Immune Support
Following requests from numerous people I felt it would be useful to add some further information regarding the administration of vitamin C.
This information is not suggested as medical advice. If you have any medical condition you are advised to discuss your requirements with your doctor or medical professional. Vitamin C, however, does not interfere with orthodox medical treatment, and can only assist in cases of pathogenic attacks, such as by viruses, as with the current outbreak.
Current advice for people suspected of having the virus is not to visit doctor’s surgeries or attempt to visit hospital but stay at home. If you are faced with dealing with the coronavirus in this situation this article may offer you some assistance.
Firstly the requirements for an individual can vary enormously. Many factors can lead to depletion of vitamin C levels in the body. It is partly because vitamin C is much more than a vitamin. Its role as an antioxidant is fairly well-known. Its role in supporting the immune system in 21 different ways is less well-known.
I don’t intend to get into an in-depth discussion of vitamin C in this article, just to give you some basic information about usage and inform you of some of its value.
We mentioned its role in supporting the immune system, which is what we are assuming your interest is due to, for dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic. Vitamin C should be the treatment of choice for any viral disease, at the right dose, it can stop a virus in its tracks. I don’t wish to repeat here what has been discussed in the previous section, which reveals some of the background to our understanding of vitamin C in dealing with polio, hepatitis, pneumonia and measles. Suffice it to say that doctors such as Robert Klenner have been successfully treating these diseases since the 1940s. For those who would like more information on this and the background story of vitamin C, Dr Thomas Levy’s book, Curing the Incurable Vitamin C—Infectious Diseases, and Toxins (with over 1,200 references) would be a useful source for medical professionals.[1]
Dr Levy gives an extensive review of many uses of vitamin C in the body, including the various ways it supports the immune system, its ability to detoxify numerous toxins, overcome viruses, bacteria and other pathogenic organisms.
We mentioned some of the immune effects in the previous article. We can very briefly review a few of the more than 20 different ways vitamin C aids the immune system.
For example:
The white blood cells concentrate and transport vitamin C around the body to attack invading pathogens concentrating vitamin C as much as 80 times the level in the blood.
T-Lymphocytes are integral to our immune function and attacking invaders, their response is mediated by vitamin C, as is their level of proliferation, vitamin C has the added ability of protecting the T-lymphocytes.
Vitamin C enhances phagocytic function. Phagocytes are one of the types of white blood cells that ingest microorganisms and infection-related cellular debris.
Vitamin C enhances antibody production and complement activity.
Vitamin C enhances interferon production. Interferons are produced by cells that get infected by a virus, and they subsequently increase the resistance of nearby cells to virus attack.
There is much more could be said about how vitamin C supports our immune systems, but I am trying to keep this section short and not over-complicated.
Dosage Requirements
Dr Levy suggests that for the average healthy adult taking a daily dose of vitamin C ranging between 6,000 and 12,000 mg would generally meet the body’s metabolic requirements. He does, however, suggest that adults would need a dose closer to 12,000 mg than 6,000 mg.[2]
What can make a difference to the amount we decide to supplement can be due to any number of factors. We will give just a few examples to give you an idea of the challenge in dosing. If you live in a city, for example, how much are you exposed to vehicle fumes? Is the air clean where you sleep and work? Do you live in a warm and dry environment free of moulds? Do you handle toxic chemicals in your work environment? Do you smoke cigarettes? How much alcohol do you drink? How much sugar do you eat? Do you eat much processed food? Do you have infections in your teeth or gums? Do you have any other type of infection? Do you consume significant amounts of processed carbohydrates? Do you eat foods that have been sprayed with pesticides or fungicides such as food grown in the industrialized agricultural system?
These are just a few of the ways that both deplete vitamin C levels in the body and increase the requirements for it. Hence, there is no easy way to answer the question as to how much to take without knowing the answers to such questions.
To help address this question we can give you the following guidance:
Firstly, it is important to understand that vitamin C has a half-life of approximately 30 minutes. Which means if your body absorbs 6 grams of vitamin C, within 30 minutes this will be reduced by one half to 3 grams, and half an hour later it will be reduced to 1 ½ grams etc. Effectively this means that it is much better to spread the dose throughout the day than to take one large dose.
Secondly, you can take it alone, you don’t have to take it with food.
As to the type of vitamin C to take, two main ways seem to be popular. The first is in tablet form as ascorbic acid, the second is in powder form as sodium ascorbate (this is a ph neutral product). Dosing with the tablets is straight forward, as the tablets are designated in sizes such as 500 mg or 1000 mg etc. Using the powdered form requires a little more savvy with regards to accurate dosing as not all brands supply a measuring spoon. A heaped teaspoon can supply 6 grams or more, which is a lot in one go. Generally, it best to start with a smaller dose, say flat teaspoonful or even a half of spoonful. It is generally taken dissolved in water, which will add a slightly salty taste, depending on the amount of water you add. If it is for children it can be added to other drinks such as fruit juice. You have to be careful with the choice of juice however, as most juices have a high sugar content which becomes counter-productive, as it competes with vitamin C for uptake.
Bowel Tolerance Level
Whichever product you choose, I would suggest you start small and build up the dose. If however, you have an infection coming on, or you just want to up the dose, you can increase the dose, if you increase the dose enough you will head towards what we refer to as the bowel tolerance level. As the lower digestive tract gets saturated with vitamin C it travels lower in the bowel, you will notice a little flatulence if you keep increasing the dose, you will get gurgling and loose stools. If you keep increasing the dosage you will get a real cleanse and diarrhoea. Whilst a cleanse is fine, you would not want to repeat this experience, as the body will suffer from dehydration, and nutrient uptake will be severely impaired, and you will be weakening your system with malnutrition. Simply reducing the amount you are using until you feel comfortable would give you as high a dose as your body is suggesting you might require. What seems to occur, however, is that your tolerance can change if you have a significant infection. With a serious infection, we find we can take higher amounts without reaching bowel tolerance.
Be aware that you may experience other benefits from vitamin C that you may not have expected. Many people have noticeably increased levels of energy. Other benefits have been reported that can vary from person to person. I am not aware of any negative effects.
Dr Robert Cathcart, an expert on the use of vitamin C, who has treated more than twenty-two thousand patients with vitamin C advocated treating influenza with up to 150,000 milligrams of vitamin C daily. As far as bowel tolerance was concerned he observed: ‘The sicker a person was, the more ascorbic acid they would tolerate orally without it causing diarrhea. In a person with an otherwise normal GI tract when they were well, would tolerate 5 to 15 grams of ascorbic acid orally in divided doses without diarrhea. With a mild cold 30 to 60 grams; with a bad cold, 100 grams; with flu, 150 grams; and with mononucleosis, viral pneumonia, etc. 200 grams or more of ascorbic acid would be tolerated orally without diarrhea. The process of finding what dose will cause diarrhea and will eliminate the acute symptoms, I call titrating to bowel tolerance.’[3]
Andrew Saul PhD, mentions that when he had pneumonia, he took 2,000 mg every six minutes, by the clock to get to saturation point. His oral daily dose was over 100,000 mg. He says that fever, cough and other symptoms were reduced within hours; and complete recovery took just a few days. He adds the comment: ‘That is performance at least as good as any pharmaceutical will give, and the vitamin is both safer and cheaper. Many physicians consider high doses of vitamin C to be so powerful an antiviral that it may be ranked as a functional immunization for a variety of influenza strains.’[4]
That is some serious usage, but it was following a seriously debilitating condition. I hope this helps you.
Children and Vitamin C
Dr Lendon H Smith, the celebrated children’s doctor and writer was an advocate for using good nutrition to improve health. He used vitamin C widely with children. As far as the intake level for children he advocated approximately 1000 mg for each year of life, up to 5,000 mg at age five. He also advocated giving up sugar and junk food.[5]
The Rule of Ignorance
No doubt for many of you this information may come as a surprise. The official recommended daily allowance (RDA) as discussed in the previous section is between 65 and 90 mg a day, which in my view is woefully inadequate, particularly when facing an infection of any kind, and, at the same time, living in such a polluted environment with poor quality food.
Additional Support
Aside from the use of vitamin C, other nutrients can be added to complement this use. Vitamin D 3 has been shown to strengthen the immune system against viruses, as has magnesium, zinc and Selenium. Andrew Saul PhD gives a more complete supplement protocol via the Orthomolecular News Service.
Successful High-dose Vitamin C Treatment of Patients in China
Dr Enqian Mao, chief of emergency medicine at Ruijin Hospital, in Shanghai, has been using vitamin C for over a decade treating patients with acute pancreatitis, sepsis, surgical wound healing and other medical conditions. As of March 17th, he has successfully treated 359 Covid-19 patients with high-dose vitamin C. In one case it took 50,000 mg over a period of four hours.
Link for Doctors
This is a link to an advice sheet for doctors only, on how to make a preparation of vitamin C for intravenous use provided by: Andrew Saul PhD and Atsuo Yanagisawa, MD, PhD. Preparation of Sodium Ascorbate for IV and IM use. Hospital-Based Intravenous Vitamin C Treatment for Coronavirus and Related Illnesses.
This is a link to Eastern Virginia Medical School to obtain the EMS Critical Care Covid-19 Management Protocol by Dr Paul Malik, Chief of Pulmonary and Critical Care. He marked it:
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.
Here is a version by Robert Cathcart III MD.[6]
References
[1] Thomas E. Levy, MD, JD, Curing the Incurable—Vitamin C, Infectious Diseases, and Toxins, Livon Books, 2002.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Andrew W. Saul, Editor. “Nutritional Treatment of Coronavirus.” Orthomolecular Medicine News Service, Jan 30, 2020
[4] Ibid.
[5] Steve Hickey, PhD, & Andrew Saul PhD, “Vitamin C: The Real Story,” Basic Health Publications, Inc. 2008, p29.
[6] ROBERT F. CATHCART III, M.D. For MD’s only Preparation of Sodium Ascorbate for IV and IM Use
http://vitamincfoundation.org/www.orthomed.com/civprep.htm
What do you think?