by Steve Hickey
It took over twenty years of medical practice before Dr. Smith first began to use megavitamin therapy. A patient “wanted me to give her a vitamin shot,” he writes of an alcoholic woman from 1973. “I had never done such a useless thing in my professional life, and I was a little embarrassed to think that she considered me to be the kind of doctor who would do that sort of thing.”26 “That sort of thing” consisted of an intramuscular injection of B-complex vitamins, which proved successful enough that “she walked past three bars and didn’t have to go in.” That was the beginning of his conversion from conventional pediatrician to orthomolecular spokesperson.
His first book, The Children’s Doctor, published in 1969, contains only three mentions of vitamins, and two are negative. However, as he learned about nutritional prevention and megavitamin therapy, he began to discuss it. In his 1979 book, Feed Your Kids Right, Dr. Smith recommends up to 10,000 mg of vitamin C during illness. By 1981, in Foods for Healthy Kids, he recommends vitamin C to bowel tolerance levels (the maximum tolerated oral dose of vitamin C). But even his relatively mild statements, such as “eat no sugar” and “stress increases the need for vitamin B and C, calcium, magnesium, and zinc” can be a walk on the wild side for conventional physicians. Furthermore, his recommendations of B-complex and vitamin C injections, self-administered by the patient twice a week for three weeks, were not calculated to avoid controversy.
By 1979, Dr. Smith was a New York Times best-selling author, and by 1983, he was advocating four-day water fasts, 1,000-microgram injections of B12, and megavitamins for kids. There were no Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA)–level vitamin recommendations in his books. He was also an outspoken critic of junk food: two of his trademark phrases were “People tend to eat the food to which they are sensitive” and “If you love something, it is probably bad for you.”
Dr. Smith became cautious about routine vaccination: “The best advice I can give to parents is to forgo the shots, but make sure that the children in your care have a superior immune system.” His alternative recommendation was for children to have an immune-boosting diet: “This requires a sugarless diet without processed foods (and) an intake of vitamin C of about 1,000 milligrams per day for each year of life, up to 5,000 milligrams at age five.”27 He clearly realized the connection between sugar intake and vitamin C. Dr. Smith proclaimed, “If we continue to eat store-bought food, we will have store-bought teeth.”28
These are big steps for a pediatrician who, thirty-two years earlier, had written that excess vitamin C was a waste and would not prevent colds. Dr. Smith might have had a quiet life as a pediatrician had he held onto such incorrect, but politically safe, beliefs. Because of his promotion of orthomolecular medicine, he was finally compelled to stop practicing in 1987, under pressure from insurance companies and his state’s Board of Medical Examiners. Nonetheless, he continued to speak out in favor of megavitamin therapy.
The popularization of orthomolecular medicine by courageous physicians such as Lendon Smith has enabled the benefits of nutritional therapy to reach families with sick children. Dr. Smith’s visibility has done wonders to educate and encourage parents to use vitamins to prevent and cure illness. For this, Lendon Smith ranks alongside Dr. Klenner as one of the true pioneers of nutritional medicine.
Claus Washington Jungeblut
In the 1950s and 1960s, children were vaccinated against polio. Many kids feared the needle and were pleasantly surprised to receive a lump of sugar instead. In time, they would learn the name of their benefactor, Albert Sabin, M.D., the man credited with having saved all from the risk of a lifetime of paralysis. Ironically, this live oral vaccine may have become a leading cause of polio as the incidence of the disease was reduced.29 The strongest criticism of Sabin’s live vaccine originated from another hero in the fight against polio and developer of an early “killed” polio vaccine, Jonas Salk, M.D. In September 1976, the Washington Post reported Dr. Salk’s assertion that the Sabin live oral virus vaccine had been the “principal if not sole cause” of every reported polio case in the United States since 1961.30 In 1996, a year after Dr. Salk died, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) began to turn away from the live oral vaccine and recommended killed virus injections for the first two rounds of infant polio immunization. By 2000, the CDC stated that “to eliminate the risk for vaccine-associated paralytic poliomyelitis, an all-injected polio virus schedule is recommended for routine childhood vaccination in the United States.”31 Only after two decades did the orthodoxy at last take heed of the Dr. Salk’s caution.
Many people know the names of Drs. Salk and Sabin. By contrast, the public and orthodox medicine are yet to pay proper attention to the work of Claus Washington Jungeblut, M.D. (1898–1976). Dr. Jungeblut received his M.D. from the University of Bern in 1921 and then conducted research at the Robert Koch Institute, in Berlin. A bacteriologist for the New York State Department of Health from 1923 until 1927, he taught at Stanford University and then joined the faculty at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. Dr. Jungeblut retired in 1962 and he died in 1976 at the age of seventy-eight. For seven decades, he influenced the course of every nutritional medicine practitioner and earned the thanks of patients whose health and lives were saved by ascorbate therapy.
In his day, Dr. Jungeblut was regarded as an important player in polio research. While recent revisionist history of the fight against polio has generally downplayed his contribution, it has sidestepped what was arguably his most important discovery—that vitamin C may prevent and cure polio. Amazingly, Dr. Jungeblut first published this idea in 1935, shortly after vitamin C had been identified and isolated.32 His research on vitamin C was sweeping and profound, extending well beyond the topic of polio. By 1937, he had shown that vitamin C inactivated both diphtheria and tetanus toxins.33 Dr. Jungeblut’s research suggested that vitamin C could inactivate toxins and protect against viral and bacterial pathogens, including polio, hepatitis, herpes, and staphylococcus.34 In September 1939, a Time magazine article described how Dr. Jungeblut, while studying statistics of a recent polio epidemic in Australia, deduced that low vitamin C status was associated with the disease.35 The popular and professional media rarely highlight Dr. Jungeblut’s work. Even when he and his work are memorialized, there is no mention of vitamin C.
What Happened to Vitamin C as a Therapy for Polio?
Dr. Jungeblut performed experiments that suggested vitamin C was greatly beneficial in monkeys with polio. Dr. Sabin, who was interested in producing a vaccine at that time, failed to replicate Dr. Jungeblut’s results. However, Dr. Sabin effectively prevented a positive result by using larger doses of virus and smaller doses of vitamin C; he also gave the vitamin C far less frequently.36 Decades later, we have the research base to understand how it is possible to gain a negative result using low and infrequent doses of vitamin C. The process of investigating inadequate doses continues in research to this day, resulting in the continued impression that vitamin C is ineffective even against the common cold, never mind polio.37
Dr. Jungeblut demonstrated that ascorbic acid inactivates the polio virus. Shortly afterward, scientists found that other viruses were also inactivated, including vaccinia, foot and mouth disease, rabies, bacteriophage, and tobacco mosaic virus. At sufficiently high doses, vitamin C appears to act as a broad-spectrum antiviral agent. When discussion about poliomyelitis turns toward vitamin C as a prophylaxis and treatment, one hears a frequent refrain: “If vitamin C therapy were so good, all doctors would be using it.” However, the doses of vitamin C studied by conventional medical researchers have been too small and too infrequent to be effective.38 Dr. Sabin’s poorly conducted experiments convinced experts that vitamin C was ineffective, clearing the way for a polio vaccine39 and effectively stopping Dr. Jungeblut’s research.40 Our loss has been a sixty-year period in which vitamin C’s antiviral effects have been ignored.
William J. McCormick
Charles Darwin had a far easier time with the acceptance o
f evolution than physicians have had gaining recognition for the therapeutic use of vitamin C. Vitamin C is needed to make collagen and strong connective tissue, and vitamin C supplementation rapidly enhances collagen synthesis.41 Some fifty years ago, Toronto physician William J. McCormick, M.D. (1880–1968), pioneered the idea that vitamin C deficiency was a cause of diverse conditions, from stretch marks to cardiovascular disease to cancer.
Stretch Marks
Dr. McCormick suggested that stretch marks are a result of vitamin C deficiency, affecting the body’s production of collagen. Collagen consists of long protein molecules that act like tiny strings, holding the tissue components together. We can think of connective tissues as biological fiber composites, working in a similar way to fiberglass or carbon fiber materials. In fiberglass, the plastic matrix is given strength by transferring tension to the glass fibers. Similarly, tissues transfer stress to collagen fibers. Tissues in the body are constructed of cells, supported by a matrix of connective tissue. The cells themselves are relatively delicate and have little intrinsic strength. Connective tissue provides the glue that binds your cells together, just as mortar binds bricks. If collagen is abundant and strong, body cells hold together well. Stretch marks, a relatively minor cosmetic affliction, helped develop Dr. McCormick’s ideas. As long ago as 1948, he suggested that these disfiguring lesions might be avoided.42 During pregnancy, the skin can stretch to several times its original length. If the skin of the abdomen and thighs were stronger and more able to repair itself, stretch marks may be lessened or avoided altogether.
Cancer
It is a large, though logical, step to propose that if cells stick together in a tough, fibrous matrix, tumors might have a hard time spreading through them. Dr. McCormick appears to have been the first person to connect scurvy with a predisposition to cancer.43 His idea was that growth of tumors would be impeded by a strong connective tissue support matrix. Furthermore, cancer cells could be bound to the matrix, or anchored, so that they could not spread. Consistent with this idea, Dr. McCormick was among the first to report that cancer sufferers typically had very low levels of vitamin C.
Dr. McCormick observed that the symptoms of the classic vitamin C deficiency disease, scurvy, closely resemble those of some types of leukemia and other forms cancer. Today, although scurvy is conventionally considered virtually extinct, cancer is all too prevalent. If the signs of cancer and scurvy are similar, could they be the same disease under different names?44 James Lind, in his famous experiments on scurvy in the eighteenth century, had noted that the symptoms of the disease were similar to the plague. Dr. McCormick thought that there were also similarities to malignant cancer. For example, the collagen matrix surrounding a tumor breaks down, disturbing the tight arrangement of cells and facilitating ease of spread.45 He also noted an obscure but interesting reference in the 1905 edition of Nothnagel’s Encyclopedia of Practical Medicine, which described the similarities between acute lymphatic leukemia and scurvy: “The most striking clinical symptoms of this disease are the hemorrhages and their sequelae.… Every touch produces hemorrhage, making a condition completely identical with that of scurvy.”46
Dr. McCormick concluded that the major effort against cancer might usefully be aimed at preventing it from spreading around the body by way of this cellular disruption. He suggested the use of vitamin C, since the disruption depended on weakened connective tissue and other aspects of tissue structure for which ascorbic acid is essential. This simple hypothesis became the foundation for the therapeutic approach of Linus Pauling and Ewan Cameron, M.D., detailed in their 1979 book Cancer and Vitamin C, which used large doses of vitamin C to fight cancer. After all, if cancer cells are going to try to metastasize and spread, abundant vitamin C might strengthen the collagen and connective tissues to keep them from doing so. It turns out that these mechanisms are not primarily involved in vitamin C’s anticancer action, but Dr. McCormick’s hypothesis led to some exciting experimentation.47 The current interest in vitamin C as an anticancer agent began with the investigation of these ideas.
Cardiovascular Disease
One of the early signs of scurvy is bleeding from the gums, as vitamin C is needed to maintain tissue strength and fight disease. Dr. McCormick suggested that a similar process occurs in arteries throughout the body: an artery wall that is short of vitamin C might literally bleed into itself. He reviewed the nutritional causes of heart disease and noted that four out of five coronary cases in hospitals showed vitamin C deficiency. Dr. McCormick was suggesting that heart disease was a form of scurvy,48 and this association of coronary heart disease with gum inflammation is still an area of active research.49
Dr. McCormick was not alone in relating vitamin C to heart disease. As early as 1941, other researchers realized that coronary thrombosis patients had low vitamin C levels.50 In one study, over half of the patients in a general ward also had low vitamin C status. Arterial plaque, the ultimate cause of heart attack, was known to be associated with capillary hemorrhage. This led to the suggestion that heart disease patients should be provided with adequate amounts of vitamin C. Of course, the definition of “adequate vitamin C” has been at the heart of a nutritional controversy ever since. Supplementation with even a moderate quantity of vitamin C may prevent disease and save lives—just 500 mg daily has been reported to lower mortality from all causes, including heart disease.51
Other Beneficial Effects
Dr. McCormick proposed vitamin C deficiency as the essential cause of, and supplementation an effective cure for, numerous communicable illnesses. To support his case, he cited mortality tables from as early as 1840 and suggested that death from tuberculosis, diphtheria, scarlet fever, whooping cough, rheumatic fever, and typhoid fever was primarily due to inadequate dietary vitamin C.52 To suggest that historical disease trends might relate to a shortage of vitamin C intake appears as novel an idea today as it was nearly sixty years ago. Despite this, the major part of the decline in death rates from infectious disease is generally attributed to sanitation, hygiene, and unspecified improvements in nutrition.
Dr. McCormick considered vitamin C to be the pivotal therapeutic nutrient. He suggested that vitamin C could act both as an antioxidant and, occasionally, as an oxidant within the body.53 Vitamin C’s oxidation-reduction effects provide a powerful chemotherapeutic action, especially when given in large, gram-level doses at hourly intervals. Dr. McCormick noted that the effect was more pronounced when ascorbate was injected, which is remarkably close to our viewpoint on ascorbic acid today. He went further, though, suggesting that the action of vitamin C was comparable to that of antibiotics. Moreover, vitamin C had the advantage of avoiding toxic or allergic reactions, which are common with antibiotics. If the acute symptoms of an infectious disease are controlled by massive doses of vitamin C, the dose can be reduced to a maintenance level. Dr. McCormick made an analogy with extinguishing a fire: a small chemical extinguisher may put out a fire in its early stages, but if the fire is established, large high-pressure fire hoses may be needed.
Ever since Linus Pauling began publicizing the value of megadoses of vitamin C in the early 1970s, it has been a cornerstone of medical mythology that vitamin C can cause kidney stones. The accusation is false.54 Everybody has heard about unicorns and can describe one in detail, yet unicorns are imaginary, without substance or supporting evidence. Just like a vitamin C kidney stone. Writers often neglect the fact that Dr. McCormick was using vitamin C to prevent and cure kidney stones as far back as 1946.55 He had observed that cloudy urine was associated with low vitamin C intakes. When such subjects were provided with a large gram-level dose of vitamin C, their urine became clear.
Before the relationship between smoking and both lung cancer and heart disease was established, smoking was often considered a benign pastime. Contrary to this, Dr. McCormick estimated that smoking a single cigarette would oxidize up to 25 mg of vitamin C, about the amount found in a good quality organic orange.56 This was quite a statement in 19
54, a time when physicians were endorsing their favorite cigarette in magazines and on television commercials. Dr. McCormick suggested a heavy smoker could not maintain a healthy level of vitamin C from diet alone. Indeed, if this figure was accurate, a pack-a-day adult smoker taking less than 500 mg of vitamin C per day would soon succumb to acute scurvy or other serious disease related to shortage of vitamin C. (Fortunately, some of this oxidized vitamin C can be regenerated by body tissues.) This and similar estimates of vitamin C loss in smokers are now part of our popular culture, although their author has faded from memory.
Dr. McCormick fought vitamin C deficiency wherever his clinical experience found it. He used gram-sized doses to combat what are usually regarded as non-deficiency-related illnesses. This early therapy set the stage for today’s use of therapeutic doses of 100 grams a day to fight cancer and viral disease. For an idea with such potential benefit, the spread of this knowledge has been exceptionally slow. Without Dr. McCormick’s published work, it might never have spread at all.
Linus Pauling
Linus Pauling, Ph.D., (1901–1994) was arguably the most highly qualified, and certainly the best known, critic of the vitamin C–deficient medical system. Dr. Pauling still generates extreme reactions, described in terms ranging from “genius” to “quack.” His two unshared Nobel Prizes (he is the only person in history with that distinction) are no protection against his opponents, who condemn his approach to the use of vitamins. Dr. Pauling’s ideas are considered controversial because he dared to present, directly to the public, his insightful interpretation of the scientific literature suggesting that high doses of vitamins can cure diseases. He also reassessed many “vitamins are useless” studies, explaining how researchers had misinterpreted their own data or presented biased opinions, thus showing that vitamin therapy did indeed have statistically significant value.