From the Archives: Dosing Up on Vitamin C

Most animals can make their own vitamin C. We humans can’t. We’ve got to get it through the food we eat or supplementation.

And it may be able to help with a variety of health conditions – far more than just the common cold, too.

For instance, a 2017 study in BMC Cardiovascular Disorders looked at the effect of C on atrial fibrillation (AF) – a common disturbance in heart rhythms – after heart surgery. Analyzing data from 15 previous studies, the authors found that taking C orally after surgery decreased AF by a whopping 73%, while C delivered intravenously reduced it by 36%. It also appeared to shorten a patient’s time in the hospital – by 7% with oral dosing and 16% with IV.

Interestingly, however, these benefits showed only in studies conducted outside the US, and far less wealthy nations, at that.

Although methodological variations may explain some of the differences, it is also likely that there are genuine differences between many treatment effects between substantially different cultures. Wealth is strongly correlated with life-style factors including nutrition, and with differences in hospital treatments. Such differences might explain the divergence between the results in the 5 US and the 5 Iran POAF trials.

Another 2016 study focused on the use of intravenous high dose C in particular. (The use of IV is key since the body can only absorb a fraction of a high dose taken by mouth. This isn’t the case with IV.) Through this small but intriguing trial, the authors found that high dose C reduced a variety of inflammatory markers in subjects with metabolic syndrome. This condition – marked by high blood pressure, high blood sugar, excess belly fat, and abnormal cholesterol levels – indicates a higher risk of heart disease and stroke.

Yet IV high dose C, this study suggests, may protect against this all too common condition.

More recently, research in Redox Biology casts light on how ultra-high doses of C may actually kill cancer cells. The study builds on earlier work which “found that at these extremely high levels (in the millimolar range), vitamin C selectively kills cancer cells but not normal cells both in the test tube and in mice.”

The study shows that vitamin C breaks down easily, generating hydrogen peroxide, a so-called reactive oxygen species that can damage tissue and DNA. The study also shows that tumor cells are much less capable of removing the damaging hydrogen peroxide than normal cells.

“In this paper we demonstrate that cancer cells are much less efficient in removing hydrogen peroxide than normal cells. Thus, cancer cells are much more prone to damage and death from a high amount of hydrogen peroxide,” says [Garry] Buettner, a professor of radiation oncology and a member of Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Iowa. “This explains how the very, very high levels of vitamin C used in our clinical trials do not affect normal tissue, but can be damaging to tumor tissue.”

Pretty amazing stuff.

And IV C is just one of the options among a wide variety of IV therapies that can be health-enhancing – either as part of treatment for a specific health condition or just to sustain or improve your current level of health. Check out our previous post to learn more about these therapies.

Originally posted February 7, 2017; updated

The post From the Archives: Dosing Up on Vitamin C appeared first on Holistic Doctor Los Angeles - Santa Monica.

Self-Care, Purpose, & Creating a Healthful Life

Let’s face it: New Year’s resolutions can be the stuff of angst – especially if you find yourself sliding back to the habits you just told yourself you’d finally kick.

But there’s a beauty to them, too.

For one, they’re a sign of self-care – an expression of intent to take better care of ourselves than maybe we have in the past; a statement that our health and well-being matter; that we are worth caring for.

It’s not for nothing that self-care is the first of Dr. Joe’s 8 Keys to Radiant Health.

The mental, emotional and spiritual realities we live by determine how we experience each day. We mobilize our minds, emotions and spirit towards health by taking time each day to immerse ourselves in something much bigger than we are. In fact a meaningful daily practice such as prayer, affirmations, meditation or volunteering matters just as much to health as medical care.

No matter the form, the practice of self-care is one aspect of living with a sense of purpose. Yet truth be told, many of us have a hard time identifying just what that is exactly. According to CDC data,

about 4 out of 10 Americans have not discovered a satisfying life purpose. Forty percent either do not think their lives have a clear sense of purpose or are neutral about whether their lives have purpose. Nearly a quarter of Americans feel neutral or do not have a strong sense of what makes their lives meaningful.

Yet,

research has shown that having purpose and meaning in life increases overall well-being and life satisfaction, improves mental and physical health, enhances resiliency, enhances self-esteem, and decreases the chances of depression.

Research even suggests that it may lengthen our lives.

Now a new study in the Journal of Health Psychology sheds a little bit of light on why this may be so.

The study used data from a long-term health study of a diverse population. Participants were asked about various health behaviors – how often they ate vegetables, for instance, or how they slept – as well as exercise habits. Their data was analyzed in several different ways. According to a Washington University news release,

In all scenarios, having a sense of purpose had a significant direct effect on self-rated health and a more modest, indirect effect on individual health behaviors.

As lead author Patrick Hill noted,

Participants reporting a higher sense of purpose also reported a greater likelihood to enact all health behaviors of interest and higher self-rated health…. Overall, these findings point to the importance of considering healthy lifestyle habits as a prominent explanation for why purposeful individuals experience better health outcomes.

The findings, he added, “support the case that a purpose-driven life may also be a healthier life.”

Importantly, this doesn’t mean you’re then doomed to illness if you struggle to find meaning.

It may be a cue to spend some time in reflection: What matters to you? What do you want or hope to achieve in life? How do you want to be remembered after you pass?

Reflecting on things like this can help you define your values and identify your purpose.

Likewise, actions of compassion and kindness can spark our sense of meaning as we reach beyond ourselves and our concerns to tend to the needs of others. Maybe this comes through volunteering or charitable giving. Maybe it involves merely spending more time with your family or spiritual group. Maybe it involves being a mentor to young ones or offering support to aging adults.

As others have noted, compassion, love, and sharing are fundamental to developing a sense of purpose.

And even if this were to have no health impact at all, it would still be profound – helping make this a better, kinder, more genuinely connected world.

As for those resolutions? There’s no law saying that you are only allowed to make them at the start of a new year. Setting intentions and taking action toward your preferred future is an anytime thing. You can start right now.

The post Self-Care, Purpose, & Creating a Healthful Life appeared first on Holistic Doctor Los Angeles - Santa Monica.