Andrew Vajda
Member
Hi Lucas,It is true that ascorbic acid depletes copper and ceruloplasmin and we should take whole food vitamin C, like Morley Robbins says?
I'm not a science major but have done my best to compile info from the experts. If anyone here finds anything I say or post on my site to be slightly off, I'd be very appreciative of corrections! It's a work in progress...
I posted this on my FAQ: (My answer followed by Dr Levy's (see myth # 4 below))
My answer:
(some parts are likely copied from different sources)
Flavonoids, cofactors and the “ascorbic acid is an empty shell of vitamin C” argument
Do you need flavonoids and other “co-factors” and if so, how much of them?
Is it true that ascorbic acid is some sort of an “empty shell” of vitamin C without them?
Many people truly believe the “empty shell” argument but they are ill informed.
Ascorbic acid was isolated by one Nobel prize laureate Albert Szent Gyorgi and Championed by a double (& only) Nobel Laureate Linus Pauling.
Ascorbic acid is an extremely simple molecule synthesized by all the other mammals except man, other primates, the guinea pig and a fruit bat. The functional mammals all have one more working enzyme than us that allows them to convert simple sugar (glucose) into simple ascorbic acid.
That enzyme is L-gulono-γ-lactone oxidase (GLO) that is inactivated in our group.
Ascorbic acid is absolutely vitamin C in it’s entirety. Animals do not synthesize co-factors and bioflavonoids and all those other things people try to justify charging you over 20 to a 100 times the cost of simple ascorbic acid.
Ascorbic acid is basically made the same way functional mammals make it. Enzymes are added to the sugar extracted from European non GMO corn, four hydrogens leave the sugar molecule and the result is pure ascorbic acid.
The other factors of course have their benefits but you do not need to megadose co-factors like you would ascorbic acid. Humans mega dose to make up for the inability to manufacture our own vitamin C. We can easily obtain equal amounts of flavonoids and co-factors from our food. We could never eat as much ascorbic acid from food as functional mammals make.
It comes down to the antioxidant properties. Ascorbic acid donates two electrons. Disease and cancer scavenge electrons from your body whereas antioxidants donate them. The goal is to supply enough so that the scavengers are not taking from your electrons.
You can read more about the work of Linus Pauling, Albert Szent Gyorgi and others here:
Dr Robert Cathcart treated the most patients with ascorbic acid. We recommend and personally follow Dr Cathcart’s vitamin C dosage protocol.
See and compare the chemical structures of Glucose and Ascorbic acid here:
Glucose on Wikipedia
Nobel Laureate Walter Norman Haworth discusses Ascorbic Acid
(Search for Fischer projections on both links)
Dr Levy's Answer:
“Myth number four: The “vitamin C complex”
Excerpt from “The most popular vitamin C myths exposed” by Thomas E. Levy, MD, JD
“The whole concept of vitamin C existing naturally in a multi-compound complex is a fiction of preposterous proportions. Whether the individuals, mostly on the internet, really believe this to be true or are intentionally promoting a fraud is not clear.
Certainly, everyone making such ridiculous assertions ultimately ends up promoting some type of a “vitamin C complex” supplement. These individuals even go so far as to say that ascorbic acid is not vitamin C, that ascorbic acid has no impact by itself, and that ascorbic acid alone cannot resolve scurvy, the classical vitamin C deficiency disease.
These assertions are astoundingly wrong, to say the least.
Editor’s note: Here is a great example of the lifesaving power of vitamin C. Click here to see how one man was saved from a deadly virus.
If for some reason you are among the readers who find this fiction compelling and logical (and the typical YouTube presentations are very slick and seemingly “scientific”) I would encourage you to go to PubMed – on your computer – and type in ascorbic acid, ascorbate, or vitamin C into the search box.
You will immediately see abstracts listed for thousands of articles. None of them, particularly the clinical studies where vitamin C is being used as the primary or only therapy, mentions “vitamin C complex.”
In other words, all of the truly fabulous things that vitamin C has been scientifically documented to do has been done with ascorbic acid or another form of ascorbate by itself. No other ancillary nutrients, drugs, or compounds were necessary.
Telling the unpopular truth about vitamin C
I am not in a position to directly accuse anyone of deliberately inflicting the fraud of vitamin C complex on whoever listens to them, but it strains credulity to imagine that anyone would present themselves as a vitamin C expert and truly be completely clueless as to the existence of the many thousands of articles that would indicate that such a complex does not exist and is not necessary for vitamin C to have its wonderful effects.
What I can also add about the different forms of vitamin C being marketed as a complex is that they generally have added bioflavonoid antioxidants and sometimes other positive nutrients. Make no doubt about it, the greater the variety of and the quantity of antioxidants that you can take, the better.
More antioxidants do make whatever vitamin C you take more impactful, but they are not required to have a clear and profoundly positive impact from highly-dosed vitamin C. However, these products usually make quality supplementation more expensive than it needs to be, and the C complex products are also not amenable to the easy taking of large multi-gram amounts of vitamin C, such as with pure ascorbic acid or sodium ascorbate powder, as recommended by Dr. Frederick Klenner and Dr. Linus Pauling.
Rather, these C complex products serve to prevent the public and motivated health seekers from realizing the many incredible health benefits that can be realized by pushing vitamin C dosing well past what could be accomplished by even taking several bottles a week of such C complex preparations.
A final warning to all health conscious people
So, as with just about everything else, let the buyer be aware, and educated. Make sure anything you read or hear on the internet not only makes clear sense, but it is also backed up by some clear science and not just being put forth by an articulate person with charm and charisma wanting to make a buck.
Everyone wants to make a living, but motivated health seekers should not be compromising their health just because they are buying into a fraud that is unfortunately just continuing to grow at this point.
About the Author: Thomas E. Levy, MD, JD is a board-certified internist and cardiologist. He is also bar-certified for the practice of law. He has written extensively on the importance of eliminating toxins while bolstering antioxidant defenses in the body, with particular focus on vitamin C. His website is PeakEnergy.com. His latest book, The Toxic Tooth: How a root canal could be making you sick, co-authored with Robert Kulacz, DDS, is now available at MedFoxPub.com.”