Probably the main roadblock to widespread examination and utilization of this all-too-simple technology is the equally widespread belief that there must be unknown dangers to tens of thousands of milligrams of ascorbic acid. Yet, since the time megascorbate therapy was introduced in the late 1940’s by Fred R. Klenner, M.D. (2), there has been an especially safe, and extremely effective track record to follow.

Still, for some, questions remain. Here is a sample of what readers have asked OMNS about vitamin C:

Is 2,000 mg/day of vitamin C a megadose?
No. Decades ago, Linus Pauling and Irwin Stone showed that most animals make at least that much (or more) per human body weight per day. (3,4)

Then why has the government set the “Safe Upper Limit for vitamin C at 2,000 mg/day?
Perhaps the reason is ignorance. According to nationwide data compiled by the American Association of Poison Control Centers, vitamin C (and the use of any other dietary supplement) does not kill anyone. (5)

Does vitamin C damage DNA?
No. If vitamin C harmed DNA, why do most animals make (not eat, but make) between 2,000 and 10,000 milligrams of vitamin C per human equivalent body weight per day? Evolution would never so favor anything that harms vitalgenetic material. White blood cells and male reproductive fluids contain unusually high quantities of ascorbate. Living, reproducing systems love vitamin C.

Does vitamin C cause low blood sugar, B-12 deficiency, birth defects, or infertility?
Vitamin C does not cause birth defects, nor infertility, nor miscarriage. “Harmful effects have been mistakenly attributed to vitamin C, including hypoglycemia, rebound scurvy, infertility, mutagenesis, and destruction of vitamin B-12. Health professionals should recognize that vitamin C does not produce these effects.” (6)

Does vitamin C . . .
A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled 14 day trial of 3,000 mg per day of vitamin C reported greater frequency of sexual intercourse. The vitamin C group (but not the placebo group) also experienced a quantifiable decrease indepression. This is probably due to the fact that vitamin C “modulates catecholaminergic activity, decreases stress reactivity, approach anxiety and prolactin release, improves vascular function, and increases oxytocin release. These processes are relevant to sexual behavior and mood.” (7)

Does vitamin C cause kidney stones?
No. The myth of the vitamin C-caused kidney stone is rivaled in popularity only by the Loch Ness Monster. A factoid-crazy medical media often overlooks the fact that William J. McCormick, M.D., demonstrated that vitamin C actuallyprevents the formation of kidney stones. He did so in 1946, when he published a paper on the subject. (8) His work was confirmed by University of Alabama professor of medicine Emanuel Cheraskin, M.D.. Dr. Cheraskin showed thatvitamin C inhibits the formation of oxalate stones. (9)

Other research reports that: “Even though a certain part of oxalate in the urine derives from metabolized ascorbic acid, the intake of high doses of vitamin C does not increase the risk of calcium oxalate kidney stones. . . (I)n the large- scaleHarvard Prospective Health Professional Follow-Up Study, those groups in the highest quintile of vitamin C intake (greater than 1,500 mg/day) had a lower risk of kidney stones than the groups in the lowest quintiles.” (10)

Dr. Robert F. Cathcart said, “I started using vitamin C in massive doses in patients in 1969. By the time I read that ascorbate should cause kidney stones, I had clinical evidence that it did not cause kidney stones, so I continued prescribing massive doses to patients. Up to 2006, I estimate that I have put 25,000 patients on massive doses of vitamin C and none have developed kidney stones. Two patients who had dropped their doses to 500 mg a day developed calcium oxalate kidney stones. I raised their doses back up to the more massive doses and added magnesium and B-6 to their program and no more kidney stones. I think they developed the kidney stones because they were not taking enough vitamin C.”

Why did Linus Pauling die from cancer if he took all that vitamin C?
Linus Pauling, PhD, megadose vitamin C advocate, died in 1994 from prostate cancer. Mayo Clinic cancer researcher Charles G. Moertel, M.D., critic of Pauling and vitamin C, also died in 1994, and also from cancer (lymphoma). Dr. Moertel was 66 years old. Dr. Pauling was 93 years old. One needs to make up ones own mind as to whether this does or does not indicate benefit from vitamin C.

A review of the subject indicates that “Vitamin C deficiency is common in patients with advanced cancer . . . Patients with low plasma concentrations of vitamin C have a shorter survival.” (11)

Does vitamin C narrow arteries or cause atherosclerosis?
Abram Hoffer, M.D., has said: “I have used vitamin C in megadoses with my patients since 1952 and have not seen any cases of heart disease develop even after decades of use. Dr. Robert Cathcart with experience on over 25,000 patients since 1969 has seen no cases of heart disease developing in patients who did not have any when first seen. He added that the thickening of the vessel walls, if true, indicates that the thinning that occurs with age is reversed. . . The fact is that vitamin C decreases plaque formation according to many clinical studies. Some critics ignore the knowledge that thickened arterial walls in the absence of plaque formation indicate that the walls are becoming stronger and therefore less apt to rupture. . . Gokce, Keaney, Frei et al gave patients supplemental vitamin C daily for thirty days and measured blood flow through the arteries. Blood flow increased nearly fifty percent after the single dose an d this was sustained after the monthly treatment. (12).”

What about blood pressure?
A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study showed that hypertensive patients taking supplemental vitamin C had lower blood pressure. (13)

So why the flurry of anti-vitamin-C reporting in the mass media? Negative news gets attention. Negative news sells newspapers, and magazines, and pulls in lots of television viewers. Positive drug studies do get headlines, of course.Positive vitamin studies do not. Is this a conspiracy? You mean with unscrupulous people all sitting around a shaded table in a darkened back room? Of course not. It is nevertheless an enormous public health problem with enormous consequences.

150 million Americans take supplemental vitamin C every day. This is as much a political issue as a scientific issue. What would happen if everybody took vitamins? Perhaps doctors, hospital administrators and pharmaceutical salespeople would all be lining up for their unemployment checks.

A skeptic might conclude that there is at least some evidence that the politicians are on the wrong side of this. After all, the US RDA for vitamin C for humans is only 10% of the government’s USDA vitamin C standards for Guinea pigs. (14) But conspiracy against nutritional medicine? Certainly not. Couldn’t be.

References and Additional Reading:

(1) Cathcart RF. Vitamin C, titration to bowel tolerance, anascorbemia, and acute induced scurvy.” Medical Hypothesis 7:1359-1376, 1981. http://www.doctoryourself.com/titration.html

See also: http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v05n09.shtml and http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v05n11.shtml

(2) Saul AW. Hidden in plain sight: the pioneering work of Frederick Robert Klenner, M.D. J Orthomolecular Med, 2007. Vol 22, No 1, p 31-38. http://www.doctoryourself.com/klennerbio.html andhttp://orthomolecular.org/hof/2005/fklenner.html

Dr. F.R. Klenner’s Clinical Guide to the Use of Vitamin C is posted in its entirety at http://www.seanet.com/~alexs/ascorbate/198x/smith-lh-clinical_guide_1988.htm

(3) Pauling L. How to Live Longer and Feel Better. Corvallis, OR: Oregon State University Press, 2006. Reviewed at http://www.doctoryourself.com/livelonger.html . Linus Pauling’s complete vitamin and nutrition bibliography is posted athttp://www.doctoryourself.com/biblio_pauling_ortho.html

(4) The complete text of Irwin Stone’s book The Healing Factor is posted for free reading at http://vitamincfoundation.org/stone/

(5) http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v06n04.shtml

(6) Levine M et al. JAMA, April 21, 1999. Vol 281, No 15, p 1419.

(7) High-dose ascorbic acid increases intercourse frequency and improves mood: a randomized controlled clinical trial. Brody S. Biol Psychiatry 2002 Aug 15; 52(4):371-4.

(8) McCormick WJ. Lithogenesis and hypovitaminosis. Medical Record, 1946. 159:7, July, p 410-413.

(9) Cheraskin E, Ringsdorf, Jr. M and Sisley E. The Vitamin C Connection: Getting Well and Staying Well with Vitamin C. New York: Harper and Row, 1983. Also paperback, 1984: New York, Bantam Books. “Vitamin C in the urine tends to bind calcium and decrease its free form. This means less chance of calcium’s separating out as calcium oxalate (stones).” [page 213] See also: Ringsdorf WM Jr, Cheraskin E. Nutritional aspects of urolithiasis. South Med J. 1981 Jan;74(1):41-3, 46.

(10) Gerster H. No contribution of ascorbic acid to renal calcium oxalate stones. Ann Nutr Metab. 1997;41(5):269-82. See also: http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v01n07.shtml

(11) Mayland CR, Bennett MI, Allan K. Vitamin C deficiency in cancer patients. Palliat Med. 2005 Jan;19(1):17-20. See also: http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v01n09.shtml andhttp://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v04n19.shtml

(12) Free full text paper at http://circ.ahajournals.org/cgi/reprint/99/25/3234
See also: http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v06n20.shtml and http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v01n02.shtml

(13) Duffy SJ, Gokce N, Holbrook M, Huang A, Frei B, Keaney JF Jr, Vita JA. Treatment of hypertension with ascorbic acid. Lancet. 1999 Dec 11;354(9195):2048-9.

(14) http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v06n08.shtml

Nutritional Medicine is Orthomolecular Medicine

Orthomolecular medicine uses safe, effective nutritional therapy to fight illness. For more information: http://www.orthomolecular.org

The peer-reviewed Orthomolecular Medicine News Service is a non-profit and non-commercial informational resource.

Editorial Review Board:

Ian Brighthope, M.D. (Australia)
Ralph K. Campbell, M.D. (USA)
Carolyn Dean, M.D., N.D. (Canada)
Damien Downing, M.D. (United Kingdom)
Michael Ellis, M.D. (Australia)
Michael Gonzalez, D.Sc., Ph.D. (Puerto Rico)
Steve Hickey, Ph.D. (United Kingdom)
James A. Jackson, Ph.D. (USA)
Bo H. Jonsson, M.D., Ph.D. (Sweden)
Thomas Levy, M.D., J.D. (USA)
Jorge R. Miranda-Massari, Pharm.D. (Puerto Rico)
Erik Paterson, M.D. (Canada)
Gert E. Shuitemaker, Ph.D. (Netherlands)

Andrew W. Saul, Ph.D. (USA), Editor and contact person. Email: omns@orthomolecular.org ]]> http://carinsmit.co.za/blog/general/about-objections-to-vitamin-c-therapy/feed/ 0 http://carinsmit.co.za/blog/general/mariette-liefferink-nicole-barlow-and-carin-smit-answer-the-media-statement-on-30-september-2010-by-mava-scott-%e2%80%93-department-of-water-affairs-south-africa/ http://carinsmit.co.za/blog/general/mariette-liefferink-nicole-barlow-and-carin-smit-answer-the-media-statement-on-30-september-2010-by-mava-scott-%e2%80%93-department-of-water-affairs-south-africa/#comments Thu, 07 Oct 2010 06:16:49 +0000 mafia http://carinsmit.co.za/?p=564 Media Statement
Department of Water Affairs
30 September 2010

To All Media

The Department of Water Affairs (DWA) wants the South African public to know that Gauteng will not run out of water in the near future, it is also incorrect to say that 80% of South Africa’s water will be so polluted that it will not be possible for it to be treated to potable quality and that the Gauteng province will be worst affected as the Environment Conservation Association claims. Gauteng has a world class water system boosted by importing water from places such as KwaZulu-Natal and Lesotho. The water is purified to standards that comply with the department’s standards and these standards are fully aligned with the World Health Organization guidelines.

The Department therefore further wishes to dismiss as untrue claims that 80% of South Africa’s water resources will be polluted by 2015 to such an extent that a completely new water source must be found in the next two years. This claim appears to have no foundation or backing of a scientific nature. The Department also has no knowledge of the environmental group having had engagements with government on this matter as it is falsely claimed by members of this organization.

“Our planning teams are continuously planning well into the future for all major towns and cities in the country”, says Nobubele Ngele, the Acting Director General of Water Affairs. In fact the department has just completed a situational analysis of the water situation in the country and has published a report {integrated water resource planning report for South Africa in this regard. With regard to pollution she said that  “ Even if water contains some impurities, it can still be purified up to the SANS 241 standard, the water purification processes in SA is so well advanced that any water regardless of quality can be treated to potable (drinkable) quality”.  “Look at Anglo American” she said “They are successfully treating polluted mine water in Emhlangeni (Witbank) to drinking quality and providing this water to the local municipality”.

The views expressed by these organizations point to a lack of understanding of the water sector and developments over the past few years. The question must be asked as to how this figure of 80% was determined?  Further the threat by Fedusa to go on strike over issues of water quality is bizarre at best. In this regard however the Department acknowledges the right of union members to embark on strike action as they see fit. The Department would also like to warn against opportunistic groupings, some seeking publicity others wishing to capitalize on the fears of the public about the availability of water in Gauteng and South Africa at large in order to secure funding for their organizations.

Ngele says It is unfortunate that the issue of Acid Mine Drainage has become a band wagon for opportunistic groups to get onto. “What is becoming apparent is that this subject which poses a significant challenge is being used to advance   private interests”. The efforts of government to deal with AMD are well known. Earlier this month, the appointment of an inter-ministerial Committee on Acid Mine Drainage was announced by Minister Buyelwa Sonjica to the public. This Committee is tasked with addressing the current challenges of AMD and has already had its first meeting with the aim of charting a way forward. The Department has acknowledged the potential risks associated with mine water management and the need for a lasting solution. An announcement will be made soon through the Inter Ministerial Committee with regard to the work of a panel of experts working on this.

“We can rest assured through these and many other initiatives that the country will not face a water crisis at any time in the future” said Ngele. The Department calls on all concerned groupings, unions and individuals who wish to contribute positively to efforts to protect   this precious resource (water), to engage its officials. In its capacity as custodian of water resources in the country, DWA is committed to averting any potential water crisis.

For more information contact:

Mava B Scott
082 411 9821
scottm@dwa.gov.za

Mariette Liefferink’s Question To Ms Scott

Dear Miss Scott,

We refer to the DWA’s press statement, subjoined hereunder:

“Ngele says It is unfortunate that the issue of Acid Mine Drainage has become a band wagon for opportunistic groups to get onto. “What is becoming apparent is that this subject which poses a significant challenge is being used to advance   private interests”.

We would appreciate if the Department of Water Affairs (DWA) can please identify the individuals, opportunistic groups or organizations that use the flooding of the gold mining basins and the uncontrolled decant of AMD from the West Rand Basin to advance private interests.

I take the liberty to copy the international and national news media, and leading NGOs and civil society organizations on this e-mail and hope to be pardoned for my forwardness.  The recipients of this e-mail are however not limited to the abovementioned individuals or organizations.  In subsequent e-mails I shall forward the DWA’s press statement and the Federation for a Sustainable Environment’s above-mentioned request to additional stakeholders and news media.

Respectfully yours,

Mariette Liefferink.
CEO:  FEDERATION FOR A SUSTAINABLE ENVIRONMENT

Nicole Barlow’s Comment

Dear Miss Scott,

I too hope not to speak out of turn, I stand in the shadow of my learned colleague Mariette Liefferink, especially when it comes to AMD, only to wish I had achieved in my time what she has in hers, however, I can only echo her statement hereunder.

It is my understanding, and please excuse me if I’m incorrect, that government is the custodian of all water resources, which includes rivers, pans, dams and lakes.  Therefore I too, am very interested to know which “private interests” would be served by the catastrophic consequences that would follow the decant of the West Rand Basin into our rivers.

As I can only speak for the Environment and Conservation Association, I would like to re-iterate our commitment to finding an urgent solution to South Africa’s looming water crisis, by co-operating with NGO’s, government and all other stakeholders in this regard.  We trust from DWA’s subjoined press release that their invitation to work with government has now been officially extended to ALL relevant and affected parties in this matter, and we (ECA) await an invitation to join the committee to discuss potential solutions.

Yours sincerely,

Nicole Barlow
Chairperson
Environment & Conservation Association

Carin Smit’s Challenge To Ms. Scott/Government

Dear Miss Scott

It is regrettable that government takes the stance that NGO’s and other interest groups pose a threat to governmental claims regarding the water issues facing South Africa. Rather than welcome involvement and collaborate with those who have a direct, sincere and committed interest in seeing the water crisis remedies, governmental claims appear to be hostile, denialist and oppositional.

May I briefly outline what is currently taking place in one of the world’s largest democracies, India:

In 2008 I visited north India on request to offer my services as a volunteer in a project where there are more than 400 severely disabled children.  The majority suffered from cerebral palsy, were blind, deaf, deformed, mentally retarded, epileptic or had autism.  When I saw the status of these children, and the abject poverty facing the families who brought their children for help to the Baba Farid Centre for Special Children, a clinic offering Indian Neuro-therapy to these hapless children, I managed to convince a laboratory in Europe to donate lab-time and started running toxicological tests on the children (see sub-joined article).

Over a two year period our testing uncovered that more than 88% of these children were toxic with uranium levels far above WHO and international safety standards.

When these results were released as front-page news in the Times of India and Hindustan News, two of the largest newspapers internationally, as well as to CNN, BBC News and other international media representatives, the Indian and Punjabi government reacted exactly as our own government is currently reacting to the news.

Punjab health minister Lakshmi Kanta Chawla stated in April last year: “This is not a health subject. We don’t know how children are showing such high concentrations of uranium,… it is for the central government in Delhi to deal with the problem.” The Central Government, in turn, then sent in high ranking officials from the Bhaba Atomic Research Council and the Department of Atomic Energy, who took a few water and hair samples from children in the project in Faridkot and made immediate claims in the media that the uranium levels in Faridkot were well within safety limits and that the children were deformed (see photos below) due to congenital reasons and that their disease could not be blamed on the high levels of uranium.  They claimed that the testing done by the international lab was spurious and they even went ahead and threatened the project with closure if they continued speaking to the media, stating that it was beyond their remit to speak to media or drive research in this matter.

All these claims were made, despite the fact that reputable research was done more than 5 years ago by the University of Amritsar in Punjab, indicating that groundwater and pipe wells were heavily contaminated with uranium and that radon (a daughter of uranium) was elevated in houses in the Bathinda region elevating the risk of cancer in some communities thus affected more than 153 times as they reported on dose rate, cumulative dose and lifetime cancer risk – 15% of dwellings surveyed in Punjab had Radon levels which were in the “range of action” level . (Singh et al. Journal for Radiation Measurements, 39 (2005) 535 – 552.).

In July, 2010, our research was published in a reputable, peer-reviewed journal, Clinical Medicine Insights: Therapeutics, 2010:2 655-661 (12^th July, 2010).

Due to pressure brought to bear on the Indian and Punjabi governments, after our research was published in this prestigious, international scientific journal in New Zealand, the comment by LivePunjab became a stark reminder that governments cannot ignore or dismiss the work done at grassroots level by NGO’s, concerned individuals and civil stakeholders: “Joint efforts should be taken by the laboratories and governmental agencies to do follow up studies that evaluate early metal exposure in children who are living in industrial or environmentally endangered regions of the state,” claim LivePunjab.

Only now, for the first time since this story broke in the media, does it appear that the Indian government is taking the matter of high uranium levels in groundwater seriously (http://www.tribuneindia.com/2010/20101003/punjab.htm#4), as other studies have also now been concluded showing that it isn’t just uranium that is elevated in groundwater in this region, but a whole cocktail of other lethal metals and chemicals have also tested out as beyond safety levels.

Today, 18 months later, the Indian government seems to shame-facedly to acknowledge danger,  and reports are that they have started to remedy water supplies as a matter of urgency by planning to install water purification systems in every household in Punjab and have in collaboration with the Punjabi government started to take urgent steps to remedy the situation by passing tighter legislation against the dumping of “black water” into canals and other water sources.  Senior Environmental Engineer for the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) has recently stated after a surprise checking campaign targeted 6 large industrial units in Patiela, Punjab: “The industries should understand that it is very important to make the rivers, drains and other water bodies of Punjab pollution free in order to build a green, healthy and nature-friendly Punjab for future generations. Hence, all the industrial units of Punjab must comply with the guidelines laid by the PPCB with respect to various types of pollution”, he added.

The sad part of this success story is that in a state with 24 million people, government knew about the water crisis for almost 6 years and millions of women fell pregnant and new babies were born over that period who were exposed to the mutagenic and carcinogenic effects of uranium as well as other lethal metals and xenobiotics materials and nothing was done, until an outside, independent agency (ourselves) went in and at great personal cost and sacrifice, challenged the Indian government.   Please see subjoined media coverage on this matter.

• HindustanTimes ePaper – Digital replica of Print Edition. http://epaper.hindustantimes.com - http://epaper.hindustantimes.com//artMailDisp.aspx?article=17_05_2009_581_012&typ=1&pub=722
• Guardian - http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/aug/30/india-punjab-children-uranium-pollution
• http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Uranium-metals-make-Punjab-toxic-hotspot/articleshow/6048431.cms
• http://infochangeindia.org/index2.php?option=com_content&do_pdf=1&id=7765
• http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7979022.stm
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranium_poisoning_in_Punjab
• http://www.livepunjab.com/articles/study-confims-presence-uranium-punjab-19441.html
• http://www.la-press.com/metal-exposure-in-the-children-of-punjab-india-article-a2156
• http://www.tribuneindia.com/2010/20101003/punjab.htm#4
• http://www.tribuneindia.com/2010/20100507/punjab.htm#4
• http://www.witness84.com/water
• http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=TOI&BaseHref=CAP/2009/04/03&PageLabel=13&EntityId=Ar01308&ViewMode=HTML&GZ=T
• http://www.tribuneindia.com/2010/20100630/punjab.htm#8
• http://www.indianexpress.com/news/malwa-belt-has-highest-number-of-breast-cancer-cases-study/688652/
• http://www.indiawaterportal.org/blog/chandrasekharnemani/8246
• http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/view/186284
• SP Sharma – Tribune News Service
• Bathinda, January 23 – The Punjab State Human Rights Commission (PSHRC) has ordered the Pollution Control Board to test groundwater below ash ponds of the thermal power house of the PSEB here to see whether it contained uranium or not. In its order, dated January 14, the PSHRC has told the PSEB to take steps to reduce the uranium content within prescribed limits, in case it was found beyond the permissible limit. Taking cognizance of reports published in The Tribune regarding air pollution being caused in Bathinda due to fly ash emanating from the coal-based thermal plant and also high quantity of uranium in the groundwater, the PSHRC had earlier issued notices to the Punjab government, PSEB and Pollution Control Board. PSHRC chairperson Justice RS Mongia and other members have ordered that tests may be done at some other thermal plant to verify whether the ash pond here was causing presence of uranium in the ground water. The PSHRC suggested another test of groundwater from some place away from the ash pond to compare the uranium content. Chief engineer of the thermal plant Kamaljit Singh informed the commission that modernisation of Unit number III has been started and the work would be completed in nine months. http://www.tribuneindia.com/2010/20100124/punjab.htm#20

Despite the huge shift in thinking in India about the contamination of its water sources, acid drainage from its many thermal power plants, is still not recognised as the contaminating source – coal, when burnt for energy production, becomes a fly-ash.  This fly-ash is pumped into large, unlined fly-ash dams all over India.  The fly-ash seeps into the ground and down into the aquifer.  On its way down, it has to flow into rock formations rich in uranium.  Acid drainage, similar to what we have on the  (gold) Reef of South Africa,  releases exceptionally high quantities of toxic metals, naturally found in rock formations, such as arsenic, lead, nickel and uranium into the pristine underground aquifers and thus poisons an entire nation. Elevated levels of nitrates associated with agricultural use, can also be to blame for the acid levels in the water.

Interestingly enough, wealthy captains of industry in Punjab are making the same claims that Ms. Scott is making with regards to NGO’s, concerned individuals and civil stakeholders: “Umrao Singh, president of the Sugar Division of Chadha Estate, denied the allegations (that his liquor industry is causing severe water pollution in the region). He claimed that certain local leaders had been creating a hue and cry unnecessarily for their vested interests. He claimed that the Punjab Pollution Control Board had collected water samples from the area, which were found fit for use. The hazardous waste and air pollution are being managed as per the directions of the board”, he claimed’.

Oceans and thousands of kilometers divide us, yet, when culpability or acknowledgement of wrong has to be apportioned or accepted, similar games are played and the helpless and hapless, the poor and the marginalized suffer!

Similar claims as the one above (see subject-line) that SA’s water crisis is dire, are currently being made in India (Punjab, which means Five Rivers, has been faced with the total destruction of its pristine water sources “The Energy Research Institute, a New Delhi think tank, says that already in an agriculture-based state such as Panjaab in the north, 98 percent of ground water has been exploited. The Forum for Bio-Technology and Food Security adds that if the trend continues, the once fertile Panjaab- once known as the country’s granary – will turn into a desert,” reports Witness84.com (http://www.witness84.com/water).  At least India’s central and regional governments seem to be listening – will South Africa’s government fail this test?

In our house, vitamin supplements sit on the counter in open bowls like nuts, dried fruits, or jelly beans.

Colds, respiratory illnesses, intestinal viruses, mono, and other infectious diseases are constantly present in American schools. In response, my teenage kids have placed four bowls on the kitchen counter – a large one in the middle full of vitamin C surrounded by three smaller bowls of niacin, vitamin D, and thiamine tablets. They help themselves to the vitamins when they feel the need, and many of their friends have adopted the idea as well. Regularly, the kids report that the vitamins actually work. The most frequent comments are, “Wow, I can breath through my nose again!”, and “I was sure I was getting sick yesterday but I feel fine today.”

How did this start? My father introduced me to vitamin C as a teenager and I was further inspired by Linus Pauling’s “How to Live Longer and Feel Better.” (1) In order to safely raise my kids on extra vitamins with maximum effectiveness, I started actively researching orthomolecular medicine. As a result, I advised my teenage children to focus on responsive dosing of four vitamins that are underrepresented in modern diets. I provided the following suggested daily doses as a starting point:

6000 mg of vitamin C
4000 IU of vitamin D
200 mg of thiamine
250 mg of time-release niacin

There is an obvious association between vitamin intake and poor health. Teenagers can understand this. Some might think that it is not good parenting to let teens have unfettered access to nutrients. We need to constantly remember that these and other vitamins are non-prescription for a reason. (2) As previous Orthomolecular Medicine News Service articles have pointed out (3), vitamins are remarkably safe. They are far better then sugary candy, fast foods loaded with sodium and fat, or caffeine-laced soft drinks.

Vitamin supplements have been widely available for only a few decades. For the first time, families have the ability to independently control intakes of essential nutrients. A very large amount of research has repeatedly shown that proactively controlling micro-nutrients is necessary to optimize health.

Easy access, peer acceptance, and occasional obvious usefulness, in that order, appear to me to be important motivators for teenagers. I am hopeful that my kids are more sensitive to their own health and the health of their friends, and are looking for an association between supplement use and improved health.

The kids know I’m the family “expert” on vitamins and I have occasional in depth conversations. I rarely maintain their interest. Vitamins have not, in my opinion, taken health care’s center stage because this theory is not particularly exciting. But you can prove it works by giving it a fair trial.

The vitamin revolution is about behavior. I don’t care why the kids take vitamins B1, B3, C, and D. I just care that they take them, and stay well as a result. Watching my children and their friends independently control their vitamin intake has been a turning point for me. I believe that my kids are ordinary kids and that most kids will respond similarly.

Media scare stories aside, the overwhelming scientific evidence is that we are living in a time of epidemic vitamin deficiency. Supplements correct that when food groups eating does not or can not. Deficiency of just these four vitamins is often responsible for the multitude of disorders that qualify children for special education and asthma medication. Later in life, inadequate vitamin intake clearly contributes to heart disease, cancer, diabetes, excessive dental cavities, anorexia, depression, dementia, and sleep disorders. Persons wishing to confirm or question this statement are encouraged to look at the Orthomolecular Medicine News Service archive, freely accessible at http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/index.shtml.

With the stakes so high, all methods of increasing consumption of these four vitamins are worth consideration. My kids have definitely benefited from supplemental vitamins. I’m hopeful that other parents will find this simple option equally useful.

(Stephen H. Brown received his Ph.D. in Chemistry from Yale. He has worked for industry in the field of heterogeneous catalysis since 1988 and has 80 patents. Dr. Brown has been blogging at www.cforyourself.com since 2006, and contributing to the Orthomolecular Medicine News Service since 2007.)

References:

(1) Reviewed at http://www.doctoryourself.com/livelonger.html.

(2) Bronstein AC, Spyker DA, Cantilena LR Jr, Green JL, Rumack BH, Giffin SL. 2008 Annual Report of the American Association of Poison Control Centers’ National Poison Data System (NPDS): 26th Annual Report. Clinical Toxicology (2009). 47, 911-1084. The full text article is available for free download at http://www.aapcc.org/dnn/Portals/0/2008annualreport.pdf. Vitamins statistics are found in Table 22B, journal pages 1052-3. Minerals, herbs, amino acids and other supplements are in the same table, pages 1047-8.

(3) More than 75 OMNS news releases are available at http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/index.shtml

Nutritional Medicine is Orthomolecular Medicine

Orthomolecular medicine uses safe, effective nutritional therapy to fight illness. For more information: http://www.orthomolecular.org

The peer-reviewed Orthomolecular Medicine News Service is a non-profit and non-commercial informational resource.

Editorial Review Board:

Carolyn Dean, M.D., N.D. (Canada)
Damien Downing, M.D. (United Kingdom)
Michael Gonzalez, D.Sc., Ph.D. (Puerto Rico)
Steve Hickey, Ph.D. (United Kingdom)
James A. Jackson, PhD (USA)
Bo H. Jonsson, MD, Ph.D (Sweden)
Thomas Levy, M.D., J.D. (USA)
Jorge R. Miranda-Massari, Pharm.D. (Puerto Rico)
Erik Paterson, M.D. (Canada)
Gert E. Shuitemaker, Ph.D. (Netherlands)

Andrew W. Saul, Ph.D. (USA), Editor and contact person. Email: omns@orthomolecular.org

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To contextualize this for you, I need to say that the drainage point is less than 20 kms from my front door, where I live.  The seepage comes from low pH water welling up in old, closed-down mines and more than 15 thousand litres is gushing out of the earth, rapidly lowing into several streams and eventually two main River-complexes in the Gauteng / Free State provinces of our country.

The AMD (Acid Mine Drainage) is heavily contaminated water containing primarily radio-active uranium, cadmium, lead, arsenic and a cocktail of  toxic metals so dangerous that, and I quote: “(that it) caused depletion of dolomite in two-and-a-half years – under normal circumstances, this would have taken millions of years”.  The article reads that the Witwatersrand, home to the world’s biggest gold and uranium mining basin, is where mining operations have ‘raped the earth for its gold and uranium, left behind gaping holes in the ground, polluted river sources and disrupted and left unenriched communities’, says Mrs. Mariëtte Liefferink, chief executive for the Federation for Sustainable Environment.

Government and mining stake holders are shrugging their shoulders and no real attempts are being made to stop, what may be one of South Africa’s largest ecological disasters.  Rand Uranium, who has been forced to pump out mega-litres of AMD into nearby Robinson Lake, seems to care less that the levels of radioactive Uranium are now 40,000 times higher than normal!

After seeing the devastation the past two years in Punjab, where the local and national governments have also walked away shrugging their shoulders, in the wake of thousands becoming ill, being born brain injured or deformed and some dying from cancer or related radiation diseases, I simply can’t come to grips with  the lethargy which thinks that simply throwing money at the problem by pumping the black water from one place to another and minimally treating it, will make the problem go away.

This past Friday, 5^th February, 2010, Faranaaz Parker, reporter for the Mail & Guardian, pointed out in her article about this impending disaster in “Don’t Drink the Water” in the newspaper’s Health Section, that uranium has already led to miscarriage of animals and humans, deformity, blindness and babies being stillborn.

When will we take responsibility for our actions?!  When will governments come to the party and actually do something to ensure that the next generation doesn’t pay the price for our sins?!

I am both horrified and shocked at what is happening on the West Rand and wish to warn everyone living in the irrigation zones of the Tweelopies Spruit as well as the Vaal and Limpopo Systems that they can expect not only disease, deformity and death of their livestock, but if this problem isn’t curbed and the water isn’t make safe to drink, wash in and utilize for irrigation, humans will suffer the same dismal lot as the livestock, who are already the first line of testimony against business giants who don’t care about the monumental loss of life, and more …. this ecological disaster will forever change life as we know it, if the damage isn’t immediately curtailed.

Another shocking point to note is that the article  “Where poison water seeps from the earth“, written on the 30th of January by journalist Sheree Bega, indicated that the Department of Water and Environmental Affairs would comment in the week to follow.  I scoured the papers the following week, only to find that this department (along with 4 other government stake-holding departments), all have their very own unique damage control projects under way: Beeld, Thursday, 4 February 2010, quoted the Minister and the Assistant Director-General of this department as commenting that only 30 of South Africa’s 283 municipalities are functioning properly with regards to water management at present.  These are called so-called “Blue-Drop” municipalities.  Not one municipality downstream from the AMD disaster is a “Blue-Drop municipality, which means that these municipalities do not have the capacity or expertise or skill level of engineering acumen to clean up the spillage which is imminent in their region!  The Assistant Director-General, Ms. Mobulele Ngele commented taht 23 municipalities are already in the most dire straits, as they  are no longer able to purify sewerage and provide safe drinking water!

According to Ngele’s presentation an extreme danger exists for the outbreak of water-borne diseases in these areas and a further 99 municipalities are on the Department’s Risk List.

Our Minister promised that she will deal with this dire matter by simply reporting this to government in parliament – is this nearly enough, if one estimates the compound risk the seepage of AMD brings to this equation, in a country where highly qualified chemical engineers have become part of the ongoing efflux of brains from South Africa and where a nation is becoming more and more vulnerable when viewed against the backdrop of one of the world’s worst ecological disasters where radioactive elements and toxic waste conspire to destroy entire regions and their inhabitants?

She shared her thoughts with the leadership and said she felt that the children (adults) appear as if they were poisoned.  As a C/Clinical Metal Toxicologist it seemed necessary to have these children tested for toxins and she wrote letters to a number of laboratories requesting sponsored help with bio-medical testing.  One lab, Micro Trace Minerals in Germany offered to sponsor lab-time to run tests for to see what the possible cause of toxicity could be.

Carin and the team at the Centres commenced sampling and the results showed something quite unexpected:  the disabled children attending the Centres were poisoned with a cocktail of lethal metals – arsenic, cadmium, lead, mercury, but the most disturbing was exceptionally high levels of uranium.

Once the Phase 1 test results were released, it was also very evident that the children, most of whom were malnourished, needed supplements to build up their bodies for the Phase 2 testing, which would involve chelation [removal of toxic metals by means of substances which act as chemical claws].  During this time the same lab who donated their expertise and lab-time, also send a consignment of nutrients valued at over Euros 5000.00 to Punjab.  A second company, Kirkman Labs also contributed a set of nutrients for 25 children.  Children’s lives were saves because of this kindness.  For some, sadly, the help came too late and a number of children died between the first and second phase of testing.

In April 2009, Carin and a colleague from South Africa, Mrs. Vera Dirr, returned and again with the help of the amazing team of young men at the centre in Faridkot, took urine samples after challenging the children with DMSA.  The tests went off well and the results of these tests confirmed earlier results.  A company from New Zealand, Mercout, donated a large consignment of detoxification building nutrients to the children of BFCSC in Punjab.

Between then and now the story about the damaged, deformed children of Punjab hit the headlines of virtually every major newspaper, radio and TV station in India.  Carin was also interviews by radio stations in countries as far afield as Canada and France.  The UK paper, the Guardian carried this story and it was mentioned on CNN.  A radio broadcast on BBC World Radio also emphasized what everyone was thinking:  “Where did the high uranium levels come from?”  The answer:  Most likely from the fly-ash of the dirty coal-fired power plants that dot the countryside of Punjab.

The damaged children of Punjab are but the tip of the proverbial iceberg:  This is an ecological disaster in the making – the State of Punjab has no less than 24 million people in it and all of them live within close proximity of dirty power plants.  The soil, water and air are polluted.  Hundreds of deformed, broken, sick and dying children are only the surface casualties…. There are (hundreds of) thousands sick with cancer and other dread diseases, and in years to come millions may die because of the Punjabi and central government’s failure to act!

This week past, 20^th January, 2010, Carin was presented with an Award of Excellence by the Chair Person of the International Board for Clinical Metal Toxicology, Dr. Peter vander Schaar in the Netherlands for the extraordinary work she has done to bring public attention the work of Clinical Metal Toxicology in her quest to help the children of Punjab.

All Photographs were taken by Gethin Chamberlain of the UK Guardian