From Dr. Cathcart:
BOWEL TOLERANCE METHOD
In 1970, I discovered that the sicker a patient was, the more ascorbic acid he would tolerate by mouth before diarrhea was produced. At least 80% of adult patients will tolerate 10 to 15 grams of ascorbic acid fine crystals in 1/2 cup water divided into 4 doses per 24 hours without having diarrhea.
The astonishing finding was that all patients, tolerant of ascorbic acid, can take greater amounts of the substance orally without having diarrhea when ill or under stress. This increased tolerance is somewhat proportional to the toxicity of the disease being treated.
Tolerance is increased some by stress (e.g., anxiety, exercise, heat, cold, etc.)(see FIGURE I). Admittedly, increasing the frequency of doses increases tolerance perhaps to half again as much, but the tolerances of sometimes over 200 grams per 24 hours were totally unexpected.
Representative doses taken by tolerant patients titrating their ascorbic acid intake between the relief of most symptoms and the production of diarrhea were as follows:
TABLE I - USUAL BOWEL TOLERANCE DOSES
GRAMS ASCORBIC ACID NUMBER OF DOSES
CONDITION PER 24 HOURS PER 24 HOURS
normal 4 - 15 4 - 6
mild cold 30 - 60 6 - 10
severe cold 60 - 100+ 8 - 15
influenza 100 - 150 8 - 20
ECHO, coxsackievirus 100 - 150 8 - 20
mononucleosis 150 - 200+ 12 - 25
viral pneumonia 100 - 200+ 12 - 25
hay fever, asthma 15 - 50 4 - 8
environmental and
food allergy 0.5 - 50 4 - 8
burn, injury, surgery 25 - 150+ 6 - 20
anxiety, exercise and
other mild stresses 15 - 25 4 - 6
cancer 15 - 100 4 - 15
ankylosing spondylitis 15 - 100 4 - 15
Reiter's syndrome 15 - 60 4 - 10
acute anterior uveitis 30 - 100 4 - 15
Rheumatoid Arthritis 15 - 100 4 - 15
bacterial infections 30 - 200+ 10 - 25
infectious hepatitis 30 - 100 6 - 15
candidiasis 15 - 200+ 6 - 25
K- That seems to have came out good, tables often dont when pasted and copied.
it is from :
----- Robert F. Cathcart,M.D. -----
--- Allergy, Environmental, and ---
----- Orthomolecular Medicine -----
------- Orthopedic Medicine -------
--- 127 Second Street, Suite 4 ---
--- Los Altos, California, USA ---
-------- Fax:650-949-5083 ---------
and is called "Vitamin C, Titrating to Tolerance"
Here is some more from the site:
A method of utilizing vitamin C in amounts just short of the doses which produce diarrhea is described (TITRATING TO BOWEL TOLERANCE). The amount of oral ascorbic acid tolerated by a patient without producing diarrhea increases somewhat proportionately to the stress or toxicity of his disease.
Bowel tolerance doses of ascorbic acid ameliorate the acute symptoms of many diseases. Lesser doses often have little effect on acute symptoms but assist the body in handling the stress of disease and may reduce the morbidity of the disease.
However, if doses of ascorbate are not provided to satisfy this potential draw on the nutrient, first local tissues involved in the disease, then the blood, and then the body in general become deplete of ascorbate (ANASCORBEMIA and ACUTE INDUCED SCURVY).
The patient is thereby put at risk for complications of metabolic processes known to be dependent upon ascorbate.
-----------------------------------
Over the past ten-year period I have treated over 9,000 patients with large doses of vitamin C (Cathcart 1, 2, 3, 4, 5). The effects of this substance when used in adequate amounts markedly alters the course of many diseases. Stressful conditions of any kind greatly increase utilization of vitamin C. Ascorbate excreted in the urine drops markedly with stresses of any magnitude unless vitamin C is provided in large amounts. However, a more convenient and clinically useful measure of ascorbate need and presumably utilization is the BOWEL TOLERANCE. The amount of ascorbic acid which can be taken orally without causing diarrhea when a person is ill sometimes is over ten times the amount he would tolerate if well. This increased bowel tolerance phenomenon serves not only to indicate the amount which should be taken but indicates the unsuspected and astonishing magnitude of the potential use that the body has for ascorbate under stressful conditions.
If this massive draw on the small ascorbate stores of the body is not fully satisfied, the condition of ANASCORBEMIA results. The deficit of ascorbate probably starts in the tissues directly involved in the disease and then spreads to other tissues of the body. A condition of localized and then systemic acute scurvy is produced. This ACUTE INDUCED SCURVY leads to poor healing and ultimately to complications involving other systems of the body.
Much of the original work with large amounts of vitamin C was done by Fred R. Klenner, M.D. (6, 7, 8, 9) of Reidsville, North Carolina. Klenner found that viral diseases could be cured by intravenous sodium ascorbate in amounts up to 200 grams per 24 hours. Irwin Stone (10, 11, 12) pointed out the potential of vitamin C in the treatment of many diseases, the inability of humans to synthesize ascorbate, and the resultant condition hypoascorbemia. Linus Pauling (13, 14) reviewed the literature on vitamin C and has led the crusade to make known its medical uses to the public and the medical profession. Ewan Cameron in association with Pauling (15, 16, 17) has shown the usefulness of ascorbate in the treatment of cancer.
----------
TITRATING TO BOWEL TOLERANCE
The maximum relief of symptoms which can be expected with oral doses of ascorbic acid is obtained at a point just short of the amount which produces diarrhea. The amount and the timing of the doses are usually sensed by the patient. The physician should not try to regulate exactly the amount and timing of these doses because the optimally effective dose will often change from dose to dose. Patients are instructed on the general principles of determining doses and given estimates of the reasonable starting amounts and timing of these doses. I have named this process of the patient determining the optimum dose, TITRATING TO BOWEL TOLERANCE. The patient tries to TITRATE between that amount which begins to make him feel better and that amount which almost but not quite causes diarrhea.
I think it is only that excess amount of ascorbate not absorbed into the body which causes diarrhea; what does not reach the rectum, does not cause diarrhea.
It is interesting to know, when one speculates on the exact cause of this diarrhea, that while a hypertonic solution of sodium ascorbate is being administered intravenously, the amount of ascorbic acid tolerated orally actually increases.
-----------
CONCLUSION
The method of titrating a patient's dosage of ascorbic acid between the relief of most symptoms and bowel tolerance has been described. Either this titration method or large intravenous doses are absolutely necessary to obtain excellent results. Studies of lesser amounts are almost useless. The oral method cannot by its very nature be investigated by double blind studies because no placebo will mimic this bowel tolerance phenomenon. The method produces such spectacular effects in all patients capable of tolerating these doses, especially in the cases of acute self-limiting viral diseases, as to be undeniable. A placebo could not possibly work so reliably, even in infants and children, and have such a profound effect on critically ill patients. Belfield (32) has had similar results in veterinary medicine curing distemper and kennel fever in dogs with intravenous ascorbate. Although dogs produce their own ascorbate, they do not produce enough to neutralize the toxicity of these diseases. This effect in animals could hardly be a placebo.
It would be possible to conduct a double blind study on intravenous ascorbate; however, doses would have to be determined by someone experienced with this method.
Part of the difficulty many have with understanding ascorbate is that claims for its benefits seem too many. Most of these clinical results merely indicate that large doses of ascorbate augment the healing abilities of the body already known to be dependent upon minimal doses of ascorbate.
I anticipate that other essential nutrients will be found being utilized at unsuspectedly rapid rates in disease states. Compli- cations caused by failures in systems dependent upon those nutrients will be found. The magnitude of supplimentations necessary to avert those complications will seem extraordinary by standards accepted today.