Linus Pauling's Vitamin C Crusade
secondary literature · 2025
LINK
SUMMARY
A Science History Institute magazine feature on Pauling's vitamin C advocacy. Byline (Sara Harrison) and publication date (5 June 2025) confirmed by direct fetch of the page. Summarizes the Mayo Clinic trials' outcome: 'the malignant disease in patients taking vitamin C progressed just as rapidly as in those taking placebo, and patients lived just as long on sugar pills as on high-dose vitamin C,' adding that 'Surprisingly, and perhaps by chance, there were more long-term survivors receiving placebo than vitamin C.'
NOTES
Secondary-source confirmation, independent of the primary Moertel et al. 1985 NEJM paper, of the second Mayo Clinic trial’s negative result, including the incidental detail that placebo patients had slightly more long-term survivors than the vitamin C group.