Healthy Homes Asia

(OMNS, Jan 17, 2012) It’s a nutritional “Catch 22”: The public is told, confusingly: “Vitamins are good, but vitamin supplements are not. Only vitamins from food will help you. So just eat a good diet. Do not take supplements! But by the way, there is no difference between natural and synthetic vitamins.”

Wait a minute. What’s the real story here?

A recent health study reported that the risk of heart failure decreased with increasing blood levels of vitamin C [1]. The benefit of vitamin C (ascorbate) was highly significant. Persons with the lowest plasma levels of ascorbate had the highest risk of heart failure, and persons with the highest levels of vitamin C had the lowest risk of heart failure. This finding confirms the knowledge derived over the last 50 years that vitamin C is a major essential factor in cardiovascular health [2,3]. The study raises several important questions about diet and vitamin supplements.

WAS IT FOOD OR SUPPLEMENTS?

The report discussed vitamin C as if it were simply an indicator of how many fruits and vegetables were consumed by the participants. Yet, ironically, the study’s results show little improvement in the risk for heart failure from consuming fruits and vegetables. This implies that the real factor in reducing the risk was indeed the amount of vitamin C consumed. Moreover, the study appears to utterly ignore the widespread use of vitamin C supplements to improve cardiovascular health. In fact, out of four quartile groups, the quartile with the highest plasma vitamin C had six to ten times the rate of vitamin C supplementation of the lowest quartile, but this fact was not emphasized. This type of selective attention to food sources of vitamin C, while dismissing supplements as an important source, appears to be an attempt to marginalize the importance of vitamin supplements.

Many medical and nutritional reports have maintained that there is little difference between natural and synthetic vitamins. This is known to be true for some essential nutrients. The ascorbate found in widely available vitamin C tablets is identical to the ascorbate found in fruits and vegetables [3]. Linus Pauling emphasized this fact, and explained how ordinary vitamin C, inexpensively manufactured from glucose, could improve health in many important ways [4]. Indeed, the above-mentioned study specifically measured the plasma level of ascorbate, which was shown to be an important factor associated with lower risk of heart failure [1, 2]. The study did not measure blood plasma levels of the components of fruits and vegetables. It measured vitamin C.

A known rationale for this dramatic finding is that vitamin C helps to prevent inflammation in the arteries by several mechanisms. It is a necessary co-factor for the synthesis of collagen, which is a major component of arteries. Vitamin C is also an important antioxidant throughout the body that can help to recycle other antioxidants like vitamin E and glutathione in the artery walls [2,3]. This was underscored by a report that high plasma levels of vitamin C are associated with a 50% reduction in risk for stroke [5].

YES, SYNTHETIC VITAMIN C IS CLINICALLY EFFECTIVE

We can almost hear “Unsubscribe” links being clicked as we state it, but here it is: synthetic vitamin C works, in real people with real illnesses. Ascorbate’s efficacy has little direct relation to food intake. A dramatic case of this was a dairy farmer in New Zealand who was on life support with lung whiteout, kidney failure, leukemia and swine flu [6]. He was given 100,000 mg of vitamin C daily and his life was saved. We have nothing against oranges or other vitamin C-containing foods. Fruits and vegetables are good for you for many, many reasons. However, you’ll need to get out your calculator to help you figure out how many oranges it would take to get that much, and then also figure how to get a sick person to eat them all.

It is established that liver function improves with vitamin C supplementation, and it is equally well known that adequate levels of vitamin C are essential for the proper functioning of the immune system. Vitamin C improves the ability of the white blood cells to fight bacteria and viruses. OMNS has more articles expanding on this topic, available for free access at http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/index.shtml .

Deficiency of vitamin C is very common. According to US Department of Agriculture (USDA) data, [7] nearly half of Americans do not get even the US RDA of vitamin C, which is a mere 90 mg.

SYNTHETIC VITAMIN E IS LESS EFFECTIVE

For some other nutrients, there is a significant difference in efficacy between synthetic and natural forms. Vitamin E is a crucial anti-oxidant, but also has other functions in the body, not all well understood. It comprises eight different biochemical forms, alpha-, beta-, delta- and gamma tocopherols, and alpha-, beta-, delta-, and gamma-tocotrienols. All of these forms of vitamin E are important for the body. Current knowledge about the function of vitamin E is rapidly expanding, and each of the eight forms of natural vitamin E is thought to have a slightly different function in the body. For example, gamma-tocotrienol actually kills prostate cancer stem cells better than chemotherapy does. ( http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v07n11.shtml )

Synthetic vitamin E is widely available and inexpensive. It is “DL-alpha-tocopherol.” Yes, it has the same antioxidant properties in test tube experiments as does the natural “D-alpha-tocopherol” form. However, the DL- form has only 50% of the biological efficacy, because the body utilizes only the natural D isomer, which comprises half of the synthetic mix [8]. Therefore, studies utilizing DL-alpha-tocopherol that do not take this fact into account are starting with an already-halved dose that will naturally lead to a reduction in the observed efficacy.

Then there are the esterified forms of vitamin E such as acetate or succinate. These esterified forms, either natural or synthetic, have a greater shelf life because the ester protects the vitamin E from being oxidized and neutralized. When acid in the stomach cleaves the acetate or succinate component from the original natural vitamin E molecule, the gut can then absorb a good fraction and the body receives its antioxidant benefit. But when esterified vitamin E acetate is applied to the skin to prevent inflammation, it is ineffective because there is no acid present to remove the acetate ester.

Based on USDA data [9] an astonishing 90% of Americans do not get the RDA of vitamin E, which is, believe it or not, under 23 IU (15mg) per day.

MAGNESIUM DEFICIENCY IS WIDESPREAD

Magnesium is another example. Over two-thirds of the population do not get the RDA of magnesium.[10] Deficiency can cause a wide variety of symptoms, including osteoporosis, high blood pressure, heart disease, asthma, depression, and diabetes. Magnesium can be purchased in many forms. The most widely available form is magnesium oxide, which is not very effective because it is only about 5% absorbed [11]. Magnesium oxide supplements are popular because the pills are smaller — they contain more magnesium, but won’t help most people. Better forms of magnesium are magnesium citrate, magnesium malate, and the best absorbed is magnesium chloride. It’s always good to consult your doctor to determine your ideal intake. Testing may reveal unexpected deficiency. [12]

WELL, WHICH? NATURAL OR SYNTHETIC?

While the natural form of vitamin E (mixed natural tocopherols and tocotrienols) is at least twice as effective as the synthetic form, this is not true of vitamin C. The ascorbate that the body gets from fruits and vegetables is the same as the ascorbate in vitamin C tablets. On first thought, this may sound confusing, because there are many so-called “natural” forms of vitamin C widely available. But virtually every study that demonstrated that supplemental vitamin C fights illness used plain, cheap, synthetic ascorbic acid. Other forms of ascorbate, for instance, the sodium or magnesium salt of ascorbic acid, are digested slightly differently by the gut, but once the ascorbate molecule is absorbed from these forms, it has identical efficacy. The advantage of these ascorbate salts is that they are non-acidic and can be ingested or topically applied to any part of the body without concern about irritation from acidity.

Further, it is known that essential nutrients are symbiotic, that is, they are more effective when taken as a group in proper doses. For example, vitamin E is more effective when taken along with vitamin C and selenium, because each of these essential nutrients can improve the efficacy of the others. Similarly, the B vitamins are more effective when taken together. Readers with dosage questions will want to consult their healthcare provider, and also look at freely available information archived at http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/index.shtml .

FOOD FACTORS

Natural food factors are also important. Bioflavonoids and other vitamin C-friendly components in fresh fruits and vegetables (sometimes called “vitamin C complex”) do indeed have health benefits. These natural components are easily obtained from a healthy, unprocessed whole foods diet. However, eating even a very good diet does not supply nearly enough vitamin C to be effective against illness. A really good diet might provide several hundred milligrams of vitamin C daily. An extreme raw food diet might provide two or three thousand milligrams of vitamin C, but this is not practical for most people. Supplementation, with a good diet, is.

The principle that “natural” vitamins are better than synthetic vitamins is a widely quoted justification for actually avoiding vitamin supplements. The argument goes, because vitamins and minerals are available from food in their natural form, that somehow one might suppose that we are best off by ignoring supplements. Apparently this is what the authors of the above-mentioned study had in mind, because the report hardly mentions vitamin supplements.

CONCLUSION

In the real world of today’s processed food, most of us don’t get all the nutrients we need in adequate doses. Most people are deficient in several of the essential nutrients. These deficiencies are responsible for much suffering, including heart disease, cancer, premature aging, dementia, diabetes, and other diseases such as eye disease, multiple sclerosis and asthma. The above-mentioned study showing the efficacy of vitamin C in reducing heart failure is but one of the many studies showing the value of vitamins. Others are discussed and available at http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/index.shtml .

For vitamin E, the natural form, taken in adequate doses along with a nutritious diet, is the best medicine. However, for most vitamins, including vitamin C, the manufactured form is identical to the natural one. Both are biologically active and both work clinically. It all comes down to dose. Supplements enable optimum intake; foods alone do not.

Don’t be fooled: nutrient deficiency is the rule, not the exception. That’s why we need supplements. When ill, we need them even more.

REFERENCES:

1. Pfister R, Sharp SJ, Luben R, Wareham NJ, Khaw KT. (2011) Plasma vitamin C predicts incident heart failure in men and women in European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition-Norfolk prospective study. Am Heart J. 162:246-253. See also: http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v07n14.shtml

2. Levy TE (2006) Stop America’s #1 Killer: Reversible Vitamin Deficiency Found to be Origin of All Coronary Heart Disease. ISBN-13: 9780977952007

3. Hickey S, Saul AW (2008) Vitamin C: The Real Story, the Remarkable and Controversial Healing Factor. Basic Health Publications, ISBN-13: 978-1591202233.

4. Pauling L. (2006) How to Live Longer And Feel Better. Oregon State University Press, Corvallis, OR. ISBN-13: 9780870710964.

5. Kurl S, Tuomainen TP, Laukkanen JA, Nyyssönen K, Lakka T, Sivenius J, Salonen JT. (2002) Plasma vitamin C modifies the association between hypertension and risk of stroke. Stroke. 33:1568-1573.

6. Watch the Channel 3 New Zealand news report at http://www.3news.co.nz/Living-Proof-Vitamin-C—Miracle-Cure/tabid/371/articleID/171328/Default.aspx or http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xh70sx_60-minutes-scoop-on-new-zealand-farmer-vit-c-miracle_tech [ Note that each video is proceeded by a commercial, over which we have no control, and with which we have no financial connection whatsoever. ]

7. Free, full text paper at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1405127/pdf/amjph00225-0021.pdf

8. Papas A. (1999) The Vitamin E Factor: The miraculous antioxidant for the prevention and treatment of heart disease, cancer, and aging. HarperCollins, NY. ISBN-13: 9780060984434

9. http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/infocenter/vitamins/vitaminE/ ; scroll down to “Deficiency.”

10. Free, full text paper at http://www.jacn.org/content/24/3/166.full.pdf+html (or http://www.jacn.org/content/24/3/166.long )

11. Dean, C. (2007) The Magnesium Miracle. Ballantine Books, ISBN-13: 9780345494580

12. http://www.doctoryourself.com/epilepsy.html

NUTRITIONAL MEDICINE IS ORTHOMOLECULAR MEDICINE

Orthomolecular medicine uses safe, effective nutritional therapy to fight illness. For more information: http://www.orthomolecular.org

FIND A DOCTOR

To locate an orthomolecular physician near you: http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v06n09.shtml

The peer-reviewed Orthomolecular Medicine News Service is a non-profit and non-commercial informational resource.

Editorial Review Board:

Ian Brighthope, M.D. (Australia)

Ralph K. Campbell, M.D. (USA)

Carolyn Dean, M.D., N.D. (Canada)

Damien Downing, M.D. (United Kingdom)

Michael Ellis, M.D. (Australia)

Martin P. Gallagher, M.D., D.C. (USA)

Michael Gonzalez, D.Sc., Ph.D. (Puerto Rico)

William B. Grant, Ph.D. (USA)

Steve Hickey, Ph.D. (United Kingdom)

James A. Jackson, Ph.D. (USA)

Michael Janson, M.D. (USA)

Robert E. Jenkins, D.C. (USA)

Bo H. Jonsson, M.D., Ph.D. (Sweden)

Thomas Levy, M.D., J.D. (USA)

Jorge R. Miranda-Massari, Pharm.D. (Puerto Rico)

Karin Munsterhjelm-Ahumada, M.D. (Finland)

Erik Paterson, M.D. (Canada)

W. Todd Penberthy, Ph.D. (USA)

Gert E. Shuitemaker, Ph.D. (Netherlands)

Robert G. Smith, Ph.D. (USA)

Jagan Nathan Vamanan, M.D. (India)

Andrew W. Saul, Ph.D. (USA), Editor and contact person. Email: omns@orthomolecular.org

Readers may write in with their comments and questions for consideration for publication and as topic suggestions. However, OMNS is unable to respond to individual emails.

To Subscribe at no charge: http://www.orthomolecular.org/subscribe.html

This month we again serve up the most interesting bits of the health and medical news. This time we cover: the link between starch and tumors, does your weight reflect your health, 3 mins of exercise to prevent diabetes, simple ways to improve your eyesight, and more about drugs: vitamins and drugs (which claims more lives?), drugs and kids, drugs and cancer.

Relax, move and laugh

• In Australia/Korea this Jan/Feb? Have a NEW YEAR BRAIN CLEAN-OUT. Delete all the stuff that's not working for you and create space for the health, wellbeing and all that stuff you'd REALLY like in 2012. And have a great relax in the process.
  
• JUST THREE MINUTES OF EXERCISE A WEEK COULD PREVENT DIABETES, SAY SCIENTISTS: Jumping on an exercise bike in just 20 second spurts can improve insulin function.
• THE WEEKLY HEALTH TIP: EXERCISE YOUR EYES: Most short sight is not ‘an affliction’, it’s how your eyesight has adjusted to what you use it the most for. Also, far-sightedness, poor night vision, ‘Middle-age’ sight (reading glasses), crossed eye (strabismus), lazy eye (amblyopia), and sensitivity to light, eyestrain, headaches and burning eyes can all be improved if you decide to invest some effort. 

Feed your body

• EASY ON THE SPUDS, BUT CHOW DOWN THE CARROTS TO MEET NEW DIETARY GUIDELINES: Most Australian adults would need to change their diets drastically, eating much less potato and fatty foods and dispensing with junk food altogether to meet proposed dietary guidelines. PLUS: WHAT CHEFS PUT IN THEIR KIDS' LUNCH BOXES .
• VITAMIN D ROUND-UP: As the sun is felt less and less this time of year we turn our attention once again to the latest news on vitamin D.
• CARROTS IN THE CAR PARK. RADISHES ON THE ROUNDABOUT: The deliciously eccentric story of the UK town growing ALL its own veg. What could be possible where YOU live?
  

Be aware

• TWENTY-SEVEN YEARS BRING NO DEATHS FROM VITAMINS BUT THREE MILLION FROM PHARMACEUTICALS: Despite mainstream medical establishments and media outlets portraying multivitamin supplements as worthless and oftentimes toxic, vitamins have led to 0 deaths over the past 27 years.
• 10 THINGS YOU MAY NOT KNOW ABOUT YOUR WEIGHT: (Mercola) Eating less, eating healthy and exercising more aren't always enough to help you drop unwanted pounds. Instead, there are 10 things you need to know -- and I've listed the 5 most important ones here...
• EATING WHITE BREAD AND PASTA COULD INCREASE RISK OF BREAST CANCER RETURNING IN PATIENTS: Women who had recovered from breast cancer were more likely to see tumours return if they followed a starch-rich diet, according to a study from the University of California, San Diego.

Do no harm

• CANADIAN JUDGE RULES SSRI ANTIDEPRESSANTS LIKE PROZAC CAN CAUSE CHILDREN TO COMMIT MURDER: (NaturalNews) The use of anti-depressant and psychiatric drugs, particularly among children, is an extremely risky activity that could have fatal consequences for both the individuals that use them, as well as their friends and family.
  MORE THAN 20 PERCENT OF AMERICAN ADULTS NOW ON PSYCHIATRIC DRUGS FOR BEHAVIORAL PROBLEMS
  MEDICAL MAFIA IN AUSTRALIA TO FORCE PARENTS TO MEDICATE ADHD CHILDREN.
  
• FDA WITHDRAWS APPROVAL FOR BREAST CANCER DRUG AVASTIN AFTER DECLARING IT MEDICALLY USELESS, BUT SAYS DOCTORS CAN STILL PRESCRIBE IT: (NaturalNews) Several years after declaring it to be not only medically useless but also dangerous, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has officially withdrawn approval for the $100,000 breast cancer drug Avastin.
• VACCINE ROUND-UP: This month's edition of our regular spotlight on the latest vaccine news and views.

This month we pick the eyes out of the health and medical news, including about leading causes of death, cancer treatments, what stress and exercise can do for you, how we treat the elderly, and what you need to know about vaccinations.

Ask questions, be aware

• THE #1 CAUSE OF ACCIDENTAL DEATH IN THE U.S. - ARE YOU AT RISK? It’s not surprising: drug companies are making claims based on lies with only 6% of their advertising backed by scientific evidence. Find out the popular drug which topped the list - and 7 steps you can take to completely avoid the risk.
• THE SECOND AMERICAN REVOLUTION HAS BEGUN: (NaturalNews) There's a sense of desperation in America today. Protesters are taking to the streets, but most -- and nearly all Americans -- don't fully grasp is that nearly every powerful institution is a criminal racket and nearly everything you've been told is a lie. What can you do?
  
• IS GLOBAL WARMING 'OVER'? ONE SCIENTIST SAYS MAJOR STUDY USED TO DEFEND GLOBAL WARMING THEORY ACTUALLY SHOWS IT IS NO LONGER OCCURRING: (NaturalNews) The debate over whether or not so-called "global warming" is real, and whether or not human activity plays any role, will likely continue for years to come. PLUS: CLIMATE CHANGE FEARS 'HAVE BEEN EXAGGERATED' SAY SCIENTISTS WHO CLAIM APOCALYPTIC PREDICTIONS ARE UNLIKELY
• “ELDERLY SHOULD BE TREATED AT HOME INSTEAD OF HOSPITAL... BECAUSE THEY ARE NEGLECTED ON NHS WARDS”: Health Secretary Andrew Lansley says doctors should admit only the most seriously ill patients who would benefit from the highest levels of care. DOGS IN KENNELS ARE TREATED BETTER THAN MANY OF BRITAIN’S ELDERL

Relax, move and laugh

• PEAK PERFORMANCE EXERCISE ARRIVES IN KOREA: Asia is now home to UK fitness pioneer Ian Matthews, whose programs have been enjoyed by 1000s of people throughout the UK. In 2010, it was voted the Best Workout in Dublin in 2010 by Cheers Magazine. In Korea? In luck.
• PHILLIP DAY'S MONTHLY ESSAY – STRESS MANAGEMENT: Everyone endures stress, it goes with the experience of life. One of the great discoveries is that stress affects the body with its complex array of reactions. PHILLIP DAY attacks the subject and reveals some remarkable facts about what can be done.

Do no harm

• VACCINE ROUND-UP: This month's edition of our regular spotlight on the latest vaccine news and views.
• CHEMOTHERAPY 'COULD CAUSE BRAIN DAMAGE' IN BREAST CANCER PATIENTS: A groundbreaking study discovered that breast cancer patients who had undergone the treatment - which uses medicine to kill cancerous cells - had significantly less activity in parts of the brain responsible for memory and planning compared to those who were not treated.
• RISE IN PROSTATE CANCER 'DUE TO USE OF THE PILL WHICH INCREASES MEN'S EXPOSURE TO OESTROGEN': Excess exposure linked to cancer, and it is thought that widespread use of the Pill may have led to more oestrogen entering water supply and food chain.
• PROSTATE CANCER TREATMENTS SPUR CANCER TO GROW: (NaturalNews) When men with advanced prostate cancer are treated with hormone therapy, the cancer usually stops growing for a year, maybe two. But then the disease often begins to grow again, and mainstream doctors have few if any options left to try...

Feed your body

• 5 GRAMS DAILY OF THIS REVERSED SEVERE RADIATION POISONING IN CHERNOBYL CHILDREN... This amazing anti-aging super-food can reverse severe radioactive poisoning. Just 5 grams/day reversed severe radiation illnesses in Chernobyl children. Dangerously low (leukemia-like) white blood counts of 1,000 rebounded to 3,000 in just 20 days... urine radioactive levels fell by 50%... livers regenerated, and more.
• VITAMINS DECREASE LUNG CANCER RISK BY 50%: A recent study of the effect of B vitamins on a large group of participants reported an inverse relationship between blood serum levels of vitamin B6, methionine, and folate and the risk of lung cancer.
• VITAMIN D ROUND-UP: As the sun is felt less and less this time of year we turn our attention once again to the latest news on vitamin D.
• GIRL, 13, LEFT IN 'WAKING COMA' AND SLEEPS FOR 23 HOURS A DAY AFTER SEVERE REACTION TO CERVICAL CANCER JABS: They were told the vaccine had few side-effects and would protect their daughter from cervical cancer. But Steve and Pauline Hinks are convinced the controversial HPV jab is behind their daughter Lucy’s mystery illness which is making her sleep up to 23 hours a day. PLUS: U-TURN OVER CERVICAL CANCER JAB FOR TEENAGERS: GARDASIL TO REPLACE RIVAL AFTER GOVERNMENT ACCUSED OF 'PENNY PINCHING'.

Mailbag
This month's collection of letters from Phillip Day's subscribers.

All material copyright 2011 CTM (except as noted otherwise).

It Just Takes Lots of Pharmaceutical Industry Cash

by Food Matters’ Andrew W. Saul PhD
Editor, Orthomolecular Medicine News Service

(OMNS, Oct 20, 2011) Recent much trumpeted anti-vitamin news is the product of pharmaceutical company payouts. No, this is not one of “those” conspiracy theories. Here’s how it’s done:

1) Cash to study authors. Many of the authors of a recent negative vitamin E paper (1) have received substantial income from the pharmaceutical industry. The names are available in the last page of the paper (1556) in the “Conflict of Interest” section. You will not see them in the brief summary at the JAMA website. A number of the study authors have received money from pharmaceutical companies, including Merck, Pfizer, Sanofi-Aventis, AstraZeneca, Abbott, GlaxoSmithKline, Janssen, Amgen, Firmagon, and Novartis.

2) Advertising revenue. Many popular magazines and almost all major medical journals receive income from the pharmaceutical industry. The only question is, how much? Pick up a copy of the publication and count the pharmaceutical ads. The more space sold, the more revenue for the publication. If you try to find their advertisement revenue, you’ll see that they don’t disclose it. So, just count the Pharma ads. Look in them all: Readers Digest http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v06n11.shtml , JAMA, Newsweek, Time, AARP Today, NEJM, Archives of Pediatrics. Even Prevention magazine. Practically any major periodical.

3) Rigged trials. Yes, it is true and yes it is provable. In a recent editorial, we explained how trials of new drugs are often rigged at http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v04n20.shtml . Studies of the health benefits of vitamins and essential nutrients also appear to be rigged. This can be easily done by using low doses to guarantee a negative result, and by biasing the interpretation to show a statistical increase in risk.

4) Bias in what is published, or rejected for publication. The largest and most popular medical journals receive very large income from pharmaceutical advertising. Peer-reviewed research indicates that this influences what they print, and even what study authors conclude from their data. http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v05n02.shtml .

5) Censorship of what is indexed and available to doctors and the public. Public tax money pays for censorship in the largest public medical library on the planet: the US National Library of Medicine (MEDLINE/PubMed). http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v06n03.shtml. See also: http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v06n05.shtml.

Don’t Believe It?

How well were these pro-vitamin, anti-drug studies covered in the mass media?

• A Harvard study showed a 27% reduction in AIDS deaths among patients given vitamin supplements. (2)
• There have been no deaths from vitamins in 27 years. http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v07n05.shtml
• Antibiotics cause 700,000 emergency room visits per year, just in the US. (3)
• Modern drug-and-cut medicine is at least the third leading cause of death in the USA. Some estimates place medicine as the number one cause of death. (4)
• Over 1.5 million Americans are injured every year by drug errors in hospitals, doctors’ offices, and nursing homes. If in a hospital, a patient can expect at least one medication error every single day. (5)
• More than 100,000 patients die every year, just in the US, from drugs properly prescribed and taken as directed. (6)

Double Standard

Countless comedians have made fun of the incompetent physician who, when called late at night during a life- threatening disease crisis, says, “take two aspirin and call me in the morning.” It’s no longer funny. One of the largest pharmaceutical conglomerates in the world ran prime- time national television commercials that declared: “Bayer aspirin may actually help stop you from dying if you take it during a heart attack.” The company also promotes such use of its product on the Internet. http://www.wonderdrug.com/, formerly http://www.bayeraspirin.com/news/heart_attack.htm

Daily Aspirin Use Linked With Pancreatic Cancer

Here’s something you may have not seen. Research has shown that women who take just one aspirin a day, “which millions do to prevent heart attack and stroke as well as to treat headaches - may raise their risk of getting deadly pancreatic cancer…. Pancreatic cancer affects only 31,000 Americans a year, but it kills virtually all its victims within three years. The study of 88,000 nurses found that those who took two or more aspirins a week for 20 years or more had a 58 percent higher risk of pancreatic cancer.” (7) Women who took two or more aspirin tablets per day had an alarming 86 percent greater risk of pancreatic cancer.

Study author Dr. Eva Schernhammer of Harvard Medical School was quoted as saying: “Apart from smoking, this is one of the few risk factors that have been identified for pancreatic cancer. Initially we expected that aspirin would protect against pancreatic cancer.”

How about that.

Say: What if there was one, just one case of pancreatic cancer caused by a vitamin? What do you think the press would have said about that?

The fact is, vitamins are known to be effective and safe. They are essential nutrients, and when taken at the proper doses over a lifetime, are capable of preventing a wide variety of diseases. Because drug companies can’t make big profits developing essential nutrients, they have a vested interest in agitating for the use of drugs and disparaging the use of nutritional supplements.

(Orthomolecular Medicine News Service editor Andrew W. Saul taught nutrition, health science and cell biology at the college level, and has published over 100 reviews and editorials in peer-reviewed publications. He is author or co-author of ten books and is featured in the documentary film Food Matters. His website is http://www.doctoryourself.com .)

References:
1. Klein EA, Thompson Jr, IM, Tangen CM et al. JAMA. 2011;306(14):1549-1556. http://jama.ama-assn.org/content/306/14/1549
2. Fawzi WW, Msamanga GI, Spiegelman D, Wei R, Kapiga S, Villamor E, Mwakagile D, Mugusi F, Hertzmark E, Essex M, Hunter DJ. A randomized trial of multivitamin supplements and HIV disease progression and mortality. N Engl J Med. 2004 Jul 1;351(1):23-32.
3. Associated Press, Oct 17, 2006. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15305033/
4. Null G, Dean C, Feldman M, Rasio D. Death by medicine. J Orthomolecular Med, 2005. 20: 1, 21-34. http://orthomolecular.org/library/jom/2005/pdf/2005-v20n01-p021.pdf
5. The Associated Press. Drug errors injure more than 1.5 million a year. July 20, 2006. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13954142
6. Leape LL. Institute of Medicine medical error figures are not exaggerated. JAMA, 2000. Jul 5;284(1):95-7; Leape LL. Error in medicine. JAMA, 1994. Dec 21;272(23):1851-7; Lazarou J, Pomeranz BH, Corey PN. Incidence of adverse drug reactions in hospitalized patients: a meta-analysis of prospective studies. JAMA, 1998. Apr 15;279(15):1200-5.
7. Fox M. Daily aspirin use linked with pancreatic cancer. Reuters, Oct 27, 2003. http://www.cnn.com/2003/HEALTH/10/27/cancer.aspirin.reut/index.html

Nutritional Medicine is Orthomolecular Medicine Orthomolecular medicine uses safe, effective nutritional therapy to fight illness. For more information: http://www.orthomolecular.org

Find a Doctor
To locate an orthomolecular physician near you: http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v06n09.shtml

The peer-reviewed Orthomolecular Medicine News Service is a non-profit and non-commercial informational resource.

Editorial Review Board:
Ian Brighthope, M.D. (Australia)
Ralph K. Campbell, M.D. (USA)
Carolyn Dean, M.D., N.D. (Canada)
Damien Downing, M.D. (United Kingdom)
Michael Ellis, M.D. (Australia)
Martin P. Gallagher, M.D., D.C. (USA)
Michael Gonzalez, D.Sc., Ph.D. (Puerto Rico)
William B. Grant, Ph.D. (USA)
Steve Hickey, Ph.D. (United Kingdom)
James A. Jackson, Ph.D. (USA)
Michael Janson, M.D. (USA)
Robert E. Jenkins, D.C. (USA)
Bo H. Jonsson, M.D., Ph.D. (Sweden)
Thomas Levy, M.D., J.D. (USA)
Jorge R. Miranda-Massari, Pharm.D. (Puerto Rico)
Erik Paterson, M.D. (Canada)
W. Todd Penberthy, Ph.D. (USA)
Gert E. Shuitemaker, Ph.D. (Netherlands)
Robert G. Smith, Ph.D. (USA)
Jagan Nathan Vamanan, M.D. (India)
Andrew W. Saul, Ph.D. (USA), Editor and contact person. Email: omns@orthomolecular.org

by Robert G. Smith, PhD

(OMNS, Oct 12, 2011) A newly released study suggests that multivitamin and nutrient supplements can increase the mortality rate in older women [1]. However, there are several concerns about the study's methods and significance.

The study was observational, in which participants filled out a survey about their eating habits and their use of supplements. It reports only a small increase in overall mortality (1%) from those taking multivitamins. This is a small effect, not much larger than would be expected by chance. Generalizing from such a small effect is not scientific.

The study actually reported that taking supplements of B-complex, vitamins C, D, E, and calcium and magnesium were associated with a lower risk of mortality. But this was not emphasized in the abstract, leading the non-specialist to think that all supplements were associated with mortality. The report did not determine the amounts of vitamin and nutrient supplements taken, nor whether they were artificial or natural.

Further, most of the association with mortality came from the use of iron and copper supplements, which are known to be potentially inflammatory and toxic when taken by older people, because they tend to accumulate in the body [2,3,4]. The risk from taking iron supplements should not be generalized to imply that all vitamin and nutrient supplements are harmful.

The study lacks scientific plausibility for several reasons. It tabulated results from surveys of 38,000 older women, based on their recall of what they ate over an 18-year period. But they were only surveyed 3 times during that period, relying only on their memory of what foods and supplements they took. This factor alone causes the study to be unreliable.

Some of these women smoked (~15%) or had previously (~35%), some drank alcohol (~45%), some had high blood pressure (~40%), and many of them developed heart disease and/or cancer. Some preexisting medical conditions were taken into account by adjusting the risk factors, but this caused the study to contradict what we already know about efficacy of supplements. For example, the study reports an increase in mortality from taking vitamin D, when adjusted for several health-relevant factors. However, vitamin D has recently been clearly shown to be helpful in preventing heart disease [5] and many types of cancer [6], which are major causes of death. Furthermore, supplement users were twice as likely to be on hormone replacement therapy, which is a more plausible explanation for increased mortality than taking supplements.

The effect of doctor recommendations was not taken into account. By their own repeated admissions, medical doctors and hospital nutritionists are more likely to recommend a daily multivitamin, and only a multivitamin, for their sicker patients. The study did not take this into account. All it did was tabulate deaths and attempt to correct the numbers for some prior health conditions. The numbers reported do not reflect other factors such as developing disease, side effects of pharmaceutical prescriptions, or other possible causes for the mortality. The study only reports statistical correlations, and gives no plausible cause for a claimed increase in mortality from multivitamin supplements.

The effect of education was not taken into account. When a doctor gives advice about illnesses, well-educated people will often respond by trying to be proactive. Some will take drugs prescribed by the doctor, and some will try to eat a better diet, including supplements of vitamins and nutrients. This is suggested by the study itself: the supplement users in the survey had more education than those who did not take supplements. It seems likely, therefore, the participants who got sick were more likely to have taken supplements. Because those who got sick are also more likely to die, it stands to reason that they would also be more likely to have taken supplements. This effect is purely statistical; it does not represent an increase in risk that taking supplements of vitamins and essential nutrients will cause disease or death. This type of statistical correlation is very common in observational health studies and those who are health-conscious should not be confounded by it.

The known safety of vitamin and nutrient supplements when taken at appropriate doses was not taken into account. The participants most likely took a simple multivitamin tablet, which contains low doses. Much higher doses are also safe [4,7], implying that the low doses in common multivitamin tablets are very safe. Further, because each individual requires different amounts of vitamins and nutrients, some people must take much higher doses for best health [8].

Summary

In an observational study of older women in good health, it was said that those who died were more likely to have taken multivitamin and nutrient supplements than those who did not. The effect was small, and does not indicate any reason for disease or death. Instead, the study's methods suggest that people who have serious health conditions take vitamin and mineral supplements because they know that supplements can help. Indeed, the study showed a benefit from taking B-complex, C, D, and E vitamins, and calcium and magnesium. Therefore, if those wanting better health would take appropriate doses of supplements regularly, they would likely continue to achieve better health and longer life.

(Robert G. Smith is Research Associate Professor, University of Pennsylvania Department of Neuroscience. He is a member of the Institute for Neurological Sciences and the author of several dozen scientific papers and reviews.)

References
[1] Mursu J, Robien K, Harnack LJ, Park K, Jacobs DR Jr (2011) Dietary supplements and mortality rate in older women. The Iowa Women's Health Study. Arch Intern Med. 171(18):1625-1633.
[2] Emery, T. F. Iron and your Health: Facts and Fallacies. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 1991.
[3] Fairbanks, V. F. "Iron in Medicine and Nutrition." Chapter 10 in Modern Nutrition in Health and Disease, editors M. E. Shils, J. A. Olson, M. Shike, et al., 9th ed. Baltimore, MD: Williams & Wilkins, 1999.
[4] Hoffer, A., A. W. Saul. Orthomolecular Medicine for Everyone: Megavitamin Therapeutics for Families and Physicians. Laguna Beach, CA: Basic Health Publications, 2008.
[5] Parker J, Hashmi O, Dutton D, Mavrodaris A, Stranges S, Kandala NB, Clarke A, Franco OH. Levels of vitamin D and cardiometabolic disorders: systematic review and meta-analysis. Maturitas. 2010 Mar;65(3):225-36.
[6] Lappe JM, Travers-Gustafson D, Davies KM, Recker RR, Heaney RP. Vitamin D and calcium supplementation reduces cancer risk: results of a randomized trial. Am J Clin Nutr. 2007 Jun;85(6):1586-91.
[7] Padayatty SJ, Sun AY, Chen Q, Espey MG, Drisko J, Levine M. Vitamin C: intravenous use by complementary and alternative medicine practitioners and adverse effects. PLoS One. 2010 Jul 7;5(7):e11414.
[8] Williams RJ, Deason G. (1967) Individuality in vitamin C needs. Proc Natl Acad SciUSA.57:16381641.

Also of Interest
Orthomolecular Medicine News Service, April 29, 2010. Multivitamins Dangerous? Latest News from the World Headquarters Of Pharmaceutical Politicians, Educators and Reporters. http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v06n15.shtml

Nutritional Medicine is Orthomolecular Medicine
Orthomolecular medicine uses safe, effective nutritional therapy to fight illness. For more information: http://www.orthomolecular.org

Find a Doctor
To locate an orthomolecular physician near you: http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v06n09.shtml

The peer-reviewed Orthomolecular Medicine News Service is a non-profit and non-commercial informational resource.

Editorial Review Board

Ian Brighthope, M.D. (Australia)
Ralph K. Campbell, M.D. (USA)
Carolyn Dean, M.D., N.D. (Canada)
Damien Downing, M.D. (United Kingdom)
Michael Ellis, M.D. (Australia)
Martin P. Gallagher, M.D., D.C. (USA)
Michael Gonzalez, D.Sc., Ph.D. (Puerto Rico)
William B. Grant, Ph.D. (USA)
Steve Hickey, Ph.D. (United Kingdom)
James A. Jackson, Ph.D. (USA)
Michael Janson, M.D. (USA)
Robert E. Jenkins, D.C. (USA)
Bo H. Jonsson, M.D., Ph.D. (Sweden)
Thomas Levy, M.D., J.D. (USA)
Jorge R. Miranda-Massari, Pharm.D. (Puerto Rico)
Erik Paterson, M.D. (Canada)
W. Todd Penberthy, Ph.D. (USA)
Gert E. Shuitemaker, Ph.D. (Netherlands)
Robert G. Smith, Ph.D. (USA)
Jagan Nathan Vamanan, M.D. (India)
Andrew W. Saul, Ph.D. (USA), Editor and contact person. Email omns@orthomolecular.org

 Commentary by Andrew W. Saul Ph.D. and Jagan N. Vaman, M.D.

No US deaths from vitamins - none at all in 27 years
(OMNS, June 14, 2011) Over a twenty-seven year period, vitamin supplements have been alleged to have caused the deaths of a total of eleven people in the United States. A new analysis of US poison control center annual report data indicates that there have, in fact, been no deaths whatsoever from vitamins . . . none at all, in the 27 years that such reports have been available.

The American Association of Poison Control Centers (AAPCC) attributes annual deaths to vitamins as:

2009: zero 2000: zero 1991: two 2008: zero 1999: zero 1990: one 2007: zero 1998: zero 1989: zero 2006: one 1997: zero 1988: zero 2005: zero 1996: zero 1987: one 2004: two 1995: zero 1986: zero 2003: two 1994: zero 1985: zero 2002: one 1993: one 1984: zero 2001: zero 1992: zero 1983: zero Even if these figures are taken as correct, and even if they include intentional and accidental misuse, the number of alleged vitamin fatalities is strikingly low, averaging less than one death per year for over two and a half decades. In 19 of those 27 years, AAPCC reports that there was not one single death due to vitamins.[1]

Still, the Orthomolecular Medicine News Service Editorial Board was curious: Did eleven people really die from vitamins? And if so, how?

Vitamins Not THE Cause of Death In determining cause of death, AAPCC uses a four-point scale called Relative Contribution to Fatality (RCF). A rating of 1 means "Undoubtedly Responsible"; 2 means "Probably Responsible"; 3 means "Contributory"; and 4 means "Probably Not Responsible." In examining poison control data for the year 2006, listing one vitamin death, it was seen that the vitamin's Relative Contribution to Fatality (RCF) was a 4. Since a score of "4" means "Probably Not Responsible," it quite negates the claim that a person died from a vitamin in 2006.

Vitamins Not A Cause of Death In the other seven years reporting one or more of the remaining ten alleged vitamin fatalities, studying the AAPCC reports reveals an absence of any RCF rating for vitamins in any of those years. If there is no Relative Contribution to Fatality at all, then the substance did not contribute to death at all.

Furthermore, in each of those remaining seven years, there is no substantiation provided to demonstrate that any vitamin was a cause of death.

If there is insufficient information about the cause of death to make a clear-cut declaration of cause, then subsequent assertions that vitamins cause deaths are not evidence-based. Although vitamin supplements have often been blamed for causing fatalities, there is no evidence to back up this allegation.

References 1. Download any Annual Report of the American Association of Poison Control Centers from 1983-2009 free of charge at http://www.aapcc.org/dnn/NPDSPoisonData/NPDSAnnualReports.aspx The "Vitamin" category is usually near the very end of the report.

Most recent year: Bronstein AC, Spyker DA, Cantilena LR Jr, Green JL, Rumack BH, Giffin SL. 2009 Annual Report of the American Association of Poison Control Centers' National Poison Data System (NPDS): 27th Annual Report. Clinical Toxicology (2010). 48, 979-1178. The full text article is available for free download at http://www.aapcc.org/dnn/Portals/0/2009%20AR.pdf

The vitamin data mentioned above will be found in Table 22B.

Nutritional Medicine is Orthomolecular Medicine

Orthomolecular medicine uses safe, effective nutritional therapy to fight illness. For more information: http://www.orthomolecular.org

The peer-reviewed Orthomolecular Medicine News Service is a non-profit and non-commercial informational resource.

Editorial Review Board

Ian Brighthope, M.D. (Australia)
Ralph K. Campbell, M.D. (USA)
Carolyn Dean, M.D., N.D. (Canada)
Damien Downing, M.D. (United Kingdom)
Michael Ellis, M.D. (Australia)
Martin P. Gallagher, M.D., D.C. (USA)
Michael Gonzalez, D.Sc., Ph.D. (Puerto Rico)
William B. Grant, Ph.D. (USA)
Steve Hickey, Ph.D. (United Kingdom)
James A. Jackson, Ph.D. (USA)
Bo H. Jonsson, M.D., Ph.D. (Sweden)
Thomas Levy, M.D., J.D. (USA)
Jorge R. Miranda-Massari, Pharm.D. (Puerto Rico)
Erik Paterson, M.D. (Canada)
W. Todd Penberthy, Ph.D. (USA)
Gert E. Shuitemaker, Ph.D. (Netherlands)
Jagan Nathan Vamanan, M.D. (India)

by Phillip Day

Research shows the unequivocal benefits of vitamin D both in the prevention and treatment of cancer as well as other diseases. Lack of, and fear of sunshine, combined with processed, cooked diets has become the, to-date, undeclared catastrophe of modern times.

Could an increase of vitamin D treat and prevent ill health and enhance your wellbeing? Read on to find out how.

What is vitamin D?

The Vitamin D Council writes: "Technically not a ‘vitamin', vitamin D is in a class by itself. Its metabolic product, calcitriol is actually a secosteroid hormone that targets over 1000 genes in the human body. Current research has implicated vitamin D deficiency as a major factor in the pathology of at least 17 varieties of cancer as well as heart disease, stroke, hypertension, autoimmune diseases, diabetes, depression, chronic pain, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, muscle weakness, muscle wasting, birth defects, periodontal disease, and more. Vitamin D's influence on key biological functions vital to one's health and well-being mandates that vitamin D no longer be ignored by the healthcare industry nor by individuals striving to achieve and maintain a greater state of health."1

Orthomolecular.org writes:"If you search the US National Institutes of Health's Medline online database for ‘cancer vitamin D', you will find over five thousand papers... some dating back nearly 60 years.

It's true: physician reports on vitamin D stopping cancer have been ignored for decades. In 1951, T. Desmonts reported that vitamin D treatment was effective against Hodgkin's disease (a cancer of the lymphatic system).2 That same year, 57 years ago, massive doses of vitamin D were also observed to improve epithelioma.3 In 1955, skin cancer was again reported as cured with vitamin D treatment.4 In 1963, there was a promising investigation done on vitamin D and breast cancer.5 Then, in 1964, vitamin D was found to be effective against lymph nodal reticulosarcoma, a non-Hodgkin's lymphatic cancer.6

The American Cancer Society has been obsessed with finding a drug cure for cancer. Pharmaceutical researchers are not looking for a vitamin cure. And when one is presented, as independent investigators and physicians have continuously been doing since 1951, it is ignored."7

Recommended daily allowance and sun-dosing

The recommended daily allowance for vitamin D is set at 200-400 international units a day (IU). This is thought to be the level above which overt cases of the classic vitamin D deficiency disease rickets will not be observed. Alas, it's not that simple. You actually need around 4,000 IU/day just to maintain the vitamin D levels you already have. Do you think government scientists know this already? Of course they do. To understand vitamin D's playing field a little better, consider the following.

Let's say you went out to the local park in June in Britain between 11am and 2pm, stripped completely naked and laid out on the grass. In the half an hour it took for the local police to arrest you, scientists say you can generate around 20,000 IU of vitamin D. Of course, the mitigating factors are skin pigmentation, where you are on the planet, cloud cover, pollution, speed of police, etc. Then you get bailed out at the station, return home with your clothes on, strip off again for a shower... and wash all that vitamin D down the plughole!

That's right. It takes around 48 hours for vitamin D to penetrate the skin. Being oil-soluble, vitamin D is broken down by soap and washed away in your power shower. To avoid this happening after adequate sun exposure (enough for you fair-skinned types to turn pinkish), wash off the skin with water and tend to the underarms and groin area separately. Smelly old farmers live longer - pungent but true. Dark-skinned folk need much more sun than light-skinned folk.

Watch to see when your shadow is shorter than you are. Dr John Cannell says this is a useful thumbnail to determine when you can make vitamin D. Unfortunately in the UK, your shadow is longer than you are for a good six months of the year. Trying to get sun exposure behind glass won't work either since the vitamin-D-making UVB wavelength is disrupted. UVA gets through, however, and that's not good news.

Every member of the population should take reasonable sun exposure not only more seriously, but view it as one of the cardinal prerequisites for a longer life. If you have dark skin and have moved to a northern country, you are especially at risk from vitamin-D-deficiency problems. Numerous studies indicate that ‘all-cause mortality' is significantly higher if you are vitamin-D-deficient.8

Ill? Test your levels

If you have cancer or other serious condition, the first thing to do is find out what your blood serum levels of D are. You can do this even if you are healthy and just want to know. The test you should request is known as a 25(OH)D3 or 25-hydroxy D3 test for calcidiol, and is done using a blood sample. Ask for the results to be calibrated in nanograms per millilitre (ng/ml), the standard scale. If you end up with other calibrations, convert as follows:


10 ng/ml = 10μg/L (no change)

10 ng/ml = 24.96 nmol/L (1:2.5)


The ng/ml and μg/L scales run as follows (UK, USA, etc.):

<20 ng/ml - grossly deficient

20-40 ng/ml - deficient

50-60 ng/ml - normal

70-90 ng/ml - therapeutic

>100-110 ng/ml - toxic threshold


The nmol/l scale runs as follows (Australia, etc.):

< 50 mmol/l - grossly deficient

50 - 100 nmol/l - deficient

130 - 150 nmol/l - normal

170 - 190 ng/ml - therapeutic

>220 nmol/l - toxic threshold9


Dr Bruce Hollis remarks that no circulating D3 can be found until levels are 40-50 ng/ml (100-125 nmol/l). By this measure, at least 85% of the US population are vitamin-D-deficient. Consider that America is below the 52nd parallel, so the UK and northern Europe will be worse.

How to boost your levels safely

If your test comes back deficient, vitamin D levels should be raised using sunlight and/or supplementation, and then re-tested a four weeks later to see if progress is being made. There are specially designed, electronic-ballast ‘safe' tanning beds, too, which emit predominant UVB wavelength. Dr Joseph Mercola recommends these but they are expensive and not to everyone's tastes.10

Your ultimate option is vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol) supplementation, which is cheap and convenient but by no means the best solution. If you are pushing the limits with supplementation, the experts advise that you to get tested often and watch for calcium levels rising - an indication of the toxic threshold. There is a good margin for safety however. Toxicity with D3 usually only comes from overdosing for months on end.

For most people, D3 oral supplementation will be the only option during winter months. The level of supplementation is irrelevant, it's the serum levels that matter. Dr Mercola states that normal healthy individuals can supplement 3,000 IU/day per 100lbs bodyweight and for those undergoing treatment for cancer or other serious illnesses, 5,000 IU/day per 100lbs bodyweight.

Once again, if you are pushing the limits with oral supplementation to get your serum levels up, it is vital to monitor levels not only to avoid the aforementioned overdosing, but to ensure the therapeutic margin is gained. Some people require huge initial doses of D3 to get them into the game (50,000 IU). You simply won't know where you stand without testing and monitoring your levels. Remember also that you weren't designed to take vitamin D orally, so you won't get all of the benefits associated with normal sun exposure, which is by far the most safe and efficient method of vitamin D production when done reasonably:

"There is no way to know if the recommendations given below are correct. The ONLY way to know is to test your blood. You might need 4-5 times the amount recommended below. Ideally your blood level of 25(OH)D should be 60ng/ml." 11

AGE ---------ORAL DOSAGE

Below 5 35IUper lb per day

5-10 2,500 IU/day

18-30 5,000 IU/day

Pregnant women 5,000 IU/day


Resources

The Essential Guide to Vitamin D by Phillip Day

Vitamin D-3/K-2 (1,000IU/45µg 120 vcaps)

References
1 www.vitamindcouncil.org

2 Desmonts T, Duclos M "Favourable effect of vitamin D on the evolution of a case of Hodgkin's disease", Sang. 1951;22(1):74-5. And: DESMONTS T "Favourable action of vitamin D in leukemic erythroderma and Hodgkin's disease", Pathol Gen. 1951 Mar;51(326):161-4. Also: VACCARI R "Vitamin D2 and experimental carcinogenesis", Boll Soc Ital Biol Sper. 1952 Aug-Oct;28(8-10):1567-9

3 Sainz de Aja Ea Actas Dermosifiliogr. 1951 Nov;43(2):169-70

4 Linser P "Spontaneous cure of skin carcinoma by vitamin D treatment", Dermatol Wochenschr. 1955;132(40):1072-3. German

5 Gordan G S, Schachter D ‘Vitamin D activity of normal and neoplastic human breast tissue', Proc Soc Exp Biol Med. 1963 Jul;113:760-1

6 Desmonts T, Blin J "Action of Vitamin D3 on the course of a lymph nodal reticulosarcoma", Rev Pathol Gen Physiol Clin. 1964 Mar;64:137. French.

7 www.orthomolecular.org

8 www.vitamindcouncil.org/science/research/vitamin-d-and-mortality.shtml

9 Studies show that vitamin D toxicity usually manifests as hypercalcaemia. Prolonged supplementation in excess of 30,000 - 50,000 IU/day is required to cause a problem. If in doubt, get tested. The amount of D3 you take is irrelevant, it's the serum levels that matter.

10 www.mercola.com

11 Ibid.

by Phillip Day

"Intensive research ... has convinced me that the human organism can protect itself against infection virtually completely by proper nutrition." - Dr B P Sandler

Essential nutrient

Vitamin C is an essential nutrient for the human body. Science describes it chemically as 2-oxo-L-threo-hexono-1,4-lactone-2,3-enediol, or L-ascorbic acid, L-ascorbate or C6H8O6 - take your pick. It has a molecular mass of 176.14 grams and is so named for its active properties in fighting scurvy (a meaning ‘no' and scorbutus ‘scurvy').

Vitamin C is a form of sugar acid that appears white to yellow in a crystal or powder form and is water-soluble. It is found most famously in citrus fruits but also in leafy greens, a staple ingredient used to fortify foods, and is familiar to many as a childhood vitamin supplement, one of the most important for your continued wellbeing.

Humans cannot generate vitamin C

It is unfortunate then, that while it is synthesised internally by all but a few mammals, humans suffer from a genetic deficiency which prevents us from generating vitamin C in our bodies. Whereas most mammals can synthesise this vital nutrient with glucose produced from glycogen by enzymes in the liver,[1] our only hope of getting C is through our diet. An associate of Pauling's, Dr Matthias Rath, comments:

"Animals don't get heart attacks because they produce vitamin C in their bodies, which protects their blood vessel walls. In humans, unable to produce vitamin C (a condition known as hypoascorbemia), dietary vitamin deficiency weakens these walls. Cardiovascular disease is an early form of scurvy. Clinical studies document that optimum daily intakes of vitamins and other essential nutrients halt and reverse coronary heart disease naturally.

The single most important difference between the metabolism of human beings and most other living species is the dramatic difference in the body pool of vitamin C. The body reservoir of vitamin C in people is on average 10 to 100 times lower than the vitamin C levels in animals."[2]

Humans absorb C Lucky for us, the human body is an astounding system with a remarkable capacity for self-regulation and correction. DNA itself is a three-out-of-four, error-correcting digital code with stop and start bits to parse the assembly instructions of every protein of an organism.

Unlike the 4,000 or so species of mammal which produce vitamin C internally, the human genetic code compensates for our defect by having red blood cells specifically designed for increased absorption of C. Haemoglobin is able to absorb the oxidised version of the nutrient, deoxidise it in the cell, then transport the active ‘antioxidant' to where it is most needed.[3]

Red blood cells ensure our bodies are kept adequately supplied, and are even able to recycle the nutrient to some degree. There's just one hitch. We've got to eat or drink vitamin C to get it into the system in the first place. What a disappointment, then, that our peers don't do more to ensure everyone is fully briefed.

Cooking kills it

When was the last time someone told you on TV that cooking destroys vitamin C? Never.

How many times on TV has a ‘celebrity' chef shown you more inventive ways to murder your food with heat? Five times a night, and they swear at you for getting it wrong.

So what percentage of see-no-evil, hear-no-evil humanity goes through an entire British, American and Australian winter cooking everything and ending up sicker than Gordon Ramsey's dog? The vast majority.

How many are destined to end up dying of a disease not even their livestock are dying from? The vast majority.

How many will be talked into taking ‘life-saving' drugs and other redundant nostrums before they finally expire? The vast majority.

Room for a little improvement, wouldn't you say?

Not just an acid

Dr Tim O'Shea writes:

"Most sources equate vitamin C with ascorbic acid, as though they were the same thing. They're not. Ascorbic acid is an isolate, a fraction, a distillate of naturally occurring vitamin C. In addition to ascorbic acid, vitamin C must include rutin, bioflavonoids, Factor K, Factor J, Factor P, Tyrosinase, Ascorbinogen, In addition, mineral co-factors must be available in proper amounts. If any of these parts are missing, there is no vitamin C, no vitamin activity. When some of them are present, the body will draw on its own stores to make up the differences, so that the whole vitamin may be present. Only then will vitamin activity take place, provided that all other conditions and co-factors are present. Ascorbic acid is described merely as the "antioxidant wrapper" portion of vitamin C; ascorbic acid protects the functional parts of the vitamin from rapid oxidation or breakdown."[4]

It's a complex

So vitamin C is a complex. The ascorbic acid and ascorbate (an ion of ascorbic acid) are required for a variety of essential metabolic functions. They help metabolise fats and proteins and aid recovery from wounds. In addition to vitamin E and two amino acids, lysine and proline, vitamin C is vital for the creation of collagen, the chief protein in soft and connective tissue throughout the body.

Vitamin C, therefore, helps provide us with skin, hair, corneas, tendons, muscles, ligaments, bones, organs, cartilage, and the basis for the very structure of our cells. Without it we simply fall apart, which is scurvy.

Last but not least, vitamin C strengthens the piping of our cardiovascular system, and its deficiency is one of the chief factors in the leading cause of disease death today, heart disease, which destroys one in every two and half of us (if you can picture such a creature).

And in 50% of those deaths, Andrew Saul reminds us, the first symptom is death.[5] An adequate level of vitamin C in the diet, therefore, is vital over the long-term. Failure to do this gets you dead. Badly.

What is it good for?

Like a good Toyota, you get your mileage with vitamin C. It's a powerful antihistamine, antiviral, antitoxin, and Halle Berry uses the powdered stuff mixed with water to exfoliate her First Division visage. And, as if all that's not good enough, vitamin C acts as a particularly effective antioxidant, neutralising cell-damaging free radicals or oxidative elements in the body.

As we age, we slowly oxidise (biologically ‘rust'). An antioxidant is a type of molecule able to slow down or prevent this oxidation process. Oxidation itself is a chemical reaction crucial to life, but one that can be damaging too.

The body employs various reducing agents and enzymes in order to control this vital but potentially harmful system. If not properly controlled, oxidation releases adverse levels of peroxides and free radicals which damage the cell and its DNA. Antioxidants like vitamin C stop these reactions by removing the free radicals and becoming oxidised themselves.

If there are more free radicals than the antioxidants and enzymes can control, the body suffers oxidative stress, which can induce diabetes, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, and chronic inflammatory diseases. Vitamin C is a major player in preventing this from occurring.

Linus Pauling PhD, often known as the ‘Father of Vitamin C' and twice awarded the Nobel Prize, declared that large intakes of up to 10 g of vitamin C each day aids anti-cancer activity within the body. It also assists in repairing damaged arteries and removing arterial plaque for heart disease sufferers. Pauling was largely derided for making these statements, and we'll examine the controversies in a minute, yet he lived into his nineties.

Today, much higher doses of C complex are used by many practitioners for cancer/heart/stroke patients in nutritional therapy who believe Pauling was right, and that the popular nutrient is indispensable to the body in its fight to regain health.

Dietary sources of vitamin C - fruit and veg

Vitamin C is found in abundance in fruits and vegetables, and also in some meats. Rose hips, blackcurrant, peppers, kiwi, guava, broccoli, and nature's most maligned Christmas treat, the Brussels sprout, are all high in vitamin C.

Not only are these foods packed with nutrients in their organic form (unlike meat), they are low in fat and do not need to be cooked to be eaten. If you wish to destroy all the nutrients, enzymes and vitamin C that make fruit and vegetables healthy in the first place, simply fire up the pan and cook ‘em.

Bioflavonoids

Dr Albert Szent-Gyorgi, 1937 Nobel laureate for his isolation of vitamin C, later found other factors intrinsic to the action of C. Originally believed to be a single nutrient, Vitamin C became the subject of further testing by Szent-Gyorgi, who fought long and hard to have the co-factor (bio)flavonoids included.

Bioflavonoids are derived from plant pigments known as flavonols and flavones and are found in many of the same fruits and vegetables rich in vitamin C. Szent-Gyorgi argued that they were essential to human health and coined the new bioflavonoids ‘Vitamin P'. Though they are widely accepted today for their health benefits and are available in hydroxylated and methoxylated forms, the term ‘Vitamin P' was less well received by our medical czars.

Bioflavonoids have great antioxidant properties but in a different way to C. While the body welcomes ascorbic acid and the ascorbates, it recognises bioflavonoids as a foreign compound and acts quickly to flush them from the system. This increases levels of uric acid and serves to expel excess free radicals and other toxins from the body, aiding in the antioxidant process.

While different kinds of bioflavonoid help the body in different ways, all are extremely useful. Those found in citrus fruits increase the absorption of vitamin C in our cells, aid blood vessel permeability and blood flow, and exhibit anti-allergy, anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial and anti-cancer properties.

In a nutshell? Bioflavonoids are seriously good for you.

Meat

Certain meats also contain vitamin C. This is because some animals have high internal levels of C which build up in certain tissues. Liver is the best source of meat for C, but loses up to 100% of its C content when cooked. Unfortunately, the muscles that make up the bulk of western carnivorous diets also happen to be the cuts of meat with the lowest concentrations of vitamin C. We don't like to eat meat raw. Carnivores do.

In 1928, the Arctic anthropologist Vilhjalmur Stefansson emulated the Inuit diet to test a theory. Despite having almost no plant material in their diet, the native people avoided scurvy while European explorers suffered heavily. Both ate meat-based diets. Living exclusively on only lightly cooked meat for a year without any ill-effects, Stefansson was able to prove that cooking the meat destroyed specific nutrients within, later discovered to be vitamin C.

Milk

Human milk also contains useful amounts of C for breast-feeding babies. Mums who have good levels in their own bodies produce milk twice as fortified with the nutrient than found in raw cow's or goat's milk. Once pasteurised, milk loses most of its C content.

Although baby formulas boast that they are fortified with vitamins and just as good as breast milk, the heating and storage that goes with such products wrecks the vitamin C content. Formula well fortified with vitamin C might well contain very little after transit, storage and heating. Nature knows best.

Supplements

Diets being what they are these days, not everyone chooses to get their vitamin C through eating raw fruit and veg, nor chomping lightly cooked slivers of liver. Many choose the world's most popular vitamin supplement instead - you guessed it, vitamin C. Available in caplets, powders, capsules, multivitamin and antioxidant formulations, C supplements are many and varied. If you choose to take a vitamin C supplement, ensure your intake is spread throughout the day to maximise absorption and that the supplement contains bioflavonoids to aid vitamin C metabolism. Steven Hickey PhD writes:

"An individual who wanted protection from, say, the common cold by taking vitamin C, would raise their blood levels more effectively by taking divided doses or slow-release formulations.... If a single dose of vitamin C raises blood levels for about six hours or one quarter of the day, the subject is unprotected for the other three quarters of the time.... The biochemical data supports Pauling's hypothesis that, for a large proportion of the population, the optimal dose of vitamin C is several grams a day.... A single megadose tablet will only raise blood levels for a short period and is likely to be therapeutically ineffective. The aim is to raise plasma levels consistently and this requires either multiple tablets taken at short intervals throughout the day, or the use of slow-release formulations." [6]

Conclusion

Although the levels of vitamin C in food depend on the type of plant, the soil it grew in, freshness, how it was stored or prepared, etc., the following guidelines will ensure a good dietary intake of vitamin C can be achieved.

Raw food rocks! Cooking and heating destroys many of the active components of vitamin C. If you boil a saucepan of vegetables for too long you risk having more vitamin C in the pan water than the food. Copper cooking vessels also reduce the C content of your food.

Fresh is best! As food is stored, the vitamin C content gradually decomposes. An orange in your lounge fruit bowl will lose 50% of its vitamin C content in two weeks. The fresher the food, the more vitamin C it will retain. Correct storage in a cool place, such as a refrigerator, also helps maintain vitamin C content.

Fruit and veg! A diet comprising 80% plant-based, organic fruits and vegetables with 60%-plus consumed raw is the way to go. Vegetable juices are highly recommended - more so than fruit juices, which contain concentrated sugar and acid. Patients recovering from serious illness would do well to keep their raw food ratio high, and vegetable juices enable them to achieve this quickly and effortlessly.

Resources

The Essential Guide to Vitamin C by Phillip Day and Nick Cockayne

Vitamin C Complex plus Bioflavonoids (400 g tub)

Footnotes [1] Bánhegyi G, Mándl J "The hepatic glycogenoreticular system", Pathol Oncol Res 7 (2): 2001, pp.107-110

[2] Rath, M Why Animals Don't Get Heart Attacks - But People Do! MR Publishing, 2000, p.10

[3] How Humans Make Up For An 'Inborn' Vitamin C Deficiency.

www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080320120726.htm

[4] www.thedoctorwithin.com

[5] www.orthomolecular.org

[6] Hickey S and H Roberts Ascorbate, Lulu, 2004

[7] The New England Journal of Medicine, 7th February 1991