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The Pioneering Work of William J. McCormick, M.D.
The Pioneering Work of William J. McCormick, M.D.
The Pioneering Work of William J. McCormick, M.D.
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Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine Vol. 18, No. 2, 2003
tissue relationships, owing to liquefaction cases. He found that 81% of such cases in
of the intercellular cement substance col- hospital practice had a subnormal blood-
lagen) and disintegration of the connective plasma level as compared to 55.8% in a
tissue of the basement membrane, results corresponding group of general public ward
in breakdown of orderly cellular arrange- patients. He attributes the precipitation of
ment, thus acting as a prelude to cancer. thrombosis to a prior subintimal capillary
He also cites this obscure but interest- hemorrhage at the site of the lesion, which
ing reference in the 1905 edition of he has verified at autopsy. He regards this
Northnagels Encyclopedia of Practical hemorrhagic prelude as due to C-avitami-
Medicine8 which describes the scorbutic nosis and suggests that patients with this
aspects of acute lymphatic leukemia: The disease be assured of an adequate intake
most striking clinical symptoms of this of this vitamin.
disease are the hemorrhages and their se- While the exact meaning of the word
quelae... Every touch produces hemmor- adequate has been at the heart of nutrition
hage, making a condition completely iden- controversy ever since, supplementation with
tical with that of scurvy. even a moderate quantity of vitamin C has
Dr. McCormicks conclusion is that been shown to prevent disease and save lives.
Our major effort (against cancer) Just 500 mg daily results in a 42% lower risk
should be directed toward prevention of the of death from heart disease and a 35% lower
cause of the cellular disarrangement - col- risk of death from any cause.11
lagenous breakdown of epithelial and sub-
epithelial connective tissues - as mani- Vitamin C as Antibiotic and Antiviral
fested in open sores or fissures that fail to McCormick proposed vitamin C defi-
heal readily, and unusual or easily produced ciency as the essential cause of, and an ef-
hemorrhage. Such lesions may be early fective cure for, numerous communicable
warning signs of future cancer. They like- illnesses. In The Changing Incidence and
wise are early signs of scurvy.10 Mortality of Infectious Disease in Relation
If our civilization is suffering from a to Changed Trends in Nutrition 12
scurvy epidemic under the current name of McCormick cited mortality tables as early
cancer, then the symptoms, progress and as 1840, and suggested that tuberculosis,
results of the two diseases may have a com- diphtheria, scarlet fever, whooping cough,
mon cause (vitamin C deficiency) and a rheumatic fever and typhoid fever are pri-
common treatment: vitamin C in large quan- marily due to inadequate dietary vitamin
tity. If this is even partially true, then all C. It remains as novel an idea today as it
cancer patients should receive large doses was nearly 60 years ago to say that disease
of ascorbic acid as a matter of routine. trends in history might be understood as
waves of lack of vitamin C intake.
Cardiovascular Disease McCormick considered vitamin C to be
As scorbutic gum tissue spontaneously the pivotal therapeutic nutrient by reason
hemorrhages, so also a scorbutic artery can of its chemical action as a reducing agent,
literally bleed into itself. McCormick, more and sometimes as an oxidizing agent, vita-
than twenty years before Linus Pauling, re- min C is also a specific antagonist of chemi-
viewed the nutritional causes of heart disease cal and bacterial toxins. Furthermore, in
and noted that four out of five coronary cases Ascorbic Acid as a Chemotherapeutic
in hospital show vitamin C deficiency. In one Agent13 he stated:
paper9 he wrote that, as early as 1941, Vitamin C is known to play an essen-
Paterson10 called attention to the low tial part in the oxidation-reduction system
vitamin-C status of coronary thrombosis of tissue respiration and to contribute to
94
Taking the CureThe Pioneering Work of William J. McCormick, M.D.
the development of antibodies and the ney stones. The accusation is false.14 Everybody
neutralization of toxins in the building of has heard about unicorns and can describe one
natural immunity to infectious diseases. in detail. You could probably see a unicorn in
There is a very potent chemotherapeutic your mind right now. You can draw one. Yet
action of ascorbic acid when given in mas- unicorns do not exist. They are imaginary,
sive repeated doses, 500 to 1,000 mg. without substance or proof. Just like a vitamin
(hourly), preferably intravenously or C kidney stone. The vitamin C kidney stone
intramuscularly. When thus administered myth is the best known non-fact in non-exist-
the effect in acute infectious processes is ence. Every physician has heard of one, but not
favourably comparable to that of the one of them has ever seen one. That is be-
sulfonamides or the mycelial antibiotics, but cause they simply do not exist.
with the great advantage of complete free- As Abram Hoffer has said, Contrary to
dom from toxic or allergic reactions. (p. 151) popular medical belief, vitamin C does not
There is considerable evidence that cause kidney stones, at least it never has so
vitamin C in large, frequent doses can cure far. Maybe in it will in the next 1,000 years.
what are usually called infectious diseases. Writers often pass by the fact that
To establish that these diseases are actu- McCormick advocated vitamin C to prevent
ally vitamin C deficiency diseases, we and cure the formation of some kidney
should be able to prevent them by regular, stones as far back as 1946,15 when he wrote:
abundant supply of the vitamin. This is I have observed that a cloudy urine,
exactly what can be done, McCormick said: heavy with phosphates and epithelium, is
Once the acute febrile or toxic stage generally associated with a low vitamin C
of an infectious disease is brought under status... and that as soon as corrective
control by massive ascorbic acid adminis- administration of the vitamin effects a nor-
tration, a relatively small maintenance dose mal ascorbic acid (vitamin C) level the crys-
of the vitamin will be adequate in most talline and organic sediment disappears like
cases to prevent relapses, just as in fire magic from the urine. I have found that this
protection small chemical extinguishers change can usually be brought about in a
may be adequate to prevent fires in their matter of hours by large doses of the vitamin,
incipiency, whereas when large fires have 500 to 2,000 mg, oral or parenteral. (p. 411)
developed, water from large high-pressure In what might be seen as a display of
fire hoses becomes necessary. (p. 152) almost too much therapeutic versatility,
Along with his contemporary, Frederick McCormick affirmed that calculi in other
R. Klenner, M.D., McCormick was an early parts of the body could be cleared up by
advocate of using vitamin C as an antiviral and plenty of vitamin C, including stones in the
an antibiotic. Klenner would go on to use much biliary tract, the pancreas, tonsils, appendix,
larger quantities (350-700 mg per kg body mammary glands, uterus, ovaries, prostate
weight per day). In the 1950s, even and even the calcareous deposits in arterio-
McCormicks relatively modest four or five daily sclerosis. He said that calcareous deposits in
1,000-2,000 mg doses were perceived as astro- the eye may be cleared away in a few days by
nomically high, and something to be feared. correction of vitamin C status, and I find also
In some minds, this remains the case today. that dental calculus (tartar on the teeth),
which lays the foundation for so much den-
Kidney Stones tal havoc, can be quickly suppressed and pre-
Ever since Linus Pauling began publiciz- vented by an adequate intake of vitamin C.
ing the value of high doses of vitamin C in the Odd though this final statement may
early 1970s, it has been a cornerstone of medi- seem, there appears to be a very real correla-
cal mythology that vitamin C can cause kid- tion between vitamin C state (as a possible
95
Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine Vol. 18, No. 2, 2003
96