Knowing and Benefiting from Vitamin C

A practical guide to our frontline nutrient

Vitamin C means the organic molecule in foods along with bioflavonoids, phenolic acids, carotenoids, minerals. Ascorbic Acid is the active molecule, production of which is the default state across the animal kingdom with endogenous levels upregulated in real time as required. This discussion will use the term Vitamin C for pure ascorbic acid.

A master antioxidant, Vitamin C is essential for collagen synthesis and integrity, immune function, neurotransmitter synthesis, DNA protection from oxidative damage, carnitine synthesis for fatty acid transport into mitochondria, iron absorption, adrenal hormone synthesis to support the stress response, skin integrity/photoprotection.

Vitamin C is burned in real time by a wide range of stresses – physical, mental/emotional, illness, pain, and toxicological (poisoning of all forms).

It is inexpensive to supplement and often critically important to do so, to replace the bodily deficit that rapidly accrues. Depletion leaves us vulnerable to injury and illness.

Vitamin C is essential for

• Antioxidant & redox regulation.
• Connective-tissue and collagen synthesis.
• Immunity: concentrated in leukocytes, supports neutrophil chemotaxis, phagocytosis and microbe destruction, antioxidant protection for immune cells, rapidly burned by inflammation and infection.
• Adrenal/catecholamine & steroid metabolism.
• Carnitine synthesis & energy metabolism.
• Iron absorption.
• Neurotransmitter/brain function: the brain has high concentrations.
• A cofactor in gene regulation & cellular differentiation.

It is an emergency medicine for infections, sepsis, poisoning from animal bites. IV (intravenous) infusion is vital in meningococcal infection.

It acts strongly as an antihistamine by acting at multiple points upstream of the receptor to reduce the total histamine burden: mast cell stabilization, inhibition of histamine synthesis, enhancing histamine degradation, direct chemical degradation and indirectly by immune system modulation. All these processes directly oxidize and degrade circulating histamine whilst Vitamin C is rapidly consumed.

What is Scurvy?

Scurvy is the severe disease caused by prolonged ascorbic acid deficiency. Without sufficient ascorbic acid, collagen formation becomes defective, weakening connective tissues and blood vessels. This leads to fatigue and weakness, swollen and bleeding gums, loose teeth, easy bruising and haemorrhage, poor wound healing, joint and muscle pain, and eventually widespread tissue deterioration.

Merck Manual

Physicians are generally taught that scurvy is a historical curiosity and they fail to see it because they don’t look for it. Yet it’s basic pathology and often obvious. “Sub-clinical” scurvy is rife, that is, serious undefined pathologies without the overt signs of scurvy. Ninety five percent of people admitted to hospital are deficient, all of them leave with lower levels than when they entered and no doctor will prescribe it. Those working in aged care may recognize these images.

C is for collagen. Without Vitamin C the enzymes prolyl hydroxylase and lysyl hydroxylase can’t function thus newly made collagen can’t form its stable triple-helix structure. The body’s constant collagen turnover shifts into a net deficit and the integrity of all tissue progressively fails.

If we cease taking Vitamin C today we will be dead in 6 to 12 months and death will be a merciful release.

Scurvy is fully implicated in

• Bleeding gums, loose teeth.
• Weak joints, ligaments.
• Spider veins, leaking blood vessels.
• Adrenal exhaustion.
• Rheumatoid arthritis.
• Oxidised LDL cholesterol.
• Osteoporosis (scurvy of bone).
• Pneumonia, tuberculosis.
• Cancer metastasis via collagen.
• Intervertebral disc lesions/bulges.
• Obstetrical complications involving the tensile strength and elasticity of tissue: abdominal hernia, uterine rupture, cervical and perineal laceration, haemorrhage (pre & post partum).

I regularly see clients who have been through a period of terrible stress who then suffer a structural failure, for example a collapsing vertebral disc or a flaccid, stagnant colon. The stress has burned out the body’s Vitamin C reserves and subsequent weakening of collagen allowed the problem to occur.

What is Ascorbic Acid?

Ascorbic acid is made from glucose by a five step enzyme process (we lack one of those enzymes so we must ingest our entire requirement). It is a molecule similar to glucose, its absorption from the gut and its entry to cells is by the same pathways as glucose.

Factory production uses starch (usually corn starch) to form glucose and then L-Ascorbic Acid, the same molecule in food and which animals produce endogenously.

Many people say that Ascorbic Acid is a synthetic molecule and that we should obtain our Vitamin C from foods, especially foods such as Camu Camu, Kakadu Plum, Acerola Cherry. To illustrate the reality of this we can compare Camu Camu, said to be the highest Vitamin C content of all foods, with pure ascorbic acid powder. The highest Vitamin C content recorded for Camu Camu is 8% and an online seller here in Australia has 100 grams of powder for $96. The product on their shelf is probably about 5%, but even at 8% it’s only a day’s requirement and you couldn’t ingest that much powder. The price comparison for 8 grams is $96 for Camu Camu powder and $1.15 for pure Ascorbic Acid in a 125gm sachet at the pharmacy, and you can purchase Ascorbic Acid on this website for less than half that price.

How to Dose

The secret to using Vitamin C is taking the effort to become adapted to it while we’re well. It takes days to weeks to grow a familiarity with our needs and for the gut to adapt to absorbing what the body is calling for.

We then maintain solid bodily levels with daily dosing – all systems would then be running well with a good safety reserve, we can respond with immediate higher dosing for any kind of physical or mental exhaustion, any illness or toxicity . A Vitamin C adapted person can achieve the full power of Vitamin C with oral dosing alone, a major first step in managing any health concern.

It takes time to gently increase the dose up to “bowel tolerance” which is “loose stool”, NOT diarrhea. When absorption capacity of the small intestine is exceeded the excess Vitamin C will travel to the colon where it creates an osmotic gradient, drawing water into the bowel and causing a laxative effect which can release accretions from the colon wall and rapidly move the waste from the body.

A loose bowel is inevitable while adapting to Vitamin C , it is entirely beneficial however it can be inconvenient! Our colon is the major organ of elimination, people pay for colonics to clear stagnation and accretions, the Vitamin C Flush can be just as effective at minimal expense. The flush can be done anytime, for example after a fast, and after an extended fast you’ll literally only pass water.

Our daily requirements are similar to that of goats. Their normal daily production is about 10 grams, going up to 30 grams if stressed and 60 grams if sick.

A pleasant way to take it is to mix one measure of Ascorbic Acid with a half measure of Sodium Bicarbonate. The acidic powder is neutralized. Add some citrus juice to make a refreshing fizzy drink.

Ascorbic Acid + Sodium Bicarbonate = Sodium Ascorbate + Carbon Dioxide

Use smaller doses (1/4 teaspoon) more frequently (4 -6 hourly), try different combinations of dose and timing. A useful maximum single dose is 1 tsp (5ml). Try a teaspoonful mid afternoon for an energy boost, or after sunset for a good night’s sleep.

Hugh Wallace N.D.