day
for 2 days, then 2 g 4 times
per day, then 2 g 3 times
per day, then perhaps down
to your regular regime of
1.5 g 3 times per day.
For the die-hard skeptic
who never believes any of
the experts, this is your
opportunity to test the
Vitamin C/cold recipe for
yourself. One of the best
attributes about Vitamin
C is that no matter how
much you take, even 200
g per day, it cannot harm
you. The clinical evidence
of tens of thousands of
patients attest to the nontoxicity
of Vitamin C. There is many
a Vitamin C supporting individual
who started off attempting
to disprove the theory that
Vitamin C can prevent and
treat colds and other illnesses.
Vitamin C and Other Viral
Diseases
____________________________
Historically,
virtually as soon as viruses
were first identified did
published research report
Vitamin C's potent broad-spectrum
anti-viral activity against
a wide ranges of different
viruses. Table 6 highlights
this very early research,
going back over 50 years
ago.
Although
research decades ago documented
the potent force of Vitamin
C as a viral inhibitor,
this has not been taken
up by mainstream clinical
or pharmacological concerns,
who have spent billions
in attempting to produce
vaccines. And, as has been
described in Chapter 3,
Vitamin C was shown, in
1989, to inhibit HIV virus,
the virus implicated in
AIDS.
Table 6:
Anti-Viral Activity of Vitamin
C (Early Years)
_________________________________________
Date Researcher(s)
Virus
___________________
1935-9
Jungeblut(119-21) poliomyelitis1936
Holden & Resnick(104)
herpes
1936 Kligler & Bernkopf(130)
vaccinia (smallpox)
1936 Lominski(143) bacteriophage
1937 Langenbusch & Enderling(133)
foot & mouth
1937 Amato(4) rabies
1937 Holden & Molloy(105)
herpes
1939 Sabin(185) poliomyelitis
1943 Dainow(63) herpes (shingles)
1944 Lojkin(142) tobacco
mosaic
1945 Paez de la Torre(163)
measles
1949-59 Klenner(127) poliomyelitis
1949 Klenner(127) encephalitis,
mumps
1950 Zureick(246) chicken
pox
1952-4 Bauer & Staub(16,17)
hepatitis
1963 Vargus Magne(218) influenza
1962 Dalton(64) pneumonia
1954-5 Greer(92);Gsell&
Kalt(94) poliomyelitis
Vitamin
C and the Effective Treatment
of Viruses
_____________________________________
Vitamin
C was used, even in early
days, for the treatment
of viral hepatitis(8,39,125),
and Vitamin C's antiviral
activity against the herpes
virus has enabled practitioners
such as Klenner to successfully
treat shingles and other
viral conditions(126-9).
However,
the king of the Vitamin
C practitioners, who has
treated some 20,000 patients
is Dr. Robert Cathcart,
of orthopedic fame (Cathcart
hip-joint prosthesis). Dr.
Cathcart, in his landmark
1981 paper "Vitamin
C, Titrating to Bowel Tolerance,
Anascorbemia and Acute Induced
Scurvy"(46), described
and documented the "bowel
tolerance" technique
in which he successfully
treated viral conditions
including colds, hepatitis,
influenza, mononucleosis,
pneumonia, and more recently
AIDS with Vitamin C(47,48).
The bowel tolerance method
and doses of Vitamin C required
to combat a wide variety
of viral and other conditions
will be described in more
detail in Chapter 12.
Since the
dramatic and almost miraculous
development of the Salk
and later oral Sabin vaccines
against polio, which has
been a blessing to man(woman)kind,
the strategy of clinical
research and pharmaceutical
companies has been to develop
effective vaccines against
other viruses: measles,
smallpox, influenza, hepatitis
and, especially recently,
AIDS. Given the complexities
and manipulative cleverness
of most viruses, which change
their immunological "spots"
fairly regularly to evade
our attempts to kill them,
the development of fool-proof
vaccines against the many
viral strains is a worthy
research challenge indeed.
And a huge financial investment
as well.
Given that
Vitamin C and other natural
substances have been documented
to possess antiviral activity(158),
and that clinical practitioners
such as Drs. Cathcart and
Brighthope are successfully
treating tens of thousands
of patients with viral conditions,
it would appear sensible,
at the very least, to advocate
health regimes which include
Vitamin C and other antiviral
substances, as adjuvant,
if not necessarily stand-alone
treatment for viral disorders.
While drug companies promote
their toxic antiviral drugs,
it seems ludicrous to disregard
an entirely nontoxic, inexpensive
and effective antiviral
substance such as Vitamin
C. And in the market-driven
society of today, it may
have to be the consumer
who leads the way to more
effective, less expensive
and less toxic medical treatments.
