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I ran across the following info that says that Vitamin C may cause hardening of the arteries. I am used to seeing info saying that Vitamin C is good for the arteries such as the link further down. I don't take very high doses of Vitamin C, 500 - 1000 mg, but now I am concerned. Anyone have better data? Thanks, - Steve N _______________________________________________________________________ http://altmedangel.com/arteries.htm "Ascorbic Acid Causes Hardening of the Arteries? It seems hardly likely that taking high doses of vitamin C (ascorbic acid) can cause thickening or hardening of the arteries since so many people have taken high doses for a long time. Yet researchers from the University of California reported just that on March 2, 2000. People who took 500 mgs of ascorbic acid had a 2.5 times faster progression of thickening of the carotid artery (hardening of the arteries) than people who took no supplement. This study was not a clinical study where subjects are divided into those taking ascorbic acid and those taking a placebo. This was an epidemiological study which means patient records were examined and this finding popped up. There might well have been other confounding factors that would explain the artery-thickening finding. Nonetheless, the researchers were surprised at the finding. And it seemed that the higher the dose of ascorbic acid, the worse the artery damage (the more they took, the faster the buildup). In fact, smokers taking 500 mgs of ascorbic acid had a rate of artery thickening five times greater than nonsmokers not taking the supplement. And while no one is sure what this all means, the researchers did come up with some common sense ideas about fractionated supplementation. The director of the study astutely observed that "when you extract one component of food and give it at very high levels, you just don't know what you are doing to the system, and it may be adverse." Other researchers were quick to add that the research shows the uncertainties of picking out a single vitamin among the plethora of nutrients in a healthy diet. They added that it is a challenge to pick out nutrients that may make people live longer because if we are wrong, we can do harm" ________________________________________________________________________ _______ http://www.medical-library.net/vitamin_c_and_vascular_disease.html "Animals In The Wild Do Not Get Heart Attacks The process of atherosclerosis is limited to humans. Animals in the wild do not develop atherosclerosis, therefore no heart attacks and no strokes occur among these citizens of nature. To induce an animal to have atherosclerosis you have to put it in captivity and feed it the kind of diet which humans use to cause the problem. The guinea pig and fruit bat make good models, if this is what you want to do. The gorilla would make a good model, but who wants fifty gorillas lined up in a laboratory? Animals in the wild do not get heart attacks because they make their own ascorbate, and therefore the process of atherosclerosis does not begin. We humans could take the hint, load up on vitamin C and a few other vitamins twice each day for life and eradicate heart disease. This is already happening in the U.S. where ascorbate consumption has skyrocketed over the past 25 years, and heart disease has dropped by one third. The war against smoking may also have something to do with this, yet in countries where smoking has declined in the absence of increased ascorbate consumption, there has been no equivalent change in heart disease rates." "All The Known Actions of Ascorbate 1. Increases HDL (high density lipoprotein) production. (HDL is able to help resorb fat located in plaque. In the process it changes from a disc shape to a globular form of HDL, and takes this fat to the liver to be burned.) 2. Decreases the production of lipoprotein(a). (Somehow the liver knows when there is plenty of ascorbate on board, and therefore no need for high levels of lipoprotein(a) which is, after all, a repair factor for the cracks in blood vessel walls which come up in the absence of sufficient ascorbate.) 3. Down-regulates cholesterol and triglyceride production in the liver. [These are secondary repair factors in that they are glued into the plaque by lipoprotein(a).] 4. Lowers blood sugar and insulin requirements. 5. By relaxing the blood vessel walls, lowers blood pressure when hypertension is present. (This is not the total answer to a case of hypertension, but it can help.) 6. Inhibits inappropriate intravascular clot formation (the final and sometimes deadly event in cases of heart attacks and strokes)." ______________________________________________________ -- The Silver List is a moderated forum for discussing Colloidal Silver. Instructions for unsubscribing are posted at: http://silverlist.org To post, address your message to: silver-list@eskimo.com Address Off-Topic messages to: silver-off-topic-l...@eskimo.com The Silver List and Off Topic List archives are currently down... List maintainer: Mike Devour <mdev...@eskimo.com>
