My name is Pauline (Sarah) Sowders. I am 62 years old and had quadruple heart bypass surgery March 2002. Had incredibly difficult time recuperating. Disagreed with my doctor on treatment regarding statin drugs. My problems with statins were muscle cramps, severe joint pain, stomach pain, depression and nerve problems which finally caused me to take a medical leave from my job this past March. Some time ago a friend recommended taking the following supplements instead of prescription drugs:

• Fish Oil Pills 1,000 mg - 6/day
• Red Yeast Rice 600 mg - 4/day
• Vitamin E 400 mg - 1/day
• Folic Acid 400 mg - 2/day

I felt no significant change.

Sept 1st of this year I found the following statement on a web site (can't remember where but thank GOD!). "Try this - guaranteed to lower cholesterol at least 18% in six weeks." 6000 mg. Vitamin C, 6000 mg L-Lysine, 200 mg CoQ10.

I began taking this combo in addition to the Fish Oil etc. on Sept 12 of this year. I'm not sure if the fish oil regimen in combination with the vit. C made a difference or if it was just the Vitamin C regimen. But, after only two weeks I began feeling like a new person. For the first time in years I wanted to do things that I had to force myself to do only a few days before. I began cleaning, cooking, sewing, working in the yard - just could not figure out how to work everything into each short day. I actually enjoy getting up in the morning.

I found the Heart Technology web site a few days after I discovered this vitamin C stuff works. Really was having trouble swallowing 24 vitamin pills per a plus a blood thinner and baby aspirin. My regimen is now as follows: (so simple)

• Two scoops Heart Tech in A.M., 2 fish oil capsules, 1 CoQ10,
• Two scoops Heart Tech in P.M., 2 fish oil capsules.

Have stopped the blood thinner and baby aspirin. (NO MORE BRUISES! THANK YOU LORD!)

My blood test results from May 2004 and October 2004 follow. (LDL dropped from 203 to 161 and total cholesterol dropped from 290 to 248).

I had been off statin drugs for approximately 3 months before each test. The October test was done after being on vitamin C for one month. Both my doctor and I were thrilled about the latest test results, until he discovered that I was not taking any prescription drugs, at which time he said, "You're playing Russian roulette you know." Maybe so, but I doubt it. I feel wonderful and the proof is in the puddin.

The dual-phase pharmacokinetics of vitamin C are described by the dynamic flow model [3,4]. Low gram-level intakes of ascorbate, leading to blood plasma levels below 70 µM/l, have a half-life of 840 days. Higher gram-level intakes have a plasma half-life of 30 minutes [3]. A large oral dose raises blood plasma levels briefly: they reach a peak after two to three hours, before decaying back to baseline. Frequent repeated doses allow sustained high plasma levels of about 250 µM/l [4,5].

Douglas and Hemilä reviewed intakes that transiently raise plasma ascorbate levels above 70 µM/l. A single dose does not raise the median level [6,7]. Daily supplements would, thus, not increase disease resistance to any great degree [3,4]. Single or double doses daily will not increase background plasma levels, regardless of the magnitude of the dose [6,7]. Since plasma ascorbate is at background level for the majority of the day, effects will be minimal.

There is widespread confusion about nutritional and pharmacological levels of supplementation [3]. Linus Pauling, typically, described nutritional gram-level doses able to provide a degree of disease prevention [8]. By contrast, pharmacological doses used for treatment are, at minimum, an order of magnitude larger and involve frequent doses. The doses should be at intervals of three hours or less [3]. Treatment doses are described by Cathcart's paper on titration to bowel tolerance [9]. To treat the onset of a cold, the therapy is perhaps a minimum of 10 g of oral ascorbic acid, followed by at least 2 g each hour [3,4].

Douglas and Hemilä give a misleading impression by not making it clear that the doses they consider are not pharmacological. They claim that the results of one study, giving an 8-g dose at the start of symptoms, are tantalizing and deserve further assessment. However, once this single dose has been excreted, the protective effects will be lost. During illness, ascorbate is depleted rapidly and higher oral intakes are tolerated up to 200 g per day [9]. It would be surprising if this 8-g dose had a large effect.

Studies on ascorbate require appropriate doses. Douglas and Hemilä have only confirmed that 60 years of vitamin C research has largely been wasted because of confusion between nutritional and pharmacological intakes, and because of a misunderstanding of the pharmacokinetics. It is essential that high-dose studies take into account ascorbate's dual-phase pharmacokinetics. The dosing regime should allow sustained high plasma levels to be achieved. The claim that vitamin C cannot prevent or cure the common cold is both premature and unwarranted.

Steve Hickey
Manchester Metropolitan University
Manchester, United Kingdom
E-mail: radicalascorbate@yahoo.com

Please Get Involved!

Letter to Congress (Road map for letters to your local newspaper editors)

Is the Recommended Dietary Allowance for Vitamin C Too Low?...

THE HICKEY LETTERS TO AUTHORITIES RESPONSIBLE FOR THE U.S. RDA

BREAKTHROUGH: RETINAL PHOTOS CONFIRM VITAMIN C PILLS CAN REVERSE ARTERY DISEASE...

Purchase Sydney Bush's New Book - Now On Sale

Dr. Sydney Bush's passionate tome provides a wealth of information about Vitamin C. Dr. Bush is an optometrist who discovered that the eyes are not only the window to the heart, but they can be used to monitor reversal of heart disease.. He (as have many other eye doctors) has been able to measure the progression of heart disease in the retinal arteries.

It is generally accepted by the medical profession that the atherosclerosis eye doctors observe in their patients cannot be reversed. It is medical dogma that arterial plaques always get worse. Dr. Bush discovered that these plaques can be made to go away quite easily! After Dr. Bush saw that it can and was being reversed in his patients on high vitamin C and other nutrients (The so-called Pauling therapy), he became intrigued, informed and tried to spread the word in Britain. He was amazed by the resistance of the medical profession, National Health Service, etc. Just like Linus Pauling before him, Bush hit a brick wall of disbelief and suppression. Dr. Bush's new book is a product of his studies into vitamin C. It is meant to expose the wealth of knowledge about vitamin C that science has uncovered, but that has been deliberately kept from the medical profession.

PRESS RELEASE: RETINAL PHOTOS CONFIRM VITAMIN C PILLS CAN REVERSE ARTERY DISEASE...