Orthomolecular Medicine Hall of Fame
Inducted 2004Humanity can thank biochemist Irwin Stone for introducing Linus Pauling to vitamin C. Pauling spoke of this highly influential first contact, when Stone sent him “copies of some papers that he had just published, with the general title ‘Hypoascorbemia, a Genetic Disease’. . . The 3,000 milligrams per day that he recommended is 50 times the RDA. My wife and I began taking this amount of the vitamin … (and) the severe colds that I had suffered from several times a year all of my life no longer occurred. After a few years I increased my intake of vitamin C to 100 times; then 200 times, and then 300 times the RDA (now 18,000 mg per day).
“Among the several arguments Irwin Stone presented to support his thesis that the proper physiological intake of vitamin C is 50 or more times the RDA were two that especially impressed me. . . Almost all animal species — dogs, cats, cows, horses, elephants, and so on — have continued to synthesize ascorbate. . . The second fact that impressed me is that animals manufacture very large amounts of ascorbate. The amount manufactured is approximately proportional to the body weight, and, converted to the weight of a human being, ranges from about 2,000 to 20,000 milligrams per day. Irwin Stone concluded that human beings with an average diet are accordingly all suffering from hypoascorbemia, a deficiency of ascorbate in the blood and tissues.” (Linus Pauling in His Own Words : Selections from his Writings, Speeches and Interviews, edited by Barbara Marinacci. NY: Simon and Shuster, 1995). There could be no finer tribute to Irwin Stone than this.
In Memoriam: Irwin Stone, Ph.D.
