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Dr. Suzanne Humphries has given what is the most comprehensive and informative lecture on vitamin C that I have ever heard. The entire lecture can be watched below. Please be informed about vitamin C, and how powerful this natural vitamin can be in treating disease. If everyone learned about the health properties of vitamin C and used it accordingly, it would put a serious dent into the sales of patented pharmaceutical products.
by Dr. Suzanne Humphries
The Swedish Society for Orthomolecular Medicine, Stockholm, Sweden 2014
The Swedish Society for Orthomolecular Medicine introduced Dr. Suzanne Humphries to lecture on the practical use of Vitamin C in Stockholm, Sweden 2014.
Although Dr. Humphries primary interest is in the study of vaccinations, she has realized that,
“Much of what I have learned in my medical education is lacking in details on how to support the biology of the human being.”
She continues,
“When people are just a little bit sick or when they are healthy, it can be very helpful to support the chemistry of the body using earth products that were put here for us and not necessarily the ones the drug companies have made for us.”
Dr. Humphries states that since she has learned to use Vitamin C, not only has her own health become extraordinarily better, but her prescription writing has gone down significantly and the health of her patients has improved.
Dispelling Myths Regarding the “Dangers” of Vitamin C
Dr. Humphries states that there is a lot of mythology in the medical field regarding vitamin C. The fact that vitamin C is necessary to prevent scurvy, but that doses over 1000 mg are dangerous, wasteful and just gives you “expensive urine,” is a myth.
Scurvy is a disease that occurs if you have a severe lack of vitamin C (ascorbic acid) in your diet, causing anemia, gum disease and skin hemorrhages. Conventional doctors may say that the body becomes saturated if consumers take more than 150 mg a day. In addition, that in large doses vitamin C can cause kidney stones.
We hear that natural whole vitamin C is always the best source, food is always the best source, and the statement that people with illnesses can get enough ascorbate (vitamin C) from food.
None of these myths we hear are true or have ever been proven clinically or scientifically according to Dr. Humphries and medical literature.
The Recommended Daily Allowance of Vitamin C is to Prevent Scurvy, Not Promote Optimal Health
Dr. Humphries explains,
“Animals use four sequential liver enzymes to convert glucose into L-Ascorbic Acid. This is the magic chemical that has so many functions in our body that enhance our health and can be very lifesaving in certain situations, and can be consumed very rapidly during illness.”
The fourth enzyme is missing from human beings as well as some other animals (bats, guinea pigs and some primates). This means that human beings are dependent on the food source in order to have this life saving nutrient.
There are animals that make their own vitamin C, for example, a cow makes 18 mg/kg/day, daily total of 12,000 mg a day plus food. Another animal she discusses is cats, who make 20 to 40 mg/kg/day, daily total of 180 mg a day.
The Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) for a person is half of that amount. The animals that rely on their food source, such as a gorilla, the intake is 30 mg/kg/day for 4,500 mg per day. The guinea pig also does not make their own vitamin C, and intake is 33 mg/kg/day for 30 mg per day.
Dr. Humphries has learned some interesting facts about goats. When goats are healthy, they produce 185 mg/kg/day (13,000 mg/day) and when sick or stressed, up to 1400 mg/kg/day (100,000 mg/day).
A veterinarian was on the farm in New Zealand where Dr. Humphries is seen in this picture, and he volunteered that goats hardly ever get sick.
Dr. Humphries states,
“I make none of my own vitamin C and I am told that I only need 75 mg/day or 1.2 mg/kg/day. This is a gross underestimation of what we should take every day. The science behind this estimate is flawed.”
The RDA for men is 90 mg/day and for women is 75 mg/day. When scientists attempted to change the RDA of vitamin C to 200 a day, it was rejected by the authorities according to Dr. Humphries.
When a person develops an illness, the vitamin C reserves can be depleted very quickly. Dr. Humphries stresses that the RDA levels for vitamin C are to prevent scurvy, not promote optimal health.
Study Shows That Nearly One in Five People Have a Plasma Vitamin C Concentration Compatible with Scurvy
Dr. Humphries found a study in Canada showing levels of vitamin C in the blood. In this study, greater than 28.4 micro mol/L is considered normal. According to this study there are approximately 16 percent of people who have subnormal levels in their blood and 84 percent are normal:
The difference in patients that are in the hospital and ill, is that only 21 percent are normal by what Dr. Humphries exclaims is,
“a very low standard of normal.”
The graph on the picture above shows hospitalized patients as the black bars and outpatients are represented by the clear bars. Dr. Humphries points out that both groups have people that are 100 or 125, she believes that this is a better range for us to live in, either with a high diet of this nutrient or repeated doses.
She states that 24 percent of the people that were admitted into the hospital were taking vitamins and the doctors discontinued most of them.
The conclusion of this study was that,
“Nearly one in five had a plasma vitamin C concentration compatible with scurvy.”
Dr. Humphries questions,
“If conventional doctors knew about this would they do anything different?”
There are Some Physicians Who Would Rather Stand by and See Their Patients Die Than Use Ascorbic Acid
Dr. Humphries states that we are living with this myth that we do not need to look at vitamin C levels in sick people and we don’t need to supplement.
Dr. Frederick R. Klenner was one of the pioneers of using ascorbic acid in high doses and cured many patients with horrible diseases in the 1950’s, including polio and a black widow spider bite (documented in The Black Widow Spider: Case History. Tri-State Med J, Dec 1957, Vol5, No 10, pp 15-18).
Dr. Humphries states that in this case history Dr. Klenner says,
“…there are some physicians who would stand by and see their patient die rather than use ascorbic acid – because in their finite minds, it exists only as a vitamin.”
Dr. Humphries discusses a study from New Zealand with healthy adult males around 30 years old. These males offered to do a muscle biopsy to measure the vitamin C levels. Initially, they measured the men’s blood levels which were on the low end, around 30 to 40 Mol/L. They were then told to consume a diet low in vitamin C and stop supplements, and the levels dropped considerably in five weeks almost to levels of scurvy.
Next, half of the men were told to eat half a kiwi a day and the other half two kiwi’s a day. The levels of both groups were raised considerably, but the men who ate two kiwi’s a day, had levels that rose up to 70 Mol/L.
Dr. Humphries continues to say,
“Different parts of our bodies need different amounts of vitamin C. The adrenal and the eye need very high amounts, for instance, muscle is somewhere in between.”
The need for vitamin C can be divided into categories; anti-oxidant, anti-histamine and enzyme co-factor.
Vitamin C acts as an electron donor and fixes the damage that is done by the oxidants in our environment, such as, car fumes, environmental sprays or from any poison. Vitamin C also acts as an anti-histamine, and protects people from pollen and allergies.
Dr. Humphries states that she has found this in clinical practice and evidence in medical literature. She continues that vitamin C,
“Is a co-factor for many enzymes. Some of them make collagen, neurotransmitters, hormones and carnitine.”
Vitamin C Can Prevent Diseases Such as Diabetes, Heart Disease and High Blood Pressure
Dr. Humphries discusses two medical issues that many doctors deal with daily, diabetes and high blood pressure. Both of these medical problems are associated with low vitamin C. Dr. Humphries states that both of these problems respond to vitamin C supplementation.
She continues,
“Both types of diabetes are becoming worldwide problems, epidemics and both are largely preventable. We also know that diabetics have lower vitamin C levels than non-diabetics, about 30 percent lower.”
She continues,
“About every aspect of glycemic control is improved with supplementation with vitamin C.”
The second medical issue she talks about is heart disease,
“Heart disease is caused by too much oxidative stress, toxin exposure, toxins from both inside the body and outside the body. It is an inflammatory state. Every risk factor for heart disease is improved by vitamin C.”
Dr. Humphries states that blood vessel health, cholesterol metabolism and blood pressure are all improved by taking vitamin C supplements.
In the 1950’s there were biopsy’s done on people with heart attacks and strokes, and parts of the brain and heart were found to be extremely low in vitamin C, according to Dr. Humphries.
She states that,
“The only thing there has not been a whole lot of research on is the exact dose.”
Vitamin C is the Most Powerful Antioxidant
According to Dr. Humphries, Vitamin C is the most powerful antioxidant. She states:
We make many other antioxidants in the body, but this one has more power. Ascorbic acid is very bitter and it is what we find in the natural food. The body likes to bring in sodium ascorbate, our intestines need sodium to bring the ascorbate into the body. We can either take it as ascorbate acid and we will use the sodium from something we have eaten or we can take sodium ascorbate.
Dr. Humphries recommends supplementing with sodium ascorbate.
Dr. Thomas Levy on Vitamin C
Dr. Humphries recommends reading Primal Pancea (MedFox Publishing), By Thomas E. Levy, MD, JD.
Dr. Humphries states,
“He is a cardiologist and he is also an attorney. His viewpoints are backed by literature. He has over 650 scientific references. It is a very valuable book that describes exactly how these changes in the heart and the blood vessels are affected by vitamin C.”
Pharmaceutical drugs are one of the worst culprits of oxidative stress on our bodies
Dr. Humphries explains that our bodies are made of energy that has electrons, protons and neutrons. Oxidative stress causes a chain reaction in the body. Vitamin C can stop this chain reaction and improve the damage that has already been done.
She states that,
“Classic chain reaction is electromagnetic energy from the sun. Inflammation from microbes, basically when your immune system attacks them is one way we can have stress. These microbes, they secret toxins, think of rheumatic fever and meningitis. These are both examples of virus and bacteria secreting toxins and causing oxidative stress. Even emotional stress such as a car accident; both emotional and physical stress have the same impact. Pharmaceutical drugs are some of the worst culprits of oxidative stress. It can damage proteins, mitochondria and DNA inside of the cell, it can damage outside of the cell and cause big problems.”
Dr. Humphries continues that the over production of free radicals (something missing an electron) can cause damage to the nerves, the proteins, the DNA, the mitochondria and lipids. This can lead to diseases, such as: atherosclerosis, cancer, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, heart disease, chronic inflammation, strokes and septic shock.
Dehydroascorbic acid (DHA) is an organic compound that occurs when ascorbic acid is oxidized.
Dr. Humphries states,
“There are various cells in the body that take the used up form of vitamin C and turn it back into the vitamin C that can be used in other places. There are some cells that can only take in the used up form. If you have taken 300 mg, you have actually taken more than that when you consider that the body is going to recycle some of that. Some cells that recycle are nerve cells, red blood cells, mitochondria, and some bone cells.”
If there is too much DHA, the used type of vitamin C, we either get rid of it in the urine or recycle it in the body.
A Developing Fetus Requires Twice the Amount of Vitamin C Than the Mother
The concentration of vitamin C is extremely important for pregnant women and babies.
Dr. Humphries continues,
“That is because we, ourselves, cannot divide without vitamin C. We can’t make skin, we can’t make connective tissue. We can’t make bone or cartilage without vitamin C. It’s extremely important to a developing fetus. It is so important to the fetus, it will take whatever it needs from the mother even if it means she becomes depleted of vitamin C. The baby in the placenta will have twice the amount as the mother, in general, has in her blood. The cord will have twice the amount, but the amniotic fluid the baby is bathing in and is swallowing, has three times the maternal amount.”
Taking vitamin C during pregnancy prevents jaundice in newborn babies
Dr. Humphries talks about the high rate of jaundice in new born babies (approximately 60 to 70 percent).
She continues,
“From my research, I find that this is preventable.”
Dr. Humphries shared a study where pregnant women in their first trimester were given one gram of vitamin C orally every other day for six months, the percentage of neonatal jaundice was greatly reduced.
Dr. Humphries believes that,
“Pregnant women should be taking at least 500 mg of vitamin C.”
Vitamin C is Required for Structure and Integrity of the Body
Dr. Humphries states that,
“Eyes store extremely high levels of vitamin C. Skin, tendons and ligaments, which I spoke about the layers of cells we have there. The splitting apart of these layers is what we call atherosclerosis and aneurysm. These are conditions where we find focal areas that don’t have enough vitamin C, but they can be improved by taking very high doses.”
She continues,
“Enormous amounts of vitamin C are used to make collagen. Vitamin C actually stimulates collagen synthesis.”
There is another myth that Dr. Humphries discusses regarding calcium and the large amounts of calcium that people need.
According to Dr. Humphries,
“Lower amounts of calcium need to be taken into the body, and then the molecules that tell the calcium where to go and tell the minerals where to go have to be brought in as well.”
She states that we need vitamin C in addition to calcium for bones. Vitamin D and vitamin K2 are needed for mineralization. Vitamin K2 tells calcium where to go in the bones. Micronutrients like B vitamins are important as well as trace minerals. A good well rounded diet is always important.
Dr. Humphries provided a short list of conditions that there is medical literature to support where vitamin C is beneficial. Vitamin C is antiseptic and antibacterial, it can be put on the outside of your body as well as the inside. It has also been shown to be helpful in conditions in intensive care units with severe infections and sepsis.
She continues,
“There is literature that shows that giving high doses of vitamin C to burn victims, lowers the amount of fluids they need and lowers the amount of secondary infections that they have.”
Vitamin C Cures Whooping Cough
Dr. Humphries states that,
“Whooping cough is the place that I use the most vitamin C, because I find that this is an illness that not only does the vaccine not work, but 86 percent of cases of whooping cough are in fully vaccinated children and many people catch the whooping cough from vaccinated children. Antibiotics do not change the cough, except often will make it worse because you are impairing the immunity and doctors have nothing else to offer.”
Dr. Humphries starts these whooping cough patients with high doses of vitamin C, all age groups. Whooping cough is a toxin producing bacteria and any illness that makes a toxin needs to be neutralized. The toxin creates oxidative stress, which is an electron thief, and vitamin C gives it back.
Read more about how vitamin C is used for whooping cough here:
The Vitamin C treatment for Whooping Cough ~ Suzanne Humphries, MD
All vaccines cause inflammation, the arm becomes sore and fevers occur following vaccinations. Vaccines contain aluminium which is a highly toxic metal, when injected into a muscle produces oxidative stress. Vitamin C combats the inflammation and toxins caused by vaccines.
Read more about the safety of vaccines:
Dr. Suzanne Humphries on Vaccine Safety: “They Don’t Want You to Hear the Other Side”
Aluminum is Toxic to All Life Forms: So Why is it Used in Vaccines?
Study Shows Intravenous Vitamin C Reduces the Mortality Rate of Critical Care Patients
Dr. Humphries discusses a study where patients with severe infections and organ failure were given IV sodium ascorbate. The purpose of the study was to determine if it was safe to give these patients high or low dose sodium ascorbate. In the study, they gave a third of the patients no vitamin C, a third of the patients 50 mg/kg/24 hrs intravenous and a third amounts of 200 mg/kg/day intravenous.
She states that the third amount of 200 mg/kg/24 hrs is approximately 14 grams in a day, which she does not consider high amounts, she would start these patients with at least 100 grams per day.
The study used a SOFA score (Sequential Organ Failure Assessment). According to Dr. Humphries this is a highly accurate indicator of death during a critical illness. If you have a high SOFA score in the first 48 hours of critical care then your mortality rate is at least 50 percent, so you would want this score to go down quickly.
Dr. Humphries explains that,
“The placebo with no vitamin C, their SOFA score rose. The low dose of sodium ascorbate, the SOFA score went down considerably. The high dose of sodium ascorbate went down even more significantly. I would take an educated guess, that if they got the 100 gram dose that I would have given, that we would have seen this score come down even more rapidly.”
In addition, the study concludes that,
“No patient in the high or low dose ascorbic acid treatment arms of this study suffered any identifiable adverse event.”
Therefore, she states,
“We know it is safe, because we were able to give it to these gravely ill patients who would have otherwise had a very high mortality rate and we know a very sensitive indicator of death went down very rapidly.”
She believes that this should be enough for a doctor in a hospital to give patients IV ascorbate acid when it is required. Dr. Humphries says there is documentation that shows vitamin C has had powerful effects on other diseases, such as: polio, acute hepatitis, viral encephalitis, acute rheumatic fever, toxic mushroom poisoning, Ebola, hemorrhagic diseases, tuberculosis, and infectious mononucleosis.
Dr. Humphries Recommends Two Main Types of Synthetic Vitamin C for Every Household
Dr. Humphries recommends two main types of synthetic vitamin C for every household; Sodium Ascorbate Powder and Lypo-Spheric Vitamin C.
She states,
“These are good to have for any illness.”
Dr. Humphries explains that one cannot get enough vitamin C from whole foods for therapeutic purposes, and that to see therapeutic results one must supplement with the synthetic form as sodium ascorbate powder or lyp-spheric. Intravenous vitamin C allows much higher doses, but it is quickly depleted from the body. Supplementing orally throughout the day can achieve similar results.
Intravenous Vitamin C Helps Lyme Disease Patients
Synthetic forms of vitamin C that Dr. Humphries mentions include intravenous which can be helpful for patients with Lyme disease, cancers and serious heart disease. Intravenous is valuable because some cells need to be shocked with high levels of vitamin C, for example, cancer cells. Cancer cells and sick cells are killed by high levels of vitamin C.
Dr. Humphries recommends the Sodium Ascorbate and Lypo-Spheric Vitamin C,
“These are the two that I think every household should have. This is very good to give to babies because you can swab in their mouth for rapid absorption and high blood levels. I give this to my pets and my family.”
She also states that,
“The oral vitamin C is the most useful and it is what our bodies need most when we need treatment for acute or chronic diseases.”
Dr. Humphries Recommendations for Vitamin C Doses
Dr. Humphries states that sodium ascorbate powder is affordable and helpful. She recommends that each person needs to assess what their bowels can tolerate. Drink plenty of water prior to this process so you have a good urine flow. An adult needs to start by taking 1 or 2 grams every two hours. When you first have rumbling in your belly and write down what the total was to that point. If you want to supplement on a daily basis, take approximately 50 to 90 percent of that amount every day.
Dr. Humphries also,
“Recommends taking it more than once a day so it can be maintained in your system.”
The amount will vary depending on the stress levels you are experiencing, physical and mental.
She continues,
“There is evidence that vitamin C feeds the healthy bacteria and kills the toxin producing bacteria in your intestines.”
There are No Reports of Healthy People Overdosing or Dying from Vitamin C Compared to Over the Counter Drugs
Dr. Humphries states that,
“There are no reports of healthy people overdosing or dying from taking vitamin C. A 227 G ingestion in an adult would survive per the pharmacology literature.”
She compares these to the common over the counter drugs and states,
“There are 3-28 percent of hospitalizations a year due to adverse drug events in the USA, and we see .31 percent of them die. There are 380 people per day die from prescription or OTC drugs. Paracetamol, which is used for fever treatment, in the USA, 56K emergency room visits and 26K hospitalizations and 450 deaths per year from an unintentional overdose. Than we have these nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory agents that are used in a lot of older people, and these people are developing ulcers. They cause 41k hospitalizations a year, 3300 deaths per year from these drugs.”
Dr. Humphries states,
“The real irony is that vitamin C is a helpful treatment for these ulcers. It kills Helicobacter Pylori and that it helps the new tissue grow. Not only are these people that are attacking the need and safety of vitamin C putting their own patients at risk with these drugs, but they are overlooking a valuable intervention that can help with fevers in children because it fuels the immune system. It fuels the white blood cells to do the job they are trying to do when that fever calls them to work.”
She continues that,
“Vitamin C is actually helpful when it comes to these problems. It actually helps to reverse liver damage, and prevent liver damage and detoxify the liver in the setting of cirrhosis.”
Watch the entire lecture here:
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