An estimated two million seamen died of scurvy in the 15th to 18th centuries. In scurvy, the body starts to break down and literally falls apart. The gums bleed, teeth fall out, bones break, old wounds open up! That is because the body is held together by collagen and collagen needs vitamin C to stay strong.
But when seamen were sailing for longer than 3 months (and not eating citrus foods), their bodies ran out of stored vitamin C and they got scurvy. Humans (all primates), guinea pigs, and fruit bats are the only mammals that do not make vitamin C in their bodies and need to eat some foods with vitamin C in order to be healthy. All other mammals make vitamin C in their bodies and will never get scurvy. Your pet dog, cat and even your pet goat (if you have one) makes more vitamin C than you do! Humans actually have all the genetics and machinery in their biochemistry to make vitamin C but are missing ONE enzyme to make it happen. (See the bottom of this article for the biochemistry). For some unknown reason, our bodies lost the ability to make vitamin C millions of years ago. Amazing!
Vitamin C is also called ascorbic acid. (Bear with me while I go through a little chemistry). This name comes from the Latin “scorbutus” which means “scurvy”. Ascorbic acid is a wonderful molecule (at least from a chemist point of view!). Ascorbic acid is an “electron donor”. That means it has extra electrons that it can give away to other molecules. Electrons are what keep us all alive. If your electrons stop flowing you will be dead. Here is the vitamin C molecule-
Do you see the “OH” groups? I have circled two of them in red in the picture below.
The “OH” groups will donate their hydrogen atoms and their electrons and thereby “reduce” other nearby molecules. Below is the vitamin C after it has reduced something nearby.
Vitamin C is a master antioxidant in other words. It easily donates two electrons. Why is this important? It gives up its electrons (is oxidized) and donates them to nearby toxins instead of allowing your sensitive body tissues to take the hit. Let me repeat, vitamin C helps stop toxins, viruses, and bacteria before your body has to deal with them. Vitamin C is a very effective bactericide and antiviral and anti-toxin.
During the 1940’s to 1970’s physicians used vitamin C to help their patients fight off infections. During this time there were very few large pharmaceutical companies and no expensive medicines for doctors to use. Doctors did their best to cure their patients with the drugs and supplements that they had on hand. Some gave large doses of vitamin C to patients both orally and by IV.
One notable physician, Doctor Thomas Levy (a cardiologist) promoted the use of high doses of vitamin C to help his heart patients. Dr Levy discovered the effects of high doses of the vitamin after witnessing a colleague using it in his practice. (See my book list for books by Dr Levy). A Nobel Prize winning chemist by the name of Dr Linus Pauling also promoted vitamin C. As a chemist, he understood how it works biochemically.
Unfortunately some folks (and many physicians today) will discount the use of vitamin C saying that it does not work. They will say that there are no studies on vitamin C. Actually there are lots of studies on vitamin C. And some were written back in the 1950’s to 1970’s and some are recent. I did a search in PubMed for “vitamin C” and it brought up 66,346 articles! One at the top of the search is called “Vitamin C: The Next Step in Sepsis Management?”. That seems pretty important!
Doctor Frederick Klenner (1907-1984) was a physician that pioneered large doses of vitamin C in the 1950’s. He often tested the doses on himself to insure safety. Doctor Klenner routinely cured children of poisoning and disease. He was known to say “if you tried vitamin C and it did not cure the patient, then you did not use enough vitamin C and for a long enough time period”. He wrote 28 papers describing his success with vitamin C. Go here for more information. Large doses are defined as 5,000 to 50,000 mg of ascorbic acid per day. And sometimes these doses are given by IV to avoid possible bowel upset.
I take very large doses of vitamin C (6000 to 8000 mg a day). The FDA (Food and Drug Administration) currently recommends 90 mg per day. That is the amount that will stop you from getting scurvy. Go here for more information. But a lot of folks are learning about the value of vitamin C and take much larger amounts. So why do I take so much? Evidence is that even though most of us get enough vitamin C to stop scurvy we don’t get enough for the best repair of tissues and building stronger bones. For example:
Some cardiologists believe that heart disease is simply a focal scurvy of the heart. Some ophthalmologists now believe that cataracts are a focal scurvy of the eye. (Go here and here.) Some now believe that osteoporosis is a focal scurvy in the bones. (Go here and here for more info on bones).
Here is what Dr Thomas Levy (cardiologist) says about scurvy: “Most people, including healthcare practitioners, think of scurvy only as a severe vitamin C deficiency throughout the body that rarely occurs any longer in the modern world. And this is correct. However, scurvy also occurs when vitamin C is severely depleted in one tissue or organ while the rest of the body has ample amounts. This is known as focal scurvy – which often exists in individuals who appear to be otherwise completely healthy. And where there is focal scurvy, there is focal inflammation.”.
Remember that goat I talked about at the start of this article? Goats with a large body size, similar to a small human, make 13,000 mg of ascorbic acid daily. (Primal Panacea, Thomas Levy). When researchers look at the level of vitamin C in mammals that make it endogenously they find that the levels reach upwards of 10,000 to 15,000 mg or more especially when the animal is sick or has an injury. Yet the FDA only tells us we need 90 mg a day. I think we can benefit from much more daily vitamin C. More on my journey with vitamin C in future articles.
OUR MISSING ENZYME Circled below-
Very informative and interesting article! Thank You!
LOVED this! Vitamin C was one of the major players in getting rid of the lump in my breast! I continue to take large doses.
Tami this is awesome! I like to hear from others who have had success with vitamin C.