I consider vitamin C to be one of the most effective remedies available. It’s best known as a way to avoid—or at least shorten—the common cold. But vitamin C does much, much more! Infections, wounds, shingles, and Epstein-Barr all benefit from vitamin C treatment. The nutrient also reduces inflammation, lowers high blood pressure, helps reduce high cholesterol, assists your body in manufacturing serotonin and other “feel-good” neurotransmitters, and combats damage done by stress hormones. Vitamin C also strengthens your capillaries, the tiny blood vessels throughout your body. Problems with your immune system? Vitamin C to the rescue! That’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to vitamin C’s impressive ability to protect your health. But here’s a bit of irony—in spite of this nutrient’s importance, the human body cannot manufacture vitamin C, even though all other mammals can. And to make the situation worse, the government’s recommendations are far too low—a mere 90 mg daily when integrative health specialists suggest many times that each and every day.
Sadly, most Americans barely get the Adequate Intake (AI) recommended by the National Institutes of Health, an amount that’s just about sufficient to prevent you from getting scurvy. Here’s another question I hear quite often from my patients—which form of vitamin C is most effective? Since vitamin C is water-soluble, it’s not easily absorbed by your cells, which are surrounded by membranes made of fat. The solution to that problem is liposomal vitamin C. This product combines the nutrient with a fat (liposome) to make it more bioavailable to your cells. This version is also less likely to cause diarrhea than a water-soluble product, especially if you’re aiming for the higher dosage (4,000 mg daily in divided doses) that I recommend to most patients. But if you really want to take your relationship with vitamin C to a whole new super-healthful level, here’s what I recommend. The best way to take high doses of vitamin C is intravenously (IV), the way many patients take injections of B vitamins.
Although not as well known as B vitamin shots, injections of vitamin C were reviewed in a recent study by the National Institutes of Health and found to be “remarkably safe.” In fact, researchers recommended injections for individuals with cancer or chronic conditions that are difficult to treat or don’t respond to traditional remedies. And here’s something else you should know about vitamin C—it’s remarkably effective. Here’s an example: Mononucleosis is a nasty viral infection with no treatment. Patients feel wiped out and just plain exhausted. So when a young boy’s mother brought him to me and said he had already been diagnosed with mono, the first treatment that came to mind was IV vitamin C. I gave him one treatment and within 24 hours he was symptom free. He had a second IV, as back up, and was completely back to normal. Contrast that experience with the typical mono patient’s weeks or even months of recovery time. This is why I check all my patient’s urinary levels of vitamin C—because it’s so important!
Taking therapeutic amounts of vitamin C orally—in the 10 to 20 gram range, for example—just won’t work. It causes stomach upset and terrible diarrhea. Plus, most of the nutrient would be excreted in your urine, rather than absorbed by the cells. But as an injection, large amounts are easily absorbed without uncomfortable side effects. I know this for a fact, because I have these shots myself every two weeks, or whenever I’m feeling tired and run down. And yes, they do work. I’m around sick people day in and day out, yet rarely get sick. IV vitamin C shortens the length and intensity of flu, colds, and mononucleosis, hastens healing after surgery, improves depression symptoms, eases exhaustion, and reduces allergy symptoms. Even cancer patients benefit from IV vitamin C. I use high-dose, intravenous vitamin C at my cancer clinic, Cancer Center for Hope, regularly. After treatment, cancer patients are thrilled that the terrible side effects are so minimal.
No nausea, hair loss, fatigue, brain fog, or damage to other organs. But the really good news is how cancer responds. I’m happy to report that the combination of IV vitamin C and the insulin potentiation chemotherapy I use works just as well—often even better—than conventional chemo, which destroys both healthy and diseased cells alike. If you still think vitamin C is only for the sniffles, you’re missing out on a true warrior in the battle for your health. Sure, it takes on cold and flu viruses. But vitamin C also repairs damage from things I’m always warning you about—destructive free radicals, pesticides, air pollution, radiation, and other everyday threats to your health. And now you can fight back with a nutrient powerhouse that fends off everything from colds to cancer. Did You Enjoy This Article? Sign up to get FREE access to more health tips, latest research, and exclusive offers to help you reach your health and wellness goals! Related Health News & InformationWhy Am I Tired?
How to Keep Up Your EnergyGood Fat vs. Bad Fat: A Simple Healthy GuideNew Drug May Cure Antibiotic Resistant InfectionsHow to Make Bones Strong: Foods, Tips & Supplements that WorkCurcumin: Can it Really Prevent Cancer?Control Blood Clots SafelyCould some of the world’s oldest antivirals stop the spread of this deadly disease? The World Health Organization (WHO) says Ebola virus disease (EVD) has a fatality rate of up to 90%. The virus is transmitted through direct physical contact (through broken skin or mucous membranes) with the blood or other bodily fluids of infected animals or humans, and through indirect contact with environments contaminated with such fluids. The current outbreak in West Africa is the world’s deadliest to date. More than 1200 people have died so far this year, and the WHO has declared an international health emergency. There are no effective cures; treatment is mostly palliative or supportive, minimizing the dehydration from the vomiting and diarrhea that typically present with the disease.
As the world starts looking for other treatments, the Catch-22 of drug economics (no one will spend the exorbitant sums needed to run clinical trials if the product can’t be patented and turned into a huge money-maker) practically ensures that natural treatments will be ignored. But could some of our oldest natural antivirals be used at least to inhibit the transfer of the virus—or even cure it? Silver, as we reported last year, has been used as an antimicrobial for thousands of years. It’s a powerful antibiotic, attacking all kinds of bacteria in a three-pronged attack. More and more research (study 1; study 2; study 3; study 4; study 5) is also heralding silver’s promise as a method of disinfecting water of both bacteria and viruses. Since disinfecting contaminated environments is the most effective method of halting Ebola’s spread, silver could be a most potent weapon in the battle. Silver has also showed great promise as an antiviral, in both attacking the virus and in inhibiting transmission.
So far, silver has been tested on HIV (study 1; study 2; study 3; study 4) and herpes (study 1; study 2; study 3). Silver has also been used to clear HPV warts; inhibit the replication of the hepatitis B virus; kill the H1N1 virus; and kill the tacaribe virus, which also causes hemorrhagic fever, as well as the bacteriophage viral strain. Dr. Josepha A. Mercola notes that commonsense basics like hygiene, nutrition, vitamin D, and vitamin C are often overlooked in Ebola outbreaks. For full therapeutic impact, the vitamin C should be intravenous. Thomas E. Levy, MD, a board-certified internist and cardiologist, is particularly excited about high doses of vitamin C as a potential treatment for EVD: To date, not a single virus has been tested that is not inactivated [killed]by a large enough dose of vitamin C (ascorbic acid). Many other antioxidants have similar virucidal effects, but vitamin C appears uniquely to be of greatest potency and clinical efficacy, as its simple chemical structure allows for it to be disseminated throughout the body with little restriction.
Intravenous vitamin C (which has the advantage of concentrating the C where it is needed before the body can eliminate it) is presumably too complicated to deliver successfully in the regions where Ebola is currently raging. But silver could cure this plague before it takes hold as a pandemic. Inexpensive, plentiful, natural, and effective against all kinds of viruses and bacteria: no wonder the drug industry will not support these natural remedies! Meanwhile, the drug industry does see a potential market for itself. All that is needed is to sidestep the usual extended and costly approval process. In August, the WHO convened an advisory panel of twelve experts to consider whether it is appropriate to test promising or innovative treatments on these Ebola patients, even though several of the drugs have had no human trials yet. The panel concluded that it is indeed ethical to use such experimental drugs in this current outbreak. This week the WHO will hold a major conference with over 100 international experts, who will discuss how best to provide access to experimental therapies for EVD.
One of the more widely known drugs on the market for Ebola, ZMapp, has shown mixed results, and the sample sizes have been extraordinarily small—perhaps as small as six patients. A ZMapp-based anti-Ebola antibody combination was used on two American missionaries who contracted the disease. Both were improved enough to be released from the Emory University Hospital, though the lead physician was more emphatic as to the role of strong, supportive care in their recovery rather than the ZMapp. A third ZMapp recipient died. The company that makes ZMapp, Mapp Biopharmaceutical, Inc., has received $10 million from the Department of Defense to develop the drug, which means the federal government will likely have some say in how the drug is distributed. The WHO will certainly take up the question at their September 4-5 summit, where distribution will be a major issue—despite the fact that its success rate is questionable at best. Another experimental drug, TKM-Ebola, has been tested on monkeys and a handful of healthy human volunteers.