The Unexpected Benefits of Vitamin C

The Unexpected Benefits of Vitamin C

A professor of mine once told me that newly graduated doctors have 100 cures for every disease. Experienced doctors often use one remedy for 100 diseases. It seems that this is proving to be quite true with our old friend, Vitamin C.

The best Vitamin C
There are many types of Vitamin C. Some supplements contain diverse minerals while others contain related ingredients like bioflavonoids. There are good reasons for each of these additions. Yet, time has not proven the fancier forms to be superior to the natural, non-acidic form of Vitamin C (sodium-L-ascorbate).

The primary pathway for Vitamin C transport into the bloodstream is through the sodium transport channel. Now, sodium has a really bad reputation because many of us put too much salt (sodium chloride) on our food. But, the fruits and vegetables we eat are naturally very high in sodium. Our blood is naturally high in sodium. In fact, the sodium content of our blood is about 32 times greater than the potassium level in our blood. It is comparable to the sodium content in sea water.

Dr. Libby’s Vital C has the best profile for absorption of this important nutrient.

New uses for an old remedy
Three articles in medical literature recently caught my attention.
Toxins
The first one was a two-year-long discussion about the protective effects of Vitamin C against pesticides and other environmental toxins. This is important because we dump 2.5 million tons of pesticides into our biosphere every year (Environmental Medicine part 4, Dr. Walter Crinnon).

The discussion of Vitamin C and pesticides was published in 2007 and 2008 in the journal Toxicology and Industrial Health. It clearly shows the protective effect of large amounts of Vitamin C against common environmental toxins.


Cholesterol
The second article appeared in the February 2008 edition of Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry. It demonstrated another benefit of Vitamin C in people with elevated cholesterol. You see, Vitamin C in the liver binds excess cholesterol and drains it through the bile ducts into the intestines. Fiber in the intestines soaks up the cholesterol and carries it out of the body. If our diet does not have enough fiber to eliminate the cholesterol we will likely reabsorb it. In fact, most of the cholesterol in our bloodstream has been excreted and reabsorbed numerous times.

Vitamin C binds cholesterol and takes it out of the liver. Vitamin C also helps protect the lining of blood vessels – making them like Teflon to sticky LDL cholesterol. Instead of damaging the blood vessels, oxidized LDL slides off the walls of your arteries and is carried back to the liver by HDL cholesterol.


Blood pressure
The third article came from the October 2008 Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypertension. It clearly showed how large reservoirs of Vitamin C can help reduce high blood pressure. Antioxidants (especially Vitamin C) may reduce poisons in the tissues called aldehydes – think of the poison formaldehyde as a good example. Poisons drive up blood pressure; Vitamin C helps drive down poisons and can result in blood pressure reduction.
Conclusion
Health is built one habit at a time. The more we learn and live the 10 Essentials for Health and Wellness, the healthier we become. Essential #4 tells us to eat nutritiously – including the proper use of supplements. Science is firmly behind using nutrients and nurturing to improve the quality of our lives.