How I Got to 101

I must admit that I have always wondered if Dr. Linus Pauling was right. Was I terribly wrong in totally relying on vitamin CWhat it does: Strengthens immune system – fights infections. Makes collagen, keeping bones, skin and joints firm and strong. Antioxidant, detoxifying pollutants and protecting against…? Then, I learned about another vital finding. I discovered that Dr. Sidney Bush, an English researcher in Hull, England, had carried out an interesting experiment. Bush was an optometrist and had read about Pauling. He wanted to know if vitamin C might help address the serious problem occurring when his patients using contact lenses developed infection underneath the lens.

Bush decided to give these patients 6,000mg of vitamin C and 5,000mg of lysine daily for one year. Would this stop eye infections? Prior to the start of treatment, he wisely took photos of the retina, the innermost back part of the eye. Then after one year, he took post-treatment photos of the retina. His patients had no infections in the eyes as a result of the treatment. But those photos enabled him to make a monumental discovery.

The retina is the only place in the body where it is possible to look directly at the health of the body’s arteries without complicated medical interventions. To his surprise, Bush noticed that atherosclerosis (hardening of arteries), clearly evident in pre-treatment photos, was fading away in post-treatment photos! The implication was tremendous, as the vitamin C was not reaching just the eyes, but the entire body. Could it mean a decrease atherosclerosis in coronary arteries, and therefore in the number of heart attacks? Could the treatment decrease the number of surgical coronary bypass operations?

This discovery should have made headlines around the world. Atherosclerosis narrows arteries throughout the body, which means decreased oxygenated blood to the heart, brain, kidneys and all the other organs. Poor blood supply is the cause of heart attack, kidney failure, and type 2 diabetes with its associated blindness, leg amputations, and other problems.

I struggled to believe that someone had finally proven that big doses of C would fight atherosclerosis. I contacted Bush and made plans to visit him. I spent three days with Bush, reviewing his before and after photos of the retina. I had no doubt about what I saw. But his findings had not been accepted by the medical establishment. He was an optometrist, they asserted, not a cardiologist. In response to such close-mindedness, Bush spoke out against the profession, which ensured his remarkable research would be sidelined.

I liked Bush who had an honest, straightforward style. We corresponded for years and when he died, I had lost a good friend. Unfortunately, no one has made the effort to replicate his easy experiment.

I now live in a retirement residence, and I offer a summary of my advice in a new book called Healthy Retirement Residence Living: What Does the Doctor Say? It’s available for purchase at www.docgiff.com. Seniors in any circumstances, but especially in retirement residences, need to hear this message. Pauling and Bush are right that we can fight the effects of aging and poor health with high amounts of vitamin C. It’s not feasible to get the high doses needed through diet; you must supplement. And when you take high doses of vitamin C, it circulates to all organs of the body, generating plenty of positive effects for cardiovascular health and much more. So for 28 years, I have been taking tons of C, and I believe it has kept me alive.

Let me leave you with some further thoughts about vitamin C. Dogs, for example, all produce vitamin C daily. But if a dog develops an infection, or gets wounded in an accident, it will automatically increase the amount of vitamin C it produces daily. That’s how most animals avoid dying from simple infections.

An orange contains about 60mg of C and just 10mg from an orange will prevent scurvy. But when authorities say we need only 90mg daily to maintain general health, they are misleading us. According to Pauling and Bush, humans require thousands of C and lysine daily fight the complications of cardiovascular and infectious diseases. When I was interviewing Pauling, I remember him saying, “It’s the dosage that cures these problems.”

When will medical schools start to train physicians to consider natural remedies before leaping to pharmaceutical treatments that involve risky complications and great expense? When will doctors ever learn to read history and uphold the Hippocratic oath? “First, do no harm.” I’ve been lucky that I became a medical journalist. It was the necessity of investigating new topics to write about each week that made me an inquisitive physician. I attribute my long, healthy life to the combination of good luck and a firm decision to take high-dose vitamin C.

At 101, I am no less insistent on my quest to help people lead healthier lives.

It’s been a pleasure to be associated with the Orthomolecular Society and the OMNS that shares important research on common sense approaches to health. I wish everyone the best of luck – but also advise not to count on it.  Longevity means hard work in making healthy lifestyle choices, starting at a young age, and never wavering.

By Dr Gifford Jones