The Clinical Experiences of Frederick R. Klenner, M.D.,
abbreviated, sumarized and annotated by
Lendon H. Smith, M.D.
2233 SW Market Street, Portland, Oregon 97201
Clinical Guide to the Use of Vitamin C
Preface
After Frederick Klenner died in 1984, his friend (and mine), Arthur Rybeck, a
nutritionally-oriented dentist practicing in Wheeling, West Virginia, asked if I
would be interested in going over the 27 papers Klenner had written from the
early 1940’s to the early 1970’s. The whole idea would be to let the world know
how thoughtful and careful a researcher he was, and to encourage others to
continue his work. If a compendium of Vitamin C (and other nutritional) therapy
could be compiled from the published work of Dr. Klenner, maybe we could get
more traditional medicine-oriented doctors to use his methods for the relief of
sickness and suffering.
Standard doctors tend to believe studies and reports if published, but tend
to disbelieve hearsay stories about treatments that patients have read in a
“health” newsletter.
I have used Dr. Klenner’s methods on hundreds of patients. He is right. It
helps almost every condition and situation, and my failures were due to
inadequate amounts.
The timing of such a paper might be most appropriate. Doctors are suffering
from low public esteem because they are perceived to be money-grubbing and
mistake-laden. This would be a scientifically documented - from the medical
literature - therapy for a variety of conditions: cardiovascular, allergies,
infections, malabsorption, (see index), and even AIDS, for which prescription
drugs may be hazardous. Now the doctors can say, “We have a safe, reasonably
natural way of treating your condition that is fairly cheap. We might just keep
you out of the hospital.”
That last part might make the insurance carriers perk up their ears. The
patients might dash back to the doctors’ offices because the word is getting out
that doctors are helping people without side effects. Notice also, the dates on
these articles and references - these things were known decades ago.
Take this booklet to your M.D. and suggest that he read about these
documented studies. Take Dr. E. Cheraskin’s “Vitamin C Connection” along for
further documentation. If your doctor doesn’t know, how can he help you?
Foreword
by Linus Pauling, Ph.D.
The early papers by Dr. Fred R. Klenner provide much information about the
use of large doses of Vitamin C in preventing and treating many diseases. These
papers are still important. Dr. Lendon Smith has done a valuable service in
making the work of Dr. Klenner available to the public.
Introduction
I have before me the published words of Frederick Robert Klenner, B.S., M.S.,
M.D., F.C.C.P., F.A.A.F.P. He graduated from Duke University, School of Medicine
back in 1936. After three years of hospital training he entered the private
practice of medicine in Reidsville, North Carolina. His main subspecialty was
diseases of the chest, but he became interested in the use of massive doses of
Vitamin C in the treatment of virus diseases and other illnesses as well. He
inspired Linus Pauling and Irwin Stone to expand the research on the great
benefits of Vitamin C. Dr. Klenner died in 1984.
What follows is a review, and abbreviation, a summary and a critique of the
27 scientific papers he wrote. In the light of the recent developments and
research in the use of Vitamin C, it is essential that the roots of its usage be
reviewed. Briefly, Vitamin C does attenuate most virus infections by aiding the
production of interferon, controls many cancers, relieves some depression,
modifies much pain and changes the course of many diseases, like multiple
sclerosis, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, spider bites, the bites of poisonous
insects and reptiles. The watchword is, “If in doubt, give Vitamin C.”
Dedication
If Dr. Klenner had lived he would have wanted this book to be dedicated to
the following:
Anne Klenner for her patience and understanding.
Fritz for the lively discussions in chemistry.
Mary Anne and Gertrude for being ‘guinea pigs’.
General Remarks
He believed in the healing power of nature, but believed that natural
remedies could enhance that power and were safer and usual1y more effective than
drugs. Hippocrates said, “Of several remedies the physician should choose the
least sensational”. Vitamin C fills that criterion.
In 1948, he published his first paper on the use of large doses of Vitamin C
in the treatment of virus diseases. In 1960, he realized, “Every head cold must
be considered as a probable source of brain pathology.” Hold on to this thought;
it is significant for the understanding of diseases like multiple sclerosis. He
also felt—as do Archie Kalikarinos and Glen Dettman of Australia—that the
dreaded Sudden Infant Death Syndrome was basically a Vitamin C deficiency. His
maxim: the patient should “get large doses of Vitamin C in all pathological
conditions while the physician ponders the diagnosis.”
We have misled ourselves with the mistaken notion that all C was supposed to
do was keep us from scurvy. If, however, we base our needs on the amounts other
mammals manufacture with their intact enzyme it comes to 2-4 grams daily in the
unstressed condition. Under stress 70 kg of rats make 15 grams of C. [Burns;
Salomon; Conney]
We are willing to accept the premise that some of us are born with genetic
defects that lead to problems that can be somewhat controlled with diet and
supplements (i.e. phenylketonuria, galactosemia, and alkaptonuria and pernicious
anemia). Can’t we accept the fact that we all have a genetic deficiency of the
enzyme, l-gulonolactone oxidase and have to take Vitamin C for health, even for
life? [Burns, 1959]
Irwin Stone calls this human genetic lack, this inability, hypoascorbemia.
The point that Dr. Klenner is making: “The physiological requirements in man are
no different from other mammals capable of carrying out this syntheses.” If one
is anemic due to poor iron intake, is it cheating to swallow iron tablets for a
while? If you are hypoascorbemic because you cannot manufacture Vitamin C from
sugar, extra glucose in your diet will not help, you need to take Vitamin C.
He reports that one of the Pilgrim Fathers wrote to a friend in England in
1621: “Bring juice of lemon, and take it fasting. It is of good use.”
Folklore has revealed to us what natural remedies have been helpful and even
curative. We have been lured into the trap of modern medicine which prescribed a
drug for every condition. But consider acerola: Puerto Rican legend has it that
if the tree bearing this fruit is in one’s backyard, colds will not enter the
front door. This fruit bears 30 times the amount of C than oranges. Dr. Klenner
credits Boneset with the health of the Klenner family during the great influenza
pandemic of 1918. This plant was made into a tea, bitter but curative. He
assayed the tea for Vitamin C; they were getting 10-30 grams at a time!
The small amount of Vitamin C, recommended by the RDA (75 mg then and 60 mg
now) is enough to protect the person from gross disease, but not the amount to
maintain good health. Dr. Klenner quotes Kline and Eheart, who in 1944 realized
there are wide variations in the need for Vitamin C, in otherwise “normal”
individuals. In 1945 Jolliffe suggested that the optimum requirements might be
more than 10 times the small doses recommended.
Scurvy develops slowly. Crandon (in 1940) found that the Vitamin C level of
the blood plasma fell to zero for 90 days before there was obvious clinical
evidence and that this was as long as 132 days before the first signs appeared.
How it Works
How does it work: as an oxidizing agent massive amounts, i.e., 5-150 grams,
intravenously, for certain pathological conditions, if allowed to run in rapidly
(20 gauge needle), acts as a “Flash Oxidizer” and may correct the condition in
minutes. It can be a reducing agent. It neutralized toxins, viruses and
histamine. The more serious the condition, the more C is required.
It appears that Vitamin C acts as a reducing agent, an oxidizing agent, an
anti-clotting agent, an antihistamine, and as an anti-infective agent.
He summarized the function of C in poliomyelitis:
- Virus destruction.
- Dehydrates the brain and the spinal cord safely.
- Supports and normalized the stressed adrenal glands.
- It preserves the lining of the central canal and maintains more regular
spacing and less crowding of ependymal cells (surface cells of the spinal
cord).
Ascorbic acid enters all cells. It “proceeds to take up the protein coats
being manufactured by the virus nucleic acid, thus preventing the assembly of
new virus units.” Cells expand, rupture and die, but there is no virus particles
available to enter and infect new cells. If a virus has invaded a cell, the
Vitamin C contributes to its breakdown to adenosine deaminase, which converts
adenosine to inosine. Purines are formed which are catabolized (broken down) and
cannot be used to make more virus nucleic acid.
Viral nucleic acid has a protein coat which protects this parasite as it
rides the blood or lymph highway to gain specific cell entry. [Larson] it is
possible that if the ascorbic acid can remove that protective protein coat in
the blood stream or in the cells, the white cell phagocytes and immune globulin
could then neutralize these vulnerable virus particles.
I like this from Dr. Klenner: “Ascorbic acid also joins with the available
virus protein, making a new macromolecule which acts as the repressor factor.”
(interferon?) Multiplication of new virus bodies is inhibited.
He summarizes the study of Lojkin, (1937), who discovered the inactivation of
one virus was due to a specific intermediate product formed in the course of the
oxidation of C but needed the stimulation of copper ions. It is a peroxide and
is decomposed as rapidly as it is formed. This study indicates why Vitamin C
works better in the body and not the test tube. Every function of the body
requires enzymes, some vitamins and some minerals to act as coenzymes. If enough
Vitamin C is supplied, the enzyme system that breaks down invading viruses and
bacteria, will be able to do its job properly. Quote: “Unless the white blood
cells are saturated with ascorbic acid, they are like soldiers without bullets.”
Vitamin C
in vitro at body temperature inactivates certain toxins at
an unbelievable rate. Back in 1938 some researchers [Klegler] placed Vitamin C
in test tubes with toxins. After incubation for 48 hours the toxins were not
lethal to mice when injected. The more toxin in the tube, the faster the C
disappears. “The rate of disappearance of the C in toxin and ordinary broth was
more striking the greater the concentration of Vitamin C.” Dr. Klenner
concluded: “The degree of neutralization in a virus infection will be in
proportion to the concentration of the vitamin and the length of time which it
is employed.”
This has been Dr. Klenner’s main complaint: failure to benefit from Vitamin C
use is usually due to inadequate amounts being used for too short a period of
time.
Vitamin C combines directly with the toxin/virus. This new compound is
oxidized by Vitamin C; the toxin/virus and the Vitamin C are destroyed. This
must be why C has to be continued after the apparent cure.
It acts as a respiratory catalyst, aiding cellular respiration by acting as a
hydrogen transport. The liver has a better chance of detoxifying the blood
stream of poisons, toxins, viruses and bacteria if the plasma is saturated with
Vitamin C. Fever, toxins and bacteria reduce the level of C. Therefore,
Dr. Klenner theorizes, if a high level of C is maintained, all tissues return to
normal despite the fever and the bacteria; and because of its action “as a
respiratory catalyst, it enables the body to build up adequate resistance to the
invader.”
The anaerobic condition in the tissue is relieved. Acidity is decreased and
large amounts of Adrenaline disappear. The constriction of the blood vessels
ceases and the liver and pancreas can receive the proper nutrients to function.
Properly calculated doses of C on a continuing basis will restore the normal
physiology of the body.
The adrenals and Vitamin C are interrelated. During an infection Vitamin C is
absent from the urine and is decreased or absent in blood, even when moderate
amounts are being given intravenously. Vitamin C in the adrenal glands was
greatly reduced in animals succumbing to polio. (Dr. Klenner cites the
literature of 1934-35 to document this.) Hans Selye knew how the adrenals would
show damage with stress. He found that all patients ill with a virus would show
petechial hemorrhages (small leaks of blood into the skin) when a tourniquet was
applied to increase venous backpressure. Capillary weakness is a sign of low
levels of Vitamin C. Sugar in the urine, associated with the petechiæ,
disappeared when adequate serum levels of Vitamin C were obtained.
It is known the C regulates the intercellular substance of the capillary
wall. The collagen of all fibrous tissue structures is dependent on an adequate
level of Vitamin C. Increased capillary fragility is observed in individuals
when the blood level of C drops to 1 mg per liter. These weak capillary walls
may allow a simple virus to invade the brain (see “Insidious Virus”).
In addition, Vitamin C acts as catalyst in the assimilation of iron.
(Ascorbic acid is a necessary coenzyme in the metabolic oxidation of
tyrosine. The latter is necessary to break down protein to a usable amino acid.)
Dr. Klenner states, “The importance of Vitamin C as an antibiotic and as the
precursor of antibody formation lack scientific appreciation because of its
simplicity.” The reluctance of the medical profession to employ it in massive
doses like antibiotics has allowed the appearance of allergies as a major
problem.
Vitamin C is known to be essential for life. He quotes the studies that show
that when Vitamin C is given intravenously to patients with a deficiency,
fibroblasts begin to form connective tissue and capillary buds invade blood
clots within just a few hours. In a similar time frame when used as an
antibiotic, fever falls and the white count climbs.
Dr. Klenner points out that the standard treatment of colds was based on the
alkalinizing effect of forcing juices down the patient’s throat. Highly alkaline
urine has less Vitamin C. The Vitamin C would be thus retained in the tissues
helping to guard against the viruses and bacteria. When Vitamin C levels drop,
glycogen in the liver is converted to glucose: a response to stress.
Dr. Klenner is convinced that C will work in any problem but the negative
results reported are only because an insufficient amount was used. A tragic
error in judgment has been made by the National Academy of Science and the
National Research Council: the minimum daily requirement for C. All of us need
more; some need a lot more.
Factors that determine need:
- age
- habits, alcohol, drugs, tobacco
- sleep, especially if drugged
- trauma of infection, of physical injury, of work, of emotions, of surgery
- Kidney threshold
- environment
- physiological stress
- climate changes
- loss of C in stools
- absorption
- binders in tablets
- individual difference in body chemistry
- drugs, pesticides, carbon monoxide exposure
- weight
- poor storage.
Klenner quotes the Food and Life Year Book, 1939, published by the U.S.
Department of Agriculture (surely as conservative and orthodox a group as one
could ever find): “Even when there is not a single outward symptom of trouble, a
person may be in a state of Vitamin C deficiency more dangerous than scurvy
itself. When such a condition is not detected, and continues uncorrected, the
teeth and bones will be damaged, and what may be even more serious, the blood
stream is weakened to the point where it can no longer resist or fight
infections not so easily cured as scurvy. Five grains of aspirin will not
relieve kidney colic; don’t expect control of a virus with 100 to 400 mg of C.”
Dosage
The amount of C depends upon the severity of the disease but also upon the
efficiency of the victim’s immune system. The usual dose of 65 mg per kilogram
of body weight may be expected to take care of the usual virus infection when
given every 2-4 hours by needle. The more severe condition would respond to
larger single injections.
However “if the activity of the pathogen is completely stopped, the
development of active immunity will be interrupted.” Therefore, modification of
childhood diseases is the aim of Vitamin C treatment, not the complete overnight
suppression that would prevent the body from making immune memory. To accomplish
modification, 250 mg per kilogram should be given intramuscularly. If necessary,
half of this amount would be given in eight hours. Procaine 1.5-2% can be given
with a separate syringe with the same needle just prior to the C.
The itch, the irritability, the pain, the vomiting of chicken pox measles and
mumps was assuaged in one hour with this last dose. Crusting of chicken pox was
present in 5 hours instead of 7-9 days. 250 mg per kilogram eliminated the
disease in contrast to the 65 mg which just suppressed it. 350 mg per kilogram
may be employed along with antibiotics in treating stubborn bacterial
infections. Because a virus infection will deplete the Vitamin C reserve,
bleeding from the nose or chest would indicate an emergency situation;
Vitamin C, using the above noted dosage schedule, should be pumped in
immediately.
He cites experimental work by others indicating that in monkeys smaller doses
of C could stop the disease from appearing during the incubation period compared
to the relatively large doses needed to suppress the disease once the disease
was diagnosed. It all suggests that most of us will not get any serious virus
disease if we would all take sufficient Vitamin C daily. We need, however, to
get a little sick so we will develop some immunity, but if we get very sick a
lot there is something missing, usually Vitamin C. He is suggesting that the
more serious the disease, the more Vitamin C should be used to treat it. (We
titrate the sickness, as Dr. Cathcart says: “Well, you’ve got a 200 gram flu or
a 50 gram cold.)
In Dr. Klenner’s review of his over 3000 cases about 15% required more
Vitamin C than the average. This ties in with the idea that we are all
different. It also explains why some dogs, who make their own Vitamin C would
die of distemper. “I have cured many dogs suffering with distemper by giving
several grams of ascorbic acid, by needle, every two hours.” 15% of 300
obstetrical cases required 15 grams of C daily to remain within normal limits.
The other 85% needed only 10 grams per day. He felt some spillage into the urine
indicated the body was saturated. “White blood cells are useless unless they are
full of ascorbic acid.”
Dr. Klenner argues that the recommended daily allowances are only to prevent
scurvy. “Acute scurvy and chronic hypovitaminosis are metabolically different
conditions.” We all are much more vulnerable to stress, infections, and
pollution.
A shortage is produced from a poor diet but also poor hygiene, overcrowding,
dampness, cold and physical work (or play). There is a narrow margin between
health and pathological changes.
For a very severe illness, the dose he used was large and the most effective
route was intravenous, but the intramuscular route was satisfactory. He gave at
least 350 mg per kilogram of body weight. (A 70 kg man is 150 pounds; thus 70 x
350= 24,500 mg. He would use a 25 gram dose for a 25 gram illness.) This amount
was put in 500 cc of sterile water, usually with dextrose, saline or Ringer’s
solution. It was diluted so that there was at least 18 cc of diluent to each
gram of C. In small children, 2 or 3 grams can be given intramuscularly once
every two hours. An ice cap to the buttocks will prevent soreness and
induration. As much as 12 grams can be given in this manner into 2 or 3
different muscle sites with a 50 cc syringe; larger amounts must be diluted with
dextrose or saline and run in by I.V. drip. If big concentrated doses are given
by push (25 grams in a 100 cc syringe), the brain may become dehydrated causing
convulsive movements of the legs. Intramuscular injections are always 500 mg to
1 cc solution. At least one gram of calcium gluconate must be added to the
fluids each day. Massive doses of C pull calcium ions from platelets; and the
clotting mechanism is weakened. Nosebleeds may occur. One gram of calcium
gluconate is added to control acidity and to replace the calcium ion loss
Sodium ascorbate is less painful. Some of us will put procaine, 2%, with the
Vitamin C when injected into the muscle. Vitamin C can also be taken orally once
the patient is recovering.
This dose is repeated every hour for 6 to 12 times and then every 2-4 hours
until recovery.
If using under 400 mg per kg body weight, it can be given with the sodium
salt. Doses over 400 mg per kg of body weight must be diluted to at least one
gram to 18 cc of solution.
He suggests the following for each bottle: 60 grams of C, 500 mg thiamin HCl,
300 mg pyridoxine, 400 mg calcium pantothenate, 100 mg riboflavin, 300 mg
niacinamide. It is to be given once or twice daily.
He used a 23 gauge needle intravenously and a 22 gauge needle for
intramuscular use—one inch long for children and one and a half inch for adults.
The idea of these big doses is to saturate the tissues; the white blood cells
will be able to destroy pathogens. “I have seen diphtheria, hemolytic
streptococcus infections clear within hours following an injection of ascorbic
acid in a dose ranging from 500-700 mg per kilogram of body weight given
intravenously as fast as the patient’s cardiovascular system will allow.”
He got to know the vulnerability of viruses so well, he played games with
them. “When proper amounts are used it will destroy all virus organisms.” He
could give one gram of ascorbic acid every four hours and modify the disease
symptoms, but if he gave one gram every two hours by mouth for four days, he had
stopped the disease, apparently by killing the virus. If he gave this dose for
only two days, the symptoms returned. (He kept measles simmering in his own
children for a month by giving this dose for two days, then off for two then on,
etc.)
With 350 mg per kilogram of body weight every two hours, he could stop
measles and dry up chicken pox. If he could get in the vein, 400 mg per kilogram
two to three times in 24 hours was all that was required (he published this way
back in 1951, in the Southern Medical Surgical Journal).
He used protamide and it seemed to shorten the course of the course of the
disease (it is a colloidal solution of denatured proteolytic enzyme). It was
especially valuable in herpes simplex and herpes zoster. Dr. Klenner felt that
Vitamin C is related to this enzyme, as it possesses the same anti-neuritic
properties. If used together, the results are more dramatic than either one used
alone (the C was used as usual and the protamide was limited to one ampoule per
day). Influenza and poliomyelitis also responded rapidly to this dual approach.
He found calcium made a big difference as it duplicated the results of the C. He
used 10 cc of calcium gluconate (one gram of calcium) along with the C daily. It
can also be injected deep into the gluteus muscle.
Tests for C
He noted a monitoring method: “In all virus infections the Benedict urine
reaction for sugar will run from two to four plus. After Vitamin C, this
reaction will clear in 18 to 36 hours.” We all know that Vitamin C is related to
glucose and Vitamin C in the urine will show a reducing reaction, just as
glucose does. If a healthy individual is given one or two grams of C by
injection, the urine will show a positive Benedict sugar reaction for hours.”
This paradox, Dr. Klenner explains, indicates that Vitamin C and the virus
bodies do form a new compound, and not a reducing chemical, otherwise with all
this Vitamin C injected, there would be an increase in the response to the
Benedict test.
When the urine starts to show a positive test to Benedict’s test, it is a
sign that the virus is under control and the person is close to normal again.
The Benedict’s urine test is a guide to treatment with C.
More than 30 years ago, Dr. Klenner developed the silver nitrate urine test.
When treating severe pathological conditions, the test done every four hours
will reveal the level of Vitamin C saturation. If the urine test is positive for
Vitamin C, it means the tissues are saturated and the patient is on the right
dose. It is not a waste; some spillage indicates saturation.
Insidious Virus
In June, 1957, he wrote in the Tri-State Medical Journal, on the ‘Insidious’
virus. He recalled a 19 month-old baby, who had a minor cold for two weeks. Then
suddenly, instead of getting well, he developed a high fever and seizures of his
right arm and leg. He was stiff, undernourished, cold to the touch and
semi-comatose. Two grams of C were injected on admission to the hospital and
another gram within the hour. Then it was one gram orally every four hours.
Mustard plasters and croup tent were provided. A cup of orange juice was drunk
from a bottle two hours after the first shot. The baby began to respond to pain.
Temperature was still high, 103.8°. The arm and leg were completely paralyzed,
but in eight hours, he began moving the right leg and could hold the juice
bottle with both hands. Penicillin “was given on the second and third days to
discourage secondary invaders”. He was home on the 5th day.
Dr. Klenner recalls six additional similar cases, all under four years of
age. Four of the children were seen by a physician who noted no fever and was
“not impressed with the illness of the child.” All of these children died within
30 minutes to two hours after that physician’s examination. No treatment was
begun because there was no diagnosis. A virus infection was found at the
autopsy. “An insidious virus involvement of the brain.”
He takes us through the examination and treatment of a near miss. An eighteen
month-old girl had a cold for a week; then choked on supper. Her temperature was
normal, but she was very restless and whining. On a hunch, Dr. Klenner sent her
to the hospital. She was comatose on arrival, responding only to pain.
Temperature still normal, but pulse was 152 and respirations 32 per minute. He
felt she had the “Insidious Virus” and started Vitamin C. Two and one half grams
initially intramuscularly; in 30 minutes she got another two grams. Then every
two hours for five doses and then every four hours. After 36 hours, it was
injected every six hours. (30 grams altogether). Croup tent and penicillin were
used.
Shortly after admission, some water by mouth was tried and she immediately
choked, and the water came out of her nose—like bulbar polio. The normal
temperature at admission slowly rose to 102.4°. Six hours after admission, she
was able to swallow. By the 11th hour the temperature was normal and she was
alert and swallowing. In 24 hours from the first dose of C she was drinking
freely from a bottle. She went home on the fifth day.
Dr. Klenner feels if she had been put to bed after supper that night, she
would have died in her sleep, like a case of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. He
calls it brain pathology caused by an insidious virus.
Dr. Klenner was reminded of the case of a 15-year old girl who had had a
lingering cold for several weeks. She complained of extreme fatigue at a dance
party, but other than that and her cold symptoms, she went to bed apparently
well. The next morning she was found dead. The autopsy was virus pneumonia. Dr
Klenner believed that the lung pathology was not enough to kill her, it was the
insidious virus that invaded her brain. He feels that the motor nuclei have the
shortest nerves, therefore the virus would reach them first. It could lead to
spasm of the diaphragm muscle and cessation of breathing.
He felt that ascorbic acid could not reverse the virus once the pathology had
progressed to a certain unknown point. He feels this maxim should guide all
treating doctors: large doses of Vitamin C should be given in all pathological
states, “It should be given by all physicians while they await the diagnosis.”
These large doses should be reduced once the temperature approaches normal;
false temperature rise may result. If the C is taken from the ampoules and
swallowed in some juice, it will have about the same results as if it had been
injected.
In another similar paper published the next year, 1958, in the Tri-State
Medical Journal, he outlines two important stages:
Stage (A): 1) a history of having had the flu for two or three days
complicated by physical or mental stress, or 2) a mild cold with a runny nose
for several weeks. Then the sudden onset of Stage (B) with either 1)
convulsions, 2) extreme excitability or dancing eyeballs, 3) severe chill, 4)
strangling during normal swallowing, 5) Collapse or stupor.
Stage (B) is usually associated with the following:
- rapid pulse,
- normal or moderately elevated temperature,
- respirations twice the normal rate and sometimes an air hunger (which is
reminiscent of that seen in acidosis or aspirin poisoning),
- dilated, unequal pupils,
- normal urinalysis,
- elevated white blood count (which elevation is usually associated with a
bacterial infection),
- normal bowel action,
- loss of bladder control when convulsions or coma occurred.
He felt that the rapid spread of the virus to the brain tissue was similar to
the speed of the onset of the symptoms after a severe head injury: “... a margin
of safety is so narrow that life and death are separated only by minutes.” There
is no time to wait for the laboratory results.
Case I: A 64-year old woman had a slight cold for a week, but no other
symptoms. She suddenly developed 104° (axillary) and slipped into a coma (pulse
120). In the hospital she received achromycin and ascorbic acid. Dr. Klenner put
26 grams of C into 375 cc of 5% dextrose in water, and let it drip
intravenously, 75 drops per minute. An oxygen mask was applied. The white blood
count was 18,000.
She became conscious an hour after this was begun but could not swallow and
was incontinent. The fever dropped to 102°, but by the ninth hour it was again
at 104°. Another I.V. was given (the same as above) with the antibiotic, and the
26 grams of C was begun—R=36 per minute.
In another hour (24 hours after admission) her temperature was 100°, pulse
84, and respiration 28. By noon the next day (36 hours) she was suddenly able to
swallow again. She continued the achromycin daily and four grams of Vitamin C
orally every four hours.
Case II: A five-year old boy with no special symptoms suddenly developed a
convulsion and 104° (rectally), pulse 130 and respiration 18. He was extremely
restless. His throat was red and white count 9,000. He had another convulsion in
Dr. Klenner’s office. Dr. Klenner gave him four grams of C intravenously and
sent him into the hospital where he got three grams of C intramuscularly. His
dose was then four grams of C in orange juice every four hours, plus an
antibiotic (chloromycetin, rarely used now). Temperature was normal in 12 hours.
He continued treatment at home for three days.
Case III: A 16 month old boy who had had a mild cold for two weeks suddenly
collapsed into unconsciousness. The pulse was over 200, and respiration 40 per
minute and temperature 100° rectally. Oxygen was started and two grams of C was
given intramuscularly. He roused in ten minutes. Two grams of C was given every
two hours for five times, then every four hours for twelve more doses. The
examination and white blood count (10,000) indicated bilateral pneumonitis so
achromycin was added (50 mg every four hours). The temperature was normal by the
third day. And he was home in a week.
Case IV: A two-and-a-half-year old boy had a lingering cold for ten days.
Temperature was 101° with red swollen tonsils. Ears and chest clear, but the
pulse was 130 and respirations were rapid and labored. He was sent home to have
some prescriptions filled but had a convulsion at the pharmacy and was brought
back. Temperature then was 103°. He received three grams of C intramuscularly
plus oxygen. At the hospital he was given another two grams of C. It was
repeated in one hour and then every two hours x 4. Penicillin was administered
along with terramycin. His temperature was normal in eight hours after admission
and remained so; he was taking and retaining fluids. He was home on the second
hospital day.
Case V: Demonstrates the usual quick response to therapy, but also the
recurrence rate if the C is discontinued prematurely. The patient, a 73 year-old
male, was admitted three times in 24 days with the same disease. He had a slight
cold for a few days. Then abruptly, a severe headache was followed by a chill
and coma. T=103, p=138, resp.=36, BP=150/90, white blood count was 10,000.
Moisture was detected in his lungs. Muscle jerks appeared. Nasal oxygen begun.
Intravenous achromycin and Vitamin C were begun; 20 grams of C was added to 378
cc of 5% dextrose in water. It was repeated in eight hours. He became conscious
in 18 hours. He went home on the third day but returned in two weeks with the
same findings and received the same treatment and sent home. In seven days he
was back with the same symptoms. He was given 24 grams of C and sent home on
achromycin and ten grams of C daily indefinitely.
As these cases show Dr. Klenner was confident that the C would handle the
virus, but he needed the antibiotics to control the bacterial secondary
invaders.
The initial dose administered by needle is no less than 250 mg per kilogram
of body weight. For children the dose would be two to three grams
intramuscularly using a concentration of 500 mg per cc. Ice on the muscle after
injection will usually control pain. “Massive use of C is compatible with any
other drug and in most instances it will enhance the value of these other
remedies.”
He felt that the virus (or their toxins) act on the brain and can culminate
in diaphragmatic spasm with resultant dyspnea and even asphyxia.
He believed that the lingering “cold” had depleted the stores of Vitamin C.
The capillary beds in lungs and brain are damaged and the virus can invade these
tissues. The microscopic pathology in the brain shows thrombosis of vessels,
hemorrhages and proliferation of leucocytes. These are signs of ascorbic acid
deficiency. If the patients are not given massive doses of C at this critical
time, they will experience permanent nerve injury or may succumb. Pregnant women
are thus more susceptible to polio because of their relatively low stores of C.
“With the use of massive doses of Vitamin C, I have yet to see a patient not
fully recovered.” It will also shorten the illness by at least one-half the
usual sickness days, and the patients can be easily handled at home. Indeed, he
treated many of these patients with two and three visits a day in the office for
the Vitamin C shots. He did not exclude the use of antibiotics.
In 1960 he reemphasized the need for families and physicians to be vigilant
for the potentially fatal viral encephalitis. As published in The Tri-State
Medical Journal, February, 1960, he warned that “every cold must be considered
as a probable source of brain pathology.” Most doctors are not impressed with
the seriousness of the runny nose, the sore windpipe and the dry cough until
this smoldering virus bursts through the defenses and attacks the brain.
The point he is emphasizing is that the smoldering virus is depleting the
circulating Vitamin C, and when it gets low enough, the intercellular cement is
weakened; the virus can easily burst through to the susceptible brain. It is
like a metastasis of the pulmonary pathology to the brain (just like cancer
cells seeding into the brain).
The brain is the logical target of any virus floating about in the blood, as
the vascular system supplying the brain is the most extensive of all the
capillary beds in the body. Interference with the blood supply of the nervous
system can be disastrous, since the brain cannot accumulate an oxygen debt.
Biochemical techniques will some day indicate what is happening at the
cellular level. The proof lies in the results. Dr. Klenner recites some classics
way back in 1953. A patient with virus pneumonia and a fever of 106° received
140 grams of C over a period of 72 hours. On the third day she was alert,
sitting in bed and swallowing fluids by mouth. Dr. Klenner believed that a
similar respiratory virus in a baby with a truncated immune system might spread
all over the body in minutes winding up in the brain as encephalitis, pneumonia
and diaphragmatic spasm. (The Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (S.I.D.S.) that takes
8,000 babies in the U.S. between ages two and ten months of age.)
It is not just the lung pathology that takes these people; it is the brain
invasion. (It sounds a little like Reye’s syndrome—an innocent flu turns into a
fatal encephalitis.) “It is necessary for everyone to take adequate supplemental
Vitamin C to guard against such disasters.”
He had searched the literature and found studies reported in 1905 and 1907
that confirmed the virus lung-to-brain encephalitis pattern. All of
Dr. Klenner’s patients recovered. How do we get doctors to inject massive doses
of C into their collapsed patients while they are “pondering the diagnosis?”
He felt there were many pathways into the brain: nose, stomach, ears but the
basic fault might be the breakdown of the intercellular cement of the capillary
wall in regulating the permeability of the blood vessels of the C.N.S. Vitamin C
is essential to the integrity of those capillary walls. It makes sense to
believe that the chronicity of the virus infection—mild though it may have
been—could have finally depleted the body of an optimum supply of C for
maintenance of tissue repair. Capillaries break down, blood and viruses are free
to attack the brain. The theory and practice seem to fit. Vitamin C helps
control virus infections, and if there is a failure, usually it is because not
enough C was being used.
In another case, a seven year-old boy was treated for influenza off and on
for six weeks. He got sulfa, a form of penicillin and five to ten grams of C
orally. When he had the fourth recurrence, the antibiotics and C had no effect.
On the third day he suddenly became lethargic and then dropped into a stupor.
Temperature was 102.6°. Dr. Klenner quickly injected him with six grams of
ascorbic acid intravenously. In five minutes he was awake, asking, “what
happened?” Another six grams in four hours and two more at six hour intervals.
Recovery complete in 24 hours without a trace of recurrence. The patient was
administered five grams of C in juice every eight hours for a week. The patient
was Dr. Klenner’s son.
Viral encephalitis can be associated with cold sores; one third of patients
die and 85% of survivors have brain damage. All of us are infected by the age of
five years but only 1% experience symptoms. The virus is harbored in a dormant
form until a physical or emotional hurt provokes the virus to reproduce and
manifest itself with the canker sore.
Virus Pneumonia
He wrote an article about virus pneumonia (Southern Medicine and Surgery,
Feb. 1948), a persistent debilitating illness that responds poorly to
antibiotics. In his series of 42 cases he achieved excellent results with,
surprisingly, Vitamin C. Some doctors were using X-rays as therapy!
His routine: 1000 mg of Vitamin C intravenously every six to twelve hours for
a mild case. In children, 500 mg of C intramuscularly every six to twelve hours
was about right. Three to seven injections were all that was required for
complete clinical and X-ray resolution. Most patients felt better in just one
hour and definite improvement after two hours. Nausea and headache disappeared
after the first shot. Fever fell at least two degrees Fahrenheit in several
hours after the first injection.
He gave alkaline drinks as this impedes the excretion of the C through the
kidneys. Mustard plasters were used to relieve chest pain and constricted
breathing. In some patients cyanosis (blueness due to lack of oxygen in tissues)
was immediately relieved by an additional injection of 500 mg of C.
He then reports the case of virus pneumonia which he treated in the early
1940’s. The man became blue but refused to be hospitalized; Dr. Klenner wanted
to test the catalytic action of Vitamin C to serve as a gas transport (O
2)
aiding cellular respiration. He gave him two grams of Vitamin C intramuscularly
and the cyanosis began to clear up in 30 minutes. Six hours later that patient
was sitting up eating dinner; his fever had fallen three degrees. Dr. Klenner
suspected that the C had done more than act as a respiratory catalyst. He was
given a gram every six hours for three days. He was well by this time. Here is
“evidence to prove unequivocally that Vitamin C is the antibiotic of choice in
the handling of all types of virus diseases. Furthermore, it is a major adjuvant
in the treatment of all other infectious diseases.”
Virus Pneumonia: female, 28 years, temperature = 106°, chest and head cold
two weeks, severe headache, stuporous, dehydration. Antibiotics were of no help.
Treatment: 1000 cc of 5% dextrose in a saline solution and four grams of C.
Temperature to 100° in eleven hours. Then every two to three hours—two to four
grams of C was given intravenously. At 72 hours the patient was alert, sitting
up and swallowing fluids. Vitamin C treatment was maintained for another two
weeks: two grams every twelve hours. Thiamin was given for deafness (due to
previous antibiotics and encephalitis); hearing normal in ten days. X-ray did
not clear up for another two to three months.
In a 58 year-old man with a severe viral pneumonia only one-half the
recommended dose was used (two grams every four hours). He slowly improved
(three grams in six hours). His dose should have been four grams every four
hours or two grams in two hours. “The course emphasized the necessity of
administering massive doses of C at frequent regular intervals so as to maintain
the proper level of this ‘antibiotic’ in the tissues.”
Dr. Klenner points out, as all doctors know, a secondary infection frequently
gets in “on top” of the original virus infection. Virus pneumonia very commonly
allows a germ to produce a bronchitis, requiring an antibiotic.
Poliomyelitis
In polio, Vitamin C destroys the virus, acts as a diuretic removing the edema
of the brain and prevents crowding of the cells lining the nervous system (see
p. 2). The swollen, infected tissue creates a pressure in the unyielding bony
vault and cuts off the blood supply to the motor cells, thus paralysis follows.
Dr. Klenner reports the findings of a Dr. McCormick who attended 50 cases of
polio in Toronto, Canada (1949). The polio victims who were white bread eaters
developed paralysis, but the brown bread eaters were protected from paralysis. B
vitamins seem to give anti-paralysis protection. The Vitamin C relieves the
pressure on the vessels so the nutrient—including B
1—can nourish the
cells properly.
He reports the case of a five year-old girl with paralysis of both legs
accompanied by knee and back pain. Massage was given along with Vitamin C by
injection. Within four days she was able to move both legs. She was sent home to
continue the Vitamin C orally at 1000 mg every two hours. She walked by the
eleventh day; the vitamin was stopped and B
1 begun, only ten
milligrams four times each day. She was completely well by the 19th day after
treatment had been started.
Another polio case with 104.4° temperature (measured in the armpit) severe
headache, red eyes, vomiting and tightness in the hamstrings. Two grams of
Vitamin C was given intravenously immediately and again in two hours; then every
four hours for 48 hours. In six hours after the first intravenous dose, his
temperature had fallen to 100°, his eyes cleared up, he was jovial, sitting and
drinking fluids. He would have them on 1500 mg of C by mouth every two hours for
a week. The C was discontinued, and he took 25 mg of B
1
four times a day. Dr. Klenner felt B
1 should be continued for a
period of at least three months because nerve tissue is slow to recover.
In another article about viruses in 1949 (Southern Medicine and Surgery, vol.
111, #7, July) he states his frustration at the lack of ability of standard
researchers to recognize their failure in treating viral diseases; they did not
give big enough doses frequently enough. He found an unbelievable record of
these failed studies in the ten years before he wrote this article.
He concentrated on the response of poliomyelitis to Vitamin C in this
article. He knew that the virus was floating about in the blood stream and that
large doses of Vitamin C would destroy the virus before it got to the nervous
system. Dr. Klenner reviewed the literature in 1948 because he was having
consistent, positive responses with Vitamin C; he was encouraged when he read
that some investigators had discovered low levels of C in the urine of humans
and animals when infected with the polio virus. He felt there was a
“relationship between the degree of Vitamin C saturation and the infectious and
noninfectious state.” An Australian, Heaslip, showed a “correlation between the
severity of the attack and the level of urinary excretion of the vitamin.” A
“deficiency of Vitamin C in the diet predisposed to infection and to the
severity of the attack.”
One report he cited was published by Jungeblut in 1937. If Vitamin C was
given during the incubation stage in monkeys, the subsequent disease was much
less severe. But if the disease was in its fifth day, much larger doses of C
were required. Even when but 100 mg of C were given in 24 hours to these
experimental monkeys, there were six times the number of non-paralytic survivors
as in the control group.
Dr. Sabin attempted to discredit the use of Vitamin C in controlling polio in
monkeys but did not give enough (100mg), and the monkeys had unmodified
poliomyelitis. Scurvy is surely an invitation to infection, but the absence of
scurvy does not assure an adequate immune system—especially when an infection
invades. Malnutrition plays a definite role in susceptibility to virus
infections. “Thousands of children owe their paralyzed limbs to this unfortunate
blunder of Sabin.”
He arbitrarily adopted the following routine injection schedule: 1000 to 2000
mg initially depending upon age. The intramuscular route was used for children
under age four years. If the fever dropped in two hours, two more hours was
allowed before the second dose. After 24 hours, if the fever remained down, this
same dose was given every six hours for the next 48 hours. All sixty cases were
well in 72 hours. Three however, had a relapse, so the C was continued in all 60
cases for another two days every eight to twelve hours.
Home treatment was 2000 mg injected every six hours plus 1000 to 2000 mg
orally every two hours.
Two of the 60 patients had throat muscle paralysis and needed oxygen and
drainage but were recovering in 36 hours.
In a follow up article on “The Vitamin and Massage Treatment for Acute
Poliomyelitis” (Southern Medicine and Surgery, vol. 114, #8, August, 1952) he
summarized his years of treatment of this scourge that hit every summer. He felt
much of the fear about the disease was due to reckless propaganda. It is a
dramatic disease mainly affecting children. At that time the standard treatment
was the splinting of the affected muscles for two to eight weeks to prevent any
kind of motion. Surgery was then used to correct contractions and stabilize
joints. At about that same time Sister Kenny was urging the use of hot moist
packs and early passive motion to relieve spasm. Dr. Klenner used pillows to
rest the affected muscles, immediate and continuous massage and passive motion,
and, of course, Vitamin C to kill the virus, reduce the swelling in the brain,
support the exhausted adrenals and rehabilitate damaged nerve tissue.
Reducing spinal fluid pressure is important to allow nutrients to reach the
shocked nerve cells. The edema fluid “pressure in the central nervous system is
the end result of the inflammatory reaction caused by the virus.” it is probably
augmented by a deficiency of Vitamin B
1. Early researchers tried to
relieve this pressure by the use of hypertonic sugar (10% dextrose) solutions
designed to pull the fluid from the brain, relieving the headache and allowing
the circulation to open up sufficiently to permit nutriments into the dying
cells. It is known that virus infections deplete the Vitamin C content of the
adrenals. Chemical reactions follow resulting in high blood sugar; “apparently
the adrenal medulla is released from its inhibiting mechanism allowing a
concentration of free adrenaline in the blood high enough to cause
vasoconstriction.” Glucose would only serve to aggravate this artificial
diabetes (Maybe this is why some children develop diabetes after a virus
infection, notably mumps).
Vitamin C works as a destroyer of the virus but also as a safe and potent
dehydrator and diuretic. (Most patients complain of thirst after an I.V. of
ascorbic acid.) “Given in massive doses it will relieve the edema pressure of
the cord and brain, thus allowing normal amounts of B
1 to reach
chemically shocked nerve cells.” He occasionally used hypertonic sodium lactate
as a dehydrator.
Vitamin C is proven to be low in the blood and tissues of virus victims. In a
loading test, Heaslip found the urine of virus infected patients only revealed
20% of the ingested dose compared to healthy controls who excreted 44% of the
swallowed C.
Jungeblut, a Vitamin C researcher, observed:
- If a paralytic dose of polio virus were injected into the brains of
monkeys, they all developed paralytic polio. If, however, Vitamin C was
injected along with the virus, the animals remained free of the disease.
- If monkeys were infected with a high dose of the virus, Vitamin C by
injection failed to modify the disease course.
- If less virus were given and the Vitamin C was kept at 100 mg per day, the
results were variable. Dr. Klenner felt that the virus dose was not
standard, and the Vitamin C was too small and too infrequently given.
Dr. Klenner felt the best time to treat the virus was during the viremia
stage; that is, when it was floating about in the blood stream and had not
invaded the tissues. He repeats: “For optimum results the vitamin must be given
in massive doses, every two to four hours, around the clock.” Intestinal
absorption is inconsistent; it must be given by needle.
Dr. Klenner wondered if some of the manifestation of polio might be due to
mild scurvy. Fever, vomiting, diarrhea, aches are all seen with scurvy and with
polio. Certainly when Vitamin C is given all these symptoms and signs disappear.
Was it scurvy or polio?
He points out the similarities in pathology in the nerve cells of polio and
beri-beri (B
1 deficiency). He believed this sequence: the virus
causes a Vitamin C deficiency which stresses the medulla of the adrenal gland.
Adrenaline is released, which causes not only vascular constriction but affects
carbohydrate metabolism, that is, it causes the blood sugar to rise. B
1,
thiamin, is absolutely necessary for sugar metabolism, and most diets are low in
B1. In addition, absorption of vitamins and foods are decreased when a disease
is active. The Adrenaline-induced constriction of the blood vessels about the
intestines cuts some of the blood supply to the intestinal enzymes. Pyruvic acid
accumulates at the neuromuscular junction. To metabolize pyruvates, an enzyme,
cocarboxylase, is required. This enzyme has two B
1 molecules combined
with phosphate; no B
1, no action. When pyruvates accumulate at this
area, fatigue is the result. The flaccid paralysis of polio is related. B
1
therapy is indicated for polio and most cases of fatigue. “Nerve and muscle
cells in a flaccid extremity may be only tired, but it is reasonable to believe
that unless they are relieved promptly, they may die.” Massage would improve the
circulation and help remove toxic agents during this emergency.
In 1956 Dr. Klenner published, “Poliomyelitis—Case Histories” (Tri-State
Medical Journal, Sept). He had a continuing supply of zingers he would throw at
doctors who insisted on disregarding his logic. He quotes Ratner, “There are two
ways of practicing the medical art: the first is to employ art; the second is to
employ fancy.” If one has used speculation, preconceived opinions and prejudice,
then he is proceeding by emotions, faith and dreams. We must proceed by REASON.
Husky put it, “Science commits suicide when it adopts a creed.”
He was disturbed by the enthusiasm preached by the vaccine enthusiasts. They
claim that the dead Salk vaccine was safe and that it makes antibodies. He was
convinced that was not true. He argued for a live virus, which would be more
likely to give the recipients protective antibodies. 98% of all adults possess
these antibodies. He seems to be arguing for all of us to acquire a natural
immunity to all viral infections by taking enough Vitamin C to attenuate the
disease no matter when it strikes.
He suggests for poliomyelitis:
- Gentle massage for paralysis, continuous in the first few hours.
- Ascorbic acid, best intravenously, at 300 to 500 mg per kg of weight. In
small children: two to three grams intramuscularly every two to four hours.
Ice on the injected muscle will assuage the pain.
- He suggests penicillin and sulfa drugs would be worthwhile, (I would
disagree).
- Desoxycortisone acetate is suggested daily x 3.
- Thiamin, 100 to 250 mg a day for three months will help rehabilitate the
nerves.
- And make the patient EAT.
He reports some severely ill adults with polio. They had a high fever, 4+
headaches on a scale of one to four, deep eye pain, stilt neck, muscle pain and
spasm in the hamstring muscles. Blood tests were negative for bacterial
infection.
Injections of twelve to twenty-two grams of Vitamin C were given every twelve
hours for six to eight times. The headaches and fever were improved in 48 hours,
and most were well in six to ten days at which time oral C was substituted:
1,500 mg or so at three to four hour intervals. Then the B
1 for three
months to heal the nerves.
Hepatitis
Vitamin C will cure viral hepatitis in two to four days and allow the patient
to resume his usual activities. (500-700 mg/kg body weight taken orally;
approximately 30 grams/24 hours in orange juice). Dr. Klenner reports that Dr.
Bauer at the University Clinic at Basel, Switzerland used just ten grams daily
intravenously. It proved to be the best treatment available. He indicated that
hepatitis (infectious and serum) can be reversed in a few days using intravenous
Vitamin C. Heavy exercise had no effect on the outcome. [Freebern]
1) A 27 year old male with 103° temperature, nausea and jaundice of three
days. 60 grams of sodium ascorbate in 600 cc of normal saline was given
intravenously at 120 drops/minute. Five grams of Vitamin C was given orally
every four hours around the clock. Fifteen grams of C was again given three
hours after the first I.V. Another 60 grams of C was given intravenously twelve
hours after the initial one (he used 5% glucose in water this time). That one
took 75 minutes to accomplish. Then another fifteen grams of C intravenously
after two more hours.
For the 30 hours of treatment he received 270 grams intravenously and 45
grams orally—no diarrhea. Temperature was normal at this time and urine clear of
bile. Discharged from the hospital, he was back to work. C sets in as a flash
oxidizer and helps the body manufacture interferon, a natural antiviral agent.
2) A 22 year old male with chills and fever and a diagnosis of viral
hepatitis. His roommate had been admitted the day before. Fifteen grams of
sodium ascorbate was given intravenously every twelve hours for three days, then
once daily for six days. Sodium ascorbate was swallowed at five grams every four
hours (135 grams intravenously, and 180 grams orally). No diarrhea appeared with
these doses. He was sent home on the sixth day with no fever and no bile in the
urine. Soon he was back to work. His roommate with just bed rest was in the
hospital for 26 days!
3) Another male contracted hepatitis in Central America. There, he got lemon
juice orally and rectally. Hot mud packs were placed over his liver. He had 104°
degree temperature and was sent home. He was told to try bed rest and a protein
diet. When Dr. Klenner saw him, he was jaundiced, temperature = 101° and had a
very large tender liver. His I.V. was 30 grams sodium ascorbate and one gram
calcium gluconate. Oral C: five grams every four hours around the clock for
three days. 400 mg adenosine IM. 100,000 units of palmitate Vitamin A given
daily. On the fourth day he got 70 grams ascorbate intravenously and one gram
calcium. On the sixth day, he got another 70 grams intravenously, and on the
seventh day the bilirubin in the serum was down to 1.9 compared to 98 on the
first day; SGOT had fallen from 450 to 45. At home he took fifteen grams of C
orally, 1,400 mg of choline three times a day plus a high protein and
carbohydrate diet—no sequelae.
4) A 42-year-old male suffering from chronic hepatitis had been
unsuccessfully treated with steroids for seven months. He was given B complex
and Vitamin C: 45 grams of sodium ascorbate plus one gram of calcium gluconate
in 500 cc of water with 5% glucose was given intravenously three times a week.
He took five grams of C orally every four hours. He was free of the disease in
five months. Dr. Klenner felt if he had more massive and continuous doses in the
hospital he would have been well in a few weeks, but his peers on the staff
would have denied the patient this safe treatment.
Dr. Klenner reemphasized the point, “Sodium ascorbate in amounts ranging up
to 900 mg per kilogram body weight every eight to twelve hours will effect cures
in two to four days.” Adenosine, 400 to 1,200 mg. intramuscularly, daily.
He felt that the risk of serum hepatitis from dialysis machines could be
eliminated by flushing the machines with 50 grams of sodium ascorbate. When he
needed to give a patient a blood transfusion he always added ten grams of sodium
ascorbate to each pint. The Japanese, he said, have added but five grams of C to
each unit of blood; result, no hepatitis and in thousands of cases.
Herpes Simplex & Zoster
Adenosine, 400 mg is given intramuscularly upon diagnosis. Fifteen grams of
sodium ascorbate intravenously is next using a six-cc syringe intravenously.
Then a second dose of adenosine, 400 mg, 30 minutes after the C. Paint the
lesion with tincture of benzoin. Then apply calomine lotion with 5% phenol.
Continue to paint only the raw areas, but apply the calomine and phenol to
entire area. Continue the injections every twelve hours for three days then
daily for several days. A B complex capsule with 100 mg of each of the B’s along
with “massive” amounts of Vitamin A orally are taken daily.
To control pain after the lesions heal, a daily I.V. is used containing
thiamin, 1000 mg; pyridoxine, 300 mg; niacinamide, 600 mg, diluted to twenty cc
with saline, daily for five days. He uses twenty-three gauge, one inch needle.
Herpes simplex must he treated as above for 72 hours as recurrences are
common if treatment is shortened.
Fever blisters: three percent ointment of Vitamin C applied to the lips ten
to fifteen times a day in a water soluble base speeds up the cure. A
three-percent solution of ascorbic acid used as a douche will heal a cervical
erosion; direct application of this solution by the physician would be prudent.
Twenty grams of C orally each day would “erase this form of malignancy.”
Dr. Klenner points out that the cancer seems to hit those with a hereditary
tendency; a virus grows more eagerly in the susceptible. If there is a family
tendency, oral C in large doses as a preventative makes sense.
Chicken Pox
Vitamin C orally is less reliable. Dr. Klenner noted his own daughter
struggling with chicken pox. She was getting 24 grams a day, but papules spread
and the itch was intense. After one gram of C intravenously, the itch stopped
and she slept well for eight hours. A new I.V. was then given and no new rash
appeared. (Untreated chicken pox victims break out for five full days). He noted
this ability of C to terminate the usual progress of virus diseases.
One to three injections of 400 mg per kg every eight hours will dry up
chicken pox in 24 hours. Controls nausea with one gram of C per five cc of
fluid. Thirst is precluded if a glass of juice is drunk just before the I.V.
Hard Measles
He reports some cases:
1. A ten month old baby had the high fever, watery nose, dry cough, the red
eyes, and the Koplik spots that gave the disease away: hard measles. He gave
1000 mg of C every four hours. After twelve hours the temperature had fallen to
97.5°; the cough had stopped and the redness of the membranes had cleared. Just
to see if this improvement happened to be the natural course of the disease, he
stopped the C for just eight hours. The fever rose to 103.4°. The C injections
were resumed and the fever dropped in a few hours to 99°. 1000 mg was given
every four hours; no rash developed.
II. An eight-year-old developed measles and mumps closely followed by
encephalitis (T-104°). He could not eat, was stuporous and responded only to
pain. Two hours after one injection of 2000 mg of Vitamin C, he sat up, ate a
hearty meal and then played. In six hours he started to revert to his previous
stupor, and the fever returned. Twelve hours after a second injection of two
grams, and 1000 mg every two hours by mouth, he recovered. Dr. Klenner said,
“The rude irritability shown prior to the first injection of Vitamin C was
strikingly absent.” I think what he wants the reader to grasp is that the
symptoms of these devastating virus diseases are similar to the clues seen in
scorbutic patients.
The bloody nose is common in measles, but can be relieved with one or two
injections of Vitamin C (one to four grams depending on individual differences).
Bleeding tendencies are common with scurvy. Did the disease allow the scurvy to
become manifest? These symptoms are due to acute Vitamin C loss and are nature’s
way to ask for help.
Mumps
He reports cases of influenza, encephalitis, and measles easily cured with
Vitamin C injections and oral doses. A 23-year-old male developed mumps plus
bilateral orchitis; his fever was 105°, and he was in overwhelming pain with
“testicles the size of tennis balls.” After one 1000-mg injection of Vitamin C
intravenously the pain began to subside and after six more shots spaced every
two hours the pain was gone. The fever was normal in 36 hours. He was up, about
and well in 60 hours. Total dose 25,000 mg.
Mononucleosis
Dr. Klenner felt mono is related to cancer because the same virus
(Epstein-Barr) is found in Burkett’s lymphoma. The disease, mono, can be
eliminated with an I.V. of C in just a few days, “The actual time being directly
proportional to the amount of the vitamin employed in relation to the severity
of the infection.” (Most of us use Dr. Cathcart’s formula for the amount of C to
be given: “I think this is a 50 gram disease: some fever, generalized aches, but
ambulatory.”) In one patient who was given the last rites by her church, the
girl’s mother took things into her own hands when the attending physician
refused to give ascorbic acid. In each bottle of I.V. fluid she would secretly
and quickly “tap in” 20 -30 grams of Vitamin C. The patient made an uneventful
recovery. Her mother has her BS in nursing and has been a long time advocate of
massive “C” therapy. (100 gram disease: 102-103°, holding down fluids but needs
to stay in bed, miserable. 200 gram disease: 104 degree temperature,
semi-comatose, somewhat dehydrated; hospitalization a good idea.)
The theory behind the use of adenosine: ascorbic acid stimulates an enzyme
which breaks down the nucleic acid in the virus. Some individuals cannot
manufacture enough adenosine to aid this enzyme activity. Purines are
catabolized and are thus unavailable for the production of new viral nucleic
acid.
Other Diseases
Dr. Klenner tells the reader about curing
diphtheria with Vitamin C
intravenously or intramuscularly. Bacillary dysentery is stopped in 48 hours
with injections of C.
Pancreatitis. He treated but one case of this. He put 60 grams of
sodium ascorbate in 1000 cc of 5% dextrose in water and let it drip in rapidly
and the patient was able to go home in twelve hours.
Cardiovascular diseases, hypermenorrhea, peptic and duodenal ulcers,
postoperative and radiation sickness, rheumatic fever, scarlet fever,
poliomyelitis, acute and chronic pancreatitis, tularemia, whooping cough, and
tuberculosis.
In one case of
scarlet fever, antibiotics had no effect, but the fever
responded dramatically when 50 grams of C was given intravenously.
Others - Massive doses for
rheumatic fever. C will cure TB by removal
of the organism’s coat. Also pneumonia—(so it does not matter if one has a viral
or bacterial pneumonia, it works).
Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. Dr. Klenner was an authority in the
treatment of this rather debilitating, serious disease because his practice was
right in the middle of a constant locus of infection for tick bite fever.
Dr. Klenner had been taught in his training that there was no cure for it,
only supportive. So when he was confronted with an obvious case—104.4° degree
temperature, spots over body, coma, and positive blood test—he quickly gave 30
grams of C intravenously every six hours. The patient was given
para-aminobenzoic acid orally, six grams, every two hours x3, then 4 grams every
two hours for 24 hours, then 4 grams every 4 hours until his fever was gone for
24 hours. At about the sixth hour of treatment he became conscious and rational.
He was sent home on the sixth day, fully recovered.
He reported the story of a twelve-year-old female with spots and 105°
temperature. She was given chloroamphenicol and PABA but with only a poor
response on the third day, so she was given an I.V. with 30 grams of C. In two
hours she was almost well, cheerful and responsive. She was given 30 grams every
eight hours and was well and home in seven days.
He wrote of his son, sick with R.M.S.F. who almost died. He needed Vitamin C,
vibramycin (an antibiotic), PABA. Thiamin 1000 mg, B2 300 mg, and B3 500 mg were
added to the I.V.’s daily. On the third day his temperature was still up (105
degrees); he was losing interest, and candida was developing. He finally got
well on the fourth day.
What Dr. Klenner shows and tells us that with a devastating disease like
R.M.S.F.; everything known to be helpful should be used. It seems obvious that
antibiotics have a place, but Vitamin C is extremely useful. He pointed out one
medical center used the large doses of PABA, and had no fatalities, except a six
year old who was given only one half the calculated dose.
The C is given around the clock and at the 500-900 mg per kg body weight
level. The disease “can always be reversed.”
Dr. Klenner even treated
trichinosis. In the Tri-State Medical Journal
for April, 1954, an article entitled, “The Treatment with Massive Doses of
Vitamin C and Para-Amino-Benzoic Acid” Dr. Klenner pointed out that sixteen
percent of humans in the U.S. have these worms. An acute case will have puffy
eyelids, high eosinophil count in the blood stream, pain and swelling of the
muscles, fever, profuse sweating, cough and profound weakness. The eosinophil
count is high with some allergies also. He found that the lymphocytes stimulate
anti-body formation and that the lymphocytes rise with the patient’s recovery.
He reported the case of a man who had eaten sausage. He came down with a
fever (104°), very puffy skin of the eyelids, hacking cough. Tests were positive
for trichinosis and the eosinophil count was fifteen percent (normal less than
four percent).
He was given large doses of C by needle because it would aid antibody
formation and to detoxify him. Calcium gluconate, one gram every day for several
days. Antibiotics were worthless.
Fever rose to 106°, and he lapsed into a semi-coma. As it reminded
Dr. Klenner of tick bite fever, he forced para-aminobenzoic acid down his
throat. Four grams initially, then 3 grams every 2 hours. Eight hours after this
was started he ate a full breakfast—the first in several days. His profuse
sweating stopped. His temperature returned to normal. The PABA was stopped after
two days to see the effect; in 36 hours the fever was back up to 101°. The
sweating recurred.
The PABA was restarted at three grams every 2 hours during the day and every
three hours at night. After 9 days he was well, the PABA was stopped and there
was no recurrence.
Another patient, a woman, age 33, had a fever (103.4°), swollen lids,
eosinophils 30%, cough. She took 6 grams of PABA and then 3 grams every three
hours for 37 hours then that amount every 4 hours. Fruit juice also. Twelve
grams of C was given every twelve hours. Ten grams of C orally daily. She
returned to work in eight days.
Dr Klenner had no explanation as to why PABA was a curative for trichinosis.
Tetanus (Lockjaw). In two articles in the Tri-State Medical Journal
for June and July of 1954, he again scored some points for Vitamin C in “The
History of Lockjaw”, and “Recent Discoveries in the Treatment of Lockjaw.”
He stated that lockjaw is not difficult to cure. He believed that doctors
rely on antitoxin as the sole therapy because some “authority” recommends it.
Many patients are sedated “to the point of narcosis.”
He felt that the practice of injecting the tetanus antitoxin into the tissues
near the wound was for medico-legal reasons as it had no benefit and might even
be harmful. The antitoxin “cannot travel from the circulation into the nervous
system and unless it be injected into the nervous tissue, it is relatively
valueless.”
Dr. Klenner reports on other research: Vitamin C inactivates the toxin of
tetanus.
He recounted the history of a six-year-old boy who had never had any
immunizations and developed tetanus after falling off his pony into some brush.
Over a period of three weeks the boy developed increasing muscle tightness,
abdominal cramps, inability to smile or open his mouth. Liquids were all he
could manage. If stimulated his back would arch so his body was as a bridge
resting on heels and back of head.
Dr. Klenner used Tolserol to control the convulsive spasm without sedating
the senses unduly (the FDA has taken it off the market; Methocarbamol can be
used intravenously with comparable results). The boy was treated with Vitamin C,
penicillin, tetanus antitoxin and Tolserol. He spent eighteen (18) days in the
hospital, but the use of tetanus antitoxin seemed to aggravate the seizures and
required more Vitamin C, sedatives and its use definitely prolonged the
hospitalization.
He received 2 to 4 grams of Vitamin C every four to six hours depending upon
the symptoms and within one hour he would be calm and free of spasms. The idea
was to help the body’s natural detoxifying process. He also developed hives from
the TAT or the penicillin and needed Benadryl and Adrenaline for that.
He summarized
the treatment of tetanus:
- debride and clean any wound thoroughly. (He felt ether was good because it
kills most bacteria without destroying tissue.)
- 75,000 units antitoxin deep intramuscularly above the wound,
- intravenous fluids,
- massive doses of Vitamin C intravenously around the clock,
- intradermal tetanus toxoid, 0.1 cc for five consecutive days,
- intravenous Tolserol—now Methocarbamol. He felt all states should pass
legislation requiring tetanus toxoid for all ages.
He felt that the number of fatalities from the disease were equal to the
number of those who die from the treatment. He emphasized some principles of
treatment 30 to 40 years ago that many of us have forgotten: namely, do no harm,
and the body has tremendous restorative powers if the doctor will supply it with
the raw materials to promote recovery.
Urethritis: Dr. Klenner points to the study done by Rous in 1971. Only
three grams of Vitamin C per day stopped the pain and frequency of urination in
just four days. Apparently alkaline urine allows phosphate crystals to form;
Vitamin C acidified the urine and the crystals went back into solution.
Chronic
cystitis is usually associated with alkaline urine. Germs grow
more easily in this alkaline urine. Vitamin C will discourage these bacteria and
cut the chance of an ascending infection which might devastate the kidneys
(pyelitis). Ten grams of C per day are suggested.
Other Conditions
Antabuse is a chemical used to discourage alcoholics from drinking.
Alcohol and Antabuse in the body form acetaldehyde; the person feels awful;
weak, headaches even coma as this case illustrates. Dr. Klenner felt he may have
been the first to recommend Vitamin C in the control of this chemical reaction.
The man was on Antabuse. At one Christmas holiday his “friends” persuaded him to
drink with them. Shortly thereafter he was brought to the emergency room where
Dr. Klenner happened to be. He was unconscious with BP of 90/60. He suffered
from shock (same clinical picture with barbiturate poisoning.) His I.V. was 500
ml of 10% glucose in water with 50 grams of sodium ascorbate. After 30 grams had
run in, he awakened, felt well and wanted to go home. He got the whole 50 grams
in three hours and was sent home. He also received oxygen by nasal mask.
The company that manufactures Antabuse suggests but one gram intravenously as
an antidote calling it “massive.” Dr. Klenner felt that amount was “without
value.”
For acute alcoholism Dr. Klenner has given 1000 mg of thiamin intramuscularly
every two hours until recovery. Pyridoxine, 500 mg is given every six hours. 40
grams of C intravenously will detoxify the patient.
Arthritis: Vitamin C counteracts the damaging effects of aspirin. C is
the number one precursor for collagen formation. If serum levels of C are high,
synovial fluid is thinner allowing for easier joint movement. Those taking 15 to
25 grams daily will experience commensurate benefit. Prevention seems prudent.
“A person who will take ten to twenty grams of ascorbic acid a day along with
other nutrients might very well never develop arthritis.”
Cancer: He cites Schlegel’s (Tulane University) use of ascorbic acid
(1.5 grams a day only) in preventing bladder cancer recurrence. “This is the so
called wasted Vitamin C.”
He “demonstrated that in the presence of ascorbic acid, carcinogenic
metabolites will not develop in the urine. They suggested that spontaneous tumor
formation is the result of faulty tryptophan metabolism while urine is retained
in the bladder.” Other researchers report that the depletion of mast cells from
guinea pig skin was due to ascorbic acid deficiency. It suggests Vitamin C is
necessary for the formation and maintenance of mast cells.
Vitamin C will control myelocytic leukemia with 25-30 grams orally daily.
“How long must we wait for someone to start continuous ascorbic acid drip for
two to three months, giving 100 to 300 grams each day, for various malignant
conditions?
Small basal cell epithelioma: 30% Vitamin C ointment.
He cites a disturbing study: particles resembling viruses were found in some
breast milk samples of women with breast cancer. Could this help to explain why
some cancers seem to be “inherited?” It makes sense that all members of cancer
prone families should be taking at least ten grams of C daily.
His protocol for treating cancer is printed here in total, although I do not
understand the rationale for some of the ingredients. All of this is designed to
kill the cancer cells by shoring up the immune system. He even recognized the
therapeutic value for a positive attitude.
- Use radioactive cobalt when and where indicated.
- Give 45 grams of sodium ascorbate intravenously every twelve hours for one
month. Then use 60 to 65 grams in 500 cc of normal saline or 5% dextrose in
water for five days a week until a cure is obtained. It usually takes five
months.
- Each bottle is to contain one gram of calcium gluconate, a cc of some B
complex, plus 1,200 mg of thiamin, 300 mg of pyridoxine, and 600 mg of
niacinamide.
- Oral sodium ascorbate, 5, 10, 20, grams daily. The dose depends upon the
bowel tolerance.
- Vitamin A palmitate, 50,000 units, daily, orally.
- Pantothenic acid, (B5) one gram orally four times a day.
- Amino acid protein powder with all the eighteen amino acids. 60 tablets
each day or, if a powder, several tablespoons daily. This supports the
immune system and the enzymes. Tyrosine should be taken separately, if
possible, as this one makes the others work better; 500 mg tablets—six
daily.
- In addition, a high protein diet using white chicken meat, fresh fish,
chicken livers, and brown-shelled eggs. Beef (but once a week) should be as
lean as possible: lean stew beef or sirloin tip are the best but have the
butcher grind it three times. Hamburgers? Only once a week. No sugar and no
starches. Fruit and fruit juices are permitted. Almonds are excellent.
- 30 to 40 apricot almonds should be chewed every day in divided doses until
a continuous bitter almond taste develops. At this point the patient cuts
the dose in half. “This will form cyanide by way of the stomach acid.
Cyanide will kill cancer cells. Vitamin C will protect one against the
lethal effects of cyanide. It is the antidote. 500 mg tablets of vitamin B17
are available. One after each meal and at bed time.” (Not everyone would
agree with this part of the therapy. Cancer victims are still getting
amygdalin B17, as injections from Mexico, but there is some doubt
as to its efficacy. LHS)
- Vitamin E, d-alpha tocopheryl acetate, 400 International unit size, 3,200
units daily. Don’t take iron with it.
- One pint of grape juice daily.
- B complex tablets with 100 mg of each of the B’s and 100 mcg of B12.
Six to eight tablets daily. Theragran-M or a similar capsule with all the
minerals to replace what is being pulled out by the C.
- Maintain the hemoglobin at 13 grams.
- Keep a good attitude.
He reported a case of a man with lymph glands all over his body. He got the
above treatment and although the glands increased in size for a while, his liver
and spleen were back to normal size in four months. Dr. Klenner noticed a
‘parachute-like’ substance in the urine. Microscopic examination revealed they
were clumps of cancer cells.
Another case was that of a woman who had an adenocarcinoma of two years
duration. She had had chemotherapy, two surgeries and extensive radiation over
her chest, especially the neck area where the cancerous glands were. The cancer
had spread to her lungs, her abdomen and six glands in her neck. Dr. Klenner
gave her the above protocol. In three months the lesion in her lung had cleared
and gone were the glands in her neck. After six months of intravenous Vitamin C
and the B complex, the abdominal masses had disappeared, but she could not
swallow food. The radiation had scarred her esophagus beyond dilatation and she
refused more surgery. The cancer was gone; she died from starvation due to the
radiation.
Dr Klenner summarized this paper with this: “The results suggest that larger
daily amounts could be given in a hospital with faster results. I would suggest
at least 100 grams in 1000 cc of fluid and given every twelve to 24 hours. The
vitamins and the calcium gluconate also must be given.” He thought interferon
could be assayed while the patient is in the hospital. “How long will it take
for the general population to challenge the drug cartel?”
There is a relationship of Vitamin C and
cholesterol. Scorbutic guinea
pigs have high cholesterol levels. Way back in 1947 high intravenous doses of
Vitamin C were found effective in lowering cholesterol levels. One researcher
[Spittle, 1971, Lancet] postulated that arteriosclerosis might be the end result
of a long term deficiency or negative balance of Vitamin C. [Hecker] He and
Dr. Klenner saw the cholesterol levels in the blood of subjects vary with the
amount of C used. In one patient the cholesterol was lowered 42 mg percent in
six weeks when his oral intake of Vitamin C was increased from 10 grams a day to
20 grams a day.
This all makes sense as “the main pathway of cholesterol catabolism is in
conversion to bile salts.” Vitamin C aids in the enzymatic conversion. Guinea
pigs, who like humans cannot manufacture their own Vitamin C, will use up
dietary Vitamin C if fed a high cholesterol diet. “Guinea Pigs fed a diet free
of ascorbic acid showed a 600% acceleration in cholesterol formation in the
adrenal glands.” The Soviets have published many articles demonstrating these
effects. This might explain why colds and virus flu are more common in the
winter because fresh fruits and vegetables are less available and fat in the
diet in the winter might use up Vitamin C faster. Gallstones can be made to
develop in guinea pigs when fed a diet rich in cholesterol and low in C.
(In Medical School we were given the mnemonic to aid in the diagnosis of the
gall stone victims: “Fair, fat, and forty.” Susceptibility plus dietary factors;
it makes a lot of sense.)
Dr. Klenner quotes the literature as to the use of Vitamin C in coronary
artery disease in animals as well as humans. Arteriosclerosis develops in guinea
pigs when fed a high cholesterol diet but develops rapidly in scorbutic animals
even without exogenous cholesterol. Extra C was able to absorb the plaques. The
diet is important, but extra C seems to be critical especially in those with a
family tendency.
“We must protect our hearts from stress. Adequate Vitamin C is one answer.”
Where did Linus Pauling learn about his need for large doses? Probably from
Dr. Klenner. “Mortality rate for middle-aged people dropped significantly with
increased doses of Vitamin C” [Dr. Klenner was quoting J. Stamler from
Comprehensive Treatment of Essential Hypertensive Diseases. Monograph on
Hypertension, Merck, Sharp and Dohme.] Pauling currently takes 18 grams a day.
He seems to be doing well at the age of 86 years (July, 1987). [Dr. Pauling
lived to 93 years –ed.]
Cavities: A gram of Vitamin C every day for each year of life (five
grams a day for the five year old) will prevent cavities. Ten grams a day from
age ten years for a lifetime should maintain that advantage.
He quotes Shaw who felt that deposits on the teeth represent a pre-scurvy
condition and that those so afflicted should be taking 2000 mg a day of C before
some nasty virus strikes.
Disc, ruptured intervertebral: will be prevented with the
ten-grams-a-day dose. Adequate amounts seem necessary for disc metabolism and
maintenance.
Corneal ulcers: healed with but 1.5 grams of C daily. The pain of a
corneal burn was relieved immediately with twelve grams of C intravenously. The
cornea was normal in 24 hours. [Boyd & Campbell]
Diabetes: He noted back in 1951 that the urine in his patients showed
a reducing substance; severe virus infections will allow sugar to spill into the
urine. Vitamin C acts as a reducing agent and it would appear that diabetes has
been induced.
He reported the story of a seven year old diabetic, who developed measles,
and his insulin requirements went from 5 units to more than 90 units a day, but
with one gram of Vitamin C every four hours his infection and elevated blood
sugar came under control. In these diabetic cases, the Vitamin C can be cut back
to reasonable levels after the infection is under control. Large prolonged doses
of “Vitamin C might prove undesirable due to its dehydrating and diuretic
powers.”
He feels that the pathological condition in this case means that adrenaline
was flooding the boy’s system. The regulator of the adrenaline mechanism had
been removed so the constant supply caused a prolonged vascular constriction.
This action on the blood vessels creates asphyxia of the tissues leading to
acidosis. This acidity leads to adrenaline hyperglycemia. “Slight blood sugar
elevation can be controlled with sodium bicarbonate. This vascular constriction
is operative in the pancreas and could restrict the production of insulin and
pancreatic enzymes.”
As a matter of fact Dr. Klenner had been studying the effects of ten grams of
C per day orally in patients with diabetes mellitus; 60% were able to control
the condition with diet and C. The other 40% were able to reduce the insulin
dose. Wounds healed more readily. The C assists the liver in its function of
carbohydrate metabolism.
Glaucoma: Dr. Klenner was disturbed that marijuana was being used for
the reduction of intraocular pressure. ”One would need to be a chain smoker to
maintain worthwhile levels.“ He quotes Bietti who used large C doses; Virno’s
patients use 35 grams of C (100 mg/kg after meals and bedtime) in divided doses
during the 24 hours and this osmotic dehydration of the eyeball was safe and
effective. “The size of the dose does make a difference—a real difference.”
Dr. Klenner has found in his investigation of over 300
pregnancies,
that the stress of the condition pushed the needs for C in women up to 15 grams
a day. The human fetus is a parasite draining available C from the mother. We
are all different and our needs for Vitamin C vary depending upon heredity,
environment, stress—or its perception. He reminds us of Roger Williams’ research
in 1968 showing that some guinea pigs needed twenty times more Vitamin C than
others to maintain their health. (The usual dose for pregnant humans: 4 grams
daily in the first trimester; 6 grams daily in the second trimester; 8 to 10
grams in the third trimester). He obtained excellent results with these large
doses of C in women who had been habitual aborters. [Greenblatt] One woman had
had five miscarriages and then with the Vitamin C went on to have two normal
pregnancies. The German literature is full of cases of these good results.
Hemoglobin was easier to maintain, leg cramps were less (Vitamin C enhances iron
and calcium and magnesium absorption). Striae gravidarum (
stretch marks)
were seldom encountered. Labor was shorter and less painful. No post partum
hemorrhage. The perineum was more elastic and if Vitamin C was maintained, it
continued to remain firm.
Infants are robust with this Vitamin C. None required resuscitation. 50 mg of
ascorbic acid was begun on the infant’s second day and was gradually increased
as time went on. A set of quadruplets in this series were healthy and taking
milk on the second day. It is especially helpful for the rapidly growing
connective tissue, teeth and blood vessels. [King]
Schizophrenia: Dr. Klenner reminds us of Hoffer and Osmond’s work with
niacin and Vitamin C back in the early 1950’s. Six to 8 grams of C a day made
the niacin work. One schizophrenic took one gram every hour for 48 hours and was
completely recovered for six months with no further treatment. These megadoses
halved the suicide rate. It has been demonstrated that schizophrenics burn up C
ten times faster than the normal population. Most people show some spill of C in
the urine at 4 grams per day; schizophrenics have to take ten times this amount
before it can be detected. Dr. Klenner noticed this spillage in patients
severely affected with a virus only after two to three days of large doses of C
and improvement had begun. (Could schizophrenia be due to a virus?)
Burns: can be treated with Vitamin C. “30-100 grams of Vitamin C is
the proper amount to employ.” (500 mg per kg of body weight diluted to at least
18 cc per gram of C using 5% dextrose or saline in water or Ringer’s solution,
repeated every eight hours for several days, then at twelve hour intervals.
Calcium gluconate is added.) “Vitamin C is given until healing takes place.” It
takes seven to thirty days depending upon the degree of the burn. It may prevent
the need for grafting as it keeps the tissues oxygenated thus preventing the
blood from sludging. [Kniseley] On the fourth to fifth day the malodorous burn
eschars will fall off leaving normal tissue. Vitamin C also eliminates pain;
opiates are less necessary. (It stimulates endorphin production in the brain.)
In an article he published in the
ICAN Journal (there is no date, but
it was probably published in 1973 or 74) he states that Vitamin C is truly a
miracle substance. He believed that large doses of intravenous Vitamin C early
in the post-burn phase would eliminate the third degree burn with its infection
and scarring. Blood sludging seems to be the basic villain that leads to rigid
masses of eschar. [Berkeley] Oxygen is cut off. Tissue destruction is added to
already burn-damaged skin. Vitamin C levels in the blood and urine drop. [Lund &
Levenson; Lam] Vitamin C is necessary for granulation tissue and skin formation.
[Bergman] Three percent ascorbic acid solution is used as a spray every two to
four hours for five days. [Klasson]
Pseudomonas: (a nasty bacteria, often seen in burn patients; very resistant
to antibiotics): three percent spray plus massive injections.
Heat stroke: 500 mg per kg of body weight will reverse it.
Sunburn: One gram taken every one to two hours during exposure will
prevent sunburn; an I.V. injection will quickly relieve the pain and erythema.
Even second-degree burns will be healed.
Prickly heat, heat stroke, heat collapse can all be treated; the
latter needs twelve to forty grams intravenously. Electric shock patients must
be given Vitamin C immediately after the accident—including lightning victims.
Vitamin C will control the side effects of
radiation including
radiation burns. “Who can say what 100 to 300 grams given intravenously daily
for several months might accomplish in cancer? The potential is so great and the
employment so elementary that only the illiterate will continue to deny its
use.”
Vitamin C inhibits the deaminizing enzymes from the damaged cells (due to
burns, injury, infections). Histamine is produced by these enzymes. The shock is
controlled. [Chambers & Pollock; Clark & Rossiter]
Surgery: Way back in 1960 and again in 1966, Dr. Klenner delivered
papers before the Tri-State Medical Society calling attention to the “scurvy
levels” of C in post-operative patients. The levels began to fall six hours
after surgery and by 24 hours the levels were 3/4 lower than pre-op. Tensile
strength of healing wounds is lowered if the plasma drops to scurvy levels. The
lower the C levels the poorer the wound heals. [Bartlett, Lanman) Even as little
a dose as 500 mg of C orally “was remarkable successful in preventing shock and
weakness,” following dental extraction, he quotes Schumacher.
He remembers a surgery case in 1949 when he assisted a surgeon in a
potentially hopeless case. Extensive adhesions of the viscera defied separation.
The surgeon repaired twenty tears and closed the abdomen. She should not have
survived. The patient was given two grams of C every two hours intravenously for
48 hours and then four grams per day. In a day and a half she was up walking and
in a week discharged home with normal bowels and no pain.
30 grams should be given intravenously daily—post-operatively, until food and
pills are tolerated orally.
Dr. Klenner used 10 grams preoperatively intravenously and ten grams in each
post-operative bottle and then ten grams orally when eating was resumed.
Surgical wounds rarely separated with this method. Fractures healed faster.
(Some surgeons will give ten grams of Vitamin C at the end of the operation, and
the patient is awake and alert in 60 seconds. No need for the nausea and
vomiting in the recovery room.)
Toxins & Heavy Metals
Heavy Metal Poisonings: Especially lead and mercury—are controlled
with Vitamin C injections and oral intake. An intake of Vitamin C daily will
protect animals—and by extrapolation, humans—from fatal doses of mercury. If a
guinea pig needed 200 mg one day to protect it from an otherwise fatal dose of
mercury, the human would need 14 grams daily. Smaller doses would be able to
protect the body from smaller amounts of the toxin.
Lead poisoning: 350 mg of Vitamin C per one kg of body weight taken
intramuscularly every two to four hours; recovery in less than 72 hours.
Dr. Klenner found that the amount of C used “in any case is the all important
factor. In 28 years of research we have observed that 30 grams each day is
critical in terms of response” regardless of age and weight. (Barbiturate
intoxication, snake bite and viral encephalitis may require larger doses in some
individuals.)
Carbon monoxide (CO): poisoning is on the rise due to smoking and city
living. CO interferes with oxygenation of tissues as it ties up hemoglobin. (The
affinity of CO for hemoglobin is 300 times that of oxygen.) It would be
especially dangerous in hearts already compromised by diseased coronary vessels;
those vessels cannot dilate in times of extra need, e.g., CO poisoning. Smokers,
and by inference, anyone exposed to CO or pollution should be taking extra
Vitamin C. He points to the report [Pelletier] that shows when smokers quit,
their “ascorbic level approaches that of the non-smoker.” In acute CO poisoning:
if 12 to 50 grams of Vitamin C is injected rapidly into the blood stream, it
acts as an oxidizer and will “pull CO from hemoglobin to form carbon dioxide”
which is easily exhaled. A burn victim should immediately receive a dose of 500
mg of C per kg of body weight intravenously. It will “neutralize the CO or smoke
poisoning while at the same time it will prevent blood sludging which in the
major factor in the development of third degree burns.”
An accidental carbon monoxide poisoning was reversed in ten minutes with 12
grams of ascorbic acid in a 50 cc syringe using a twenty gauge needle. (”We
employ a twenty-gauge needle when using a 50 cc syringe; a twenty-one gauge for
a thirty-cc syringe, a twenty-two gauge for a twenty cc syringe and a
twenty-three gauge needle for a ten cc syringe“).
Two boys were sprayed with
pesticide, one received Vitamin C (10
grams) every eight hours and went home on the second day. The other boy only
fluids; his skin showed a bad chemical burn; he died on the fifth day.
Vitamin C will reverse the
shock and low blood pressure from barbiturates,
muscarine, and formic acid. One suicidal patient ingested 2640 mg of
barbiturate. Twelve grams was administered using a 50 cc syringe. In ten minutes
the blood pressure rose from 60/0 to 100/60. 100 grams was given in the vein for
three hours at which time the patient was awake. The use of large doses of C
should be routine in these cases of chemical shock. “The needle used to give a
syringeful of C was attached to a bottle of 5% dextrose in water with 50 grams
of ascorbic acid. She received 125 grams of C. C not only assists with hepatic
metabolism but also as a major diuretic, flushing these compounds out by way of
the kidneys. Oxygen by nasal tube ran constantly.”
Another patient had taken 2400 mg of Seconal plus para-aldehyde. She was
awake after 42 grams of C was administered. The C was injected as fast as a
twenty-gauge needle could carry the flow. Consequent doses of 75 grams
intravenously and thirty grams of C taken orally over a period of 24 hours saved
her life.
Bites, Toxins, Allergies
In another Tri-State Medical Journal of December, 1957, he outlined the
physiology and treatment of
Black Widow Spider poisoning in a case
history. Some of those bitten are not affected at all because the spider was out
of poison, but some can be devastated and may die, partly because of poor
resistance but also due to the quantity injected.
It can be confused with pancreatitis, renal colic, food poisoning, tetanus,
angina, bowel obstruction, pneumonia, perforated ulcer. The abdominal wall
muscles become rigid, the victims have cold sweat, their temperature and blood
pressure shoot up, they vomit, have muscle twitches and spasms, cyanosis,
chills, convulsions and delirium. The painful muscle spasms occur within minutes
of the original bite. The cramps occur in all the large muscles of the body; the
victims roll and toss and moan in agony.
Until someone used calcium gluconate, there were 90 ineffective treatments.
An anti-venom is on the market, but severe reactions and even death have been
attributed to its use.
The treatment Dr. Klenner suggests is his friend, Vitamin C, 350 mg per kg of
body weight intravenously along with calcium gluconate.
His three and a half year old patient had been getting worse for 24 hours
with abdominal cramps which the parents assumed were due to food poisoning. She
became quieter, feverish, constipated and her abdomen was exquisitely tender.
She was becoming stuporous.
Dr Klenner noted the red, swollen area around her naval, and two tiny spots
about one eighth of an inch apart were noted in the middle: the fang marks of a
Black Widow Spider. He gave one gram of calcium gluconate and 4 grams of
Vitamin C intravenously. In 6 hours she was more responsive, and her temperature
had dropped from 103 degrees to 101 degrees and she was given another four grams
I.V.
In another six hours, her temperature was but 100 degrees, and she could
swallow fluids. The next day she was active, and 50% of the discoloration had
disappeared. She received another 4 grams of C intravenously and 3 grams
intramuscularly. At home she swallowed one gram of C every three to four hours.
An enema produced a bloody return. When she recovered, she remembered brushing
“a big black bug off her stomach,” before she took ill.
Dr. Klenner had treated eight cases of Black Widow Spider bites. “It is
criminal to give these patients an opiate to relieve their pain, for in so doing
you might add to their distress and actually precipitate a fatality.”
“Some ascorbic acid behaves much like calcium in the body, and also acts
synergistically with it, we elected to observe its action.” The child was
destined to die. “Some physicians would stand by and see their patient die
rather than use ascorbic acid because in their finite minds it exists only as a
vitamin.”
Dr. Klenner was very confident about the benefits of intravenous Vitamin C to
treat the poisonous effects of insects and reptiles,. He felt all emergency
rooms should be adequately stocked. He used sodium ascorbate, 7.5 grams in 30
ml. The syringes are 5 to 60 cc. The needles are 20 gauge (big), one inch long
to 31 gauge (I have trouble believing this) one inch long. I get “miracle like
responses.”
Case 1: An eighteen-year-old female was treated just twenty minutes after a
hornet bite. She was covered with hives and had shortness of breath and
difficulty swallowing. In minutes after twelve grams of sodium ascorbate
intravenously were pushed in with a 50 cc syringe her allergic symptoms were
gone.
Dr. Klenner took ten grams of C dissolved in water orally and again in
fifteen minutes to counteract the stings of fifteen yellow jackets. No symptoms.
Snakebite: He reported on a four-year-old girl bitten by a Highland Moccasin.
She had severe pain in her leg and was vomiting within twenty minutes after the
bite. Dr. Klenner gave four grams of C intravenously and within half an hour she
had stopped crying and could now drink orangeade and began to laugh. “I’m all
right now.” She slept well all night, but because of a slight fever and
tenderness, Dr. Klenner gave her another four grams intravenously and again that
late afternoon. No antibiotics and no anti-serum were necessary.
Dr. Klenner had worked the schedule out on dogs and published it in hunting
and fishing magazines. He has had many testimonials from satisfied doctors.
“All the venom that will be encountered exists as you see the patient. It is
important to give sufficient sodium ascorbate to neutralize the bite. The more
you give; the faster will be the cure. We now routinely give 10 to 15 grams
sodium ascorbate depending on the weight of the victim. Then as much of the drug
as can be tolerated by mouth is given, usually 5 grams, every four hours.”
Usually without the use of Vitamin C patients are stuck in the hospital
requiring hot packs, antibiotics, anti-serum and nursing care. Many end up with
much scarring.
He recited the case of a man who was treated at another emergency room. The
doctor tried to cut out the local bite area.
When Dr. Klenner saw him it was badly infected and the temperature was 104°.
Fifteen grams of C intravenously twice daily, 5 grams of C orally every four
hours. Penicillin injected for the infection. He was back to work in seven days.
“Sodium ascorbate will cure any type of
snake bite.” The amounts and
the speed of injection are critical. Forty to 60 grams intravenously as a
starter. Klenner cites the 6500 deaths a year from snake bites, but many more
from insects, bees, spider, plants and some caterpillars. They produce formic
acid, histamine and specific toxin albumins. Some are neurotoxins; some cause
capillary damage and hemorrhage. When cells are damaged proteins are deaminized,
producing histamine and other toxic products; shock may occur. These deaminizing
enzymes from the damaged cells are inhibited by Vitamin C. The pH of cells
changes when cells are damaged; enzymes become destructive instead of
constructive. C reverses this. Vitamin C is reduced in the serum of those in
shock. 350-700 mg per kg body weight is the saving intravenous dose. In children
up to two grams can be given in each of several areas (a twenty kg five year old
could get two grams in each of four sites. Ice before and after the injection
would control the pain).
He reports a case of a bite by a
Puss caterpillar. The patient was
going into shock with asphyxia and cyanosis. Dr Klenner whipped out his trusty
syringe, filled it with 12 grams of C, squirted it into the man’s veins and
before he was done, the patient was improved enough to exclaim, “Thank God.” And
thank Dr. Klenner for figuring out what to do; the man would have died from
shock if it had not been for the rapid infusion of C. Again, Dr. Klenner’s maxim
adds weight: Give the C while pondering the diagnosis.
Mosquito bites: eleven grams of C per day and 200 to 400 mg of B
complex daily, both by mouth.
Poison Oak or Ivy: oral Vitamin C plus a paste of C powder will
control the contact allergy in 24 hours.
Multiple Sclerosis & Myasthenia Gravis
Dr. Klenner also turned his attention to other nervous system diseases. In a
paper entitled, “Response of Peripheral and Central Nerve Pathology to
Mega-doses of the Vitamin B complex and other Metabolites,” he focuses on
Multiple Sclerosis and Myasthenia Gravis. (Journal of Applied Nutrition, Vol.
25, #304, 1973).
He felt fatigue was the key to the understanding of the nervous system and
its physiology. Substances are consumed for the production of energy in the
muscles. Products of this process accumulate in the tissue. Some diseases will
prevent this use of available energy. The junction between neuron and neuron and
the connection between motor nerves and the fibers of skeletal muscle are the
two locations for normal fatigue.
Plants will wilt if fatigued; improper atmosphere and inadequate soil are
responsible. Animals and humans need food, oxygen and faith to stay alive and
healthy. He felt a sharecropper working in fresh open air would be less fatigued
than a factory worker. Oxygen supply has much to do with fatigue.
If a muscle is repeatedly stimulated, it will become so exhausted it will
fail to respond. Either the glycogen is used up, or the lactic acid has
accumulated to a poisonous level.
(At this point he describes the aerobic and anaerobic metabolism of muscles.
Phospho-creatine, adenosine triphosphate, calcium, magnesium and stored glycogen
are all necessary for muscle function. Oxygen and small amounts of protein play
a part in muscle contraction. Acetylcholine and its esterase are essential; too
much or too little of any of these substances may prevent or slow down muscle
action.)
Myasthenia Gravis is a disease in which too much pyruvic acid, due to faulty
metabolism, affects the interaction of acetylcholine at the junction of the
nerve and the muscle. He felt at that time that Multiple Sclerosis was due to
“sluggish and bizarre muscle activity due to the inability to utilize essential
factors because of mechanical and chemical road blocks.”
He felt chemical fatigue was common. Body lassitude is the result of
ingestion of sedatives, hypnotics, tranquilizers and even sodium bicarbonate.
The latter can displace oxygen from hemoglobin, cutting down oxygenation of
tissues. But Vitamin C will prevent this type of energy loss. Smoking aggravates
this fatigue.
A person’s muscle exhaustion point is determined by his oxygen absorbing and
carbon dioxide discharging ability. At rest we use 200 to 300 cc of oxygen per
minute. With sudden exertion this will rise to 2000 to 4000 cc. The more oxygen
absorbed, the more lactic acid will be removed. Efficient use of oxygen is the
key to adequate energy production and removal of wastes.
He described mental fatigue, active and passive. Passive is neurasthenia or
brain fog: sensations of pressure in the head, poor memory, loss of ability to
concentrate, irritability of temper, insomnia, anorexia and a variety of aches
and pains.
Active mental fatigue is caused by continuous work, and this change is due to
the sensory-motor exhaustion and not the mental work per se. The primary area of
fatigue is at the synapses which beg only diversion of interest and activity.
Adequate oxygen is assured if the lungs and hemoglobin are normal, but also
by taking 10 to 30 grams of ascorbic acid by mouth every 24 hours. Oxygen is
released for tissue use when ascorbic acid becomes dehydroascorbic acid. Enzymes
are necessary to make all these reactions possible. Genetic faults manifest
themselves through enzymatic deficiencies.
He outlines the nineteen stops from glucose to pyruvic acid which provides
energy. This energy release depends upon oxygen and, Dr. Klenner emphasized, it
is important to maintain good ventilation capacity, and, of course, a
substantial intake of Vitamin C.
He felt pyruvic acid metabolism was important for the understanding of
Myasthenia Gravis. Coenzyme A (COA, the active form of pantothenic acid) is in
limited supply in M.G. It, COA, intercepts pyruvic acid at the end point of
glucose metabolism. Another enzyme, cocarboxylase, splits the carboxyl group
(COOH) away from pyruvic acid to form CO
2
and free hydrogen. The remaining two carbon fragment (acetate) join with
coenzyme A to form acetyl coenzyme A. A high energy package named NADH2 is
formed from the carboxyl group from pyruvic acid and a sulfur group from
coenzyme A.
Thiamin is important in all this energy production as two molecules of
thiamin combined with two molecules of phosphoric acid become cocarboxylase.
This enzyme must be present for the continuance of the metabolic cycle. When
thiamin is deficient, pyruvates and lactate accumulate, and at the neuromuscular
junction the nerve end plate becomes swollen and poorly operative. That same
enzyme is necessary for the syntheses of acetylcholine, the neurotransmitter
that initiates muscle contraction. “Thiamin deficiency inhibits lactic acid
metabolism.” A thiamin deficiency means a cocarboxylase deficiency. Liver
enzymes are mainly responsible for the phosphorylation of thiamin to
cocarboxylase. Liver disease would obviously reduce this synthesis. “The
activity of choline esterase (breaks down acetylcholine) is inhibited by this
same double thiamin unit.” (See also p. 20.)
In the conversion of fatty acids to energy some of the same enzymes are
necessary: coenzyme A, hydrogen carriers (niacin-adenosine-dinucleotide) and
Vitamin C. The latter acts as a hydrogen transport.
He puts Myasthenia Gravis and Multiple Sclerosis in the same therapeutic
group as he found thiamin was the key to the therapy. M.G. is a genetically
transmitted disease and M.S. is triggered by a virus and mimics poliomyelitis.
Nerve damage in M.S. is due to microscopic hemorrhages in the nervous system.
During healing, scar tissue contracts clamping off capillary flow and nutrition.
This wasting results in loss of the myelin sheath protection.
He felt that remyelinating these damaged nerves was every bit as hopeful as
the myelination that occurs normally in infancy with nothing more spectacular
than breast milk. It requires two years of treatment to repair the damage caused
by one year of the disease.
He cites works in the late 1930s by Stern at Columbia University who used
thiamin intraspinally for the treatment of Multiple Sclerosis with astonishing
results. After 30 mg of thiamin was injected into the spinal canal of paralyzed
MS. victims, they had a temporary remission. They could walk for a while. And
Stern felt it was a B
1
avitaminosis. It was known at that time that polyneuritis can cause degeneration
of myelin sheaths.
Dr. Klenner felt that both M.G. and M.S. were basically a disturbance of
supply and demand and not a functional defect nor impaired diffusion. He
followed the belief of Dr. Leon Rosenberg (Yale) who distinguishes between
vitamin deficiency diseases and vitamin dependency diseases. Some diseases would
require 1000 times the calculated minimal daily requirement. Another
investigator [Moore] used high intravenous doses of nicotinic acid (B3) in the
control of M.S.
Dr. Klenner’s protocol for M.G. and M.S. in the 1950’s:
- Thiamin, (B1), orally: 300 to 500 mg 30 minutes before meals
and at bedtime. Intramuscularly: 400 mg daily. Intravenously: 1000 mg (or 20
mg per kg body weight) two to three times a week. A 20 cc to 30 cc syringe
with a one inch 22 gauge (or smaller) needle is used. The patient is to be
supine and the pulse counted as the solution is injected. If the pulse
rises, the solution is being injected too rapidly. Thiamin can be toxic but
as soon as it is phosphorylated (in seconds) it becomes cocarboxylase, a
necessary enzyme. Benadryl® intramuscularly stops any allergic reaction.
Dr. Klenner reassures us that if injected slowly, no problem is encountered.
The preservatives are more likely to cause reactions than the thiamin.
- Niacin or nicotinic acid, (B3), orally: 100 mg to 3000 mg
thirty minutes before meals and at bedtime. The dose should be enough to
produce a strong body flush. As it dilates the blood vessels—“even those
that have been compressed by scar tissue”—a greater amount of the nutrients
reach the muscle and nerve cells. Dr. Klenner felt it would be better to
have a constant flush.
- Pyridoxine, (B6), orally: 100 to 200 mg before meals and at
bedtime. Intramuscularly: 100 mg daily. Lack of B6 causes anemia and
neurological lesions. Intravenously: 300 mg. It is necessary for the
metabolism of fatty and amino acids.
- Cobalamin, (B12), intramuscularly: 1000 mcg three times a week.
B12
is a factor in the synthesis of myelin. In the treatment of neurological
diseases, B12
reduces the requirement of choline.
- Ascorbic acid, orally: 10 to 20 grams are to be taken daily in divided
doses. Vitamin C will prevent a superimposed infection and aids in
metabolism.
- Riboflavin, (B2), orally: 25 mg before meals and at bedtime.
Intramuscularly: 40 to 80 mg daily. It is essential for metabolism of
carbohydrates and in the regulatory function of the hormones involved in
carbohydrate metabolism.
- d-alpha tocopherol acetate, (Vitamin E), orally: 800 Units before meals
and at bedtime. A deficiency results in demyelinization and distortion of
the spinal cord nerves.
- Crude Liver, daily injections. It contains factors still unknown but
essential in metabolism. (Not manufactured now.)
- Adenosine-5-monophosphoric acid. By adding this, all the chemistry dealing
with cell metabolism is enhanced. It is essential to muscle function and,
thus, energy.
- Choline, orally: 700 to 1400 mg after each meal and at bedtime. It is in
fat and nerve tissue. Acetylcholine plays an important role in humoral
transmission of nerve impulses to effector organs like muscles.
- Lecithin, orally: 1200 mg of soybean lecithin after each meal. Lecithin
contains choline. It plays an important part in the structure of cell
membranes. It is the lipid used in nerve tissue.
- Magnesium, orally: 300 mg after each meal. Muscle activity requires
magnesium. It also serves as an enzyme activator.
- Calcium gluconate, orally: ten-grain tablets. Two tablets after each meal
and bedtime. Intravenously: one gram twice weekly. Helps muscle activity.
- Calcium pantothenate, orally: 500 mg after each meal and at bedtime. This
is a coenzyme A. It participates in the acetylation of amines and metabolism
of carbohydrates and fatty acids.
- Aminoacetic acid, (Glycine), orally: one heaping tablespoon of the powder
in a glass of milk four times a day. It is concerned with the syntheses of
glutathione which is involved with intracellular oxidation and reduction. It
stimulates the combustion of other tissue constituents. It has an
adaptability in the detoxification process.
- The hemoglobin should be kept to at least thirteen grams.
- The diet is to be high protein, including two to three eggs for breakfast.
- One Theragran-M capsule daily for trace minerals.
- Dantrium to relieve tremors. Sysmmetrol to relieve stiffness.
- Zinc gluconate, orally: 20 mg three times a day helps Myasthenia Gravis.
This treatment works dramatically in M.G. An abbreviated schedule can be
effective. One gram thiamin four times a day, niacin, enough to produce a flush
four times a day, 200 mg calcium pantothenate four times a day, 100 mg
pyridoxine four times a day, 10 grams of C in divided doses, glycine one tablet
four times a day. This treatment is effective, but the full therapy will afford
more dramatic response.
Dr. Klenner felt that most cases (80%) of Multiple Sclerosis had their origin
in an illness—probably a coxsackie virus—compatible with a summer “flu”. He
mentioned other theories of the etiology of M.S., but was convinced that the
scar tissue that forms around the nerves and produces the symptoms “is the end
result of microscopic hemorrhages following virus invasion.”
He believed that in M.G. the thymus gland was hyperplastic in many cases, and
that muscle antibodies might account for others, but the importance of the
excessive pyruvates at the neuromuscular junction has to be recognized as the
basic cause of the hypotonia.
Here followed a number of a case histories of neurological diseases. One case
of M.S. was of a male confined to a wheel chair in the hospital for two years.
After a month of the treatment listed above his physician realized the
improvement and sent him home. In three years he was free from the disease and
remained so as he continued in a modified treatment.
One M.G. case was of a male receiving prostigmine to which he was becoming
unresponsive; thiamin was given intramuscularly along with other B vitamins
three times a day. He was off the prostigmine in a year. He lived a normal life
for eighteen years. He died of an unrelated cerebral accident.
A woman with polyneuritis began her illness with pain, burning and jerking of
her legs accompanied by a high fever for ten days. Paralysis on left side plus
weakness of the hands. She received oral and intramuscular injections. In
several months intravenous vitamins were begun. In sixteen months she began to
move her right leg. In five years from the beginning of the illness she began to
get around with knee braces and a walker. In one more year she was able to move
about without a back brace. Dr. Klenner felt if she had had 200 grams of
ascorbic acid early, she would not have had the paralysis. She was also given
300 mg ribonucleic acid four times a week.
Another woman developed weakness in her extremities and was diagnosed as M.S.
superimposed by a viral encephalitis. She was sent home with a wheelchair and
was expected to die. She fully recovered on Dr. Klenner’s protocol and continued
to take her supplements.
A male, aged 28, developed numbness and loss of muscle control from the waist
down about two years before he came to Dr. Klenner’s treatment. He also had loss
of bladder control. Dr. Klenner felt he had M.S. and put him on the above
treatment. He was so much better in five weeks that he stopped treatment but the
symptoms returned in three weeks, so he went back on the full treatment. Within
a year he was back to full employment and able to follow his hobby as a crack
pistol shooter.
A white 57 year old female began to be fatigued seven years before coming to
Dr. Klenner. She had normal function after a night’s sleep but had drooping
eyelids and could not chew food after a few bites. Some doctors had called it
psychosomatic. But it was quite obvious to Dr. Klenner that she had M.G. After
1000 mg of thiamin and 300 mg of pyridoxine administered intravenously in ten
minute intervals, she was able to chew and make facial movements for the first
time in three years. She has no symptoms as long as she continues the Klenner
program.
He was quite definite: “Any victim of Multiple Sclerosis who will
dramatically flush with the use of nicotinic acid and has not yet progressed to
the stage of myelin degeneration, as witnessed by sustained ankle clonus, can be
cured with the adequate employment of thiamin, B complex proteins, lipids,
carbohydrates and injectable crude liver.” “We had patients in wheel chairs who
returned to normal activities after five to eight years of treatment.” He also
noted that if M.S. patients had a course of ACTH or cortisone, it extended the
recovery period.
He noted the peripheral neuritis that is due to thiamin deficiency is common
in chronic alcoholism.
“The treatment of M.G. is that of any pathology dealing with the interruption
of the normal physiology of nerve cells.” He had found that after successfully
treating poliomyelitis victims with Vitamin C, he had to follow up with B
vitamins for the nerve repair. He found the same results when treating damage to
the spinal cord, whether trauma or viral infection. B
1 restores the
ability of the nervous system to handle pyruvic acid and dextrose properly.
Cocarboxylase may be the “food required for nerve life.”
Since M.G. does not suffer the loss of myelin sheaths in vital areas, it does
not have to be treated as rigorously as M.S. But the chemistry is more complex
because muscles are involved. 900 different enzymes have been identified,
therefore vitamin therapy must be intense. Of course, good liver function is
necessary for good results. Dr. Klenner stumbled on a liver test: a test tube is
filled with a morning urine specimen. In 24 hours there is usually a gelatinous
mass accumulation at the bottom; the more the amount, the more the stress to the
liver. Choline will prevent this from appearing. These are phosphates.
In an article, “Fatigue—Normal and Pathological”, [Southern Medicine and
Surgery, Volume III, #9, Sept. 1949], he had already had success with the
vitamin treatment of MS. and M.G. Dr. Klenner felt that fatigue is a warning
signpost along the road of infectious disease. Heavy muscular exercise throws a
great burden on the defensive mechanisms. The tissue of the adrenal cortex of
rats is increased in weight after repeated periods of exercise.
He pointed out the importance of oxygen in the etiology of fatigue. If the
air that is inhaled has but 0.1 percent of carbon monoxide, half the hemoglobin
will be bound to the CO and unavailable for carrying oxygen to the tissues.
Poorly oxygenated blood can come from drugs, analgesics, and even sodium
bicarbonate. A deficiency of B
1 will reduce tissue (which breaks down
acetylcholine needed at the nerve ending to activate the muscle). Shots of it
are to be given daily from one to three weeks and then a 15 mg tablet orally
every six hours.
B
1, 100 mg intramuscularly three times a day are given along with
oral glycine. The other members of the B complex were added.
“Avitaminotic nerve fibers have a hunger for this vitamin (B
1),
and it is easy to know when the optimum return of function is obtained. When the
nerve structure has been repaired, the patient will become irritable, the
appetite will be lost and he or she will experience a sensation of heaviness and
stiffness of the muscles of the extremities. Sufficient Vitamin C is then given
by mouth to maintain optimum therapeutics.”
As to M.S. the diagnosis is determined by the “evidence of lesions affecting
chiefly the white matter, scattered in time and space: palsy of one of the
oculomotor nerves, nystagmus, slight ataxia of arms, absence of abdominal
reflexes and other scattered neurological anomalies (such as poor bladder
control and patchy sensory changes).
Subtle forms of encephalitis might cause changes in the nervous system
preventing a normal supply of Vitamin B
1 from reaching distal parts
of the nervous system. He noted the increased incidence of M.S. after the
encephalitis epidemic of 1920-26 and in 1934. Also unrecognized cases of
poliomyelitis may be an important factor in the cause of avitaminotic symptoms
in the central nervous system. This could happen in these disease conditions
even with sufficient B
1 in the diet; the vitamin is not diffused
properly. Initially it is the virus and when that dies down, it is scar tissue
blocking the circulation. The capillaries must be opened and extra B
1
must be supplied with the protocol cited above.
In a letter to the editor of the Tri-State Medical Journal, Oct. 1954, he
boldly stated that he was curing Myasthenia Gravis. He seemed more definite
about the biochemistry: pyruvic acid, if allowed to accumulate, will produce a
cloudy swelling of the distal portion of nerves, and that the primary
biochemical fault in B
1 deficiency is the failure of the organism to
metabolize pyruvic acid. Also he realized that creatine (needed for normal
muscle function) is formed by the body when choline and urea combine. Choline is
in short supply in M.G. unless supplemented orally. He felt glycine should be
supplemented in the diet because it yields urea. Protein is needed in the diet
to sustain muscle wear and tear. Tyrosine is needed to help turn ingested
protein into usable amino acids and Vitamin C is essential in this reaction.
This leads us to paper he put together in 1980. It was not published: “
Multiple
Sclerosis Diagnosis and Treatment Suggestions.”
He again stated the origin was due to a childhood virus of the coxsackie
group mimicking red measles. The initial illness was a severe lung infection, or
an encephalitis which subsided only to recur as M.S. twenty to thirty year
later. 70% of cases have the onset of their M.S. symptoms from the age of 20-40
years.
40% will have optic neuritis as the initial symptom, then optic atrophy may
follow. Most will notice double vision early. Weakness, loss of reflexes,
numbness in fingers, dizziness, loss of position sense, feeling heat over spine,
rheumatoid arthritis may occur concurrently (shortage of B vitamins), intention
tremor, poor bladder control, and spastic paraplegia.
His treatment suggestion for M.S. at this time (1980) consisted of:
- Thiamin HCl (Vitamin B1) one gram (1000 mg) taken thirty
minutes before meals and at bedtime.
- Nicotinic Acid (Niacin; Vitamin B3) 50 mg to 300 mg, depending
on flushing of skin, thirty minutes before meals and bed time.
- Riboflavin (Vitamin B2) 250 mg after meals and bed time.
- Pyridoxine (Vitamin B6) 100 mg after meals and bed time.
- Calcium pantothenate (pantothenate acid/Vitamin B5) one gram
after meals and bed time.
- Lecithin. 1200 mg (19 grains) one capsule after meals and at bed time with
two percent milk.
- Vitamin A (palmitate) one 50,000 unit capsule after breakfast and supper.
- Vitamin E (d-alpha tocopheryl acetate) 400 I. units. Four capsules at
bedtime.
- Niacinamide (Vitamin B3 amide) 500 mg. tablets. One after
meals.
- Magnesium oxide 300 mg tablet. One tablet after meals and before bed time.
- Trinsicon or Feosol. One capsule twice daily or sufficient to maintain a
hemoglobin of at least thirteen grams.
- Folic acid. Two milligrams after each meal. Only recommended when the
hemoglobin will not respond to iron treatment.
- Sunflower seed oil capsules. One capsule after meals and bed time.
- Lipotriad. Three capsules yields 700 mg of choline. Two capsules after
each meal. It is used as a methylating agent.
- Calcium gluconate, 10 grain tablets. Twelve tablets daily. May be omitted
if patient can drink a quart of milk a day.
- Linseed oil capsules. One capsule after meals and at bedtime. Contains
linolenic, oleic and linoleic acids.
- Muscle relaxants. Prescribed according to patient needs.
- Calcium Orotate (Vitamin B13) 500 mg tablet. One after meals and at bed
time.
- Calcium pangamate, 50 mg tablet. One tablet twice daily.
- Protein supplement containing eighteen amino acids. One ounce in a glass
of milk four times a day. Some of the above can be taken with this drink.
[This list was originally numbered 1) to 22), with 11) and 12) missing –ed.]
Intramuscular injection, given five to seven days each week.:
- 2 cc crude liver daily. (Hard to get now. I can’t find it.)
- 2cc Thiamin HCl, (B1), 400 mg daily.
- 1.5-2cc Pyridoxine, (B6), 150 mg daily. Add to B12.
- 1.5-2cc Cyariocobalamin, (B12), 1500 mcg daily. Add to B6.
- 1.5-2cc Riboflavin, (B2), 75 mg daily. Add to B3
amide.
- 1.5-2cc Niacinamide, (B3), 150 mg daily. Add to B2.
Some of the above vitamins are given one to three times each week:
Thiamin HCl, 1000 mg; Pyridoxine, 300 mg; Niacinamide, 500 mg; dilute these
to 20 cc with saline solution or best, sodium ascorbate (250 mg/cc). Give slowly
with a 23 gauge needle, one inch long. Pulse is taken during the injection; if
the pulse rises, the injection speed is slowed.
He found that RNA and DNA tablets, 100 mg of each, were helpful to some
patients; one to three of each daily along with the other vitamins. Inositol,
500 mg, one to three times a day may help.
Because of the large number of pills and capsules to be taken daily,
Dr. Klenner suggested they be put into a blender along with a protein powder,
milk, vanilla, and carob to make a tasty drink. They all might go down more
easily.
He cited some cases:
- Female developed weakness in extremities in 1961 (refer to page 48). She
was sent home to deteriorate. Dr. Klenner began his program, and she is now
cured and has been leading an active life for over 21 years. “The central
nervous system can be regenerated, but it does require time. Ten years was
given to the restitution of her entire nervous pathways.” She is “full of
vim, vigor, and vitality.”
- Another woman had complete paralysis of both legs and left arm. She
required a steel brace from hips to neck. After two years of this she was
taken to Dr. Klenner and started on the above therapy. In sixteen months she
could move her right leg and left arm. In three years she began to move her
left foot and button her blouse. In nine years she could stand unaided. A
modem day miracle, “Enzyme, co-enzyme, and metabolite theory is the correct
approach to the rehabilitation of the central system.”
- In 1918 a male was diagnosed as M.S. because of blurred vision, numbness,
and low back pain. In four months Dr. Klenner began his program and in six
months the man was back driving the fire truck. He continued to improve and
cut firewood during off hours. Early M.S. cases will respond quickly.
- Another female with dizziness, poor vision, lateral, and rotatory
nystagmus (dancing eyeballs). The nausea was so profound; she could not
swallow the oral vitamins. But after one year of the vitamin injections she
could do the oral route. From not being able to read a billboard, she can
now read large type books. The nystagmus is gone, but she needs a cane to
ambulate.
Complications
Dr. Klenner reports on a few minor complications. Some diarrhea might have
been due to sodium bisulfite. Induration after intramuscular injections was
found to be due to the Vitamin C not being injected deeply enough into the
muscle. (One had to be drained—a sterile abscess.) If the concentration was one
gram to 5 cc it caused a vein spasm up the arm from the injection site in three
cases. A thrombosis of the vein occurred in but one case. A minor face rash
developed in a few that cleared after the C was stopped.
Calcium seemed to enhance the effects of the C when both were give
simultaneously. But a gram of just the calcium given intravenously can slow the
heart rate to a dangerous degree.
Safety
He has some reassuring words for those who feel kidney stones are an
automatic result of large doses of Vitamin C. He says in all cases a stasis of
urine flow “and a concentrated urine appear to be the chief physiological
factors.” Oxalic acid precipitates out of solution only from a neutral or
alkaline solution—pH 7 to pH 10. Urine pH in those consuming ten grams of
Vitamin C daily is about 6. Even in diabetics who take this large amount of C
(10 grams), the urinary oxalate excretion remains relatively unchanged.
“Vitamin C is an excellent diuretic. No urinary stasis; no urine concentration.
The ascorbic acid/kidney stone story is a myth.” One more bon mot: “Methylene
will dissolve calcium oxalate stones, if the patient is given 65 mg orally two
to three times a day,” he learned from Medical World News (Smith, M.J.V., M.D.:
Dec. 4, 1970).
(90% of all stones are calcium stones. Calcium is soluble in acid media.
Vitamin C acidifies the urine. Acid urine discourages the growth of bacteria.
Although uric acid stones are theoretically possible with high doses of C and a
low urinary pH, none have been reported.)
A report in N.E.J.M. on 11 Feb, 1971 [Merton Lamden] suggested that large
doses of C might cause diabetes in humans. The experiment was done in rats, but
the dose translation in humans would have amounted to 5000 grams! [Paterson]
Maybe there is a toxic dose. (Dr. Klenner at the time of that writing had been
on 10 to 20 grams of C daily for eighteen years. No diabetes, and no kidney
stones). This study has no relationship to the use of therapeutic doses of C.
Lamden found that an ingestion of 9 grams of C/day resulted in oxalate spills
of 68 mg. in the urine per 24 hours. Controls without C spilled 64 mg./24 hours.
Not a big difference.
He reiterates the safety of large doses of C. He states that plasma doses of
greater than twenty times normal produce no ill effects. Diarrhea is the most
common side effect of large doses. Some notice thickening of subcutaneous tissue
is the C is not injected deeply enough into, the muscle. (That induration will
eventually resolve.) Some will complain of venous irritation and spasm if the
intravenous Vitamin C is too concentrated or too rapidly injected. (C mixed with
calcium will reduce this irritation.) A rare thrombosis may occur if the
concentration of the C is greater than 500 mg per cc. Some will faint if the
injection is given too rapidly. (It is best to have the patient lie flat.) Large
doses by mouth may cause a genital or anal rash and itch.
He also showed how safe large doses of C were. He gave 200 patients 500 to
1000 mg of C every four to six hours for five to ten days. No laboratory
abnormalities were found in blood or urine and no symptoms were noted except one
percent who developed vomiting; he assumed from a hypersensitive stomach. And
these patients had no virus infection to “assist in destroying the vitamin.”
One volunteer received 100,000 mg in a twelve day period; no problems.
Reluctance by Orthodox Medicine to Accept
Dr. Klenner knew all this way back thirty to forty years ago. Why has the
medical community taken so long to use this cheap, safe, and valuable tool to
control infections? Dr. Irwin Stone, Dr. Linus Pauling, and Dr. Robert Cathcart
have tried to popularize this method and were only met with poor press and
ridicule. Are the drug manufacturers organized into a conspiracy too powerful to
overcome? M.D. types will believe what is published in their favorite medical
journals, but Vitamin C therapy studies are not seen in medical journals because
much of the income to the publishers comes from drug manufacturers. Vitamin C
use represents a threat to their income; it cannot be patented. Maybe if
patients demanded the therapeutic use of Vitamin C from their doctors, the
doctors would become familiar with its use and add it to their therapeutic
tools. Their colleagues would hoot: “Ha ha, you are a quack. You were suckered
into that.”
The doctor could respond: “I didn’t want to, but the patient made me do it.”
But the evidence for its use seems to be there, right in the medical
literature, but how many read the Journal of Preventative Medicine?
Dr. Klenner writes clearly and cogently. He is cheerful, even enthusiastic.
And I find no bitterness due to the frustrations about the poor acceptance of
his research by the medical establishment. He had done his own literature search
and finds plenty of confirmation for his therapies in animal and human
experiments.
“Many physicians refuse to employ Vitamin C in the amounts suggested, simply
because it is counter to their fixed ideas of what is reasonable.” The new
products advertised by an alert drug company are okay to them. Dr. Klenner tells
of many letters from doctors who used this C treatment on poliomyelitis—in
patients, their own children and even themselves. They were cured.
Dr. Klenner commented that if these spectacular results had been produced at
a teaching and research center and then published, the medical community might
pay some attention and the use of C would become standard and routine. “There is
no doubt that physicians are being brainwashed with the current journal
advertising.” He uses an appropriate quote from Herber Spencer, “… to keep a man
in everlasting ignorance… condemnation without investigation.”
He blamed the National Research Council who planted the concept in doctors’
brains that any dose above 125 mg per day is spilled by way of the kidneys. It
was like any drug, the council implied, and more was no more effective than the
dinky dose that protected the human from scurvy. Doctors do not seem to realize
that the need for C is different “in each one of us either because of the
individual kidney threshold level or because of greater requirements
necessitated by pathology.”
A Few Quotes
He reminds us of Hippocrates. He felt that of several remedies physicians
would choose the least sensational. Vitamin C meets those requirements.
“Adults taking at least ten grams of ascorbic acid daily and children under
ten at least one gram for each year of life will find that the brain will be
clearer, the mind more active, the body less wearied, and the memory more
retentive.”
Another summary by Dr. Klenner: “I have never seen a patient that Vitamin C
would not benefit.”
He discovered the tremendous therapeutic power of Vitamin C to aid the immune
system, to act as an antihistamine, and to neutralize toxins. Again, let us not
forget what comes through after examining all these published reports:
“Vitamin C should be given to the patient while the doctors ponder the
diagnosis.”
References
Page II:
- Pauling, L.: Vitamin C and the Common Cold; W. F. Freeman & Co. San
Francisco, 1970.
- Brody, H.D.: J. Amer. Diet. Assoc., 29: 588, 1953.
Page 2, How it Works:
- Klenner, F.R.: Virus Pneumonia and its Treatment with Vitamin C.
Southern Med. Surg., Feb. 1948
- Klenner, F.R.: Encephalitis as a Sequela of the Pneumonias. Tri-State
Med. J., Feb. 1960.
- Klenner, F.R.: An Insidious Virus. Tri-State Med J, June 1957.
- Burns, J.J., et al: J. Biol. Chem., 207:679, 1954.
- Salomon, L.L., Conney, A.H., et al: NY Acad Science, 92:115, 1961.
- Burns. J.J.: Am. J. Med. 26:740, 1959.
- Stone, I.: Brief proposal. Per. Biol Med., Autumn, 1966.
Page 1-2:
- Arber, E: The Story of the Pilgrim Fathers, 1897.
- Correspondence with colleague from Puerto Rico.
- Kline, A.B. and Eheart, M.S. Variations in the Ascorbic Acid Requirements
for Saturation of Nine Normal Young Women, J. Nutrition 28: 413,
1944.
- Joliffe, N. Preventive and Therapeutic Use of Vitamins, JAMA,
129:613, 1945.
- Crandon, J.H., Lund, C.C. and Dill, D.B.:. Experimental Human Scurvy. N
Eng J Med., 223: 353, 1940.
Page 2-3:
- Klenner, F.R.: Massive Doses of Vitamin C and the Virus Diseases. J.
So. Med. & Surg., 113:#4, Apr. 1951.
- Larson, C.: Ordinace, pp. 359-360, Jan-Feb, 1967.
Page 3:
- Starr, T.J.: Hospital Practice, 52, Nov 1968.
- Kropowski, H.: Med. World News, p 24, June 19,, 1970.
- Lojkin cited in Klenner’s paper: Massive Doses of Vitamin C and the Virus
Diseases.
- McCall, C.E., and Copper, R.,: Vitamin C Shows Promise as a Bactericidal
Agent. Bowman Gray School Med. Alumni News, 14:1, Feb, 1972
- Wintrobe, M.M.: Clinical Hematology, Lea and Febiger, 3rd Ed 1952.
- Nossal, G. Most Killed Vaccines in Use not Termed Fit for a Mouse.
Medical Tribune, Apr. 5, 1972.
- Kiegler, Guggenheim and Warburg: Vitamin C vs. Toxins, 1938. (No reference
cited.)
Page 4:
- Harde and Benjamin (1934-1935) found the Vitamin C fraction of the adrenal
glands greatly reduced in monkeys killed or paralyzed by the virus of
poliomyelltis.
- Yavorsky, Almoden and King (1934) reported identical findings in humans
having died of various infectious agents.
Page 4,5:
- Klenner, F.R.: An Insidious Virus. Tri-State Med. J., June 1957
- Klenner, F.R.: Virus Pneumonia and its Treatment with Vitamin C.
Southern Med. Surg., Feb. 1948.
- Klenner, F.R.: Encephalitis as a Sequela of the Pneumonias. Tri-State
Med J., Feb, 1960
- Gothlin, G.F.: A Method of Establishing the Vitamin C Standard of
Requirement of Physically Healthy Individuals by Testing the Strength of
Their Capillaries. (No reference cited.)
- Baker, A.B. and Noran, J.A.: Changes in the Central Nervous System
Associated with Encephalitis Complicating Pneumonia. Archives of Internal
Med., Vol 76: 146-153, July-Dec. 1945.
- Krumholz, S. and Luhan, J.A.: Encephalitis Associated with Herpes Zoster.
Arch Neur Psych, 53: 59-67 Jan-Jun, 1945.
- Bakay, L,: The Blood-Brain Barrier, C. C. Thomas, Pub.,
Springfield, IL 1956
- Chambers, R. and Zweifach, B.W.: Intercellular Cement and Capillary
Permeability, Physiol Rev., 27: 436-463, 1947.
- Youmans, J.B.: Nutritional Deficiencies, 1941.
Page 5:
- Hawley, E.E., Frazer, J.P., Button, L.L. and Stevens, D.J.: The Effect of
the Administration of Sodium Bicarbonate and of Ammonium Chloride on the
Amount of Ascorbic Acid Found In the Urine. J. Nutrition, 12:215
(August) 1936.
- Klenner, F.R.: Significance of High Daily Intake of Ascorbic Acid in
Preventive Medicine. J. Intl Acad Prev Med., 1:45-69, Spring, 1974.
- Klenner, F.R.: Use of Vitamin C as an Antibiotic. J. of Appl Nutrit.,
6: 1953 (Paper presented at AAN Convention, May, 1963, Pasadena, CA.)
Page 6, Dosage:
- Klenner, F.R.: Massive Doses of Vitamin C and the Virus Diseases. J. So
Med & Surg, 113: #4, Apr. 1951.
- Shaw, et al: Acute and Chronic Ascorbic Deficiencies in Rhesus Monkeys.
J. Nutrition, 29: 365, 1945
- Rivers, T.M.: Immunological and Serological Phenomena in Poliomyelitis.
Lecture III, Infantile Paralysis, 1941.
Page 7:
- Klenner, F.R.: Significance of High Daily Intake. op cit.
Page 8:
- Klenner, F.R.: Use of Vitamin C as an Antibiotic, op cit.
Page 9 Tests:
- Klenner, F.R.: A New Office Procedure for the Determination of Plasma
Levels for Ascorbic Acid. Tri-State Med J., 5, 1956.
Lingual tests:
- Ringsdorf, W.M. & Cheraskin, E.: Sec. Oral Med., U of AL Med
Center, Birmingham, AL
Page 9-16, Insidious Virus:
- Klenner, F.R.: An Insidious Virus, op cit.
- Klenner, F.R.: The Clinical Evaluation and Treatment of a Deadly Syndrome
Caused by an Insidious Virus. Tri-State Med J., Oct. 1958.
Page 15, Virus Pneumonia:
- Klenner, F.R.: Virus Pneumonia and its Treatment with Vitamin C. So Med
& Surg, Feb. 1948.
- Klenner, F.R.: Encephalitis as a Sequela of the Pneumonias. op cit ibid.
Page 15, (Herpes Encephalitis):
- Lerner, M, et al: Detecting Herpes Encephalitis Earlier. Med World News,
May 20, 1972.
Page 15, (X-ray Therapy):
- Oppenheimer, A.: Roentgen Therapy of Virus Pneumonia. Amer J of
Roentgen., 49: #5.
Page 17-21, Poliomyelitis:
- Klenner, F.R.: The Treatment of Poliomyelitis and Other Virus Diseases
With Vitamin C. So Med & Surg, Vol. 111: #7, July 1949.
- Klenner, F.R., The Vitamin and Massage Treatment for Acute Poliomyelitis.
So Med & Surg, 114: #8, August 1952.
- Klenner, FR.: Poliomyelitis—Case Histories. Tri-State Med J., Sept
1956.
- Sabin, A.B.: Vitamin C in Relation to Experimental Poliomyelitis. J Exp
Med., 69: 507, 1939.
- Heaslip, Australian J. Exp Biol. & Med., 1948.
- Jungeblut, C.W.: Vitamin C Therapy and Prophylaxis in Experimental
Poliomyelitis. J Exper Med., 65; 127, 1937.
- Jungeblut, C.W.: Further Observations on Vitamin C Therapy in Experimental
Poliomyelitis. J. Exper. Med., 66: 450, 1937.
- Bodian, D. and Horstmann, D.:. Review of Their Work. JAMA, 149:
Aug30, 1952.
Page 22-23, Hepatitis:
- Freebern, R.K. & Repsher, LR.: Med. World News, Jan 23, 1970.
- Klenner, F.R.: Unpublished paper.
- Klenner, F.R.: Significance of High Daily Intake. op cit., page 56.
- Klenner, F.R.: Massive Doses of Vitamin C, op cit.
- Klenner, F.R.: Observations on the Dose and Administration, op cit.
Page 23-24, Herpes:
- Klenner, F.R.: Significance, ibid, page 64.
- Stephens, J.C. and Cook, M.: Cases of the Hidden Herpes Virus, Med
World News, May 26, 1972.
- Goodpasture, E.W.: Case of the Hidden Herpes Virus. Med World News,
Feb 25, i972.
- Roizman, B. et al: Tracing Herpes Viruses. Med World News, Oct 1,
1971.
- Klenner, F.R.: Use of Vitamin C as an Antibiotic. op cit.
Page 24-25, Chickenpox and Measles:
- Klenner, F.R.: Massive Doses, op cit.
- Klenner, F.R.: The use of Vitamin C as an Antibiotic. op cit.
Page 26, Infectious Mononucleosis:
- Hellne, C. and Helene, W.: EB Virus in the Etiology of Infectious
Mononucleosis, Hosp Pract., July, 1970.
- Niderman, College Findings tie Mono to ED virus. Med World News,
Dec 1968.
- Klenner, F.R.: Observations of the Dose and Administration. op cit.
Page 27,
- Klenner, ER.: Unpublished work on RMSF and tick bite fever.
Page 28 Trichinosis:
- Klenner, F.R.: The Treatment of Trichinosis with Massive Doses of
Vitamin C and Para-aminobenzoic Acid. Tri-State Medical J., April
i954.
Page 30, Urethritis:
- Rous, S.: Urethritis in Men. NY Soc Med., Dec 15, 1971.
Page 30, Antabuse:
- Klenner, F.R.: Unpublished paper.
Page 31, Arthritis:
- Klenner, F.R.: Significance. op cit.
- Abrams, E. and Sandson, J.: Ann Rheum Dis., 27: 1964.
Page 31, Cancer
- Klenner, F.R.: Unpublished paper.
- Schiegel, G.E. et al: The Role of Ascorbic Acid in the Prevention of
Bladder Tumor Formation. Trans Amer Assn Genitour Surg., 61: 1969.
Page 33-34, Cholesterol and Arteriosclerosis:
- Ginter, E.L.: Cholesterol and Vitamin C. Amer J Clin Nutr., 24:
1238-1245, 1971.
- Spittle, C., Atherosclerosis and Vitamin C. Lancet, II: 1280-1281,
1971.
- Ginter, E.: Effects of Dietary Cholesterol on Vitamin C Metabolism in
laboratory animals. Acta Med Acad Sci. Hungary. 27:23-29; 1970.
- Ginter, E., et al: The Effects of Ascorbic Acid on Cholesterolemia in
Healthy Subjects with Seasonal Deficit of Vitamin C. Nutr Metabol,
12: 76-86. 1970.
- Willis, G.C.: An Experimental Study of the Intimal Ground Substance in
Atherosclerosis. Can Med Assoc J., 69: 17-22, 1953.
- Shafer, J.: Ascorbic Acid and Atherosclerosis. Amer J Clin Nutr.,
23:27, 1970.
- Stamler, J.: Comprehensive Treatment of Essential Hypertensive Diseases.
Monograph on Hypertension, Merck, Sharp and Dohme.
- Hecker, R.R. et al: J Am Chem Soc., 75:2020, 1953.
Page 34, Corneal Ulcers:
- Boyd,T.A., & Campbell, F.W.: B Med J., 2:1145, Nov 1950.
Page 35, Glaucoma:
- Virno, M.: Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat Monthly, 46:1502.
Page 35, 36 Pregnancies:
- Greenblatt, R.B.: Obst & Gyn, 2:530, 1953.
- King, C.C. et al, New York Times, Nov 2, 1952.
Page 36-39, Schizophrenia, Heat Stroke, Sunburn, Slipped Disc, Toxins and
Heavy Metal Poisonings:
- Klenner, F.R.: Significance of High Daily Intake,. op cit.
- Klenner, F.R.: The use of Vitamin C as an Antibiotic, op cit.
- Mokranjac, M. and Petrovic, C.: Report on Mercury Studies in Guinea Pigs
in Relation to Amounts of Vitamin C Administered. Cr Acad Sci.,
Paris.
- Dannenburg, A.M. et al: Ascorbic acid in the treatment of chronic lead
poisoning. JAMA, 114:1439-1440, 1940.
- Pelletier, O.: Experiments with smokers and non-smokers. JAMA, April 1969.
- Mayers, B.W.: Where there’s smoke there may be carbon monoxide. Med
World News, Jan 21, 1972.
- Hoffer, J.: Use of Ascorbic Acid with Niacin in Schizophrenia. Can Med
J., Nov 6, 1971.
- Hawkins, D.: Back to Reality the Megavitamin Way. Med World News,
Sept 24, 1971.
- Greenwood, J.: Optimum Vitamin C Intake as a Factor in the Preservation of
Disc Integrity. Med Ann DC, 33:6, June 1964.
- Massell, B.F. et al: Antirheumatic Activity of Ascorbic Acid in Large
Doses. New Eng J Med, 1950.
- Kyhos, E.D. et al: Large Doses of Ascorbic Acid in Treatment of Vitamin C
Deficiencies. Arch Int Med., 75:407, 1945.
- Dalldorf, G.: Vitamin C in Health and Disease. W.B. Saunders, 1945.
- Musser, J.H.: Nutrition in the Aged. W.B. Saunders Co., 1945.
Page 36, Burns:
- Knisely, M.H. et al: Arch Surg, 51:220, 1945
- Knisely, M.H.: Science, 106:431, 1947.
- Berkeley, W.T., Jr.: So Med J., 58:1182-1184.
- Lund & Levenson: Arch Surg., 55:557,1947.
- Bergman, H.C. et al: Am Hrt J., 29:506-512, 1945.
- Lam, C.R.: Col Rev Surg Gyn & Obst., 72:390-400, 1941.
- Klasson, D.H.: NY J Med., 51:2388-2392, Oct, 1951.
Page 37, Surgery, Shock;
- Chambers, R. & Pollock, J.: J Gen Physiol, 10:739, 1927
- Clark & Rassiter: Q J Exp Physiol., 32:279, 1944.
- Barlett, M.K. et al: NEJM, 226:474, 1942.
- Laninan, T.H. & Ingalls, TB.: Am Surg., 105:616, 1937.
- Schumacher: Ohio State Med J., 42:1248, 1946.
Page 41-42, Poisonous Insects and Reptiles:
- Klenner, F.R.: Hunting and Fishing Magazine, April, 1950.
Pages 43-54, Myasthenia Gravis and Multiple Sclerosis:
- Klenner, F.R.: Response of Peripheral and Central Nerve Pathology to
Megadoses of the Vitamin B Complex and other Metabolites. J Appl Nutrit.,
25:#304, 1973.
- Klenner, F.R.: Multiple Sclerosis Diagnosis and Treatment Suggestions.
Original paper, unpublished.
- Klenner, F.R.: Fatigue—Normal and Pathological with Special Consideration
of Myasthenia Gravis and Multiple Sclerosis. So Med & Surg., 111:#9,
Sept 1949.
Page 45:
- Stern, E. I.: The Intraspinal Injection of Vitamin B1 for the
Relief of Intractable Pain, and for Inflammatory and Degenerative Diseases
of the Central Nervous System. Am J Surg., 34:495, 1938.
- Rosenberg, L.E.: Vitamin Deficiency Diseases and the Vitamin Dependent
Diseases with Reference to B and D., National Health Federation Bulletin
Vol XVIII. #10, Nov 1972.
- Moore, M.T.; Treatment of Multiple Sclerosis with Nicotinic Acid and
Vitamin B1.
Arch Int Med., 65:18, Jan 1940.
Other supportive articles from the medical literature:
- Kempe, C.H.: A Key to the Secret of M.S., Med World News, July 7,
1972.
- Schandl, D.K.: Dissertation on Environmental and Pyridoxine cause of M.S.,
The Charlotte Observer, Charlotte, N.C., April 23, 1973.
- Brickner, R.M.: A Critique of Therapy in M.S., Bull Nue Inst NY.,
4:665, April 19367.
- Zimmerman, H.H. and Burack, E.: Lesions of the Nervous System Resulting
from a Deficiency of the Vitamin B complex. Arch Path., 13:207, Feb
1932.
- Spies, T.D. et al: The Use of Nicotinic Acid in the Treatment of Pellagra.
JAMA, 110:622, Feb 1938.
- Spies, T.D. and Aring, C.D.: The Effect of Vitamin B1 on the
Peripheral Neuritis of Pellagra, JAMA, 110:1081, April, 1938.
Page 55, Toxic Doses:
- Patterson, J.W.: J Biol Chem., 81-88, 1950.
- Lambden, M.P. et al: Proc Soc Exp Biol Med., 85:190-192, 1954.
Need for Vitamin C:
- Sabin: J Exp Med., 89:507-515, 1939.
- Wright: Ann Int Med., 12, 4:516-528, Oct 1938.
- Brody, H.D.: J Am Diet Assn., 29:588, 1953.
- Regnier, E.: Rev of Allergy, 22:948, Oct 1968.
Adapted from
Vitamin C as a Fundamental Medicine: Abstracts of
Dr. Frederick R. Klenner, M.D.’s Published and Unpublished Work,
ISBN 0-943685-13-3, first printing 1988.