We are one of the few species of animal on earth which cannot supply their own endogenous Vitamin C requirements. Most other species can make Vitamin C in their liver with glucose as the starting point.
The ability to make Vitamin C must have been present somewhere in the dim past because the mechanism is there, bar one enzyme: L-gulonalactone oxidase. Somewhere in our evolutionary past, a genetic mutation occurred and the ability to manufacture Vitamin C was lost. If this vitamin is so important and necessary for health, how and why did we survive? The possible answer is that our ancestors lived in equatorial Africa, where fruit was plentiful and there were adequate exogenous sources of Vitamin C. Problems developed when humans migrated to colder climates where there was not such a plentiful supply of Vitamin C.
As mentioned already, with the exception of the apes (which includes us!), the guinea pig, fruit bats and a few other miscellaneous species, all other animals can make their own endogenous Vitamin C. By studying animals, we can determine just how much Vitamin C they make and we can extrapolate this to humans; this will help to determine what dose range we need. What has been determined as the official Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) of Vitamin C is very, very much less than what most animals can make.
An animal can make up to 4-6 grams of Vitamin C while under no stress and under stress, this amount can be increased to at least 15 grams of Vitamin C per day. In contrast, the human RDA is only 60 milligrams. The strange thing is that the RDA for monkeys is 3,830 milligrams and for the guinea pig it is between 2,920 and 11,650 milligrams. It certainly looks like humans are being shortchanged, especially in the Vitamin C department. Something is not right.
Animals make large amounts of Vitamin C and they can make lots more when needed, e.g., when stressed or ill. Humans need a lot more Vitamin C in health than the RDA and even more when sick.
The book, The Healing Factor, Vitamin C Against Disease by Irwin Stone, was extremely useful. For a start it gave me guidelines on just how much Vitamin C can be given. Up to this time I have been telling patients to take more Vitamin C. However, when they asked specifically “How much?” I could not give a specific answer. Now I could.
The doses recommended by Irving Stone are:-
These doses are safe doses.
For very sick people, more can be given up to “Bowel tolerance”, which is the point where loose bowels develop. Most people in western society are deficient in Vitamin C. Irwin stone says “We are living in a state of sub-clinical scurvy”.
There is an interesting point to be made here and this applies to all nutrients and not just Vitamin C. The RDA of Vitamin C is 60mg. This is the minimum amount needed to prevent scurvy (i.e. clinical deficiency). If you look at other nutrients, the RDA is that minimum amount needed to prevent a deficiency state. But they do not look at what is the maximum amount needed for optimal health.
Yes, 60 mg of vitamin C may prevent scurvy, but 10 grams a day, or more, can give optimal health. Vitamin C is an important anti-oxidant. It is “used up” when the body is eliminating toxins, pollutants, microbes, etc. The more the pollution exposed to, the more Vitamin C is needed. It has been estimated that “self polluters” i.e. smokers, require 25mg Vitamin C to remove the toxins from 1 cigarette, which is the content of 1 orange. (1 freshly picked orange off the tree, not an orange picked weeks ago, kept in cold storage and sitting on the supermarket shelf for days before being eaten!)
Vitamin C should not be considered a vitamin, because it gives the impression of being needed only in small quantities. Look at it as a nutrient to be given in large doses for optimal health.
Vitamin C has many uses and I will mention only a few of the more important ones. A whole book needs to be written to cover the whole field. It is essential for healing as it is needed in collagen formation: so is needed in wounds, burns, cuts, fractures, surgery, etc. It is essential in immune function, preventing infection, treating infections as well as modulating the immune system in asthma, allergies, hay fever and auto-immune diseases.
Vitamin C is intimately involved in the prevention of heart disease. Heart disease can be considered a manifestation of subclinical scurvy. The current dogma is that heart disease is caused by cholesterol. Not so. (If you are interested in reading more about this, see Can You Really Believe What Your Doctor Tells You, a CDROM book I wrote in 2004)
Intravenous Vitamin C (IV C) is another method of treatment. The uses are almost unlimited. It is very useful in acute viral illnesses, the common cold, influenza, shingles or any infection where the cause is not known.
IV C is also very useful in chronic illness, such as Cancer, AIDS, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. The intravenous route has many advantages. By giving it this way, you know that it gets in! With oral doses, absorption may be an issue. Large doses of intravenous Vitamin C does not cause loose bowels, as do large oral doses. I have found that a few IV C treatments can prime the system, then oral doses become more efficient. In general, the sicker the patient, the more serious the problem, the larger the dose of IV C which is needed.
In acute illnesses, we can start off with 30 grams IV a day. With chronic illnesses, it is better to start low and slowly increase. What is the maximum? No one really knows for sure. Everyone is an individual. I suppose as much as is needed!! Smaller amounts of IV C can be given as a “push”: that is, via a“butterfly” needle inserted into a vein and a syringe full is injected. The procedure is well tolerated. If larger amounts are needed to be given, then a drip is set up and the full dose is dripped in over a half to one hour.
[Extract from There is Always an Alternative, by Peter Baratosy, MB BS PhD DipAcup DipClinHyp FACNEM]