Socrates wrote about scurvy, the Egyptian hieroglyphs show scurvy, and ancient armies lost more men to scurvy than battles. The Black Death (bubonic plague), also killed 25 million people in Europe due to weakened immune systems - a result of vitamin C deficiency. From the 16th to 18th centuries, sailors on explorer ships also suffered many deaths from scurvy.
1747 – James Lind, a Scottish doctor conducted an experiment with 12 sailors sick with scurvy. He divided the men in to groups of 2 and provided different foods to each. While ten perished, the two that were fed citrus fruits survived. The substance was then known to exist in citrus fruit but was not yet identified.
1928 – Albert Szent-Gyorgi, a Hungarian biochemist, was the first to identify and isolate ascorbic acid (Vitamin C). For this discovery, he was awarded the Nobel Prize. Prior to the discovery of vitamin C, no one studied this substance for its health benefits, although it was observed that no other animal suffered from scurvy, yet humans developed symptoms from extreme deficiency.
Late 1930’s – Numerous scientists and physicians began experimenting with vitamin C for possible health benefits. Most notable was a doctor from North Carolina, Frederik Klenner, who used vitamin C in his entire practice. With adequate doses, he demonstrated positive results in a variety of infectious and chronic diseases, snake and insect bites, measles, and viral pneumonia. During this time, polio was a prominent disease, and of the 60 patients he treated with vitamin C, every single one of them were cured. He published his results and gave a talk at an AMA meeting, but his methods were overlooked by the use of iron lung machines.
1972 – Dr. Irwin Stone, a biochemist and chemical engineer published, “The Healing Factor: Vitamin C Against Disease”. The book contains over fifty pages of scientific references, making it one of the first, and still one of the best, reviews of vitamin C use. The National Health Federation said it “may be the most important book on health ever written.” It summarizes the successful vitamin C treatment of:
Viral and bacterial infections
Allergies
Poisons
Ulcers
The effects of smoking
Eye diseases (glaucoma)
Cancer
Heart disease
Diabetes
Fractures
Bladder and kidney diseases
Tetanus
Shock
Wounds
Pregnancy complications
1973 – Linus Pauling, a two-time Nobel Prize winner, took advice from Irwin Stone and began researching the nutrient extensively. His goal was to live 25 years longer in order to experience the new and exciting developments in his field of biochemistry. So at 65 years old, he implemented mega dosing vitamin C to his daily regimen, and lived to see the age of 93. He brought national attention to the benefits of vitamin C with his book, “Vitamin C and the Common Cold”, and cited Stone thirteen times in his landmark book, “How to Live Longer and Feel Better”.
Pauling is perhaps the most well-known vitamin C advocate, because he dared to present, directly to the public, his insightful reviews of scientific literature to demonstrate that high doses of vitamins cure real diseases. He reassessed many studies that claimed ‘vitamins-are-useless’ and explained how researchers had skirted the fact that their data did indeed demonstrate that vitamin therapy had statistical value. He has been criticized by many authors who failed to interpret their own work fairly and passed off biased opinions as valid conclusions.