A Hopeless Case

You are sitting in the doctors office and you have just explained to him your symptoms. With great hope you await his verdict. He looks at you, tilts his head to one side, and says, “That makes no sense.” If you have ever had this experience, or something similar to it, you are in good company. This has been the standard script of my doctor’s office visits for the majority of my life. After years of searching for help, I had just about concluded that there was no hope. Then I discovered the power of Vitamin C.

First, I would like to share a little of my story. I have an immune disorder. It has a complicated scientific name, but you could think of it as a cousin to Rheumatoid Arthritis. It causes joint inflammation and general inflammation in my tissues and it has affected a wide variety of systems in my body. I’ve had trouble with this for over 30 years. It took nearly 20 of those years for doctors to finally figure out what was happening. During that time, I went to a variety of specialists who performed numerous tests. Usually, the doctors would tell me that my tests looked normal and that they could find nothing wrong with me. A few even hinted that it was all in my head. To them, all I could say was, “Look at this knee; it is swollen twice its normal size! How could this be in my head?”

Once the medical community finally determined what my problem was, their answer was to put me on immune suppressant drugs. I was on a TNF blocking drug for nearly 8 years. In that time, I had one hip replaced and while the drug controlled the inflammation, I never felt well. I always felt as if I was coming down with something, and over time other problems began to creep up. My nose started to bleed, three or four times a week. When I ate I would randomly break out in hives. This problem grew so severe that it got to the point that I broke out in hives and had tightness in my chest every time I ate, no matter what I ate. I started taking antihistamines like candy. I couldn’t sleep. And then I started loosing stretches of time. I would find myself somewhere, doing something and have absolutely no memory of how I got there or what I was doing.

I told my doctor all of this as each symptom appeared. He would think about what I was saying, give me the head tilt and the “that makes no sense” look and tell me that he didn’t think it could be caused by the drug. Yet, something within me said that it was. At last, I could take no more. I felt as if I was dying—I knew, intuitively, that I was dying—and, after a little research, I concluded that I had to stop taking my drug. The thought terrified me. The inflammation was finally under control and I knew that without the drug it was likely to come back. But I could not see that I had any other choice. For me, it was stop taking the drug or die.

The Essential Vitamin C

Once I stopped taking my drug, the inflammation did return, with a vengeance. While, in my case, there have been many different pieces to my healing puzzle, one of the most powerful has been Vitamin C. I recently came across a video of a lecture given by Dr. Suzanne Humphries who does a beautiful job of explaining what Vitamin C does and why we need more of it. It is a bit long, but I feel that the information given is vital if you want to know how to use Vitamin C to help your body heal. Do yourself a favor and take the time to watch this, you won’t regret it.

If you would like to learn more about Dr. Humphries research you should check out her website at drsuzanne.net.

Another great resource is Thomas E. Levy’s book Curing the Incurable: Vitamin C, Infectious Diseases, and Toxins, 3rd Edition. This was the first resource I had on Vitamin C and it is very enlightening.

Make Sure You Do Your Research

I want to make it clear here that I am not advocating that anyone stop taking their medicine because of the information in this post. You should always consult with your doctor before changing your medical routine. I am posting this information because once I stopped taking the TNF blocker (my doctor told me there was nothing else he could do for me), I had to search for other answers. In that search I have discovered amazing things and I have had people ask me to share some of what I’ve learned. So, this is the start of a category of posts where I will share my research and hopefully give some of you a starting point for your own research. Remember, I always recommend that you expand on what I post here with your own research so that you may be able to determine what is the best course for you. All of us have different needs and the path to health is a personal journey.

In Part II of my Vitamin C series I will talk about the forms of Vitamin C supplementation that have benefited me and how to make your own liposomal Vitamin C.