Complementary Nutrients: Bioflavinoids (Vitamin P), Calcium, Magnesium. Both Vitamin C and lipoic acid supplements can increase levels of glutathione, the body’s natural defense mechanism against free radicals; this is of great importance since glutathione levels fall as we age, and glutathione supplements are difficult to absorb.

Best Food Sources (per 100 g): Vitamin C appears to be present in all living tissues, but fresh fruits and plants are the best sources. Among the richest sources are rose hips, black and red currants, strawberries, leafy greens, and the citrus fruits (although the major portion of the vitamin C in citrus is located in the peel and not in the juice). Rosehips (3000 mg), Acerola Juice (1600 mg), Acerola Cherry (1300 mg), Hot Red Pepper raw (369 mg), Guava (242 mg), Sweet Green Pepper (128 mg), Broccoli (113 mg), Brussels Sprouts (102 mg), Strawberries (59 mg). Vitamin C is formed during the germination of seeds. Foods rich in Vitamin C are those rich in “light” such as green leaves (ie wheat grass). Light derives from the visible rays of the sun. Ascorbic acid is easily destroyed when exposed to oxygen, and this process is accelerated by light and heat. Vegetables begin to lose vitamin C as soon as they are cut. Considerable destruction of the vitamin C of fruit and vegetables may occur at room temperature if the material is shredded or chopped. For example, shredded lettuce loses eighty percent of its vitamin C in one minute. The loss is greater if a steel knife or “chopper” is used. Freshly squeezed orange juice, which is not likely to be that high in vitamin C in the first place, quickly begins to lose its supply of this nutrient. As a result, there is almost no vitamin C to speak of in the juice sold in bottles and cartons. Pickling, curing, salting, fermenting and the preserving of fruit pulp result in complete destruction of vitamin C.

Other Good Sources: Fruit Sources: Black currants, fresh orange and lemon juice, strawberries. Herbal Sources: Alfalfa, burdock, boneset, catnip, cayenne, chickweed, dandelion, garlic, hawthorn berry, horseradish, kelp, lobelia, parsley, plantain, pokeweed, papaya, raspberry, rose hips, shepherd’s purse, watercress, yellow dock. Vegetable Sources: Broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, chives, collards, cress, dock (sorrel), horseradish, kale, kohlrabi, mustard greens, parsley, sweet green and red peppers, spinach, tomatoes, turnip greens, watercress.

Destructive Agents: Alcohol, antibiotics, aspirin, barbiturates, cooking (heat), cortisone, diuretics, high fever, oral contraceptives, pain killers, stress, tobacco. Oxidation in food while in storage, leaching while soaking, cooking, copper utensils, baking soda. Any increase in serum copper increases the need for vitamin C, and estrogen (the female sex hormone) increases serum copper. Therefore, the use of birth control pills (containing estrogen), the use of estrogen medication to prevent menopausal symptoms, and the later stages of pregnancy (when the estrogen level is high) all increase the need for vitamin C. In women, total ascorbic acid (vitamin C) levels are highest at the time of ovulation and lowest at the time of menstruation.

Signs Of Deficiency:

Scurvy. The classic deficiency disease for vitamin C is scurvy. Early symptoms of scurvy are subtle and difficult to diagnose: listlessness, weakness, irritability, vague muscle and joint pains, reduction in white blood cell count, and weight loss. Symptoms of advanced scurvy are bleeding gums, gingivitis, loosening of the teeth, and extreme weakness and fatigue.

Mental Symptoms. Mental symptoms of vitamin C deficiency are fatigue, listlessness, lassitude, confusion, and depression. The face wears a haggard, frowning, “pained” expression, with a careworn, knitted brow. Confusional states in the elderly, often mistakenly labelled senility, may be due to vitamin C deficiency and, if so, will clear with 1 g (1000 mg) daily for three weeks. Vitamin C in doses of 1 to 2 g at a time works as a tranquilizer for the anxious. Because of the vitamin’s sedative effect, similar doses help the insomniac fall asleep. Because of the body’s homeostatic mechanism, a person can increase his intake of vitamin C 10,000 times over and only double the level of vitamin C in the brain. But that doubling may affect the mental well-being tremendously. Some voyagers in cosmic consciousness claim megadoses of vitamin C are superior to psychedelics, meditation, and EST for achieving a state of bliss. Vitamin C, incidently, along with niacin, has been used for “coming down” from bad LSD trips. Fever, overactive thyroid, or stress of any type burns vitamin C excessively, which may explain why 3 to 30 g of vitamin C daily are helpful in severe mental illness, where the sufferer is stressed by extreme anxiety. Possibly vitamin C acts to detoxify a brain poison, as vitamin C helps convert a body chemical, adrenochrome, to leucoadrenochrome, a nontoxic substance.

Teeth and Bones. Vitamin C deficiency causes a degeneration of the intercellular substance of teeth and bone. The bone tissues become decalcified, and loose teeth are the result. Gingivitis is an earlier stage, except where due to infection. Spongy, puffy gums which bleed easily, encouraging pyorrhea, signify a possible deficiency. A deficiency of vitamin C is favorable to rapid resorption of the alveolar ridge in edentulous mouths. Vitamin C deficiency is also responsible for a reduction in the germicidal enzymes normally present in saliva, which adds to the general tendency to infection, not only of pus germs but also of systemic infective children’s diseases. Those same germicidal enzymes protect the teeth against caries.

Other Symptoms. One of the early signs of a vitamin C deficiency is a cold. A runny nose or sore throat and tonsils are among the early symptoms of a cold. Swollen tonsils are also a sign that the person is not drinking enough pure (distilled) water. When women are pregnant and have a vitamin C deficiency they have stretch marks in their skin. Men also get stretch marks when deficient in vitamin C. The vitamin C complex cooperates with vitamin E in controlling oxidative reactions; in C deficiency the blood capacity to carry oxygen may drop to half normal. That means that the heart is compelled to pump blood at twice the normal rate, so one of the first reactions to vitamin C complex deficiency is shortness of breath. The deficient subject feels continually tired, and lacks both mental and physical stamina. Vitamin C also helps maintain normal vision; cataracts have been produced experimentally by restricting vitamin C intake. Since vitamin C is needed to build new blood cells, anemia can signify a deficiency. Also, vitamin C enhances iron absorption, thereby prevent iron deficiency, the most common cause of anemia. Various other symptoms may be degeneration of the intercellular cementum, the material that holds the cells together, a cracking of the epithelial surfaces, a splitting apart of the epithelial cells, opening up channels for infection or for leaking of body fluids. General weakness, headache, restlessness, impaired digestion, swollen or tender joints, poor lactation, lowered resistance to infection, retardation of growth, refusal of fractured bones to knit, loss of appetite and subsequent loss of weight, irritable temper, poor complexion, subcutaneous hemorrhages, dry skin, lethargy, nosebleeds, poor digestion, tendency to bruise easily, slow healing.

Therapeutic Uses: Alcoholism, allergies, atherosclerosis, arthritis, baldness, carbon monoxide and heavy metal poisoning, colds, cystitis, drug addiction, hypoglycemia, heart disease, hepatitis, insect bites, obesity, prickly heat, sinusitis, stress, tooth decay. Therapeutic dose of 250 to 5,000 mg/day.

Related Diseases: Scurvy, bleeding and spongy gums, bleeding intestine, fragile capillaries, coronary thrombosis.

Toxicity From Overdose of Animal Or Synthetic Source: No toxicity, but more than 5,000 mg/day may produce unpleasant side effects of diarrhea, skin rash, or burning on urination. It has been estimated that one would have to imbibe over eight pounds of the powder to reach a lethal dose.

Notes: Man-made Ascorbic Acid vs natural Vitamin C. Ascorbic acid lacks the anti-hemorrhagic factor, the deficiency of which is the real cause of scurvy. Dr. Szent-Gyorgyi found a permeability factor in natural Vitamin C from fruit juices, which he called Vitamin P, that could not be detected in synthetic Vitamin C (Ascorbic acid). Vitamin P (a fraction of Vitamin C) from citrus fruits would clear up a hemorrhagic condition when pure Vitamin C from some other source was useless.