— 1950 —

“...our observations suggest that ascorbic acid when administered in sufficient amounts possesses anti-rheumatic activity... ”

[AscorbateWeb Editorial: The clinical reports seen earlier recommending ascorbate as a highly effective, nontoxic, antibiotic-like healing and detoxifying agent were slowly giving way to studies like this one, which presented cautious, highly-qualified conclusions about the efficacy of ascorbate, and which casually raised unsupported insinuations of ascorbate’s hypothetical toxicity.

Possibly this stuffy, conservative style of presentation was necessary to get published in the N.E.J.M., but it is curious that this study totally ignored all of the earlier clinical reports attesting to ascorbate’s remarkable nontoxicity.   But as the authors were evidently focused on soon-to-be-glamorous (and profitable) hormone and steroid therapies (see their conclusions), this is not too surprising.]

— 1951 —

“An active case of tuberculosis was treated ... [with] vitamin C intravenously ... with 500 mg. orally [plus] citrus juices. From the start the temperature was reduced and maintained at normal. The cough and expectoration have completely ceased, and a gain in weight of nearly ten pounds has been recorded.

A case of chronic pelvic infection ... was given 1,000 mg. of vitamin C intravenously, ...then placed on an oral maintenance dose of 500 mg. daily in addition to a liberal intake of citrus juices. This patient has now been symptom-free for nearly a year.

A case of acute septicemia ... was given [vitamin C] hypodermically and ... orally, plus copious intake of orange juice. On the following day the inflammatory swelling and temperature were reduced to normal and the patient made a rapid recovery.

Several cases of scarlet fever were given vitamin-C therapy, intravenously and orally .... In each case the fever dropped to normal in a few hours and the patients were symptom-free within three or four days.

The author’s experience leads to the conclusion that the principle of trying to eradicate disease by concentrating our attack against the associated micro-organisms by means of toxic antibiotics is fundamentally unsound.”

—

“... review[ing] the findings of McCormick in 50 confirmed cases of poliomyelitis in and around Toronto, Canada, during the epidemic of 1949... families eating brown bread who came down with poliomyelitis did not develop paralysis; whereas in those families eating white bread many of the children having poliomyelitis did develop paralysis. The point here is that brown bread has 28 times more vitamin B1 than does white bread. Obviously, then, the paralysis which complicates acute poliomyelitis appears to be due to a B1 avitaminosis.”

[AscorbateWeb Editorial: This article is chock full of fascinating discussion, not terribly hard for the lay person to follow.   Interesting especially is the role of vitamin B1 (a.k.a. thiamin, thought to work synergistically with ascorbate) in staving off the paralysis of poliomyelitis.

One wonders whether the decrease in crippling cases of poliomyelitis worldwide is due less to improved vaccines and aggressive immunization programs, but rather more to better nutrition, including the increasingly widespread supplementation of diets with ascorbate and vitamin B1, at least in Western countries...]

—

“Ascorbic acid was used ... in the treatment of burns. Clinical observation ... showed that ascorbic acid is capable of alleviating pain in minor burns, hastens the healing period, aids in combating the accumulation of toxic protein metabolites in the severely burned, and reduces the time interval necessary for skin grafting.”

— 1952 —

“... when given in massive repeated doses, ... preferably intravenously or intramuscularly ... the effect [of ascorbic acid] in acute infectious processes is favorably comparable to that of the sulfonamide or the mycelial [penicillin and its ilk -ed.] antibiotics, but with the great advantage of freedom from toxic or allergic reactions.”

[AscorbateWeb Editorial: Perhaps this is the reason that ascorbate therapy never enjoyed widespread clinical usage: people don’t like getting injections, which are usually painful and which, as doctors are loath to admit, carry the risk of complications.   Still, a central theme here is the generally benign, nontoxic nature of ascorbate as compared to drugs.]

 

<baur 1952 proofing>

— 1953 —

“Vitamin C response when taken by mouth is not predictable... [it is] reported that the scorbutic state could develop even though the patient was taking large doses of vitamin C by mouth ... one of our daughters several years ago ... had contracted chicken-pox. Vitamin C was started on this child ... In spite of the fact that she was given 24 grams every 24 hours there was no interruption in the progress of the disease. Itching was intense. One gram administered intravenously stopped the itch within 30 minutes and she went on to peaceful sleep for the next eight hours. Although feeling fine, a second injection was given at this time, following which there were no new macules and recovery was fast and uneventful. In the past few years we have noted that in chicken-pox when massive injections are employed there [are] no repeating waves of macules, and the usual seven to nine days required for crusting is reduced to less than twenty-four hours.”

[AscorbateWeb Editorial: This is another lively work by Klenner, emphasizing among other things the chancy nature of oral ascorbate administration. Injected administration (shots or intravenous) is the only reliable way to raise blood ascorbate levels.

The reader’ s attention is especially directed to Klenner’s dismantling of the unscientific Sabin monkey study which helped to discredit ascorbate therapy in the eyes of the medical establishment, a sorry condition that persists to this day.

Might one possibly imagine an investigator with an agenda dedicated to developing vaccines intentionally discrediting ascorbate to help free up research funds, not to mention to eliminate the competition? Nahhh—]

— 1954 —

“Investigations ... showed that the intravenous infusion of 10 gm. ascorbic acid ... accelerated decrease of serum bilirubin and increase in weight, reduced the period of urinary excretion of bilirubin, urobilin and urobilinogen, shortened the duration of dysproteinemia and illness. ... The ascorbic acid infusions caused no undesired side-effects.”

[AscorbateWeb Editorial: Yet another successful therapy, long ignored or forgotten, which used ascorbate to accelerate recovery from hepatitis.]

— 1955 —

“[Brucellosis] is very widely distributed throughout the entire world and is truly described, in contemporary literature, as a cosmopolitan disease. It has been erroneously diagnosed as rheumatic fever, typhoid, typhus, malaria or kala-azar... In New Jersey alone, some authorities say that there are probably 30,000 new cases yearly. Some authorities believe that as much as 10 per cent of the entire rural population of the United States is infected.”

[AscorbateWeb Editorial: Drinkers of raw milk beware! This clinician was apparently inspired by McCormick’s 1951-52 reports. Ascorbate was effective in treating some very long-standing cases of brucellosis. Interesting but not too surprising is that oral ascorbate was ineffecive in several instances, highlighting once again the dangers of relying on intestinal absorption of ascorbate during illnesses. Injections work best!

Of note is this 1998 announcement from the World Health Organization(WHO): “...Antimicrobial resistant strains of Brucella are reported; ... Some of the commonly-used antimicrobials for brucellosis treatment (i.e. Rifampicin and Streptomycin) are also first line drugs for the treatment of tuberculosis. The present worldwide occurrence of multi-drug resistant strains of pathogenic Mycobacterium tuberculosis poses the urgent question of an alternative treatment for brucellosis, using antimicrobial agents not employed for tuberculosis.”

Dr. McCormick, who had grave misgivings about the deployment of these mycelial antibiotics, would probably get a grim laugh from the pharmaceutcal industry’s foolish and ultimately futile tactic of killing off weak strains of bacteria, only to let the strong strains flourish; don’t even mention the buckets of costly, toxic, side-effect laden drugs used to “combat” brucillosis. Maybe the WHO’s alternative treatment could be... ascorbate?]

—

“Large doses of vitamin C have proven beneficial in the management of five serious cases of acute poliomyelitis.”

[AscorbateWeb Editorial: This report is interesting in that, while the Salk polio vaccine was by this time becoming the accepted preventative measure, Dr. Greer treated his acutely ill patients with oral doses of ascorbic acid.  While thankfully effective in these cases, this treatment protocol was risky in that it disregarded the unpredictability of intestinal absorption postulated by Klenner, 1948, who recommended injected doses to circumvent the issue.

Nevertheless large-dose (10 gm/dose, ~4 doses/day) oral ascorbate was the treatment of choice for early polio; if the clinician had considered other treatment options, none were mentioned.  Strangely, no mention is given to the use of adjuvant vitamin B1 in polio treatment.]

— 1957 —

“Patients admitted for operations during the winter months suffer to a large percentage with hypo- or avitaminosis. These patients can be reckoned to develop large blood pressure fluctuations and shock during operations.

“In the course of our investigations with 80 patients ... we succeeded in suppressing and preventing operational shock with large doses of vitamin C.”

[AscorbateWeb Editorial: This clinical study is interesting in describing seasonally poor ascorbate status, sort of a “Winter Scurvy”, and by implication how hazardous it is for surgery patients to be deficient in this nutrient.  Strangely, no mention is made of Holmes’ clinical results presented 11 years earlier.

This exemplifies the problem of inaccessibility of colleagues’ works within a field (especially when Cold War era, Not-Invented-Here politics might have played a part).   This is one issue that AscorbateWeb strives to address.]

—

“Therapy with high doses of vitamin C showed the following effects: Already during the first few days marked subjective improvement was noticed, followed by good appetite and weight gain...

“The swelling of the liver subsided rapidly. In previous cases it took an average of 30.3 days until the liver regained normal size in contrast to 8.6 days under ascorbic acid treatment. At the same time the jaundice disappeared rapidly.

“Fat-containing diet could be started in all cases during the second week and was well tolerated without exception. Clinical relapses ... did not occur. Whereas with the usual therapy hospitalization lasted an average of 64.9 days, only 31.9 days in the hospital were required for patients of the described series.”

[AscorbateWeb Editorial: Much emphasis at the turn of the 20th & 21st centuries was placed on hepatitis B vaccines. Considerable controversy surrounds these vaccines, with charges of adverse reactions, infant deaths, long-term and lifelong illness and limited efficacy being leveled at manufacturers, who indirectly lobby for compulsory administration (in the USA, at any rate) to all children, whether they are at risk or not.

Orthomolecular treatments of the kind described in this study are practically unheard of; none are recognized or allowed by the corporate pharmaceutical-medical industrial cartel. Still, it is worth keeping in mind that for a short time even ascorbate was the darling of the pharmaceutical industry — until the patents expired, that is.]

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