All About Antioxidants and Vitamins -

Value Of Vitamin C

No one disputes that vitamin C is of great value in the treatment of scurvy. As soon as the vitamin is given in adequate dosage, improvement occurs and, within a few weeks, all the symptoms and signs have gone. The real dispute has been whether the vitamin has any value in people who are not suffering from scurvy. Until about ten years ago, the orthodox medical view was that if you get enough to prevent scurvy, additional intake of the vitamin is a waste of time and money and does no good.

Oddly enough, in spite of this view, there have been, over the years, repeated enthusiasms for trials of the vitamin in all sorts of conditions. Even before the current interest in free radicals and in the use of antioxidants, vitamin C had many respectable supporters. One reason for the medical skepticism is clear most of the trials of vitamin C in the management of conditions like the common cold failed because the doses given were very little more than the minimum daily requirement to prevent scurvy. It is becoming clear that, used as an antioxidant, much larger doses than the minimum daily requirement are needed.