In our last blog article, we warned against plans by the EU to restrict allowed dosages for vitamins and minerals, making it near impossible or at least very difficult to use them for therapeutic treatments.

One such vitamin is ascorbic acid, better known as vitamin C.

Using high doses of vitamin C can be highly beneficial and frequently lifesaving in acute infections. For acute infections, vitamin C is not acting like a nutrient, but more like a natural drug with virtually no side effects.

Unfortunately, much of the history of vitamin C as a medical treatment has been overlooked and neglected in the past decades.

A case for higher intake of vitamin C for therapeutic treatments

Vitamin C is one of the safest medical wonders on the planet. Cumulative vitamin C information has been published in medical literature since the 1940's.

Despite the evidence of the molecule as life-promoting, therapeutic, and very safe even in high doses, vitamin C as therapy in high doses has been admonished by many medical entities. The dogma that only 75-90 mg of ascorbate per day is required by any human, is totally incorrect.

Conventional medical doctors are not taught about the mechanisms of action and benefits of vitamin C in medical school. If they knew about it, then not only would a raft of other drugs become unnecessary, but there would not be much serious whooping cough.

Vitamins A and C would render measles much easier to treat. If doctors used ascorbate regularly, meningococcal complications would plummet, and the coagulopathy issues would be rare.

Without vitamin C, the immune system is paralyzed and unable to regenerate the ability to dissolve disease-causing elements in the body. Vitamin C is also paramount in combating toxin-mediated diseases such as whooping cough and tetanus.

Myths about Vitamin C

Myth 1: your body achieves vitamin C saturation at doses of 150 milligrams (mg) per day and doses above 1,000 mg are dangerous
Myth 2: There's no scientific support for use of high-dose vitamin C; even when ill, you can get sufficient amounts from food
Myth 3: Diarrhea from ascorbate is dangerous

While some mammals can make vitamin C internally, the gene that codes for that conversion in humans does not work. Thus, we have to get it from our diet. By looking at the vitamin C requirements of other mammals that cannot make vitamin C, we can get a decent estimation of human requirements.

For example, gorillas eat about 30 mg of ascorbic acid per kilo per day, and guinea pigs require 33 mg/kg/day.
Interestingly, when healthy, a goat will make 185 mg/kg/day of ascorbic acid, but when stressed or ill, they can make as much as 1,400 mg/kg/day. This too gives us an indication of the importance of vitamin C during illness, and a clue about the increase in requirement.

Meanwhile, humans are told we need just 75 to 90 mg per day, which amounts to about 1.2 mg/kg/day. If we work anything like other mammals, this recommendation is likely to vastly underestimate our vitamin C requirement.

Smokers are told to add 35 mg of vitamin C per day, yet, a single cigarette uses up 25 mg of ascorbic acid. If you smoke 10 to 20 cigarettes a day, you're clearly dipping deep into your vitamin C reserves.

The way the recommended daily allowance (RDA) for vitamin C was derived was seriously flawed. Not only did they only look at a very small group of healthy individuals, they also analyzed the wrong cell types. What's more, the RDA is for the prevention of scurvy, and that is not the same as supporting optimal health.

Indeed, Canadian research shows that patients admitted into the hospital are far more likely to be deficient in vitamin C than nonhospitalized individuals.

Ascorbic acid is not 'Just a Vitamin'

Vitamin C is more than just a vitamin, it also works as an:

- antioxidant
- antihistamine
- enzyme cofactor for collagen, neurotransmitters, hormones and carnitine

Vitamin C is also crucial during pregnancy, as cells cannot divide without vitamin C. It's so important the fetus will deplete the mother unless she has high-enough levels to cover both of them.

Low vitamin C status can also influence the baby's risk of jaundice and brain inflammation, both of which are associated with high bilirubin.
However, studies show vitamin C can ameliorate the risks associated with high bilirubin.
What's more, the two seem to be connected, as babies with high bilirubin have lower vitamin C levels, and those with low bilirubin have higher vitamin C levels.

Diabetes and heart disease are two very common health conditions, and both of these conditions, are associated with low vitamin C levels, and respond favorably to vitamin C supplementation.

Vitamin C is also important for the the structure and integrity of the body± it is needed for skeletal health, good vision, muscles and tendons, your vascular system and more.
Aneurysms as well as atherosclerosis are associated with low vitamin C levels.

Vitamin C is also used up in the process of knitting collagen fibers together. One molecule of vitamin C is oxidized for each collagen fiber "stitch." As a result, large quantities of vitamin C are used to make collagen, which in turn is essential for tissue integrity and healthy, pain-free joints.

Acute vitamin C needs

While your body needs a continuous supply of vitamin C for all the reasons already mentioned, there are instances in which you need far higher doses. Conditions short-list of conditions for which high-dose vitamin C supplementation is indicated.

• Infections and inflammation (vitamin C is antiseptic and antibacterial and can be used both internally and topically)* Sepsis and critical care
• Trauma, surgery and burns
• Endotoxin processing
• Vascular integrity
• Allergies
• Whooping cough
• Vaccine adverse reactions

Medical literature also supports the use of vitamin C for:

• Polio
• Acute hepatitis
• Viral encephalitis
• Acute rheumatic fever
• Toxic mushroom poisoning
• Ebola and other hemorrhagic diseases
• Tuberculosis
• Infectious mononucleosis

Vitamin C for Sepsis

High doses of vitamin C are very useful in the treatment of sepsis (septicemia or septic shock, also known as blood poisoning).
Sepsis is a last-ditch effort by your immune system to fight an infection in your body, which can lead to multiple organ failure and death unless promptly treated.

Each year, an estimated 1 million Americans get sepsis and up to half of them die as a result.
According to data from two hospital cohorts, 34.7% to 55.9% of American patients who died in hospitals between 2010 and 2012 had sepsis at the time of their death.

What these numbers tell us is that conventional treatment, which is typically focused on high doses of antibiotics, is often ineffective.
The good news is intravenous vitamin C has been shown to dramatically lower mortality in sepsis. The bad news is the number of hospitals that have adopted it is limited.

Research which was published in 2014 demonstrated the benefit of IV sodium ascorbate in patients with severe sepsis.
The study in question included 24 patients with severe sepsis, who were randomized to receive either "low-dose" IV infusion of vitamin C (50 mg/kg/24 hours) every six hours for four days, a "high-dose" infusion of vitamin C (200 mg/kg/24 hours) or a placebo. As reported by the authors:

"Mean plasma ascorbic acid levels at entry for the entire cohort were 17.9 ± 2.4 μM (normal range 50-70 μM).
Ascorbic acid infusion rapidly and significantly increased plasma ascorbic acid levels. No adverse safety events were observed in ascorbic acid-infused patients.
Patients receiving ascorbic acid exhibited prompt reductions in SOFA [sequential organ failure assessment] scores while placebo patients exhibited no such reduction.
Ascorbic acid significantly reduced the proinflammatory biomarkers C-reactive protein and procalcitonin. Unlike placebo patients, thrombomodulin in ascorbic acid infused patients exhibited no significant rise, suggesting attenuation of vascular endothelial injury."

The Marik Sepsis Protocol

Three years later, in 2017, Dr. Paul Marik (who became famous during the COVID-pandemic for being part of the FLCCC= Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance) , chief of pulmonary and critical care medicine at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital in East Virginia, published a small retrospective before-after clinical study showing that giving septic patients an inexpensive vitamin C cocktail for two days reduced mortality from 40% percent to 8.5%.

Marik's treatment includes the addition of thiamine (vitamin B1) and the steroid hydrocortisone, which appears to boost the effectiveness of the treatment compared to vitamin C alone. The precise protocol he used was 200 mg of thiamine every 12 hours, 1,500 mg of ascorbic acid every six hours, and 50 mg of hydrocortisone every six hours.

Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, where Marik works, has since made the protocol its standard of care for sepsis, and others are starting to join in. Unfortunately, many hospitals are still dragging their heels, waiting for more clinical trials to be completed.

This, despite the fact that the treatment is harmless in and of itself, meaning it won't make the patient any worse than he or she already is.
Reception of the treatment has been mixed, with some critical care leaders embracing it while others aren't using it at all. What this means is that your ability to receive this potentially life-saving treatment is dependent on the hospital where you end up.

If your doctor refuses to consider Marik's protocol offhand, convince him or her to review the studies as can be found in PubMed.

These articles are completely free to download. Uuse the information to convince your medical team to use these simple life-saving strategies. If they refuse, it is strongly suggested you take control of the situation and find another doctor and/or hospital that will.

All wounds should be treated with vitamin C

Another valuable use for vitamin C is in the treatment of tetanus, and since any cut can develop this serious bacterial infection, it is a good idea to use vitamin C anytime you have a cut.
For example, in a study children and adults with tetanus were given either 1000mg of vitamin C per day or nothing.
In the vitamin C group, all of the children recovered and none died, whereas 74.2% died in the control group.
Among the adults, 37% died in the vitamin C group, whereas almost twice as many (67.8%) died in the control group.
The reason for the higher mortality rate among adults receiving vitamin C was likely due to the fact that everyone received 1,000 mg, regardless of bodyweight.
Had the dosage been a mg per kilo dosage, the adults would have received far higher doses, which likely would have brought the death rate much lower, if not eliminated it entirely, as it did among children.

You should be aware of the fact that tetanus vaccination does not eliminate your risk of tetanus entirely. So, in addition to carefully washing any cut or wound, it is strongly recommended to use vitamin C on the wound itself and taking it internally right away.

Vitamin C-Rich foods and supplement recommendations

A wide variety of foods are high in vitamin C, including red pepper, parsley, broccoli, kiwi, strawberries, tomato and all citrus fruits. You can get significant amounts of vitamin C from your diet If you eat these foods on a daily basis.

You can further boost the effects of these foods by combining them with flavonoid-rich foods, as they work synergistically together. Examples include onions, blueberries, green tea, bananas, dark chocolate, sea-buckthorn and gingko biloba.

No amount of food outside of acerola cherries is going to give you the dosages you need when ill, however. Even though you could theoretically juice vitamin C-rich foods, you'd then have to contend with higher sugar content, which competes with vitamin C on the cell.
So, when you're ill, your best bet is to use a supplement.

An often-asked question is whether you can simply use a natural, whole vitamin C, such as camu camu, rose hips or acerola cherries.

If you're healthy, or have only mild illness, you can certainly use these types of whole foods and supplements, and they may even be preferable, but if you want to treat whooping cough, for example, your best bet is to use a synthetic vitamin C.
Two types are highly recommended: sodium ascorbate and liposomal vitamin C.

Basic recommendations for acute use

As for dosage, start out by assessing your bowel tolerance. Do that by taking 1 to 2 grams (1000 - 2000 mg) of sodium ascorbate every two hours.
Once your stomach starts to rumble or diarrhea sets in, note the total mg you've taken — that's your bowel tolerance — and back off to 50% to 90% of that dosage.

You may however also use liposomal vitamin C instead, which results in far less bowel issues , so you can take much larger doses of 2 to 4 grams every hour until you're feeling better without the dreaded side-effects.

Most people improve within a day or two, especially if treated early in the illness. Keep liposomal vitamin C in your medicine kit to be pulled out for acute viral illnesses.
Ideally, you live a healthy lifestyle with plenty of sleep, low stress and limited to no sugar or processed foods, but this is not always possible and when we stray from this we can get sick.

Do not take liposomal vitamin C every day though as the dose is unnecessary and potentially problematic for daily use.

Additionally, there is some truth to the association of vitamin C and kidney stones, as vitamin C is metabolized to oxalate and can increase urinary oxalate excretion, thus increasing your risk of calcium oxalate stones. But even if you don't get kidney stones, excess oxalates are not good to have.

Recent developments:Vitamin C, inflammation and oxidative stress

The antiviral capacity of vitamin C was successfully paired with quercetin during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and included in the initial MATH+ protocol released in April 2020. IN the early months of COVID-19, the FLCCC Alliance recommended a combination of vitamin C, quercetin, zinc, melatonin and vitamin D3 for prophylaxis.

To date, the preventive protocol for COVID, flu and RSV (Respiratory Syncytial Virus) includes antimicrobial mouthwash, vitamin D, vitamin C, zinc and melatonin.
In June 2020, Marik (mentioned above in the sepsis paragraph) published the paper,"Quercetin and Vitamin C: An Experimental, Synergistic Therapy for the Prevention and Treatment of SARS-CoV-2 Related Disease (COVID-19)" in the journal Frontiers in Immunology, noting:

"Ascorbic acid plays a role in stress response and has shown promising results when administered to the critically ill. Quercetin is a well-known flavonoid whose antiviral properties have been investigated in numerous studies.

There is evidence that vitamin C and quercetin co-administration exerts a synergistic antiviral action due to overlapping antiviral and immunomodulatory properties and the capacity of ascorbate to recycle quercetin, increasing its efficacy. Safe, cheap interventions which have a sound biological rationale should be prioritized for experimental use in the current context of a global health pandemic."

However, as many have noted during the COVID pandemic, the use of "Safe, cheap interventions which have a sound biological rationale" has not been prioritized, but rather has been vilified. Much of the benefit from vitamin C is how it helps to mediate inflammation and oxidative stress.

This was demonstrated in a 2022 study,which sought to determine how vitamin C could help individuals with cystic fibrosis. The data showed that vitamin C supplementation in individuals with advanced inflammatory disease could help increase plasma vitamin E and lower the inflammatory response.

Vitamin C also plays a significant role in holistic cancer treatment. In this area, Western medicine also strove to suppress information since vitamin C is inexpensive and cannot be patented.


The history of vitamin C is replete with public health experts who count the benefits of vitamin C as preventive but continue to push Big Pharma solutions in the face of infection or disease, not the least of whom is Dr. Anthony Fauci, who was asked in a 2016 pre-Covid-interview :

"How do you avoid getting sick when you're around sick people all day?"
Fauci replied: "I take vitamin C. It can enhance your body’s defense against microbes. I take 1,000 milligrams a day. Many people also do not get enough vitamin D, which affects a lot of body functions, so that would be helpful, too."

Summary

High-dose vitamin C (ascorbic acid) can act as a safe, near side-effect-free natural treatment for acute infections and other conditions, beyond its basic nutritional role.
Evidence spanning decades shows benefits that conventional medicine has largely overlooked, with the common RDA of 75–90 mg/day far too low.
Comparisons with other mammals (e.g., gorillas, goats) suggest humans need substantially more, especially when stressed or ill; the RDA mainly prevents scurvy rather than supporting optimal health or recovery.Vitamin C functions as an antioxidant, antihistamine, and cofactor for collagen, neurotransmitters, and more.
It supports immunity, tissue integrity, pregnancy, joint health, and may help conditions linked to low levels such as diabetes, heart disease, and aneurysms.
High doses are indicated for infections, inflammation, sepsis, trauma, burns, allergies, whooping cough, tetanus, and various viral or toxin-mediated diseases.
Intravenous vitamin C, notably in the Marik sepsis protocol (with thiamine and hydrocortisone), has markedly reduced mortality.
Oral sodium ascorbate or liposomal forms allow high dosing guided by bowel tolerance for acute illness.
Food sources help daily needs, but supplements are required therapeutically.
Synergies with quercetin and roles in reducing inflammation further support its value, including in recent respiratory illness protocols.

 

PS: you may also want to watch the most recent episode on cancer treatment with low dose naltrexone and IV dose vitamin C at John Campbell's channel.