Ascorbate: The Science of Vitamin C

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This book examines the idea that vitamin C can be used to prevent and treat some of the most serious illnesses of the modern world. Its shocking conclusion is that there is ample preliminary support for the suggestion, but the medical and pharmaceutical industries have failed to replicate the early work. The consequence of this failure could be huge, both in terms of financial costs to health services, as well as widespread suffering and premature death.

The relationship between vitamin C and health has been controversial for decades. Influential scientists, including double Nobel Prize winner Linus Pauling, have argued that ascorbate could prevent or cure heart disease, stroke, cancer and infections. Conventional experts disagreed, disparaging supplements in favour of fruits and vegetables. This book examines the evidence and shows that the establishment mistrust of vitamin C supplementation is unfounded. The frequently quoted advice, that supplements are redundant if the person consumes five daily portions of fruit and vegetables, is scientifically weak.

The book explores the facts behind the controversy in detail. It describes the history of vitamin C, starting with James Lind’s classic 1747 experiment on scurvy. This simple experiment, in which Lind showed that citrus fruit could cure scurvy, was a turning point in the application of science to medicine. It is used here to illustrate and explain the scientific method, which is based on formulating a hypothesis or testable idea, attempting to refute it, and showing that the results can be repeated reliably. The modern medical establishment, with its emphasis on expensive, large-scale trials, has unfortunately come to value pathological science more highly than solid, replicable experiments. Large-scale trials have their uses in searching for rare or weak effects, but if we are looking for a powerful new treatment, then repeated small-scale experiments will find it more quickly. Using only a few scurvy sailors, Lind showed that something in citrus fruit cured them sufficient! ly to be able to work. Anyone who did not believe the results could simply repeat the experiment.

For over half a century, research into vitamin C has been hindered by failure to understand how the vitamin is used by the body. For this reason, a lot of money and effort has been poured into carrying out experiments that were almost guaranteed to fail, because they used doses that were too infrequent and too small. This book re-evaluates the evidence and presents a new model for the action of ascorbate: the dynamic flow model. This extends the ideas of Klenner, Cathcart, Pauling, Stone and other pioneering scientists. The model explains the experiments that have shown beneficial effects of vitamin C, as well as those that have failed to show such effects. In the light of the new model, the long-standing controversy is resolved. At first sight, claims that vitamin C might prevent or cure heart disease, stroke, cancer and infections such as polio, AIDS and SARS, appear unbelievable. However, the claimed benefits have a scientific basis and demand to be considered seriously. This innocuous vitamin could well offer effective treatments that are far cheaper than current methods: something our overloaded health services desperately need. The book concludes with a list of hypotheses that urgently need testing, to restore scientific respectability to the evaluation of ascorbate. If even a few of these suggestions are confirmed, readers will understand why Linus Pauling was prepared to stake his outstanding scientific reputation on vitamin C.

Reader Reviews:

What a well written, courageous book this is. Courageous because the authors, two professors of medicine, explain in laymen's terms, exactly how science is incorporated into medical practice, and how mistakes and bias get filtered into the mix. After making this clear, they follow the vitamin C story from the very beginning and demonstrate exactly how medical science developed a "bizarre" and illogical pet hate for vitamin C, Pauling and all his disciples. (and ignored apparent benefits)

This will not endear them at all to the tightly knit medical profession, but is a distinct service to the public.

In an honest and fair approach, with no unscientific exaggeration of evidence, the authors explain both sides of the vitamin c "controversy" which wouldn't have been very controversial at all if larger doses had been tried.

They also explode the sacredness of the "large, randomized,double blind, clinical trial" and clearly show how silly it is to deny patients a GRAS (generally recognized as safe) treatment, shown to provide huge benefits, on the flimsy excuse that no large scale trial was performed. Clinical trials should be refuted or replicated to allow science to advance. Phony excuses do not advance science.

All the latest findings are here from Cathcart, Cameron, Riordan, Hoffer and other doctors on the leading edge of ascorbate therapy.

The vitamin C deficiency theory of heart disease, developed by Pauling and Rath, is analyzed and updated, and the latest cancer treatment methods are given.

This is a very important book that has the potential to save hundreds of thousands of lives, it should be placed in the libraries of every school in the country.

W.G. Whitney Utterly honest, easy to understand, "Ascorbate, The Science of Vitamin C" is a real treasure. The difference between a small anti-scurvy intake of vitamin C, a few milligrams per day, and a therapeutic dose of 10 grams or more per day is made crystal clear.
The complete lack of evidence for the RDA set by the FDA is revealed. The rapid elimination of vitamin C was shown graphically, thus the folly in the persistent use of multi-gram oral doses by inept researchers was exposed. Small doses must be taken orally, maybe every hour, to keep serum levels up. The increase in serum levels obtainable with injected, not oral, sodium ascorbate, the usual non-acidic salt of vitamin C, also called ascorbic acid, is explained well.
The flaws in the published studies intended to debunk the usefulness of vitamin C from The Mayo Clinic and The Heart Protection Study in the UK are spelled out in detail. Wrong doses, wrong dosage forms, mismatched control patients, etc., all combined to fail to prove that vitamin C is not effective in treating cancer or cardiovascular disease. The problems with these studies and others is explained in great detail, and you will be able to follow the reasoning of the authors.
Then it is less of a shock to learn that vitamin C can cure polio and prolong lifespan for those with AIDS and cancer, among other conditions. The studies by Pauling and Cameron on vitamin C for cancer believed invalid by mainstream medicine, were, in fact, as well done as was ethically practical, and were confirmed by unrelated researchers.
My only gripes with this book are the incompetent chemistry on page 63 and some of the explanations of ordinary chemical reactions. Neither hydroxyl radical nor hydroxide ion plus an electron will give water as shown. Neither charges nor atoms are balanced or accounted for. Many disease states were said to be caused by the presence too many free radicals without enough direct evidence or identification of which free radicals.
That done, my opinion is that this book should be required reading by a very wide audience. Referencing is done to a very high standard. The next edition should be superb.A great resource for both medical professionals and lay persons alike. The authors have researched this subject extensively and write about it in a way that is insightful for both the lay person and the professional. They hold the evidence of existing research to the light, and propose an elegant theory which can explain all the existing evidence.
It is refreshing to find the tone of the book quite neutral and scientific.
Although the authors don't subscribe to a conspiracy theory, the evidence that political and economical factors are heavily influencing the medical establishment seems obvious. The medical establishment has shown no interest in duplicating the existing research which points to great benefits in the use of high dosage vitamin C in diseases like cancer, polio and heart disease. Research dating back more than half a century found amazing results for using vitamin C, and yet the medical establishment chooses not to act on it, or worse, design experiments that seem to prove the opposite.
This is an historic book, one that will be treasured by those who embrace natural health approaches and a revelation to the uninformed. Drs. Hickey and Roberts authoritatively document how the Recommended Dietary Allowance for vitamin C was impropely established and embellish on the current understanding of how to use vitamin C to promote health and longevity. There are more answers in this book about how much vitamin C your body needs than found anywhere else. For health activists, they will be outraged to find how the establishment of a marginal RDA for vitamin C has resulted in millions of avoidable health problems ranging from cancer and heart disease to cataracts over the past few decades. Had humanity had access to this information earlier mortality rates would have dropped by 25 to 50 percent. For two dollars a week you can implement the best preventive medicine known, by taking supplemental vitamin C. Throw out the false idea that the diet alone will supply your needs, it will only prevent scurvy. Drs. Hickey and Roberts disclose how living cells need more vitamin C when under physical or emotion stress. It's time to read this book, from cover to cover. This book will do more than change your life, it will alter the course for humanity. --Bill Sardi, Knowledge of Health, Inc., San Dimas, California USA.

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