Just about everything doctors have been telling us about vitamin C is wrong.
The current medical opinion says people can gain all their vitamin C requirements from a healthy diet. They tell us to make sure we get five, or perhaps even nine, helpings of fruits and vegetables each day. And admonished that we do not need dietary supplements.
However, the book Vitamin C: The Real Story, the Remarkable and Controversial Healing Factor, written by Steve Hickey, explains why eating more vegetables and fruits alone, while good advice, will not provide the benefits of vitamin C supplementation.
One problem of conventional advice is that it’s based on a flawed notion of what is optimal.
The Real Story on Vitamin C
In 1932, nutritional researchers discovered that citrus fruits contained a substance that, when extracted and fed to laboratory animals, would prevent scurvy. This substance is what we call Vitamin C.
The government’s Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) suggests an intake of vitamin C just enough to prevent acute deficiencies such as scurvy.
According to the conventional view, they consider intakes above this minimum level unnecessary. But, let’s face it. Who wants to aspire to a healthy level just above not getting scurvy?
Achieving optimal health means going way beyond what traditional recommendations consider to be sufficient.
There is substantial evidence showing the intake of vitamin C necessary to prevent chronic illness is much greater than the RDA.
Mr. Hickey even contends that someday, medicine without vitamin C therapy will be compared to childbirth without sanitation or surgery without anesthetic!
Another one of the early scientists to realize vitamin C’s potential is Irwin Stone, Ph.D. (1907-1984). Dr. Stone used vitamin C to prevent oxidation in food, a purpose still commonly used.
Dr. Stone also supplemented his diet with large amounts of vitamin C. He proposed that humans had inherited a genetic trait to need, but not manufacture, ascorbic acid. You can address this innate dependency from your diet, but not easily.
According to Dr. Stone, the present recommendations are far less than what we really need, based on the amount produced each day by other mammals.
Linus Pauling, Ph.D., (1901-1994) arguably the most highly qualified, and the best known, critic of the vitamin C-deficient medical system.
He reassessed many of the “vitamins are useless” studies. Dr. Pauling explained how researchers misinterpreted their own data or presented biased opinions, thus showing that vitamin therapy had a statistically significant value.
The Fragile, Water-Soluble Nature of Vitamin C
Humans, for an unknown reason in our evolution, lost the ability to synthesize vitamin C and must obtain it through food or supplements.
Because it is water-soluble, Vitamin C is extremely perishable.
Soaking of vegetables in water will weaken their Vitamin C values in a very short time, so wash your vegetables quickly and NEVER allow them to remain in the water longer than is absolutely necessary.
Vitamin C is depleted by stresses to the body such as those that come from infections, illness, fatigue surgery, anxiety, pollution, birth control, smoking, alcohol, and extremes in temperature. And as we age there is a greater need to regenerate collagen which requires even more vitamin C.
So you can see why — especially in today’s modern world – getting the minimum RDA of vitamin C is almost worthless to what your body really needs.
The Many Benefits of Vitamin C:
Vitamin C deficiency is a major cause of much of our common aches and pains. That’s because vitamin C affects the functions of ALL body cells.
A recent study published in Seminars in Preventive and Alternative Medicine looked at over 100 studies over 10 years. It revealed a growing list of benefits of vitamin C.
The most prominent role of vitamin C is its immune-stimulating effect. This is why it’s important for defense against infections such as common colds. It also acts as an inhibitor of histamine, a compound released during allergic reactions.
As a powerful antioxidant, it can neutralize harmful free radicals and it aids in neutralizing pollutants and toxins.
Thus, it can prevent the formation of potentially carcinogenic nitrosamines in the stomach (due to consumption of nitrite-containing foods, such as smoked meat).
Aside from its best-known role in the prevention and clearing of the common cold, vitamin C also performs the most important function of metabolism.
It influences the coagulation of blood in case of an accident or surgery, strengthens the teeth and bones, and aids in the production of collagen, which is like cement that binds the tissue cells together.
Vitamin C has shown to help with all the following:
- Anemia
- Bleeding gums
- Decreased ability to fight infection
- Decreased wound-healing rate
- Dry and splitting hair
- Easy bruising
- Gingivitis (inflammation of the gums)
- Nosebleeds
- Weight gain because of slowed metabolism
- Rough, dry, scaly skin
- Swollen and painful joints
- Weakened tooth enamel
- Natural Antihistamine
- Reduces the risk of cataracts
- Reduce the risk of heart disease
- Helps the body absorb iron and calcium
- Increases the resistance to ligament and tendon injury.
- Protection from radiation (x-rays)
* Results may vary from person to person. All statements in this article have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.
