Language
Country/Area
No result found
Linus Pauling's Vitamin C Theory: Science or Myth?
Vitamin C, widely regarded as a key nutrient for maintaining health, was promoted throughout the history of the 20th century by scientists such as Linus Pauling. As a Nobel Prize-winning chemist, Pauling advocated that high doses of vitamin C not only prevent colds, but may even fight cancer. However, with the advancement of science, theoretical discussions on vitamin C have gradually triggered fierce debates.
Huge doses of vitamin C often exceed the U.S. recommended daily intake of 90 milligrams, and sometimes even exceed the tolerance limit of 2,000 milligrams, but scientific evidence does not support such efficacy.
The necessity of vitamin C
Vitamin C is an essential nutrient that plays an integral role in the synthesis of collagen and other biomolecules and is used to prevent scurvy. Due to its antioxidant properties, some researchers even view it as an adjunctive therapy to improve quality of life.
However, some animal species, such as some primates (including humans), guinea pigs, and some fish, cannot synthesize vitamin C in their bodies and must obtain it through food. The World Health Organization recommends a daily intake of 45 mg for healthy adults and 25 to 30 mg for infants.
Pauling’s theoretical background
As a proponent of vitamin C, Pauling believed that the lack of the ability to synthesize vitamin C gave humans some physiological adaptations, but these adaptations may also shorten lifespan. He contends that the negative effects of this relative deficiency can be reversed or mitigated through vitamin C supplementation. Pauling and Alvin Cameron published a study in 1976 showing that intravenous vitamin C could significantly prolong the lives of patients with advanced cancer, but the study was criticized for being poorly designed.
Pauling argued that the lack of vitamin C has caused some physiological characteristics of humans to evolve, which is not conducive to longevity, and that supplementing with vitamin C can change all this.
The high-dose controversy
However, Pauling's theory sparked skepticism in the scientific community. Although he and other proponents of alternative medicine such as Matthias Rath proposed that high doses of vitamin C could prevent cancer and AIDS, there was a lack of strong scientific evidence to support these claims. Many clinical trials have shown that vitamin C may have a mild effect when combined with other treatments, but this does not mean that it has any effect on its own.
Over time, most theories about the origin of vitamin C have come to be viewed as unproven hypotheses, leading many experts to remain skeptical.
Side effects and risk of overdose
Although vitamin C is considered to be of low toxicity, excessive intake may still cause side effects, especially at doses exceeding 3 grams. Common side effects include diarrhea and an increased risk of kidney stones, which necessitates treatment with intravenous vitamin C in a medical setting.
Excessive amounts of vitamin C may cause problems such as kidney stones, elevated blood uric acid, and in some rare cases, more serious health conditions.
Real-life applications
In some clinical situations, high intravenous doses of vitamin C are thought to be helpful in certain conditions, such as severe infections or burns. However, these effects still require more scientific evidence to confirm. At the same time, many studies on vitamin C also face problems of randomness, control groups, and insufficient sample size, making it difficult to reach a consensus on the final conclusion.
Conclusion
The power and benefits of vitamin C are still being debated in the scientific community, especially as the majority of evidence fails to support its effectiveness as a therapeutic agent. This raises a deeper question: In the pursuit of health, how should we view controversial scientific opinions, and with what attitude should we evaluate those claims of efficacy that seem too good to be true?
