Intro:              00:00          Podcasting from the base of Lake Tahoe in the Eastern Sierras comes The Medicine Wheel. We are a group of progressive physicians seeking solutions and enlightenment while surfing the seas of big data and summiting mountains of research. In an effort to make the practice of medicine more personal and medical knowledge more accessible and empower you, the listener to be as healthy as possible. Now, The Medicine Wheel.

Dr. Gerber:         00:34          Hello, I'm Dr. Michael Gerber for The Medicine Wheel. Today, we're going to enter into the C's and I started looking and digging into the C's and realize that vitamin C would take our whole show. So I've called this show, Vitamin C King of Nutrients. Now these remarks came from our favorite latest review book of vitamin C, which is The Primal Panacea by Thomas Levy, MD, JD, he's a cardiologist from Denver, and has written many authoritative books in this field. You can order Primal Panacea and get all these citations there are over 1200 scientific references supporting vitamin C usage and you can contact him and purchase his book at www.medfoxpub.com, one word, m,e,d,f,o,x,p,u,b, .com. Well, why vitamin C? Albert Szent-Györgyi was a Hungarian physician and researcher that discovered the chemical ascorbic acid that enables the body to efficiently use carbohydrates, fats, and proteins. He received the Nobel prize in 1937. Humans don't make vitamin C, all other species of animals on the planet make their own in their livers except primates and Guinea pigs. A goat that weighs 150 pounds make from 15,000 to 20,000 milligrams per day and more when they're under stress. Human beings don't make any. So the current RDA for 90 milligrams was established for war time usage to keep people out of gross scurvy. But in our toxic environment, our toxic world, much more than that is very helpful, we believe. So extreme vitamin C deficiency is called scurvy and scurvy has been historically observed for thousands of years. The Egyptians and the Greek noticed and symptoms include weakness, bleeding sores, tooth loss, anemia, bruising, slow healing of injuries, pain in the limbs, especially the legs, ulceration of gum, shortness of breath, mood changes, depression, and eventually death. Vitamin C is needed for making collagen and connective tissue which is important in making blood vessels. The scurvy was often associated with sailors in the 15th and 18th century, when long sea voyages made it hard to get a steady supply of fresh produce. For example, Vasco da Gama sailed from Portugal and 1492 to sail around the world with three ships and 1500 men. He returned three years later with one ship and 50 sailors, all the rest had died of scurvy. Sir James Lind was a physician in the English Royal Navy and published his treatise on scurvy, in 1753, sailors with scurvy were unable to stand their watch and he introduced giving the juice of one lemon or lime per day to sailors, which greatly reduced their symptoms, hence the term, limeys. The Admiralty didn't introduce the practice into the fleet until nearly a hundred years later. Collagen formation, ligaments, bones, arteries, immune enhancement, detoxification, neurotransmitters, brain chemical formation, antioxidant, anti infection, anticancer, carnitine synthesis, wound healing, basement membrane synthesis. It promotes calcium incorporation to the bone. It's a natural anti histamine, improves cholesterol and triglyceride levels is anti inflammatory, anticlotting regulates fibrinogen levels, it minimizes reactive iron and a host of other supportive functions. Well, what conditions can vitamin C supplementation treat? Well, maybe starting off with sepsis and sepsis, you know, is the killer of tens of thousands of hospitalized patients every year after they have overwhelming infections in their on several antibiotics and other substances to bring them through. But the down part of the infection is they create cytokines and lymphokines and inflammatory molecules that gradually kill the liver and the kidneys and the heart and patients die. So Alpha Fowler, MD, who is head of the intensive care medicine at the Commonwealth of Virginia school of medicine, made a 10 year study of sepsis, starting with rats and mice and evolving into human treatment. He published his findings and found, by only giving to 14 gram 14,000 milligrams a c per day intravenously around the clock. He dropped the mortality rate of sepsis by about 50%. So in the modern orthomolecular or integrative lexicon, this is really a quite a low dose, for an intravenous therapy. We give 25 to 50 grams or more for colds and flus. Vitamin C can treat viral infections such as AIDS, HIV, Ebola, encephalitis, hepatitis, herpes, pneumonia, and even polio. Famously, Dr. Frederick Klenner, MD, in 1940s, cured 60 out of 60 cases of polio in the late 1940s he published his findings in the Southern journal of medicine in 1949 and of course this was way before the polio vaccinations. This was given by usually intravenously or intramuscularly to these children and even children that are already progressing into the bull bar, phase of polio where they're unable to breathe and heading for the iron lung but turned around and completely cured. So it has a wonderful effect on viruses. It's great for shingles, IV, and it's a, there's a great story of a swine flu. There was a gentleman named Paul Smith, I think he was a 74 year old dairy farmer from New Zealand, and he was in the ICU at the medical center in the North Island in New Zealand, and he was on a respirator and his physicians called the family around and said, "well, we're going to have to unplug dad here, there no hope of his recovery. So, he's doomed." Well, the children got ahold of Tom Levy that wrote this book I'm quoting from, and said, "what should we do for dad?" And Dr. Levy said, "well, ask the hospital to give him a hundred grams of vitamin C intravenously per day." So they approached the hospital and the hospital said, "absolutely no, this is quackery. It's unscientific medicine. We're not going to do any such thing." So the family rallied and threatened to sue the hospital. And eventually they said, well, we'll give him one gram of vitamin C, 8,000 milligrams. They said, no, no, no, a hundred grams. We'll eventually, the hospital started with 25 grams of IV vitamin C and then three or four days he was off the respirator. This is all well documented on YouTube, and with the radiology you can see the X rays of his lungs all whited out from the pneumonia, from the swine flu and how they rapidly improved. So he was well enough after a couple of weeks of getting a hundred grams of C to go to his local hospital, and the family went through this whole process again with the local hospitals and they refused, were not giving vitamin C. Well, we give him one gram and then, no, no, no, no hundred grams. So they finally won out. And the upshot of the story was within six weeks after completing his physical therapy, he was back at work, totally healed. So an amazing story about intravenous vitamin C and again, why this is not available in all hospitals around the world is a human tragedy. So let's hope that we can make this come to fruition. So all hospitals will give intravenous vitamin C. So hepatitis is greatly cured by vitamin C, especially A and B, and it helps with hepatitis C. Pathogens always deplete vitamin C levels. So vitamin C neutralizes toxins and poisons. It's very good for drug overdoses, including alcohol, barbiturates and amphetamines. Dangerous chemicals including aromatic hydrocarbon cyanides, arsenic, mercury, and lead exposure, are greatly improved and quickly healed with intravenous vitamin C. Lethal gases, carbon monoxide and fluorine are helped with that, with vitamin C, poisoned mushrooms, deadly spider bites and snake bites. And vitamin C protects against radiation exposure, UV x-rays, cat scans, and nuclear accidents. We always advise patients heading into a cat scan to take a large dose of vitamin C before they go in. So high blood levels of vitamin C, lower mortality from all causes and has no unhealthy side effects or toxicity. With one caveat, if people have very high levels of glucose, G6PD and they can't metabolize vitamin C, it can cause some haemolysis or breakdown of red blood cells. Also, very high doses of vitamin C can lower blood sugar, so keeping blood sugar support available, but if this happens quite rarely. Heart disease, coming unglued when the innermost lining of the arteries, the intima, losses vitamin C, the ground substance that holds the cells in place become watery and open spaces appear, allowing plaque building substances to form plaques and subsequent clogging of the artery. Plaque is reversible with high dosage vitamin C supplementation. Root canals deplete vitamin C because of bacterial pathogens that invade the tooth and other jaw cavitations. So it's always good in German biological dentistry, the Germans call root canals a corpse in the attic. So we think it's good to have them out and properly cleaned out, with ozonated waters especially, and people who had studied biological dentistry. Vitamin C reduces cholesterol levels, it can reduce high blood pressure. Diabetes and vitamin C causes a deficiency in diabetes. Several studies are cited, vitamin C is involved in the synthesis of insulin. Diabetics have greatly reduced plasma levels of vitamin C. Cancer treatment with vitamin C, Dr. Linus Pauling, PhD who is a two time Nobel prize winner, his first Nobel was for the elucidation of the chemical bond. And his second was for elimination of above ground nuclear testing. So he, with Ewen Cameron MD from Scotland published a book on the successful treatment of cancer with vitamin C. Vitamin C studies showed a 50% reduction in cancer in the highest levels of vitamin C group compared with the lowest levels. Vitamin C inhibits both tumor growth and cancer spread. Vitamin C protects healthy cells while simultaneously and selectively causing rapid cell death in cancer cells. Cancer cells accumulate very high levels of iron and via the Fenton reaction, vitamin C reacts with the iron to produce peroxide and the peroxide then kills the tumor cells because cancer cells have a very poor antioxidant protection ability. Oncologists worry that the antioxidant properties of vitamin C will interfere with the oxidizing properties of some chemotherapeutic drugs. Actually, simply waiting for the half life of the chemotherapeutic agent to run and then giving the vitamin C will reduce side effects of chemotherapy, causing its own anticancer affects. Linus Pauling was also famously coined the term orthomolecular in 1968 and it was quite a buzzword back then. And orthomolecular medicine simply means 'right molecules', correct 'ortho', right molecules, in the right place, at the right time. And subsequently he started his orthomolecular medical society in San Francisco, which I joined in 1976 and was president in 1983, and was very lucky to know Dr. Pauling, wonderful man, he was one of the great scientific geniuses of the 20th century. So vitamin C and oxidative stress and degenerative disease. So vitamin C is the body's premier antioxidant. It absorbs free radicals by donating electrons to damage the cell membranes. These diseases include ALS, Alzheimer's, arthritis, cancer, cataracts, CLPD, diabetes clout, Colma, gout, heart disease, lupus, macular degeneration, multiple sclerosis, and osteoporosis. In osteoporosis, vitamin C increases the assimilation of calcium in the bones. It decreases osteo class, the molecules that break down bone and increase osteoblasts that create bone and results in a significant lowering of risk for fractures in subjects treated with vitamin C. Well, where is the evidence for all this? There are over 50,000 studies on vitamin C, 60 out of 60 polio cures, 327 out of 327 cases of shingles cured and so one can go online and read these endlessly. Now vitamin C also has immune boosting properties, obviously from all the above treatments that can support. Vitamin C enhances production of interferons, enhances function of phagocytes, the eating white blood cells, macrophages, the big eaters that gobble up bacteria and viruses, natural killer cells and antigen specific T lymphocytes. It increases nitric oxide, N O, to kill captured pathogens inside the the white blood cells. Enhances B lymphocytes proliferation, it inhibits neuraminidase production. It enhances antibody production, enhances prostoglandin formation, enhances localized generation of hydrogen peroxide, detoxifies histamine. It's a great antihistamine. Neutralizes oxidative stress, enhances the mucolytic effect, to liquefy thick secretions. It improves carnitine synthesis, which enables the mitochondria to produce energy, RATP. So of its many potential treatments, it helps with aflatoxin, which are can be found in moldy peanuts for acute mole toxicity. Again, alcohol poisoning. A review of the literature demonstrates that adequate dose vitamin C level is the best way to detoxify alcohol, prevent future alcohol induced damage and, repair past alcohol induced damage. Aluminum poisoning aluminums are great neurotoxin which can damage the brain and greatly impair speech. Cognitive ability, memory and muscle coordination increases the risk for lung and bladder cancer. It also is found in high levels in Alzheimer's. Aluminum blocks lipid peroxidation or it causes lipid peroxidation which can then result in damage to cell membranes and DNA. And of course, aluminum is found in table salt as a drying agent. And of course aluminum is in many vaccines and some people don't have the genetic ability to clear aluminum from their system, and the aluminum is then delivered to the brain where it can cause chronic oxidative damage. Arsenic poison, weakness, malaise, discoloration of the tongue and inside the mouth, and lung disease causes neuropathy and liver toxicity. And we have in Northern Nevada, we see a lot of arsenic toxicity. Arthritis. Oxidative stress had been blamed for cartilage senescence, aging, chondrocyte telomere stability and a lessening of chondrocyte function and arthritis, that's a bone manufacturing ability. Vitamin C in high doses reduces extremity arthritis and it's associated inflammatory edema. The common cold and Dr. Pauline also wrote a book about the common cold, vitamin C, lesses the severity and duration of the common cold and sometimes it requires 30 grams or up to a hundred grams intravenously when people are acutely very ill. Dysentery, amoebic dysentery, vitamin C reduces the symptoms and duration of dysentery. And cephalitis high dose IV vitamin C reduce or stop symptoms in 72 hours. Fluoride poisoning, skeletal fluorosis can be reversed with vitamin C and of course, everyone should avoid fluoridated water and fluoride toothpaste, there is not one reaction in the human body that depends on fluoride, and it causes brittle bone and increased risk of fractures and many other undesirable side effects. Measles, we're hearing a lot about measles these days inter-muscular vitamin C, a thousand milligrams every four hours caused a complete recovery in a 10 month old child. So there are many ways of treating vitamin C, so we encourage people to be in touch with your integrative doctor. Mercury poisoning, especially when removing amalgam fillings, IV vitamin C's, infusions of 35,000 to 50,000 milligrams lessons and often completely block the acute toxic effects of mercury when amalgam fillings were being removed, so you know that the silver fillings are actually 50% mercury and it comes into the body, into the saliva and the breath every time that we eat hot food or drink hot liquids. Mumps, high dose vitamin C treatment protocol quickly resolve 33 out of 33 cases of mumps, fever was gone after 24 hours, pain was gone after 36 hours, and the parotid swelling was resolved after 48 to 72 hours. Pertussis, whooping cough an oral vitamin C protocol was found to markedly decreased the intensity, frequency, and length of this characteristic pertussis symptom, the whooping cough. Pneumonia, vitamin C, especially intravenously, can markedly reduce the length and severity of pneumonia, both bacterial and viral. So, as we've already mentioned, vitamin C is a universal detoxifier, can help detoxify all the poisons, including nickel, vanadium, aluminum, cadmium, led, venoms, arsenic, mercury and all oxidizing infectious toxins. Vitamin C format is especially potent when done in a lyposome. A lyposome is a little lecithin fat bag that carries vitamin C and it's immediately absorbed through the intestinal tract and it's about three times more effective than just a straight ascorbic acid. So when keeping a little lyposomal C around, is almost as strong as doing an intravenous dose of vitamin C. So lyposomal C is important, especially when you have sick people or sick infants. So at The Medicine Wheel, we integrate this vitamin C into our treatment protocols. The lyposomal C, again, it's made out of lecithin, but it's not soy lecithin. It comes from a sunflower seed lecithin that can be taken in every several hours in an acute situation does not cause diarrhea at high dose, which is a limiting factor in regular vitamin C dosage. However, it's laxative effect is most welcomed by many patients who live in our high dry Nevada desert. So vitamin C supplementation is a must for all humans. I'll venture into many other C's in our next session. I would also like to add that vitamin C especially intravenously is wonderful for burns and serious burns. We have had occasion to watch patients that have had very large parts of their body burned and in the hospital with burn treatments that could avoid surgery to their burn scars just by taking a larger dose of intravenous vitamin C. Well that's it for this session. So this is Dr. Michael Gerber for The Medicine Wheel. Have a great day.