Vitamin C, The “Pauling” Effect
In 1977 Linus Pauling, who was among other things, a chemist, chemical engineer, and molecular biologist with two Nobel prizes under his belt released a book that he had written. The title was “Vitamin C, The Common Cold and The Flu”. I don’t know if it started with this book or other publications about vitamin C, but his opinions and recommendations about vitamin C and supplementing vitamin C started a controversy that is still going on today. He has published so many scholarly articles and books, that we really can’t tell what “started the fire”.
Vitamin C is a carbohydrate molecule named ascorbate. It is often found in vitamin supplements as ascorbic acid. Not only is vitamin C a great antioxidant sweeping up free radicals and alleviating oxidative stress in the body, but it’s also key to healthy white blood cells and a healthy immune system. It is also important in the formation of collagen which is a connective tissue that helps keep our joints strong and healthy. That is why a severe deficiency of vitamin C causes musculoskeletal abnormalities seen in scurvy. Ascorbate actually means “anti-scurvy”. It is also a cofactor in the enzymatic formation of some neurotransmitters, and the amino-acid carnitine. It has been known since the 18th century that scurvy could be treated with citrus fruits, although vitamin C wasn’t actually identified as the main source of that treatment until after the 1920’s.
What Linus Pauling suggested in his writings about vitamin C is that high doses of supplemental vitamin C can help treat and prevent may common illnesses. But because Pauling was only a chemist and not a physician many of his claims drew fire from the medical community.
Pauling suggested that supplementing the diet with large doses of vitamin C could be useful in preventing and treating diseases such as viral infections, heart disease and cancer among others. Of course these claims drew a tremendous amount of criticism. These were after all bold claims at the time. Now medical research has caught on to the importance of vitamin C and it is being used more and more in medical treatments. There are multiple studies out that have indicated the usefulness of vitamin C in the treatment of things like cataracts, heart disease and cancer.
Vitamin C’s role a a free radical cannot be overstated. Vitamin C readily attacks oxidative species in the body. What that means is that any oxidative highly reactive molecule, also known a free radicals can and will be neutralized by vitamin C before they can damage other molecules in the body. For instance important enzymes and other proteins or worse, our DNA are under constant attack by free radicals, and once they’re damaged they can malfunction, leading to disease. In the laboratory setting vitamin C has been able to rejuvenate other antioxidants like glutathione.
Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA)
Humans and other primates are unable to synthesize their own vitamin C. The gene to do so is present in our DNA but it is “turned off”. Cats and dogs however can and do synthesize their own vitamin C. It makes sense that since vitamin C is vital to life that animals that are strictly carnivorous would need to create their own while animals that are omnivores no longer need to synthesize vitamin C. We humans stand upright and can reach fruits in trees and many primates spend a great deal of time in trees where they can reach fruits.
So how much should we take in? Well that is another controversy. Current recommendations are between 60mg - 100mg per day. Since the amount to prevent scurvy is 48mg per day, these recommended intakes seem hardly enough for having sufficient levels of vitamin C to prevent other diseases through its strong antioxidant effect.
There have been some studies that suggest that high doses of vitamin C does help prevent viral infections and decrease the length of illness. There is even some promising news about using vitamin C being used as a treatment for the current global health crisis coming out of Shanghai. The only problem with taking high doses of vitamin C orally is that the gut will only absorb a set amount of vitamin C into the blood-stream and the rest passes through, with can cause diarrhea. The best way to get these high doses is the intravenous route.
References:
National Institute of Health Recommended Daily Allowances. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK56068/table/summarytables.t2/?report=objectonly
Roberts, Hilary; Medical News Today, https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/12154#1
Enstrom JE. Vitamin C in prospective epidemiological studies. In: Packer L, Fuchs J, eds. Vitamin C in health and disease. New York: Marcel Dekker Inc, 1997:381–98.
Murdeach Reilly , Norman Delanty , John A. Lawson , and Garret A. FitzGerald via AHA Journals https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/full/10.1161/01.cir.94.1.19
Anitra C Carr, Balz Frei
Toward a new recommended dietary allowance for vitamin C based on antioxidant and health effects in humans
Quinn, Joanne; COVID-19: IV Vitamin C is Officially Recommended by the Shanghai Government
Andrew W. Saul; China Treating Coronavirus COVID-19 with Intravenous Vitamin C
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