Ascorbic Acid Role in Containment of the World Avian Flu Pandemic

There's quite a few threads right now about the h151 flu virus circulating which could cause a global pandemic, like in the past. The thing is, in the past we didn't have the knowledge we do now. It wasn't too long ago that germs were considered fantasy, and nutrients were unknown! Now we have the knowledge and ability to fend off virus's on the cheap using our own immune system by boosting it's universal limiting factor, vitamin-c.

There's only a few animals that don't synthesize vitamin-c. To them, it's an amino acid, not a vitamin. Humans require the nutrient from dietary food sources. Ascorbic acid has over 10,000 functions in a healthy human.

We all know that if you don't consume a marginal, 50-60mg average daily intake of vit-c, scurvy develops. What isn't well known is that it also serves equally important roles at higher doses under certain circumstances. It's proven that vit-c is more readily absorbed into the bloodstream when disease sets in. Animals produce copious amounts of vit-c daily, even small ones! Under stress, their production will increase drastically. The average daily equivalent dosage for humans when compared to most animals, is around 5 grams daily!

I don't fully understand how ascorbic acid fights off bird flu, but it does! I'm providing a link which comes from a search at Google Scholar. This article claims that intracellular ascorbic acid levels are directly proportionate to T-cell count! It also lists other ways which vit-c may fend off virus's. It speaks of it acting as a reducing agent? It has to do with the ionic potential of vit-c c, I think.

Take a look at this and let me know what you think.

If you go to Google Scholar and type in "sodium ascorbate avian flu", it's the fourth article that shows up.

Ascorbic Acid Role in Containment of the World Avian Flu Pandemic

Here's an additional article that better explains the unique reducing properties of ascorbic acid.

UNIQUE FUNCTION of VITAMIN C

Vitamin C is a reducing substance, an electron donor. When vitamin C donates its two high-energy electrons to scavenge free radicals, much of the resulting dehydroascorbate is rereduced to vitamin C and therefore used repeatedly. Conventional wisdom is correct in that only small amounts of vitamin C are necessary for this function because of its repeated use. The point missed is that the limiting part in nonenzymatic free radical scavenging is the rate at which extra high-energy electrons are provided through NADH to rereduce the vitamin C and other free radical scavengers. When ill, free radicals are formed at a rate faster than the high- energy electrons are made available. Doses of vitamin C as large as 1 to 10 grams per 24 hours do only limited good. However, when ascorbate is used in massive amounts, such as 30 to 200+ grams per 24 hours, these amounts directly provide the electrons necessary to quench the free radicals of almost any inflammation. Additionally, in high concentrations ascorbate reduces NAD(P)H and therefore can provide the high-energy electrons necessary to reduce the molecular oxygen used in the respiratory burst of phagocytes. In these functions, the ascorbate part is mostly wasted but the necessary high-energy electrons are provided in large amounts.

[edit on 24-4-2009 by unityemissions]

You need to take 1 gram per day.

You can buy the chewable ones at costco fairly cheap.

!000mg per day. I'm going to be sure to take mine.

I personally take 5 or more grams daily. If I feel any sort of cold coming on, I double the dosage.

I've been on this high-dosage for the last eight months and have yet to be sick!

reply to post by Free4Ever2


Please, instead of attacking what other members know as distruth (in your mind), then share what you know???

Really with the insinuated insults, you are not adding anything of value to this thread.

reply to post by Free4Ever2


What are government supplements? Please, if you don't mind, enlighten us.

I am against pharmaceuticals, if that's what you're talking about.

The thing about getting vitamins from natural food sources is that

A) A lot of the topsoil has been depleted over the last couple of centuries in America.

B) Fungicides, Herbicides, Pesticides, etc..are being used at alarming rates.

C) Genetically modified food is rampant

D) Environmental pollution is at outright insane levels compared to preindustrial times.

All of the above lead to greater need for alternative sources of nutrients stemming from either excessive stress to the food source and/or consumer.


Please, once again....what are government supplements?

There is a significant difference in the actual molecular structure of synthesized substances and those created by natural processes.

I'm fairly certain I read that somewhere, am I mistaken?

reply to post by Maxmars



I just got done reading a book about Orthomolecular Therapy. It's basically high-dose vitamin therapy for diseased patients.

It depends. Nicotinic Acid (niacin) is the exact same, as a synthetic or from nature. It's amide (niacinamide) which is usually given is a bit different. Niacin causes your skin to flush, while niacinamide doesn't. Most other effects are identical.

If the chemical name is the same as the original, but it's a synthetic, it's a near exact replica, except for trace amounts of various left overs from the manufacturing process.

[edit on 24-4-2009 by unityemissions]

Thanks for linking to that, I have skimmed it and will read it more carefully later. The author does not seem to be a reasearcher, but someone who is putting forward a theory based on many other theories and studies, but that does not mean he is wrong.

It also interesting to be reminded of how much work there was around Ascorbic Acid until it was no longer patentable (that is at least what the paper is suggesting) and how beneficial it is to physical health.

S&F!

TWISI

Originally posted by unityemissions
reply to post by Maxmars

 

...

If the chemical name is the same as the original, but it's a synthetic, it's a near exact replica, except for trace amounts of various left overs from the manufacturing process.

[edit on 24-4-2009 by unityemissions]

If I might ask you a question. I hope you can explain it to me. I am a layman, please forgive me if I am speaking nonsense, it's ignorance I'm trying to deny

I understand (I think) that the chemical equivalence is nearly identical, and that trace impurities are negligible (ostensibly, anyway.)

But these substances do not exist in two dimensional planes. I had understood that the crystalline structure of naturally occurring vitamin-C is considerably different from the synthetically manufactured variety.

I had inferred, perhaps wrongly, that it made sense that the human body has adapted to the' naturally available' nutritional components that were predominant..., until we started making them out of petroleum (sorry, sarcastic off.) The newly arrived (relatively speaking) man-made substitutes don't quite 'match' the molecular model that the human body is accustomed to. And we often forcibly alter our natural body chemistry, bathing in fluorides, for example. These surely must have a cumulative stressing effect on our 'ideal' biochemistry.

But perhaps I misunderstand, and all that matters the chemical composition.

Anyway, thanks for listening. I await to be educated.

Originally posted by unityemissions
I personally take 5 or more grams daily. If I feel any sort of cold coming on, I double the dosage. I've been on this high-dosage for the last eight months and have yet to be sick!

Don't forget to mention that after a 10 gram jolt, you'd better be near a toilet about 20 minutes later!

reply to post by Maxmars




First off, you could be entirely correct. I don't claim to be a professional of anything. I too am layman.

Molecules do have a crystalline structure which is 3d. They are represented in text books two dimensionally...but I think this is a simplification of the processes involved, no?

I think they just use universally accepted symbols to express the interrelations of the different levels of matter. The key is the chemical composition, the name represents the molecular structure which is 3d.

The thing about synthetic petroleums is that they don't naturally exist. Don't naturally have a function. That's the main difference. A vitamin structure is seen throughout life, but a plastic is manufactured only.

I think that the synthetic chemicals which don't occur naturally are destroying this earth, but I also think that's different from synthetic vitamins, amino acids, etc..

Once again, I could be wrong. I think a synthetic of what does naturally occur, is much less toxic than most, if not all unnatural substances.



[edit on 24-4-2009 by unityemissions]

Thanks for posting this important info,

Massive doses of C Monster will cure a flat tire

I prefer the liquid with a pinch of honey for any lurking bacteria. Just stay away from the carbonized sweets until this thing blows over.

Originally posted by JohnnyCanuck

Originally posted by unityemissions
I personally take 5 or more grams daily. If I feel any sort of cold coming on, I double the dosage. I've been on this high-dosage for the last eight months and have yet to be sick!

Don't forget to mention that after a 10 gram jolt, you'd better be near a toilet about 20 minutes later!

I wouldn't suggest taking 10 grams at once.

Most of the time 2000 grams a day is way more than enough for me, taken in two doses.

However, if I am sick I can start off with 2000 grams, and then take another 500 mg every half hour to 45 minutes for several days. I think that the most I've consumed over a day parsed out in little bits is 30 grams.

[edit on 2009/4/24 by Aeons]

reply to post by Aeons


I wouldn't suggest taking 10g doses either, unless you're seriously ill and you've performed a bowel tolerance test which proves you can handle it.

Most people can handle 10-20 grams daily if the doses are spread out

Vitamin-c is incredibly nontoxic. There are some instances where people can have idiopathic reactions, but on the whole it's nearly as safe as water itself!

I'm sure you meant 2000 mg instead of 2,000 g's. If someone were to try and ingest this much they'd surely stop after the horrendous bowel movements. The only common side effects are bloating, constipation, & diarrhea. It's explained that after your body can no longer use the vitamin-c, it's expelled in your colon where it goes to work on your dirtiest system. The septic tank! This causes a pressure which forces water into the rectum. This is when you know you've had too much!

Excellent thread. If anyone has doubts of vitamin C's ability, check out this youtube link:

IV Vitamin C helping cancer victims

I've upped my C to 4 grams. Taking 2 at a time twice. If we get sick will double this and take it 2 grams 5 times, but may need ascorbic acid. Its just that its so hard on the stomach. I pretty much assumed when you had to use the washroom too often that was your body purging unnecssary amounts and sign to cut back.

reply to post by mystiq



If you get a serious illness like the flu or cancer you want a dose just before bowel tolerance to have the anti-inflammation effects which keep you alive!!

You can get buffered ascorbic acid as ascorbate. Don't take the calcium ascorbate, as it's known to cause problems with that much free calcium floating around.

I just ordered a 3lb bag of sodium ascorbate. If I get the flu, I'm starting with 10 grams hourly until bowel tolerance is reached. Then I stop, take the same dose spread out through the next day. See if I'm okay. Adjust accordingly.



[edit on 25-4-2009 by unityemissions]

reply to post by unityemissions i don't know a whole lot about vitamins or supplements but i do know that some can build up in your system (toxic overload), it is alway's better to get vitamins and minerals naturally from food, that way you can never get too much. the body will excrete what it doesn't use, with the obvious exception of fatty foods or sweets. as for trace metals such as iron, zinc, etc..? that is a slow death

reply to post by echodogene


There's only really a risk in taking fat-soluble vitamins, or minerals. Water-soluble vitamins toxicity is usually 1000+ times the RDA. What you don't need you flush out right away.

Vitamin C & B vitamins are water soluble.

What we're doing here is using the essential amino-acid ascorbate in a pharmacological way. This mechanism doesn't work through the meager amount of vitamin c attained through foods.

It's not possible to fight off these diseases through a small amount of ascorbic acid. Only many grams will do.

I think it's possible this function worked before we lost the ability to synthesize ascorbic acid, a long time ago.

[edit on 25-4-2009 by unityemissions]