Vitamin C Effective in Reducing Inflammation

Inflammation is involved in numerous health issues from allergy to post-op surgical reactions. Life Extension provides this chart -

Allergy: Inflammatory cytokines induce autoimmune reactions

Alzheimer's: Chronic inflammation destroys brain cells

Anemia: Inflammatory cytokines attack erythropoietin production

Aortic valve stenosis: Chronic inflammation damages heart valves

Arthritis: Inflammatory cytokines destroy joint cartilage and synovial fluid

Cancer: Chronic inflammation causes many cancers

Congestive heart failure: Chronic inflammation contributes to heart muscle wasting

Fibromyalgia: Inflammatory cytokines are elevated

Fibrosis: Inflammatory cytokines attack traumatized tissue

Heart attack: Chronic inflammation contributes to coronary atherosclerosis

Kidney failure: Inflammatory cytokines restrict circulation and damage nephrons

Lupus: Inflammatory cytokines induce an autoimmune attack

Pancreatitis: Inflammatory cytokines induce pancreatic cell injury

Psoriasis: Inflammatory cytokines induce dermatitis

Stroke: Chronic inflammation promoted thromboembolic events

Surgical complications: Inflammatory cytokines prevent healing

The more vitamin C you take the less inflammation you will experience.

The important information about anti-oxidant vitamins is certainly something you aren't reading in the mainstream press or hearing on TV or radio.

Certainly vitamin C is much less expensive than a statin drug and isn't replete with serious side effects or death. The important concern is to purchase a mineral bound ascorbate form of the vitamin, or those with food based formulas. The vitamin C blend we have been offering our our clients for the last decade or more contains both food and mineral-ascorbate sources and is organic as well(C5 or C5+).

The USDA-RDA dose of sixty milligrams of vitamin C daily will prevent scurvy but it is not therapeutic enough to prevent or reverse health problems.

Outside the issue of CRP, adequate vitamin C intake daily is one of the best preventive measures against macular degeneration you can use.

Of course the choice is yours, but there is quite enough information I've posted about CRP and related issues here on Natural Health News to get your brain cells itching for relief of inquiring mind syndrome.

An article scheduled to appear in the January 1, 2009 issue of Free Radical Biology and Medicine reports the finding of researchers at the University of California, Berkeley that supplementing with vitamin C reduces C-reactive protein (CRP), a marker of inflammation linked with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

Berkeley professor emeritus of epidemiology and public health nutrition Gladys Block and her associates randomized 396 nonsmokers to receive 1000 milligrams vitamin C, 800 international units vitamin E, or a placebo for two months. Serum C-reactive protein levels were measured before and after the treatment period.

Although no effects for vitamin E were observable, and no effect for vitamin C was noted among those with desirable CRP levels, for participants with elevated C-reactive protein (defined as 1 milligram per liter or higher), vitamin C lowered CRP by 0.25 milligrams per liter compared to the placebo, a reduction similar to that associated with statin drug treatment.

"This is an important distinction; treatment with vitamin C is ineffective in persons whose levels of CRP are less than 1 milligram per liter, but very effective for those with higher levels," stated Dr Block. "Grouping people with elevated CRP levels with those who have lower levels can mask the effects of vitamin C. Common sense suggests, and our study confirms, that biomarkers are only likely to be reduced if they are not already low."

Dr Block noted that a trial reported earlier this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association, which found no association between supplementation with vitamins C and E and the risk of stroke or heart attack, failed to screen participants for CRP elevation, which is important in the determination of who might benefit from vitamin C.

In another recently reported study ( the Jupiter trial), Harvard Medical School researchers showed that statin drugs reduced cardiovascular disease and cardiovascular mortality in individuals with normal lipids and elevated CRP. The trial found a 37 percent reduction in CRP associated with statins compared to treatment with a placebo. "One of the strengths of the Jupiter trial is that only persons with CRP levels greater than 2 milligrams per liter were enrolled," Dr Block remarked. "Researchers found very important effects of lowering CRP in people who had high levels to begin with."

"Major studies have found that the level of CRP in the body predicts future risk of cardiovascular disease, including myocardial infarction, stroke and peripheral artery disease, as well as diabetes," Dr Block stated. "Some believe CRP to be as important a predictor of future heart problems as high levels of LDL and low levels of HDL cholesterol."

"This is clearly a line of research worth pursuing," she added. "It has recently been suggested by some researchers that people with elevated CRP should be put on statins as a preventive measure. For people who have elevated CRP but not elevated LDL cholesterol, our data suggest that vitamin C should be investigated as an alternative to statins, or as something to be used to delay the time when statin use becomes necessary."