Medicine has not been able to discover a solution for influenza and other viral diseases. The problem of finding a treatment for avian flu epidemic may be the result of the “evolving complexity” of the H5N1 virus.
There is evidence that oral intake of vitamin C or ascorbic acid (AA) from food (as much as 300 mg. per day) may be protective from Avian flu. People with low levels of AA do not survive the flu pandemic, even if they are well nourished in other ways. The addition of AA as a supplement may prevent morbidity and mortality from this disease. Linus Pauling (1987) wrote “large-scale future survival of those infected in an avian flu pandemic should be enhanced by an AA dose given daily at 1 g/hr (and a higher dose in the people who are more ill).”
AA is not patentable and its’ benefits have been forgotten by mainstream medicine which has antibiotics to fight infections and immunizations. Antibiotics do not treat the avian flu and the virus can mutate around current immunizations.
Early in mammalian evolution, mammals were able to synthesize AA. Possibly, because of an abundant supply of AA in the tropics, many mammals lost the ability to synthesize it and this became a problem for mammals that moved away from the tropics. About four thousand species of mammals are able to synthesize 50 mg./kg./day of AA, or about 5 gm/day for an average human. This is considered by many to be the optimum dose for humans to prevent aging and viral infections.
AA acid is said by the author to be incorrectly classified as a vitamin (vitamin C). It is one of the most important molecules to humans and may be needed daily in gram doses. (Vitamins are only essential in minute amounts.) Linus Pauling believed that some people need as much as 10 g/day for optimum health and said that most people receive about 2% of the AA needed for maximum health. Linus Pauling and Albert Szent-Gyorgy both received Nobel Prize and they both believed that AA was not a vitamin, but an essential nutrient.
A high sugar diet blocks the effects of AA and blocks any resistance to infections that might be developed by AA. AA first became available in the 1930’s. Studies were done in the 1960’s and 1970’s on the benefits of AA, but the high blood sugar levels considered normal at the time made the results complicated to determine. Blood sugar levels in the early 1900’s were much lower than in later populations with high sugar and refined grain diets. Insulin is needed to transport AA across cell walls and this is inhibited by the competition for insulin in people with high blood sugar levels.
Glucose Ascorbate Antagonism (GAA) is the explanation of the failure of AA to function in the presence of excess levels of blood sugar. Optimal blood sugar levels for the functioning of AA seem to be between 50 and 90 mg/dl., a level that was normal before the 1900’s. With our current high sugar diets, sugar levels 130 mg/dl. and above are more normal blood levels following a meal. In this situation white blood cells don’t attack tumor cells and pathogens, and fetal cells do not divide at a normal rate.
AA helps mammals prevent and treat poliomyelitis, influenza, hepatitis, viral encephalitis, chickenpox, measles, bacterial pathogens, tuberculosis and herpes. Dr. Claus W. Jungeblut did many studies in the 1930’s. AA has been shown to be bacteriostatic, bacteriocidal and virucidal, neutralizing the toxins of diphtheria, tetanus and staphylococcus, as well as improving wound healing.
The following are the amounts of AA in some common foods:
Black currants. 200 mg./100 kg.
Red capsicum. 140 mg./100 kg.
Broccoli. 90 mg./100 kg.
Kiwifruit. 90 mg./100 kg.
Brussels sprouts. 80 mg./100 kg.
Oranges. 70 mg./100 kg.
Green capsicum. 70 mg./100 kg.
Persimmons. 60 mg./100 kg.
Silver beet greens. 50 mg./100 kg.
Orange juice. 40 mg./100 kg.
Cauliflower. 40 mg./100 kg.
Spinach. 30 mg./100 kg.
Tomato. 25 mg./100 kg.
Cabbage. 20 mg./100 kg.
AA is the primary rate-limiting factor for cell-mediated immunity. Lymphocytes (white blood cells that fight infections) work more efficiently when their AA levels are high.
CONCLUSION: The author suggests that ascorbic acid (AA) may be a way to treat the avian flu epidemic. The author believes that ascorbic acid should be given to people who are infected or at risk for infection with the H5N1 virus.
AA benefits are extensive in humans, but the benefits of AA are blocked by excessive blood sugar levels resulting from the common western diet of high sugar levels and increased amounts of refined grains. A low carbohydrate diet facilitates the effects of AA. A good dose of AA is 5000 mg/day and five servings of high AA foods should be consumed daily. (The U.S. Department of Agriculture food composition database gives more sources of AA.)
The rapid mutation of the H5N1 virus has frustrated attempts to develop a vaccine.
Albert Szent-Gyorgy (1893-1986) was Hungarian and isolated ascorbic acid from Hungarian Paprika in 1928. He won the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1937 and said, “Discovery is seeing what everybody else has seen, and thinking what nobody else has thought.”
Linus Pauling (1901-1994), the founder of orthomolecular medicine, was a chemist who won the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1954 for his work on chemical bonds. He won the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1962 for his campaign against above the ground nuclear testing.
Bacteriostatic means to slow bacterial growth. Bacteriocidal means to kill bacteria and virucidal means to kill viruses.
PMID: 17609500.
Summary #184.