"There are more than ten thousand published scientific papers that make it quite clear that there is not one bodily process (what goes on inside cells or tissues) and not one disease or syndrome                 (from the common cold to leprosy) that is not influenced

-- directly or indirectly -- by vitamin C."

The most important areas in which vitamin C plays a crucial role are in the building and maintaining of our tissues and fortifying our immune systems."

• The plasma ascorbic acid concentration of a healthy person is 8-14 mg/L, 
• Adrenal glands, pituitary, thymus, corpus luteum, and retina have concentrations more than 100 times higher.
• The brain, spleen, lungs, testicles, lymph glands, liver, thyroid, small intestinal mucosa, leukocytes, pancreas, kidney, and salivary glands have concentrations 10-50 times that of plasma.  
• The skeletal, smooth and cardiac muscle, and erythrocytes have concentrations about 10 times that of plasma.
• Vitamin C supplementation would  have a particularly positive affect on these organs .

By inference, tissues that require higher concentrations of vitamin C would be most susceptible to chronic problems as a result of a chronic deficiency. 

Antioxidants

We hear a lot these days about the antioxidant vitamins, C, E and A.  

The more free-radical damage appears to contribute to chronic conditions... the more we realize that antioxidant nutrition supplementation is essential.

Oxygen is a highly reactive element.  We see the result of oxidation all around us.  Rust, brittle rubber, and food spoilage, these are all the result of oxidation.  

Oxidation is not always bad.  

The iron in your blood's hemoglobin oxidizes or "rusts" in order to carry oxygen to all the cells of the body.  

But much oxidation is damaging, accelerating aging and contributing to tissue and organ damage.  

Oxidation is also a contributor to heart disease (LDL oxidation has been linked to atherosclerosis) and cancer.  

Homeodynamics

Homeodynamics is a fairly recent term that updates "homeostasis", defined in the Bantam Medical Dictionary as:

"the physiological process by which the internal systems of the body (e.g. blood pressure, body temperature, acid-base balance) are maintained at equilibrium, despite variations in the external conditions."

Homeodynamics (the tendency of a regulated system to maintain itself close to some fixed point) attempts to add emphasis to the dynamic, ever-adjusting nature of these processes.

When our body's are exposed to stress (any influence which disturbs our calm balance, therefore all the physical and emotional pressures that we are exposed to make demands on our systems) our stores of Vitamin C are depleted, mostly by our adrenal gland (it takes a molecule of vitamin C to produce a molecule of adrenaline).  

It is an old wives tale that getting soaked in the rain causes us to catch cold.  But, like so many of these, there is a basis of truth.  Being wet and cold is stressful.  It puts an additional strain on us to keep our body temperature up.  This reduces our "resistance".  Since vitamin C is vital to both our immune system and our natural balance, the day after coming in from a cold rain, we find ourselves with a scratchy throat and its downhill from there.  

Any trauma we are exposed to utilizes vitamin C.  

It is best (highly advisable) to have as much vitamin C in our system as possible, all of the time.

Collagen

Collagen is a rigid, fibrous protein that is the principal constituent of connective tissue in animals, including bones, teeth, cartilage, tendons, skin, and blood vessels. Collagen's high tensile strength is due to the unique structure of its basic structural unit, tropocollagen, which consists of three left-handed helical polypeptide chains intertwined around each other in a right-handed triple helix (below).
 

Symptoms of scurvy include bleeding gums, easy bruising and a tendency toward bone fractures.  All these symptoms are a result of the requirement for Vitamin C in the development of the ground substance between our cells.  This ground substance, primarily collagen, is the cement that gives our tissues form and substance.  Collagens are principal components of tendons, ligaments, skin, bone, teeth, cartilage, heart valves, intervertebral discs, cornea, and eye lenses, in addition to the ground substance between cells.

Some collagen forms in the absence of ascorbic acid, but the fibers are abnormal, resulting in skin lesions and blood vessel fragility, characteristics of scurvy.

Any tissue-related malady will have some basis in Vitamin C.  There is a long continuum between scurvy and optimum tissue integrity.  As most all of us suffer from sub-clinical scurvy, how is this evident from a tissue-integrity standpoint?  Let's look at the conditions that are tissue related.  Gum problems are an obvious first choice since they relate directly to scurvy, but there are many others.

A Japanese study concluded that most disc herniations are the result of Vitamin C deficiency.  This makes sense.  The discs in our spinal column are like donuts, with a tough, gristle-like exterior and a soft interior to provide cushioning.  Lack of proper amounts of Vitamin C will produce a disc with compromised integrity.  The tough exterior won't be so tough.  Over time and much wear and tear, this compromised exterior will wear down and a pinhole will result.  Moving just the right way (or should I say wrong way) will push some of the soft interior material out this pinhole. That is a disc herniation.  If this squished-out material touches a nerve in your spinal column, it causes pain.  

Adequate Vitamin C will toughen up the outside portion of the disc and a herniation is much less likely.  

Laser surgery is the common method used to remove this balloon of squished-out disc material.   

Tissues under stress will suffer the most from vitamin C deficiency. 

Vitamin C is needed for maintaining the strength of tendons and ligaments but also it is essential for the adrenaline synthesis (the hormone crucial for intense training).

Both cancer and heart disease  have a strong tissue-integrity component, our blood vessels are adversely susceptible to a lack of Vitamin C.  

The Immune System

Vitamin C is a requirement for the proper functioning of our immune systems.  

It is involved in white blood cell production, T-cells and macrophages.  

Without Vitamin C in adequate quantities, our own body's best defense against disease is left without ammunition. 

• A sickness such as a cold or virus is analogous to a brush fire.  
• Destruction in its path, just as an infection wrecks havoc to our own internal ecology.  
• If the sickness is the fire, then our immune systems are the fire department and Vitamin C is the water.  
• If I may take this analogy a little further, the fire department may use chemical fire retardants, which are loosely analogous to medicine.  
• Now we would all agree that these chemicals are sometimes warranted, but surely we also know that they will have some consequences to the environment or ecology.  
• This is similar to nutrition and medicine.  
• Nutrition is the natural bolstering of our own systems.  
• Medicine, on the contrary, is foreign and needs to be used with corresponding care.

Due to the strong relationship between C and our immune systems, it is not surprising that viral and bacterial infections can be dealt with by our own systems when adequate C is present.  

Ascorbic acid is toxic to viruses, bacteria, and many types of cultured cells, because of its pro-oxidant activity.  

It is particularly toxic to malignant tumor cells but much less toxic to nonmalignant normal cells, thus its therapeutic use in cancer.

Can Vitamin C... Cure Cancer?   Dr. Abram Hoffer has been treating cancer patients with a nutritional program for many years. The foundation of his nutritional protocol is vitamin C.  Below is a chart summerizing Hoffer's results treating over 1000 cancer with vitamin C (documented in the updated publishing of Cancer and Vitamin C).        The point to see in the chart above is the relative survival. For example, at the end of 1994, about 70% (green line) of the 500+ (purple bar) patients on Hoffer's nutritional plan were alive. In contrast, less than 15% (blue line) of the 100+ patients not on the plan were alive at years end.  There has been some theory concerning vitamin C's potential role in protecting not only healthy cells, but cancer cells as well, thereby interfering with chemotherapy and radiation treatments.                                                               Hoffer's view on this is (quoted from his website): "This [vitamin treatment] would enhance the therapeutic effect of the chemotherapy and decrease its toxicity." Also, "If they [cancer patients] needed chemotherapy the program [vitamin therapy] would make it more tolerable and less painful and if they needed radiation the program would decrease the intensity of the side-effects of the radiation and increase its efficacy." Many studies describe the protective role of vitamin C (ascorbic acid) against cancer development and in treatment of established cancer. The present study investigated whether ascorbic acid demonstrates a therapeutic benefit for prostate cancer. Work involving cancer and Vitamin C points very strongly to the need to take as much Vitamin C as your system is comfortable with.  The constant requirement for it and our inability for any long-term storage (a stressful situation can deplete our supplies of C in seconds!) means we all need to take C every single day.  If you take more C than your system can handle you will get the runs.  This is referred to as the "bowel tolerance limit".  If you are just starting to take C supplementation, this level will be relatively low, but increase over time.  This is because certain enzyme systems will be enabled by the increased C and this takes some time.  It is interesting to note that your limit will go up dramatically when you get sick.                                     How Vitamin C is Therapeutic against Cancer   Vitamin C plays an important role in our daily fight against cancer. Due to its importance to the development of immune system cells, it is crucial as a first line of defense against mutated cells from ever multiplying into overt cancer. If cancer does get a foot-hold, high-dose vitamin C still plays at least three important roles. Immune System Enhancement The first is as a raw material for the immune system. Even after the most successful surgery, radiation- or chemo-therapy, some cancer cells are bound to remain. It is our immune system that will hunt down these cells and destroy them. Vitamin C is required for our immune systems to generate and mobilize the specialized cells that fight cancer and infections, too. The more stress your immune system is under, the more vitamin C is used, if it is available. If it isn't available, the disease will not be stopped. Inhibition of Tumor Growth Secondly, there is a cement, or ground substance, that holds our cells together properly to form the integrity of our tissues. Dr. Ewan Cameron theorized that cancer cells excrete a substance, hyaluronidase, that breaks down the collagen and fibers that make up the structure of this ground substance creating the space needed for tumor growth. Vitamin C is required for the proper development of collagen and this fibrous material. This is why vitamin C is so important to all tissue related problems, including wound healing, spinal disc injuries, gum problems and especially cardiovascular disease. Specifically in cancer, proper tissue integrity will help encase a tumor and make it much harder for it to grow. Cytotoxic Properties J.P. Casciari, N.H. Riordan, T.L. Schmidt, XL Meng, J.A. Jackson and H.D. Riordan have demonstrated in the laboratory that vitamin C in combination with other natural substances can actually be cytotoxic to cancer cells. What this means is that these safe, non-toxic natural substances can kill cancer cells in a way similar to chemotherapy. These tests were done with concentrations of vitamin C that can be duplicated in vivo. One of the authors and researchers of this paper describing this function of vitamin C is Dr. Hugh Riordan.

No matter what medicine or other treatment you and your doctor may choose to treat your illness, Vitamin C should be part of the therapy.  

With very few exceptions, all animal species synthesize vitamin C in their bodies.  Man does not.  The generally accepted theory is that a mutation occurred some tens of millions of years ago to the ancestors of modern man that disabled this synthesis process.  

Natural selection dictates that there was adequate C from dietary sources to allow a reasonable level of health, otherwise the mutation could not have taken hold.  Indeed, natural selection favors those organisms with only the absolutely necessary machinery.  

Scurvy is actually a species-wide enzyme deficiency disorder, exactly like Tay-Sachs, gauchers, or Niemann-Pick Type C. There are 4 enzymes which convert glucose into ascorbic acid--but we can only make the first 3. The gene for the 4th--gulonolactone oxidase--is massively damaged and totally useless. Thus we cannot make the last enzyme, and hence cannot turn gulonolactone, which is almost useless against reactive oxygen species, into ascorbic acid, which is the centerpiece of antioxidant, antiradical defense of essentially all air-exposed life on Earth. Without it, the biosphere would collapse and Earth would be a dead world within a century.


The correct vitamin C level for a human being--a mammal--is c. 2000-3000 mg/kg, and the correct production rate, typical for mammals, is 60 mg-kg/day. But we lack LO, and so our level is c. 25 mg/kg and our synthesis rate is 0. By the way, we are very poor absorbers of C, and thus find it almost impossible to get past 30 mg/kg. (see chart below, Rusty)

Thus the correct path is obvious: reinstall the *gene* for GLO and be done with it, thus curing the universal scurvy. Mammals with the enzyme--which is almost all of them--can live 8-10 times their maturity age. Mammals without it have a hard time reaching 3-4 Ma. Thus this shows that reinstallation of the GLO gene would extend the human life span to c. 300 years.

One mistake, one missing enzyme, one blocked pathway--and you are dead. Ask any hemophiliac.

Our diets have changed dramatically since then.  We live in much less hospitable climates.  We don't pick fresh fruits from trees or eat fresh, raw meat, both excellent sources of vitamin C, like our primate ancestors. Our diets are almost universally lacking in nutritional value.  

Vitamin C is also not stored well in our bodies.  We use it constantly and yet our intake is meager.  Only with regular supplementation in quantities that fill our body's every need will we approach optimum health and the elimination of disease.