Study finds large doses of vitamin C reduce stress, prevent disease

Study finds large doses of vitamin C reduce stress, prevent disease

WASHINGTON (August 23, 1999 7:04 a.m. EDT http://www.nandotimes.com) - Large doses of Vitamin C appear to reduces levels of stress hormones in the bloodstream, allowing the body's immune system to work more efficiently and helping to prevent diseases ranging from colds to cancer, researchers said Sunday.

Reporting to the annual meeting of the American Chemical Society in New Orleans, Samuel Campbell and colleagues at the University of Alabama reported that they subjected laboratory rats to stress and then gave the animals huge doses of vitamin C that would be the equivalent of a human eating several thousand milligrams of the vitamin.

The vitamin C significantly reduced the levels of stress hormones in the rats' blood, they found.

"The vitamin C treatment also reduced the other typical indicators of physical and emotional stress," including weight loss, enlarged adrenal glands and changes in the thymus and spleen, which help produce immune cells, the researchers found.

They noted that current recommended daily allowances for vitamin C are designed merely to prevent scurvy. Optimal health benefits might come from eating more vitamin C, they said.

Studies aimed at showing whether vitamin C supplements can prevent colds or shorten their duration have had mixed results.

But Campbell's team noted that early humans probably ate a lot more fruit that is high in vitamin C than modern humans do. They say it is possible that human beings have a high intrinsic need for vitamin C.