Vitamin C Kills Viruses
See what everyone else has seen, but think what no one else has thought. - A. Hoffer, MD (Vitamin C advocate)
AFTER SIR James Lind, the British naval surgeon, proved that eating citrus fruit could prevent sailors from dying of scurvy, the British navy delayed acting on his discovery for over 40 years. During that time, it is estimated that about 100,000 English seaman died unnecessarily from vitamin C deficiency - scurvy. I wonder how much unnecessary suffering from the chikungunya virus and how many unavoidable deaths from the Ebola virus will occur before our rather myopic health and medical experts see what many other scientists have seen?
A number of well-credentialed researchers have stated that there has not been a single virus investigated that is not destroyed when exposed to adequate concentrations of vitamin C. Dr Thomas Levy, in his valuable book Vitamin C, Infectious Diseases and Toxins: Curing the Incurable, states, "I have not found any virus for which vitamin C does not exert a virucidal effect, as long as enough vitamin C reaches the virus."
This opinion is not just based on laboratory tests but on extensive clinical experience with a wide variety of viral infections, including polio, influenza, small pox, chikungunya, Ebola, Marburg, West Nile, bird flu, HIV and herpes, to name a few. Why is vitamin C such a big secret to modern medicine? Why is it that a Google search for vitamin C will yield over 46 million links, while the index of the most prestigious medical journals will have very few references, if any, to the vitamin for a whole year? Perhaps it's because it would be a financial disaster for the pharmaceutical industry if people knew how to use vitamin C.
What is vitamin C?
Dr Albert Szent-Gyorgyi discovered vitamin C and in 1937 he won the Nobel Prize for his work. The story is told that when this brilliant yet humble scientist first extracted the vitamin from orange juice and cabbage juice, he did not know what the compound was so he called it 'ignose' from ignosco (I don't know). It is wonderful when we admit that we don't know everything.
The chemical name for vitamin C is ascorbic acid, a natural substance made by most animals from glucose that is essential to life and protects them from the developing of scurvy. A few species, including man, some bats and guinea pigs, have lost their ability to make this vitamin and totally depend on vitamin C (ascorbic acid) from their diet.
Most animals, if injured or infected, can dramatically increase their own vitamin C production to resist disease. An injured dog, for example, can increase its vitamin C production up to tenfold to help healing. Man does not have that ability. Although severe vitamin C deficiency and obvious scurvy is now rare, holistic physicians like myself believe that many of our people are going around with chronic subclinical vitamin C insufficiency that erodes their health and make them prone to illness.
How vitamin C kills viruses?
Vitamin C uses many ways to help the body overcome viruses.
Firstly vitamin C works by activating the ‘Fenton reaction,’ which can proceed inside the virus, inside cells in which viruses are replicating, and on the surfaces of the viruses themselves.
At a high enough concentration in the blood, vitamin C will directly inactivate viruses. During a viral infection, the body's supplies of vitamin C are rapidly depleted as the immune system's white blood cells absorb and quickly use up all the vitamin C available. The immune system actually uses vitamin C to make an important antioxidant inside the cells called glutathione. It also increases the body's production of its own antiviral medicine called interferon.
Vitamin C also has its own anti-inflammatory, pain-relieving and antihistamine-like effects. It therefore powerfully improves symptoms like pain, swelling, weakness, rash and fever.
Viruses cause haemorrhage
Many viruses cause bleeding, a problem referred to as haemorrhagic fever. Holistic doctors have pointed out that scurvy (vitamin C deficiency) also cause bleeding. What do the two conditions have in common? Well, a virus infection can create an acute vitamin C deficiency. This will cause the walls of the small blood vessels and capillaries to become fragile, break, and bleeding results. Some viruses also destroy, special elements in the blood, necessary to prevent bleeding, called platelets. This results in a bleeding tendency.
Using vitamin C
In high enough concentrations, vitamin C has been shown to destroy or inactivate every virus tested. The trick is to get enough vitamin C into the body. Eating a diet high in fruits and vegetables is very important as it contains many cofactors that help vitamin C work better. But that will not provide enough of the vitamin.
Sufferers from viral infections like chikungunya should take large oral doses of vitamin C. The most effective way is using vitamin C is as powder or crystals as each teaspoonful contains four or five grams. Start with half of a teaspoonful every four hours at the first sign of an infection or even before if you feel at risk. You can slowly increase the amount and frequency of the amount of vitamin C or until you start having loose bowels. If that happens, cut back to a lower dose. Doctors call this technique 'titrating to bowel tolerance'.
Intravenous (IV) vitamin C: More severe or complicated cases will benefit from vitamin C given by drip directly into the vein. This is an extremely useful and powerful treatment, which is administered by a doctor in the office or hospital.
Here is what Professor Michael J Gonzalez of the University of Puerto Rico, Medical Sciences campus, had to say about this approach: "In our experience, IV vitamin C benefits all viral-suffering patients. We have used, it successfully against dengue, chikungunya and influenza."
You may email Dr Vendryes at tonyvendryes@gmail.com or listen to 'An Ounce of Prevention' on POWER 106 FM on Fridays at 8:15 p.m. His new book, 'An Ounce of Prevention - Particularly for Men', is now available. Check his website www.tonyvendryes.com for details.
Vitamin C kills viruses | Lead Stories | Jamaica Gleaner http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/lead-stories/20141021/vitamin-c-kills-viruses
与维生素C永无休止的战争
2016年3月14日，托马斯·利维博士
您需要了解的有关感染和维生素C的治愈能力的知识
所有感染都会在病原体扩散和有毒代谢副产物扩散的地方产生增加的氧化应激。这种增加的氧化应激导致几乎所有与给定感染相关的发病率和症状。同样，当感染势不可挡时，它们的某些负面影响是由于物理质量或感染的存在而直接损害正常生物分子之间无法正常相互作用的结果。
而且，当重大感染已经存在足够长的时间时，它们就会导致整个人体严重消耗维生素C，从而有效导致急性诱发的坏血病状态。正如经典坏血病与严重感染相关，严重感染会导致坏血病。这个事实很明显表明，与任何已耗尽的人相比，在感染后服用大剂量的维生素C足以帮助恢复储存。同样，维生素C对于支持，增强和优化免疫系统强度绝对必不可少。
在试管和人体中，维生素C已被明确证明可以杀死/灭活病毒。实际上，在维生素C处理过多的试管中没有病毒（并且有很多）不被维生素C终止的感冒。
弗雷德里克·克莱纳（Frederick Klenner）博士在50多年前就治愈了许多至今仍被“现代”药物视为无法治愈的急性病毒综合症，包括脊髓灰质炎和麻疹。但是，他使用了大剂量（数克到300克的维生素C，并通过肌肉内和/或静脉内途径胃肠外给药。 Klenner博士在短短三天内治愈了60例小儿麻痹症病例中的57例，其他三例需要另外两天的维生素C才能完全治愈。
The never-ending war against vitamin C
March 14, 2016 by Dr. Thomas Levy
What you need to know about infections and the healing power of vitamin C
All infections produce increased oxidative stress where the pathogens proliferate and where their toxic metabolic byproducts are disseminated. This increased oxidative stress accounts for nearly all of the morbidity and symptoms associated with a given infection. Also, when infections are overwhelming, some of their negative impact results from the physical mass or presence of the infection directly impairing normal biomolecules from properly interacting with one another.
And when significant infections have been present long enough, they cause a severe body-wide depletion of vitamin C, effectively resulting in an acutely-induced state of scurvy. Just as classical scurvy is associated with severe infection, severe infection results in a state of scurvy. This very fact makes it apparent that taking sizeable doses of vitamin C with any infection is more than appropriate to help restore the stores than have been depleted. Also, vitamin C is absolutely essential for supporting, strengthening, and optimizing immune system strength.
In both the test tube and in the human body, vitamin C has been clearly documented to kill/inactivate viruses. In fact, there has been no virus treated in the test tube (and there have been very many) that has not been stopped cold by vitamin C.
Dr. Frederick Klenner, well over 50 years ago, cured a wide variety of acute viral syndromes still considered by "modern" medicine to be incurable, including polio and measles. However, he used multi-gram doses of vitamin C and administered those doses parenterally via intramuscular and/or intravenous routes. 57 of 60 polio cases were cured by Dr. Klenner in only three days.
The three other cases needed two additional days of vitamin C to be completely cured.
The never-ending war against vitamin C | Dr. Thomas E. Levy, MD JD
https://www.peakenergy.com/articles/nh20160314/The-never-ending-war-against-vitamin-C
Vitamin C Saves Man Dying of Viral Pneumonia by Jeffrey Dach MD
The Allan Smith Story – TV Documentary
Allan Smith, a New Zealand Dairy farmer, contracted Swine Flu while away on vacation in Fiji. When he returned home, the flu quickly evolved into severe pneumonia which left him in a coma on Life Support in the Intensive Care Unit. Chest Xrays showed the lungs were completely filled with fluid with an “opaque” appearance called “white out”. After three weeks of this, Allan’s doctors asked the family permission to turn off the machines and let him die. Allan’s wife Sonia had a brother with some medical knowledge, so he stepped in and said, “you haven’t tried everything, You have got to try high dose IV vitamin C on Allan”. At first, the doctors resisted, saying it was useless. Next, the three sons weighed in with a persuasive argument to try the IV vitamin C, saying there was nothing to lose.
Doctors Agree to Try IV Vitamin C
The Doctors were in unanimous agreement that IV Vitamin C would be useless and a waste of time, and that the patient will certainly die. However, one doctor “felt slightly uneasy” with the decision to turn off life support, without first acceding to the family’s wishes, and so they reluctantly agreed to give the IV Vitamin C. Their plan was to give the IV Vitamin C, show it was useless, and then turn off life support.
Dramatic Recovery
That day, Allan Smith was given 25 grams of IV Vitamin C in the evening and another 25 grams in the morning. The next day, a CAT scan of the lungs showed improving air flow and a few days later the Chest Xrays showed the lungs were no longer white, indicating air movement. The improvement was dramatic, clear and plain for all to see. However, the doctors denied it was the Vitamin C, and instead, attributed the improvement to “turning patient into a prone position”.
Another Battle For Vitamin C
Soon after starting the IV vitamin C, Alan could be taken off ECMO life support, and started breathing on his own. However, unexpectedly, a different physician consultant came in, took over the case and stopped the IV vitamin C. Alan Smith’s condition promptly deteriorated. Allan’s wife, Sonia, called a meeting with this new doctor to no avail. The new doctor rolled his eyes, looked up at the ceiling and uttered, “No More Vitamin C “. Not giving up so easily, the three brothers again weighed in, and demanding the IV vitamin C for dad. The three brothers again used their powers of “persuasion”, and the new doctors reluctantly gave in, restarting the life saving IV vitamin C, but only at low doses of one gram a day. The brothers said, “Mucking about with the Vitamin C showed in his fathers health”. “You had to be thick not to see it.”
in his fathers health”. “You had to be thick not to see it.”
Left upper image: Vitamin C molecule chemical structure,Courtesy of wikimedia Commons.
Oral Lyposperic Vitamin C
Allan’s condition continued to improve and was eventually transferred to a hospital closer to home, still breathing with ventilator assistance. Here, the family had yet another battle with a new doctor who again stopped the IV Vitamin C. This time. the family brought in a lawyer who sent a warning letter to the hospital threatening legal action. The hospital was forced to restart the vitamin C, however, allowing only low dosage. Finally, Allan Smith was able to sit up in bed and take oral liquids. On their own, the family gave dad 6 grams a day of oral vitamin C. This was a highly absorbable form called Lypo-Spheric Vitamin C, from Livon Labs (Dr Thomas Levy).
Allan continued to improve and was discharged home from the hospital. At home, Allan’s neighbor John joked with him, and said, “Allan, you owe me the 15 dollars I paid to have my suit dry cleaned for your funeral, and you bugger, you came back.” They laughed together at the joke.
Video: 60 Minutes New Zealand TV – the Alan Smith Story, recovery from terminal viral pneumonia with high dose IV Vitamin C. Part One.
Vitamin C Saves Dying Man - Jeffrey Dach MD
https://jeffreydachmd.com/vitamin-c-saves-dying-man/
营养物质。 2017三月29; 9（4）。 pii：E339。 doi：10.3390 / nu9040339。
维生素C和感染。
HemiläH1。
赫尔辛基大学公共卫生系，芬兰赫尔辛基FI-00014。 harri.hemila@helsinki.fi。
抽象
在早期文献中，维生素C缺乏与肺炎有关。鉴定后，许多研究调查了维生素C对多种感染的影响。总共148个动物研究表明，维生素C可以缓解或预防细菌，病毒和原生动物引起的感染。
研究最广泛的人类感染是普通感冒。服用维生素C并不能降低普通人群中感冒的平均发生率，但可以将体育锻炼人群中感冒的人数减少一半。定期服用维生素C可以缩短感冒的持续时间，表明具有生物学作用。但是，维生素C在普通感冒治疗中的作用尚不清楚。两项对照试验发现，在普通感冒症状的持续时间内，维生素C高达6-8 g /天，具有统计学意义的剂量反应。因此，一些治疗性普通感冒研究的阴性结果可能是由于每天3-4克维生素C低剂量引起的。
三项对照试验发现，维生素C可预防肺炎。两项对照试验发现维生素C对肺炎患者有治疗益处。一项对照试验报告了破伤风患者的治疗益处。维生素C对感染的作用应进一步研究。
关键字：
抗坏血酸;菌;细菌毒素；普通感冒;带状疱疹肺炎;原生动物呼吸道感染；破伤风;病毒
Nutrients. 2017 Mar 29;9(4). pii: E339. doi: 10.3390/nu9040339.
Vitamin C and Infections.
Hemilä H1.
Department of Public Health, University of Helsinki, Helsinki FI-00014, Finland. harri.hemila@helsinki.fi.
Abstract
In the early literature, vitamin C deficiency was associated with pneumonia. After its identification, a number of studies investigated the effects of vitamin C on diverse infections. A total of 148 animal studies indicated that vitamin C may alleviate or prevent infections caused by bacteria, viruses, and protozoa.
The most extensively studied human infection is the common cold. Vitamin C administration does not decrease the average incidence of colds in the general population, yet it halved the number of colds in physically active people. Regularly administered vitamin C has shortened the duration of colds, indicating a biological effect. However, the role of vitamin C in common cold treatment is unclear. Two controlled trials found a statistically significant dose-response, for the duration of common cold symptoms, with up to 6-8 g/day of vitamin C. Thus, the negative findings of some therapeutic common cold studies might be explained by the low doses of 3-4 g/day of vitamin C.
Three controlled trials found that vitamin C prevented pneumonia. Two controlled trials found a treatment benefit of vitamin C for pneumonia patients. One controlled trial reported treatment benefits for tetanus patients. The effects of vitamin C against infections should be investigated further.
KEYWORDS:
ascorbic acid; bacteria; bacterial toxins; common cold; herpes zoster; pneumonia; protozoa; respiratory tract infections; tetanus; viruses
Could Vitamin C Be the Cure for Deadly Infections? A new protocol that includes this common nutrient could save millions of lives—and has already sparked a raging debate among doctors
By Jim Morrison SMITHSONIANMAG.COM JUNE 27, 2017 1.6K112622
After 28 years teaching and practicing critical care medicine, Dr. Paul Marik knows when a patient is at death’s door. So in January 2016, when 53-year-old Valerie Hobbs came into his intensive care unit with a severe case of sepsis, he expected it would be for the last time. RELATED CONTENT Five Vitamins and Supplements That Might Actually be Worth Taking Hobbs had been admitted to Virginia's Sentara Norfolk General Hospital for an infected gall-bladder that had led to septic shock. Now, the confounding infection was causing her blood pressure to bottom out and her organs to fail. Marik’s best guess was that she would be dead by morning. "Faced with a young patient who is dying, you have to say to yourself, what else can I do?" he recalls. There was one thing he could do: order intravenous vitamin C. Yes, vitamin C, the ubiquitous nutrient that children are encouraged to consume by eating dark leafy greens as well as citrus, peppers and other orange-hued produce. It’s well-known to prevent scurvy and help with heart function. But Marik, who is chief of the pulmonary and critical care medicine unit at Eastern Virginia Medical School, had been reading research papers that also showed some success treating sepsis patients with intravenous vitamin C—along with a steroid to reduce inflammation and thiamine to help with absorption. More than a million Americans fall ill from severe sepsis annually, and between 28 and 50 percent of them die, according to the National Institute of General Medical Studies. Because it often requires a long hospital stay, sepsis costs U.S. hospitals about $23 billion annually. The Global Sepsis Alliance reports that sepsis kills between 6 and 8 million people each year. That's more deaths than those caused by prostate cancer, breast cancer and AIDS combined.
Given the stakes, the vitamin C treatment didn't seem so crazy. After all, Marik knew that sepsis patients often have undetectable levels of the nutrient, compared to healthy patients. Animals produce increased levels when they are stressed, but humans, thanks to a fatal mutation, are unable to make it on their own. The studies Marik read reported that replenishing vitamin C in sepsis patients could help them deal with shock and prevent organ damage. Why not give it a try?
"Most times you don't have intravenous vitamin C, but fortunately our pharmacy had a small amount," he says. "It was like the stars were aligning." He gave Hobbs a cocktail of intravenous vitamin C, hydrocortisone and thiamine, and waited.
The next morning, Marik came in to discover Hobbs alive and already off the medication supporting her blood pressure. Her kidney function had improved. Two hours later, she was taken off a ventilator. Three days later, she went home. "You say, wow, what just happened?" Marik recalls. If the vitamin C protocol really did cure her, the consequences would be profound. Still, he thought, it might have been a fluke.
Not long after, Marik he had another patient come in seriously ill with sepsis. He tried the same protocol and had the same success. The X-rays of a third patient who came in with pneumonia and severe sepsis revealed that, one day after the protocol, his lungs were 50 percent clearer. The second day, they were 100 percent better, Marik says.
"At that point, I knew there was something here,” he says. “This was not just a fluke."
Marik is no loose cannon. Even skeptics of his results acknowledge his expertise. He has authored more than 400 medical journal articles and four books, including a critical care textbook—together “an extraordinary contribution to the literature in critical care,” says Dr. Craig Coopersmith, a leading sepsis researcher at the Emory University School of Medicine.
Still, his colleagues at the hospital told him he was talking nonsense until they saw the results.
After successfully treating about 25 patients, Marik shared the protocol with physician friends in other cities. He collected data on his first 47 patients and wrote a paper published in the journal Chest about a year after he first treated Hobbs. In it, he noted that vitamin C and hydrocortisone have multiple and overlapping beneficial effects when it comes to treating sepsis, including supporting the body’s defenses, mitigating leakage through blood vessel cells, and decreasing inflammation that leads to organ damage.
Four of the 47 patients Marik documented in his paper died in the hospital. But their deaths, Marik reported, were from underlying diseases, not from sepsis. By comparison, 19 of the 47 patients he'd treated before trying vitamin C and steroids had died. So far, he's treated more than 150 patients with the protocol and he says only one has died from sepsis.
Today, Marik gets about 100 emails a day on the subject, and says more than 50 medical centers are using his protocol. "My goal was never to find a cure for sepsis," he says. "It happened. It's certainly the coolest thing that's ever happened to me. People are doing this across the world and they're getting the same results."
For many doctors, Marik’s protocol represents a dilemma. There seem to be no ill effects. Yet, there are also no randomized clinical trials. Should they embrace an untested treatment?
Online, the debate is raging. After Marik published his results, a discussion on PulmCrit, a blog by an assistant professor of pulmonary and critical care medicine at the University of Vermont, generated 96 comments. Doctors at one extreme were arguing that the evidence showed it was about as effective as healing incantations; those on the other side called it promising and worth trying, given the mortality statistics. Another blog run by doctors, the Skeptics’ Guide to Emergency Medicine, published a post titled “Don’t Believe the Hype – Vitamin C Cocktail for Sepsis.”
Marik and others enthusiastic about the treatment agree with skeptics who say blind, randomized clinical trials need to be done to validate the treatment’s efficacy. However, they also say that the dramatic results so far mean doctors should embrace the treatment in the meantime—an unorthodox proposition, to say the least.
During an interview in his office, Marik called up Dr. Joseph Varon, a pulmonologist and researcher at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston. "It does sound too good to be true,” Varon said over the phone. "But my mortality rates have changed dramatically. It is unreal. Everything we have tried in the past didn't work. This works."
...
Last year, Marik reached out to Dr. John Catravas at nearby Old Dominion University to study how his treatment worked at the cellular level. The two met when Catravas was recruited to the university three years ago, and have stayed in touch. Catravas has spent decades studying endothelial cells, the thin layer that lines blood vessels; patients with sepsis leak blood through the cell walls, causing pulmonary edema and death.
To test Marik's protocol, Catravas and his team cultured endothelial cells from lung tissue and exposed them to the endotoxin found in septic patients. Vitamin C alone did nothing. Neither did steroids. When administered together, however, the cells were restored to normal levels. "We have a clinical answer," Catravas says. "We have part of the mechanistic answer. There is satisfaction in that as a scientist. There is also satisfaction knowing that a lot of people worldwide are going to get an amazing benefit."
Other sepsis researchers advise caution, including Dr. Jim O'Brien, an ICU doctor and member of the board of the Sepsis Alliance. “The probability that a heterogeneous disease like sepsis is able to be defeated this easily is pretty darn low," says O’Brien, who is also system vice president of Quality for OhioHealth, a network of 11 hospitals. "So that should cause us, when we see results that surprise us this much, to look at this with a little bit more of a cautious eye."
O'Brien notes that other studies have promised sepsis treatments in the lab, but ended up falling short. "We've cured sepsis in mice many times over," he says. "The problem is when we get into the clinical arena, we've seen things fall apart."
As of this week, Coopersmith of the Emory University School of Medicine is involved in planning a national, multi-center trial to test the efficacy of the vitamin C protocol, with funding from the Marcus Foundation. “If this is validated, this would be the single biggest breakthrough in sepsis care in my lifetime,” he says.
Although Coopersmith is not using the protocol himself, he says some of his colleagues are. “While some components of this are assuredly safe, there are with every medication risks involved,” he says. “I think people who are early adopters of this because the results are so tremendous, I fully support. I also fully support people who would want to wait for additional data.”
Kurt Hofelich, Norfolk General’s president, says he wants to see a double-blinded study. But the hospital, an academic medical center, has already made the protocol its standard of care and is in the process of deciding when to roll it out to other intensive care units in Sentara’s 12 hospitals.
"I think we have a very, very promising innovative approach that didn't require anybody to invent a new drug," he says. "It's a very rare thing when you can use things that are readily available and inexpensive and the combination has this kind of impact."
Hofelich says there are no skeptics among the nurses who treat patients. "Do I have the level of evidence and confidence this should be imposed on the entire industry? No,” he says. "Do I think we're going to get there? Absolutely."
...
Marik knows it will take time for his protocol to be tested and eventually adopted, even if his results are reproduced. The history of medicine contains many stories of doctors whose unlikely cures were spurned for decades. In 1983, for instance, two Australian doctors discovered a bacteria that caused ulcers, but it took about two decades before most doctors began prescribing antibiotics. In 2005, they received the Nobel Prize for their discovery.
When he speaks at conferences, Marik often tells the story of Ignaz Semmelweis, the Hungarian physician who went on a quest to discover why so many women were dying in a maternity clinic at a hospital in Vienna in 1847. There were two wards, one attended by doctors, and one attended by midwives. Over time, Semmelweis realized women in the doctors’ ward were dying because the doctors were doing autopsies then delivering babies without washing their hands.
He ordered the staff to clean their hands and instruments with a chlorine solution. Semmelweis didn't know anything about germs; Louis Pasteur and his famous fermentation experiments wouldn't come along for another decade. He thought the solution would remove the smell from autopsies. Just like that, illness and death in the ward dropped dramatically.
But doctors were upset because his action made it look like they were making the women ill. Eventually, they stopped washing their hands. Semmelweis lost his job. He continued pushing his theory with few takers, and only published his findings 13 years later. At the age of 47, he was committed to an insane asylum in 1865. He died two weeks later of an infection, likely sepsis.
Marik draws a parallel for his audience between his solution and the one championed by Semmelweis, now considered a pioneer in antiseptic treatment. "It's a simple intervention based on an observation that changed treatment of the disease,” he says. “And nobody wants to believe it. It's going to take time for people to accept it.”
In the meantime, Marik continues to use the protocol and continues to see good results. "It is the most amazing thing. When it happens, every time I have to pinch myself,” he says. “These people come in with septic shock and they leave within three days."
Could Vitamin C Be the Cure for Deadly Infections? | Science | Smithsonian Magazine
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/could-deadly-infections-be-cured-vitamin-c-180963843/
Vitamins That Deplete Under Stress
Antioxidant Vitamins
Vitamin Depletion
Vitamin C and Infection
Vitamin C and Smoking
Vitamin E and Smoking
Vitamin C and Exercise
Tips
Written by
Alicia Richardson
14 August, 2017
Fact Checked
Stress is a threat to a person's well-being. Acute illness such as trauma, infection, inflammation, burns, surgery; chronic disease such as diabetes and heart disease; smoking; and exercise trigger stress. The body handles stress by means of an elaborate system involving enzymes and dietary compounds including antioxidant vitamins and minerals.
Antioxidant Vitamins
Only two vitamins have documented antioxidant properties against stress: vitamin C or ascorbic acid, and vitamin E. An antioxidant is a substance that decreases the side effects of free radicals. Free radicals, or pro-oxidants, are highly unstable and reactive molecules that can undermine the body's ability to defend itself -- a process called oxidative stress.
Vitamin Depletion
In healthy people, free radical production is minimized by the body's natural defense system and dietary anti-radical substances. Free radicals are natural byproducts of cell metabolism. However, under stress, pro-oxidant levels exceed antioxidant concentrations. To reestablish health and balance, vitamins C and E are mobilized from body stores to neutralize free radicals. Vitamin C fights free radicals in body tissues and blood plasma, while vitamin E protects fat-rich molecules, such as LDL and HDL cholesterol, and fat cells from oxidation. This effort results in the depletion of vitamin C and E in body stores.
Vitamin C and Infection
A study published in a 2005 issue of the "British Journal of Surgery" reports that acute infection results in lower plasma vitamin C levels 1⭐
⭐
This is a verified and trusted source
"British Journal of Surgery"; Vitamin C Status in Patients with Acute Pancreatitis; P.Scott, et al.; December 2005
Goto Source
. To determine the effect of severe infection -- acute pancreatitis -- on vitamin C stores, the authors recruited 30 healthy volunteers, 29 patients with acute pancreatitis and 27 patients with other abdominal illnesses. Results showed patients with acute pancreatitis had the lowest vitamin C levels, compared with patients with other abdominal crises 1⭐
⭐
This is a verified and trusted source
"British Journal of Surgery"; Vitamin C Status in Patients with Acute Pancreatitis; P.Scott, et al.; December 2005
Goto Source
. Healthy controls had normal vitamin C values. The authors concluded that abdominal stress reduces vitamin C levels.
Vitamin C and Smoking
Schetman and colleagues investigated the effect of smoking on the vitamin C status of 11,592 subjects 2⭐
⭐
This is a verified and trusted source
"American Journal of Public Health"; The Influence of Smoking on Vitamin C Status in Adults; G.Schetman, et al.; 1989
Goto Source
. They found that people who smoked 20 cigarettes every day, had the lowest vitamin C levels, compared to subjects who smoked fewer than 19 cigarettes daily and non-smokers. The study was published in a 1989 issue of the "American Journal of Public Health. 2⭐
⭐
This is a verified and trusted source
"American Journal of Public Health"; The Influence of Smoking on Vitamin C Status in Adults; G.Schetman, et al.; 1989
Goto Source
"
Vitamin E and Smoking
An investigation released in a news report in 2004 issue of the "Linus Pauling Research Institute" found that smoking causes rapid vitamin E depletion from the blood. Furthermore, vitamin E disappears faster when vitamin C levels are low.
Vitamin C and Exercise
In a 2004 interview, Dr. Bruno of the Linus Pauling Research Institute stated that exercise-induced oxidative stress causes vitamin C exhaustion. However reductions in vitamin C levels are temporary in trained athletes, because vitamin C concentrations normalize after a few days.
Tips
Eat a balanced diet with five to 10 servings of fruits and vegetables every day to obtain maximum levels of dietary antioxidants. To boost your vitamin E levels, include whole grains, nuts and seeds, egg yolks and vitamin E- fortified foods in your diet. Consult your doctor about vitamin supplementation.Vitamins That Deplete Under Stress
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Br J Surg. 1993 Jun;80(6):750-4.
Vitamin C status in patients with acute pancreatitis.
Scott P1, Bruce C, Schofield D, Shiel N, Braganza JM, McCloy RF.
Author information
1
Pancreatobiliary Service, Manchester Royal Infirmary, UK.
Abstract
Vitamin C is a key antioxidant in human blood plasma and hence could influence the outcome of conditions such as acute pancreatitis in which oxidative stress apparently plays a pivotal role.
The concentrations of vitamin C and its immediately bioavailable form, ascorbic acid, in fasting plasma samples from 30 healthy volunteers were compared with those in admission samples from 29 consecutive patients with acute pancreatitis and 27 patients with other acute abdominal crises. Median (range) levels of vitamin C and ascorbic acid, respectively, were 15 (6.3-19) and 12 (4.5-18) micrograms/ml in the control group, 2.8 (0.3-10) and < 0.5 (< 0.5-6.0) micrograms/ml in patients with acute pancreatitis, and 3.7 (0.6-15) and 2.3 (< 0.5-15) micrograms/ml in those with other acute abdominal problems. Admission plasma samples showed equally low vitamin C levels in both groups of patients (P < 0.001 versus controls), but those from patients with acute pancreatitis were further characterized by a disproportionate reduction in ascorbic acid, such that the concentration of ascorbic acid and its ratio to vitamin C were both significantly lower than in samples from patients with an acute abdomen (P < 0.005 and P < 0.001 respectively). It is concluded that the stress of an acute intra-abdominal crisis is accompanied by a non-specific decrease in the plasma level of vitamin C. In acute pancreatitis early and profound oxidative stress compounds this problem by denaturing the available vitamin. There may be a case for the judicious parenteral administration of ascorbic acid to patients with acute pancreatitis to boost plasma antioxidant defence.
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