The following information is for educational purposes only and is not meant to diagnose, treat, or prescribe any kind of disease or illness. It is a good idea to seek the professional advice of a qualified health care practitioner (remember Naturopaths are doctors too) before making any major changes in your self health care.Remember scurvy? What seems to be an obscure condition that only affected sailors lost at sea actually has a close - and more serious connection - to heart disease, even cancer prevention or maintenance, and the state of your skin (including wrinkles) than you might know.
Hypoascorbemia, or scurvy, is a genetic disease wherein the body fails to produce the enzyme l-gulonolactone oxidase in the liver which prevents us from synthesizing our own ascorbic acid. Whereas 99.9% of all animals produce ascorbic acid - commonly referred to as Vitamin C - for general health and more in response to stress and viral infections, humans have been suffering from lack of this life-lengthening trait for over 40 million years. Only some types of monkeys, guinea pigs, and an Indian fruit eating bat share our missing enzyme. Maybe we're not so superior afterall.
What does all this have to do with conditions like heart disease? Contrary to popular medical opinion (remember, medicine is 50% science and 50% art), which blames cholesterol as the primary villain of atherosclerosis, one of the main - and highly preventable - causes of cardiovascular disease is the lack of certain sufficient vitamins and minerals. In fact, it is the lack of Vitamin C in mineral ascorbate form that has the most damaging effect on the hardening of arteries.
Vitamin C is a necessary building block for the tissues in our body. And much like the essential fatty acids omega 3 and omega 6, we do not produce them ourselves. Vitamin C is especially important for the tissue strength of our arteries, since they are under constant pressure. Without proper levels of Vitamin C, our arteries cannot maintain this pressure and they begin to bleed. After bleeding, the arteries begin to crust over, with the end result being, among other side effects, a decrease in blood flow. What most people don't realize is that many of us are in a very mild state of scurvy most of the time.
Vitamin C is the primary building block of collagen. In fact, collagen is ascorbic acid dependent. Collagen makes up about one third of our bodies' protein. Collagen breakdown has been linked to rheumatoid arthritis, vascular problems (such as broken capillaries), and wrinkles. Sub-clinical levels of Vitamin C have been linked to leukemia as well.
Vitamin C in mega-doses has been used therapeutically for many types of disease states, most notably for cancer detox (intravenous). It is a well-known anti-oxidant, helps with wound healing and maintaining the immune system, provides energy, and helps to neutralize environmental toxins among other functions. Imagine what the other vitamins and minerals do, and the role they play in your body.
Supplementing with Vitamin C is recommended by many dieticians, nutritionists, and alternative health care practitioners. The reason? Because we cannot absorb the amount we need through food alone. While food - ideally organic, sprouted, fermented/cultured and raw - should be your primary source of "medicine," in the case of ascorbic acid your body cannot get all that it needs for optimum health through diet alone.
Fortunately there are many supplements that come from real vitamin C sources found in nature: kiwis, citrus fruits, guavas, rosehips, alma, acerola cherries, and camu-camu which - at 20% - has the highest natural amount of ascorbic acid found in nature so far. Many people now believe that taking natural vitamin C powder -- from real food sources -- works the best in terms of assimilation and absorption.
It is fairly common practice for people who raise livestock to supplement their cattle's feed with a multi-vitamin/multi-mineral formula. Every cattle rancher knows that costly disease is easily and highly preventable with the addition of cheap vitamin and mineral supplementation. They know it would be irrational not to take preventative measures to keep their livestock as healthy, and as profitable, as possible. Why is it then that many of us do not take the same, inexpensive measures to insure our own length and quality of life? Indeed why not, especially considering that we have the odds - which 99.9% of the animal kingdom does not -- stacked against us.
The RDA daily recommended allowance for Vitamin C is 60 mg for adults. Many health care professionals recommend 200 mg to 2000 mg per day as a preventative dose. Some practitioners recommend much higher doses - 10,000 mg to 25,000 mg or even higher - for serious disease conditions. Vitamin C at mega-doses is administered intravenously of course at an established medical office.
In 1988, The Surgeon General's Report on Nutrition and Health reported that 15 out of every 21 deaths (more than two-thirds) involve malnutrition. Conditions linked to malnutrition at least in part included: heart disease, atherosclerosis, stroke (43.8%), and cancer (22.4%). Overall, according to that report, 81.9% of deaths each year are due in part to malnutrition. With more than two-thirds of deaths in the U.S. potentially involving malnutrition, eating well and even investing in a multi-vitamin makes sense. At the very least, one should probably be taking Vitamin C in supplement form. Other recommended supplements include calcium, B vitamins, Vitamin E, and for some, extra iron and riboflavin (for expectant mothers).
Generally speaking, the more expensive, mid-range muti-vitamins you can find at a natural foods store are higher in quality and more therapuetic than your average grocery store variety. Many of the supplements sold in natural food stores have "food-based" vitamins, "cultured" vitamins, and even "raw food" vitamins and minerals that come exclusively from raw food sources. Many people love and report having more energy in addition to noticing overall health improvements.
Taking a good, absorbable source of ascorbic acid is worth the effort considering all the data. One type of ascorbic acid is Ester-C with added bioflavonoids. Ascorbic acid is theoretically more synergistically absorbed with bioflavonoids and even quercetin (like what's found in an apple). Many people in the alternative health community believe that vitamins and minerals work better together with their respective synergistic co-factors found in nature, than as isolated, individual supplements. Vitamin C in ascorbate form is supposed to be the best type of ascorbic acid, outside of all natural vitamin C sold as supplements in powders, tablets, and capsules.
be well,
No comments:
Post a Comment