High Dose Intravenous Vitamin C (and other vitamin infusions)

Attached as a PDF, "Response of Peripheral and Central Nerve Pathology to Mega-Doses of the Vitamin B-Complex and Other Metabolites" by Frederich R. Klenner, BS, MS, MD. Journal of Applied Nutrition, 1973

In this paper, Dr. Klenner described how he reversed multiple sclerosis with vitamin infusions. Here're some excerpts.

The protocol of how to effectively treat Multiple Sclerosis. (In two parts, as originally published in 1973.)
***
Importance of Thiamin Hydrochloride in Neurological Diseases

The importance of thiamin in treating Myasthenia Gravis and Multiple Sclerosis cannot be over-emphasized. Two molecules of thiamin hydrochloride in combination with two molecules of phosphoric acid is cocarboxylase. For the reaction to acetyl coenzyme A plus oxaloacetic acid to continue through to citric acid with the release of coenzyme A, cocarboxylase must be present. If this reaction does not take place, due to one of many factors, there will be no coenzyme A present to react with another molecule of pyruvic acid to set in motion the elements necessary for the continuance of the metabolic cycle. In thiamin deficiency, both pyruvates and lactate accumulate in the blood.

Pyruvates also accumulate at the neuro-muscular junction causing cloudy swelling of the distal portion of the nerves. Cocarboxylase, also known as diphosphothiamine, is necessary in the synthesis of acetyl-choline and in the control of its hydrolysis. The activity of choline esterase of serum is also strongly inhibited by cocarboxylase.

The chief chemical factor in both diseases is thiamin hydro-chloride. Other fractions of the B-complex are also essential but in lesser amounts. Myasthenia Gravis is due to genetic fault, most likely involving an intermediate lethal gene or group of genes. Multiple Sclerosis is more complex. The initial pathology is sickness caused by the Coxsackie virus. This virus mimics poliomyelitis, and for many years accounted for thousands of so-called polio cases. This virus, like the polioviruses, can cause paralysis but never permanently...

Early Use of Thiamin Hydrochloride in Neurological Diseases

In the late thirties, Stern1 from Columbia University, was employing thiamin hydrochloride intraspinally with astonishing results in Multiple Sclerosis. He reported taking patients to the operating room on a stretcher, and following 30 mg. thiamin given intraspinally, they would walk back to their room. The response was relatively transient, but it led Stern to believe that Multiple Sclerosis was nothing more than vitamin B1 avitaminosis, the modus operandi being damage to the filter bed of the choroid plexus. Stern also found that the effective dose of vitamin B1, when given in the lumbar subarachnoid space, was too close to the lethal dose as was demonstrated in dogs. Sterns hypothesis was backed by the knowledge that degeneration of the myelin sheaths of peripheral nerves as well as of the ganglion cells of the brain and spinal cord can be produced in experimental polyneuritis. Similar findings are observed in starvation, even when the supply of thiamin appears to be adequate. One school of thought regards the neurological syndrome of polyneuritis as a functional defect concerned with the neurons. From 30 years of observation, I am certain that in Myasthenia Gravis and Multiple Sclerosis, it is not a functional defect, nor is it due to impaired diffusion which would deny to the total metabolism sufficient quantities of the vitamin to satisfy the requirements of the neuro-muscular systems. The problem is supply and demand. In this light, Dr. Leon Rosenberg2 of Yale University Medical School, in working with B vitamins, distinguishes between vitamin-deficiency diseases and vitamin-dependent diseases. He states that the successful treatment of vitamin-dependent diseases requires dosages up to 1,000 times the calculated minimal daily requirement. 1.3 mg. has been established for thiamin hydrochloride which would indicate that in the pathological conditions being considered, the daily requirement would be at least 1300 mg. Moore3, in 1940, published a monograph on the use of high intravenous doses of nicotinic acid for the cure
of Multiple Sclerosis. Moore employed a drug combination called Nicobee. This preparation contained 100 mg. nicotinic acid and 60 mg. of thiamin in each 10cc solution.

Many of the components of the B-complex must also be administered in varying amounts, along with thiamin hydrochloride, since they too exert a dynamic influence in general metabolism. Many believe that the B vitamins are actually metabolic reagents. Hoagland has referred to them as protective catalysts.

Part II: Recommended Treatment Schedule

1) Thiamin hydrochloride: 300mg to 500mg, 30 minutes before meals and bed hour, and during the night if awake. The higher amounts in long-standing cases. This requirement is high, since much is lost through action of gastric juices and loss due to perspiration; 400 mg. daily by needle, given intramuscularly. During summer months this can be given every 12 hours to good advantage. Two to three times each week, and where office access is convenient, 20 mg. per kg. body weight, or at least 1000 mg. is administered intravenously. This is given with 100 mg to 200 mg. Niacin (nicotinic acid) which is available 100 mg. in 10cc ampules. (The concentrated Niacin, available in 30cc vials, must be diluted if employed intravenously.) The intravenous dose is given with the patient in a recumbent
position. A 20cc to 30cc syringe, carrying a one-inch 22-gauge needle should be employed. The injection is given slowly (5 to 7 minutes) holding the syringe with one hand. The usually-employed three fingers of the other hand must be on the patients pulse. An increased pulse rate indicates too fast a flow of the medicine. This indicates the rate of phosphorylization. Thiamin hydrochloride is, indeed, a toxic substance, and anaphylactic reactions have been reported, but I have never seen a case in treating thousands of patients, (not necessarily Myasthenia Gravis or Multiple Sclerosis), in 30 years of clinical observation. I have observed one case of extreme sensitivity in which itching was
present within one minute after an intramuscular injection of 100mg. This was immediately controlled with 5cc Benadryl, IM. It must be remembered that once thiamin hydrochloride is phosphorylated, it is no longer a critical allergic substance, but is cocarboxylase, a necessary but absolutely harmless agent. (My problem has been the preservatives now required by FDA regulations, and they should be removed.) Higher doses of thiamin can be used, but then the dilution factor must be greater.

2) Niacin (nicotinic acid): We recommend 100mg to 3 grams, thirty minutes before meals and at bed hour, and also during the night if awake whichever dose will produce a strong body flush. Niacin dilates the blood vessels, even those that have been compressed by scar tissue, allowing a greater amount of nutrient material to reach the cell laboratory or factor comprising muscles and nerves. This constant, repeated dilatation of the blood vessels acts in the same manner as the dilating urethral catheter to correct constriction. One is chemical, the other is mechanical. Hot fluids taken at the same time as the niacin will enhance the flush. Pyridoxine has been a suggested stimulant. The lack
of constant flushing in Multiple Sclerosis is disappointing but not hopeless. It will require a longer time to achieve results. Many times patients will flush with intramuscular niacin when they fail to flush by the oral route. An occasional patient will experience the sensation of a chill following nicotinic acid flush. This is transient and of no consequence. Food, even jelly beans or a glass of milk, will prevent or minimize the experience. Some patients will flush sometimes and not at other times, even during a single day. If no flush develops within 45 minutes, the dose should be repeated. A delayed reaction of several hours can occur, and should this be superimposed upon a previous medication, the result could be severe. Do not scratch when itching from niacin. Just press the area with your fingers,
or better still, with a cube of ice. Antihistamines will stop the itching and limit the flush, should this be necessary.

Niacin should be given very slowly by the intravenous route in the geriatric patient, with or without cardiac pathology, since it can produce dilatation great enough to effect right-side heart failure.

Myasthenia Gravis patients sometimes attain geriatric status. Vasomotor collapse of peripheral vessels, although rare, can occur. Eight mg. Decadron given IM will reverse this condition.

3) Pyridoxine (Vitamin B6): Lack of this vitamin has been shown to induce microcytic hypochromic anemia and neurologic lesions in dogs and pigs. The term B6 includes not only pyridoxine, but also pyridoxal and pyridoxamine, all three compounds being found in nature. These derivatives have biological activity equal to that of pyridoxine, as demonstrated in rats. Pyridoxine plays a part in the metabolism of unsaturated fatty acids. It is also important in the metabolism of amino acids. Pyridoxal phosphate functions as a coenzyme, and in transamination reactions; 100mg to 200mg is given before meals and bed hour. At least 100mg daily is given intramuscularly.

4) Cobalamin (Vitamin B12): It is thought that vitamin B12 acts as a catalyst in the formation of the purine and pyrimidine deoxyribosides which are present in deoxyribonucleic acid. Technically, B12 is cyanocobalamin. Vitamin B12 with pterylglutamic reduces the requirement for choline essential in the treatment of neurological diseases; 1000mcg. is given three times each week by needle (repository type). The incident of dermatitis from continued use of vitamin B12 by needle is roughly 15%. I have never seen this develop in a patient with Myasthenia Gravis or Multiple Sclerosis. B12 is recognized as a factor in the synthesis of myelin.

5) Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C): The use of high daily doses of vitamin C will prevent a superimposed illness and will lend itself in metabolism. Ten to twenty grams should be taken daily by mouth in divided doses.

6) Riboflavin (Vitamin B2): A deficiency of vitamin B2 in young animals results in inhibition of growth
terminated by death. The yellow enzyme can, as demonstrated by Warburg and Christian, participate in a series of enzyme reactions involved in the metabolism of carbohydrates. It is capable of transporting hydrogen from reduced coenzyme II, a niacin coenzyme which attacks hexosemonophosphate, regenerating the riboflavin phosphate-protein complex. Riboflavin also takes part in enzymic reactions as a dinucleotide prosthetic group, consisting of riboflavin, two phosphoric acids, ribose and adenine. Riboflavin is very important in the regulatory function of the hormones involved in carbohydrate metabolism. It is classified as a low-energy package; 40mg to 80mg given daily by needle
IM; 25 mg. before meals and bedtime.

7) Vitamin E as d-alpha tocopherol acetate of d-alpha tocopherol acid succinate. The latter is more practical since it is a pure form. Complex biochemical changes in the muscle tissue in chronic vitamin E deficiency are followed by histological lesions characteristic of muscular dystrophy. Deficiency has also been shown to produce demyelinization and distortion of the axon pattern in the spinal cord, giving rise to hypalgesia and progressive paresis. Fatal massive liver necrosis occurs in animals maintained on diets low in vitamin E and sulfur-containing amino acids; 800 international units before meals and bedtime must be adhered to in this treatment.

8) Crude liver: This substance contains factors still unknown but essential in metabolism. Patients with pernicious anemia often show neurological involvement, and are tremendously benefited by liver injections which, of course, contain vitamin B12. Degenerative changes brought on by other factors, therefore, can also be benefited by daily injections of crude liver.

9) Adenosine-5-Monophosphoric acid: One of the purine bases occurring in muscle is adenine. It, along with other purines, exists in various forms. Adenosine polyphosphate is of primary interest in this discussion. The basic structure is adenosine, adenine-9-riboside. This is esterified with phosphoric acid at the 5-position of the ribofuranose, to form adenosine-5-phosphoric acid, also known as adenosinemonophosphate (AMP). Inosinic acid is a commonly occurring breakdown product of AMP, formed by deamination in muscle extract. Myosin displays enzymic activity similar to adenylic deaminase. By attaching further phosphoric acid residues in pyrophosphate linkage, adenosinediphosphate (ADP) and adenosinetriphosphate (ATP) are obtained. ATP, as previously noted, is the energy package essential for life. By adding this to our treatment, we enhance all chemistry dealing with cell metabolism.

10) Choline: Choline is a structural component of fat and nerve tissue, thus has a strong relationship to the phospholipids and to its acetyl ester. Acetylcholine plays an important role in the humoral transmission of parasympathetic and other nerve impulses to effector organs. It also plays a part in transmethylation. Choline serves as a methylating agent in the physiological process guanidoacetic acid to creatine. We give 700mg to 1400mg after each meal and at bed hour.

11) Lecithin: Lecithin is the glyceryl ester of a pair of fatty acids and a substituted phosphoric acid group attached to a choline radical. Choline is one of the products of lecithin, representing about 15% of the molecule. Lecithin placed in water and observed under the microscope, will diffuse out, forming long, curving strands (myelin forms). The hydrophilic nature of the lecithin molecule plays an important part in the structure and properties of cell membranes. It is the lipid used in nerve tissue. We give 1200 mg. Soybean Lecithin after each meal.

12) Magnesium: 100mg. after each meal to supply additional ions for muscle activity. It is an enzyme activator.

13) Calcium Gluconate (10 grain tablets): We give two tablets after each meal and at bed hour to supplement dietary intake for muscle activity. At times, this is given intravenously, one gram twice weekly.

14) Calcium pantothenate: The physiologically active form of pantothenic acid is coenyzme A. Its acetyl derivative (acetyl CoA) is synonymous with active acetate. Metabolic transformations are very complex and involve numerous enzymes and coenzymes. Coenzyme A participates in the acetylation of amines. The pantothenic acid coenzyme plays a vital role in carbohydrate metabolism and acetyl transfer also occurs in the metabolism of fatty acids. We give 200 mg. after each meal and at bed hour.

15) Aminoacetic acid (glycine): Glycine enters into a variety of metabolic functions. It is directly concerned in the synthesis of glutathione, the tripeptide which plays an important part in intracellular oxidation and reduction. Rapport and Katz have shown that when glycine is added to perfused muscle, the oxygen absorption is 40% higher than otherwise, indicating that the presence of this amino acid stimulates the combustion of other tissue constituents. To the body in general, glycine is no doubt most important because of its wide adaptability in the detoxicating process of the body. More than one hundred substances, when fed, are joined in the body with glycine. In the deamination of glycine, three products will be formed: ammonia, carbon dioxide and water. The ammonia from this reaction is then
quantitatively converted to urea. One heaping tablespoon of the powder in a glass of milk four times each day. Much of the oral medication can be taken with this drink.

16) Make certain that the hemoglobin is at least 13 grams.

17) High protein diet with two to three eggs for breakfast.

18) One Theragram-M cap. daily for trace minerals.

19) Dantrium has value for relieving intentional tremor and Symmetrel for relieving stiffness in Multiple
Sclerosis. Dose must be individualized.

20) Zinc gluconate: 10 mg. three times each day has some value in Myasthenia Gravis. Take several hours after vitamin B2.

This treatment works so dramatically in Myasthenia Gravis, that should a given patients physician refuse to administer this schedule, I have this recommendation: One gram thiamin hydrochloride one hour before meals and at bed hour, and during the night if awake. Niacin taken at the same time, and in amounts sufficient to produce a good body flush. Two hundred mg. calcium pantothenate and 100mg pyridoxine before meals and at bed hour. Ten grams ascorbic acid, taken in divided doses. Amino acetic acid: one heaping tablespoon in a glass of milk, four times each day. Naturally, the full schedule will afford more dramatic response.

For a long time it has seemed to me that virus bodies might have the potential to alter their protein coat, and therefore their dimension, and become another virus for another disease. In our long practice, we would see, as I am certain many of you have, chickenpox just before Thanksgiving, mumps by Christmas, red measles in the Spring, and polio or a virus mimicking polio in the Summer. German measles, virus colds, and virus pneumonitis just about any time...

Appendix
Since presenting this paper, we have observed that improvement in all categories is enhanced when the intravenous injection contains 800 mg. to 1000 mg. thiamin hydrochloride, 200 mg. pyridoxine, 400 mg. niacinamide, 100 mg. nicotinic acid. The thiamin hydrochloride solution must be clear. The amount of niacin employed must be calculated from the flush factor of a given patient. The injection is made with a 20cc or 30cc syringe, using a 23G x 3/4 inch or 22G x 1 inch needle. Intravenous medication can be given daily; it should be administered at least twice weekly. Due
to sensitivity possibilities, we always have the patient take the intramuscular injections for three weeks before starting intravenous therapy.
 

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Here Can high-dose vitamin C kill cancer cells? you see the Mayo Clinic still pooh poohing it though they grudgingly admit:

What is important to note about this admission is that the Mayo clinic did the original debunking study by administering ORAL vitamin C as an "answer" to those claiming that IV administration cured cancer. So they are just basically saying "oh, we debunked this by a very poorly designed study that had no relevance and now we are admitting that the IV administration is possibly helpful because evidence is mounting in favor of it; so, we'll just pretend that our original stance was simply against the oral route... And, of course, it can only be an "adjunct" treatment because we still need to sell our poison and surgery."

The Mayo Clinic study protocol was designed by Linus Pauling and Ewan Cameron. The Mayo Clinic didn't come close to following the protocols set forth by Pauling. Mayo intentionally scuttled the study. I have a sneaking suspicion that Cameron glommed onto Pauling with promises of a formalized Mayo Clinic study. He was connected. What Ewan Cameron, a psychiatrist, was even doing involved in the C study remains a mystery to me. He was the CIA affiliated mastermind in some of the more odious parts of the MK ULTRA program... as if the whole program wasn't horrifying enough.

I spent the final eight years of my working life as the assistant to the founder/CEO of Alacer Corp, at one time the largest manufacturer of vitamin C products in North America. He designed for Dr Irwin Stone a method of delivering into the body, orally, all eight of the mineral ascorbates which complete the vitamin C complex, as opposed to just sodium ascorbate. He was also working with Pauling and pioneer Canadian vitamin C researcher, Dr. Abram Hoffer. I was privy to the never ending hoops and hurdles that the FDA, as well as the entire medical establishment, were constantly setting up to derail any significant studies or clinical research progress.

Unfortunately, I see nothing in the future whereby the establishment changes tack and embraces vitamin C.

Footnote: When Jay Patrick, the founder of Alacer Corp, died at the age of 92, within a few months Pfizer Pharmaceuticals swooped in and bought the company. At the time of Patrick's death, he was working on a way to stabilize and store an IV solution containing all 8 of the mineral ascorbates, 5 of which are too unstable for long shelf life. Little doubt Pfizer deep sixed that work.
 
We haven't seen him since, and I hope he's out feasting on fat snails now, but whatever he's doing...I'm pretty certain that he was suffering from a tick borne disease and that the vitamin C saved his little life.

Oh, and his name was Herbie: :love:


Such a happy ending, thank you for sharing the story Andromeda! :wizard: I watched the video with the dubbing before I read the story, no wonder Herbie was so thirsty if the vitamin C drink was helping him heal! :thup: Clearly hedgehogs are better at listening to what their bodies need than many people :-)


In honor of little Herbie's inspirational story, and to celebrate my 70th YT video, I made a Mass Consumption version:

(...)

You can never have too many hedgehog videos.
:headbanger:🦔 :love:


Agreed, they're total cuties! They used to live in my grandparents' garden when I was little, those tiny noses and shiny little eyes are really adorable :love:
 
In honor of little Herbie's inspirational story, and to celebrate my 70th YT video, I made a Mass Consumption version:


You can never have too many hedgehog videos.
:headbanger:🦔 :love:
Scottie this video is delicious. You have an excellent voice for little animals, you can become millionaire giving your voice for Walt Disney stories, I am sure. jeje.

Congratulations for the movie. I give an Oscar for the best hedgehog movie.
 
Here's a good documentary to recommend and/or watch with friends and family members:



An experienced Irish journalist is completely astounded when he hears that his +30 years old friend recovers his health with diet and supplements, so he decides to travel to the Americas to interview several proponents of this way of healing: Sayer Ji, Mercola, Dr. Gaby, the head of the Riordan Clinic, Dr. Levy, Andrew Saul and his daughter, etc...

He chooses to focus on researchers working with the megadosing concept because obviously that is what caught his attention the most.

It is a great documentary introducing this concept of healing and although they cover IV infusions, they mainly highlight the benefit of taking supplements and often a bunch of them like titrating vitamin C to bowel tolerance.

Highly recommended!
 
Here's a good documentary to recommend and/or watch with friends and family members:



An experienced Irish journalist is completely astounded when he hears that his +30 years old friend recovers his health with diet and supplements, so he decides to travel to the Americas to interview several proponents of this way of healing: Sayer Ji, Mercola, Dr. Gaby, the head of the Riordan Clinic, Dr. Levy, Andrew Saul and his daughter, etc...

He chooses to focus on researchers working with the megadosing concept because obviously that is what caught his attention the most.

It is a great documentary introducing this concept of healing and although they cover IV infusions, they mainly highlight the benefit of taking supplements and often a bunch of them like titrating vitamin C to bowel tolerance.

Highly recommended!
I concur with Gaby, this a highly recommended documentary film for watching with family members who may have medical conditions that would benefit from the information contained within. It is a film for the layman, and covers not only Vit C, also a whole host of other vitamins too. It is very easy to watch, and is even quite amuzing at times, yet it gets its message across easily and with force about the benefits of taking vitamins.
 
I watched that too and I was personally surprised at how many other vitamins can be used in high doses with almost miraculous effects - not just C, but vitamin D and B3, for example. As an introduction to the topic the movie is great, although at points I personally wished they had gone a bit deeper into the science behind the healing mechanism of vitamins. They did explain, however, how vitamin C kills cancer cells, and one of the interviewed even mentioned that it can make cells regress from being cancer cells back into normal cells!
 
I'd like to share a quote I found in a book about vitamin C. The book is written in Spanish, and has not been translated, but I found the same quote on: DoctorYourself.com - Cancer Therapy: Vitamin C
Actually this is not a quote but an essay, written by Abram Hoffer, who is considered the father of orthomolecular therapy, according to the writer of the book. There are many cases he descibes, but the most interesting is that, this essay motivated many physicians to use vitamin C in their treatments
Clinical Procedures in Treating Terminally Ill Cancer Patients with Vitamin C
by Abram Hoffer, M.D., Ph.D


Let me tell you what I am not. I am not an oncologist, I'm not a pathologist, I'm not a GP, I am a psychiatrist. Therefore you may want to know what a psychiatrist is doing messing about with cancer. I think that'sa legitimate question so I'd like to tell you briefly how I got into this very interesting field.

In 1951, I was made director of psychiatric research for the Department of Health for the province of Saskatchewan. I didn't really know what to do. I had one major advantage, I think, over my colleagues. I didn't know any psychiatry. You may laugh but that's very important because I didn't have anyone who could tell me what we could not do. The most important problem at that time was the schizophrenias. (They still take up half the hospital beds, and we still don't have an effective treatment. Dr. Humphry Osmond and I began to research schizophrenia. We developed the hypothesis that those with schizophrenia were producing a toxic chemical made from adrenalin, adrenochrome. Adrenochrome is an hallucinogen which we felt was producing toxemia, in the sense that the adrenochrome worked on the brain in the same way as LSD. That was our hypothesis.

We knew that most hypotheses turn out to be wrong. We didn't think we were going to be correct but we felt that since we didn't have much choice we ought to work with it and we also wanted to develop a treatment for our schizophrenic patients. Those were the days before tranquilizers. We didn't have any effective treatment. We had shock treatment which was only temporarily helpful and insulin coma was going out of style,

Adrenochrome is made from adrenalin, so we thought if we could do something to cut down the production of adrenalin, and if we could also prevent the oxidation of adrenalin to adrenochrome, then we might have a therapy for our patients. And that immediately led us to look at two chemicals. One is called nicotinic acid or vitamin B-3. Vitamin B-3 is known to be a methyl acceptor, which, by depleting the body of its methyl groups could cut down the conversion of noradrenaline to adrenalin and that would be helpful, we thought. Secondly, we wanted to use vitamin C as an antioxidant. Looking back now it seems that we were 30 or 40 years ahead of antioxidant theories, We wanted to decrease the oxidation of adrenaline to adrenochrome. Vitamin C will do it but not very effectively. And that drew our attention to these two vitamins, vitamin C and vitamin B-3. I had an advantage because I had taken my Ph.D. at the University of Minnesota on vitamins, so I knew their background. That's why we started working with these two compounds.

Why did we start working with cancer? We were very curious about what these compounds would do. I recall that in 1952 when I was working as a resident in psychiatry at the Munroe Wing which was a part of the General Hospital in Regina, a woman who had her breast removed for cancer was admitted to our ward. She was psychotic. This poor lady had developed a huge ulcerated lesion, she wasn't healing, and she was in a toxic delirium. Her psychiatrist decided that he would give her shock treatment, which was the only treatment available at that time. I decided I would like to give her vitamin C instead. As director of research, I had the option of going to the physicians and asking them if I could do this with their patients, A friend of mine was her doctor and he said, "Yes, you can have her." He said, "I'll withold shock treatment for three days."

I had thought that I would give her three grams per day, which was our usual dose at that time, for a period of weeks, but when he told me I could have three days only, I decided that this would not do. Therefore, I decided to give her one gram every hour. I instructed the nurses that she was to be given a gram per hour except when she was sleeping. When she awakened, she would get the vitamin C that she had missed. We started her on a Saturday morning and when her doctor came back on Monday morning to start shock treatment she was mentally normal. I wanted to know, if vitamin C would have any therapeutic effect. To our amazement her lesion on her breast began to heal. She was discharged, mentally well, still having cancer and she died six months later from her cancer. This was an interesting observation which I had made at that time and which I had never forgotten.

There was another root to this interest. In 1959, we found that the majority of schizophrenic patients excreted in their urine a factor that we call the mauve factor, which we have since identified as kryptopyrrole. I was looking for a good source of this urinary factor. We had thought that the majority of schizophrenics had it. We thought that normal people did not have it but I was interested in determining how many people who were stressed also had the factor. Therefore, Iran a study of patients from the University Hospital who were on the physical wards. They had all sorts of physical conditions including cancer, I found to my amazement that half the people with lung cancer also excreted the same factor. By 1960, a very famous gentleman of Saskatchewan, one of the professors retired and was admitted to the psychiatric department at our hospital. He was psychotic. He had been diagnosed as having a bronchiogenic carcinoma. It had been biopsied and was visualized in the x-ray and it had also been seen in the bronchoscope. While they were deciding what to do, he became psychotic so they concluded that he had secondaries in his brain. Because he became psychotic, he was no longer operable and instead they gave him cobalt radiation. It didn't help the psychosis any. He was admitted to our ward where he stayed for about two months, completely psychotic. He was placed on the terminal list, I discovered that he was on our ward, so I though he may have some mauve factor in his urine. On analysis he revealed huge quantities.

I had discovered by then that if we gave large amounts of B3 along with vitamin C to these patients, regardless of their diagnosis, they tended to do very well. He was started on three grams per day each of nicotinic acid and ascorbic acid on a Friday. On Monday he was found to be normal. A few days later I said to him, "You understand that you have cancer?" He said, "Yes, I know that." He was friendly with me because I had treated his wife for alcoholism some time before. I said to him, "If you will agree to take these two vitamins as long as you live, I will provide them for you at no charge. In 1960, I was the only doctor in Canada that had access to large quantities of vitamin C and niacin. They were distributed through our hospital dispensary. He agreed. That meant he had to come to my office every month in order to pick up two bottles of vitamins. I didn't know that it might help his cancer. I was interested only in his psychological state.

However, to my amazement he didn't die. After 12 months, I was having lunch with the director of the cancer clinic, a friend of mine, and I said to him, "What do you think about this man?" And he said, "We can't understand it, we can't see the tumor any more." I thought he'd say, "Well, isn't that great." So I asked, "Well, what's your reaction?" He responded, "We are beginning to think we made the wrong diagnosis." The patient died, 30 months after I first saw him, of a coronary.

Here's another case that is very interesting. A couple of years later, a mother I had treated for depression came back to see me. Once more she was depressed. She said she had a daughter 16, who had just been diagnosed as having an osteogenic sarcoma of the arm. Her surgeon had recommended that the arm be amputated. She was very depressed over this and so I asked her, "Do you think you can persuade your surgeon not to amputate the arm right away? " And I told her the story about the man with the lung cancer. She brought her daughter in and I started her on niacinamide, 3 grams per day, plus vitamin C, three grams per day. She made a complete recovery and is still well, not having had to have surgery. But this time I concluded that maybe B-3 was the therapeutic factor. The reason for that, of course, is very simple. I liked B3 and I didn't have much interest in vitamin C.

When I moved to Victoria, another strange event happened, In 1979, a woman developed jaundice and during surgery a six centimeter in diameter lump in the head of the pancreas was found. They were too frightened to do a biopsy, which apparently is quite standard. They thought that the biopsy might disseminate the tumor. The surgeon closed and told her to write her will. They said she might have three to six months at the most. She was a very tough lady and she had read Norman Cousins' book Anatomy of an Illness. So she said to her doctor, "To hell with that, I'm not going to die." And she began to take vitamin C on her own, 12 grams per day. When her doctor discovered what she was doing, he asked her to come and see me, because by that time I was identified as a doctor who liked to work with vitamins.

I started her on 40 grams of vitamin C per day, to which I added niacin, zinc and a multi-vitamin, multimineral preparation. I had her change her diet by staying away from high protein and fat. I didn't hear from her again for about six months. One Sunday, she called me. Normally when I get a call from a patient on a Sunday, it's bad news. She immediately said, "Dr. Hoffer, good news! I asked, "What's happened?" She said, "They have just done a CT scan and they can't see the tumor," So then she said, "They couldn't believe it. They thought the machine had gone wrong; so they did it all over again. And it was also negative the second time." She had her last CT scan in 1984, no mass, and she is still alive and well today.

By this time, I had learned about Dr. Cameron's and Dr. Pauling's work with vitamin C and I began to realize that the main therapeutic factor might be the vitamin C rather than vitamin B-3. The reason I want to present four cases is that one might say that I have seen four spontaneous recoveries. The question is, how many spontaneous recoveries would one physician see in his lifetime? I don't know. Maybe this is not unusual but I think it is.

The last case I'm going to give details of was born in 1908. His mother died of cancer and his father had a coronary at the age of 80. My patient had had a myocardial infarction in 1969, and again in 1977, followed by a coronary bypass. In March of 1978, he suddenly developed pain in his left groin and down the left leg. In February 1979, he developed a bulge in his left groin, and later, severe pain with movement. In surgery, a large mass infiltrating sarcoma was found, part of which was removed, but a mass the size of a grapefruit was left. The tumor was eroding into a ramus of the pubic bone. They concluded that it was not radiosensitive, In March he had palliative radiation to his left half - 4500 rads. The pain was gone at the end of the radiation. On May 28, he developed a severe staph infection, and in June he was very depressed because his wife was dying of cancer and also he was suffering from drainage of chronic infection. In July he still had a purulent discharge in two areas. Now the mass was visible and palpable in the left iliac area above the inguinial ligaments.

In January of 1980, he saw me for the first time. I started him on 12 grams of vitamin C per day and I recommended to his referring doctor that he give him IV ascorbic acid, 2.5 grams, twice per week, which he agreed to. I gave him niacin, vitamin B6 and zinc to balance it out. In April, the mass began to regress and the ontologist wrote, "This is interesting, it must be something else." In other words, the patient said, the vitamin C is helping and the oncologist said, no it isn't, The oncologist put a note in the file, "He's probably responding to chemotherapy." But he had never had chemotherapy. The infection was gone. In May 1980, his x-ray showed reconstruction of the left superior pubic ramus. In July he wrote to me telling how grateful he was to be so well. In February of 1988, he went back to the cancer clinic for some recurrent facial skin carcinoma. He died in the fall of 1989 of coronary disease when he was 81. This man survived 10 years after having been diagnosed with cancer,

My practice began to grow because the first patient felt it was her duty to tell as many people as possible that I had the cure for cancer. Now I should tell you the nature of my practice. In Canada we have a referral service. I do not take walk-ins. Every patient that comes to my office must be referred by their family doctor or by a specialist, During the early years, patients usually went to their doctor and said, "I have had all this treatment, you have told me I'm not going to do any better, will you please refer me to Dr. Hoffer." So I call these patient-generated referrals, The past four or five years, it has swung around and I am now getting a lot more doctor generated referrals. Doctors, themselves are beginning to refer their patients to me.

I would think that 80% of my patients had failed to respond to any of combination of treatment, including surgery, radiation or chemotherpy. Usually the story was that they were told by either the cancer clinic or their doctor that there was nothing more that they could do. Most of them were terminal, but not all. I see three to five new cases of cancer every week. All of them have been treated by their own doctor, their own ontologist, their own surgeon. What I do is advise them with respect to diet and the kind of nutrients they ought to take. I am seeing them much earlier in the stage of illness, which I think is very good because the earlier I can get to them, the better are the results.

Here are the results. Generally, the patients were a lot more cheerful. They had less discomfort and they lived a lot longer, A few years ago I was at a meeting at Woods Hole with Linus Pauling. This was a Festschrift for Dr. Arthur Sackler. I told Linus that I thought I had something, that I was beginning to see the impact of adding vitamin C to their program. Dr. Pauling encouraged me to work it up, to do a really careful survey and write it up for publication, which I did. I examined every cancer patient referred to me between July 1978 and April 1988 and followed them to January 1990. I did not miss a single case. A total of 134 were seen. And I dated the time that they first saw me as day zero. The only thing I wanted to look at was survival. I wanted hard data, something that couldn't be argued with. I wasn't going to say the patients were better or not better because these are subjective terms. These 134 fell into two groups. It wasn't my fault that this happened because I treated every one of them exactly the same way. I did not plan a double blind prospective study. What I planned and what I did was to advise every patient what I thought they ought to do in terms of their cancer. If they were getting radiation, I suggested they stay with it. If they were getting chemotherapy, I suggested they stay with that. I never advised them about their surgery, chemotherapy or radiation. However, out of these 134, there were 33 who did not or could not follow the program. For example, on chemotherapy, they were so nauseated that they couldn't hold anything down and if they couldn't hold the vitamins down they weren't going to do very much good. There were some who didn't believe in the program.

I remember one woman with breast cancer came to see me and I advised her what to take, sending a consultation letter to the referring doctor outlining what I thought she ought to be taking. When she went back to see her doctor, he laughed at her. He made so much fun of her that she became thoroughly ashamed and she wouldn't follow the program. She died two or three months later. Another case was a doctor who had cancer and was given 30 days. He had left his wife and was running around with his girl friend. Since he knew he was going to die, he decided that he would spend the next 30 days living as riotously as he could. He would travel all across the United States and have as much fun in 30 days as he could. His girlfriend brought him to see me because she wanted him to live longer than 30 days. He didn't believe her and he never started the program. He went to the United States and died 30 days later. These are some examples of people who wouldn't or couldn't follow the program, Or they weren't on the vitamin program long enough. I had found that they must be on the program at least two months before it began to work. These were my pseudocontrols. They're not really a double blind control, it's kind of pseudocontrol which provides an estimate of the kind of patient that I was seeing.

The other 101 did stay on their program at least two months. Some went off in the third or fourth month but they stayed on it for at least two months. I was encouraged by Linus Pauling. I followed them all. First of all, I contacted their doctors. I contacted the patients that were still alive. I contacted their families. I got all their records from the cancer clinics. I had a complete file on every patient I had seen so that I knew within a matter of months exactly what had happened to them. The results were analyzed by Dr. Linus Pauling using a new technique for analyzing cohorts. The data is as follows: 33 controls - they survived an average of 5.7 months, from the first day that I saw them. There were two treatment cohorts: a cohort of 40 females with cancer of the breast, ovary, uterus or cervix. The second cohort of 61 were other types of cancer. The cohorts were divided into two groups. First were the poor responders, those who didn't do well; they survived an average of 10 months, nearly twice as long as the control. The others, the good responders, were divided into two groups. The female group survived an average of 122 months and the other group 72 months. I think this is very significant. There was a tremendous difference in the survival rate. Today, all the controls are dead, 50% of the treated group are still alive. Over the past year, I did another survey and of the remainder only three more have died. It can not be all due to cancer because I'm dealing with a population with ages between 60 and 80. They are going to die of other causes as well. This was published in the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine, Volume 5, p. 143, 1990.

The Treatment
First of all, as I pointed out, I did not interfere with the treatment done by the oncologists. These patients were treated by their own doctors and I went along with whatever they did. No one can accuse me of depriving these patients of having had the best of chemotherapy, surgery, or radiation. What I tried to do was to improve their general health, to improve their immune system, to the point that they could cope more successfully with their tumors. Many of them were depressed when they came to see me, The first thing I would do would be to create a bit of hope. I don't think many doctors in cancer clinics realize the absolute importance of hope.

Let me give you another case. A woman came to see me with cancer of the breast. She didn't want to have any surgery and so she had taken a huge quantity of nutrients, including vitamin A, 500,000 units per day at one of the clinics in the USA, She wasn't doing well, the mass had opened up, she was ulcerated and in a terrible state. When she came to see me, she said to me, "Dr. Hoffer, (she was very depressed) you are my last hope." I asked, "What do you mean?" She replied, "A week ago, when I went to see my family doctor, I asked when can I see you again. He said he would not give me another appointment, because I would be dead within a week," Now, that's very negative, Hope is very important. She didn't die a week later, We started her on the program. Eventually, I persuaded her to have surgery and chemotherapy. She survived more than 30 months after that first day,

Hope is extremely important. Attitude is very important. Patients must want to live. You may be surprised to know that many people, when they are told they have cancer, are quite relieved, because they now know they don't have to live much longer. They are really quite happy to go. So you have to test the attitude of the patient. Those who came to see me, of course, were preselected, they selected themselves. So they did have the right attitude, they did want to live. They have to be optimistic and I do think it helps if they laugh a lot. I agree with Norman Cousins, that if you combine laughter with vitamins, you do get better results.

Then I advise my patients what kind of nutrition they ought to follow. The first thing I try to do is to cut their fat way down. I try to cut it down below 30 percent of calories, down to 20 or 10, if possible. I find that, in our culture, the easiest way to do that is to totally eliminate all dairy products. If you eliminate all dairy products and cut out all fatty meats, it's pretty hard to get too much fat in the diet. So, I put them all on a dairy free program. I reduce, but I don't eliminate, meat and fish, and I ask them to increase their vegetables, especially raw, as much as they can. I think it's a good, reasonable diet, which most people can follow without too much difficulty. Having spent some time with them going over what they ought to eat, I begin to talk about the nutrients. The first one, of course, is vitamin C. I am convinced today that vitamin C is the most important single nutrient that one can give to any person with cancer. The dose is variable. I find that most patients can Lake 12 grams per day without much difficulty, that's the crystallin vitamin C sodium ascorbate or calcium ascorbate. They take one teaspoon three times per day. If they do not develop diarrhea, I ask them to increase it until this occurs and then to cut back below that level. I think in many cases it would be desirable to use intravenous vitamin C and there are doctors now in Canada doing that. The amount that one gives is limited by the skill of the physician, not by the patient.

I also add vitamin B-3, either niacin or niacinamide. I prescribe from 500 mg to 1500 mg per day. Before I did that empirically, now there is a lot of evidence that B3 does have pretty interesting anticancer properties. Two years ago, in Texas at one of the osteopathic colleges, there was an international congress, Vitamin B-3 and Cancer. There is a lot of work being done in this area today. I also add a B complex preparation 50 or 100. I think vitamin E is an extremely important antioxidant and I use that as well, 800 to 1200 I. U. They also get 25,000 to 75,000 units of beta carotene. I sometimes use vitamin A. I like to use folic acid for lung cancer, and for cancer of the uterus because of work that hag been done showing that folic acid might reverse a positive pap smear to negative. I use selenium, 200 mcg, three times per day. I think the toxicity of selenium has been greatly exaggerated. I had a patient from Chile, a refugee, who developed a severe lymphoma. He was operated on but it came back. He had radiation and it recurred. He had been a patient of mine for the treatment of depression when he developed his cancer. He was given three months to live. I had started him on selenium, 600 mcg per day. Like many patients, he thought if 600 is good, more is even better. He came back and said he was taking 2 mg per day, or 2,000 mcg. I became a bit concerned about that and suggested he cut down to 1,000. In any event, he recovered and he has now been alive for seven years. There is no evidence of tumor, and his major problem today is reorienting himself in a foreign culture. So I use selenium and I use a lot of it. I use some zinc, especially for prostatic cancers and I do use calcium-magnesium preparations. So this is the basic nutrient program that they all follow. The cost ranges from $50 to $75 per month. People who are dying from cancer don't mind paying this.

What are this program's advantages? Well, first of all, the increase in longevity. We have increased the longevity from 5.7 months to approximately 100 months, which is very substantial, and half of the patients are still alive. There has been a tremendous decrease in pain and anxiety, even amongst those who were dying. We do not have the final answer, but we have at least a partial answer. The use of nutrients, like vitamin C and B-3 increase the efficacy of chemotherapy by increasing its killing effect on the tumor and decreasing its toxicity on normal tissues. The same has been shown to be true with radiation therapy.

My conclusion is that vitamin C must be a vital component of every cancer treatment program. I believe the other nutrients help, adding 20% to 30% to longevity.

What do we need? We need a definitive study. When I did the study, when I wrote it up with Dr. Linus Pauling, it wasn't our belief that we had answered the question. We hoped that this would stimulate enough interest for the institutes that have the finances and the time to do these studiesto get going and do them properly. We need a definitive large-scale study to tease out the relative value of all the nutrients. This is extremely important. I am not telling you that I have a treatment for cancer; I say that we have improved the results of treatment. My conclusion is that the best treatment for cancer today is a combination of the best that modem medicine can offer, surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, combined with the best of what orthomolecular physicians can offer, which is nutrition, nutrients and hope.

(Reprinted with the permission of the author.)
 
Actually this is not a quote but an essay, written by Abram Hoffer, who is considered the father of orthomolecular therapy, according to the writer of the book. There are many cases he descibes, but the most interesting is that, this essay motivated many physicians to use vitamin C in their treatments

Fascinating reading!
 
Wow! That was really interesting. And in the cases he described he was only giving Vit. C as oral supplementation, not even on an IV except occasionally.

In January of 1980, he saw me for the first time. I started him on 12 grams of vitamin C per day and I recommended to his referring doctor that he give him IV ascorbic acid, 2.5 grams, twice per week, which he agreed to. I gave him niacin, vitamin B6 and zinc to balance it out

The first one, of course, is vitamin C. I am convinced today that vitamin C is the most important single nutrient that one can give to any person with cancer. The dose is variable. I find that most patients can Lake 12 grams per day without much difficulty, that's the crystallin vitamin C sodium ascorbate or calcium ascorbate. They take one teaspoon three times per day. If they do not develop diarrhea, I ask them to increase it until this occurs and then to cut back below that level. I think in many cases it would be desirable to use intravenous vitamin C and there are doctors now in Canada doing that. The amount that one gives is limited by the skill of the physician, not by the patient.
 
I'd like to share a quote I found in a book about vitamin C. The book is written in Spanish, and has not been translated, but I found the same quote on: DoctorYourself.com - Cancer Therapy: Vitamin C
Actually this is not a quote but an essay, written by Abram Hoffer, who is considered the father of orthomolecular therapy, according to the writer of the book. There are many cases he descibes, but the most interesting is that, this essay motivated many physicians to use vitamin C in their treatments
Can you share the title of the book in Spanish?
 
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