Censorship and Vitamin C Make Unhealthy Partners

Steve Hickey, PhD. and Andrew W Saul, PhD., in their volume, Vitamin C: The Real Story, wrote, ‘Just about everything doctors have been telling us about vitamin C is wrong. Current medical opinion says that people can gain all their vitamin requirements from a healthy diet. We are told to make sure we get five, or perhaps even nine, helpings of fruits and vegetables each day, and that we do not need dietary supplements.’ They also reported that a UK survey of 4,278 people revealed that two-thirds stated that they did not eat the recommended portions of fruit and vegetables. They reported in Northern Ireland, only 17 per cent of people revealed that they ate five helpings a day.[i]

You can guarantee that the reports do not mention whether the vegetables come sprayed with Glyphosate, or are from seriously depleted soils, sustained by artificial fertilizers, and treated with further applications of herbicides, fungicides, pesticides and insecticides.

Is this advice applies to people who live in cities who are exposed to varying levels of pollutants in the air that they breathe, and water supplies that carry unknown pollutants?

Invariably such dietary advice suggests limiting sugar consumption to some degree, which is partially helpful. Current advice from the American Heart Association suggests men limit their sugar intake to 150 calories a day (37.5 grams or 9 teaspoons), and women to 100 calories (25 grams or 9 teaspoons).

Generally, the advice does not tell you to limit your consumption of over-process food, such as white flour products, bakery goods, and highly processed food with innumerable chemicals in it.

All of the above affects your vitamin C status.

Stress affects your vitamin C status; both emotional and physical. One source of stress that significantly affects your vitamin C status is pathogenic attack. Pathogens severely use up vitamin C, whether the origin is bacterial, viral or any other source.

Miss-information Abounds

With this in mind, I wish to bring to your attention the crisis of misinformation that is accompanying the suggestions about vitamin C usage at this time. You may not be aware that there is a concerted campaign to undermine the messages coming from people with knowledge about the benefits of vitamin C. This is reaching new heights in the current pandemic with Covid-19. Why this is the case, is an interesting question, but beyond the scope of this article. The short answer, however, has more to do with the fact that vitamin C is very cheap compared to most drugs, and it is not patentable, so there is no benefit to the pharmaceutical industry in promoting it. More than that, if people really were to discover just how useful and important vitamin C is, and how its lack can be found in most chronically ill people—this could seriously affect the pharmaceutical industry’s profitability. More importantly, it would usher in a new era of health.

Internet at a Price

Andrew W Saul PhD who we have already introduced, taught and lectured about nutrition for most of his life (he is now retired), he is the author of numerous books on health and the useful application of supplements. He was having items on his Facebook page blacked out that discussed the work of doctor’s in China who were successfully working with vitamin C. He, apparently, got so sick of what were obvious acts of censorship that he has now moved to another site.

He has also brought to our attention that Wikipedia has decided to remove their page on Dr Robert Cathcart, who we introduced in a previous article, who was a pioneer in the use of high-dose vitamin C. This is another move by vested interests to try and bury important information about the successful treatment of viral conditions with vitamin C.

The same thing has happened to other people trying to bring information about the success of high –dose vitamin C in treating Covid-19, the UK nutritionist Patrick Holford being another example. What, in my view, was more reprehensible was the removal from Utube of Dr Richard Cheng’s full presentation on how and why vitamin C was so successful in treating the Covid-19 patients in Wuhan, China. It was not just about the Chinese experience, it also included a number of reports from around the world, treating sepsis and pneumonia for example, all fully-referenced. It was revealed that in Andrew Saul’s case that some of the items he had blacked out were other reports by Doctor Cheng and other communications from China.

Andrew Saul informs us that on February 14^th WHO had a meeting with internet companies, because they wanted to stop coronavirus misinformation, and some ‘fake news’, as the internet was becoming ‘awash’ with it. Apparently, vitamin C got lumped in with the category of ‘fake news’ LINK 2A with the claims that it can defeat the current coronavirus, covid-19. Listen to his views on the censorship here.

Sceptics among us feel that this is a concerted effort to prevent the use of vitamin C. It is cheap and non-patentable, so as far as the pharmaceutical industry is concerned, it is not something they would ever want to promote—being that it is a substance that could seriously challenge their grip on the illness industry.

Doctor Cheng—Victimised by Ignorance

Richard Cheng MD. PhD. is a respected doctor. He is a US board-certified specialist in anti-ageing medicine and cardiologist with a PhD in biochemistry. A partial bio for him can be found at the University of California, San Francisco’s website Dr Cheng only got involved with the Chinese epidemic because he was visiting China to see his parents for the Chinese new-year when he got caught up in the epidemic. He decided to stay and see if he could help, putting his own life at risk.

He has put out several communications about the challenges that faced them with Covid-19, and some of the lessons they learned from treating the crisis. The reason he was putting out this information is because they found that by including high-dose vitamin C early enough they were able to defeat the disease even with the most severe cases with no deaths! Wouldn’t you want to let people know about this? The actual written reports for this success will not be available until September 2020. Dr Cheng felt it was important to let people know about this success now, without waiting for the actual written evidence of the trials they undertook—as lives could be unnecessarily lost. He was not expecting a campaign to suppress this information that seems to have transpired.

His presentation (1 ½ hour) that was removed from Utube has been saved and can be reviewed here. Check it out for yourselves and let me know if you find any errors or falshoods. He emphasized that high-dose vitamin C (HDIVC) was safe, taken both orally and intravenously. He informs us that ‘HDIVC (up to 1,500 mg/kg body weight) has been generally well-tolerated in clinical trials.’ He suggests ‘Dosage is key. If anyone tells you vitamin doesn’t work, check the dosage used.’ The warnings on high-dose IVVC (intravenous vitamin C) are very occasional. People with renal conditions have problems, but with the average person, there are no problems. With renal problems, he suggests careful monitoring and ramping up the vitamin C slowly. People with a G-6-PD deficiency need to be screened, but even they can tolerate doses of 10-15 grams. High-dose vitamin C will increase the absorption of iron, so people with high levels, such as hemochromatosis patients, need to be monitored, and care needs to be taken.

On March 26^th 2020, he published a paper in the Journal of Medicine in Drug Discovery, titled “Can early and High Intravenous dose of vitamin C prevent and treat coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)?” His answer to this question was unequivocal, ‘My answer is yes. Early and large dose is the key top prevention and treatment of covid-19.’

He explains: ‘The key radical outburst, the cytokine storm is the key pathology underlying this. We want to kill it, we want to prevent it from happening. So early and large doses. Again it is safe, inexpensive and there is no reason why we don’t use this…Covid-19 is killing us. It is causing a worldwide panic.’

What is the Cytokine Storm all about?

What he says about the ‘key radical outburst’, the ‘cytokine storm’ being the key pathology is worth explaining. It is key to the reason that ascorbic acid (vitamin C) is fundamental to treating this epidemic. Doris Loh offers an in-depth explanation for those who would like to understand the biochemistry behind this. I hope to offer a more basic explanation. She mentions that all mechanisms used by Covid-19 to attack the body involve the depletion of ascorbic acid, which is what we have already effectively said already. She further adds: ‘Depletion of ascorbic acid results in the failure of the immune system, leading to severe and lethal pathologies such as ARDS [Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome], sepsis and multiple organ failure in covid-19 patients. The immune system depends on white blood cells, such as macrophages, neutrophils and lymphocytes, once their ascorbic acid is depleted, they become dysfunctional, and they produce cytokines. When this happens in a big way when under a serious infection like Covid-19, this release contributes to the collapse of the immune system that ultimately can result in fatality.

Initially, in Wuhan, 50 of the 54 who died all had developed ARDS. In another study in China, 15-20% of Covid-19 patients developed severe pneumonia and 5-10 % required critical care.

We know that the Covid-19 virus attacks Haemoglobin, and this destruction releases porphyrins, which is heme without their ferrous iron cores. Without their ferrous iron cores, they are no longer able to carry oxygen, which means there is less oxygen available to the patient. This destruction releases the iron which is oxidised by the virus into the ferric form (Fe³⁺), which is destructive and necessitates sequestration by the body by the use of ferritin. High ferritin levels are associated with poor outcomes in patients due to this.

Alpha A Fowler III and associates reported on the successful outcome of a patient with a virus-induced acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) treated with high dose intravenous vitamin C in February 2017. They suggest that ‘Cytokines produced by virally infected alveolar epithelial cells activate adjacent lung capillary endothelial cells which lead to neutrophil infiltration. Subsequent production of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species by infiltrating neutrophils further damages lung barrier function.’ The Reactive oxygen and nitrogen species are free radicals that can attack molecules and steal their electrons, which is destructive and can create a situation where there are destructive chain reactions, creative oxidative damage. This is where vitamin C’s role as an electron donor comes into its own. Unfortunately, many people in the medical profession do not appreciate that ascorbate, in this situation, is not simply acting as a vitamin—its role as an anti-oxidant and an electron donor is what is important here. These reviewers make the comment:

‘Infusing high dose intravenous vitamin C into this patient with virus-induced ARDS was associated with rapid resolution of lung injury with no evidence of post-ARDS fibroproliferative sequelae. Intravenous vitamin C as a treatment for ARDS may open a new era of therapy for ARDS from many causes.’ [ii]

Doris Loh mentions that ferritin molecules can sequester up to 4,500 oxidised ferric (Fe³⁺) ions in their core. She also points out that hyperferritinemia (that is very high levels of ferritin) are associated with high mortality, and is also a marker of significant macrophage activation, which again is linked with the creation of cytokine storms. Red blood cells use ascorbic acid exclusively to reduce oxidized ferric iron into ferrous iron to maintain heme in a stable form. They also use cytochrome b561 to regenerate and recycle oxidised ascorbic acid in plasma. This is another reason that vitamin C is so useful as an electron donor, it can be constantly restored and recycled. Macrophages when they are operating correctly recycle dehydroascorbate back into ascorbate. Another problem created by the destruction of Haemoglobin into free heme is that it can scavenge nitric oxide (NO) and at a rate up to a thousand times faster than stable heme bound in red blood cells. This is critical because the loss of endothelial nitric oxide leads to hypertension, coagulation and systemic inflammation. Loh suggests that the loss of endogenous nitric oxide also reduces the ability to suppress viral replication, which she feels is the main reason for the failure of the immune system. Again, ascorbate’s importance here is critical, as macrophages use it to produce nitric oxide.  The macrophages use ascorbic acid to generate what is known as an ‘oxidative burst’, which effectively kills surrounding pathogens. Without vitamin C they cannot generate the oxidative burst and kill pathogens. They do however continue to regenerate as monocytes but this contributes to the cytokine storm because they activate inflammasomes which lead to it being an uncontrolled, runaway storm, able of inflicting very serious damage.[iii]

Is it Worth Waiting for Published Evidence when so many are dying?

Perhaps you can see now why, Dr Cheng wanted ‘to kill it’, and prevent it from happening, and why he felt it was important to personally inform people about their experience with covid-19 in Shanghai.

Dr Cheng has been in close communication with the International Society for Orthomolecular Medicine. They have some useful documents concerning the current pandemic, including a different presentation by Dr Cheng (26 minutes). There is also the Orthomolecular News Service, which is free to those who wish further information. In an article dated 16th February, they stated ‘It’s clear that increased oxidative stress plays a major role in the pathogenesis of ARDS and death. Cytokine storm is observed in both viral and bacterial infections. Cytokine storm leads to increased oxidative stress, ARDS and death seems to be a common and non-specific pathway. This is important in clinical management. Since the prevention and management targeting increased oxidative stress with large dose of antioxidants seems a logical step and can be applied to these deadly pandemics, without the lengthy waiting for pathogen-specific vaccines and drugs, as is the case of the current 2019-nCov epidemic’.

There is enough information in the public domain to show that vitamin C has a serious role to play in this pandemic. Does the medical community have any better sure-fire way of preventing deaths? It seems not—if the death statistics are anything to go by. The use of the anti-malaria drug Chloroquine was found to help bind some of the toxic free heme, which is a useful inclusion of the treatment protocol according to Dr Cheng.

The question remains, that with such a small cost, and such a promising antioxidant, what is there to lose by having a few trials with such a proven safe vitamin?

I believe they should role out trials everywhere, using early high dose vitamin C, and further offer vitamin C to the health workers, doctors and nurses. If they feel this is a waste of time, because they do not believe there is sufficient evidence to support its use, then they could offer it to these people who are exposing themselves for our benefit and include this in a separate series of trials. The opportunity is here, the other option that of doing nothing will just add to the unnecessary death count.

The evidence is there if you wish to look.

Dr Paul Malik, Chief of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Eastern Virginia Medical School, Norfolk, USA, has put out the EVMS Critical Care COVID-10 Management Protocol. He reports that they have had zero success with patients who were intubated. He suggests postponing intubation as long as possible. He uses intravenous vitamin C (3g 6 hourly for 7 days), which is only a relatively small dose compared with practitioners like Dr Frederick Klenner who treated his own son for flu with 6 grams intravenously every six hours and a further dose of 10 grams by mouth. His son recovered within 24 hours.

Nevertheless, Dr Paul Malik has achieved success with vitamin C in treating sepsis that is well-known and is achieving excellent results with Covid-19. The Protocol which is used by all the doctors that are part of the Critical Care Working Group in the USA. The protocol is marked:

URGENT! Please circulate as widely as possible. It is crucial that every pulmonologist, every critical care doctor and nurse, every hospital administrator, every public health official receive this information immediately.

Following is a video presentation by the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Working Group Early Intervention Protocol for COVID-19 Can Save Lives. PLEASE PASS THIS INFORMATION ON, IT WILL SAVE LIVES!

This protocol is constantly evolving for the most recent hospital protocol check here:

https://covid19criticalcare.com/math-hospital-treatment/

IMPORTANT They have developed a new protocol for prevention this can protect people from the virus, Follow the link for more information about this and their new website with new videos.

Dr Joseph Varon at United Memorial Hospital in Houston, Texas is one of the doctors using the protocol, and is pleased to inform us that his success rate has so far been 100%,  he has had zero deaths, using the protocol that includes high-dose vitamin C.

Dr Varon says, “I am hoping that other people have the same result that we have. We have a consortium of five intensive care doctors across the United States that are using this same protocol and we all have very similar results,” As regards to concerns by some who would like to see completed studies he suggests, “Yes there is a need to do a study and all the things that people say. But at this time, if I see that something is working I’m not going to let my patients die,” he said.

Read the full story and also see his short but encouraging video interview here.

There is more information about the use of vitamin C and the current epidemic in the three previous articles on this site.

There are petitions for the use of vitamin C in treatment protocols in both the USA and the UK that you can participate in below.

Here is the petition to get the FDA to approve the use of High-dose IV vitamin C for Coronavirus patients.

Here is the petition to get the NHS to include Vitamin C for both protecting staff and for IV use for patients in the UK

 

[i] Steve Hickey, PhD and Andrew W Saul, PhD, Vitamin C: The Real Story, Basic Health Publications, 2008, p3.

[ii] Fowler III AA, Kim C, Lepler L, Malhotra R, Debesa O, Natarajan R, Fisher BJ, Syed A, DeWilde C, Priday A, Kasirajan V. Intravenous vitamin C as adjunctive therapy for enterovirus/rhinovirus induced acute respiratory distress syndrome. World J Crit Care Med. 2017 Feb 4;6(1):85-90.

[iii] Doris Loh, “COVID-19, ARDS & Cytokine Storms – The Recycling of Ascorbic Acid by Macrophages, Neutrophils and Lymphocytes.” Evolutamente, 5^th April, 2020.