A recent newspaper headline read, “Researchers look to common, cheap medications to help H1N1 patients.” Viral experts are wondering whether cholesterol-lowering drugs and steroids could help to save the sickest H1N1patients.
If these researchers studied history, they would learn how Dr. Frederick R. Klenner saved an important patient and many others from life-threatening viral infections.
In “The Clinical Guide to the Use of Vitamin C,” Dr. Lendon Smith details the clinical experiences of Frederick R. Klenner, M.D., who cured case after case of viral disease by massive doses of vitamin C. When you read these cases, it boggles the mind why this research has collected so much dust.
Fifty-six years ago, a 7-year-old boy had been ill for six weeks due to recurring attacks of influenza. He had been treated with sulfa, penicillin, and 5,000 to 10,000 milligrams of oral vitamin C, but he suddenly dropped into a stupor.
Dr. Klenner quickly gave him an intravenous injection of 6,000 milligrams of vitamin C. Five minutes later, the boy was awake and asked, “What happened?” He received three further injections of vitamin C every six hours and fully recovered in 24 hours. The patient was Dr. Klenner’s son.
Dr. Frederick R. Klenner was an American researcher and family practitioner in North Carolina. In 1949 he reported this momentous news to the American Medical Association. During the epidemic of poliomyelitis, he had cured 60 out of 60 patients suffering from this disease by using massive doses of vitamin C, sometimes 300,000 milligrams daily. None were left with any paralysis. Yet no one appears to have listened to him.
This was the same year I developed polio in my final year at Harvard Medical School. But none of its distinguished professors ever considered or even knew about the use of vitamin C in treating viral disease. And as far as I know, 60 years later, neither they nor other doctors are aware of this fact.
In February 1948, Klenner reported in Southern Medicine and Surgery 42 cases of viral pneumonia treated by vitamin C. Other doctors were using X-rays as therapy! His treatment was 1,000 milligrams of vitamin C every six hours for mild cases. Three to seven injections were required for clinical recovery. In 1951, in the same journal, he reported that vitamin C could cure measles and chicken pox in 24 hours.
In June 1957, in the Tri-State Medical Journal, Klenner reported on what he called the “insidious virus.” He described the case of a 19-month-old baby who had a minor cold for two weeks. Then suddenly, instead of improving, the child became cold to touch and semi-comatose; his arms and legs became completely paralyzed.
Two thousand milligrams of vitamin C were injected on admission to the hospital and 1,000 milligrams more, one hour later. Then 1,000 milligrams were given orally every four hours. In eight hours, the baby started to recover, and the paralysis disappeared. Penicillin was given to guard against bacterial infection, and the baby returned home in five days.
Klenner also reported the case of a man who contacted hepatitis in Central America. He was jaundiced, had a high fever, and a large, tender liver. He was treated with large doses of intravenous vitamin C for several days. By the seventh day, his liver-function tests were normal, and he was discharged on oral vitamin C. He remained free of recurrences. Others suffering from chronic hepatitis required several weeks of vitamin C therapy.
Today, an increasing number of people are dying from the H1N1 virus. I obviously wonder (and hope doctors reading this column will share my view), how many of these patients’ lives could have been saved by large doses of vitamin C?
Dr. Klenner’s message was simple. If a serious infection is present, but the cause unknown, doctors should prescribe large doses of vitamin C while they’re pondering the diagnosis.
Moreover, just as a small dose of a narcotic will not stop cancer pain, neither will a small dose of vitamin C stop viral disease. But are there any doctors who treat desperately ill N1H1 patients who are willing to prescribe large doses of vitamin C?
Dr. Gifford-Jones is a medical journalist with a private medical practice in Toronto. His Web site is Mydoctor.ca/gifford-jones
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