57 of 57 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Virtually everything you've been told about vitamin C is wrong!, February 16, 2009
This review is from: Vitamin C: The Real Story, the Remarkable and Controversial Healing Factor (Paperback)
An entire book about vitamin C? Is there really that much more to say about this subject? As it turns out, there is a great deal more to be said, and Drs. Hickey and Saul say it very well! In this very well-written, well-referenced book, we learn specifically how this essential nutrient works in our bodies to help create and maintain optimum health. We are taken on a journey into the world of our cells, into the world of free radicals and antioxidants, and shown with great clarity, the truly remarkable role that vitamin C plays in the healthy maintenance of our bodies.
We learn also, of the history of vitamin C research, and why the mainsteam medical community has chosen to ignore this research. Most importantly, we learn specifically how we can best benefit from the many decades of research on vitamin C, in order to gain and maintain good health in our own lives.
For anyone confused by the seemingly conflicting information printed in the mainstream press about vitamin C, I highly recommend this detailed, yet highly readable book. Reading VITAMIN C: THE REAL STORY, will likely change the way you think about vitamin C. Then again, it just may change your life.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
great book on the highly underrated importance of vit C, January 7, 2009
This review is from: Vitamin C: The Real Story, the Remarkable and Controversial Healing Factor (Paperback)
Apart from various websites, this is the first book I've read about Vitamin C and I found it immensely informative and very valuable. I strongly recommend it to anyone interested in achieving optimal health and avoiding as much disease as possible later in life. Saul & Hickey do a good job explaining the history, the science, methodology and reasoning behind large doses, the controversy, and the chemistry. All this is covered as you proceed through the book and sets you up well for their synthesis in the final chapters where they lay down a very detailed explanation of how the fundamental cause of atherosclerosis is highly likely to arise from less than optimal levels of antioxidants, particularly Vitamin C, in the body. This was the section I found the most interesting. The book also has a great section on cancer, how it develops, and how Vitamin C can play a role in prevention and treatment.
Having done some internet research today since finishing the book I am a little surprised they never mention the role of the various genes that have arisen in animals that can't produce their own Vitamin C such as the one that produces Uric Acid (as wikipedia says it provides about half of the antioxidant capacity of the plasma), along with the ability to recycle ascorbate which is also seems unique to upper primates, guinea pigs and bats according to this recent article. [...] I think this is interesting too and could have been mentioned when comparing our vitamin C requirements to animals that make their own (hence the four stars). Nevertheless, this is minor, and gorillas eat 2-5g of ascorbate a day anyway which is way beyond what most people eat and about the range they recommend here for maintaining good health.
I think they make a very strong argument for increasing intake for optimum health, so I know I will be doing just that.
This is a great book, which is easy to read, concise and full of valuable information that could very well extend the length and quality of your life - and if you ever catch a lethal strain of legionnaires disease you'll know what to do!
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
39 of 41 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Restoring health and healing with vitamin C, February 25, 2009
This review is from: Vitamin C: The Real Story, the Remarkable and Controversial Healing Factor (Paperback)
Vitamin C: The Real Story
The Remarkable and Controversial Story of Vitamin C
by Steve Hickey, PhD and Andrew Saul, PhD,
2008, Basic Health Publications Inc., CA, 192 pages www.basichealthpub.com
A curious title. What could be remarkable or controversial about vitamin C? Thousands of children take Flintstone multis every day; don't they get enough vitamin C? Many adults take some C when they have a cold. Even without supplements, don't most people get enough vitamins and minerals in their fruits and veggies? Authors Hickey and Saul think we need to know the truth about vitamin C. Their fascinating book presents some truly remarkable vitamin C discoveries. They outline its health-maintaining functions, introduce its health-restoring capabilities and warn us about anti-vitamin-therapy factoids.
Steven Hickey, PhD and Andrew Saul, PhD present the real story clearly and carefully. Readers will gradually realize that the vitamin C story has two dimensions. On the bright side, scientific and medical researchers have documented decades of vitamin research, clinical progress and success. Vital amines, and other nutritional substances, are essential for health and useful for healing. Over the past 100 years, a succession of scientific researchers studied the biochemistry of vitamin C and learned that vital amines sustain metabolism. Minimal doses of vitamin C can heal scurvy however optimum doses of vitamin C have remarkable health-restoring capabilities. Researchers carried out clinical trials, detailed patient recoveries, corroborated findings and wrote journal articles and reference books. The vitamin C story also has a disturbing dark side. Rather than telling the truth, certain health professionals dismiss the vitamin C research and disparage the clinical progress reports. They ignore vitamin C's health-maintaining functions and dispute its health-restoring capabilities. The anti-vitamin-therapy skeptics use factoids to support their denials, as outlined in this book.
Like a Swiss-army knife, vitamin C has multiple capabilities. When we pick up a Swiss-army knife for the first time, we expect to find large and small blades but we may not inspect it carefully. In an emergency, we happily discover that a Swiss-army knife comes with a versatile set of built-in tools: a screwdriver, a tooth pick, a cork screw and a file. After these tiny tools save lives, the word gets out. Eventually the public learns that each Swiss army knife comes with life-saving tools. Consider the metabolic and healing capabilities of vitamins as tools for restoring health. In milligram doses, vitamin C enables essential metabolic pathways to sustain life. Small doses can heal scurvy. If taken in large enough doses when a patient has cancer or an infection or an overload of toxins, vitamin C can heal and restore health. The general public still does not know that vitamin C has a number of lifesaving capabilities. Meanwhile, certain experts, who should know better than to publish false information, scoff at vitamin C research, forget its biochemistry, ignore its metabolic functions and deny its therapeutic value. Why don't more scientific and medical professionals study the vitamin C research, review the clinical trials, interview recovered patients and learn that therapeutic doses of vitamin C really can restore health and save lives? Too busy. How can trusting patients know if our doctors understand and apply the healing capabilities of vitamin C or use false factoids to withhold vitamin treatments? Patients and families, caregivers and health professionals can read books and articles about vitamin C to learn the facts for ourselves.
Vitamin C: The Real Story teaches us that a hundred years after the discovery of vitamin C, mankind is still researching the biochemistry of essential nutrients and developing medical applications. We learn that vital amines, trace minerals, amino and fatty acids, hormones and many other nutrients are essential for sustaining life. Optimum doses can restore health. Orthomolecular health professionals know that regimens of vitamin C and other nutritional supplements, if given in the right doses, can help patients recover and live well. They routinely prescribe supplements and adjust the doses to suit each patient's diagnosis and biochemical individuality. Readers of this book will learn to distinguish the facts about vitamin C from the anti-C factoids. Patients can ask their doctors about vitamin research, optimal doses and patient recoveries. Readers are cautioned to take care with their health. Anyone who reads this book will learn useful facts about vitamin C and its clinical applications: therapeutic doses of vitamin C can restore health when taken as recommended by qualified medical professionals who understand biochemistry and know when to prescribe vitamin C as a complementary and restorative treatment.
review by Robert Sealey, BSc
author of 90-Day Plan for Finding Quality Care www.searpubl.ca
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
