VITAMIN C (ASCORBIC ACID)

There are 13 vitamins that humans really need :- 4 of them are fat-soluble, and 9 are soluble in water. But, vitamin C, or ascorbic acid, is by far the most popular of the vitamins. Of all the drugs currently used in medicine, vitamin C (ascorbic acid) is perhaps the best known. Vitamin C is widely taken and is forever being discussed in research publications and popular articles. Vitamin C is also called as vitamin of gerontologists because of its properties i.e. aging increases sensitivity to a general vitamin shortage in particular Vitamin C.

The notes left by travellers of long ago mention among other things the curative properties of the pine. One such observation was made when the caravel of Jacques Cartier, a French explorer of Canada, reached the coast of North America in 1535. The Indians, who were prepared to rebuff the unwelcome visitors, were surprised to see enfeebled and sick people who could scarcely stand. These Europeans were suffering from scurvy, a vitamin deficiency disease which usually struck seafarers on long journeys in those days. Part of the crew had already died on route and now death was threatening the rest. Fortunately for them, all the mariners were cured by the Indians who gave them a decoction made of fresh pine needles. These needles are rich in vitamins C and A, both vital to health. They contain 31 times more Vitamin C than apples and five times more than lemons. This is why the decoction soon put the dying sailors back on their feet.

Apparently, the French learned the secret of the treatment: following that maiden expedition Cartier made another two voyages to what is now Canada. Similar observations were made by people in other parts of world. Many centuries ago it was known that epidemics of scurvy usually broke out in times of famine and also of war, especially among the populations of besieged towns. Even before the nature of vitamins was known, a severe condition used to affect seamen during long voyages, and people wintering in the Far North when supplies of fresh meat and vegetables were exhausted, their food consisted exclusively of salted meat and ship’s biscuit.

The importance of food in the development of the disease was pointed out long ago from those facts. This disease of man, scurvy (scorbutus), is characterized by loosening and loss of teeth, bleeding of the gums, fetid odour of the breath, general weakness, haemorrhages into the muscles and joints. In severe, protracted cases it ended in death.

When Vasco de Gama made his voyage from Portugal to India around Africa a hundred of his men died of scurvy. And when Columbus crossed the Atlantic some of his sailors were seriously ill from scurvy owing to the absence of fresh vegetables and fruit. The dying men were abandoned on an uninhabited island; on the way back the fleet stopped at this island and found them hale and hearty again. Thus the association between scorbutus (scurvy) and absence of fresh vegetable foods was first noted. Seafarers continued, however, to suffer from this disease; in 1914 the Polar explorer Georgi Sedov died of it.

In recent years, scientists have suggested that this vitamin is involved in the oxidation and elimination of cholesterol from the body and thus plays an important role in preventing lipid (fat) metabolism disorders, leading to the development of one of the most formidable diseases of modern man – atherosclerosis. Ingestion of vitamins, especially ascorbic acid (vitamin C), which, according to Professor A. Myasnikov, actively prevents the deposition of cholesterol on the walls of blood vessels, has become a very important preventive and therapeutic measure.

It has been proven that vitamin C prevents the formation of nitrosamines in the body – substances with a powerful carcinogenic effect, that is, the ability to cause the development of cancer. Ascorbic acid facilitates intestinal absorption of iron. Therefore, for the prevention and treatment of anaemia, iron preparations are prescribed together with ascorbic acid. There is reason to assert that ascorbic acid plays an important role in protecting the body from infection and toxic substances that enter the air: no wonder its concentration in the fluid lining the pulmonary alveoli is 1000 times higher than in blood plasma.

Vitamin C is also an antimutagenic. Specifically, vitamin C at 0.5 -1.0 g/day was a part of the curative and preventive diets that some Czechoslovak coal tar manufacturers were given to their workers in 1980s. The effect had been a reduction of the mutation rate to what is practically the norm.

The main source of vitamin C is fresh vegetables, fruits, berries, and herbs. Rosehips, black currants, red peppers, lemons and oranges are especially rich in this vitamin. There is a lot of ascorbic acid in cabbage, including sauerkraut. Fresh apples and potatoes are poorer in vitamin C, and during storage, the content of this vitamin decreases significantly. So the idea that 1-2 apples a day can provide our body with the necessary amount of ascorbic acid is greatly exaggerated. Of the juices, vitamin C is rich in blackcurrant and citrus fruits: 1-2 glasses of such juices cover the daily human need for ascorbic acid. But apple juice should be drunk for this purpose 5-6 liters (!!) per day. There is even less ascorbic acid in grape juice, and it is completely absent in birch juice, just as there are no other vitamins in it. Dried and canned fruits are usually virtually devoid of ascorbic acid. So providing the body with the necessary amount of vitamin C on a regular basis is a very difficult task.

Currently, in economically developed countries, severe vitamin deficiencies are a thing of the past. Nevertheless, mass surveys of the population indicate a wide spread of latent forms of vitamin deficiency – long-term hypovitaminosis, primarily hypovitaminosis C. According to the Institute of Nutrition of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences, covering the results of a survey of about 100,000 people in different regions of Soviet Union, the deficiency of vitamin C in the diet of various population groups, in comparison with the recommended intake of this vitamin, is 25-75%. Explicit manifestations of vitamin C deficiency are found in the winter and spring months in 70-100%, and in the summer and autumn – in 20-60% of the surveyed people. What are the consequences of insufficient intake of ascorbic acid? It should be emphasized with full responsibility that hypovitaminosis, creating a stable metabolic stress, hindering the implementation of vitamin C-dependent biochemical and physiological processes, is an extremely unfavourable factor for human health.

Deficiency of ascorbic acid in the body impairs health, physical and mental performance, resistance to infectious diseases, negative effects on the body of harmful working conditions and the environment. Numerous studies have repeatedly shown that children who do not receive a sufficient amount of ascorbic acid more often catch colds, get sicker, do worse in school, and with great difficulty tolerate physical activity. The same is true for adults. In addition, a deficiency of ascorbic acid in the body increases the risk of cardiovascular disease. This, as we have already noted, is associated with the participation of ascorbic acid in the oxidation and elimination of cholesterol from the body.

According to the Czech scientist Emil Ginter, the deposition of cholesterol in the aortas of people who died from accidental causes, the more significant the lower their blood levels of ascorbic acid. The lack of vitamin C is significantly aggravated in case of illness; at the same time, it aggravates the course of the underlying disease, complicates its treatment, complicates the outcome of surgical operations, sometimes nullifying the skill of the surgeon and the work of other specialists.

The danger of C – hypovitaminosis as an unfavourable social and hygienic factor is explained by its massiveness and constancy, a frequent combination with a deficiency in the body of other vitamins, primarily of group B. In 1936, the Hungarian scientist A. Szent-Györgyi concluded that permeability of small blood vessels is affected by a substance called vitamin P complex. The antiscorbutic effect of lemon or orange juice, and other citric fruit juices, is due to the presence in them, along with ascorbic acid, of special glycosides, making a mixture known as citrin. Citrin has the property of reducing the heightened permeability of the capillary walls: hence its other name ‘vitamin P’. It is prepared from tea leaves and employed in various haemorrhages of vascular origin in a dose of 0.15-0.2g, three times daily. Rutin (prepared from buckwheat leaves) also possesses the properties of vitamin P; Along with Vitamin C – Vitamin P is also prescribed in tablets in doses of 0.02-0.04g three times a day. Vitamin P (rutin) increases the activity of ascorbic acid and promotes its accumulation in the body.

Vitamin C and elderly people

A very complex question is about the needs of vitamins in the elderly. Opinions of gerontologists, hygienists and nutritionists differ significantly here. However, most experts agree that the insufficient acidity of the gastric juice in the elderly and old people can cause an increase in their need for vitamin C. It is advisable to obtain vitamins mainly with vegetables and fruits; it is useful to enrich food with carotene-containing vegetables, herbs, plants from the family cruciferous (cabbage, turnip and some others).

Pregnancy and vitamins

At the maternity health centre, the joint efforts of the obstetrician and pediatrician should be focused mainly on the elaboration of a reasonable and useful diet for the expectant mother - a diet which, above all, should ensure the proper conditions for normal lactation. An adequate supply of vitamins, especially C and D, is of great importance.

As a result of his clinico-experimental investigations, R. L. Shub arrived at the conclusion that in the course of pregnancy the woman's body gets a sufficient amount of vitamin C, provided she takes 200 mgr. of ascorbic acid daily during the last trimester of pregnancy and the first month following delivery. The blood and milk of these women contain normal amounts of vitamin C. The effect of saturation on the pregnant woman's body with vitamin C tells on the baby's weight: the infant's initial weight (at the time of delivery) is somewhat higher, while at the end of the first half year of its life, the weight gain is 10.9% above that observed in other infants.

The milk of women deprived of vitamin D during pregnancy and lactation does not contain antirachitic substances (even in the summer-time). In the milk produced daily by nursing mothers who, during the last three months of their pregnancy, were given 400 units of vitamin D daily, and received 5,000 units for the first ten days after delivery (altogether-86,000 units), the vitamin content amounted to 400-500 units. Under such conditions, the presence of rickets in infants was observed but rarely.

According to Baksht, the vitamin C requirements of the foetus, for example, have first priority, and with an adequate concentration of vitamin C in the mother's milk, the blood content of this vitamin in the mother scarcely reaches 50% of the minimal normal level. Vitamin C deficiency is not necessarily unavoidable It occurs as a result of an irrational diet and disappears with an increased intake of the vitamin.

Daily dose

Every day we must receive 70 milligrams of it with food, since it is impossible to store ascorbic acid in the body for the future.

The need for ascorbic acid is quite high: for children 4-10 years old – 50-60 milligrams, older and for adults – 60-80 milligrams per day increasing with strenuous muscular work, particularly in hot shops, with many serious infectious illnesses, and with pregnancy. This need should be satisfied primarily through fresh fruits and vegetables. It is known that ascorbic acid (vitamin C) in a crystalline form is absorbed worse by the body compared to vitamin C, which is part of the fresh fruits and vegetables.

Soviet scientists had found that Russian children lack vitamin C. 60-70% of them suffer from a deep deficiency of ascorbic acid. And the child’s need for this antioxidant per unit of body weight is higher than that of an adult. If adults’ daily needs 1 mg of vitamin C per kilogram of body weight, then a child of 7-10 years old – at 2 mg, and a one-year-old baby – at 4 mg.

Saturation of the patient’s organism with large doses of ascorbic acid (vitamin C) is necessary in all infectious diseases; other vitamins must be prescribed strictly according to indications. It is also very important to administer the B complex vitamins in the infectious diseases. Ascorbic acid is prescribed in daily doses of 300-600-1,000 mg (given in two or three fractional doses) for a week to ten days; further daily doses are cut to one-half or one-third.

When given parenterally (intravenously or intramuscularly) ascorbic acid is prescribed as a 5 or 10 per cent aqueous solution, in a dose of two to three millilitres. Intravenous injection of a 25 to 40 per cent glucose solution, and vitamin C, is employed another variant – Ascorbic acid is given by intravenous infusion (5-10 ml of a 5 per cent solution) or by intramuscular injection (2-5 ml of a 5 per cent solution) to combat toxaemia. Children affected with infectious diseases are given vitamin C in the following doses: under 5 years 0.05 g twice a day, under 10 years 0.1 g twice a day, and 0.1-0.15 g twice a day for older children.

Volatility of Vitamin C

It is best to store the fruits and vegetables in a glass bowl in a dark place, since vitamin C is destroyed by sunlight. Vitamin C is unstable to high temperatures and light. During cooking, vegetables lose from one third to half of this vitamin, which plays an important role in strengthening the body’s defences. Losses of vitamin C are reduced if you close the pan with a lid, prevent boiling, do not overdo the dishes on the fire, and serve them to the table immediately after cooking. To the greatest extent, vitamins are preserved in fresh vegetables. Cooking, especially long boiling and stewing, reduces the vitamin content of vegetables. At the same time, such canning methods as quick freezing, fermentation, preserve a significant part of vitamins for a long period, up to a new harvest of vegetables.

Ascorbic acid is very easily oxidized owing to which vitamin C is rapidly destroyed when heated in the air. An alkaline reaction aids in oxidizing Vitamin C, while an acid reaction helps to preserve it. Vitamin C, is easily destroyed under the influence of atmospheric oxygen, is better preserved in tightly packed cabbage. The same cabbage, when we chop it with an ordinary knife, immediately loses up to 50% of vitamin C – it is destroyed by contact with the metal and atmospheric oxygen. About half of vitamin C is destroyed in chopped potatoes, dipped in cold water and cooked in an open pan, while unchopped potatoes immersed in boiling water lose only 7-10 percent of ascorbic acid during cooking.

Many housewives prepare juices, compotes in the summer; the berries are crushed with a wooden cracker and covered with sugar. At least 80 percent of vitamin C remains in freshly prepared, crushed and sugar-filled currant berries. During storage, its losses in berries prepared in this way are insignificant. Up to 80 percent of ascorbic acid is also stored in the juice from currant berries obtained in a juicer. If sugar is added to this juice based on 1 part juice, 2 parts sugar and stored in a dark place at room temperature, then even after a year, up to 60 percent of vitamin C will remain in it.

The heating or drying of fresh fruits or vegetables usually leads to the destruction of most or all of the vitamin C originally present. But, Amla (Indian gooseberry) is exceptional among fruits because of its very high initial vitamin C content. It contains substances which partially protect the vitamin from destruction on heating and drying and because its juice is very strongly acid. The inclusion of a few ounces of fresh fruit and leafy and other vegetables in a diet will ensure that its vitamin C content is satisfactory.

Vegetables and fruits, most of all in cucumbers, zucchini, cauliflower and pumpkin, contain ascorbate oxidase. This enzyme accelerates the oxidation of vitamin C to a practically inactive diketogulonic acid. And since, as it turned out, in this happens outside the body, vitamin C is destroyed in plant products during their long-term storage and during cooking. For example, only due to the action of ascorbate oxidase, a mixture of raw minced vegetables during 6 hours of storage loses more than half of the vitamin C contained in it, and its loss is higher the more vegetables are minced.

The addition of chopped aromatic herbs will improve the flavour and appearance of the soups. They also add vitamin C. Since vitamin C is highly volatile, vegetable soups should be cooked as close as possible to the serving time. Remember that three hours after cabbage or potato soup has been cooked; only half the original amount of vitamin C is left. It is best to peel and chop vegetables just before cooking. Beets, carrots, potatoes for salads are recommended to be boiled unpeeled. Scientists recommend putting onions, parsley, dill, and other herbs in already prepared dishes just before serving.

Knowing nothing of vitamin C from experience the people appreciated that the cabbage was a particularly beneficial vegetable. And today we know that even salted cabbage will keep its vitamin C for seven months or so.

Interesting facts about Vitamin C

• Amazingly, unlike most organisms, only people, primates, guinea pigs and some animals which live in India have no enzyme system which develops Vitamin C from glucose. This is why they have to get it from their food.

• Vitamin C has been found to play a vital part in the formation of the hormone adrenaline, which helps man adapt himself to a change of environment by intensifying the functioning of the heart, narrowing the vessels and increasing the blood’s glucose content. It also joins in the synthesis of norepinephrine – a transmitter of nervous impulses

• Vitamin C is not a drug, but it is useful in muscular exertion. For instance, in the course of a 10-kilometre run the body spends 21 to 37 percent of its Vitamin C stocks.

• In smokers the content of Vitamin C is 30 per cent lower than in non-smokers. In people who consume more than 20 cigarettes a day it is 40 per cent lower.

Fruits and vegetables

Ascorbic acid (vitamin C) in a crystalline form is absorbed worse by the body compared to vitamin C, which is part of the juice or decoction from plants. And all because in plants ascorbic acid is accompanied by other biologically active compounds, due to which it is better absorbed. Rose hips, for example, in addition to vitamin C, also contain flavonoids, and the fruits of chokeberry are also rich in anthocyanins and catechins.

Rosehip is mentioned in scientific literature more often for its abundant possession of Vitamin C. Rose hips are rich in vitamin C: they have ten times more ascorbic acid than currants. Rosehips also contain carotene, vitamins B2, K, various sugars, tannins, organic acids, mainly citric, as well as vital trace elements. Rosehip contains a large amount of manganese, iron, copper and chromium. Apart from this, even a schoolchild knows very well that citrus fruits contain abundant vitamin C.

Horseradish contains a large amount of vitamin C (much more than lemons and oranges), minerals (calcium, phosphorus and potassium), carbohydrates and essential oils with bactericidal properties. Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) is the main source of horseradish. Therefore, in winter and spring, when the content of this vitamin in fruits and vegetables decreases, its deficiency can partially be made up by eating horseradish.

It is pertinent to mention here that, only fresh fruits and vegetables should be consumed for getting the required dose of vitamin C.

Superdoses not justified

American chemist Professor Linus Pauling published his book Vitamin C and the Common Cold in 1970s. The book opens with the contention that common cold strikes just about every individual up to three times a year, and these can often involve serious complications. In the United States, says the author, the economic losses resulting from common colds run into an annual 15 billion dollars. And the US population spends another 0.5 billion dollars on cold-preventive medicines. In Professor Pauling’s opinion, colds could be eliminated in the greater part of the world in 10 to 20 years, like smallpox. The miraculous remedy Dr. Pauling proposed was ascorbic acid, which he recommended should be taken in large doses (up to 10 grams a day).

Many decades of observations showed that there has been no decline in the world incidence of chills, although Dr. Pauling had won a large following. What had been shown by research carried out in other countries, including the Soviet Union?

Ascorbic acid is a “physiological medicine” mobilizing the body’s own protective powers by stepping up the functioning of what is known as man’s sympatho-adrenal system – exactly what is required in the case of stress, with which chills can be classed. On the other hand, it is useless to take large doses of Vitamin C regularly because the body responds by switching on regulatory mechanisms which remove excesses.

Vitamin C has a strong reputation as a harmless drug. However, in recent years, doctors have increasingly begun to observe in people adverse reactions caused by excessive doses of ascorbic acid. Indeed, many are trying to prevent or treat with it acute respiratory viral diseases, flu and some other diseases. And they take vitamin C at their discretion in a dose of a 6 and even 10 grams per day, while the daily requirement for this vitamin in adults is 70-100 milligrams, and the usual therapeutic doses do not exceed 0.5 grams of vitamin per day.

It should be said that scientists from different countries agree in their opinion that taking vitamin C does not increase the body’s resistance to common colds. So far it has not been demonstrated that individuals who take Vitamin C in large doses over a long period are any less prone to common cold than those who take it in ordinary amounts. Moreover, excessive doses of vitamin C worsen the course of certain infectious and allergic diseases, and in particular rheumatism. Diabetic patients should be aware that large doses of vitamin C inhibit the production of insulin by the pancreas and increase the sugar content in urine and blood.

Recently, it has been established that large doses of vitamin C inhibit the transmission rate of neuromuscular impulses, resulting in increased muscle fatigue. In addition, large doses of ascorbic acid disrupt the coordination of visual and motor reactions, which negatively affects the work of operators or drivers of vehicles. And finally, it should be noted that the use of excessive doses of vitamin C in pregnant women can adversely affect the condition of the foetus. Nevertheless, many more enthusiasts see in vitamin C a panacea for all diseases.

It seems that the body has time to process the increased dose. Healthy individuals should take Vitamin C in ordinary doses (on average, 50 to 100 milligrams a day) and, according to traditional medical recommendations, as part of their food rather than as powders or pills. The penetration of infection into the body is another matter. Then it is necessary to take 1 to 1.5 grams of Vitamin C at the very first signs of a chill, and this dose should be repeated every four hours throughout the first day. If there is an improvement the treatment should continue for another two or three days. After this the doses should gradually be reduced to the ordinary level. But, and this is most important, if there is no improvement after the first day of taking Vitamin C, it means that the disease is too far gone, the protective barriers have failed and Vitamin C is powerless to help. In this case ordinary medicines should be taken as well as Vitamin C in doses slightly above the normal, aspirin, sulfanilamides, barbiturates and some other medicines intensify the removal of ascorbic acid from the body.

Can ascorbic acid do direct harm? Some medical writers say that large doses of Vitamin C can form stones in the ureters. However, this contention has been denied. Nevertheless, for precaution’s sake, superdoses of Vitamin C are contraindicated for individuals susceptible to stones. Data indicating rises in blood pressure and the formation of blood clots after taking large doses of Vitamin C are being contested. Observations made by Soviet doctors have shown that Vitamin C actually normalizes these (and some other) physiological indicators by raising extremely low values and reducing exceedingly high ones. It is Vitamin C’s impact on the sympatho-adrenal system that is responsible for this.

Whatever (and here both sides seem to agree), the adverse consequences of superdoses of Vitamin C are temporary; disappearing after the dose is brought down to a normal level. And if large doses of Vitamin C produce a feeling of discomfort, then of course it is necessary to reduce them immediately, irrespective of other factors. Caution should be exercised in taking increased doses of Vitamin C (even for a short period) by elderly people. As man gets older his metabolic mechanisms weaken. At the same time, it should be borne in mind that aging increases sensitivity to a general vitamin shortage. Regrettably, man does not feel it himself and for this reason does nothing about it. This, however, need not cause concern if he takes care of the vitamin content of his food. Another point has been made by Byelorussian doctors. They recommend increasing the body resistance to ‘flu and acute respiratory diseases by taking 0.5 gram of ascorbic acid and 0.02 gram of dibazolum (it has been noticed that both substances stimulate the development of interferon) a day for ten days. This can also be regarded as a “strike” dose; it is 5 to 10 times larger than the ordinary and is taken in one go.

Of course, the size of doses should be decided by the doctor. But in the case of a common cold, at the very first signs ascorbic acid should be taken as recommended, even before the doctor comes.

Ascorbic acid – anticarcinogenic agent

Associates of the All-Union Oncological Research Centre of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences have conducted extensive research, examining 146 adult and child sufferers from various forms of blood cancer, above all, hemoblastoses, lymphosarcomas and leucoses Control examinations of healthy people have shown that such diseases are apparently due to a shortage of ascorbic acid in the diet. It has been established that the acid suppresses the development of tumours, especially hemoblastoses. However, because it does not synthesize in the body and its reserves in cancer patients are lower, it is expedient to use it in treatment.