Therapeutic uses of vitamin C were advocated by physicians almost immediately after ascorbic acid was isolated. Notable early pioneers of high-dose vitamin C therapy include Claus Washington Jungeblut, MD (1898-1976); William J. McCormick, MD (1880-1968); and Frederick R. Klenner, MD (1907-1984). More recently, important work has been published by Hugh D. Riordan, MD (1932-2005) and Robert F. Cathcart III, MD (1932 – 2007). Jungeblut first published on ascorbate as prevention and treatment for polio, in 1935. Also in 1935, Jungeblut showed that vitamin C inactivated diphtheria toxin. By 1937, Jungeblut demonstrated that ascorbate inactivated tetanus toxin. Between 1943 and 1947, Klenner, a specialist in diseases of the chest, cured 41 cases of viral pneumonia with vitamin C. By 1946, McCormick showed how vitamin C prevents and also cures kidney stones; by 1957, how it fights cardiovascular disease. Beginning in the 1960s, Robert F. Cathcart, M.D. used large doses of vitamin C to treat influenza, pneumonia, hepatitis, and, eventually, AIDS. For more than fourdecades, beginning in 1975, Hugh D. Riordan, M.D. and his team have successfully used large doses of intravenous vitamin C against cancer. The medical literature has largely ignored 80 years of physician reports and laboratory and clinical studies on successful high-dose ascorbate therapy.
