Linus Pauling Vitamin C Therapy

The role of vitamin C in preventing and treating cold, flu and many other infectious diseases is possibly the most recognized. However, the vitamin offers some other extraordinary health benefits, especially for the heart, that are not only lesser known but poorly understood.

Vitamin C works as an excellent anti-oxidant and it helps the body absorb iron. And one of its most crucial functions in the body is to act as an essential co-factor in a wide range of enzymatic reactions. (A cofactor is a non-protein chemical compound that is required for activating enzymes, which are protein catalysts that help speed up bio-chemical reactions in the body).

In this capacity as a cofactor, vitamin C helps in the synthesis of:

  • Collagen – the most abundant protein in the body that provides structure, shape and strength to the connective tissues such as skin, ligaments, cartilage, bone and blood vessels. The body also requires collagen to maintain and repair the connective tissues. Without collagen, tissues and organs that are held together with the help of collagen fibres, begin to lose their structural integrity and fall apart. This condition is called scurvy.
  • Carnitine – a nutrient that transports fatty acids into the mitochondria, where they are processed into energy.
  • Catecholamines – hormones such as dopamine, adrenaline and norepinephrine that are produced by your adrenal glands.

All these properties make vitamin C an extremely important player in the upkeep of your overall health, and especially in wound healing, tissue repair and maintaining healthy cardiovascular functions.

While vitamin C is indeed critical to your overall health, humans lack an enzyme that is needed to make vitamin C in the liver. That is why we need regular intake of the vitamin to achieve optimal health, and, in particular, to produce vast amounts of healthy collagen that the body needs to maintain healthy tissues and organs.

This brings us to the theory proposed by Dr. Linus Pauling that chronic vitamin C deficiency in the body is one of the underlying causes of coronary heart disease, primarily due to loss of collagen and the resulting deterioration of coronary arteries.

Dr. Linus Pauling: A pioneer of orthomolecular medicine

Dr. Linus Pauling, the great American Scientist, remains the only person who has won two unshared Nobel Prizes, one for Chemistry (1954) and the second for peace (1962). In addition, Pauling’s scientific pursuits inspired the workings of James Watson and Francis Crick to decode the double helix structure of DNA.

Pauling coined the term “Orthomolecular”, which refers to the right molecules in the right amounts. Orthomolecular medicine is the practice where disease can be prevented and treated by supplying the body with right amounts of non-toxic molecules, such as vitamins, amino acids or other nutrients that are natural to the body. Pauling believed that the body runs on all kinds of biochemical and electrochemical reactions, which are basically facilitated with chemicals and nutrients that function as enzymes, cofactors or substrates. Any imbalance in these substances interferes with successful execution of these health critical reactions, which can eventually result in poor health and disease formation.

Pauling’s Theory on Vitamin C

Somewhere in the 1960s, Pauling started to examine the role of vitamin C in health. He mentioned his findings in a series of books –  Vitamin C and the Common Cold (1970); Vitamin C, the Common Cold and the Flu (1976); Vitamin C and Cancer (1979); and How to Feel Better and Live Longer (1986).

Pauling claimed that using mega doses of vitamin C can be extremely useful in treating heart disease, all kinds of infections and even cancer. He also stressed that vitamin C deficiency is one of the leading causes of heart disease in humans, besides other contributory factors such age, smoking, genetics and sedentary lifestyle.

Pauling-Rath Unified Theory of Cardiovascular Disease

Pauling, along with his German associate Dr. Matthias Rath, theorized that cardiovascular disease can be completely managed by a specific vitamin C therapy.

According to the conventional belief, cholesterol is the main culprit in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis.  It is a condition where plaque – comprising of fat, cholesterol particles, calcium, cellular debris, fibrin and other substances – builds up in the inside of the arteries. It thickens and constricts the arteries, hindering the flow of blood to the heart and brain. So, basically, elevated cholesterol levels clog the arteries and give you angina, heart attack and stroke.

Challenging this traditional ‘cholesterol theory of heart disease’, Paling argued that atherosclerosis doesn’t occur when there is too much cholesterol. Instead, it is a consequence of your body trying to repair the damage caused by chronic deficiency of vitamin C in the body. The body performs this life-saving repair process by sending cholesterol to the site of the damage, which in this case happens to be the arteries. Cholesterol is actually a life saving molecule and plays a very important role in repairing damaged cells and tissues.

Did you know half of the population with coronary heart disease have cholesterol levels within normal range? [1] And that half the people with elevated blood cholesterol levels have healthy hearts? Cholesterol is made to look like a villain only because it is always found at the site of plaque deposits and more importantly, it is possible to bring down elevated levels with the help of cholesterol lowering drugs, something that works in the favour of the statin industry.

The key points in the Linus-Rath theory include the following [2]

  1. Chronic vitamin C deficiency is the leading cause of heart disease.
  2. Vitamin C is required for collagen synthesis. Its long-term shortage disrupts the production of collagen in the body, leading to structural loss in the connective tissues throughout the body including the arteries. Besides lending structural support to the arteries, collagen fibres keep the arterial walls smooth and supple, and are also required for the repair of blood vessels.
  3. In the absence of vitamin C, the liver produces Lp (a), a very sticky variant of LDL cholesterol, to repair the damaged tissue in the arteries. Lp (a) has a strong affinity to bind with the components of the vascular wall, including collagen.
  4. Too much accumulation of Lp(a) leads to formation of plaque.

In a nutshell, Pauling believed that heart disease is a form of scurvy. And the body responds by patching the weakened and damaged blood vessels with plaster casts.  In addition, the coronary arteries bear the maximum brunt from the chronic lack of vitamin C as they undergo the highest level of mechanical stress from the non-stop pumping action of the heart.

Linus Pauling Therapy for Cardiovascular Disease

The theory proposed by Pauling and Rath also claims that it is possible to prevent and even reverse heart disease with the help of the right nutritional assistance, that is, in the form of vitamin C and lysine, an amino acid.

Vitamin C promotes the synthesis of healthy collagen that mends and strengthens arteries, keeping them healthy and pliant. The body no longer sends Lp (a) molecules to patch the damaged arteries with plaster casts.

What is the role of lysine? Now, collagen fibres are held together with the help of lysine crosslinks. Vitamin C is required for an enzyme that crosslinks lysine strings on adjacent collagen strands. Vitamin C deficiency disrupts the crosslinking in lysine, which results in weakened collagen. When the collagen strands in the arterial wall break apart, the fragmented lysine residues from the damaged collagen in the blood vessels are exposed to the circulating bloodstream.

Pauling discovered that Lp (a) has a strong tendency to bind to these exposed lysine residues. While the existence of lysine binding sites is fairly well known in the medical community, what is not known is that these sites/receptors are ONLY found on Lp(a). This means only Lp (a) has these specific lysine binding receptors.

According to Pauling, by giving your body additional lysine molecules, you will provide Lp (a) particles something else to bind to. This prevents Lp (a) molecules from becoming attached to the strings of lysine distending from the weak, structurally damaged arteries, and accumulating and becoming retained in the endothelium.

Supplementing with high doses of vitamin C and lysine can, thus, prevent and even reverse plaque deposits:

  • Vitamin C helps the body make enough collagen to keep arteries healthy, smooth and supple
  • Lysine attracts and gets rid of sticky Lp (a) component, that contributes to plaque deposits inside the arterial wall

Vitamin C: As an adjunct to conventional cancer therapy

Pauling jointly published many papers with Dr. Evan Cameron on the role of vitamin C in cancer. He was convinced that large amounts of vitamin C, when used as an adjunct to conventional chemotherapeutic drugs, can significantly increase the quality of life and survival time in cancer patients. Vitamin C also reduces the side effects associated with chemotherapy.

It is important to note that Pauling prescribed doses that were way higher than RDA, which is 90 mg for men and 75 mg for women. According to Pauling’s therapy, this small amount is only effective in preventing scurvy but not enough to keep your cardiovascular system in great shape. He recommended daily intake of at least 3,000 mg of vitamin C to protect against heart disease (as a preventive measure) and at least 6,000 mg of vitamin C to treat those already diagnosed with heart disease.

Mega doses of vitamin C can cause bloating, gas or diarrhea. Liposomal vitamin C can be used to avoid these complications.  It is a form of vitamin C that bypasses the gastrointestinal tract and enhances the bioavailability as well as uptake of vitamin C by the cells to achieve the maximum benefits without the side effects that are generally associated with taking large doses of oral vitamin C in the form of tablets or powders.

References:

  1. Sachdeva et al. Lipid levels in patients hospitalized with coronary artery disease: an analysis of 136,905 hospitalizations in Get With The Guidelines. American Heart Journal. 2009.
  2. Rath M, Pauling L. Hypothesis: lipoprotein(a) is a surrogate for ascorbate. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1990