Fred R. Klenner
Frederick Robert Klenner, (1907 – May 20, 1984) was a medical researcher and doctor in general practice who experimented with the use of large doses of ascorbic acid (vitamin C) as a therapy for a wide range of illnesses, most notably polio. He authored 28 papers during his career. He was one of the originators of orthomolecular medicine, but his work remains largely unaddressed by established medicine.[1]
Life
Born in Pennsylvania, Klenner attended St. Vincent and St. Francis College, where he received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in biology. He graduated with honours and was awarded a teaching fellowship. He was also awarded the college medal for scholastic philosophy. He then took another teaching fellowship in chemistry at Catholic University, where he studied for his doctorate in physiology.
He graduated from Duke University, School of Medicine in 1936. After three years of hospital training he entered private medical practice in Reidsville, North Carolina. He continued to work there all his life.
In 1946, in Reidsville, North Carolina, he delivered the Fultz Quadruplets,[2] the world's first recorded set of identical black quadruplets and the first quadruplets to survive in the Southern United States. He subsequently brokered a 'corporate adoption' by Pet Milk, a Saint Louis dairy, which provided a foster home, foster care, living expenses, a 147 acre farm, clothes, medical and dental care through majority in return for promotional rights. All were born under Klenner's noteworthy high vitamin C maternity regimen for over 300 births.
His main subspecialty was diseases of the chest, but he became interested in the use of very large doses of Vitamin C in the treatment of a wide range of illness. Many of his experiments were performed on himself. In 1948, he published his first paper on the use of large doses of Vitamin C in the treatment of virus diseases.
In 1949 Klenner published in and presented a paper to the American Medical Association detailing the complete cure of 60 out of 60 of his patients with polio using intravenous sodium ascorbate injection. Generally, he gave 350 to 700 mg per kilogram body weight per day.
He described giving up to 300,000 milligrams (mg) per day of neutral pH sodium ascorbate. Klenner published 27 medical papers, most about vitamin C applications for over 30 diseases, two about treatment of severe neuropathies including multiple sclerosis using aggressive supplementation. He wrote a 28th paper ca 1980, an unpublished update about MS treatment. It was posthumously summarized by Lendon Smith in the "Clinical Guide to the Use of Vitamin C".
His maxim: the patient should "get large doses of vitamin C in all pathological conditions while the physician ponders the diagnosis."
He inspired Linus Pauling and Irwin Stone to expand the research on the wider benefits of Vitamin C.
References
Own publications
- Klenner, F. (1971) Significance Of High Daily Intake Of Ascorbic Acid In Preventive Medicine, Journal of the International Academy of Preventive Medicine, Spring 1974, Volume 1, Number 1, pp. 45-69 [3]
- Klenner, Frederick Robert, MD F.C.C.P. Observations On the Dose and Administration of Ascorbic Acid When Employed Beyond the Range Of A Vitamin, Human Pathology Journal of Applied Nutrition Vol. 23, No's 3 & 4, Winter 1971. [4]
- Fred R. Klenner, M.D. 1948 Virus Pneumonia and Its Treatment With Vitamin C [5]
- Klenner, Frederick Robert, MD. The Treatment of Poliomyelitis and Other Virus Diseases with Vitamin C, 1949 paper [6]
- Fred R. Klenner, M.D. 1953 The Use of Vitamin C as an Antibiotic [7]
A posthumous summary of Klenner's 28 papers.
- Lendon H. Smith, M.D., Clinical Guide to the Use of Vitamin C - The Clinical Experiences of Frederick R. Klenner, M.D. [8]