Our Future Health

 

by Linus Pauling

I believe that by the year 2000 it will be possible for
the American executive and for other people in the United States
to be ten times as healthy as they are now.

What I mean by being ten times as healthy is that the
incidence of serious disease at each age and the probability of
death at this age can be reduced to 1/10th of the present value.

To have at each age only 10% as much illness as now means
that the length of the period of well-being would be increased
by about 27 years, and the length of life would be increased, on
the average, by the same amount.

It has been known for over 100 years that in a population
such as in the United States or Great Britain the chance of death
doubles with every 8 years increase in age. We see that, in
accordance with this rule, if the chance of serious illness and
death at a given age were to be reduced to 1/2, the length of
the period of well-being and the length of life would be in-
creased by 8 years; if this chance were to be decreased to 1/4,
they would be increased by 16 years; and if it were to be de-
creased to 1/8th, they would be increased to 24 years. oth. 0.125,
is a little greater than 1/l0th, 0.10, and accordingly I can make

the estimate of a 27-year increase in the length of tpe=—p@TrTOe~et
the period of well-being and the length of life as a result
of the decrease in the incidence of serious disease and of
death to 10% of the present value.

During the last 80 years there has been a great increase
in life expectancy in the United States, almost entirely be-
cause of the control of infectious diseases. Other diseases,
especially heart disease and cancer, are now the principal
causes of death. Heart disease and related diseases of the
circulatory system now cause about 50% of the deaths in the
United States. Over one million people die of these diseases
each year, and probably more than five million people now
living are suffering from them in a significant way. Cancer is
the cause of nearly 20% of the deaths at the present time, over
four hundred thousand deaths per year. I believe that we now
know how to decrease deaths by cardiovascular disease and by
cancer very greatly, and also death by other diseases such as ~
diabetes.

I doubt that the "wonder drugs" have great promise. In
fact, I believe that the control of these diseases can be and
will be achieved largely through the adoption of health prac-
tices, mainly involving nutrient substances; that is, the diet.

There is no doubt that cardiovascular disease and cancer
are related to the diet. Dr. Theodore Cooper, who was then
Assistant Secretary for Health Soaer in the Department VL neater,

Education, and Welfare, stated in congressional hearings in 1976
that

"While scientists do not yet agree on the specific
causal relationships, evidence is mounting and there appears
to be general agreement that the kinds and amount of food and
beverages we consume and the style of living common in our gen-
erally affluent, sedentary society may be the major factors
associated with the cause of cancer, cardiovascular disease,
and other chronic illnesses."

My own interest in the question of how to achieve good
health and well-being began to develop about 25 years ago. I
had become interested in nuclear weapons and nuclear warfare,
and especially in the damage done to the health of people and
unborn children by the radioactive fallout: and radioactive
carbon-14 liberated into the atmosphere in nuclear weapons
tests. In the effort to estimate how much damage was being
done by these substances formed in the testing of nuclear
weapons I examined the statistics about the causes of death.

At that time I learned that cigarette smoking is one of the
principal causes of excessive illness and premature death.

The average cigarette smoker, smoking one pack of cigarettes per
day, has a life expectancy 8 years less than the average non-
smoker, and, moreover, before his death he has at each age twice
as much serious illness as the non-smoker. In accordance with
these facts, we see that a cigarette smoker can improve his health
by 100% (decreasing the amount of serious illness and the chance

of death at a given age to 1/2) and extend his life expectancy
by several years just by stopping the smoking of cigarettes.

To have smoked cigarettes for years or decades does some per-
manent damage, of course, but it is heartening to know that much
of this damage is repaired within a year or so after the cigarette
smoking has stopped.

Another cause of poor health and early death is the over-
use of medication, including the drugs prescribed by physicians.
The physician sometimes needs to prescribe a drug in order to
control a serious illness, but only too often the drug is used
in larger amounts and for longer times than really needed, and
the side effects may be seriously damaging. Essentially all
drugs are poisonous to the human body. Even aspirin, which is
‘used in tremendous amounts, is responsible for the death by
poisoning of hundreds.of people in the United States each year.
The fatal dose for an adult is 20 to 30 grams. The ordinary
aspirin tablet contains Par, mg, and accordingly 60 to 90
aspirin tablets can kill an adult, and a smaller amount can
kill a child. Other drugs that are present in cough medicines
available without prescription in drug stores are more poisonous,
SO poisonous that 1 or 2 grams might cause the death of an adult.
In my book, Vitamin C and the Common Cold, published in 1970,

I quoted the warning printed on the box of one kind of cough
medicine, available without prescription, and reading as follows:
leaurton: Children under 12 should use only as directed
by a physician. If symptoms persist or are unusually severe,
see a physician. Do not exceed recommended dosage. Not for

frequent or prolonged use. If excessive dryness of the mouth
occurs, decrease dosage. Discontinue. use if rapid pulse, diz-
Ziness, skin rash, or blurring of vision occurs. Do not drive
or operate machinery as this preparation may cause drowsiness
in some persons. Individuals with high blood pressure, heart
disease, diabetes, thyroid disease, glaucoma or excessive pres-
sure within the eye, and elderly persons (where undiagnosed
glaucoma or excessive pressure within the eye may be present)
should use only as directed by physician. Persons with un-
diagnosed glaucoma may experience eye pain; if this occurs
discontinue use and see physician immediately.”

A physician may prescribe a second drug to help control
the side effects of the first one, and a third drug to help
control the side effects of the second. Moreover, some patients
go from one physician to another, and, as each physician pre-
scribes a drug, the patient takes it, together with the drugs
prescribed by the earlier physicians.

Diseases that are caused by the drugs prescribed by a
physician or by some other action of the physician are called
iatrogenic diseases (iatrogenic means caused by the physician) .
Studies that have been made in the United States have led to the
conclusion that between 15% and 30% of all admissions of patients
to hospitals are iatrogenic.

Even if the side effects of a drug are not severe enough
to cause death, they can and usually do result in damage to the
body such as to increase the probability of serious disease in
later life and the probability of death. In order to achieve
_ good health it is wise to avoid the use of drugs, as well as of

cigarettes, and, of course, also of the narcotic drugs, to as
great an extent as possible. ew)
A friend of mine, Dr. Bernard @faland, has proposed that AY

ordinary medical practice, involving the use of drugs, should co

;

be called toxgmolecular medicine. This expression can be con- aa

trasted with one that I formulated in 1968, orthomolecular

medicine.
In 1968 I pointed out that substances that are normally

present in the human body, and usually required for life,

might be used to improve health and to treat disease. Among

these substances are the vitamins, organic compounds that are

required in small amounts for life. I pointed out that the

molecules of the vitamins and other substances normally present

in the human body are the right molecules, whereas the molecules “~

of the toxic drugs are the wrong molecules, so far as good

health is concerned. Orthomolecular medicine consists in the
use in the right amounts of the substances normally present in
the human body, in order to achieve the best of health, decrease
the incidence of disease, and treat disease.

One fact that impressed me greatly, some 15 years ago,
when I began studying the vitamins, is that they have astonish-
ing low toxicity. A drug such as 5-FU, given to a cancer patient,
is toxic to the malignant cells, but it is also toxic to the
normal cells, and a five-fold increase in the amount of the drug
taken by the patient would kill him. On the other hand, the
“—

vitamin af niacin has physiological activity at an intake of c

5 mg per day; this is enough to prevent death by pellagra. Niacin

is so lacking in toxicity pinay lateel that a person can ingest
50,000 mg of it, nearly two ounces, at one time without serious
side effects. Similarly, vitamin C taken at the rate of 5 mg per
day is enough to prevent death by scurvy, but ten thousand times this
much can be taken by mouth or given by intravenous infusion with-
out serious side effects. The vitamins are powerful substances,
and the possibility of changing the concentration in the cells
of the body over a very great range raises the question of
how to achieve the best of health by using them.
It has become clear in recent years that there are two
questions that one can ask about a vitamin, such as vitamin C.
The first question is about the amount that needs to be taken
each day in order to prevent the corresponding deficiency di-
sease, which for vitamin C is scurvy. During the past 50 years
much effort has been made to answer this question, and I believe
se era 2K ebeve
that the answers are now well-known. It has been sBundythat for ?
vitamin C an intake of about 5 mg per day is enough to prevent
most people from developing signs of scurvy. The recommended a“
dietary allowance (RDA) for vitamin C is now setfJ by the Feoa v
and Watrition Joara of the National Academy of Sciences-National
Research Councilf at 60 mg per day, this somewhat larger number
number having been selected in order to insure that even those
people with a special tendency to develop scurvy will be pro-
tected. |
Little effort has been made/ until vecentty/c anewer the
second question, which deals with the intake of vitamin C
and other vitamins that leads to the best of health, the

smallest incidence of disease, and the smallest chance of death.
wo
Evidence has been accumulating recently to show That vitamin Cc
in particular and for other vitamins also the intakes that lead
to the best of health are considerably greater than the values
recommended by the Foo and trition ffoara. Twenty-five years
ago an intake of vitamin C of 200 mg per day was considered to be a
massive intake. Today it would be considered by most people, I
believe, to be a small intake, with perhaps 10,000 or 20,000 mg
being a massive intake.

I myself believe that 10,000 mg per day is about the proper
intake of vitamin C, the intake required for the best of health.
There are several reasons for this belief.

An interesting fact about vitamin C that differentiates it
from the other vitamins is that most animals manufacture their
own vitamin C, and only man and a few other species of animals
are unable to manufacture this substance, and have to rely on
food for their supply of it. Animals of different species
manufacture vitamin C in amounts approximately proportional to
their body weight, with animals the size of a human being making
on the average about 10,000 mg per day. I believe that these
various species of animals would not continue to manufacture
this substance in this amount, generation after generation, un-
less the substance were required in this amount for the best of
health. It is mainly because of this argument that I have been
taking 10,000 mg of vitamin C every day for a number of years.

I am also impressed by the epidemiological evidence and
other evidence that a high intake of vitamin C decreases the

chance of having a heart attack and decreases the chance of
developing cancer.

For about 25 years it has been thought that the most im-
portant factors in cardiovascular disease have been the saturated
fats, cholesterol, and similar fat-like substances. A tre-
mendous campaign was waged to promote diets with low cholesterol,
low saturated fat, and increase polyunsaturated fat. The death
rate from cardiovascular disease, however, has remained constant VA
during much of the last 25 years, and began to decrease only
during the last decade, which is the period during which the vitamin Cc
intake had increased greatly. It now seems likely that the
assumption that heart disease is caused by high intake of sat-
urated fat and cholesterol is wrong.

Epidemiological studies have shown quite clearly that a
diet including fresh fruit and vegetables is beneficial to the
health. In several studies it has been found that the death rate
from cardiovascular disease and also the death rate from cancer
are significantly less for the persons who eat a diet high in
vitamin C than for those who eat a diet low in vitamin C.

The relation between cardiovascular disease and choles-
terol is a complicated one. Most of the cholesterol in the
blood is present in combination with the fat-like substances
called low-density lipids, LDL. Part of the cholesterol is
combined with other lipids called high-density lipids, HDL.
Epidemiologists have long ago observed that people with a
high concentration of LDL cholesterol in their blood have an

increased mortality from cardiovascular disease. Although some
1¢

observations were made 25 years ago, it is only rather recently
that it has been clearly recognized that the relationship between
cardiovascular disease and HDL cholesterol is different - HDL
cholesterol does not cause cardiovascular disease, but seems

to protect against it. A striking fact about vitamin C is that
a high intake of this vitamin decreases the amount of LDL chol-
esterol and increases the amount of HDL cholesterol, so that we
may well be justified in reachin“the conclusion that a high in-
take of vitamin C protects against cardiovascular disease. In
fact, there has been tained during recent years significant
epidemiological evidence showing that people with a high intake
of vitamin C have a decreased incidence of and mortality from
heart disease.

Similar observations have been made with cancer. A high
intake of vitamin C decreasep the chance of developing cancer,
and of dying from this disease. Indeed, during the last 10 years,
significant studies have been made of the use of vitamin C in
large amounts as an adjunct in the treatment of cancer. Credit
for this development must be given very largely to my colleague
Dr. Ewan Cameron, who was for many years chief surgeon of a
large hospital in Scotland, Vale of Leven Hospital, Loch Lo-
mondside. In 1966 Dr. Cameron introduced an essentially new
idea about cancer. He pointed out that there is evidence that
cancer develops more than once in every human being, —

and is destroyed by the operation of the natural protective

mechanisms of the human body. These natural mechanisms give us
11

immunity against various infectious diseases. The immune
mechanisms of protection are complicated ones, involving the
production of antibody molecules, molecules of certain pro-
teins called complement, and certain cells, the white cells of
the blood, which can attack the marked bacterial cells or cells
infected by a virus and destroy them.

The immune mechanisms are usually thought of as protecting
us against infectious diseases, but it is now recognized that
they also play a role in protecting us against cancer, by
destroying malignant cells.

Dr. Cameron pointed out that a significant control over
cancer might be obtained if we could find some way of making
our natural protective mechanisms, including the immune mecha-
nism, more effective. In 1971, after having had no success
with his testing of some other ideas, he cautiously began the
use of large doses of vitamin C in the treatment of patients
with advanced cancer. In his work he has usually given patients
with cancer about 10,000 mg of vitamin C per day, nearly 200 times
the usually recommended intake.

Among the patients in the Vale of Leven Hospital in the
fall of 1971 there were many who had reached a stage that in
Scottish medical practice is called "untreatable". These patients
had been treated by the conventional’ methods of surgeryZ high se
energy radiation, administration of hormones, or, in a few
cases, chemotherapy, and they were scheduled only to receive
narcotic drugs to control pain, together with good nursing care

for the rest of their lives. When vitamin C was tried on the
12

first patient the patient responded wAll, with a gain in strength,
good appetite, improved energy, and for many the patients ow
significant control of the growth of the malignant tumor.

When, some years later, a careful comparison was made of
the patients with advanced cancer who had received 10 grams per day
of vitamin C and similar cancer patients who did not receive
vitamin C, the benefit of vitamim C was found to be striking.

In addition to feeling better, most of the patients lived much
longer. Some of the apparently hopeless patients have con-
tinued to survive. These observations were checked also by
studies made in a hospital in Japan, with essentially the same
results.

Thousands of patients with cancer have now been receiving
vitamin C in large doses, usually g67%10 arans per day but sometimes —
20; 30 or 40 grams per day, and often with strikingly evident
benefit. Also, many cancer patients are beginning the high in-
take of vitamin C at the first sign of cancer, along with con-
ventional therapy. The treatment with vitamin C is in general to
be considered as a supplement to conventional therapy, rather than
a replacement for it.

It is possible at the present time to give some general
advice about how to prevent cancer and prevent heart disease
through keeping in the best of health, with the most effective
natural protective mechanisms. I think that for most people
a daily intake of vitamin C of between 1 gram and 10 grams per

day may lead to the best of health. In addition, a good intake
of vitamin A, vitamin E, the B vitamins, and minerals is val-

uable. The daily diet should include good amounts of green,

yellow, and red vegetables. The intake of sugar should be kept low. The
regime should include eating breakfast every day, not eating

between meals, and not overeating. An effort should be made

to avoid foods and soft drinks containing possibly carcinogenic

dyes and additives. Some regular daily exercise is helpful, as

is geven or eight hours of sleep per night. The intake of al- _
Wa olic drinks should be kept moderate, and smoking should be
absolutely banned. It is through health practices such as

these, rather than through the development of new drugs or

medical procedures, that, I believe, the increase by 27 years

in the length of the period of well-being and the length of io
life can be achieved by the year 2000. I am Sure gthis increase

could be achieved, but I am not sure that it will be achieved.

The medical profession as a whole has not accepted the facts

and arguments presented in the foregoing paragraphs, although

I must say that when a physician develops cancer there is a

good chance that he will get in touch with Dr. Cameron or me to

find out what the latest information is about vitamin C in

relation to cancer. Still, I think that the time may be near

when the medical profession as a whole will accept the facts about
vitamin C, that the use of vitamin C, other nutrients, and other

health practices will become widespread, and the health of the

American people will as a result show significant improvement.