Does vitamin C prevent colds, cancer, etc.?

Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports
1

Dear Mr. Adams:

I generally read your articles with humour in almost all cases and was surprised with this one, which you would repost an article (notice it was from April of 1985) that recommended to your general masses on taking a certain amount of anything for a person’s health. Especially something from the RDA or FDA (there has been enough discussion on what is required, money, resources, etc., to get approved to start a whole new topic, so I won’t digress). It may be a bit long, but I felt it was important, so please find a well researched topic (with referenced follow up studies that fit with your 20000 limit) on Vitamin C since your original posting.
Have a good day and cheers,

CanadianEh!

Vitamin C: Your Ultimate Health Insurance
by Hans R. Larsen, MSc ChE

When tallying the achievements of medical research in the latter part of the 20th century one discovery will stand out - the discovery that vitamin-C is uniquely important to the health and wellbeing of humans.

…

Two-time Nobel prize winner, Dr. Linus Pauling was the first to realize vitamin C’s crucial importance in the maintenance of a healthy immune system. In 1970 he proposed that regular intake of vitamin-C in amounts far higher than the officially sanctioned RDA (Recommended Daily Allowance) could help prevent and shorten the duration of the common cold. … Recent medical research has confirmed Dr. Pauling’s original idea.

2

Sorry, the rest of the References for those interested.

Cheers,

CanadianEh!

  1. Sahyoun, Nadine R., et al. Carotenoids, vitamins C and E, and mortality in an elderly population. American Journal of Epidemiology, Vol. 144, No. 5, September 1, 1996, pp. 501-11
  2. Heitzer, Thomas, et al. Antioxidant vitamin C improves endothelial dysfunction in chronic smokers. Circulation, Vol. 94, No. 1, July 1, 1996, pp. 6-9
  3. Levine, Glenn N., et al. Ascorbic acid reverses endothelial vasomotor dysfunction in patients with coronary artery disease. Circulation, Vol. 93, No. 6, March 15, 1996, pp. 1107-13
  4. Tomoda, Haruo, et al. Possible prevention of post-angioplasty restenosis by ascorbic acid. American Journal of Cardiology, Vol. 78, No. 11, December 1, 1996, pp. 1284-86
  5. Hankinson, Susan E., et al. Nutrient intake and cataract extraction in women: A prospective study. British Medical Journal, Vol. 305, August 8, 1992, pp. 335-39
  6. Boyd, Herschell H. Eye pressure lowering effect of vitamin C. Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine, Vol. 10, No. 3/4, 1995, pp. 165-68
  7. Taylor, T.V., et al. Ascorbic acid supplementation in the treatment of pressure-sores. The Lancet, September 7, 1974, pp. 544-46
  8. Diplock, Anthony T. Safety of antioxidant vitamins and beta-carotene. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 62, December 1995, pp. 1510S-16S
  9. Meyers, David G., et al. Safety of antioxidant vitamins. Archives of Internal Medicine, Vol. 156, May 13, 1996, pp. 925-35

This article was first published in the International Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine,
Vol 15 No. 8, August 1997, pp. 22-4

3

There is a well-known rule on the SDMB–Thou Shalt Not Post Copyrighted Material In It’s Entirety On The SDMB.

But don’t worry. Somebody wil be around in a few minutes. You’ll be taken care of.
<smiles blandly>

4

This’ll stand out more than the discovery of the structure and encoding of DNA? And besides, if vitamin C is uniquely important to human health, that’s not a discovery of the 20th century, having not yet been discovered at all. Certainly, it’s important, but that’s been known since the Age of Exploration. But more important than any other vitamin? How so?

5

Welcome to the SDMB, CanadianEh!.

I haved edited your post to remove most of the copyrighted material, as we take intellectual property rights seriously around here. Copying more than a paragraph or two is probably too much. This is not an official warning, just an explanation of our rules so you’ll know in the future. Those who wish to read the rest may find the complete text at any number of places through a search engine.

Also, it is appreciated if you include with your comment on Cecil’s column a link to the column in question. Doing so can be as simple as pasting the URL into your post, making sure to leave a blank space on either side of it. Like so: http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_412a.html

bibliophage
moderator, CCC