The Science of Vitamin C                                                    

By Gailon Totheroh
CBN News Science & Medical Reporter

The RDA, or Recommended Daily Allowance, for vitamin C suggests that men should get 75 milligrams a day and women 90 milligrams.

CBN.com – (CBN News) - If you were told there was a safe drug that would fight viruses, reduce heart disease and cancer and extend life, would you buy it? And if you found out you could get it over the counter for 25 cents a day, would you definitely buy it? And if your government and your doctor told you not to waste your money on it, would you be angry? That substance is named Ascorbic Acid, otherwise known as vitamin C.

Maybe you would be better off if you were a dog. Dr. Steve Hickey, a biophysicist from Manchester, England, and co-author of "Ascorbate: The Science of Vitamin C," says, "The evidence is that cats and dogs hardly ever get heart disease."

Why is that? It is because of vitamin C. But, you say, you have never seen any bow-wows at the vitamin counter, nor near the citrus at the grocery. So what gives?

Hickey explains, "Cats and dogs manufacture their own vitamin C."

And, no, not in a lab, silly, in their bodies.

Hickey said this is true of nearly all plants and nearly all animals. "Humans are a little bit strange," he says.

Hickey says humans are odd because our bodies can no longer make the Ascorbic Acid as they once did. So to get a dog's life today, as far as heart health, we have got to get C from food and supplements. And that intake may provide more than just heart health.

"Over the last 30 years," Hickey says, "we have had repeated reports and case study data of cures and highly effective treatments, treatments that increase the life span of terminal cancer patients, [increase their] expected life span by a factor of three."

So, are Americans getting enough to keep major diseases at bay? Well, that is a good question. The government says we don't need much.

The RDA, or Recommended Daily Allowance, for vitamin C suggests that men should get 75 milligrams a day and women 90 milligrams. Yet a dog the size of an adult would internally make about 2,500 milligrams.

For Hickey, the human recommendation is way too low, and should be closer to what an animal, like a dog, would make.

Dr. Hickey continues, "A normal, healthy individual might look for a 500 milligram vitamin C tablet and take it with every meal."

Nutrition researcher Carol Johnston at Arizona State University says, based on her own research and other vitamin C studies, she personally takes 1000 milligrams (1 gram) a day.

The government RDA, however, will only keep most people from getting scurvy, a wasting disease that leads to weakness of skin, gums and blood vessels; reduced ability to fight disease; and premature death.

You might expect that scurvy only exists in poor countries, but Johnston says scurvy is on the rise in America.

Data from 20 years ago put five percent of adults at scurvy levels, with the unexpected current figures at 15 percent.

Hickey says if there were an emphasis on the 1000 milligrams daily, those millions at scurvy levels would diminish and the rest of the population would be healthier. He says part of that better health would be increased resistance to deadly germs, as well as those annoying, but all too common, colds that plague us every winter.

So what error led our government down the wrong path on vitamin C? They did not account for vitamin C's half-life of half an hour. Half-lives measure depletion from the blood.

In a research study, the government waited 12 hours before looking at blood levels of people taking high and low doses. After 20-some half lives, both the high and low doses had depleted to the same level in the blood. Low doses thus appeared just as good as high doses.

Hickey says that is bad science, betraying a bias for low doses. He states, "Instead of looking at that as a hypothesis, as an idea to be tested, an idea to be thrown away, if possible, they looked at it -- and look at it -- as a scientific law."

Hickey says that the bias against lavishing vitamin C on people's diets is widespread and goes back many years. "The medical establishment had actually got it wrong, and their science was poor, and the physicians who were claiming enormous benefits for high doses -- their science was correct," he remarks.

Hickey says that the government should have paid attention to literally thousands of studies suggesting that more vitamin C is better

"Taken as a whole," he says, "that evidence invalidates the hypothesis that small doses and low blood levels are all a person needs for good health."

Why exactly is vitamin C so important, and why might getting more make a difference?

The well-known benefit of C is as an antioxidant. That is, C helps protect the body from the damage of daily living. Not as well-known is C's crucial role in forming collagen in the body. Collagen can be called the body's glue. That means it is crucial for the strength and flexibility of the blood vessels, a bastion against heart disease.

And vitamin C's antibiotic properties appear strongest at very high doses of vitamin C. Some physicians have used as much as a thousand times the RDA intravenously to treat certain diseases.

"And, that difference in magnitude is enormous," Hickey says. "It's the difference between the speed of a snail and the speed of a jet."

Even our ancient diet is believed to have included as much as 600 milligrams a day. To get that amount today, people would have to eat all fruit, all the time. And that, of course, is not practical today.

Still, Hickey does recommend the fruits and vegetables. He says, "The different colors might indicate different levels of antioxidants within those skins and what you're looking for is a lot of different colored fruits and vegetables."

Yet, he says, don't count on those fruits and vegetable for your vitamin C; they will not guarantee a person consistent and high-enough levels of the vitamin.

CBN News asked Dr. Hickey what was the best form of vitamin C to take. Hickey responded, "Well, an ideal form is vitamin C powder, because it's low cost and it's easy to take."

The trouble is, standard medicine has long had evidence that the nation's top killer -- yes, heart disease and strokes -- result from low vitamin C

"But in the past half a century, says Hickey, "the medical establishment has not performed even a simple experiment to refute that hypothesis."

Hickey says those experiments need to be done, and if not, about 95 percent of the population could rightfully assume they are not getting enough vitamin C.

The importance of vitamin C for good health is becoming increasingly evident, but with medical and government policies increasingly downplaying the nutrient, consumers are led to believe that a little dab will do you -- but it won't.

NOTE: If you have problems with acid reflux or excess stomach acid, opt for the "buffered" form of vitamin C

The Power of Prayer in Medicine
 

Nov. 6, 2001 -- Here's more evidence that -- in medicine, as in all of life -- prayer seems to work in mysterious ways.

In one recent study, women at an in vitro fertilization clinic had higher pregnancy rates when total strangers were praying for them. Another study finds that people undergoing risky cardiovascular surgery have fewer complications when they are the focus of prayer groups.

The fertilization study -- conducted at a hospital in Seoul, Korea -- found a doubling of the pregnancy rate among women who were prayed for, says Rogerio A. Lobo, MD, chair of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Columbia University School of Medicine in New York City. His study appears in the September issue of the Journal of Reproductive Medicine.

"It's a highly-significant finding," Lobo tells WebMD. "I'm first to say we don't know what this means."

The randomized study involved 199 women who were undergoing in vitro fertility treatments at a hospital in Seoul, Korea, during 1998 and 1999. All women were selected for the study based on their similar age and fertility factors, Lobo tells WebMD.

Half the women were randomly assigned to have one of several Christian prayer groups in the U.S., Canada, and Australia pray for them. A photograph of each patient was given to "her" prayer group. While one set of prayer groups prayed directly for the women, a second set of prayer groups prayed for the first set, and a third group prayed for both groups.

Neither the women nor their medical caregivers knew about the study -- or that anyone was praying for them.

"We were very careful to control this as rigorously as we could," Lobo tells WebMD. "We deliberately set it up in an unbiased way." That meant not informing patients they were being prayed for, so it would not influence the women's outcome. Whether the patients were praying for themselves -- or if others were praying for them -- "we don't know," he says.

The women in the "prayed for" group became pregnant twice as often as the other women, he says.

"We were not expecting to find a positive result," says Lobo. Researchers have re-analyzed the data several times, to detect any discrepancies -- but have been unable to find any, he says.

Lobo admits there may be some "biological variable" that they have not discovered, which could account for the high success rate among the prayed-for women. He and his colleagues are already planning a follow-up study also involving in vitro fertilization.

The second study involves 150 patients -- all having serious heart problems, all scheduled for a procedure called angioplasty, in which doctors thread a catheter up into a clogged heart artery, open it up, and insert a little device called a stent to prop it open.

Patients who were prayed for during their procedure had far fewer complications, reports lead author Mitchell W. Krucoff, MD, director of the Ischemia Monitoring Laboratory at Duke University Medical Center and the Durham Veterans Administration Medical Center in Durham, NC.

His study appears in the current issue of the American Heart Journal.

Krucoff enrolled 150 patients who were going to have the stent procedure, and then randomly assigned them to receive one of five complementary therapies: guided imagery, stress relaxation, healing touch, or intercessory 'off site' prayer -- which meant they were prayed for by others, or to no complementary therapy.

All the complementary therapies -- except off-site prayer -- were performed at the patient's bedside at least one hour before the cardiac procedures.

Seven prayer groups of varying denominations around the world -- Buddhists, Catholics, Moravians, Jews, fundamentalist Christians, Baptists, and the Unity School of Christianity -- prayed for specific patients during their procedures.

Each prayer group was assigned names, ages, and illnesses of specific patients they were to pray for. None of the patients, family members, or staff knew who was being prayed for. None of the patient-prayer group matchings were based on denomination.

"This was a very rigorously controlled study, just as we would look at any therapeutic -- a new cardiovascular drug, a new stent -- and see the results in terms of patients' outcomes," Krucoff tells WebMD. The goal was to determine which therapies warranted further study in a bigger trial.

Those in the "prayed for" group had fewer complications than any of the patients, including those receiving other complementary therapies, he says. "Although it's not statistical proof, it's not certainty, it is suggestive -- to the point that we've already begun a phase II trial."

He has already enrolled more than 300 people in a phase II study.

Why did prayer produce the best outcome? "There are no satisfactory mechanistic explanations," he says. That's why studies that measure patients' outcomes are best for this kind of study, he says. Even if you don't understand why it's happening, at least you have something to measure -- how the patient did."

Both studies are "well-controlled," preliminary trials "providing more evidence that there's something to it all," says Blair Justice, PhD, professor of psychology and psychobiologist (mind-body medicine) at the University of Texas School of Public Health in Houston.

Justice, who has followed prayer research for several decades, reviewed the reports for WebMD.

"Research into prayer has been going on a lot longer than is reflected in mainstream journals," Justice tells WebMD. "Since the 1980s, there have been several well-controlled prospective studies, good evidence that this wasn't some product of a good imagination."

Some of the studies conducted in Europe involved nonhuman organisms -- enzyme cells, bacteria, plants, animals -- which could not be affected by other complicating factors, including faith. Groups were assigned to pray for their growth; then the prayers were reversed, and people were praying against growth. Each time, the plants responded according to the focus of the prayers.

"There seems to be something to it," he says.

While current technology does not allow researchers to understand the mechanism behind prayer -- what makes it work -- it's much like gravity and other natural phenomena that were considered mysterious forces by earlier cultures, Justice tells WebMD.

"Keppler was accused of being insane when he said tides were due to the tug of lunar gravity, even Galileo considered it to be ravings of a lunatic -- until Marconi proved the theory," he says.

"It's just like anything else, you don't have to believe in it for prayer to have an effect," says Justice.

Play Tricks on Your Body (ABC News)

Nov. 7, 2005— Have a tickle in your throat? Scratch your ear.

Stuffy Nose? Use your tongue. Brain Freeze? Heat your mouth.

According to editor-in-chief of Men's Health, Dave Zinczenko, these are several of the simple self-healing tricks people can do with their own bodies.

"Whenever we're feeling achy or under the weather, we reach for the drugs in the medicine cabinet," Zinczenko said. "But the body has its own hidden cures, once you know how to push your body's own buttons."

Simply opening the ear canal with a little scratch stimulates nerves that create a reflex in the throat, which cause a muscle spasm — or a gag — which will relieve the tickle.

Pushing the tongue to the top of the mouth while pushing on the spot between the eyebrows with the pointer finger will help clear a stuffy nose. Pushing on both places at the same time moves the vomer bone, which runs through the nasal passages, back and forth like a seesaw. The motion loosens the congestion and after about 20 seconds, the sinuses begin to drain.

Zinczenko also said that coughing can dull the pain of receiving a shot. The cough causes a temporary rise in pressure in the chest and spinal canal, which blocks the areas in the spine where pain originates.

When eating ice cream, many people dig in too quickly and get the dreaded "brain freeze." Zinczenko said that pressing the tongue flat against the roof of the mouth — covering it as much as possible — will "fake the body out." When the mouth gets very cold, it fools the body into thinking the brain is also freezing. The headache comes from the body compensating and overheating. Heating the mouth will prevent this.

 Is the Food in Your Fridge Safe to Eat? (ABC News)

Nov. 6, 2005 — With three children, food doesn't last long in the Stanisci household in New Jersey.

"I must shop probably two to three times a week for food," said mom Kathy Stanisci.

But she admits that despite her frequent trips to the store, some items in her kitchen might have outlived their shelf life.

"Good Morning America" Weekend Edition asked Dr. Michael Doyle, director of The Center for Food Safety at The University of Georgia, to look through the Staniscis' refrigerator to see which items are still edible and which ones should be thrown away.

Doyle's first concern was the Staniscis' deli turkey, which was six days old. He brought it back to his lab and found hundreds of thousands of bacteria.

"I would consider [this] getting close to spoilage," he said.

He recommends keeping deli meats a maximum of four days.

"Buying meats at the deli counter can sometimes be a bit riskier than if you were to buy meats that are already prepackaged by a processor, because the processor will, in the process, heat-treat the meats and treat them in such a way that the bacterial counts are very, very low," Doyle said.

Spoilage Can Be Deceiving

The Staniscis' expired eggs, on the other hand, were fine. Doyle said that commercially-sold eggs are treated with a disinfectant that keeps bacteria counts low.

Pasteurized milk is also resistant to bacteria. It might start to taste bad after a week or two, Doyle said, but it won't harm you.

Mayonnaise is made with bacteria-killing vinegar, so it's safe in the fridge for a year — same with ketchup.

But Doyle found a heavy load of bacteria on the Staniscis' half-eaten, two-week-old package of salad mix, even though it looked fine.

"Once you've opened a bag of lettuce, it's important to consider that bag as now ready to eat because you've now exposed it to an environment where you might have bacteria entering it," Doyle said.

As for the leftovers, Doyle found that the chicken and string beans Stanisci had made just one night before had tens of thousands of bacteria. But her three-day-old Chinese takeout and five-day-old cheese pizza had relatively low bacteria counts.

"Not all leftovers are created equal," Doyle said. "So, my rule of thumb is, if it's a highly perishable type of food, like a cooked meat product, three to four days should be the maximum."

Contrary to popular belief, Doyle said, items like plastic wrap, aluminum foil and Tupperware may make your foods taste fresher but they won't extend their shelf life. And when it comes to mold, if you find it on a brick of cheese, just cut that chunk off. But if you find it on a slice of bread, the whole loaf has to be thrown out because invisible mold may have spread to the other slices.

Perhaps the single best thing you can do to extend the shelf life of your foods is to make sure your refrigerator is set at 40 F or lower.

"I've seen home refrigerators as high as 55 degrees Fahrenheit! That is no longer a refrigerator," Doyle said. "We microbiologists call that an incubator. That's how you grow bacteria."

What’s In Your Medicine Cabinet

 It's Time To Trash Old Cosmetics, Medicine, Razors

Nov. 5, 2005 — You might keep your bathroom immaculately clean — with gleaming tiles and perfectly clear mirrors. But the greatest source of bacteria and illness may lie somewhere that you're forgetting: inside your medicine cabinet.

Expired medications, old cosmetics and toothbrushes past their prime can make you sick. "Good Morning America" talked to the experts to find out what is the shelf life of different items typically found in medicine cabinets.

Expired Medication

If you go through all the medicine bottles in your medicine cabinet, you are bound to find some that have expired. And, when you locate these, it's something to take seriously, according to Dr. Evelyn Hermes-DeSantis, clinical associate professor of pharmacy at Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy at Rutgers University in Piscataway, N.J.

"You always have to worry about contamination with that," she said.

A drug's expiration date is the point at which it has lost 10 percent of its potency.

"With some drugs, 90 percent is still good enough," Hermes-DeSantis said. "Some drugs, it's not."

So, an expired drug might not work, but it's unlikely to hurt you. There are, however, some notable exceptions such as an antibiotic known as tetracycline, which can actually degrade into something harmful, said Hermes-DeSantis.

She also recommends throwing out expired bottles of oil capsules (such as fish oil supplements) because they can become rancid.

Makeup

Unlike with medication, makeup manufacturers are not required to put expiration dates on their products. Shelf life can vary dramatically depending on how many preservatives are in that lipstick or powder. Most makeup products should be thrown away after a year or two. By then, the anti-microbial preservatives have dissipated, said Dr. Elizabeth Brooks, assistant professor of biology at Rowan University in Glassboro, N.J.

"The whole purpose of makeup is to look better," Brooks said. "And so if we are introducing bacteria-loaded makeup onto our skin, we're increasing the risk for acne."

You could also get something much worse — a staph infection, she added.

Powder-based products hold up longer than liquids, but mascara has the shortest shelf life.

"Two months is when we should throw out our mascara, because we could contract bacterial conjunctivitis and that's actually relatively common," Brooks said.

If you allow your kids to use your makeup to play dress up, routinely scrape off the top layer, Brooks said.

"I tell my girls, 'don't share makeup with your friends.' If they have to because they feel pressure, give their friend the makeup and I'll buy you a new one," she added.

Toothbrushes and Razorblades

Brooks recommends dunking toothbrushes in hydrogen peroxide from time to time and buying new ones every few months.

Razor blades should be replaced even more frequently, she added. Also, they should be kept outside the shower if possible to prevent the growth of staph bacteria.

"When you're shaving, you're making abrasions to your skin," Brooks said. "So now all that bacteria or fungi have a route of entry into your body."