It is a well known fact that ‘we are what we eat’. Food not only affects us physically, but psychologically as well. However, researchers are now looking into the effects of food on chronic ailments like osteoarthritis, only to find that food plays a vital role in dealing with this ailment. Here’s more on this newly developing field of study.

Osteoarthritis or Degenerative Joint Disease (DJD) is the wear and tear of our joints caused by the breakdown of cartilage in them. Cartilage, which is a hard but slippery tissue between joints, is more of a cushion for the bones which form the joints. It not only avoids direct friction between the bones but, also helps to absorb shock, allowing them to move smoothly over each other, as it is composed of 65-80% water, collagen, proteoglycans and chondrocytes.

This is what happens when you suffer from osteoarthritis –
• Cartilage loss is there.
• Joints begin to deteriorate due to constant rubbing of bones with each other.
• Fluid accumulates in the joints.
• Structural changes and bony overgrowths can be seen around the joint.
• Patient suffers chronic pain.
• Problem can affect the joints of fingers, hips, knees, feet and spine too.
• Severe symptoms might lead to loss of mobility in the patient or disability.

With over 21 million Americans living with the disease, commonly seen in elderly people above the age of 65 years, researchers are now delving into different ways of tackling the problem to gain more control over it, the most recent one being dietary changes for osteoarthritis.

There are various factors which pave way for a person to develop osteoarthritis, like – obesity, vitamin C deficiency, low bone mineral density and vitamin D deficiency. Thus keeping these in mind dieticians suggest some additions and subtractions in your diet to avoid and also keep under control this ailment.

Some dietary changes to keep osteoarthritis at bay -

Foods to avoid -

• Reduce the consumption of fatty foods in your daily intake as the more weight your body has to carry, greater is the burden on the joints and greater the risk.
• Identify the inflammatory elements of your diet by eliminating all short listed ones from the food you consume. Reintroduce them one by one, noting your body’s reactions to them. This would help you identify the culprit food items, which you need to remove at the earliest.
• Common inflammatory foods are – wheat, potato, pepper, egg plant, tobacco, tomatoes etc. you need to stay away from them for about a month and then start reintroducing.
• Elimination of dairy products and animal food has proven to help many. Thus staying on a vegetarian diet would be best for high risk patients.
• Research has shown that periodic fasting has helped show improvement for arthritis patients. It helps to cleanse and restore the digestive system and kidneys, relaxes the mind and nervous system and is good for the well being of the body as whole.
• Lifestyle changes involving elimination of alcohol, smoking, tobacco, coffee, fats, sugar and excessive salt, are now known as ways to overcome the problem at best.

Foods to add -
• Vitamin C is known to develop cartilage, thus foods rich in the vitamin should be deliberately had on a regular basis, in addition to tablets. Some foods are citrus fruits etc.
• Vitamin D helps to decrease the narrowing of joint spacing, thus a daily supplement of the Vit-D tablet is a must for osteoarthritis patients.
• Osteoarthritis symptoms are said to show a slowdown with foods rich in glucosamine and chondroitin.
• In general eating green leafy vegetables, carrots, avocado, sea weeds, fish, soy products, sprouts, oats, barley, rice, millet, and fish like salmons, tuna, sardines etc, help patients suffering from the disease and also help to overcome the above mentioned deficiencies.
• Regular intake of calcium supplements is a must.
• Lifestyle changes like weight reduction, exercising and diet control, not only help reduce weight, they also help people with low bone mineral density.

So eat healthy and live healthy!

Vitamin C. Mmmm . . . maybe you think of a tall glass of Florida orange juice. Or maybe you grab it at the beginning of the cold season. But would you associate it with cardiovascular disease (CVD) or cancer? Maybe you should. According to an article published in October 2007, in the Journal of Nutrition, there is accumulating scientific evidence that very large (therapeutic) doses of vitamin C may be effective in treating both CVD and cancer. In addition, some scientists have hypothesized that the onset of these common degenerative diseases may actually be due to a vitamin C deficiency in the general population. Dr. Steven Hickey and Dr. Hilary Roberts with the Vitamin C Foundation and authors of the book ‘Ascorbate: the Science of Vitamin C’, have gone so far as to suggest that heart disease is actually a chronic form of the vitamin C deficiency disease called scurvy.

Vitamin C, found in a variety of fruits and vegetables, is essential not only for our good health, but our very survival. Without vitamin C, human beings will certainly die of scurvy, a disease characterized by bleeding gums, skin discolorations from small ruptured blood vessels, easy bruising, joint pain, loose and decaying teeth, and hyperkeratosis of hair follicles. But along the continuum of health, there is a difference between survival and optimal human health. The real question is how much vitamin C is required for optimal health?

Vitamin C has many essential roles in the body. It is required for the synthesis of collagen, which is a main structural protein in our bodies, giving support to our tissues, including strengthening our blood vessels, ligaments, tendons, bone, and teeth. It is also required for synthesis of hormones, neurotransmitters, and other important substances needed for metabolism. In addition to these functions, vitamin C is a powerful antioxidant. It neutralizes free radicals before they have a chance to damage our cells. Vitamin C is arguably one of the most important antioxidants in our human physiology for its versatility and wide ranging presence.

How Much?

The government’s Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) is defined as the daily amount of a nutrient considered sufficient to meet the requirements of most healthy individuals. For Vitamin C, it is 75 mg/day for adult women and 90 mg/day for adult men (smokers are recommended to have an additional 35 mg/day). The current RDA is adequate to prevent death or serious health issues from acute deficiency of vitamin C (e.g., scurvy). The RDA is also adequate for required collagen and hormone synthesis (the RDA is mainly based on this). But to work effectively as an antioxidant, scientists are learning that vitamin C levels need to be significantly higher in our bodies. And the debate now is over how much is needed.

If we ate the recommended 5 servings of fruits and vegetables per day, we’d easily consume double the RDA for vitamin C and likely a lot more. According to Linus Pauling, a two time Nobel Prize winning chemist who is noted for his vitamin C research, our early human ancestors probably consumed 2,300 mg/day to 9,500 mg/day of vitamin C from their plant-based diet. This is 25 to 100 times more than today’s RDA for an adult man!

History

Scientists have determined that about 40,000 years ago humans lost their own ability, through a genetic mutation, to manufacture vitamin C. Our DNA no longer allowed our cells to make an enzyme which is required to produce vitamin C internally. Evolutionary biologists would argue that the mutation conferred a survival advantage. After all, humans could conserve energy by not manufacturing something that was already abundantly available in their diet.

Along the way, our dependence on fruits and vegetables became obvious. In the 1700’s, sailing ships started stocking limes or vegetables to prevent their crew members from dying of scurvy during long voyages. In 1928, Hungarian biochemist, Albert Szent-Györgyi, finally isolated the mysterious substance known as vitamin C. Since then, scientists have been working to understand exactly how vitamin C functions in our bodies.

Beyond Mere Survival

Today, scientific evidence is highlighting a discrepancy between the amount of vitamin C needed to avoid acute deficiency disease and the amount needed for effective antioxidant protection to ward off major degenerative diseases. This hypothesis is based on vitamin C’s function as a powerful, versatile and pervasive antioxidant in our bodies.

Free radicals are molecules with an unpaired electron that make them highly reactive. They “steal” an electron to make up a more stable pair, hence damaging the molecules around them that have had to relinquish an electron. Free radicals have shown to be a significant contributing factor in the development of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and cancer. They can trigger premature cell death and inflammation in our vascular system. They can reduce the availability of nitric oxide which helps maintain healthy artery dilation and blood flow. Free radicals can also oxidize LDL cholesterol. As we’re learning, it’s not so much the LDL cholesterol that’s implicated in the development of heart disease, it’s that the LDL cholesterol has been damaged, or “oxidized”, by free radicals. Free radicals can also cause DNA mutation and damage the supportive structure of our cells which can contribute to the development of cancer.

Many studies have shown that increased vitamin C intakes and increased plasma vitamin C concentrations are correlated with a decrease in degenerative diseases. Scientists have also determined and explained the specific mechanisms by which vitamin C scavenges and neutralizes these free radicals, thus providing powerful protection against free radical damage.

Conclusion

The current RDA may be sufficient to avoid acute deficiency disease but may not be enough to help protect us from free radical damage. A reduction of disease risk has been associated with 5 servings of fruits and vegetables per day, and this is likely due at least in part to their vitamin C content. But the vitamin C content in these servings is easily double the RDA. Scientists researching vitamin C have yet to agree upon how much is required for optimal human health. Their estimates vary and typically start at 400 mg/day and go higher.

Dr. Steve Hickey with the Vitamin C Foundation has published open letters to the Food and Nutrition Board and the National Institutes of Health, laying out the reasons why the current RDA is insufficient and why it should be reexamined and readjusted upward.

In the meantime, we can support our health and reduce our risk of degenerative diseases by making sure not to skimp on our 5 servings of fruits and vegetables per day. We may fortify ourselves with a good quality multi-vitamin supplement for the extra vitamin C it provides.

Vitamin C is a water-soluble vitamin, which means that it is not stored in the body and must be replaced by our diet every day. The Tolerable Upper Intake Level (UL) is the maximum continual intake of a nutrient that is unlikely to cause adverse health effects in almost all people, and for vitamin C the UL is 2 g/day (2,000 mg/day). The most common side effect of taking an amount larger than this is diarrhea. Therefore, healthy individuals have little concern of toxicity if consuming more vitamin C than specified by the RDA.

One word of caution - people who have a high risk of kidney disease, kidney stones, or disorders of iron metabolism should avoid large doses of vitamin C (>500mg). Consult your doctor or nutritionist prior to taking supplementation.

Virtually all fruits and vegetables contain some amount of vitamin C. According to the USDA nutrient database, fruits and vegetables that are among the highest in vitamin C content include: orange juice, grapefruit juice, peaches, peppers (sweet and hot), papayas, strawberries, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, kohlrabi, pineapple, and kiwi fruit. Other fruits noted for their high vitamin C content include: jujube, acerola, camu camu, guava, red and black currants, mango and persimmon.

About the author

Leigh Kirk is an investigative nutritionist currently pursuing her Master of Science in Human Nutrition at the University of Bridgeport. Special interests include disorders of metabolism, research on fats, antioxidants, trace minerals, and the ecology of nutrition. Email: investigativenutritionist@gmail.com

StarGate Nutrition today announced that Vitamin C is not ascorbic acid. Ascorbic acid has been successfully sold as vitamin C for many decades now. However, even the man who discovered Vitamin C, Szent-Györgyi, knew ascorbic acid on its own as an isolated synthetic chemical, was not Vitamin C. He saw no improvement when he fed ascorbic acid to scurvy patients. Scurvy is a vitamin C deficiency disease. When he gave them lime and lemon juice they did recover. This proved to him that there was more to Vitamin C than ascorbic acid.

Over 90% of the ascorbic acid now produced and sold in the world is made in China and exported out to be packaged as different brands. This industry in China producing these isolated synthetic chemicals has been accused of producing impotent drugs and food products that poison.

StarGate Nutrition CEO Ralph Quinlan Forde said that,” With all our nutrients consumers can be guaranteed they are taking real nutrients not isolated synthetic chemicals. Our nutrients are in a form found in nature. Your biology understands what we produce. You can take as much ascorbic acid as you like but you body will never recognizes it as vitamin C.”

He went on to say,” Nutrients need to be delivered in a form that they are found as in nature. We have developed a nutrient rich food material that delivers all your vitamin and mineral requirements safely and guaranteed. In fact in scientific studies we have conducted we have seen our nutrient material such as Vitamin C is 16 times more effective than what is currently available on the market and its safer.”

Today over one in three people take some of nutrients on a daily basis. Ascorbic acid sold as vitamin C has long been popular in the treatment of colds, flus and heart disease.

Wendy Murphy BA MBA
Red Box Media & PR
The Royal Mile
Edinburgh
0131 208 3522
‘A PR Bridge for Entrepreneurs’
www.stargatenutritionvitamin.com

Best Syndication) Although little research has been conducted on the ascorbic acid (vitamin C) needs of strength-power athletes (SPAs), what we know about the functions of ascorbic acid indicate that SPAs should probably be consuming ascorbic acid at levels above the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA). Research clearly shows that deficiency, or even marginal ascorbic acid status, can adversely affect physical performance. For example, muscle weakness is a common symptom of vitamin C deficiency.Vitamin C has several functions that would be important to the performance of SPAs. For example, vitamin C is needed for the integrity and strength of tendons and ligaments. Ascorbic acid also is needed for the synthesis of adrenaline, which is needed to produce the excitatory state before and during performance. Adequate intake of the vitamin causes a lower release of the hormone, cortisol, in response to physical stress. Cortisol is a catabolic hormone that causes the body to break down skeletal muscle.

Thus, lower secretion of this hormone may result in better performance. In general, any physical stress could cause an increased need for vitamin C. Finally, ascorbic acid is a powerful water-soluble antioxidant. Research has established that physical training, including weightlifting, causes an increased production of oxidative damage markers. Vitamin C, in its antioxidant capacity, would function to reduce the level of these damage products.

Studies do seem to indicate that strenuous physical activity increases the need for vitamin C. Animal and human studies show reduced tissue levels of ascorbic acid with exercise. Reduced urinary excretion of the vitamin following exercise has also been reported. Several studies show better heat adaptation with improved vitamin C status. One study, using junior elite weightlifters, did report a reduced serum cortisol concentration in the lifters following a training session when the lifters had been consuming a vitamin C supplement versus when they consumed a placebo.

The Recommended Dietary Allowance for vitamin C is 60 mg/day. However, recent studies in nonathletes suggest that an optimal vitamin C intake is more likely to be around 200 mg/day. Because physical training, such as weightlifting, places stress on the body, optimal vitamin C needs in SPAs may be 200 mg or higher. Vitamin C and exercise studies generally indicate that intakes of various athletes should be in the 200-500 mg/day range. Minimal evidence shows that intake of ascorbic acid above 1000 mg daily is beneficial to a person in general or to athletes specifically.

Although vitamin C supplements are inexpensive to purchase and easy to take, many athletes can easily consume 200 mg/day or more in their normal diets. Studies with body­builders and football players show normal vitamin C intake to be 180-300 mg/day. A single 8-ounce glass of orange juice will provide approximately 100-120 mg of vitamin C. If the athlete consumes a proper selection of high vitamin C fruits and vegetables, then meeting the 200-500 mg/day intake level should not be a problem. Although ascorbic acid is a nontoxic vitamin, doses above 1 g/day may cause irritation and discomfort to the gastrointestinal system. Again, obtaining the vitamin from proper dietary selection is the best way to proceed.

Jeannie Mullins
Extension Agent

Vitamin C, also known as ascorbic acid, is a water-soluble vitamin that has a wide variety of uses in the body. It helps to slow down or prevent cell damage and helps the body absorb iron from plant foods. Vitamin C is also needed to maintain healthy body tissues and the immune system.

Scurvy, a disease caused by vitamin C deficiency, was common a few generations ago especially among seamen who lived on dried and salted foods for months at a time. Today, scurvy is rare in the United States. Still, not getting enough of this important vitamin can lead to anemia, bleeding gums, infections and poor wound healing.

So How Much Do We Need?

For adults over age 19, women need 75 milligrams (mg) per day, and men need even moreÑ90 mg per day. If you smoke, you need an additional 35 milligrams of vitamin C every day. If you are pregnant or breastfeeding, you should talk to your healthcare provider to see what is recommended for you.

The best way to get enough Vitamin C is through foods rather than supplements. Fruits and vegetables are the best sources. One medium-size red or yellow sweet pepper has 225 mg of vitamin C, and one medium papaya has 190 mg. In addition to citrus fruits like oranges, tangerines and grapefruit other foods that contain vitamin C include broccoli (cooked), cantaloupe and baked potato (with skin). Some cereals and juices have vitamin C added. Since the amount of vitamin C in each product varies, always check the nutrition label to see how much vitamin C that particular product contributes to your daily requirement.

Retaining Vitamin C in Foods

Vitamin C is easily destroyed during preparation, cooking or storage so follow these easy tips to retain as much of the vitamin as possible.

• Eat raw fruits and vegetables as soon as possible after buying them.
• Cut vegetables just before eating or cooking.
• Cook vitamin C-rich foods quickly in as little water as possible.
• Microwave, steam or stir-fry to retain the most Vitamin C.

How Much is Too Much?

Healthy individuals who eat plenty of fruits and vegetables rarely need vitamin C supplements. Taking vitamin C supplements does not prevent colds. Some studies show that vitamin C supplements may decrease the duration of a cold.

If you do take a supplement, do not get more than 2,000 mg/day of vitamin C from foods and supplements.  Although excess vitamin C is mostly eliminated in the urine, high doses can cause headaches, frequent urination, diarrhea and nausea. People with a history of kidney stones should avoid high levels of vitamin C.

For more information about nutrition and wellness, contact Jeannie Mullins, Family and Consumer Sciences Extension Agent in the Scott County Extension Office at 452-2772.

Vitamin C, also known as ascorbic acid, offers a number of benefits to our health. It is found in fruits and vegetables and has antioxidant properties. Antioxidants helps the body fight the symptoms of aging and keeps blood cells healthy from toxic substances that may lead to cancer.

The best benefit vitamin C offers is aiding the formation of collagen. This is the protein substance that keeps all cells together. Vitamin C is active within the cell wall where it transforms pro-collagen into collagen. Without it, the formation is interrupted. Another benefit is that it helps iron absorption. Iron is essential to maintaining clear and healthy skin, a fresh complexion and healthy teeth. It is also necessary for the function of all glands and organs. Iron also aids in relieving both psychological and physical stress.

It is easy to understand why vitamin C is so important to our body. It benefits our health is many aspects, aiding our body both from the inside and outside. If your diet lacks vitamin C, some symptoms may include skin hemorrhages, anemia, slow healing and soft gums. Another result of vitamin C deficiency can be faster aging. A lack of vitamin C in your diet also leads to a weak immune system, resulting in a low resistance to diseases. A deficiency may also cause various drugs and pollutants in the environment to affect your health greatly. In the worst case it could lead to the development of scurvy with symptoms like bruises on the skin and bleeding from the mucous membranes.

Vitamin C exists plentifully in nature and it is very uncommon to see people lacking it in their diet. The most common source of vitamin C is from citrus fruits such as oranges and limes. Another good source is vegetables like tomatoes, broccoli and potatoes. It is also available in other foods such as melon, strawberries, spinach and mangoes. However, the quality of the vitamin can easily be damaged by exposure to air, slicing, cooking or in other stages of food processing. To get as many benefits of vitamin C as possible, it is always best to eat fresh fruits and vegetables.

Although vitamin C plays an important role in a healthy diet, excess intake is not recommended. Vitamin C is water soluble and is not harmful, but large doses may cause diarrhea. The maximum recommended daily dosage is about 2000mg per day.