----------------------------------- ----- Robert F. Cathcart,M.D. ----- --- Allergy, Environmental, and --- ----- Orthomolecular Medicine ----- ------- Orthopedic Medicine ------- --- 127 Second Street, Suite 4 --- --- Los Altos, California, USA --- ---- Fax: 650-949-5083 ---- -----------------------------------
Copyright (C), 2000, Robert F. Cathcart, M.D. Permission granted to distribute via the internet as long as material is distributed in its entirety and not modified.
Robert F. Cathcart, III, M.D. Allergy, Environmental, and Orthomolecular Medicine 127 Second Street, Los Altos, California 94022, USA Telephone 650-949-2822
It is necessary first to understand a few facts:
Almost everyone has had the experience of feeling like they were catching a cold in the evening but then woke up the next morning feeling fine. What has happened here is that the white cells have primarily killed all the viruses.
However, if you wake up the next morning and realize you will be sick with a cold for the next week to 10 days, what has happened is that the viruses have damaged enough mitochondria that have produced enough free radicals to oxidize all the vitamin C in the nose and throat. This complete oxidation of all of the vitamin C in these tissues I named "acute induced scurvy." This does not mean that you have scurvy all over the body but you do have it in the nose and throat. Therefore, the white cells cannot kill the viruses in the nose and throat and you will be ill until the antibodies get their act together and that usually takes a week to 10 days. However, in the meantime, this acute induced scurvy may spread into the bronchial tubes, sinuses, ears, etc., and result in some bacteria taking advantage of the situation and cause bronchitis, sinusitis, or otitis media or even worse like pneumonia, etc.
The antibodies are our backup system. Without them we would probably die of even a cold.
If a person takes moderate doses of vitamin C, they may prevent the acute induced scurvy from spreading into the lungs, sinuses, or ears but usually these lower doses will not bring the cold to a sudden end. However, if massive doses of ascorbic acid by mouth or sodium ascorbate by vein are used and this forces a reducing redox potential (forces a high concentration of electrons) onto the diseased tissue in the nose and throat, the white cells come out fighting mad and destroy the viruses. It does not matter that the disease is moderately advanced, if sufficient C is used to force that reducing redox potential onto the diseased tissues, the cold will be shortly terminated.
Fred Klenner, M.D., in 1949, described curing 60 cases of polio in the epidemic of 1948. There was no paralysis.
Polio is a brief viral disease just like the common cold except that it puts out a free radical toxin that destroys anterior horn cells in the spinal canal. This causes paralysis. This will not happen if enough ascorbate is forced into the diseased tissues sufficient to destroy all the free radicals. Meanwhile, the ascorbate carries enough electrons all over the body to neutralize all the free radicals, restore the vitamin C to the primarily affected tissues so that the white cells come out fighting mad and destroy all the viruses.
Imagine a disease toxic enough to destroy 500 grams/24 hours of ascorbate. This would result in acute induced scurvy all over the body. There would be bleeding from every orifice, The gums would bleed; all the internal organs would bleed; and death would shortly result. Except, if intravenous sodium ascorbate saturated all the affected tissues with C, neutralizing all the acute induced scurvy, the white cells would come out fighting mad and destroy all the viruses.
Any disease that damages mitochondria causes the release of massive amounts of free radicals. These result in acute induced scurvy in the affected tissues. Etc. ..............enough ascorbate to restore a reducing redox potential, etc..................white cells come out fighting mad....etc.
There is a brilliant veterinarian in San Jose, CA, Wendell Belfield, D.V.M., who for years has been curing kennel fever and distemper in dogs with intravenous sodium ascorbate. Imagine a 500 gram disease which destroys far more vitamin C than the dog can produce. This puts him in the same position as humans who cannot produce vitamin C as most other animals can. (Man, monkeys, guinea pigs, African fruit eating bats and a few birds do not make ascorbate.) Belfield just hocks them up to intravenous sodium ascorbate and they are well in a few days. He forces enough ascorbate to restore a reducing redox potential, etc..................white cells come out fighting mad....etc.
In all these cases, the vitamin C is primarily being thrown away for the electrons it carries. We are saturating the tissues involved in the disease with electrons, forcing a reducing redox potential on those tissues. This threshold dosing destroys all the free radicals in the affected tissues.
These doses are far in excess of anything that has been imagined for vitamin C in the past. The usual doses of vitamin C rely upon the mitochondria providing the electrons to rereduce the dehydroascorbate back to ascorbate. Unfortunately, when a patient is sick, the free radicals produced by the disease damaging mitochondria in the affected tissues, use up the electrons provided by all the free radical scavenging nutrients (vitamin C, vitamin E, beta carotene, etc.) in the body in a few minutes. These electrons must be continuously provided by the mitochondria. When the mitochondria are damaged, they not only cannot supply the electrons but become the source of large amounts of free radicals.
The doses necessary for this purpose of curing acute diseases have nothing to do with how much vitamin C other animals make. It certainly has nothing to do with the so-called RDA. We can make more vitamin C in our chemical plants than a dog can in his liver. We just have to have the intelligence to know how to use these massive doses.
Content (C) 2000, Robert F. Cathcart, M.D..
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