Vitamin C & Stress

[Guest guest]

Hope this was not already posted, I am super behind in all my email,

catching up in chronological order. This was interesting to me.

08/30/99 - Vitamin C Eases Stressful Situations

Vitamin C Eases Stressful Situations in Animal Studies

New York Times Syndicate

ED UNGAR

Research conducted on rats at the University of Alabama suggests that

megadoses of vitamin C can in fact help prevent illness by reducing the

production of stress hormones.

Researchers led by P. , chairman of the department of

biological sciences at the University's Huntsville campus, gave an

experimental group of rats 200 milligrams of vitamin C a day, a dose

equivalent to several grams a day in humans. By contrast, the recommended

daily allowance (RDA) for the vitamin is only 60 milligrams a day, which is

sufficient to prevent scurvy.

They did this to see how the vitamin would affect the adrenal gland's

production of a so-called flight or fight hormone corticosterone, which is

similar to a substance human adrenals produce called cortisol. Stress

hormones tend to suppress the immune system.

The adrenal gland in rats, humans and other animals contain high levels of

vitamin C. " It's really unclear what vitamin C is actually doing in the

adrenal, " said . " It was our idea that dietary vitamin C would turn

down the production of stress hormones. "

The researchers produced stress in the rats by immobilizing them for a hour

a day over a three-week period. Stressed rats that did not take vitamin C

had high levels of stress hormone and low levels of immune system

antibodies. But the stressed animals that were given the vitamin had stress

hormone levels that were no different than those rats that were not

stressed.

The stressed rats that took vitamin C also suffered less weight loss, had

larger thymus glands and less enlarged adrenal glands than their fellow

stressed rats that didn't receive vitamin C.

The researcher suggested that animal study results had implications for

humans. " People under stress tend to have a higher incidence of sickness, "

said , " because the adrenal hormones suppress the immune system. "

" If vitamin C then is able to block the production of stress hormones, " said

, who takes 500 milligrams of vitamin C daily, " then that that would

also translate into less immunosuppression and less susceptibility to

debilitation and illness because of stressful conditions. "

This, said , may explain research results in humans showing that

ultra-marathon runners taking vitamin C had a lower incidence upper

respiratory infections than their fellow runners who did not take the

vitamin. Another report has linked higher levels of vitamin C intake by

military recruits with reduced incidence of pneumonia.

The amount of vitamin C needed " for optimum physiological function may be

quite different " than the minimum to prevent scurvy, suggested .

The research results were presented Sunday in New Orleans at the national

meeting of the American Chemical Society.

According to Anita Carr, a research associate at the Linus ing Institute

at Oregon State University at Corvallis, these study results are suggestive

of a link between vitamin C intake and stress reduction. But, she cautioned,

care must be taken in drawing conclusions from results in rats to humans

because normal rats make their own vitamin C while humans do not.

(The Medical Tribune Web site is at http://www.medtrib.com

c.1999 Medical Tribune News Service

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