Home Remedies

"Deficiency of vitmain A is not only a major nutritional problem in many developing coutries, but also in countries such as the United States and Canada. It has been well documented that (low vitamin A) results in an enhanced susceptibility of the respiratory system, bladder, and the colon to chemical carcinogenesis." Zahid Siddick, Ph. D. National Cancer Research, Surrey, England

"Professor Pauling as always is ahead of his time. The latest research on vitamin C substantiates his twenty-five years of advocacy and investigation on the benefits of vitamin C." J. Daniel Kanofsky, MD, MPH, Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

Introduction

Amazing as it seems, Linus Pauling and cancer surgeon E. Cameron have recommended vitamin C for a wide variety of diseases including cancer (1-3)! Pauling was a prolific writer (4).

Cancer

Ref. 5 gives more information on cancer. The Linus Pauling Institute, which is at Oregon State University, has a huge website that is very useful. They do research on micronutrients and diseases. Ref. 6 is from this Institute.

Hypertension

Diet has been found to have effects on blood pressure. This has been shown in DASH studies. DASH is short for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension. Calcium is considered to produce a slight reduction in blood pressure (7). The DASH studies favor a diet high in fruits. Fruits are high in potassium and low in sodium. Sodium is considered a risk factor for hypertension.

Beware of foods high in sodium such as soy sauce, chips, popcorn, crackers, anchovies, etc. Beware of canned meats and fish because they often add sodium as a preservative.

Moderate exercise is useful. All of this does not mean that you should not see a doctor. You should see a doctor to get the right diagnosis. Diagnosing yourself is difficult because many people can't be objective about themselves, particularly hypochondriacs.

Cataracts

Wearing sunglasses helps prevent cataracts, which are opaque areas on the lenses. There are many nutritional theories also.

"This fluid is connected to a vascular network and contains very high levels of certain antioxidants that help nourish the lens as well as absorbing and detoxifying harmful substances. Lack of these antioxidants can cause cataracts to occur more frequently."

Dr. Andrew Weil

Dr. Weil's information is consistent with my own information that I have gleaned from medical books. According to Weil, obesity and other factors can increase the risk of cataract formation. Weight gain and diabetes need to be aggressively treated according to Weil. Of course, these diseases should be aggressively treated anyway for other reasons.

Weil favors eating fruits and vegetables for the antioxidants and carotenoids. He favors vitamin C, vitamin E, lutein, and zeaxanthin. Lutein and zeaxanthin are carotenoids. Lutein is in the yellow and orange pigments of many fruits and vegetables including corn.

If there is interest, I may write an article exclusively devoted to these very important matters. If the cataract becomes severe, surgery may be necessary. It really doesn't do any harm to eat corn as well as wearing sun glasses.

The Common Cold

Linus Pauling favored massive doses (the doses being in grams) of vitamin C to fight against the common cold. Scientific studies have supported Pauling's views. Pauling's views are expressed in Refs. 11 & 12. Pauling's views did not come out of the clear blue sky. Pauling was influenced by Stone (13).

Psychiatry

Psychiatric drugs are discussed in a number of books including "America Fooled", "Toxic Psychiatry", "Talking Back to Prozac", "Let Them Eat Prozac", etc. "Toxic Psychiatry" and "talking Back to Prozac" are by Dr. Peter Breggin. Dr. Scott wrote "America Fooled", which is discussed at the website www.AmericaFooled.com.

Pauling favored "orthomolecular" psychiatry (14, 15), meaning the use of natural body & brain substances as treatments. This was rejected by the APA (American Psychiatric Association), which was heavily funded by the drug companies. The drug companies spend a fortune advertizing heavily in APA journals. Ref. 16 was the APA rejection.

However, psychiatrists found that they could make patients worse by giving them the amino acid methionine (17). This appears to support my own views of an error in amino acid metabolism. If there is an error in amino acid metabolism, and there appears to be at least one error, then this would appear to support Pauling's orthomolecular approach because amino acids are found in the diet. There could be a brain allergy to methionine.

Conclusions

More research is needed. Pauling's views of biochemical imbalances in mental illness appear to be largely correct (18, 19). It is difficult to determine RDAs for vitamins because everyone has a different chemistry (20). On top of that, the requirements in disease might be higher than the requirements during health. Certain factors can destroy some vitamins including stress, heat, and possibly drugs. There can be interactions between drugs and nutrients.

On top of all that, the roles of amino acids in diseases have not been adequately explored, particularly in mental diseases. In my opinion the RDAs should be taken with a grain of salt. Smoking could even destroy vitamins.

References

1. How to Live Longer and Feel Better by Linus Pauling. Corvallis, OR : Oregon State University Press, 2006. 300 pages, plus index, notes and extensive bibliography.

2. Vitamin C and cancer. Intern. J. Environ. Studies 10, 303-305 (1977). [E. Cameron and Linus Pauling].

3. Ascorbic acid and the glycosaminoglycans: an orthomolecular approach to cancer and other diseases. in The Encyclopedia of Ignorance, Ronald Duncan and Miranda Weston-Smith, eds., Pergamon Press, New York, 1977, pp. 377-385. [Ewan Cameron and Linus Pauling].

4. (1977) A controversy. Clin. Chem. 23, 908-909 (1977).

5. Supplemental ascorbate in the supportive treatment of cancer: reevaluation of prolongation of survival times in terminal human cancer. Proc. NatL Acad. Sci.. USA 75, 4538-4542 (1978). [Ewan Cameron and Linus Pauling].

6. Roberts LJ 2nd, Traber MG, Frei B (2009) Vitamins E and C in the prevention of cardiovascular disease and cancer in men. Free Radic Biol Med46:1558.

7. Griffith LE, Guyatt GH, Cook RJ, Bucher HC, Cook DJ. The influence of dietary and nondietary calcium supplementation on blood pressure: an updated metaanalysis of randomized controlled trials. Am J Hypertens. 1999;12(1 Pt 1):84-92.

8. Appel LJ, Moore TJ, Obarzanek E, et al. A clinical trial of the effects of dietary patterns on blood pressure. DASH Collaborative Research Group. N Engl J Med. 1997;336(16):1117-1124.

9. Conlin PR, Chow D, Miller ER, 3rd, et al. The effect of dietary patterns on blood pressure control in hypertensive patients: results from the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) trial. Am J Hypertens. 2000;13(9):949-955.

10. www.drweil.com.

11. Pauling, L: Vitamin C and the Common Cold. San Francisco. W.H. Freeman and Co. 1970.

12. Pauling, L: Evolution and the need for ascorbic acid. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 67:1643-1648, 1970.

13. Stone, L: The Healing Factor: Vitamin C Against Disease. New York. Grosset and Dunlap, 1972.

14. Herjanic, M.: Ascorbic acid and schizophrenia, in Orthomolecular Psychiatry; Treatment of Schizophrenia. Edited by Hawkins, D., Pauling, L San Francisco, W.H. Freeman and Co., 1973, pp. 303-315.

15. Pauling, L.: Orthomolecular psychiatry. Science 160: 265-271, 1968.

16. Task Force Report 7: Megavitamin and Orthomolecular Therapy in Psychiatry. Washington, DC, American Psychiatric Association, 1973.

17. Ananth, J.V., Ban, T.A., Lehmann, ILE., et al: Nicotinic acid in the prevention and treatment of methionine-induced exacerbation of psychopathology in schizophrenics. Can Psychiatr Assoc J 15:15-20, 1970.

18. Edwin, I., Holten, K., Norum, K.R., et al: Vitamin B12 hypovitaminosis in mental diseases. Acta Med Scand 177:689-699, 1965.

19. Herjanic, M.: Ascorbic acid and schizophrenia, in Orthomolecular Psychiatry; Treatment of Schizophrenia. Edited by Hawkins, D., Pauling, L San Francisco, W.H. Freeman and Co., 1973, pp. 303-315.

20. Williams, R.J.: Biochemical Individuality. New York, John Wiley & Sons, 1957.