If, as a result of reading this book you see that even a decision to consult a doctor is a serious and potentially risky one, that it requires some estimate of potential risks as well as potential benefits, you will have spent your time well.

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Dr. Albert Szent-Gyorgyi:

As to ascorbic acid, right from the beginning I felt that the medical profession misled the public. If you don’t take ascorbic acid with your food you get scurvy, so the medical profession said that if you don’t get scurvy you are all right. I think that this is a very grave error. Scurvy is not the first sign of the deficiency but a premortal syndrome, and for full health, you need much more, very much more. I am taking, myself, about 1g a day. This does not mean that this is really the optimum dose because we not know what full health really means and how much ascorbic acid you need for it. What I can tell you is that one can take any amount of ascorbic acid without the least danger.

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When vitamin C is taken by mouth, most of it is absorbed into the blood through mucous membranes of the mouth and the upper part of the small intestine. If the amount taken is rather small, up to 250mg, about 80% is absorbed into the blood. With larger doses the amount absorbed is less, about 50% for a dose of 2g and still smaller for larger doses. Accordingly it is more economical to ingest vitamin C in smaller doses, such as 1g every three hours, than to take a single, much larger dose once a day.

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Gregory Pence:

Medical costs are uncontrollable because we lack moral agreement about how to deny any medical services. Deciding how to say “no,” and to say it with honesty and integrity, is perhaps the most profound, most difficult more question our society will face in the coming years.