>>130615
Vitamin C is one of the most well-established traditional antioxidants we know of, and its potent health benefits have been clearly demonstrated over time, especially for the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases.
A perfect example of the healing power of this antioxidant vitamin is the drbiochamatic case of Allan Smith, who contracted a serious case of swine flu, and was brought back from the brink of death using a combination of IV and oral vitamin C.
While most animals have the ability to produce vitamin C internally, three species cannot. Guinea pigs, primates, and humans must obtain their vitamin C from their diet.
Vitamin C has numerous functions in the human body, including acting as an essential cofactor in enzymatic reactions.
In this way, it plays a role in your body's production of collagen, carnitine (which helps your body turn fat into energy), and catecholamines (hormones made by your adrenal glands).
Vitamin C is also used by your body for wound healing, repairing, and maintaining the health of your bones and teeth, and plays a role in helping your body absorb iron.
A powerful antioxidant, vitamin C also helps prevent damage caused by free radicals. Over time, free radical damage may accelerate aging and contribute to the development of heart disease and other health conditions.
It's through this antioxidant effect that it's thought vitamin C may play a role in protecting heart health.
One of the most famous forerunners of high dose vitamin C treatment for colds and other disease was Linus Carl Pauling (1901-1994), a physical chemist and peace activist who won two Nobel Prize awards; one in chemistry in 1954, followed by a Nobel Peace Prize in 1962.
The New Scientist magazine ranked him as one of the 20 greatest scientists to ever live. He almost won a third Nobel, but Watson and Crick narrowly beat him to the discovery of the structure of DNA.
Despite being a well-respected scientist, his views on vitamin C were all firmly rebuffed by the medical community.
He detailed his discoveries in a series of books, starting with Vitamin C and the Common Cold in 1970, followed by Vitamin C, the Common Cold and the Flu (1976), Vitamin C and Cancer (1979), and How to Feel Better and Live Longer (1986).
Many felt Pauling was too far out of his field of expertise with his research into nutrition, and he was largely ignored by mainstream medicine and nutritional science.
Was Pauling Right About Vitamin C After All?
While the recommended daily allowance (RDA) for vitamin C had been established at 40 to 60 mg per day — an amount more than sufficient to prevent scurvy — Pauling advocated amounts of 1,000 mg or even higher.
Pauling himself is said to have taken 12,000 mg per day. He noted that veterinarians recommended far higher doses of vitamin C for primates than what was recommended for people.
So he initially extrapolated the dosages from monkeys, and determined that humans likely need a minimum of six grams per day — 200 times more than the RDA.
Pauling made controversial claims about the curative powers of vitamin C, which included cancer and heart disease — the latter of which he claimed was a form of pre-scurvy.
Pauling died of prostate cancer in 1994 at the age of 93. However, interest in vitamin C certainly did not die with him.
On the contrary, there's been an explosion of research into the properties of vitamin C, and newer evidence suggests there might be something to Pauling's heretical claims after all. In fact, a lot of the scientific literature published on vitamin C in the two decades since Pauling's death support his claims.