Life Extension Foundation's Updated
Vitamin C Rebuttal
April 14, 1998
THE MEDIA ATTACKS VITAMIN C
On April 8, 1998, a team of British scientists issued a report stating that vitamin C could cause cell damage by reacting with iron to produce free radicals.
This report was based on 30 human volunteers who were given 500 mg of vitamin C per day for six weeks. The scientists stated that while vitamin C produces protective effects, it also has a dual activity that could cause DNA damage.
In response to this study, newspapers wrote articles attacking the use of vitamin C. What follows is an example of what newspapers printed on April 9, 1998:
| Based on a preliminary analysis of this report, here are a few scientific facts:
It is a well known in the field of molecular biology that vitamin C produces both antioxidant and pro-oxidant effects in the body. That's why no one should take vitamin C without also taking vitamin E.
After vitamin C is ingested, it functions as an antioxidant by transferring its own electrons to protect against free radicals in the body. Once it loses its electron balance, vitamin C degenerates into an oxidizing compound called dehydroascorbic acid. Vitamin E has been specifically shown to regenerate oxidized vitamin C by freely donating its own electrons to dehydroascorbic acid. There are other antioxidants such as cysteine that regenerate dehydroascorbic acid back into vitamin C (ascorbic acid), but vitamin E is the most well documented.
The Linus Pauling Institute's preliminary response was that the type of oxidative injury that the British scientists said that vitamin C prevents is ten times more dangerous than the type of damage the British scientists say that vitamin C causes. The Linus Pauling Institute also cited previous research showing that vitamin C prevented the type of oxidative damage that the British scientists say it caused.
Another preliminary rebuttal pointed out that their are twenty different types of DNA damage that could have been measured, but that the British scientists only looked at two of them. This health newsletter (The Nutrition Reporter) poked many holes in the British study including the following quote:
"A study was just reported that 500 mg of vitamin C daily causes breaks in DNA, the complex protein that forms your genes. Gene damage makes people edgy because it can lead to cancer. But the headlines could just as well have stated that vitamin C supplements prevent DNA breaks. That's because the study found that vitamin C also reduced DNA breaks."
The British scientists now want to do additional research to determine exactly what dose of vitamin C can be taken without causing this kind of oxidative stress. The Life Extension Foundation has written a letter to these scientists suggesting that the addition of a 400 IU capsule of vitamin E might eliminate any oxidizing effects that were seen when vitamin C was administered alone. |
Study Validates LEF's Position
This small study helps to validate The Life Extension Foundation's long-standing position that vitamin C should be taken with other antioxidants such as vitamin E. Most vitamin supplement users take vitamin E and are protected against the type of damage observed by the British scientists. Antioxidants like n-acetyl-cysteine, grape-seed and green tea extract have also been shown to provide significant protection against the formation and cellular effects of oxidized vitamin C.
While the British scientists stated that the daily intake of 500 mg of vitamin C prevented more DNA damage than it caused, the media's frenzy to attack vitamin C caused this important fact to be overlooked by most people. This incident of "vitamin-bashing" will regrettably cause many people to stop taking a supplement that has been documented in thousands of studies to prevent degenerative disease.
The Life Extension Foundation has written this last-minute report to assure members that it is safe to take vitamin C. A more-in-depth article on the interactions of vitamin C and E in the body will be published in a future issue of Life Extension Magazine.
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