How does Vitamin C help?

[Guest guest]

,

Go to our Files section and read through the information there about

Vitamin C/Ascorbic Acid. Then go back to the posts/messages in April of

2004 and read forward to hear what others have shared about Vitamin C's

effects on CMT.

There are several European Vitamin C human trials ongoing now, and

hopefully, pending funding, one will open in the USA soon.

~ Gretchen

[Guest guest]

I recently attended a symposium where Dr. Shy spoke. He

didn't exactly explain the mechanism. But what essentially is

happened is that a pair of researchers found that if they took some

nerve cells and placed it in a medium, they could get an axon to

grow.

However the axon did not have a myelin coating. These researchers

then surrounded the axon with schwan cells hoping to generate a

myelin sheath.

After repeated failures, this husband wife research team added

ascorbic acid to the medium. The ascorbic acid allowed the schwan

cells to form the myelin sheath.

A French research company stumbled upon this study to see if adding

ascorbic acid to the diet of CMT afflicted rats or mice helped them

regenerate the myelin sheath. From what I understand, the results

were quite astounding. After a period of time the rodents were able

to do things like balance on a spinning rod, or holding their weight

by gripping with their front paws. The control rodents which did

not receive vitamin C were unable to do these tasks.

So essentially, vitamin C allows us to regulate the production of

healthy myelin.

The symposium is held at the University of Utah every year. It cost

only five dollars to attend, and is full of information. I suggest

that everybody that can attend should attend. Other topics included

genetics, health and exercise, nutrition and medicine.

By the way, the five dollar fee included breakfast and lunch.

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