Irwin Stone

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Dr. Irwin Stone (1907-1984) a biochemist and chemical engineer and author. In 1934 Stone worked on the antioxidant properties of ascorbate (also known as Vitamin C), which had been described by Albert Szent-Györgyi only two years earlier. He used ascorbate to keep foodstuffs for longer limiting the effects of exposure to air and oxidation. Stone obtained the first patents on an industrial application of ascorbic acid with three patent applications filed in 1935 and granted in 1939 and 1940.

Dr. Stone’s research in ascorbic acid continued and led to his interest in the disease, scurvy. By the late 1950’s, Stone stated that scurvy was not a dietary disturbance, but a potentially fatal problem that had been misunderstood by nutritionists. Ascorbate was not a trace vitamin but was required in humans in large daily amounts. He produced four papers, between 1965 and 1967, describing the human requirement for ascorbate as genetic defect which he named hypoascorbemia.

Stone experienced great difficulty in getting his ideas published. However, following his retirement from his position as chemist from the Wallerstein company, in 1971, he essentially worked full time on ascorbate. He published numerous papers and a book, The Healing Factor, in 1972.

Irwin Stone introduced Linus Pauling to Vitamin C and can be said to have essentially founded the discipline of orthomolecular medicine. His research provided a scientific background for the claimed clinical results of Fred R. Klenner. Stone’s research was followed up by Robert Cathcart, in the 1970’s and 1980’s. Cathcart developed Stone's ideas into a preliminary scientific explanation for the use of massive doses of ascorbate in the treatment of disease which later became the dynamic flow model.

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