Vitamin C - ing vindicated

[Guest guest]

" ing advocated consumption of supplemental

vitamin C throughout the day and he consumed 18,000 milligrams of

vitamin C in divided doses on a daily basis, a practice which

overcomes the half-life decay problem.

"

http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=danews.story & STORY=/www/story/\

07-06-2004/0002204911 & EDATE=TUE+Jul+06+2004,+06:57+AM

Manchester, England--The authors of a new book claim the Institute

of Medicine (IM) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) used

flawed science to develop the Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) for

vitamin C, a blunder that has likely caused millions of people to

prematurely suffer avoidable health problems such as cataracts,

strokes, heart attacks and many other maladies.

Steve Hickey PhD and Hillary PhD, pharmacology professors

and graduates of the University of Manchester in Britain, claim they

have been in communication with the NIH and the IM for over a year,

challenging their rationale which establishes the RDA for vitamin C

at 75 and 90 milligrams for males and females respectively. Hickey

and say some basic errors in biology make justification for

the current RDA for vitamin C indefensible. Even a recently proposed

200- milligram daily intake would still be inadequate to achieve

optimal health says Hickey and .

HALF-LIFE FOR VITAMIN C IGNORED

The main flaw--the half life for vitamin C is quite short, about 30

minutes in blood plasma, a fact which NIH and IM researchers have

failed to recognize. (Half life is the time it takes for half of a

substance to be removed from the body.) NIH researchers established

the current RDA based upon tests conducted 12 hours (24 half lives)

after consumption. " To be blunt, " says Hickey, " the NIH gave a dose

of vitamin C, waited until it had been excreted, and then measured

blood levels. "

Because vitamin C is used up rapidly, a very high single dose of

vitamin C would not achieve the same concentration in the blood

serum over time as two divided lower doses. Hickey and claim

many negative studies using high-dose vitamin C have failed to

recognize this fact and have therefore mistakenly concluded that

high-dose supplemental vitamin C is ineffective.

RDA NOT FOR EVERYBODY

In the past year Hickey and have shaken the confidence of

the IM and NIH, revealing that the medical establishment has failed

to investigate the use of high-dose vitamin C properly, for more

than 50 years. Hickey and have taken the IM and NIH to task

for developing the RDA for vitamin C on studies using only 15

healthy test subjects. Normal variations would call for a greater

pool of test subjects before establishment of an RDA for hundreds of

millions of people.

Furthermore, the RDA is intended to set a level of nutrient

consumption that would prevent disease (scurvy) among the vast

majority (95%+) of the population. Yet smokers (50 million),

estrogen or birth control pill users (13 million and 18 million),

diabetics (16 million), pregnant females (4 million) and people

taking aspirin (inestimable millions) or other drugs, have increased

need for vitamin C and comprise more than 35 percent of the

population. The current RDA wouldn't meet the needs of these large

subpopulations.

CONTRADICTORY DATA

Furthermore, Hickey and confronted the IM and NIH with their

own contradictory data. The IM and NIH claim the saturation point is

reached at a certain concentration of ascorbic acid in blood plasma

but later published a paper showing repeated oral doses could

achieve much higher concentrations, more than three times greater!

[ls Internal Medicine 140: 533-37, 2004]

Because of the short half-life of ascorbic acid, five 100 milligram

doses of oral vitamin C taken at intervals through the day will

raise average blood levels more than a single 1000 milligram dose.

Hickey says the blood plasma is not saturated when 1000 milligrams

of vitamin C is consumed orally since NIH researchers themselves

demonstrated 2500 mg dose produces even higher concentrations.

Hickey and claim the minimum supplemental dose of oral

vitamin C needed to sustain blood plasma levels is around 2500

milligrams a day in divided doses in healthy individuals. Millions

of others (smokers, diabetics, etc.) have needs greater than this.

NIH researchers doggedly cling to their claim that no more than 200

milligrams of oral vitamin C is required for human health and that a

diet which includes five servings of fruits and vegetables would

provide 210-280 milligrams of vitamin C. [biofactors 15: 71-74,

2001] But only 9 percent of the US population consumes 5 servings of

plant foods daily. The National Cancer Institute has abandoned their

5-a-day recommendation and replaced it with 9-a-day servings of

fruits and vegetables once they recognized five servings a day had

not reduced the risk for cancer or heart disease.

TOLERABLE UPPER LIMIT ALSO FLAWED

The recommended Tolerable Upper Limit for vitamin C, 2000 mg per

day, gives the false impression that amounts beyond this would be

toxic or produce side effects. In fact, 2000 mg of oral vitamin C

would not meet the needs of millions of American adults. The only

side effect at this dose is transient diarrhea which usually

dissipates over time.

TISSUE LEVELS VS. BLOOD PLASMA LEVELS

The mistaken idea that high-dose vitamin C supplementation saturates

the blood plasma after a moderate dose of about 150 milligrams of

oral vitamin C, and additional amounts are worthless since they are

excreted in the urine, now must be abandoned, says Hickey and

. More than a decade ago other researchers found that

consumption of high-dose vitamin C (2000 mg per day) increased

ascorbic acid levels in the human eye by 22-32 percent compared to

when a so-called saturation dose (148 mg) is consumed. [Current Eye

Research 8: 751, 1991] Ascorbic acid levels in other tissues in the

body, such as the brain where vitamin C concentration is 10 times

greater than in blood plasma [J Clinical Investigation 100: 2842,

1997], make it evident that blood plasma levels may not be the gold

standard for measuring vitamin C adequacy in all tissues in the

human body.

LINUS PAULING VINDICATED

Hickey and ' revealing book confirms the work of Dr. Linus

ing, a long-time advocate of high-dose vitamin C

supplementation. ing advocated consumption of supplemental

vitamin C throughout the day and he consumed 18,000 milligrams of

vitamin C in divided doses on a daily basis, a practice which

overcomes the half-life decay problem.

ing also conducted studies using intravenous vitamin C as a

treatment for cancer. In recent months published scientific reports

even call for a reevaluation of the use of high-dose intravenous

vitamin C for cancer treatment now that a study shows that

intravenous vitamin C can produce blood plasma concentrations of

vitamin C that are more than six times greater than oral vitamin C.

[ls Internal Medicine 140: 533-37, 2004] Three years ago even

NIH researchers proposed that ascorbate treatment of cancer should

be reexamined by rigorous scientific scrutiny in the light of new

evidence. [J Am College Nutrition 19:423-5, 2000]

The inability to improve survival times in cancer patients with

conventional cancer treatment has been disheartening. In 1991, it

was reported that supplemental vitamin C, received by incurable

cancer patients at some time during their illness, more than doubled

their survival time. [Medical Hypotheses 36: 185-89, 1991] Indeed,

ing and associates demonstrated that high-dose vitamin C more

than quadrupled the survival times of terminal cancer patients.

[Proceedings Nat'l Academy Sciences 73: 3685-89, 1976] But ing's

research was discredited later when scientists claimed as little as

150 milligrams of vitamin C saturates the blood plasma and any more

vitamin C than that is excreted. Now researchers recognize they made

a grave error. ing even demonstrated that mice given high doses

of vitamin C in their food were five times less likely to develop

skin tumors when exposed to ultraviolet radiation than mice on low

vitamin C diets. [Am J Clinical Nutrition 54:1252S-1255S, 1991] The

significance here is that even high-dose oral supplementation may

have preventive effects against certain forms of cancer.

HEALTH AUTHORITIES CEASE COMMUNICATION

Hickey has called for the IM and NIH to retract the current RDA or

provide scientific justification for their recommendation. The NIH

has ceased communication with Hickey via email.

Hickey and ' new book, " Ascorbate: the Science of Vitamin C, "

is available for immediate download at www.lulu.com/ascorbate.

has a B.Sc. in physiology and psychology, an MSc in computer

science and a PhD in child health from the University of Manchester,

England. Her Ph.D. work was on the effects of early life

undernutrition on brain development and later behaviour. For a time

she was a lecturer in organisational behaviour at Manchester

Business School, working with Professor Enid Mumford. She was also a

member of the British Computer Society's working group on

Sociotechnical Systems. has scientific and other publications

ranging from brain research to computer systems implementation.

Steve Hickey

Steve has a B.A. (maths and science) from the Open University,

Membership of the Institute of Biology by examination in

pharmacology, is a Chartered Biologist and a former member of the

British Computer Society. In the first year of his PhD research in

medical biophysics at the University of Manchester, he won the

international Volvo Award for Biomechanics. In his final year, he

was runner up for the Volvo Basic Science award for work on the

development and aging of the spine. Other awards include the annual

award and medal of the Back Pain Society (1986). Following his

Ph.D., he worked with Professor Brocklehust on the function of

the urethra. This was followed by research into ultra high

resolution CT body scanning, leading the physics team in Europe's

first clinical MR imaging unit at Manchester Medical School. He was

also a member of the Medical Research Council's task force on MR

imaging. Steve has over 100 scientific publications covering a

variety of disciplines. Currently he is Technical Director of a

computer company in Manchester Science Park. He is also working with

Professor Enid Mumford on aspects of computer systems

implementation. In addition, he is a member of the Biology

Department of Manchester Metropolitan University. He is currently

affiliated with the Metropolitan University of Manchester.