Will the Real Vitamin C Please Stand Up: A Closer Look at the Most Controversial Vitamin

When you think of feeling better or fighting off sickness, the first thing that might pop into your mind is, “I’ll take some vitamin C”. You drink some orange juice, maybe an Emergen-C packet, or even take a few tablets of bottled vitamin C in order to chase away the symptoms of an impending cold, flu, or feeling of general fatigue and malaise. Taking between 50-2000 mg during a few days leaves you believing that, “Wow, that vitamin C really helped kick that sick feeling to the curb!”

Vitamin C, whether taken in low or high doses, coupled with its reported health benefiting properties, has been quite controversial for the past several decades and according to the University of California Berkley, no other vitamin has been so extensively researched since 1932. And as of today, despite all the studies, vitamin C still remains a mystery with a divided consensus. The question remains, does it help?

Believe or not, there are two schools of thought regarding water soluble vitamin C also known as L-ascorbic acid or ascorbate. Humans require a regular intake of vitamin C (30-95 mg daily depending on age) because our bodies do not produce nor store this vitamin, however excrete it very quickly.[1] Vitamin C is imperative for maintenance of all the body tissues, proper growth, and wound healing.

New data about the positive effects of vitamin C on the immune system have been introduced in the last several years.[2] Immune cells contain active vitamin C transporter molecules within their membranes that actively pump the vitamin into the cells when more vitamin C is necessary[3], especially phagocytes and T-cells. According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), a vitamin C deficiency results in a reduced resistance against certain pathogens, while a higher supply enhances several immune system parameters.[4]

On the other side, a Cochrane Collaboration review has concluded that vitamin C has shown no consistent effect on the duration or severity of helping the common cold symptoms after the initial onset.[5] Although, evidence suggests that it could be justified in people exposed to brief periods of severe physical exercise or cold environments.[6] Whereas, Dr. H.K. Bakhru states, “vitamin C helps prevent and cure the common cold and protects an individual against infections”.[7] It is evident that one community believes it does not help much with the prevention and dissipation of cold and flu symptoms and an increase of immunological factors while the other faction believes it does.

A recent controlled trial study showed that vitamin C deficiency has been linked with frequency and duration of colds coupled with immune system defects, and that there are measurable health advantages associated with vitamin C supplementation.[8] Taking into account that if vitamin C introduced into the body will increase immunity, the next question is which form of vitamin C should be taken?

Here is the secret: few people differentiate between the natural vitamin C which you find in fruits and vegetables (citrus, acerola cherries, greens), and synthetic ascorbic vitamin C present in most energizing drinks, vitamin packets, and vitamin C Bottles that you can buy at your local pharmacy or health food store. Because the two are usually marketed side by side as being one in the same, most people are led to believe that if the label says all natural vitamin C, it must be food based, therefore real and wholesome. However, there is a difference. As O. Hofmleker states,”in its natural form vitamin C has a different design than the synthetic vitamin. The natural vitamin C molecule never occurs in isolated form, but rather accompanied by complex nutrients which apparently are essential for vitamin C’s bioactivity. The synthetic ascorbate however, appears in an isolated form, often in overly high concentrations which the human body hasn’t evolved to properly utilize. Human biology has never evolved to accept synthetic vitamins”.[9]

Synthetic vitamin C was introduced in the 1930’s into the market causing all the rage. However, with its inception it pushed the focus of natural wholesome vitamin C found in foods to the back shelf making it a thing of the past. Since then the new trend has been this synthetic ascorbic acid reportedly being linked to all sorts of health benefits.[[10]–[11]–[12] ] It was also believed to be more readily available year round instead of its natural whole food counterpart. The interesting thing is after so many decades and numerous studies conducted, it has actually been shown that ascorbic acid causes potential damage to health. A recent study on vitamin C (Am J Clin Nutr; Jan 2008) showed adults taking the synthetic version had serious side effects and significant adverse effects on the antioxidant system. Dr. Victor Herbert, professor of medicine at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York has said, “vitamin C in supplement forms mobilizes harmless ferric iron stored in the body and converts it to harmful ferrous iron, which induces damage to the heart and other organs. In addition, unlike the vitamin C naturally present in foods like orange juice, vitamin C as a supplement is not an antioxidant.”[13]

So in order to take the most optimal vitamin C, you should kick the synthetic vitamin C (which is usually ascorbic acid derived from genetically modified corn) and start ingesting either real fruits and vegetables or food-based vitamin C supplements with the highest amount of real vitamin C and bio-available nutrients. Ideally, vitamin C should be ingested in its natural wholesome form in order to give its all encompassing health benefiting properties in the areas of cardiovascular and immunological health.[14] According to NIH, those fruits are fresh, raw cantaloupes, citrus fruits, kiwis, mangos, papayas, pineapples, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, watermelon, and cranberries.[15] In addition, peppers, kale, broccoli and peas are also great options.

Do yourself a favor and introduce natural vitamin C in the form of fruits and vegetables to your daily diet. It can be in the form of fresh squeezed juice, smoothies, or as fruit and vegetable snacks throughout the day. Your body will thank you. Not only will you be supplying yourself with a daily dose of natural vitamin C required for the proper running of your body and its systems, but you will be able to forgo the bottles, powder packets, and drinks filled with a synthetic vitamin that your body was not engineered to consume. The real vitamin C is in fruits and vegetables. Nothing else comes close to that nor can it mimic its intrinsic healing properties. Introduce the real vitamin C into your daily eating habits!

Interesting fact: Vitamin C is the most widely researched nutrient on the Internet.

[1] Padayatty SJ, Katz A, Wang Y, et al. Vitamin C as an antioxidant: evaluation of its role in disease prevention. J Am Coll Nutr. 2003 Feb;22(1):18-35.

[2] Pavlovic V. A short overview of vitamin C and selected cells of the immune system. Cent. Eur. J. Med. 2010 October;8(1):1-10.

[3] Strohle A, Wolters M, Hahn A. Micronutrients at the interface between inflammation and infection–ascorbic acid and calciferol: part 1, general overview with a focus on ascorbic acid. Inflamm Allergy Drug Targets. 2011 Feb;10(1):54-63.

[4] Ströhle A, Hahn A. Viatmin C and immune function. Med Monatsschr Pharm. 2009 Feb;32(2):49-54.[PubMed abstract]

[5] Douglas RM, Hemilä H. Vitamin C for preventing and treating the common cold. PLoS Med 2005;2:e168. [PubMed abstract]

5 Douglas RM, Hemilä H, Chalker E, Treacy B. Vitamin C for preventing and treating the common cold. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2007;(3):CD000980. [PubMed abstract]

[7] Bakhru H.K., The Complete Handbook of Nature Cure (Mumbai: Jaico Publishing House, 2014), 101.

[8] Johnston CS, Barkyoumb GM, Schumacher SS. Vitamin C supplementation slightly improves physical activity levels and reduces cold incidence in men with marginal vitamin C status: a randomized controlled trial. Nutrients. 2014 Jul;6(7):2572-83.

[9] Ori Hofmleker, “Vitamin Poisioning: Are We Destroying Our Health with Hi-Potency Synthetic Vitamins?”, https://www.organicconsumers.org/news/vitamin-poisoning-are-we-destroying-our-health-hi-potency-synthetic-vitamins, (accessed Dec. 21, 2016)

[10] Fotherby MD, Williams JC, Forster LA, Craner P, Ferns GA. Effect of vitamin C on ambulatory blood pressure and plasma lipids in older persons. J Hypertens. 2000 Apr;18(4):411-5.

[11]Romieu I, Sienra-Monge JJ, Ramirez-Aguilar M, et al. Antioxidant supplementation and lung functions among children with asthma exposed to high levels of air pollutants. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2002 Sep 1;166(5):703-9.

[12]Afkhami-Ardekani M, Shojaoddiny-Ardekani A. Effect of vitamin C on blood glucose, serum lipids & serum insulin in type 2 diabetes patients. Indian J Med Res. 2007 Nov;126(5):471-4.

[13] Jane E.Brody, “Taking to much vitamin C can be dangerous, study finds”, April 9, 1998,  http://www.nytimes.com/1998/04/09/us/taking-too-much-vitamin-c-can-be-dangerous-study-finds.html (accessed Dec.21, 2016).

[14]Asim K. Duttaroy, Aud Jørgensen, “Effects of kiwi fruit consumption on platelet aggregation and plasma lipids in healthy human volunteers”, Platelets (2004) 15(5), 287–292, doi: 10.1080/09537100410001710290.

[15] Zieve, MD, MHA, Isla Ogilvie, PhD,  A.D.A.M. Editorial team, “Vitamin C”, 2/2/2015, https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/002404.htm, (accessed Dec.21, 2016).

Will the Real Vitamin C Please Stand Up: A Closer Look at the Most Controversial Vitamin

British women, please rally to support decriminalisation of abortion | Letters

In Poland mass protests have forced the government to drop plans to tighten its already draconian abortion laws. Yet here in Britain most people are unaware that women still live under the threat of being sentenced to life imprisonment if they end their own pregnancies by buying pills on the internet. Doctors also face harsh penalties if they do not fill in the correct forms before terminating a pregnancy.

Back in 1967 our law was changed to allow the legal ending of pregnancies if certain conditions were met. Otherwise the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act remained in place; and so it still is today – nearly half a century later.

On Wednesday 24 October a ten-minute rule bill is to be introduced to the House of Commons proposing that abortion in Britain is decriminalised. To do so would not only allow speedier and much less bureaucratic use of modern medical procedures, but would save a huge amount of NHS money while bringing us into line with countries such as Canada where medical abortion was decriminalised nearly three decades ago.

In Britain one in three women will have an abortion. Yet the views of the small but vociferous anti-abortion lobby garner most of the publicity and continue to dominate public argument. If only a small proportion of the millions of women who have benefited from the 1967 Act were to write to their MPs now asking them to be in the Commons on 24 October and to give support to this proposal, perhaps this punitive Victorian legislation would have a chance of being brought up to date.

Back in the 1960s when I was an abortion law reform activist, the Guardian and its readers did much to facilitate the liberalisation of the law. They now need to mobilise again so that their children and grandchildren can benefit in the same way that they already have from the activities of my generation.
Diane Munday
Wheathampstead, Hertfordshire

• Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com

British women, please rally to support decriminalisation of abortion | Letters

Live screenings from regional stages, please | Brief letters

Your correspondents are too quick to praise live screenings (Letters, 2 August). Live screenings may be a valid experience when I see overprovided and oversubsidised London audiences flocking to performances beamed from Newcastle, Wakefield, Truro etc, where costs are cheaper and where professional theatre is comparatively rare. The present arrangement is a stale excuse from so-called national companies to avoid their responsibilities to those of us for whom London is not accessible.
Don Moore
Garstang, Lancashire

• What constitutes high quality? What if I don’t like opera (OK, I quite like Carmen) and only drink beer? Does that make me a northern heathen? Any road up, it’ll be reet when I see Gandalf and Jean-Luc Picard at’t Lyceum next Tuesday. No wine at the interval!
David Elsom
Sheffield

• Maybe this hand-washing thing (Letters, 3 August) comes from the US. WH Auden criticised “the American habit of washing one’s hands after pissing, as if the penis were an object, too filthy for any decent person to touch”. Americans do seem particularly enthusiastic about it, often scrubbing up as if they were about to carry out open-heart surgery.
Bev Littlewood
Richmond, London

• Regarding “Honestly, you really must come round for dinner soon” (30 July). I did once hear the Swedish language referred to as ordfattig (word poor). That apart, I loved Andrew Brown’s article and please do insist he drops round for supper – anytime.
Deborah von Kohler
St Austell, Cornwall

• Samantha Cameron’s stylist and George Osborne’s aide are in line for OBEs on top of generous salaries (Report, 1 August). No award for Josh Coombes, a young barber who gives free haircuts to the homeless in Exeter, there no doubt thanks to Cameron’s and Osborne’s austerity measures.
Sue Boulding
Baschurch, Shropshire

• So the Guardian is encouraged to drop titles and stick to the given name and surname (Letters, 3 August). An excellent idea. Quakers have been doing this for more than 350 years.
Janie Cottis
Wantage, Oxfordshire

• Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com

Live screenings from regional stages, please | Brief letters

A glass of red wine, please, Doctor

Nonetheless, there does continue to be the French paradox. Why do the French with their substantial body fat diets, have half the death rate from clots in their coronary arteries than, for instance, USA citizens? The HDL ranges are no greater in the French. So what else is happening?

In 1992, the Lancet published a paper that showed that moderate alcohol consumption resulted in a forty per cent reduction in heart attacks and in 2001 The American Heart Association came out with the slogan “A drink a day will take some arterial stiffness away”.

The discovery of antioxidants such as flavonoids or resveratrol and polyphenols in the skin of the red grape, particularly when grown at high altitudes may be vital. (In white wine fermentation, the skin is removed). These substances have been shown to avoid harm to the inside of blood vessels and to inhibit blood clotting cells (platelets) so clots are significantly less most likely to form. This only applies to reasonable alcohol consumption and not if alcohol is taken at ranges larger than two small glasses (125mls) everyday. Marques-Vidal and colleagues in 2001 compared drinkers in Northern Ireland (largely weekend hefty intake) with French (typical smaller everyday quantities) and located adverse results on blood strain in the Irish (amongst the highest incidence of heart assault deaths around the world).

I was fortunate that my hospital management and medical colleagues in Swindon supported my prescribing red wine to my cardiac patients. Considering that 2003, I have written the prescription in the drug prescription chart for the duration of my rounds. Only sufferers with coronary clots are presented this medication. Evident contraindications this kind of as history of drug or alcohol addiction, abdomen or liver disease are observed and individuals with a hint of psychological or psychiatric difficulties are excluded.

Which wine is best for avoiding clots? Antioxidants are highest in Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon (Glasgow University 1993), a Chilean red and grown at large altitude. Other useful wines consist of individuals manufactured from the Pinot Noir and Petite Syrah (Shiraz) grapes. Surprisingly, the Italian wines come in the middle purchase in terms of antioxidant concentrations and Red Zinfandel from California is amongst the lowest.

The very good information is that, in general, the younger and the cheaper wines with screw tops tend to be very best! Once a bottle has been opened the antioxidants dissipate as the wine ‘breathes’ and thus I suggest the use of vacuum stoppers. Also antioxidants might be absorbed by corks in the course of prolonged storage specifically in wood.

Of course, moderate wine consumption have to be regarded as as only element of the measures needed to avert heart attacks. Much more importantly, very good blood stress handle, sensible dietary habits such as decreased excess fat consumption and fresh greens, fat reduction, smoking cessation, regular workout and stress coping mechanisms are vital if you wish to decrease your odds of getting a heart assault.

Your doctor will be capable to advise you if wine is not a excellent concept. So please check 1st!

Our CCU is now much more modern day with improved privacy for our sufferers without compromising on care. Apart from their day-to-day dose of red wine, cardiac sufferers can now be distracted with bedside TVs and earphones. However, even with incredible advances in cardiac care because 1998, the sufferers are nevertheless the exact same, “What about some red wine Doc?”

Dr William A McCrea FRCP is a advisor cardiologist

A glass of red wine, please, Doctor