Linus Pauling: Nobel Prize Scientist

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PAULING: No, it isn't true of ascorbic acid. Vitamin C is one of the safest substances that there is ... one of the least toxic substances known. It's less toxic than ordinary table saltsodium chloride-or sugar ... less harmful to one's health. Nobody knows what the "lethal dose" of vitamin C is. The LD50 for rats-the amount that kills 50% of the rats to which it is given-is seven grams per kilogram of body weight. That corresponds to 490 grams-more than a pound-for a 70-kilogram man. And yet, many people have been given amounts of this vitamin on the order of 100 grams-either orally or by injection-without any harmful side effects.

Over-the-counter cold medicines, on the other hand, are by comparison quite toxic. Ordinary aspirin, for example — one of the least toxic of non-prescription drugs — is lethal in doses of 20 or 30 grams. A single five-gram dose of acetaminophen — the active ingredient in most of the popular non-aspirin pain relievers — can cause death by respiratory failure. Dextromethorphan — which is present in many of the cough medicines advertised on TV — can be fatal in doses of less than a gram. Then again, the belladonna alkaloids found in non-prescription sleeping pills and some cold medicines may be fatal to children in doses as low as ten milligrams. Bernard Rimland calls these and other popular chemotherapeutic agents "toximolecular medicines" . . . meaning involving toxic molecules instead of the "correct" molecules of orthomolecular medicine. I agree with his choice of words.

PLOWBOY: Some people have expressed the fear that too large an intake of vitamin C can lead to the formation of kidney stones. Is this fear warranted?

PAULING: Ascorbic acid has almost nothing to do with kidney stones. The answer — in other words — is no, but I can amplify this a bit.

There are several kinds of kidney stones. The most common kind — the phosphate and carbonate stones — tend to form in alkaline urine, and you can keep them from forming merely by making your urine acidic. That's easy to do: All you have to do is take vitamin C in its ordinary form — as ascorbic acid — and you'll have acidic urine.

Then there are the rarer kinds of kidney stones. Of these, the most common types are the cystine and urate stones, which tend to form in acidic urine. If you're prone to have these kinds of stones, you should take your vitamin C in the form of sodium ascorbate, or take the vitamin along with an alkalizer so as to keep your urine alkaline. Of course, few people know in advance which kinds of stones they're prone to form — if any — but if you do know, you can protect yourself. And you can still take the proper amount of vitamin C.

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