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IMPORTANT:  Information provided is intended for educational purposes and is not intended to be medical advice nor offered as a prescription, diagnosis or treatment for any disease, illness, infirmity or physical condition. Always consult your own medical provider about your health and medical questions before making any health related decision. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food & Drug Administration.

Dr. Frederick R. Klenner B.S., M.S., M.D., F.C.C.P.  Reidsville, North Carolina - 1907 - 1984

2005 Orthomolecular Hall of Fame Inductee     -     Biography   -  Summary Tribute   -   Publications   -   References

"Orthomolecular" is essentially another word for "nutritional."    -    "Vitamin C is the safest substance available to the physician."

"Some physicians, would stand by and see their patient die rather than use ascorbic acid because, in their finite minds, it exists only as a vitamin."

Foreword by Editor:

Dr Fred Klenner (1907 – 1984), the first MD to treat his patients with mega dose C, recommended a maintenance base of 5g per adult of 160lbs (75kg). This paper will detail his recommendations for his protocol in pregnancy and lactation.

Dr Robert Cathcart (1938 – 2006), credits discovering Dr. Klenner’s work thanks to his vitamin C baby protocol detailed below. He then continued Dr. Klenner‘s work and later developed his own more precise “titrating to bowel tolerance”; Describing how to adjust dosage for maintenance or illness by divided doses, just short of causing gurgling in the gut or loose stools.

Dr Cathcart’s added the following comments on Dr. Klenner’s protocol for pregnancy during our interviews:

(You can also watch Dr Cathcart tell this story himself on youtube)

  • “and it is sort of interesting that when I first heard about this vitamin C thing and began to experience myself, in Medical Tribune there is an editor named Sackler, who is a great medical philosopher and he was very interested in all this stuff
    and he published some letters about Klenner and so I called Reedsville, North Carolina, the operator there and asked for the local hospital. It turned out it was the Bonney Dune Hospital

    and I asked to talk to the head nurse there and when I got her on the phone, I said well who is this Fred Klenner?, and she said well he is a great doctor and she said you must be calling about this vitamin C thing? and I said yes,

    then she says well it works, and I said well do the other doctors do it?, and she said no, and I said well why not?, and she said well I don’t know, but it works, and then she proceeded to tell me about the vitamin C babies, how healthy they were and how they didn’t cry very much and they would raise their heads up and look around as the other kids were ranting and raving and as I said in general how healthy they were and Klenner did not do episiotomies,

    that the women didn’t tear when they had birth, I mean you figure we have been the product of millions of years of evolution,
    why should the bottom of a woman tear when she is giving natural child birth, well the fact of the matter is, it is because of all this nutritional deficiency, the tissues break down, they get stretch marks and all this, zinc deficiency, vitamin C deficiency all have to do with these break downs of tissue,

    well when you give the person good amount of all these nutrients they don’t tear. They just strictly stretch and have a normal child birth and everything is okay.

    So, anyway, that was my original introduction into ascorbate is hearing about Klenner’s work.”

Vitamin C Protocol During Pregnancy and Lactation

Dr Klenner’s protocol on pregnancy below is an excerpt from his paper:

Observations On the Dose and Administration of Ascorbic Acid When Employed Beyond the Range Of A Vitamin In Human Pathology

Please note Dr. Klenner is referring to buffered ascorbic acid (Sodium Ascorbate) so divide doses by two for the equivalent dose in (unbuffered) ascorbic acid.


Primary and lasting benefits in pregnancy.

Observations made on over 300 consecutive obstetrical cases using supplemental ascorbic acid, by mouth, convinced me that failure to use this agent in sufficient amounts in pregnancy borders on malpractice.

The lowest amount of ascorbic acid used was 4 grams and the highest amount 15 grams each day. (Remember the rat-no stress manufactures equivalent “C” up to 4 grams and with stress up to 15.2 grams). Requirements were roughly 4 grams first trimester, 6 grams second trimester and 10 grams third trimester. Approximately 20 percent required 15 grams, each day, during last trimester.

Eighty percent of this series received a booster injection of 10 grams, intravenously, on admission to the hospital. Hemoglobin levels were much easier to maintain. Leg cramps were less than three percent and always was associated with “getting out” of Vitamin C tablets.

Striae gravidarum was seldom encountered and when it was present there existed an associated problem of too much eating and too little walking. The capacity of the skin to resist the pressure of an expanding uterus will also vary in different individuals. Labor was shorter and less painful. There were no postpartum hemorrhages. The perineum was found to be remarkably elastic and episiotomy was performed electively. Healing was always by first intention and even after 15 and 20 years following the last child the firmness of the perineum is found to be similar to that of a primigravida in those who have continued their daily supplemental vitamin C. No patient required catheterization. No toxic manifestations were demonstrated in this series. There was no cardiac stress even though 22 patients of the series had rheumatic hearts. One patient in particular was carried through two pregnancies without complications. She had been warned by her previous obstetrician that a second pregnancy would terminate with a maternal death. She received no ascorbic acid with her first pregnancy. This lady has been back teaching school for the past 10 years. She still takes 10 grams of ascorbic acid daily.

Infants born under massive ascorbic acid therapy were all robust. Not a single case required resuscitation. We experienced no feeding problems. The Fultz quadruplets were in this series. They took milk nourishment on the second day. These babies were started on 50 mg ascorbic acid the first day and, of course, this was increased as time went on. Our only nursery equipment was one hospital bed, an old, used single unit hot plate and an equally old 10 quart kettle. Humidity and ascorbic acid tells this story. They are the only quadruplets that have survived in southeastern United States. Another case of which I am justly proud is one in which we delivered 10 children to one couple. All are healthy and good looking. There were no miscarriages. All are living and well. They are frequently referred to as the vitamin C kids, in fact all of the babies from this series were called “Vitamin CBabies” by the nursing personnel–they were distinctly different.

 

Watch Dr Robert Cathcart describe how he actually first learned of Dr Klenner’s work hearing about the vitamin C babies.