December 28, 2006
Researchers Yi Li and Herb E. Schellhorn at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada report that humans, having lost their ability to produce vitamin C like most other animals many generation ago, are subject to premature aging, and hypothesize that high blood levels of vitamin C provide broad ranging therapeutic benefits in treating age-related diseases. There has not only been a genetic mutation that has caused vitamin C production in the liver to cease, but also a drastic decrease in dietary vitamin C intake compared to early human ancestors who as hunter-gatherers consumed an estimated 600+ milligrams of vitamin C per day. Modern Americans consume only about 110 milligrams of vitamin C from their daily diet. Optimal levels of vitamin C are advocated to waylay the onset of age-related disorders. [Medical Hypotheses, Dec. 2006]
Researchers at the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of North Carolina, report that the inactivation of a liver enzyme many generations ago left humans in a compromised state of health that could only be made up for by dietary consumption of vitamin C. Mutant mice, who are in the same predicament as humans and cannot produce vitamin C in their liver, require about 110 milligrams of vitamin C per kilogram (2.2 lbs) of body weight to support growth. In their experiment, as the circulating level of vitamin C gradually began to decrease in these mutant mice, circulating cholesterol levels began to rise. Even with marginal vitamin C deficiency, the wall of the aorta (first blood vessel outside the heart) began to show abnormalities. [Proceedings National Academy Sciences 97: 841-46, 2000]
In another animal study in India, rabbits engorged with a high-cholesterol diet and given very high doses of vitamin C were able to avert the accumulation of cholesterol plaque in their artery walls. Researchers at the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital in New Delhi, India indicate the use of vitamin C may have great promise in the prevention of high cholesterol induced arterial disease. [Molecular Cellular Biochemistry 285: 143-47, 2006] -Copyright 2006 Bill Sardi, Knowledge of Health, Inc.
posted by Knowledge of Health at 10:38 AM