The Departure of Art Robinson and Fallout from the First Mayo Clinic Study

Art Robinson, 1974.

[A history of the Linus Pauling Institute of Science and Medicine, Part 3 of 8]

By late 1978, the Linus Pauling Institute of Science and Medicine had reformed its fundraising strategy, an action which proved to be quite successful. As a result, for the first time in its five years of existence, LPISM was not struggling to keep its head above water.

This wave of good fortune carried with it unforeseen negative consequences. In particular, Rick Hicks and Art Robinson began to come into conflict over the best way to invest this sudden surplus. Robinson suggested that LPISM move to Oregon – which had recently announced “Linus Pauling Day” in honor of its native son – and build a campus of its own. The idea was not popular with many staff, most of whom did not want to leave the Bay Area.

At the same time, Robinson began cultivating ties with the Orthomolecular Research Institute in Santa Cruz, California, which was headed by Arnold Hunsberger. Linus Pauling was not pleased with this idea, as he felt Hunsberger’s research hypotheses to be off the mark. Pauling had also met Hunsberger and had said that his impression was “not a very favorable one.”

Robinson continued to press for closer ties between LPISM and ORI, a source of growing tension between him and Pauling. In particular, Pauling was angered when he learned that Robinson had begun to tailor experiments in accordance with Hunsberger’s ideas without first consulting Pauling. When confronted, Robinson defended his decision and redoubled his arguments for collaboration. Their relationship continued to sour and morale at LPISM plummeted as the tension between Pauling and Robinson mounted.

In June 1978, Pauling issued a memorandum to Robinson, ordering him to consult the Executive Committee - comprised of Pauling, Robinson, and Hicks – before making “any important decisions.” Robinson responded by immediately firing Hicks. Pauling responded in turn by overruling the termination and demanding Robinson’s resignation within thirty days. He then proceeded to issue a memorandum informing Institute staff that he had stripped Robinson of his position, and that the staff was to disregard all further instructions from Robinson. The next day, the staff arrived at work to find a second memorandum from Robinson, declaring that he was still the president, that neither Pauling nor Hicks had the authority to relieve him of his duties, and that he would not resign.

Pauling memorandum of July 10, 1978.

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The Board of Trustees met in mid-July to try and settle the dispute. They decided to place Robinson on a thirty day leave of absence, empowered Pauling with all executive authority and told him to resolve the issue. On August 15, with Robinson’s leave expired, Pauling was elected President and Director of LPISM. On August 16, Pauling promptly informed Robinson that he was taking over all of Robinson’s research, Emile Zuckerkandl was being appointed Vice-Director, and that Robinson was fired.

Now that Robinson was gone, LPISM attempted to consolidate and return to normal. Pauling asked Steve Lawson to assume a portion of Robinson’s research agenda, a request to which Lawson consented. Over the course of 1978, Lawson had steadily become less involved with the financial arm of LPISM and more involved with its scientific work. Zuckerkandl also tasked Lawson with setting up a cell culture facility where the two would conduct research on the differences between primary and metastic cancer cells, as revealed by protein profiling. Lawson worked closely with UC-San Diego, University of Colorado, and SRI International. He was later joined on that project by Stewart McGuire, Eddy Metz, and Mark Peck, all fellow employees at LPISM.

Robinson, however, did not take his firing lightly and on August 25, LPISM was informed that Robinson was suing the organization for $25.5 million, alleging a breach of contract and unlawful termination among other charges. LPISM’s lawyers began gearing up for a serious legal battle, standing firm in their conviction that the Institute had done nothing wrong.

Meanwhile, the Institute’s vitamin C research continued on despite the added burden of the Robinson lawsuit. In early October 1978, Pauling convinced Ewan Cameron to accept a one-year appointment to LPISM while the two worked on a book about vitamin C and cancer. Additionally, Pauling, Cameron, Lawson, and their coworker Alan Sheets began an experiment to determine the effects of vitamin C on chemotherapeutic drugs. The research took the form of a toxicology experiment in which multiple groups of fish were subjected to chemotherapeutic agents in their water, after which various groups were given different amounts of vitamin C while the research team observed the results.

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The year 1979 started with good news. LPISM was informed by Hoffmann-LaRoche, the world’s largest producer of vitamin C, that they had seen sales more than double during the 1970s, and they fully recognized that Pauling was the cause. As a thank you, they had decided to donate $100,000 a year to the Institute.

The happy days were not to last long. In April, LPISM received an advanced release of the results of the major Mayo Clinic study on the treatment of cancer with ascorbic acid. Its primary investigator, Charles Moertel, had concluded that vitamin C did absolutely nothing to help cancer patients. Pauling was stunned and immediately began writing to Moertel to discuss the study in detail.

Then, over the summer, Art Robinson filed six more charges against LPISM and Pauling, bringing the total number of suits to eight and the total requested damages to $67.4 million. The year-long and highly publicized suit was greatly hurting LPISM’s reputation, and the Institute noticed a subsequent decrease in the donor funds flowing their way.

“Vitamin C Fails as a Cancer Cure,” New York Times, September 30, 1979.

Things then went from bad to worse when, on September 27, the New York Times published the Mayo Clinic study, definitively stating its conclusion that vitamin C was useless in treating cancer. Pauling immediately responded by pointing out that the patients involved in the test were undergoing cytotoxic chemotherapy, which he felt crippled their immune system. He also asserted that the trial was not conducted for long enough to develop accurate results.

Pauling’s response to the New York Times article, October 24, 1979.

Charles Moertel returned fire, defending his results and questioning Pauling, implying that he was fanatical in his zeal for vitamin C and refused to acknowledge the truth. Pauling and Moertel began exchanging volleys in public, writing articles and giving interviews that attacked the research and competence of the other. Unfortunately for Pauling, he took the worst of it, as many people began to agree with Moertel, thinking Pauling to be too enamored with vitamin C to see any negatives. Funding plummeted as donations shrank and LPISM began finding large numbers of grants rejected outright with no chance for an appeal.

Pauling refused to give up. Shortly after the New York Times article was released, he and Cameron published their book, Cancer and Vitamin C. Pauling personally bought 16,000 copies of the publication and mailed them to every member of Congress and to countless other physicians and researchers. This action helped Pauling’s cause significantly as many of the recipients read the book, or at least glanced through it. And even those recipients who didn’t read the text were made more aware of Pauling and his research. Likewise, in the marketplace the book sold well despite the bad reception it received from professional reviewers – the public seemed interested in Pauling and Cameron’s ideas.

In light of this, National Cancer Institute head Vincent DeVita agreed to a second round of trials. However, in doing so DeVita once again chose the Mayo Clinic to host the trials and chose Moertel to lead them. Pauling was furious with these decisions, an understandable point of view considering that he and Moertel had spent the past few months publicly accusing one other of being incompetent.  Pauling was also now without his co-author: their book completed, Ewan Cameron returned to Scotland to fulfill his duties at Vale of Leven Hospital. Before leaving, he was appointed a Research Professor at LPISM for a period of five years.

With a new decade approaching, the easier times of the mid-1970s were clearly gone and by early 1980 the future was once again uncertain. While the tensions evident during the Art Robinson era were now history, his lawsuits and the Mayo Clinic trials severely detracted from the future prospects of LPISM. Unfortunately for the Institute and Linus Pauling, their immediate future was not going to be a happy one.

Two More from Pauling and Rath

Linus Pauling, 1991.

In the early 1990s, Linus Pauling and Matthias Rath drafted two patent documents not related to their lipoprotein(a) research – documents that did not ultimately result in finalized patents. One of these documents described an attempt to use synthetic polypeptides to prevent disease by helping synthesize an optimum level and strength of collagen in the body.

“Polypeptide and Methods of Use,” application drafted July 10, 1991.

A polypeptide is a linear chain of two or more amino acids linked by a covalent bond. Scientists had asserted that synthetic polypeptides would be ineffective because polypeptides are fairly conservative molecules and, as such, trying to recreate them would result in substances with little or no potency. Pauling disagreed with this sentiment completely and utilized synthetics for the purpose of his research because they were fairly easy to manufacture.

Pauling and Rath believed that synthetic polypeptides would remain viable and that arguments against them were based in a fundamental misunderstanding of what makes a polypeptide potent in the first place. A polypeptide chain with an arginine-glycine-aspartic acid (RGD) sequence was, specifically, what the duo was investigating, and the RGD sequence is the piece of the puzzle that many scientists felt would be a source of potency trouble in synthetics.

Pauling and Rath felt that the RGD sequence was not actually important, but that the R and D was important. Specifically, beginning a chain with R (arginine) then ending it with D (aspartic acid) – both highly polarized end peptides – was the key to imbuing a polypeptide with strength and usefulness. In the eyes of the two researchers, if R and D were in the right spots, it did not particularly matter what resided in between them.

Pauling and Rath’s polypeptide treatment was designed to treat diseases that were related to cell migration or cell membrane adhesion. The treatment would cause certain cells more difficulty in penetrating membranes or just migrating in general; so ideally, it would contain diseases such as metastatic cancer. Also, by preventing membrane penetration and adherence, diseases such as infectious viral agents – which rely on doing just that to spread – would be contained as well.

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Matthias Rath

“Treatment of Pathological States Related to Degeneration of Extracellular Matrix System Treatment,” application declaration drafted November 1, 1991.

The last patent considered by Pauling and Rath was titled “The Treatment of Pathological States Related to Degeneration of the Extracellular Matrix System.” The extracellular matrix (ECM) provides structural support to animal cells, is the defining feature of connective tissues and serves other important duties in the cellular structure. The November patent idea was for, once again, a Vitamin C mixture, this one designed to prevent the deterioration of the ECM, thought to both contribute to and be characteristic of the spread of diseases, specifically metastatic cancer.

In this instance, Pauling and Rath’s research revolved around apoprotein(a) [apo(a)] which, they theorized, acted as a sort of temporary surrogate to Vitamin C. When Vitamin C levels in the bloodstream drop, apo(a) and lipoprotein(a) levels increase. Apo(a), a crucial component of the body’s defense against disease, was seen as acting as “temporary Vitamin C,” which in the short term was beneficial, but after longer periods of time would actually contribute to ECM deterioration and other health issues.

Pauling and Rath worked with Dr. Aleksandra Niedzwiecki and Dr. Jerzy Jurka on this project, and they all concluded that apo(a) helped the body to fight free radicals and other diseases.  This said, the team also felt that apo(a) needed the help of large amounts of Vitamin C to be effective, especially because, as the body became sick or fought off illness, Vitamin C levels in the blood dropped. As such, large doses of Vitamin C were the best course of action to ensure the strength of the ECM and subsequent general health.

Matthias Rath departed from the Linus Pauling Institute of Science and Medicine in 1992 and Dr. Niedzwiecki moved to work with him at his new institute.  Linus Pauling was already fighting his own cancer at that time and ultimately died in August 1994.  As a result of both events, the patent applications initiated in support of the two initiatives described above appear not to have been vigorously pursued.

Symposia and the Peace Ship: Pauling in Latin America, 1980s.

Ava Helen and Linus Pauling, dancing the samba in Brazil, September 1980.

[Part 5 of 5]

The 1980s were a very busy decade for Linus Pauling with regards to trips to Latin America. Over the course of the decade, he attended various scientific symposia in Brazil, Mexico and Venezuela, and also participated in a variety of peace activities – delivering a peace talk in Colombia, meeting with the leaders of several governments, and participating in the “Peace Ship,” a vessel loaded with humanitarian aid provided by the governments of Norway and Sweden, which sailed from Panama to Nicaragua in July and August 1984.

Having participated in the Second International Vitamin C Symposium in 1978, Pauling once again traveled to Brazil in 1980 for the third iteration of this gathering, which took place in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. The Symposium ran from September 2-13, with Pauling seated as the guest of honor. He arrived in Manaus on September 4 and did some sightseeing to start off his visit. Later he traveled to Sao Paulo and the conference got underway. He gave the opening speech the day after the Symposium began.

Session titles at the symposium were familiar to those who had followed Pauling’s recent career: “Vitamin C in Immunology,” “Vitamin C in Lipid Metabolism,” “Other Aspects of Vitamin C,” and “Vitamin C in Cancer.” Pauling coordinated and participated in the program on vitamin C and cancer, presenting a paper titled “The Incidence of Squamous Cell Carcinoma in Hairless Mice Irradiated with Ultraviolet Light in Relations to the Intake of Ascorbic Acid.” This paper reported the results of a study that Pauling had conducted along with three other investigators, in which they observed the development of large malignant skin tumors in 700 hairless mice.

According to Pauling’s text, the mice, divided into groups, were “intermittently exposed in a standard way to long-wavelength ultraviolet light over a period of 110 days,” while each group was given a consistent diet containing a different amount of Vitamin C from group to group. At the end of the study, it was determined that a strong correlation existed between the number of tumors that the mice developed and the amount of Vitamin C in their diet.

On September 10, Pauling traveled to the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, where he gave the opening speech for the First International Symposium on Recent Advances in Vitamins.  Sessions at this meeting included, “Vitamin A,” “Hipovitominosis and Public Health,” “Vitamin C Complex,” “Microbiological Measurements of Vitamins,” and “Nutrition and Vitamin Deficiencies.” Pauling concluded the symposium with a closing speech and left Rio for home on September 13.

Pauling went to yet another symposium in January 1981, this time in Mexico City and focusing on the subject “Metabolic Treatment of Heart Conditions.” The conference took place at Juarez Hospital in the Mexican capital, and was coordinated by Dr. David Contreras, Chief of Cardiology at the hospital. At this short, two-day meeting, Pauling only gave one lecture, “Treatment of Old Age.”

Pauling with Nobel laureate economist F. A. Hayek at the Darwin Conference, Caracas, Venezuela, November 1982. (El Diario)

After Ava Helen’s death in December 1981, Pauling did not travel to Latin America again until November 1982, when he was invited to a Darwin Symposium in Caracas, Venezuela. He gave a lecture on November 8 at the Central University of Venezuela titled, “Darwin and the Adventure of Thought,” as well as a lecture titled, “The Joy of Research.” In the latter, Pauling talked about his capacity to find joy in scientific discoveries made by others, specifically citing his excitement in learning of the uncovering of clues to the extinction of dinosaurs as found in clay layers. But even more joy, Pauling suggested, could be felt through one’s own process of discovery. As he recounted on a different occasion

When Ernest Lawrence got married…I was an usher at the wedding, in 1931.  I drove back in the car with some people and I said that I was happy because I had in my pocket a crystal of sulvanite, Cu₃VS₄.  And I had just determined the structure of this and it was a very striking structure; anomalous, it didn’t fit in with my ideas about sulfide minerals.  But I knew what the structure was, nobody else knows, nobody in the world knows what the structure is and they won’t know until I tell them.  This is an example of the feeling of pleasure I had on discovering something new.

Pauling’s next trip to Latin America was for the International Symposium on Vitamins in Nutrition and Therapy, held in Cartagena and Bogotá, Colombia, in 1983. Pauling arrived in Bogotá on November 22, and went to Cartagena the next day. After returning to Bogotá on the 27th he met with President Belisario Betancur, who led the country from 1982 to 1986. Pauling also gave a speech, “The Necessity of World Peace,” in Cartagena. In it he discussed the terrifying possibility of a third World War and how it might result in the extermination of the human race. He commented that cooperation was necessary in order for world’s superpowers to survive, since retaliation would be suicide.

During his speech, Pauling also made mention of the Korean airlines crisis of 1983, in which Korean Airlines Flight 007 was shot down by Soviet interceptors over the Sea of Japan after entering Soviet airspace around the time of a planned missile test. All the passengers and crew on board were killed, including Lawrence McDonald, a member of the United States House of Representatives. The Soviet Union eventually claimed that the aircraft was on a spy mission. According to Pauling, “President Reagan saved the world by not taking retaliatory military action, as was urged on him by the right-wingers in the U.S.”

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El Mundo, July 25, 1984.

In 1984 the Nicaraguan government was struggling to rebuild itself under a new government, the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN), after suffering a bloody oppression under the Somoza family’s 43-year dictatorship, and a civil war from 1978 to 1979. Opposing the FSLN were the U. S.-backed Contras, guerrilla fighters engaged in violent struggle with the Sandinistas. Amidst the chaos, the government of Norway, along with a small group of Nobel laureates, decided to help the suffering people of Nicaragua by delivering a shipload of humanitarian aid in the summer of 1984.

The Peace Ship, as it was called, started its journey in Panama City on July 23 with a press conference, before sailing up to Port Corinto, Nicaragua. Passengers on board the Norwegian ship W/V Falknes included Pauling; Adolfo Perez Esquivel and Betty Williams, winners of the Nobel Peace Prize; George Wald, winner of the Nobel Prize in Medicine; and the leaders of various religious groups.

Those on board sent a message “To People of Conscience, From the Peace Ship,” which stated,

[this ship] carries instruments for health and life, not implements of war; medicines, educational materials, fertilizers, small fishing boats and paper donated by the governments of Norway, Sweden and non-governmental organizations to facilitate Nicaragua’s forthcoming [November 1984] national election.

Pauling and Wald also sent a telegram to President Reagan, informing him of their mission and noting their intent to issue a statement in Managua backing “the right of self-determination, support for the efforts of the Contadora Group to bring peace to the region, the cessation of all foreign intervention, and the withdrawal of all foreign advisers from the region.”

After the Peace Ship arrived in Nicaragua, Pauling and Wald rode to Managua in a Land Cruiser driven by Daniel Ortega Saavedra, a member of the Junta of National Construction that ran the FSLN. At the time, Ortega was running for President of Nicaragua and he would eventually win the November elections that year, the first presidential election held in the country’s history. Pauling commented in his notes that as they drove through the countryside, Ortega and his men were on the lookout for Contras who might attack, and kept submachine guns on the floor of the Land Cruiser. Pauling said of Nicaragua, “It is a miserably poor country. I felt about as bad concerning conditions there as I had about India…”

Accompanied by Ortega and Wald, Pauling visited a small hospital in Managua in which wounded soldiers who had been injured by the Contra forces were being treated, and also visited the medical school in León. He likewise gave a lecture at a medical conference in Managua celebrating the fifth anniversary of the National Health Service.

Pauling also went on a trip to the countryside to visit an active volcano, which he found to be home to flocks of green parakeets. This trip was hosted by Humberto Ortega Saavedra, Daniel Ortega’s brother and the commander-in-chief of Nicaragua’s armed forces.

Pauling flew out of Managua on August 4, but experienced some complications during his trip home: his passport was confiscated as he traveled from one airport to another, and was not returned to him until his arrival in San Francisco. He commented in a letter to his children that he suspected he was being harassed as a result of his and Wald’s telegram to President Reagan, sent while on board the Peace Ship.

[Above: Pauling diary entry regarding the confiscation of his passport. 4 Aug 84 In Mexico City my passport was taken & kept by the Mexican Immigration.  I got on Mexicana 970 for SF, but kept asking for my passport. I think that a flight [?] is on it- I saw a US passport. He put it in a long envelope & told me that I would receive it after Mazatlan.  It [sic] Mazatlan I was told that I could stay aboard the plane.* Only then did I have the idea that the US govt was confiscating my passport,  with the collaboration of the Mexican govt. *All other passengers got out to go through immigration, etc.]

After his return to the U.S., Pauling continued to act on behalf of Nicaragua’s struggle for peace and freedom. He supported the International Committee of the Support of War Victims of Nicaragua, and endorsed a resolution authored by two doctors, Robin W. Briehl and Kenneth Barnes, which opposed the “U.S.-directed violations of human rights and interference with scientific development in Nicaragua.” This resolution was submitted for consideration to the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and urged the U.S. government to stop funding the Contras, as well as aid in the safe release of a kidnapped medical brigade.

While Pauling continued to advocate on behalf of various Latin American causes, his voyage on the peace ship marked his last major trip to the region.  So concluded a long string of memorable activities and experiences that had begun some thirty-five years before.

Women’s Liberation, a Cruise to Acapulco and a Visit to Cuba: The 1970s

Ava Helen Pauling with participants at the Congress of Women of America. Bogota, Colombia, July 1970.

[Part 4 of 5]

After visiting Chile for the Technical University’s Summer School in 1970, Linus and Ava Helen Pauling traveled to Latin America several more times throughout the decade.  In July 1970, Ava Helen visited Bogotá, Colombia on a rare solo trip, to participate in the Third Congress of Women of America. The Congress was held by the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), and lasted for five days.

WILPF was founded in1915 by a group of women from twelve countries and has worked for peace and gender equality ever since then. Key objectives for the Colombian League in 1970 included women’s rights, especially concerning marriage and divorce, and the education of women. Topics discussed at the Third Congress included the relationship between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R., the Colombian economy, population control, the equitable use of resources, and balancing the distribution of wealth. The group also addressed the economic plight of Colombian women and social problems such as sexual taboos, complete education and family planning.

The Paulings next went to Tijuana, Mexico, in March 1972 for a conference sponsored by the Chemistry Association of Tijuana, where Linus received a certificate of appreciation and attended various meetings. While there he also gave his speech “Science and the Future of Humanity,” a version of which he had delivered two years earlier in Chile.

Ava Helen also gave a speech in Tijuana, titled “The Liberation of Women.” In her talk, Ava Helen first noted that the last fifteen years had seen an increase in the struggle for the liberation of oppressed people all over the world, including women, and that “[t]he Women’s Movement has developed so rapidly that it is difficult to keep up with their various activities.” A small grievance, but one about which she felt strongly, was the difference in titles for women and men – “Miss,” if a woman is unmarried and “Mrs.” if they are married, while men are always simply called “Mr.” Although this was a minor problem, Ava Helen said, she would rather be called “Ms.”

She then listed four demands that had attained currency within the women’s liberation movement. The first was that women should receive equal pay for equal work; according to Ava Helen, in 1965, women received only 60 percent of the salary of men, for the same work. The second demand was equal opportunity in employment, without discrimination. Third, the movement wanted working women to have access to 24-hour child care centers “[i]n order to do their jobs well.” The fourth and final demand was free and freely available abortion. “Women are demonstrating in all countries for the repeal of abortion laws,” said Ava Helen, specifically citing the 1971 Women’s National Abortion Action Coalition demonstration in Washington D. C., in which 3,000 women participated.

Along with these four demands, Ava Helen also presented a collection of major concerns being discussed within women’s liberation circles.  These included “nutrition in general, nutrition for the pregnant woman, free lunches for school children, nursery schools, adequate housing, and a guaranteed income for everyone.”

Ava Helen finished her speech by suggesting that, “[women] are becoming politically sophisticated and ever more aware that they, in working for their own freedom from discrimination and oppression, are working for the freedom of all humankind.” On that note, it was clear that Ava Helen and Linus were on the same page politically, which was to be expected since Ava Helen was a guiding force behind much of her husband’s activism.

Linus Pauling aboard the S. S. Fairsea, April 1977.

The next time the Paulings returned to Latin America, it was purely for scientific reasons, although it may have appeared otherwise. Linus was invited to give two lectures while on the Preventive Medicine Cruise to Mexico in 1977, which went from Los Angeles to Puerto Vallarta, and from there to Acapulco and Mazatlan. The cruise included sixty passengers and lasted for ten days, from April 13th to the 23rd, although the Paulings only took part until April 18th, owing to prior engagements.

In his two lectures aboard the S.S. Fairsea, Pauling discussed biochemical specificity in nature, massive doses of vitamin C in alleviating cancer distress, and biochemical individuality and immunology. Other lecturers on the cruise included Theron Randolph, a physician allergist, and Virginia Livingston Wheeler, a physician who specialized in cancer research. The trip curriculum consisted of a thirty-hour educational program in the sub-specialties of preventive and orthomolecular medicine, as well as clinical ecology and cancer immunology.

A year later, in 1978, the Paulings returned to Latin America, this time to Havana, Cuba, to take part in the Fifth Cuban Congress on Oncology, which ran from March 19-27.  There Pauling gave a talk titled, “Nutrition and Cancer,” in which he discussed the benefits of ingesting vitamin C and other nutrients in order to increase cancer survival times. He noted that

[a]s much as 75 grams of vitamin C per day has been administered, both intravenously and orally, to patients with advanced cancer, and there is some evidence that the larger intakes are considerably more effective than the usual intake of 10 grams per day.

After giving his lecture, Linus and Ava Helen enjoyed a fun next few days, attending a recital featuring the National Ballet of Cuba, enjoying the music of a Cuban Folklore Ensemble and going to the nightclub “Tropicana.” For the Paulings, this trip was the culmination of a long desire to see Cuba, a wish that had always been thwarted previously, due to the U.S. blockade of its communist neighbor.

Later that same year, Linus was invited to be the guest of honor at the Second International Vitamin C Symposium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Pauling gave the opening speech on August 24, and voiced his belief that the world was entering into the Megavitamin or Orthomolecular Age. He also acted as chairman of a workshop on Vitamin C and cancer research. The purpose of the Brazil gathering was to discuss the role of vitamin C in virus diseases, lipid metabolism, cancer, neurological diseases, and diseases associated with collagen. Pauling accepted the honor of delivering the closing address of the symposium as well.

As they traveled to different parts of Latin America in the 1970s, Linus and Ava Helen were a team to be reckoned with: together they advocated for women’s rights, presented on the issue of overpopulation, spoke out against militarism, and spread information about cancer and the effectiveness of vitamins in increasing good health. Emboldened by their combined knowledge and principals, they proved a powerful duo in their quest to make the world a better place.

Is Sugar a Poison?

[Ed Note: This is part one of a two part investigation into contemporary thinking on sugar.  Today's post focuses on recent discussions while part two will provide Linus Pauling's perspective as well as that of an important contemporary.]

After watching Robert Lustig’s lecture “Sugar: The Bitter Truth,” posted on YouTube in July 2009, viewers are sure to sympathize more with their livers, and with Lustig’s persuasive evidence that sugar is a toxin. Robert H. Lustig, M.D., is a professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology at the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine, who, over the course of a 90-minute discussion on fructose, glucose and the body’s reaction to them, aims to convince the public that sugar is not just bad for us, it is toxic.

Lustig begins his engaging lecture by arguing that the reason why Americans are getting fatter is because our bodies aren’t telling us when we’re full. The hormone leptin, which signals satiety, must be malfunctioning, he says, because now we’re just eating more food. It is true that portion sizes used to be smaller, he admits, but food was just as available twenty years ago as it is now. Fat isn’t the culprit either, because we eat fewer calories from fat now than we did in the 1980s, yet obesity is still rising.

One component of the problem is what Lustig calls the “Coca-Cola Conspiracy”: Coca-Cola has become saltier, which makes you thirsty, but the salt is masked by added sugar, so the taste buds do not detect extra salt. Likewise, more caffeine has been added, providing energy but also working as a diuretic.  As a result of the added caffeine and salt, you are actually thirstier when you finish the Coca-Cola than when you started it, making you want more Coca-Cola. In the process, of course, you consume more sugar.

Robert Lustig being inteviewed by ABC News correspondent John Donvan. Credit: UC-San Francisco.

Sugar is bad, but the main crux of Lustig’s argument is that fructose in particular is a poison. Sucrose, or table sugar, is made up of 50 percent fructose and 50 percent glucose; the glucose is metabolized by every cell in the body, while the fructose is metabolized solely by the liver. High-fructose corn syrup, or H.F.C.S., is made up of 55 percent fructose and 45 percent glucose. Lustig, however, makes no distinction between sucrose and H.F.C.S., saying that both should be included in the discussion about sugar since both are processed by the body the same way.

According to Lustig, President Richard Nixon’s 1973 campaign to decrease the price of food is partly to blame for spurring the advent and popularity of H.F.C.S.  For one, H.F.C.S. is both cheaper and sweeter than sucrose, so manufacturers eventually used it more than sugar, advertising it as the healthy, natural alternative. What added to the problem, Lustig says, was the campaign by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the American Medical Association and the American Heart Association in 1972 to cut down on fat in the American diet. This effectively diminished the amounts of fat that we ate, but did not solve the problem: “The fat’s going down, the sugar’s going up, and we’re all getting sick.” In Lustig’s view, it became apparent rather quickly that a low-fat, high-carb diet tasted like “crap,” so sugar was added to make it more palatable to the consumer’s tastebuds.

Lustig spends about fifteen minutes of his presentation giving a biochemistry lesson demonstrating that glucose and fructose are not the same thing, and also showing all the adverse physiological effects of fructose. From there, he returns to the claim made at the beginning of his lecture, which is that Americans are gaining weight because we don’t feel full. The problem with fructose, says Lustig, is that it does not stimulate insulin, and if the insulin levels do not rise, leptin is not activated, thus your brain does not receive the message that you are full. On the contrary, thanks to the unresponsiveness of the insulin, the brain receives the message that the body is starving.

Adding to the “evil” of fructose is its similarity to ethanol. Ethanol is just fermented sugar, and fructose is “ethanol without the buzz,” as Lustig puts it. The only difference, according to Lustig, is that ethanol is metabolized by the brain, causing central nervous system depression, hypothermia, hypoglycemia and loss of fine motor control, to name a few adverse effects. Fructose, on the other hand, is not metabolized by the brain at all. Further, ethanol is regulated by the government because it is considered a toxin, while sugar is not seen as dangerous. Yet, according to Lustig, chronic sugar exposure causes conditions such as hypertension, myocardial infarction, obesity, fetal insulin resistance and other assorted health problems. Fructose and ethanol are metabolized the same way by the body, but it is chronic exposure to fructose that leads to adverse effects, while with ethanol, the effects are more immediately apparent.

So what is the solution to obesity? Lustig, who treats obese children, prescribes four aspects of “lifestyle intervention” that work: a diet containing carbohydrates with fiber; no sugared beverages; following the “Paleolithic diet,” which contains mostly raw foods and no grains; and exercise.

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Journalist Gary Taubes provides more insight on Lustig’s lecture in his New York Times article “Is Sugar Toxic?” published on April 13, 2011. Taubes has spent much of the last decade conducting journalistic research on diet and chronic diseases, and agrees with Lustig, noting, “[i]f I didn’t buy this argument myself, I wouldn’t be writing about it here.” Taubes agrees with Lustig that the problem with sugar lies not with the calories that it contains, but with the way our bodies metabolize the fructose.

According to Taubes, in an experiment involving laboratory rats and mice, it was found that if enough fructose hit the liver quickly enough, the liver would convert most of it to fat. He reiterates Lustig’s conclusion that this process eventually results in insulin resistance, which is the fundamental problem in obesity and the underlying defect in heart disease and Type 2 diabetes. However, Taubes says, the Institute of Medicine published a report in 2005 which “acknowledged that plenty of evidence suggested that sugar could increase the risk of heart disease and diabetes…but did not consider the research to be definitive. There was enough ambiguity…that they couldn’t even set an upper limit on how much sugar constitutes too much.”

Gary Taubes

Taubes next discusses the correlation between sugar consumption and diabetes: in 1980, roughly one in seven Americans was obese while almost six million were diabetic. By the early 2000s, a third of Americans were obese, while fourteen million were diabetic. On the basis of this evidence, Taubes says, it is easy to blame the over-consumption of sucrose and H.F.C.S. for the increase in health problems, since peak times of sugar consumption often correlate with spikes in obesity and diabetes.

Sugar is also likely to cause heart disease, although Taubes acknowledges that it is usually dietary fat that is blamed. He notes that in most cases where evidence was presented that indicated dietary fat was a culprit in heart disease, sugar was ignored, even though sugar consumption could also have been a factor. For example, in the 1960s Elliott Joslin, a leading authority on diabetes, claimed that sugar did not cause diabetes because the Japanese ate lots of rice, which is mostly a carbohydrate, like sugar, and there are very few diabetics in Japan. However, he did not take into account that the Japanese also ate much less table sugar than did Americans and, as Taubes brings to our attention, he did not know that rice and sugar are metabolized differently by the body.

Taubes comments that the last time an academic claimed that sugar was a toxin was in the 1970s, when John Yudkin, an authority on nutrition in the United Kingdom and a colleague of Linus Pauling, published a book about sugar called Sweet and Dangerous. In it, Yudkin recounts a series of experiments that he conducted in which sugar and starch were fed to rodents, chickens, rabbits, pigs and college students. The trials found that sugar raised the blood levels of triglycerides, which is a risk factor for heart disease. Sugar also raised insulin levels, linking it to type 2 diabetes.

At the time Yudkin’s conclusions were criticized and his work was not taken seriously. By extension, other researchers who disparaged sucrose were often compared to Yudkin and dismissed. However, according to Taubes, in recent years “physicians and medical authorities came to accept the idea that a condition known as metabolic syndrome is a major, if not the major, risk factor for heart disease and diabetes.” Metabolic syndrome is a state in which the cells in one’s body actively ignore insulin, which happens when the pancreas becomes exhausted from pumping out insulin in response to rising blood sugar levels; in some cases, rising blood sugar levels result in diabetes. Other results of chronically elevated insulin levels are heart disease, higher triglyceride levels and blood pressure, and lower levels of HDL cholesterol, which makes the insulin resistance worse. This cycle is known as metabolic syndrome.

So, Taubes asks, what causes the initial insulin resistance? His answer is that “researchers who study the mechanisms of insulin resistance now think that a likely cause is the accumulation of fat in the liver.” Fatty livers are caused by genetic disposition, eating fatty foods, and by consuming fructose, since the liver converts fructose directly to fat if it is hit with a large amount all at once. Fructose is a “chronic toxin,” meaning that it is “not toxic after one meal, but after 1,000 meals.” As a result, conclusive evidence linking fructose to fatty livers will not be forthcoming until long-term studies are conducted.  And, according to Taubes, at this point no studies have been planned that span longer amounts of time.

Finally, Taubes discusses cancer’s link to metabolic syndrome and diabetes, saying, “you are more likely to get cancer if you’re obese or diabetic than if you’re not, and you’re more likely to get cancer if you have metabolic syndrome than if you don’t.” Both metabolic syndrome and diabetes are linked to the Western diet, and countries that do not follow the Western diet experience much lower rates of cancer. One population cited by Taubes are the Inuit in the Arctic, among whom breast cancer rates were almost non-existent until the 1980s. The connection given by cancer researches, Taubes says, is that insulin resistance leads to the secretion of more insulin, and insulin promotes tumor growth.

Taubes ends his article with the statement, “Sugar scares me…I’d like to eat it in moderation. I’d certainly like my two sons to be able to eat it in moderation, to not overconsume it, but I don’t actually know what that means, and I’ve been reporting on this subject and studying it for more than a decade.” Together, Lustig and Taubes paint a dreary picture of the world’s health if it continues to consume fructose: obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and metabolic syndrome are the tangible consequences of the Western lifestyle, with Lustig’s explanation and Taubes’s analysis backing the claim that sugar is toxic.

Akira Murata

Akira Murata, 1975.

A year before being introduced to Fukumi Morishige‘s work, Linus Pauling was paying close attention to research being conducted by another Japanese colleague, Dr. Akira Murata, who was studying the inactivation of viruses by vitamin C.  Over the coming years, Morishige and Murata often worked together on research related to vitamin C.  And as with Morishige, Murata became a close colleague of Pauling’s, hosting him on numerous visits to Japan and, on at least a few occasions, traveling across the Pacific to visit Pauling in California.

Murata was born in Shimonoseki, Japan in 1935, and later attended Kyushu University, receiving his Ph.D. in microbiology in 1963.  In 1966 he accepted the position of Associate Professor at Saga University, where he has remained for the bulk of his career.

From early on, Murata was interested in vitamin C and, in particular, the impact that it could make on viruses.  In 1975 Murata summarized much of his early work in a paper written for the Intersectional Congress of the International Association of Microbiological Societies titled, “Virucidal Activity of Vitamin C: Vitamin C for Prevention and Treatment of Viral Diseases.” In it, he outlined a series of clinical trials that he had conducted with Morishige, which focused on the impact of vitamin C on viruses using phages for model systems and their host bacteria. A year later, in 1976, Murata went to the United States to study vitamin C and the immune system at the Linus Pauling Institute of Science and Medicine.

Murata and Pauling in Pauling's office, 1976.

A parallel track of research conducted by Murata and Morishige in the 1970s focused on the impact of vitamin C on hepatitis.  The duo authored an important paper titled “Vitamin C for Prophylaxis of Viral Hepatitis B in Transfused Patients,” (J. Int. Acad. Prev. Med. 1978;5(1):54–58) in which they discussed their hepatitis work.  In it, Murata and Morishige reported on a series of tests in which patients who had received blood transfusions were also given specific dosages of vitamin C.  From there, observations were made with respect to hepatitis contraction among the transfusion patients.

The researchers found that, between 1967 and 1976, no hepatitis B cases were recorded for those who received large doses of vitamin C following a blood transfusion. The paper concluded that vitamin C, in large amounts, has a “significant prophylactic effect against post-transfusion hepatitis, especially type B.”  Prior to its publication, Pauling annotated and edited Murata and Morishige’s text, adding his suggestions for how the manuscript could be improved.

In 1976, the year of his residency at the Pauling Institute, Murata also published observations made by Morishige on the effect of increased doses of ascorbic acid with respect to various viral and bacterial diseases. In their study, the duo found that ascorbic acid showed a therapeutic effect on infectious hepatitis, measles, mumps, viral orchitis, viral pneumonia and certain types of meningitis.

Murata continued this line of research through the 1980s, continually seeking out new ways to test the effects of vitamin C on human health. Like Pauling and Morishige, Murata was also highly interested in vitamin C and its possible therapeutic use with cancer. Several papers arose from this program of work, including one titled “Prolongation of Survival Times of Terminal Cancer Patients by Administration of Large Doses of Ascorbate,” (Int. J. Vitam. Nutr. Res. Suppl. 1982;23:103-113) and another listing viruses reported to be inactivated by vitamin C. Together, Pauling and Murata also served as chairmen and panel members for at least one workshop on vitamin C, immunology and cancer.

Akira Murata, Ava Helen Pauling and Linus Pauling. In Japan, 1980.

By the late 1980s, Akira Murata had contributed upwards of twenty-five publications on vitamin C and its effects upon various diseases, and Pauling continued to visit him and keep in contact. Murata typically hosted at least a portion of Pauling’s many visits to Japan, often acting in the duel capacity of scientific colleague and friend. Murata also translated a few of Pauling’s books into Japanese. Among these was Vitamin C, the Common Cold, and the Flu, the preface of which contains Pauling’s note of thanks to Murata and the observation that “it is important that everyone know about the great value that vitamin C has in improving health and in protecting against disease.” Murata also translated Pauling’s best-seller, How to Live Longer and Feel Better.

As with a few other contacts in Japan – especially Morishige – Pauling remained in close correspondence with Murata over the duration of their acquaintance, frequently discussing papers on vitamin C and exchanging ideas on new studies. The two remained friends and collaborators throughout the last two decades of Pauling’s life, both benefiting greatly from their cross-cultural exchange.

Fukumi Morishige

Linus Pauling and Fukumi Morishige, 1986.

Dr. Fukumi Morishige, a chief surgeon of the Fukuoka Torikai Hospital for over thirty years, introduced himself to Linus Pauling via letter in 1975.  In this initial outreach, the Japanese physician informed Pauling of his own research on vitamin C, asking to meet with him when Pauling visited Japan later that year. Pauling did indeed meet with him and, at Morishige’s request, delivered a lecture on the value of vitamin C in health and disease. Thus began a friendship and continuing correspondence that would last for the remainder of Pauling’s life.

Fukumi Morishige was born in Fukuoka, Japan in 1925. He attended Kurume University where, in 1961, he received his medical degree. Within six years of completing his studies, he became the chief surgeon of the Fukuoka Torikai Hospital. It was after he visited Tottori Sakyu Hospital and witnessed the inspiring work being accomplished by the resident surgeons there that he really began to take into consideration the importance of vitamin C.  He later recalled

I knew that giving vitamin C to patients helps them to heal quicker for some reasons but I didn’t know why. I decided to do more research on how vitamin C impacts human bodies and made up my mind to explore vitamin C’s effect and stay in this field.

So began his research studies on vitamin C, work that, at the time, focused specifically on the prevention of serum hepatitis in patients receiving blood transfusions.

Over time, Morishige’s interests moved in the direction of Pauling’s focus on cancer. Through the nearly twenty years of their correspondence, Morishige frequently would relay information about new ideas on cancer research, and Pauling would unfailingly reply with enthusiasm and encouragement, often voicing his desire to bring Morishige to the U. S. to discuss his progress.

Spurred by Pauling’s encouragement, Morishige conducted several experiments involving vitamin C and other therapies for cancer.  In 1983 Morishige, Pauling and three additional Japanese scientists published a paper in the journal Cancer Research titled, “Enhancement of Antitumor Activity of Ascorbate against Ehrlich Ascites Tumor Cells by the Copper: Glycylglycylhistidine Complex.” In this publication, the group communicated their work, which sought to increase the antitumor activity of ascorbate by use of an “innocuous form of cupric ion complexed with glycylglycylhistidine.” While it did not significantly “oxidize ascorbate,” the researchers found that the compound “killed Ehrlich ascites tumor cells” in high concentrations of ascorbate. They further reported that glycylglycylhistidine “prolonged the life span of mice inoculated with Ehrlich tumor cells.”

In 1986 Morishige was introduced to a cancer patient who seemed to be controlling her disease by drinking reishi tea. Excited by this, Morishige launched his own program of research on reishi mushrooms. Through his findings he came to believe that reishi mushrooms acted as both a cancer preventative and a tumor suppressant. He then began to combine the reishi treatments with vitamin C and found that the vitamin C strengthened the effectiveness of the reishi. Though Dr. Morishige used and tested this method successfully on several cancer patients, it is still looked upon as an alternative healing remedy rather than a medically accredited technique.

Artist's rendering of the Tachiarai Hospital. The back of this print is annotated by Pauling, "Dr. F. Morishige's hospital. We participated in dedicating it." Note Morshige's identification of his home to the right of the hospital.

Indeed, for both Pauling and Morishige, their work with vitamin C was commonly rejected by the medical community, yet they both doggedly continued to research the topic, determined to show the world what they believe to be the great benefits of ascorbic acid in medicine.

Over the course of their struggles and interactions, Morishige remained extremely grateful for Pauling’s support and continually expressed his gratitude to Pauling for the interest and advice that he imparted. Among the resources held in the Pauling Papers is a Japanese newspaper series in which Morishige discusses, in length, his relationship with Pauling and their continuing academic exchange on vitamin C. The newspaper series runs to twelve installments in total, all written in Japanese.  Our hope is to someday have this resource translated, so that we might gain further insight into this remarkable collaboration.

Later Japan

Linus Pauling with President Matsuda at Tokai University, 1975.

Sixteen years passed between Linus Pauling’s participation in the 1959 Hiroshima Conference and his next visit to Japan in Fall 1975.  And while the 1975 trip largely dealt with his findings and research on Vitamin C – a common theme for many of his travels to East Asia and elsewhere – some of his time was devoted to peace-related talks and activities.

Notably, Pauling attended a symposium of the Keidanren Kaikan Memorial Lecture in Tokyo, and a symposium of the Memorial Lecture at Hiroshima-Ishikaikan in Hiroshima. He also attended the Albert Schweitzer Fellowship of Japan and presented a paper titled “Reverence for Life and the Way to World Peace” in Tokyo.  His short “peace tour” likewise included his making a guest appearance on a talk show with Dr. Soichi Iijima, and following that up with a lecture, delivered at a high school in Hiroshima, titled “The Development of Science and the Future of Mankind.”

Then the vitamin C tour began. In the preface to the Japanese translation of his book Vitamin C, the Common Cold, and the Flu, Pauling described the budding of his interest in vitamin C. In it, he describes the familiar story of his initial intrigue in learning of the effectiveness of large doses of vitamins in controlling schizophrenia. Not long after,  a biochemist, Irwin Stone, wrote to Pauling of his own findings on vitamin C, health and disease, which further spurred Pauling’s own interest and compelled him to begin his own program of research.

As time passed and Pauling’s advocacy grew, he increasingly sought to spread this growing body of work around the world, including his stops in Japan. In 1975 Pauling went to Fukuoka with Dr. Fukumi Morishige (who would become a close colleague) to meet with fellow vitamin C researchers and discuss new ideas and experiments. While in Saga he likewise gave lectures on vitamin C to researchers and students at Tokai University. In October, near the end of his trip, he visited with a series of dignitaries including Kenzaburo Gushima, the President of Nagasaki University, and Yoshitake Morotani, the Mayor of Nagasaki. In these meetings Pauling exchanged thoughts on a number of ideas, including peace, but was also keen to discuss his favorite nutritional topic, vitamin C.

Five years later, Pauling and his wife made another trip to Japan in March and April of 1980. By this point, Pauling wanted very much to convince others that vitamin C lay at the heart of treating many ailments, and his activities during the 1980 trip are indicative of the fervor with which he pursued this goal.

Pauling began the trip by giving a talk to the general public on the health benefits of ascorbic acid. He then attended the general meeting of the Society of Japan Agricultural Chemistry at Fukuoka University, the topic of which was vitamin C and cancer. At the conclusion of this meeting he was made an honorary member of the Society. Next, at Kyoto University, he gave a lecture titled “What Can We Expect for Chemistry in the Next 100 Years?” after which he attended another symposium on vitamin C and participated in a vitamin C committee meeting at Cakushi Kaikan.  Prior to returning home, Pauling gave another lecture, “Prevention from Disease -Vitamin C, the Common Cold and Cancer,” and also found a spare moment to write a letter to the editor of Time about Vitamin C and cancer that clarified his thoughts on the vitamin’s relationship to cancer therapy.

Ava Helen Pauling and Dr. Yashie Souma, 1980.

In 1981 Pauling traveled to Japan on two short, separate occasions. The first visit was for the International Conference on Human Nutrition. During the second he appeared on Japanese television discussing orthomolecular medicine with Drs. Kitahara and Morishige.   A few days later he gave a lecture on the same topic to the Japanese Pharmacist Association.

Upon his return home, Pauling maintained a regular correspondence with Dr. Morishige about Morishige’s vitamin C research. He specifically wanted to know if Morishige had tested it on patients suffering from gastrointestinal cancer, noting his very personal reasons for doing so: this was the type of cancer from which Ava Helen was, at the time, suffering. Morishige wrote back to Pauling in September giving him a treatment plan that he thought might aid in slowing down the disease. Pauling attempted to act on this recommendation, but a variety of barriers arose to its implementation.  Less than three months later, she passed away.

Morishige's prescription.

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In the years following, Pauling visited Japan three more times. Most of these trips, at least in part, involved his continuing efforts to secure financial support for the Linus Pauling Institute of Science and Medicine. In concert with his travels in 1981, Pauling wrote to the industrialist Ryoichi Sasakawa, asking his permission to establish a Ryoichi Sasakawa Research Professorship in Cancer Research. Pauling also requested that Sasakawa to endow the position, knowing of his support for cancer research in general and of Pauling’s efforts to explore Vitamin C in particular. Though Sasakawa did not fulfill this specific request, he did eventually gift many other large sums to the Institute for research and study.

A 1984 trip concentrated almost completely on vitamin C. Shortly before flying across the Pacific, Pauling wrote a chapter for the book Medical Science and the Advancement of Health titled “Problems Introducing a New Field of Medicine: Orthomolecular Medicine.” Completing this chapter clarified his thoughts and led directly to a talk, “Molecular Disease and Orthomolecular Medicine,” delivered upon his arrival to Tokyo. Assisting him in this talk were other doctors pursuing and interested in this same field. The rest of this trip was devoted to visiting various institutes and industrial sites including the National Institute of Genetics and the Aliment Industry Co. in Mishima, as well as a vitamin factory in Hakone.

Pauling’s final two visits to Japan both took place in 1986. The first trip was for an exposition on vitamin C and health, followed by a series of interviews and seminars where he discussed cancer therapy and research results with Japanese medical journalists.

Pauling delivering the Opening Address at the Tokyo Health Fair, April 1986.

Pauling returned to his activist roots for his final visit, which was devoted primarily to peace. He visited the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, the Memorial Monument for Hiroshima City of Peace, and participated in a public screening of the documentary “Hiroshima – A Document of Atomic Bombing.” He spoke with survivors of the 1945 nuclear attack and visited the Hiroshima Atomic Bomb Hospital.

The Peace Summit in Hiroshima was also a part of this trip. Titled “In Quest for International Peace,” the gathering was partly devoted to discussions of the role of science in working for peace. The last of many speeches that Linus Pauling delivered in his nine trips to Japan took place in Hiroshima and was titled, “We Have Already Taken a Great Step Toward the Goal of World Peace.”  At this point Pauling had come full circle in Japan, a country that he greatly admired.

A Somber Return to China, 1981

The Paulings in Tianjin, June 1981.

In the summer of 1981, Linus Pauling participated in the First International Conference on Human Nutrition, which took place in Japan and China. The conference lasted from May 31 to June 8, and was sponsored by the China Medical Association and the Foundation for Nutritional Advancement, the latter of which Pauling was president. The conference took place in Tokyo, Japan and Tianjin, China, travels to which would comprise the first part of a trip that would also take the Paulings to Germany and to London. Their daughter Linda and her husband Barclay accompanied Linus and Ava Helen to the Orient.

Pauling made the opening remarks at the beginning of the conference in Tokyo on June 1. After the Tokyo sessions were completed three days later, the Paulings flew to Peking, traveled in an official vehicle to Tianjin (a “red flag limousine,” as recorded by Pauling in his journal) and stayed in the State Guest House in the same suite used by Richard Nixon during his iconic 1972 trip to China.  From June 4-8, Pauling participated in the conference, which was jointly planned by the FNA and Professor Chou Pei-yuan, the President of the University of Beijing. This was the second and last time Pauling was to visit China.

A day after arriving in China, the Paulings toured Tianjin Medical College, Tianjin Hospital and Tianjin Children’s Hospital before attending a formal reception given by Li Xiannian, who eventually became the Chinese Head of State in 1983. The conference in China formally opened on June 6, again with Pauling delivering the opening remarks. In them, he discussed the roots of his interest in the field of nutrition, and also reflected upon the early years of his scientific career beginning with his focus on minerals and later interest in the nature of life, which arose in 1929 largely because of the presence of Thomas Hunt Morgan (who had discovered the concept of the gene) at Caltech.

An unidentified individual, Arthur Sackler, the Chinese Minister of Health and Linus Pauling, June 1981.

In his talk, Pauling explained that he had decided to learn more about organic chemistry in order to understand how molecules are built and how they interact with each other, beginning with hemoglobin. During this time, Pauling also studied antibodies, immunology, sickle cell anemias, and other heretic anemias. In 1954 he decided to look at other groups of diseases to see if they could be classed as molecular diseases, and chose to study mental illness over cancer, because he felt that many people were working on cancer already. After researching mental illness for ten years, he became interested in vitamins.

According to Pauling, his interest in vitamins came about when he learned that the Canadian scientists Abram Hoffer and Humphry Osmond were treating schizophrenia patients with large amounts of niacin. Simultaneously, Gerald Milner had been giving large amounts of ascorbic acid to mentally ill patients, with positive results. Pauling later observed that vitamin C had value in the control of cancer, so he became involved with cancer. Near the end of his address, Pauling remarked, “As I look back on my life, I see that I have enjoyed myself very much and a good bit of this enjoyment has come from the continued recognition of something new about the universe.”

Other talks given over the course of the Tianjin conference included “Vitamin C and Cancer,” delivered by Pauling; “Extending Life Span of Patients with Terminal Cancer Using High Doses of Vitamin C,” given by Dr. Akira Murata from the Department of Agriculture at Saga University, Japan; and “A Study on Fortified Foods with Ascorbic Acid Phosphate,” given by Professor Chou Deqin, from the Chinese Institute of Military Hygiene.

The conference closed on Monday, June 8. The next day, the Paulings took part in a sight-seeing tour of the Great Wall and the Ming tombs. Later that week, Pauling gave a talk on chemical bonds in transition metals at Peking University, and continued to give lectures and meet with various scientists throughout the rest of his time in China.

Photo of Ava Helen Pauling taken in China, six months prior to her death.

The trip took a dramatic turn for the worse when, in the afternoon of June 19, Ava Helen had a heart attack and was taken to the hospital. Though she left the hospital the next day, she remained medicated and too sick to travel for a few days after, causing the Paulings to change their plans. She remained weak for the rest of their time in China, though recovered enough to complete their planned itinerary through Germany and London.

When the couple returned to California and Ava Helen underwent exploratory surgery, it was determined that she was facing a recurrence of stomach cancer, from which she had been suffering for the past five years. Her cancer was deemed inoperable and only a few short months later, on December 7, 1981, Ava Helen would pass away, three weeks shy of her 78th birthday.

Formulas, Pictures and Sports Drinks: The Pauling Chalkboard, Part III

Linus Pauling, 1985.

(Part 3 of 3)

While much of the real estate on Linus Pauling’s chalkboard is consumed by lists of names, a number of additional annotations, when examined, prove to be of keen interest.

Metabolic Profiling

On the right side of the board, below the last column of names, is the following text:

NSF – Mol. Str. 21 Mar.

Library 3000 21 Mar.

Aging – NIH Nutrition

American Cancer Society – Dr. Neville

Sample Bank

Mass Spectrometer

Muscular Dystrophy

Aging Patterns in mice

This particular sample of notes relates to the metabolic profiling program carried out for some time at the Linus Pauling Institute of Science and Medicine. As mentioned in part II of this series, a large number of names on the board were involved with the metabolic profiling program, and this particular column of text ties many of the names together. Pauling was working with numerous people from diverse backgrounds and professions. He was in contact with researchers at, among other organizations, the Institute on Aging and the American Cancer Society.

The words “sample bank” refer to urine and blood samples that were to be kept refrigerated for, potentially, decades, and ultimately to be analyzed by mass spectrometry. This particular undertaking was very ambitious, and could have provided a great deal of material for practical study. Unfortunately, the chronically underfunded Institute had trouble with their refrigeration units, and the project was eventually abandoned. (Despite the setbacks, some results of this program of research, headed by Pauling and Arthur Robinson, can be found in articles published at Stanford University as well as in certain of the Institute’s early news releases.)

A New Sports Drink

Another interesting bit of text can be found towards the lower right hand corner of the board:

C + glycine

dextrose

The text is likely the basic outline of a carbonated “sports drink” being worked on by the Institute in the 1980s. The drink was to be infused with vitamins, and the Institute was developing acids that would provide alternative sweeteners. Production and research eventually halted, but it is interesting to think about what may have resulted from a successfully marketed “Paulingaide.”

Vitamin C, Cancer and Heart Disease

The following words, located in the upper right portion of the column ark, have perhaps the most basic and relevant connections to Pauling’s work.

Ascorbate

stimulates

Production of Lymphocytes

The order simply implies that ascorbate, or vitamin C, stimulates the production of lymphocytes, the major cellular components of the body’s immune system. Several studies have shown that increased levels of ascorbate generally correlate with increased levels of lymphocyte production. If nothing else, this is the most centrally relevant theme of Pauling’s work with vitamin C, and the fact that it maintained such a substantial place on his overcrowded board underlines the significance that he himself placed upon it.

In the middle of the board towards its top, is the diagram of a mystery molecule that was crafted by Pauling. Mention of the molecule (given the name “2-azido-5,8-dihydroxy-1,3,4,5,7,9,9b-heptaazaphenalene”) appeared in an article titled “A Prized Collection: Pauling Memorabilia,” published in Chemical and Engineering News in August 2000.

The board's "mystery molecule."

In a 1977 interview, Pauling was asked about his chalkboard and, in particular, about the mystery molecule.  He reponded

I had an idea in the field of organic chemistry about 40 years ago. It involved this unusual compound. Benzine has a six-membered ring of carbon atoms and this compound has three six-membered rings consisting of six carbon atoms and seven nitrogen atoms and then it has these hydroxyl groups attached. It is known that the similar substance with only one ring can be made into certain derivatives that have anti-cancer activity. And I thought that this substance with only three rings might well operate in the same way and that we should study it.

In other words, Pauling was still actively contemplating an idea that had occurred to him 40 years prior – an idea that managed to stay on his chalkboard through his death in 1994. Indeed the mystery molecule exemplifies the function of Pauling’s chalkboard, not only as a mnemonic device, but as a place holder for people and ideas that span decades.

Left of the mystery molecule towards the top of the board, one finds a series of words written one above the other. The seemingly haphazard placement of the words diverts attention from their historical significance in terms of the latter portion of Linus Pauling’s life.

LDL

Cholesterol

Lipoprotein a

The words almost certainly refer to research that Pauling began supporting in conjunction with a German physician named Matthias Rath, which investigated the possibility of a link between vitamin C and heart disease. Over the final years of his life, Pauling spoke of the relationship between vitamin C and heart disease in much the same way that he talked about vitamin C in terms of colds and cancer.

This writing was likely one of the last times that Pauling touched chalk to his board, as his collaboration with Rath did not develop until the early 1990s. The three words both acknowledge and hide the significance of the interaction between Rath and Pauling – a mercurial relationship for much of its duration.

Sandbox

Beneath an ark of name columns, adorned with the mystery molecule at its pinnacle, is a half-circle filled with pictures, figures and chemistry formulas. This area is likely where Pauling exercised the least concern for preservation, and it is supposed that this area of the board was used to aide in his discussions with visitors to his office. The space likely represents over two decades of personal interactions between Pauling and others, a spot on the board where he could explain theories and manifest abstract ideas. In essence, this half circle is where Pauling used the board in a more traditional sense – writing and erasing as suited his needs.

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Linus Pauling’s chalkboard is covered in historical significance. It functioned as an important tool for a very busy man, and has preserved a telling aspect of both the history of the Linus Pauling Institute and the character of Pauling himself, in part reflecting the organization of his consciousness.

 

To be sure, the board is merely a fragment of Linus Pauling and his research, but it is unique and intriguing in a very personal sense. The names, pictures and diagrams on the board all represent important aspects of Pauling’s professional life. Not only does it make a valuable contribution to a room dedicated to the man’s work, it preserves the living memory of Pauling by displaying an intimate demonstration of his method.

Pauling's chalkboard, as preserved in the OSU Libraries Special Collections.