Chapter Abstracts

Injectable Vitamin C: Effective Treatment for Viral and Other Diseases

The following chapter abstracts were written by the book's editor, Robert D. McCracken, Ph.D.

Chapter 1
Inactivation of Poliomyelitis Virus in Vitro by Crystalline Vitamin C (Ascorbic Acid)
by Claus W. Jungeblut

A pioneer in vitamin C research demonstrates in 1935 that multiple paralytic doses of polio virus are rendered noninfectious by small amounts of vitamin C when injected as a virus–vitamin C mixture in the brains of rhesus monkeys.

Chapter 2
Inhibitive Effect of Vitamin C on Toxin Production by C. diphtheria
by I. J. Kligler

In research conducted only a few years after its discovery, vitamin C is shown to inhibit the production of toxin by the organism causing diphtheria. [Editor’s note: Rather than inhibiting production, vitamin C may have been neutralizing the toxins, which perhaps would have yielded the same results by laboratory methods used at that time.]

Chapter 3
Virus Pneumonia and Its Treatment with Vitamin C
by Fred R. Klenner

In this 1948 article, Dr. Fred Klenner recommends patients suffering from viral pneumonia be given 1000-mg injections of vitamin C every six to twelve hours for three to seven injections. Forty-two (42) cases treated over a five-year period using this method produced “excellent results.”

Chapter 4
The Treatment of Poliomyelitis and Other Virus Diseases with Vitamin C
by Fred R. Klenner

In this 1949 article, Dr. Fred Klenner reports successfully treating polio, diphtheria, herpes zoster, herpes simplex, chicken pox, influenza, measles, mumps, and viral pneumonia with injections of large doses of vitamin C. “The results,” he says, “which we have reported in virus diseases using vitamin C as the antibiotic may seem fantastic. These results, however, are no different from the results we see when administering the sulfa, or the mold-derived drugs against many other kinds of infections.”

Chapter 5
Massive Doses of Vitamin C and the Virus Diseases
by F. R. Klenner

Dr. Fred Klenner presents case studies of a variety of diseases successfully treated through massive injections of vitamin C, including measles and pneumonia-like illnesses. He goes on to offer several biochemical- and physiological-based explanations that might explain injectable vitamin C’s effectiveness as a super antibiotic.

Chapter 6
The Vitamin and Massage Treatment for Acute Poliomyelitis
by Fred R. Klenner

Dr. Fred Klenner reports that polio can be successfully treated with frequent massive injections of vitamin C, which will destroy the virus in direct proportion to tissue saturation. Vitamin B1 should also be given for at least three months with the method of administration and amount dependent on the level of paralysis. He discusses a mistake by one early researcher, which led to resistance to the use of the vitamin C method, a “blunder,” he says, to which “thousands of children owe their paralyzed limbs.”

Chapter 7
The Use of Vitamin C as an Antibiotic
by Fred R. Klenner

In this article published in 1953, Dr. Fred Klenner reviews some of his experiences using injections of vitamin C to treat a variety of diseases including viral pneumonia and encephalitis following measles and polio. He describes how he discovered that injectable vitamin C can be used as an antibiotic to treat many diseases.

Chapter 8
The Treatment of Trichinosis with Massive Doses of Vitamin C and Para-Aminobenzoic Acid
by Fred R. Klenner

Dr. Fred Klenner reviews the etiology and history of the medical treatment of trichinosis. He reports that massive doses of intravenous vitamin C in conjunction with orally administered para-aminobenzoic acid (PABA) were used to successfully treat trichinosis. He recommends that all patients, whether medical or surgical, who are not responding to treatment be given four to twelve grams of vitamin C by needle each day. The rationale for massive doses of vitamin C given by needle, he says, is its value in “antibody formation and as a detoxifier in all pathological states.”

Chapter 9
Recent Discoveries in the Treatment of Lockjaw with Vitamin C and Tolserol
by Fred R. Klenner

Dr. Fred Klenner describes the use of injectable vitamin C as part of the treatment for lockjaw (tetanus) in a six-year-old boy. He also describes using injectable vitamin C to successfully treat a four-year-old child bitten by a mature highland moccasin. (Note also, he instructed the father of the snake-bitten child to call him every hour throughout the night to report on the child’s condition following his first use of this treatment.)

Chapter 10
An ‘Insidious’ Virus
by Fred R. Klenner

In this article published in 1957, Dr. Fred Klenner describes successfully treating a nineteen-month-old child suffering from what he described as a “brain pathology caused by an insidious virus.” “After fourteen years of research,” he says, “we are convinced that ascorbic acid is the drug of choice in virus pathology.” “We are convinced,” he goes on to say, “that it should be a maxim of medicine for large doses of ascorbic acid to be given in all pathological states. It should be given by all physicians while they wait their diagnosis.” Mystified at the lack of acceptance of his research findings, he adds, “The information which we have published on the use of ascorbic acid since 1948 makes me wonder what the response might have been had the source of reporting been a large teaching unit of a major research center.”

Chapter 11
The Black Widow Spider: Case History
by Fred R. Klenner

Dr. Fred Klenner briefly reviews the physiology and environment of black widow spiders and discusses the diagnosis and treatment of their bites. There is wide variability in severity of bites. He recommends 350 mg of ascorbic acid per Kg of body weight administered intravenously along with a single dose of calcium gluconate by needle as the method of choice. He is critical of physicians “who would stand by and see their patients die rather than use ascorbic acid—because in their finite minds it exists only as a vitamin.”

Chapter 12
The Clinical Evaluation and Treatment of a Deadly Syndrome Caused by an Insidious Virus
by Frederick R. Klenner

Dr. Fred Klenner presents case histories on the insidious virus disease he described in his June 1957 article in the Tri-State Medical Journal, reprinted here. He presents recommended intravenous vitamin C dose levels and suggests a treatment schedule in some detail. He notes the preferred degree of dilution of the vitamin when the needle is used. He also describes a simple method to assess urine levels of ascorbic acid.

Chapter 13
The Role of Ascorbic Acid in Therapeutics
by Fred R. Klenner

In this letter to the Editor of the Tri-State Medical Journal, Dr. Klenner states that ascorbic acid given intravenously is the “treatment of choice in carbon monoxide poisoning.” He offers a biochemical model that might help explain ascorbic acid’s effectiveness. He also suggests intravenous ascorbic acid is effective in treating barbiturate poisoning and puerperal sepsis caused by abortion.

Chapter 14
Virus Encephalitis as a Sequela of the Pneumonias
by Frederick R. Klenner

Dr. Fred Klenner suggests that viral encephalitis can follow head and chest colds. Large doses of ascorbic acid administered by means of the needle can play a vital role in restoring the patient’s health. Injected vitamin C, he says, not only destroys the responsible virus but also helps to maintain the integrity of the blood vessels in the brain. He speculates on routes viruses might take to enter the brain.

Chapter 15
Acute Hepatitis Treated with High Doses of Vitamin C: Report of a Case
by H. B. Calleja and R. H. Brooks

The authors of this 1960 article describe treating a severe case of acute hepatitis with 5 grams of vitamin C delivered intravenously daily for 25 consecutive days. Liver biopsies provided evidence of the treatment’s efficiency. Authors reference a report from Germany where 63 cases of epidemic hepatitis in children were treated with 10 grams of vitamin C daily, administered either intravenously or by rectal injection, or both for an average of five days. The number of days the liver remained palpable was reduced as much as 25 percent compared to the control group.

Chapter 16
Observations on the Dose and Administration of Ascorbic Acid When Employed Beyond the Range of a Vitamin in Human Pathology
by Frederick R. Klenner

This is Dr. Fred Klenner’s major review article on the use of vitamin C in his medical practice, emphasizing the use of massive injections of the vitamin in treating a variety of diseases and health threats. Diseases and other health threats whose treatment involved the use of injections of vitamin C include pneumonia; bacillary dysentery; severe burns; carbon monoxide poisoning; obstetrics; toxins produced by snakes, flying insects, spiders, caterpillars, and certain plants; mononucleosis; barbiturate poisoning; lockjaw; trichinosis; hepatitis; viral pancarditis; chicken pox; alcohol intoxication; complications of smallpox vaccination; virus encephalitis; surgery; scarlet fever; pesticide poisoning; nasal diphtheria; polio; and repeating virus infections with influenza-like symptoms. “Ascorbic acid,” he says, “must be given by needle to bring about quick reversal of various ‘insults’ to the human body.” Injection size ranges from 350 mg to 1200 mg of vitamin C per Kg body weight. Data on injection schedule are provided.

Chapter 17
The Discovery of Vitamin C, Albert Szent-Gyorgi, M.D., Ph.D., 1893–1986
by A. Hoffer

Dr. A. Hoffer, a pioneer and major figure in research on vitamins and other nutrients to treat disease, discusses the discovery of vitamin C by Albert Szent-Gyorgyi in about 1930. In 1937 Szent-Gyorgyi won the Nobel Prize for physiology and medicine for his vitamin C research.

Chapter 18
The Origin of the 42-Year Stonewall of Vitamin C
by Robert Landwehr

In 1949, Dr. Fred Klenner stood up at a meeting of the American Medical Association and described how he had treated and cured 60 cases of polio during the epidemic that year. Massive frequent injections of vitamin C were used, he said, to produce the cure. An abstract of his remarks was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The author of this article discusses the medical profession’s response—or lack of it—to Dr. Klenner’s announcement and offers some suggestions as to why an apparent cure for so many diseases has been ignored for more than half a century, essentially never having come up on scientific medicine’s radar screen.