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Current mood:  inquisitive Category: Life
The Insidious Role of Vitamin C Deficiency in Atherosclerosis:
Considering a Nutritional Component of Atherosclerotic Disease
Aikidokurt
The remodeling and renewal of cells in our body is an ongoing and constant process (Whitney and Rolfes 2002). Drs. Whitney and Rolfes (2002) states, “Each day’s food choices may benefit or harm your health only a little, but when these choices are repeated over years and decades, the rewards or consequences become major.” (Whitney and Rolfes, pg. 2). One nutrient that plays a major role in our health is Vitamin C. The Bantam Medical Dictionary characterizes Vitamin C as, “a water soluble vitamin with antioxidant properties that is essential in maintaining healthy connective tissues and the integrity of cell walls.” (pg. 478). Unlike other mammals, our body cannot manufacture Vitamin C. We must acquire it through our diet.
The Bantam Medical Dictionary characterizes Atherosclerosis as, “a disease of the arteries in which fatty plaques develop on their inner walls, with eventual obstruction of blood flow” (pg. 37). The Atherosclerotic process affects a huge portion of our society, and is a leading contributor to morbidity in the U.S.A. Atherosclerosis risk factors recognized by the medical community include: Hypertension, Diabetes, obesity, Tobacco smoking, Hypercholestimia, hereditary/genetic components, and advanced age. Why no mention of nutritional factors like vitamin C that directly contribute to the integrity of our circulatory system? Certain rulings by our FDA, which I will show to be fiats or decrees with no basis in “reality”, prevent or discourage aggressive dissemination of nutritional information for the treatment of disease.
Before I establish vitamin C’s role in cardiovascular disease, I’d like to share with you what vitamin C is, and what its not. Vitamin C is a food substance that is now being synthesized by pharma companies in the form of ascorbic acid. Ascorbic acid can only contribute a small ratio of actual vitamin for absorption by your body. In one method of manufacture, Vitamin C is mined from ancient sedimentary chalks. Though these chalks were once vegetable matter, they are millions of years removed from life and have very little or no food substances remaining in them. Vitamin C is also commonly derived from waste produced from the processing of corn. Both methods result in poor absorption and the laxative effect frequently seen in people who supplement Vitamin C in the form of Ascorbic Acid. The food we eat is the superior source for Vitamin C esters, which are active and highly absorbable forms of the vitamin. Foods like fruits and vegetables are by far the highest contributors, with a small amount in dairy foods. Meats and legumes have a negligible amount. Vitamin C is an antioxidant that protects against iron oxidation in the body (Whitney and Rolfes 2002). It is also an essential cofactor in collagen formation. Vitamin C fights stress: the adrenal glands contain the highest concentration of Vit C in our bodies. During stress, our adrenals release it together with hormones into the blood to modulate oxidative action of the immune system. It also regulates cholestrol oxidation and is essential in the maintaining of healthy cholesterol ratios (oxidated to unoxidated state, also known as: HDL to LDL). (Whitney and Rolfes pg. 335-340)
To understand the benefit and essential nature of Vitamin C to our vascular health, we must understand the structure of vessel walls. Drs. Seeley, Stephens, and Tate (2003) describe the anatomy and physiology of our arterial vessels as consisting of three layers:
an outer layer (tunica adventitia), consisting of connective tissue
a middle layer (tunica media) consisting of smooth muscle cells with elastic and collagen fibers
and an inner layer (tunica intima) consisting of endothelial tissue; the lamina propria and the fenestrated internal elastic membrane.
Further more, the Large Elastic Arteries have the largest diameters and a higher ratio of elastin/collagen fibers than smooth muscle in their media layers. Muscular arteries have a high degree of smooth muscle in the media layer, and a higher concentration of collagenous tissues in their adventitia layer. Arterioles, which are predominantly media layer in thickness, and arterial capillaries which have minimal smooth muscles but regulate distribution of blood and the resistance our circulatory system encounters through precapillaric sphincters (Seeley, pg. 713-714).
Atherosclerosis is the deposition of materials in the walls of arteries to form plaques. Plaques can consist of fat-like substance containing cholesterol (lipoproteins), calcium deposits, and dense and deranged connective tissue (Seeley, pg. 715). Dr. Matthias Rath (2003) says atherosclerosis is nature’s plaster cast for weak and cracked arterial walls that are chronically deficient in vitamin C and other essential nutrients. He further states, in the case of chronic vitamin deficiency, this repair process becomes continuous. (Rath, 2003, pg. 59). Hence, microscopic damage to the millions of structurally weakened, nutrient depleted cells that compose our circulatory system leads to the deposition of plaque, not the presence of cholestrol alone. An example is that you cannot blame the plaster for the crack in the wall it patches; the crack proceeded the patch. You can blame the faulty, weak materials that were used to manufacture the wall for the ensuing lesions that developed from normal or excessive wear-and-tear. Someone skimped on construction materials and costs! Blaming the existence of excessive cholesterol for plaque is like blaming the existence of an abundance of patches for the holes in your pants!
Collagen connective strands made by our body in the presence of Vit C deficiency are weak and inferior, they lack resilience and are unable to stretch and return to their shape in response to the sheering stress of our blood and elastic qualities of our vasculature. Much like poorly manufactured rope, they will fray and break. Coupled and compounded with the oxidative damage to our vessels and excessive production of sticky lipoproteins from the oxidated LDL cholestrol that all result from the same Vitamin C deficiency, we now have a major threat to the integrity of our vascular vessels. As this integrity fails, symptoms begin to manifest, rather as a summation of the microscopic damage that is occurring on a vast scale.
“Most of the symptoms of vitamin C deficiency can be directly related to its metabolic roles. Symptoms of mild vitamin C deficiency include ecchymoses (large areas of bleeding into the skin), corkscrew hairs, and the formation of petechiae (small pinpoint hemorrhages in the skin) due to increased capillary fragility. These symptoms can be explained by weakened collagen fibrils. Severe deficiency results in scurvy. Scurvy itself is associated with decreased wound healing, osteoporosis, hemorrhaging, bleeding into the skin (petichiae and ecchymoses), anemia, and friable bleeding gums with loosened teeth (gingivitis). A child with scurvy may prefer to lie on its back with legs and arms laid out in the so called ....frog position'' because of pain in joints. The osteoporosis results from the inability to maintain organic matrix of the bone followed by demineralization. The anemia results from the extensive hemorrhaging coupled with defects in iron absorption and folate activation.” (Medpix website).
Sounds pretty serious! Early studies found 10 mg. of Vitamin C a day sufficient to ward off death from scurvy, with 60 mg being sufficient to allay its more serious symptoms. At 200 mg Vitamin C can be detected in the circulation. Upwards of 2000 mg is called for in severe deficiency, saturating your cells need for C. There is no detectable toxic level of C. Food is the recommended source. (Whitney et al, 2002 pg. 2745)
Foods cannot claim to cure disease (even if they do), because foods aren’t patentable. The concept of a drug (by common definition, a chemical isolate) being the only possible “cure” for Atherosclerosis is due to the language of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. The legal definition of a "drug" means:
articles recognized in the official United States Pharmacopoeia, official Homeoopathic Pharmacopoeia of the United States, or official National Formulary, or any supplement to any of them
articles intended for use in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease in man or other animals
articles (other than food) intended to affect the structure or any function of the body of man or other animals
articles intended for use as a component of any article specified in above clauses
(Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. CHAPTER II—DEFINITIONS, SEC. 201)
So unless we want to classify a kiwi or tangerine as a drug and spend five million dollars plus to have it approved by the FDA, according to this decree, it cannot cure a disease like scurvy. Only in reality, it can! Here we have an example of a law that is incompatible with reality. As an unpatentable product, the cost of such testing is hardly recoverable.
Vitamin C’s role in Atherosclerosis is evident; there are many nutritional components of disease that are not. By incorporating a complete model and protocols that include nutritional science in addition to heroic interventions and drug therapies in the treatment of disease, the medical community can provide optimum care for the patient.
REFERENCES
Rath, M. (2002). Why Animals Don’t Get Heart Attacks...but People do!. Fremont: MR Publishing.
Seeley, R. R., Stephens, T. D., & Tate, P. (2003). Anatomy and Physiology. New York, McGraw-Hill
Whitney, E. N., Rolfes, S. R., (2002). Understanding Nutrition. Belmont: Wadsworth/ Thomson Learning.
(1996). The Bantam medical dictionary. 2nd edition, New York: Bantam Books.
ascorbic acid . (n.d.) In Medical-Dictionary. thefreedictionary online. Retrieved April 25, 2009, from http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/ascorbic+acid
ascorbic acid . (n.d.) In medpix online. Retrieved April 27, 2009, from http://rad.usuhs.edu/medpix/medpix_home.html
United States Department of Health and Human Services. Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. CHAPTER II—DEFINITIONS, SEC. 201 [Data file]. Retrieved from http://www.fda.gov/opacom/laws/fdcact/fdcact1.htm
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