He Dark Side of Pauling's Legacy
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Health Watch he Dark Side of Pauling's Legacy STEPHEN BARRETT inus Pauling was die only person Vitamin C and the Common Cold that groups that get a placebo (a dummy ever to win two unshared Nobel taking 1,000 milligrams (mg) of vita- pill that looks like die real thing). Since Lprizes. He received these awards min C daily will reduce die incidence the common cold is a very variable ill- for Chemistry in 1954 and for Peace in of colds by 45 percent for most people ness, proper tests must involve hun- 1962. His recent death has stimulated but that some people need much larg- dreds of people for significantly long many tributes to his scientific accom- er amounts. (The RDA for vitamin C periods of time. At least 16 well- plishments. He has been called by many is 60 mg.) The 1976 revision of the designed, double-blind studies have colleagues die greatest chemist of the book, redded Vitamin C, the Common shown that supplementation with vita- twentieth century. That was for his fun- Cold and the Flu, suggested even high- min C does not prevent colds and at damental contributions to chemistry. er dosages. A third book, Vitamin C best may slightly reduce the symptoms His impact on the health marketplace, and Cancer (1979), claims that high of a cold. Slight symptom reduction however, was anything but laudable. doses of vitamin C may be effective may occur as the result of an antihista- Pauling is largely responsible for the against cancer. Yet another book, How mine-like effect, but whether this has widespread misbelief that high doses of to Feel Better and Live Longer (1986), practical value is a matter of dispute. vitamin C are effective against colds stated that megadoses of vitamins "can Pauling's views are based on the same and other illnesses. In 1968, he postu- improve your health ... to increase studies considered by other scientists, lated that people's needs for vitamins your enjoyment of life and can help in but his analyses are flawed. and other nutrients vary markedly and controlling heart disease, cancer, and The largest clinical trials, involving that to maintain good health many other diseases and in slowing down die thousands of volunteers, were directed people need amounts of nutrients process of aging." Pauling himself by Terence Anderson, professor of epi- much greater than die Recommended reportedly took at least 12,000 mg demiology at the University of Dietary Allowances (RDAs). And he daily and raised the amount to 40,000 Toronto. Taken together, his studies speculated that megadoses of certain mg if symptoms of a cold appeared. In suggest that extra vitamin C may vitamins and minerals might well be 1993, after undergoing radiation ther- slightly reduce the severity of colds, but the treatment of choice for some forms apy for prostate cancer, Pauling said it is not necessary to take the high of mental illness. He termed his ap- that vitamin C had delayed the cancer's doses suggested by Pauling to achieve proach "orthomoiccular," meaning onset for 20 years. This is not a testable this result. Not is there anything to be "right molecule." After that, he steadi- claim. He died of die disease in August gained by taking vitamin C supple- ly expanded the list of illnesses he 1994 at die age of 93. ments year-round in die hope of pre- believed could be influenced by Scientific fact is established when venting colds. "orthomoiccular" therapy and the die same experiment is carried out over Another important study was number of nutrients suitable for such and over again with die same results. reported in 1975 by scientists at die use. No responsible medical or nutri- To test the effect of vitamin C on National Institutes of Health who tion scientists share these views. colds, it is necessary to compare groups compared vitamin C pills with a place- In 1970 Pauling announced in that get the vitamin with similar bo before and during colds. Although 18 SKEPTICAL INQUIRER • JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1995 the experiment was sup- posed to be double-blind, half die subjects were able to guess which pill they were getting. When the results were tabulated with all subjects lumped togeth- er, die vitamin group reported fewer colds per person over a nine-month period. But among the half who hadn't guessed which pill they had been taking, no difference in the inci- dence or severity was found. This illustrates how people who think they are doing something effective (such as taking a vitamin) can report a favorable result even when none exists. In 1976, Pauling and Ewan Cameron, a Scottish physician, reported that a Two-time Nobel laureate Linus Pauling fields questions asked at a 1991 press conference in majority of one hundred San Francisco. "terminal" cancer patients treated with 10,000 mg of vitamin C should be equivalent in both groups. with all conventional modalities. The daily survived three to four times longer However, he found that Cameron's participants in the 1983 study had not than similar patients who did not patients were labeled untreatable much undergone conventional treatment, but receive vitamin C supplements. earlier in the course of their disease— Pauling dismissed its results anyway. However, William DeWys, chief of which means that they entered the hos- Science aside, it is clear that Pauling clinical investigations at die National pital before they were as sick as the was politically aligned with the promot- Cancer Institute, found that the study other doctors' patients and would natu- ers of unscientific nutrition practices. was poorly designed, because the rally be expected to live longer. He said his initial interest in vitamin C patient groups were not comparable. Nevertheless, to test whether was aroused by a letter from bio- The vitamin C patients were Pauling might be correct, the Mayo chemist Irwin Stone, with whom he Cameron's while the other patients Clinic conducted three double-blind subsequently maintained a close work- were under the care of other physicians. studies involving a total of 367 patients ing relationship. Although Stone was Cameron's patients were started on vit- with advanced cancer. The studies, often referred to as "Dr. Stone," his amin C when he labeled them "untreat- reported in 1979, 1983, and 1985, only credentials were a certificate able" by other methods, and their sub- found that patients given 10,000 mg of showing completion of a two-year sequent survival was compared with the vitamin C daily did no better than chemistry program, an honorary chiro- survival of the "control" patients after those given a placebo. Pauling criticized practic degree from the Los Angeles they were labeled untreatable by their the first study, claiming that College of Chiropractic, and a "Ph.D." doctors. DeWys reasoned that if the chemotherapeutic agents might have from Donsbach University, a nonac- two groups were comparable, the suppressed the patients' immune sys- credited correspondence school. lengths of time from entry into the hos- tems so that vitamin C couldn't work. In a little-publicized chapter in pital to being labeled untreatable But his 1976 report on Cameron's work Vitamin C and the Common Cold, states clearly that: "All patients are Pauling attacked the health-food Stephen Barrett, M.D., a retired psychi- treated initially in a perfectly conven- industry for misleading its customers. atrist and nationally known consumer tional way, by operation, use of radio- Pointing out that "synthetic" vitamin advocate, is coauthor/editor of 36 books therapy, and the administration of hor- C is identical with "natural" vitamin C, on health topics. His most recent work is mones and cytotoxic substances." And he warned that higher-priced "natural" The Vitamin Pushers: How the during a subsequent talk at the products are a "waste of money." And "Health Food" Industry Is Selling University of Arizona, he stated that he added that "the words 'organically America a Bill of Goods. vitamin C therapy could be used along grown' are essentially meaningless— SKEPTICAL INQUIRER • JANUARY/FEBRUARY 1995 19 just part of the jargon used by health- almost twice as frequently as die con- presumably could be used for publicity food promoters in making their excess trol group and that only doses of vita- when the chiropractors returned profits, often from elderly people with min C that were nearly lethal had any home). low incomes." But Vitamin C, the protective effect. Shortly after report- In 1983, Pauling and Irwin Stone Common Cold and the Flu, issued six ing this to Pauling, Robinson was testified at a hearing on behalf of Oscar years later, contained none of these asked to resign from die Institute, his Falconi, a vitamin promoter charged by criticisms. This omission was not acci- experimental animals were killed, his die Postal Service with making false dental. In response to a letter, Pauling scientific data were impounded, and claims for several products. Pauling informed me that, after his first book some of the previous research results supported Falconi's contentions that vitamin C was useful not only in pre- "Pauling is largely responsible for the wide- venting cancer, but also in curing drug addicts and destroying both viruses and spread misbelief that high doses of vitamin C bacteria. Pauling also testified in 1984 are effective against colds and other illnesses/ before die California Board of Medical Quality Assurance in defense of came out, he was "strongly attacked by were destroyed. Pauling also declared Michael Gerber, M.D., who was people who were also attacking the publicly that Robinson's research was accused of improperly administering to health-food people." He said that his "amateurish" and inadequate.