Nutrition doomsayers often warn against taking vitamins, especially in large doses. Are megavitamins dangerous? The truth of the matter is that vitamins are in a class by themselves when it comes to safety. They are safe, even at large doses, so long as the warning signs of toxicity are heeded. Even the fat soluble vitamins, A and D offer treatment benefits that far outweigh the adverse effects of overdose. But isn’t that what doctors are for, to help patients use medicines safely and effectively. It is just common sense that megavitamins should be used under medical supervision. Unfortunately the medical profession is just now recovering from "malnutrition." It is not easy to find an experienced and knowledgeable nutrition-physician.

Dr. Jonathan Wright began using megadoses of B12 for treating asthma 20 years ago. He found that wheezing disappeared in 8 out of 10 cases if the patients were not already dependent on cortisone. Dr. Wright tells of other physicians who have observed similar results,¹ starting in 1949, when Dr. Wetzel found as little as 10 mcg of B12 daily for a week cleared a case of "intractable" wheezing in a child at summer camp. Later on, Dr. Simon reported similar results in 20 adult asthmatics treated with injections of 1000 mcg. One shot a week for a month was enough to do the trick in 18 out of his 20 patients. In Italy Dr. Caruselli used intravenous megadoses of 30,000 mcg. over a 2 to 3 week period in treating a dozen adult asthmatic patients. Ten of the twelve were completely relieved of their wheezing by this treatment.

In 1957 Dr. Crocket reported on 85 asthmatics, all treated with injections of 1000 mcg of the vitamin at intervals of one to four weeks. The benefits were related to age for about 80 percent of the children were relieved of wheezing but only half that number between 30 and 50 years of age and only 14 percent of those over age fifty were symptom-free. That suggests that the younger patients were responding to the adrenalin-like action of B12, whereas the older patients were at a later stage of bronchial fibrosis and not mere inflammation and spasm.

Dr. J. Domisse reports² that almost all of his depressed and bipolar patients have had B12 levels in the lowest third of the normal range and "when those levels have been raised to the highest one third of that normal range every one of those patients has done and felt better." Don’t you think megadose vitamin B12 should be considered in every case of resistant mood depression, even before tricyclic anti-depressant drugs and serotonin re-uptake inhibitors, such as Prozac?

Megadose vitamin B12 can also be of great benefit in treating chronic fatigue syndrome (CFIDS). Dr. Paul Cheney, a physician and researcher in this field has observed significant relief when the vitamin is given by intramuscular injection two or three times a week at doses above 2500 mcg. After a few weeks, over half the patients treated at the Cheney Clinic reported sustained improvement in energy, mood and mental ability. These benefits were not seen after oral or nasal administration of the vitamin.³

Dr. H. L. Newbold reported dramatic effects of similar doses of B12 against sedative drug overdosage.⁴ One of his patients, a drug dealer, had learned to depend on vitamin B12 doses of 6000 mcg to revive people who were otherwise incapacitated by black-market Quaalude. As luck would have it, Dr. Newbold was called on to treat a woman in coma after such an overdose. Two minutes after the injection of 9000 mcg, the patient awoke and was able to talk. In another few minutes she was able to walk! An ambulance had been called--but the order was cancelled.

Drs. Alice Tang of Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health studied the effect of B12 and folic acid, along with vitamin B6, in AIDS patients.⁵ The team found blood levels of B12 and B6, and to a lesser extent folic acid, were low in AIDS patients. But the importance of B12 stood out plainly: those with adequate blood levels remained free of disease for about 8 years; while those who were deficient in B12 developed clinical AIDS in only four years. What a testimony to the power of a vitamin.

Do we know any other factor that can yield a clear-cut doubling of symptom-free life in HIV positive individuals? Now the question is: will the medical profession use this information? Will doctors measure B12 and treat with oral supplementation and injections? Will they use B12 even in case of "borderline" deficiency? And, finally, will the patients accept vitamin treatment?

Here is a letter I wrote to one of my patients, a lovely lady who just plain disappeared from follow-up until I called her many months later. As you will no doubt agree: she was her own worst enemy. Unfortunately, her family and physicians seem to have let her down also.