Nutrition Center

Ascorbic Acid is not Vitamin C
By Dr. Erik J. Rosseland, D.C.

Vitamin C is a very misunderstood vitamin. Most of you may find this hard to believe but ascorbic acid is not vitamin C. The government is largely responsible for this misconception because they have decided that you rate any vitamin C product according to the amount of ascorbic acid it contains. The real vitamin C complex contains the vitamin P factors (bioflavinoids, rutin) which maintain vascular integrity. These are deficient in people who bruise easily or have what is referred to as "pink toothbrush." Their blood vessels break or rupture too easily and bleed. The P factors strengthen the vascular system making the vessels tougher and more durable. Vitamin K is also part of this complex; it helps in coagulation. The J factor increases the oxygen carrying capacity of the blood. If you have a cold you want to get oxygen to your tissues where it oxidizes the toxins and carries them off. The complex also contains enzymes, the major one being tyrosinase which is organic copper, an adrenal activator. If you want to rate vitamin C according to one factor, it would be more logical the rate the tyrosinase as products containing the most tyrosinase produce the best clinical results. The tyrosinase in vitamin C converts tyrosine to thyroid and adrenal hormones. In addition to all these factors, the vitamin C complex also contains ascorbic acid. It is an antioxidant, it is the preservative part of the complex that prevents the others from spoiling. To refine out or to synthesize the preservative is a mistake. To say that ascorbic acid is vitamin C is like looking at a wheel and saying that it is a car ‑ it is only a small part of a car. It is the presence of all the synergistic factors which give a true vitamin C its potency.

So now you may ask, "what about the high potency vitamin C products?" These are made by the addition of synthetic ascorbic acid to a food base, usually rose hips or ascerola berries. Manufacturers of these products know that the public demand is for so‑called natural or organic products, so food is used as a base. They also know that people think that if a little is good, then more must be better, so synthetic ascorbic acid is added to the food base in order to increase the label data potency. In such a product you might have, for example, 500 milligrams of synthetic ascorbic acid (the preservative) and only 25 milligrams of the food base, which would contain the other C complex factors. These high potency products often have labels which say "natural" or "organic." This is because synthetic ascorbic acid, a derivative of petroleum, contains carbon, and is therefore organic, but hardly a food (remember organic chemistry, the study of carbon based substances?). It is actually a drug. In order to put 500 milligrams of naturally occurring ascorbic acid into a tablet, the tablet would have to be as big as a ping pong ball.

In an effort to make products quickly, cheaply and in mass quantities companies isolate what they think is the active ingredient of nutritional complexes, copy them in mirror images of crystalline pure chemicals, and mass produce them as "foods" or "vitamins." That is why taking too much ascorbic acid can actually weaken your immune system; it needs to hook up with vitamin P, tyrosinase and the other components of the complex. If you are a little short on tyrosinase too much ascorbic acid can induce a copper deficiency which is very detrimental to the immune system.

Now you may say that you know you have felt better or gotten better after taking mega‑doses of ascorbic acid. Most people who are sick are too alkaline, as is a person with a cold so taking the ascorbic acid does help that pH problem. You probably won't get a toxic response from taking moderate amounts of ascorbic acid but remember we are interested in more than just ascorbic acid.

I would like to also write a little more about what I alluded to above about synthetic vitamins. A Finish study published in the New England Journal of Medicine and the Agnes Faye Morgan experiments at UC Berkeley in the 1940's showed that taking synthetic vitamins is worse than starvation. The synthetic vitamins will kill you faster.

The synthetic vitamin producers and sellers claim that synthetic vitamins have the same molecular structure as the natural, and are therefore the same or at least have the same effect. Though synthetic vitamins have the same molecular structure, they are a mirror image of the natural. A mirror image? This suggests they are identical in every detail, EXCEPT IT IS THE COMPLETE OPPOSITE of the real thing. Try to shake hands with yourself in the mirror. Everything is opposite. A mirror image is not an exact duplication. You may have read certain articles that said that certain vitamins were of no benefit, well you can be assured that they used synthetic vitamins in those studies. It is next to impossible for mirror image synthetic nutrients to hook up with the other nutrients they need to combine with in order to be utilized by your body.

Our vitamins need to be whole food, natural biological complexes. They should not be isolated complexes, either natural or chemical. Whole food complexes are true food supplements that support health.

I would like to thank and credit the Clinical Reference Guide 3 / 95; Dr. Bruce West and his Health Alert letter, and The Bob Livingston letter as sources for this article.

Dr. Rosseland can be reached at Soul Purpose Chiropractic Center at 520‑444­1937, or info@SoulPurposeChiropractic.com if you have any questions or comments.