Vitamin C's Historical and Miraculous Record | The Health Matrix
[Snipped the part on oral doses. Very important info though!]
Clinical Guide to the Use of Vitamin C by Lendon H. Smith, M.D.
These are the Clinical Experiences of Frederick R. Klenner, M.D., as abbreviated, sumarized and annotated by
Lendon H. Smith, M.D.. You can read the full article here.
-The patient should “
get large doses of Vitamin C in all pathological conditions while the physician ponders the diagnosis.”
-If we base our needs on the amounts other mammals manufacture with their intact enzyme it comes to 2-4 grams daily in the unstressed condition. Under stress 70 kg of rats make 15 grams of C.
-If you are hypoascorbemic because you cannot manufacture Vitamin C from sugar, extra glucose in your diet will not help, you need to take Vitamin C.
-Vitamin C level of the blood plasma fell to zero for 90 days before there was obvious clinical evidence and that this was as long as 132 days before the first signs appeared.
-As an oxidizing agent massive amounts, i.e., 5-150 grams, intravenously, for certain pathological conditions.
-Vitamin C acts as a reducing agent, an oxidizing agent, an anti-clotting agent, an antihistamine, and as an anti-infective agent.
-Ascorbic acid enters all cells. It “proceeds to take up the protein coats being manufactured by the virus nucleic acid, thus preventing the assembly of new virus units.”
-Failure to benefit from Vitamin C use is usually due to inadequate amounts being used for too short a period of time.
-Vitamin C combines directly with the toxin/virus. This new compound is oxidized by Vitamin C; the toxin/virus and the Vitamin C are destroyed. This must be why C has to be continued after the apparent cure.
-The anaerobic condition in the tissue is relieved. Acidity is decreased and large amounts of Adrenaline disappear. The constriction of the blood vessels ceases and the liver and pancreas can receive the proper nutrients to function. Properly calculated doses of C on a continuing basis will restore the normal physiology of the body.
-The adrenals and Vitamin C are interrelated.
-Patients ill with a virus would show petechial hemorrhages (small leaks of blood into the skin) when a tourniquet was applied to increase venous backpressure.
Capillary weakness is a sign of low levels of Vitamin C.
-The collagen of all fibrous tissue structures is dependent on an adequate level of Vitamin C. These weak capillary walls may allow a simple virus to invade the brain
-Vitamin C acts as catalyst in the assimilation of iron.
A note of caution: Those with iron overload (ask your physician to test for ferritin, transferrin, TIBC and iron) should keep in mind that vitamin C increases the absorption of iron into the body, especially in the heart where it can cause heart failure, palpitations and others. Ferritin levels should be ideally less than 80 and transferrin saturation should be less than 40%. If you are above those levels, you might want to donate some blood or refer to the Iron Disorders Institute. A great book on the subject is The Elephant Iron by Roberta Crawford.
-Ascorbic acid is a necessary coenzyme in the metabolic oxidation of tyrosine. The latter is necessary to break down protein to a usable amino acid.
-Highly alkaline urine has less Vitamin C. The Vitamin C would be thus retained in the tissues helping to guard against the viruses and bacteria. When Vitamin C levels drop, glycogen in the liver is converted to glucose: a response to stress.
-The usual dose of 65 mg per kilogram of body weight may be expected to take care of the usual virus infection when given every 2-4 hours by needle. The more severe condition would respond to larger single injections.
-However “if the activity of the pathogen is completely stopped, the development of active immunity will be interrupted.” Therefore, modification of childhood diseases is the aim of Vitamin C treatment, not the complete overnight suppression that would prevent the body from making immune memory. To accomplish modification, 250 mg per kilogram should be given intramuscularly. If necessary, half of this amount would be given in eight hours. Procaine 1.5-2% can be given with a separate syringe with the same needle just prior to the C.
-The itch, the irritability, the pain, the vomiting of
chicken pox measles and mumps was assuaged in one hour with this last dose. Crusting of chicken pox was present in 5 hours instead of 7-9 days. 250 mg per kilogram eliminated the disease in contrast to the 65 mg which just suppressed it. 350 mg per kilogram may be employed along with antibiotics in treating
stubborn bacterial infections. Because a virus infection will deplete the Vitamin C reserve,
bleeding from the nose or chest would indicate an emergency situation; Vitamin C, using the above noted dosage schedule, should be pumped in immediately.
-For a very
severe illness, the dose he used was large and the most effective route was intravenous, but the intramuscular route was satisfactory. He gave at least 350 mg per kilogram of body weight. (A 70 kg man is 150 pounds; thus 70 x 350= 24,500 mg. He would use a 25 gram dose for a 25 gram illness.) This amount was put in 500 cc of sterile water, usually with dextrose, saline or Ringer’s solution. It was diluted so that there was at least 18 cc of diluent to each gram of C. In small children, 2 or 3 grams can be given intramuscularly once every two hours. An ice cap to the buttocks will prevent soreness and induration. As much as 12 grams can be given in this manner into 2 or 3 different muscle sites with a 50 cc syringe; larger amounts must be diluted with dextrose or saline and run in by I.V. drip. If big concentrated doses are given by push (25 grams in a 100 cc syringe), the brain may become dehydrated causing convulsive movements of the legs. Intramuscular injections are always 500 mg to 1 cc solution. At least one gram of calcium gluconate must be added to the fluids each day. Massive doses of C pull calcium ions from platelets; and the clotting mechanism is weakened. Nosebleeds may occur. One gram of calcium gluconate is added to control acidity and to replace the calcium ion loss
-Sodium ascorbate is less painful. Some of us will put procaine, 2%, with the Vitamin C when injected into the muscle. Vitamin C can also be taken orally once the patient is recovering.
-This dose is repeated every hour for 6 to 12 times and then every 2-4 hours until recovery.
-If using under 400 mg per kg body weight, it can be given with the sodium salt. Doses over 400 mg per kg of body weight must be diluted to at least one gram to 18 cc of solution.
-He suggests the following for each bottle: 60 grams of C, 500 mg thiamin HCl, 300 mg pyridoxine, 400 mg calcium pantothenate, 100 mg riboflavin, 300 mg niacinamide. It is to be given once or twice daily.
-He used a 23 gauge needle intravenously and a 22 gauge needle for intramuscular use—one inch long for children and one and a half inch for adults.
-The idea of these big doses is to saturate the tissues; the white blood cells will be able to destroy pathogens. “I have seen
diphtheria, hemolytic streptococcus infections clear within hours following an injection of ascorbic acid in a dose ranging from 500-700 mg per kilogram of body weight given intravenously as fast as the patient’s cardiovascular system will allow.”
-He got to know the vulnerability of viruses so well, he played games with them. “
When proper amounts are used it will destroy all virus organisms.” He could give one gram of ascorbic acid every four hours and modify the disease symptoms, but if he gave one gram every two hours by mouth for four days, he had stopped the disease, apparently by killing the virus. If he gave this dose for only two days, the symptoms returned. (He kept measles simmering in his own children for a month by giving this dose for two days, then off for two then on, etc. I guess it was to help them develop immunity!)
-With 350 mg per kilogram of body weight every two hours, he could
stop measles and dry up chicken pox. If he could get in the vein, 400 mg per kilogram two to three times in 24 hours was all that was required (he published this way back in 1951, in the
Southern Medical Surgical Journal).
-This case demonstrates the usual quick response to therapy, but also the recurrence rate if the vitamin C is discontinued prematurely. The patient, a 73 year-old male, was admitted three times in 24 days with the same disease. He had a slight cold for a few days. Then abruptly, a severe headache was followed by a chill and coma. T=103, p=138, resp.=36, BP=150/90, white blood count was 10,000. Moisture was detected in his lungs. Muscle jerks appeared. Nasal oxygen begun. Intravenous achromycin and Vitamin C were begun; 20 grams of C was added to 378 cc of 5% dextrose in water. It was repeated in eight hours. He became conscious in 18 hours. He went home on the third day but returned in two weeks with the same findings and received the same treatment and sent home. In seven days he was back with the same symptoms. He was given 24 grams of C and sent home on achromycin and ten grams of C daily indefinitely. This case shows Dr. Klenner was confident that the C would handle the virus, but he needed the antibiotics to control the bacterial secondary invaders.
-The initial dose administered by needle is no less than 250 mg per kilogram of body weight. For children the dose would be two to three grams intramuscularly using a concentration of 500 mg per cc. Ice on the muscle after injection will usually control pain. “
Massive use of C is compatible with any other drug and in most instances it will enhance the value of these other remedies.”
-As published in
The Tri-State Medical Journal, February, 1960, he warned that “every cold must be considered as a probable source of
brain pathology.” Most doctors are not impressed with the seriousness of the runny nose, the sore windpipe and the dry cough until this smoldering virus bursts through the defenses and attacks the brain.
-His routine for
Virus Pneumonia was of 1000 mg of Vitamin C intravenously every six to twelve hours for a mild case. In children, 500 mg of C intramuscularly every six to twelve hours was about right. Three to seven injections were all that was required for complete clinical and X-ray resolution. Most patients felt better in just one hour and definite improvement after two hours. Nausea and headache disappeared after the first shot. Fever fell at least two degrees Fahrenheit in several hours after the first injection.
-He gave alkaline drinks as this impedes the excretion of the C through the kidneys. Mustard plasters were used to relieve chest pain and constricted breathing. In some patients
cyanosis (blueness due to lack of oxygen in tissues) was immediately relieved by an additional injection of 500 mg of C.
-For
poliomyelitis, he arbitrarily adopted the following routine injection schedule: 1000 to 2000 mg initially depending upon age. The intramuscular route was used for children under age four years. If the fever dropped in two hours, two more hours was allowed before the second dose. After 24 hours, if the fever remained down, this same dose was given every six hours for the next 48 hours. All sixty cases were well in 72 hours. Three however, had a relapse, so the C was continued in all 60 cases for another two days every eight to twelve hours. Home treatment was 2000 mg injected every six hours plus 1000 to 2000 mg orally every two hours. Two of the 60 patients had throat muscle paralysis and needed oxygen and drainage but were recovering in 36 hours.
-It is known that
virus infections deplete the Vitamin C content of the
adrenals.
-Vitamin C works as a destroyer of the virus but also as a safe and potent dehydrator and
diuretic. (Most patients complain of thirst after an I.V. of ascorbic acid.)
-Dr. Klenner felt the best time to treat the virus was during the
viremia stage; that is, when it was floating about in the blood stream and had not invaded the tissues. He repeats: “For optimum results the vitamin must be given in massive doses, every two to four hours, around the clock.” Intestinal absorption is inconsistent; it must be given by needle.
-In 1956 Dr. Klenner published, “Poliomyelitis—Case Histories” (
Tri-State Medical Journal, Sept). He had a continuing supply of zingers he would throw at doctors who insisted on disregarding his logic. He quotes Ratner, “There are two ways of practicing the medical art: the first is to employ art; the second is to employ fancy.” If one has used speculation, preconceived opinions and prejudice, then he is proceeding by emotions, faith and dreams. We must proceed by REASON. Husky put it, “Science commits suicide when it adopts a creed.”
-For
viral hepatitis, he said that vitamin C will cure it in two to four days. (500-700 mg/kg body weight taken orally; approximately 30 grams/24 hours). Dr. Klenner reports that Dr. Bauer at the University Clinic at Basel, Switzerland used just ten grams daily intravenously. It proved to be the best treatment available. He indicated that hepatitis (infectious and serum) can be reversed in a few days using intravenous Vitamin C.
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Case history of viral hepatitis: A 27 year old male with 103° temperature, nausea and jaundice of three days. 60 grams of sodium ascorbate in 600 cc of normal saline was given intravenously at 120 drops/minute. Five grams of Vitamin C was given orally every four hours around the clock. Fifteen grams of C was again given three hours after the first I.V. Another 60 grams of C was given intravenously twelve hours after the initial one (he used 5% glucose in water this time). That one took 75 minutes to accomplish. Then another fifteen grams of C intravenously after two more hours. For the 30 hours of treatment he received 270 grams intravenously and 45 grams orally—no diarrhea. Temperature was normal at this time and urine clear of bile. Discharged from the hospital, he was back to work. C sets in as a flash oxidizer and helps the body manufacture interferon, a natural antiviral agent.
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Case history of viral hepatitis: A 22 year old male with chills and fever and a diagnosis of viral hepatitis. His roommate had been admitted the day before. Fifteen grams of sodium ascorbate was given intravenously every twelve hours for three days, then once daily for six days. Sodium ascorbate was swallowed at five grams every four hours (135 grams intravenously, and 180 grams orally). No diarrhea appeared with these doses. He was sent home on the sixth day with no fever and no bile in the urine. Soon he was back to work. His roommate with just bed rest was in the hospital for 26 days!
-A 42-year-old male suffering from
chronic hepatitis had been unsuccessfully treated with steroids for seven months. He was given B complex and Vitamin C: 45 grams of sodium ascorbate plus one gram of calcium gluconate in 500 cc of water with 5% glucose was given intravenously three times a week. He took five grams of C orally every four hours. He was free of the disease in five months. Dr. Klenner felt if he had more massive and continuous doses in the hospital he would have been well in a few weeks, but his peers on the staff would have denied the patient this safe treatment.
-Dr. Klenner reemphasized the point, “Sodium ascorbate in amounts ranging up to 900 mg per kilogram body weight every eight to twelve hours will effect cures in two to four days.”
-He felt that the risk of serum hepatitis from dialysis machines could be eliminated by flushing the machines with 50 grams of sodium ascorbate. When he needed to give a patient a blood transfusion he always added ten grams of sodium ascorbate to each pint. The Japanese, he said, have added but
five grams of C to each unit of blood; result, no hepatitis and in thousands of cases.
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Fever blisters: three percent ointment of Vitamin C applied to the lips ten to fifteen times a day in a water soluble base speeds up the cure. A three-percent solution of ascorbic acid used as a douche will heal a
cervical erosion; direct application of this solution by the physician would be prudent. Twenty grams of C orally each day would “erase this form of malignancy.” Dr. Klenner points out that the cancer seems to hit those with a hereditary tendency; a virus grows more eagerly in the susceptible. If there is a family tendency, oral C in large doses as a preventative makes sense.
-One to three injections of 400 mg per kg every eight hours will dry up
chicken pox in 24 hours. Controls nausea with one gram of C per five cc of fluid. Thirst is precluded if a glass of juice is drunk just before the I.V.
-A ten month old baby had the high fever, watery nose, dry cough, the red eyes, and the Koplik spots that gave the disease away:
hard measles. He gave 1000 mg of C every four hours. After twelve hours the temperature had fallen to 97.5°; the cough had stopped and the redness of the membranes had cleared. Just to see if this improvement happened to be the natural course of the disease, he stopped the C for just eight hours. The fever rose to 103.4°. The C injections were resumed and the fever dropped in a few hours to 99°. 1000 mg was given every four hours; no rash developed.
-An eight-year-old developed measles and mumps closely followed by
encephalitis (T-104°). He could not eat, was stuporous and responded only to pain. Two hours after one injection of 2000 mg of Vitamin C, he sat up, ate a hearty meal and then played. In six hours he started to revert to his previous stupor, and the fever returned. Twelve hours after a second injection of two grams, and 1000 mg every two hours by mouth, he recovered. Dr. Klenner said, “The rude irritability shown prior to the first injection of Vitamin C was strikingly absent.” I think what he wants the reader to grasp is that the symptoms of these devastating virus diseases are similar to the clues seen in scorbutic patients.
-He reports cases of
influenza, encephalitis, and measles easily cured with Vitamin C injections and oral doses. A 23-year-old male developed mumps plus bilateral
orchitis; his fever was 105°, and he was in overwhelming pain with “testicles the size of tennis balls.” After one 1000-mg injection of Vitamin C intravenously the pain began to subside and after six more shots spaced every two hours the pain was gone. The fever was normal in 36 hours. He was up, about and well in 60 hours. Total dose 25,000 mg.
-Dr. Klenner felt
mono is related to cancer because the same virus (
Epstein-Barr) is found in Burkitt’s lymphoma. The disease, mono, can be eliminated with an I.V. of C in just a few days, “The actual time being directly proportional to the amount of the vitamin employed in relation to the severity of the infection.” (Most use Dr. Cathcart’s formula for the amount of C to be given: “I think this is a 50 gram disease: some fever, generalized aches, but ambulatory.”) In one patient who was given the last rites by her church, the girl’s mother took things into her own hands when the attending physician refused to give ascorbic acid. In each bottle of I.V. fluid she would secretly and quickly “tap in” 20 -30 grams of Vitamin C. The patient made an uneventful recovery. Her mother has her BS in nursing and has been a long time advocate of massive “C” therapy. (100 gram disease: 102-103°, holding down fluids but needs to stay in bed, miserable. 200 gram disease: 104 degree temperature, semi-comatose, somewhat dehydrated; hospitalization a good idea.)
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Pancreatitis. He treated but one case of this. He put 60 grams of sodium ascorbate in 1000 cc of 5% dextrose in water and let it drip in rapidly and the patient was able to go home in twelve hours.
–
Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. Dr. Klenner was an authority in the treatment of this rather debilitating, serious disease because his practice was right in the middle of a constant locus of infection for
tick bite fever. Dr. Klenner had been taught in his training that there was no cure for it, only supportive. So when he was confronted with an obvious case—104.4° degree temperature, spots over body, coma, and positive blood test—he quickly gave 30 grams of C intravenously every six hours. The patient was given para-aminobenzoic acid orally, six grams, every two hours x3, then 4 grams every two hours for 24 hours, then 4 grams every 4 hours until his fever was gone for 24 hours. At about the sixth hour of treatment he became conscious and rational. He was sent home on the sixth day, fully recovered. The C is given around the clock and at the 500-900 mg per kg body weight level. The disease “can always be reversed.”
-Dr. Klenner reports on other research: Vitamin C inactivates the toxin of
tetanus. He felt that the number of fatalities from the disease were equal to the number of those who die from the treatment. He emphasized some principles of treatment 30 to 40 years ago that many of us have forgotten: namely, do no harm, and
the body has tremendous restorative powers if the doctor will supply it with the raw materials to promote recovery.
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Chronic cystitis is usually associated with alkaline urine. Germs grow more easily in this alkaline urine. Vitamin C will discourage these bacteria and cut the chance of an ascending infection which might devastate the kidneys (
pyelitis). Ten grams of C per day are suggested.
-For
acute alcoholism Dr. Klenner has given 1000 mg of thiamin intramuscularly every two hours until recovery. Pyridoxine, 500 mg is given every six hours. 40 grams of C intravenously will detoxify the patient.
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Arthritis: Vitamin C counteracts the damaging effects of aspirin. C is the number one precursor for collagen formation. If serum levels of C are high, synovial fluid is thinner allowing for easier joint movement. Those taking 15 to 25 grams daily will experience commensurate benefit. Prevention seems prudent. “A person who will take ten to twenty grams of ascorbic acid a day along with other nutrients might very well never develop arthritis.”
–
Cancer: He cites Schlegel’s (Tulane University) use of ascorbic acid (1.5 grams a day only) in preventing
bladder cancer recurrence. “This is the so called wasted Vitamin C.” He “demonstrated that in the presence of ascorbic acid, carcinogenic metabolites will not develop in the urine. They suggested that spontaneous tumor formation is the result of faulty tryptophan metabolism while urine is retained in the bladder.” Other researchers report that the depletion of mast cells from guinea pig skin was due to ascorbic acid deficiency. It suggests Vitamin C is necessary for the formation and maintenance of mast cells. Vitamin C will control
myelocytic leukemia with 25-30 grams orally daily. “How long must we wait for someone to start continuous ascorbic acid drip for two to three months, giving 100 to 300 grams each day, for various
malignant conditions?
–
Small basal cell epithelioma: 30% Vitamin C ointment.
-His protocol for treating cancer is printed here in total. All of this is designed to kill the cancer cells by shoring up the immune system.
[Note: Back then there was less industrial pollution, no GMOs and less toxicity in general. The dietary guidelines in this diet make no sense in that they contain too much sugar and protein. A ketogenic diet is the one thing that is showing differences for cancer patients nowadays. For more info see Ketogenic diet may be key to cancer recovery.]
- Use radioactive cobalt when and where indicated.
- Give 45 grams of sodium ascorbate intravenously every twelve hours for one month. Then use 60 to 65 grams in 500 cc of normal saline or 5% dextrose in water for five days a week until a cure is obtained. It usually takes five months.
- Each bottle is to contain one gram of calcium gluconate, a cc of some B complex, plus 1,200 mg of thiamin, 300 mg of pyridoxine, and 600 mg of niacinamide.
- Oral sodium ascorbate, 5, 10, 20, grams daily. The dose depends upon the bowel tolerance.
- Vitamin A palmitate, 50,000 units, daily, orally.
- Pantothenic acid, (B5) one gram orally four times a day.
- Amino acid protein powder with all the eighteen amino acids. 60 tablets each day or, if a powder, several tablespoons daily. This supports the immune system and the enzymes. Tyrosine should be taken separately, if possible, as this one makes the others work better; 500 mg tablets—six daily.
- In addition, a high protein diet using white chicken meat, fresh fish, chicken livers, and brown-shelled eggs. Beef (but once a week) should be as lean as possible: lean stew beef or sirloin tip are the best but have the butcher grind it three times. Hamburgers? Only once a week. No sugar and no starches. Fruit and fruit juices are permitted. Almonds are excellent.
- 30 to 40 apricot almonds should be chewed every day in divided doses until a continuous bitter almond taste develops. At this point the patient cuts the dose in half. “This will form cyanide by way of the stomach acid. Cyanide will kill cancer cells. Vitamin C will protect one against the lethal effects of cyanide. It is the antidote. 500 mg tablets of vitamin B17 are available. One after each meal and at bed time.” (Not everyone would agree with this part of the therapy. Cancer victims are still getting amygdalin B17, as injections from Mexico, but there is some doubt as to its efficacy. LHS)
- Vitamin E, d-alpha tocopheryl acetate, 400 International unit size, 3,200 units daily. Don’t take iron with it.
- One pint of grape juice daily.
- B complex tablets with 100 mg of each of the B’s and 100 mcg of B12. Six to eight tablets daily. Theragran-M or a similar capsule with all the minerals to replace what is being pulled out by the C.
- Maintain the hemoglobin at 13 grams.
- Keep a good attitude.
He reported a case of a man with lymph glands all over his body. He got the above treatment and although the glands increased in size for a while, his liver and spleen were back to normal size in four months. Dr. Klenner noticed a ‘parachute-like’ substance in the urine. Microscopic examination revealed they were clumps of cancer cells.
Another case was that of a woman who had an
adenocarcinoma of two years duration. She had had chemotherapy, two surgeries and extensive radiation over her chest, especially the neck area where the cancerous glands were. The cancer had spread to her lungs, her abdomen and six glands in her neck. Dr. Klenner gave her the above protocol. In three months the lesion in her lung had cleared and gone were the glands in her neck. After six months of intravenous Vitamin C and the B complex, the abdominal masses had disappeared, but she could not swallow food. The radiation had scarred her esophagus beyond dilatation and she refused more surgery. The cancer was gone; she died from starvation due to the radiation.
Dr Klenner summarized this paper with this: “The results suggest that larger daily amounts could be given in a hospital with faster results. I would suggest at least
100 grams in 1000 cc of fluid and given every twelve to 24 hours. The vitamins and the calcium gluconate also must be given.” He thought interferon could be assayed while the patient is in the hospital.
“How long will it take for the general population to challenge the drug cartel?”
-There is a relationship of Vitamin C and
cholesterol. Scorbutic guinea pigs have high cholesterol levels. Way back in 1947 high intravenous doses of Vitamin C were found effective in lowering cholesterol levels. Cholesterol levels in the blood of subjects vary with the amount of C used. In one patient the cholesterol was lowered 42 mg percent in six weeks when his oral intake of Vitamin C was increased from 10 grams a day to 20 grams a day. Extra C seems to be critical especially in those with a family tendency.
[And as long as there is no excess iron in the body, cholesterol itself will be less likely to be toxic]
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Cavities: A gram of Vitamin C every day for each year of life (five grams a day for the five year old) will prevent cavities. Ten grams a day from age ten years for a lifetime should maintain that advantage.
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Disc, ruptured intervertebral: will be prevented with the ten-grams-a-day dose. Adequate amounts seem necessary for disc metabolism and maintenance.
-Corneal ulcers: healed with but 1.5 grams of C daily. The pain of a corneal burn was relieved immediately with twelve grams of C intravenously. The cornea was normal in 24 hours.
-He reported the story of a seven year old
diabetic, who developed
measles, and his
insulin requirements went from 5 units to more than 90 units a day, but with one gram of Vitamin C every four hours his infection and elevated blood sugar came under control. In these diabetic cases, the Vitamin C can be cut back to reasonable levels after the infection is under control. Large prolonged doses of “Vitamin C might prove undesirable due to its dehydrating and diuretic powers.”
-As a matter of fact Dr. Klenner had been studying the effects of ten grams of C per day orally in patients with
diabetes mellitus; 60% were able to control the condition with diet and C. The other 40% were able to reduce the insulin dose. Wounds healed more readily.
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Glaucoma: patients use 35 grams of C (100 mg/kg after meals and bedtime) in divided doses during the 24 hours and this osmotic dehydration of the eyeball was safe and effective. “The size of the dose does make a difference—a real difference.”
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Schizophrenia: Dr. Klenner reminds us of Hoffer and Osmond’s work with
niacin and Vitamin C back in the early 1950’s. Six to 8 grams of C a day made the niacin work. One schizophrenic took one gram every hour for 48 hours and was completely recovered for six months with no further treatment.
These megadoses halved the suicide rate. It has been demonstrated that schizophrenics
burn up C ten times faster than the normal population.
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Burns: can be treated with Vitamin C. “30-100 grams of Vitamin C is the proper amount to employ.” (500 mg per kg of body weight diluted to at least 18 cc per gram of C using 5% dextrose or saline in water or Ringer’s solution, repeated every eight hours for several days, then at twelve hour intervals. Calcium gluconate is added.) “Vitamin C is given until healing takes place.” It takes seven to thirty days depending upon the degree of the burn. It may prevent the need for grafting as it keeps the tissues oxygenated thus preventing the blood from sludging. [Kniseley] On the fourth to fifth day the malodorous burn eschars will fall off leaving normal tissue. Vitamin C also eliminates pain; opiates are less necessary. (It stimulates endorphin production in the brain.) Three percent ascorbic acid solution is used as a spray every two to four hours for five days. Pseudomonas: (a nasty bacteria, often seen in burn patients; very resistant to antibiotics): three percent spray plus massive injections.
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Heat stroke: 500 mg per kg of body weight will reverse it.
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Sunburn: One gram taken every one to two hours during exposure will prevent sunburn; an I.V. injection will quickly relieve the pain and erythema. Even second-degree burns will be healed.
-Prickly heat, heat stroke, heat collapse can all be treated; the latter needs twelve to forty grams intravenously. Electric shock patients must be given Vitamin C immediately after the accident—including lightning victims.
-Vitamin C will control the side effects of
radiation including radiation burns. “Who can say what 100 to 300 grams given intravenously daily for several months might accomplish in cancer? The potential is so great and the employment so elementary that only the illiterate will continue to deny its use.”
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Surgery: Way back in 1960 and again in 1966, Dr. Klenner delivered papers before the Tri-State Medical Society calling attention to the “scurvy levels” of C in post-operative patients. The levels began to fall six hours after surgery and by 24 hours the levels were 3/4 lower than pre-op. Tensile strength of healing wounds is lowered if the plasma drops to scurvy levels. The lower the C levels the poorer the wound heals. Even as little a dose as 500 mg of C orally “was remarkable successful in preventing shock and weakness,” following dental extraction.
-Dr. Klenner used 10 grams preoperatively intravenously and ten grams in each post-operative bottle and then ten grams orally when eating was resumed. Surgical wounds rarely separated with this method. Fractures healed faster. (Some surgeons will give ten grams of Vitamin C at the end of the operation, and the patient is awake and alert in 60 seconds. No need for the nausea and vomiting in the recovery room.)
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Heavy Metal Poisonings: Especially
lead and mercury—are controlled with Vitamin C injections and oral intake. An intake of Vitamin C daily will protect animals—and by extrapolation, humans—from fatal doses of mercury. If a guinea pig needed 200 mg one day to protect it from an otherwise fatal dose of mercury, the human would need 14 grams daily. Smaller doses would be able to protect the body from smaller amounts of the toxin.
-Lead poisoning: 350 mg of Vitamin C per one kg of body weight taken intramuscularly every two to four hours; recovery in less than 72 hours.
-Dr. Klenner found that the amount of C used “in any case is the all important factor. In 28 years of research we have observed that
30 grams each day is critical in terms of response” regardless of age and weight. (Barbiturate intoxication, snake bite and viral encephalitis may require larger doses in some individuals.)
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Carbon Monoxide (CO): if 12 to 50 grams of Vitamin C is injected rapidly into the blood stream, it acts as an oxidizer and will “pull CO from hemoglobin to form carbon dioxide” which is easily exhaled. A burn victim should immediately receive a dose of 500 mg of C per kg of body weight intravenously. It will “neutralize the CO or smoke poisoning while at the same time it will prevent blood sludging which in the major factor in the development of third degree burns.” An accidental carbon monoxide poisoning was reversed in ten minutes with 12 grams of ascorbic acid in a 50 cc syringe using a twenty gauge needle. (”We employ a twenty-gauge needle when using a 50 cc syringe; a twenty-one gauge for a thirty-cc syringe, a twenty-two gauge for a twenty cc syringe and a twenty-three gauge needle for a ten cc syringe“).
-In another
Tri-State Medical Journal of December, 1957, he outlined the physiology and treatment of
Black Widow Spider poisoning in a case history. Some of those bitten are not affected at all because the spider was out of poison, but some can be devastated and may die, partly because of poor resistance but also due to the quantity injected. It can be confused with pancreatitis, renal colic, food poisoning, tetanus, angina, bowel obstruction, pneumonia, perforated ulcer. The abdominal wall muscles become rigid, the victims have cold sweat, their temperature and blood pressure shoot up, they vomit, have muscle twitches and spasms, cyanosis, chills, convulsions and delirium. The painful muscle spasms occur within minutes of the original bite. The cramps occur in all the large muscles of the body; the victims roll and toss and moan in agony. Until someone used calcium gluconate, there were 90 ineffective treatments. An anti-venom is on the market, but severe reactions and even death have been attributed to its use. The treatment Dr. Klenner suggests is his friend, Vitamin C, 350 mg per kg of body weight intravenously along with calcium gluconate. His three and a half year old patient had been getting worse for 24 hours with abdominal cramps which the parents assumed were due to food poisoning. She became quieter, feverish, constipated and her abdomen was exquisitely tender. She was becoming stuporous. Dr Klenner noted the red, swollen area around her naval, and two tiny spots about one eighth of an inch apart were noted in the middle: the fang marks of a Black Widow Spider. He gave one gram of calcium gluconate and 4 grams of Vitamin C intravenously. In 6 hours she was more responsive, and her temperature had dropped from 103 degrees to 101 degrees and she was given another four grams I.V. “Some ascorbic acid behaves much like calcium in the body, and also acts synergistically with it, we elected to observe its action.” The child was destined to die. “Some physicians would stand by and see their patient die rather than use ascorbic acid because in their finite minds it exists only as a vitamin.”
-Dr. Klenner was very confident about the benefits of intravenous Vitamin C to treat the
poisonous effects of insects and reptiles,. He felt all emergency rooms should be adequately stocked. He used sodium ascorbate, 7.5 grams in 30 ml. The syringes are 5 to 60 cc. The needles are 20 gauge (big), one inch long to 31 gauge (I have trouble believing this) one inch long. I get “
miracle like responses.”
-“Sodium ascorbate will cure any type of
snake bite.” The amounts and the speed of injection are critical. Forty to 60 grams intravenously as a starter. Klenner cites the 6500 deaths a year from snake bites, but many more from insects, bees, spider, plants and some caterpillars. They produce formic acid, histamine and specific toxin albumins. Some are neurotoxins; some cause capillary damage and hemorrhage. When cells are damaged proteins are deaminized, producing histamine and other toxic products; shock may occur. These deaminizing enzymes from the damaged cells are inhibited by Vitamin C. The pH of cells changes when cells are damaged; enzymes become destructive instead of constructive. C reverses this. Vitamin C is reduced in the serum of those in shock. 350-700 mg per kg body weight is the saving intravenous dose. In children up to two grams can be given in each of several areas (a twenty kg five year old could get two grams in each of four sites. Ice before and after the injection would control the pain).
–
Multiple Sclerosis & Myasthenia Gravis. Adequate oxygen is assured if the lungs and hemoglobin are normal, but also by taking 10 to 30 grams of ascorbic acid by mouth every 24 hours. Oxygen is released for tissue use when ascorbic acid becomes dehydroascorbic acid. Enzymes are necessary to make all these reactions possible. Genetic faults manifest themselves through enzymatic deficiencies. He puts Myasthenia Gravis and Multiple Sclerosis in the same therapeutic group as he found
thiamin was the key to the therapy. M.G. is a genetically transmitted disease and M.S. is triggered by a virus and mimics poliomyelitis. Nerve damage in M.S. is due to microscopic hemorrhages in the nervous system. During healing, scar tissue contracts clamping off capillary flow and nutrition. This wasting results in loss of the myelin sheath protection. He felt that remyelinating these damaged nerves was every bit as hopeful as the myelination that occurs normally in infancy with nothing more spectacular than breast milk. It requires two years of treatment to repair the damage caused by one year of the disease. He cites works in the late 1930s by Stern at Columbia University who used thiamin intraspinally for the treatment of Multiple Sclerosis with astonishing results. After 30 mg of thiamin was injected into the spinal canal of paralyzed MS. victims, they had a temporary remission. Dr. Klenner felt that most cases (80%) of Multiple Sclerosis had their origin in an illness—probably a coxsackie virus—compatible with a summer “flu”. He mentioned other theories of the etiology of M.S., but was convinced that the scar tissue that forms around the nerves and produces the symptoms “is the end result of microscopic hemorrhages following virus invasion.”
-Dr. Klenner reports on a few minor complications. Some diarrhea might have been due to sodium bisulfite. Induration after intramuscular injections was found to be due to the Vitamin C not being injected deeply enough into the muscle. (One had to be drained—a sterile abscess.) If the concentration was one gram to 5 cc it caused a vein spasm up the arm from the injection site in three cases. A thrombosis of the vein occurred in but one case. A minor face rash developed in a few that cleared after the C was stopped. Calcium seemed to enhance the effects of the C when both were give simultaneously. But a gram of just the calcium given intravenously can slow the heart rate to a dangerous degree.
-Oxalic acid precipitates out of solution only from a neutral or alkaline solution—pH 7 to pH 10. Urine pH in those consuming ten grams of Vitamin C daily is about 6. Even in diabetics who take this large amount of C (10 grams), the urinary oxalate excretion remains relatively unchanged. “Vitamin C is an excellent diuretic. No urinary stasis; no urine concentration.
The ascorbic acid/kidney stone story is a myth.” One more bon mot: “Methylene will dissolve calcium oxalate stones, if the patient is given 65 mg orally two to three times a day,” he learned from Medical World News (Smith, M.J.V., M.D.: Dec. 4, 1970). (90% of all stones are calcium stones. Calcium is soluble in acid media. Vitamin C acidifies the urine. Acid urine discourages the growth of bacteria. Although uric acid stones are theoretically possible with high doses of C and a low urinary pH, none have been reported.)
-He reiterates the safety of large doses of C. He states that plasma doses of greater than twenty times normal produce no ill effects. Diarrhea is the most common side effect of large doses. Some notice thickening of subcutaneous tissue is the C is not injected deeply enough into, the muscle. (That induration will eventually resolve.) Some will complain of venous irritation and spasm if the intravenous Vitamin C is too concentrated or too rapidly injected. (C mixed with calcium will reduce this irritation.) A rare thrombosis may occur if the concentration of the C is greater than 500 mg per cc. Some will faint if the injection is given too rapidly. (It is best to have the patient lie flat.) Large doses by mouth may cause a genital or anal rash and itch. He also showed how safe large doses of C were. He gave 200 patients 500 to 1000 mg of C every four to six hours for five to ten days. No laboratory abnormalities were found in blood or urine and no symptoms were noted except one percent who developed vomiting; he assumed from a hypersensitive stomach. And these patients had no virus infection to “assist in destroying the vitamin.”
Current IV Vitamin C Guidelines
Nowadays baseline blood tests include screening for red blood cell glucose-6-phospahte dehydrogenase deficiency. Those with G6PD, an extremely rare condition, can have problems of hemolysis when vitamin C at large doses are first infused.
In case of iron overload, vitamin C is also discouraged as it will increase iron’s absorption, often carrying its toxic effect into the heart. Due to iron overload’s pro-cancer and pro-disease effects, many people will find themselves not able to benefit from vitamin C. These people will only recover their health and energy with iron chelation therapies such as EDTA and bloodletting. Yes,
donating blood can be very good for your health!
There are numerous case histories where vitamin C’s anti-cancer properties have been reported. You’ll find resources on where these therapies are performed at
Orthomolecular.org.
Usually a protocol will look like this:
Week 1: 1 x 15 g infusion per day, 2-3 per week.Week 2: 1 x 30 g infusion per day, 2-3 per week.
Week 3: 1 x 65 g infusion per day, 2-3 per week.
The dose is then adjusted to achieve blood concentrations of 400mg/dL, 2-3 infusions per week. Sodium ascorbate is the one usually used for IV vitamin C infusion, as it is more friendly.
Lots of folks just do their own l
iposomal vitamin C and voilà.