Although it has been known for centuries that a person dying of scurvy could make a startling and dramatic recovery if fresh foods were given him, vitamin C can bring about other startling and dramatic recoveries only recently discovered. Most of the research being done is still unpublished; only a few articles have yet reached the medical journals. Aside from helping to build collagen, this vitamin appears to be a busybody with its fingers in every pie. When toxic or poison substances gain access to the body, adequate vitamin C, if available, detoxifies them, making them harmless. The toxic substance apparently combines with the vitamin, and the two are excreted together in the urine; this combination is now given the name of ascorbigen. It has long been known that during infections and diseases, vitamin C disappears from the blood and urine; that the more vitamin C given, the less ill the person usually is, and the more quickly he recovers; and that 20 to 40 times more of the vitamin has to be given during illnesses to keep the tissues saturated than during periods of health. Furthermore, antibodies are unable to render bacteria harmless unless vitamin C is adequately supplied. Antibodies must be helped by a complement; if there is no vitamin C, there is no complement. Vitamin C seems equally helpful whether the disease is caused by virus or bacteria or is non-infectious, as is gout, arthritis, or a stomach or duodenal ulcer. Almost endless infections and diseases have been studied: colds, polio, rheumatic fever, tuberculosis, diphtheria, infections of the prostate, ears, eyes, sinuses and tonsils, the childhood diseases and many others. In every case, vitamin C appears to be the good little Christian ready tc soothe the aching brow. It has been found that vitamin C can prevent or cure chemical poisoning. This vitamin has been valuable in correcting the toxic effects of lead, bromide, arsenic, benzene, and many other substances which sometimes gain access to the body, especially of persons doing industrial work. Studies have proved that vitamin C helps to prevent allergies; if enough is given, it can detoxify the harmful effects of allergins which have entered the blood, whether they be pollens, dusts, dandruff, or foods. This vitamin seems to be equally effective in treating all varieties of allergies, whether rhinitis (stuffy nose and/or postnasal drip), hay fever, asthma, eczema, or hives; spectacular relief often results from massive doses of vitamin C. Even the effects of poison oak and poison ivy often disappear when sufficient vitamin C is taken. Any foreign substance reaching the blood appears to be more or less toxic; the harm is prevented by vitamin C, but the vitamin itself is destroyed in the process. For example, every drug apparently destroys vitamin C in the body. When a drug promises to save your life, the vitamin destruction is unimportant; if it is being taken promiscuously without a physician’s prescription, both the drug and the vitamin loss may be unnecessary. It has been found that a single tablet of anyone of several drugs widely used and considered harmless can continue to destroy vitamin C in the body for three weeks after the drug is taken. The Journal of the American Medical Association carried an editorial entitled “Is Aspirin a Dangerous Drug?” I pointing out that aspirin had proved more dangerous in England and Europe than in America because our diets contained more vitamin C with which to detoxify it. This vitamin appears to play no major role in producing energy; yet it helps to prevent fatigue. For example, a group of soldiers was given vitamin C until the tissues were saturated. Their performance was compared with that of a similar group not given the vitamin. After maneuvers involving carrying heavy equipment, walking miles, and climbing mountains, the soldiers given vitamin C experienced little fatigue, recovered quickly, and had no leg cramps, whereas the other soldiers suffered severely from cramps and fatigue and did not completely recover for days. The harmful “ashes” left from incompletely burned fats, known as acetone bodies, which accumulate in the tissues when the blood sugar falls below normal, is a major cause of fatigue; these acetone bodies are detoxified by vitamin C. Vitamin C seems to help everything by being destroyed by everything. For a nutrition consultant, the situation as regards vitamin C becomes progressively more embarrassing. No one seems to be in danger of coming down with scurvy; yet almost every person has abnormalities which vitamin C has been proved to help. In order to do good work, a nutritionist seems to have to accept the fact that people think him a crackpot hipped on liver, yeast, orange juice, and vitamin-C tablets. The quantity of vitamin C needed to detoxify a foreign substance depends upon the amount of that substance gaining access to the body. Relatively small quantities are required by the healthy person to prevent harm, particularly when adequate calcium is absorbed (p. 132). Many toxic substances, however, might enter the body simultaneously. For example, a person suffering from allergies and doing industrial work where toxic chemicals have reached his blood might suffer from a serious infection which prevents him from eating and for which he is given various drugs; his temporary need for vitamin C would be tremendous indeed. Fortunately, even massive doses of this vitamin are thought to be harmless; any excess not needed in the body is quickly lost in the urine.