Plea for New RDA for Vitamin C

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Plea for New RDA for Vitamin C: Experts Call for Review of

Recommended Dietary Allowance for Vitamin C

SAN DIMAS, Calif., Aug 24, 2004 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- With newly

published research reports showing that higher concentrations of

vitamin C can be achieved in the blood plasma than previously thought

possible, antioxidant researchers have penned their names to a plea

for a scientific re-evaluation of the Recommended Dietary Allowance

(RDA) for vitamin C.

A dozen prominent antioxidant researchers, authors, and clinicians

say the prevalent belief that 200 milligrams of oral vitamin C, an

amount that can be obtained by eating five servings of selected fresh

fruits and vegetables, can saturate the blood plasma and additional

amounts are excreted in the urine, has now been disproved. Two

recently published papers indicate that blood plasma levels of

ascorbic acid can be raised three times greater than a flawed 1996

study indicates. One of the published studies shows that blood plasma

concentrations of vitamin C continue to rise with a single 1000

milligrams dose of supplemental vitamin C.

Drs. Steve Hickey and , pharmacology graduates of the

University of Manchester in England assert the initial studies used

to determine the blood plasma saturation point for vitamin C failed

to calculate for the half life of this vitamin. In their newly

published book, Drs. Hickey and show that the original

calculations used to establish the RDA were performed 12 hours, or 24

half lives, after oral consumption of vitamin C and are therefore

invalid. (Ascorbate: The Science of Vitamin C, 264 pages, referenced,

ebook: http://www.lulu.com/ascorbate)

In addition to Drs. Hickey and , the list of researchers

calling for a re-evaluation of the RDA for vitamin C includes:

E. Levy M.D., J.D., author of Vitamin C, Infectious Diseases, and

Toxins: Curing the Incurable (Philadelphia, PA: Xlibris Corporation;

2002); F. Cathcart III, M.D., a practicing physician and

advocate of high oral-dose vitamin C therapy; Passwater

Ph.D., antioxidant researcher and author of Supernutrition;

Holford, London, author of the Optimum Nutrition Bible; Dr Archie

Kalokerinos, M.D., Graduate Sydney University, Australia, author of

Vitamin C: Nature's Miraculous Healing Missile; M. Kaufman,

Ph.D., Professor of Chemistry Emeritus, University of the Sciences in

Philadelphia, special interest in medicinal chemistry; Professor Ian

Brighthope, Managing Director, Nutrition Care Pharmaceuticals Pty

Ltd, Australia; Hugh D. Riordan, M.D., Director -- Bio-Communications

Research Institute, Wichita, Kansas; and Abram Hoffer, M.D., Ph.D.,

F.R.C.P., a practicing physician, advocate of nutritional medicine

and editor of the Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine.

The written plea was sent to the Institutes of Medicine, Food &

Nutrition Board, which establishes the Recommended Dietary Allowances

for essential nutrients.