Until
the end of the eighteenth century, most naval
and other maritime pursuits were plagued by
the death of sailors from scurvy. It was a very
terrible and painful disease that claimed the
lives of thousands each year. The sailors would
be overcome by lethargy; their skin would spontaneously
rupture and bleed. In 1751, the Royal British
Navy’s physician, Dr. James Lind, published
a Treatise of the Scurvy. In it, Lind reported
that this devastating disease could be prevented
by giving its victims one fresh citrus fruit
each day. The British sailors eventually became
known as limeys, a reference to the dietary
regimen Lind proposed.
It was not until this century, however, that
science gained an understanding of why citrus
prevented and cured scurvy. During the late
1920s and early 1930s, several researchers,
most notably Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, Ph.D., identified
and then synthesized the antiscorbutic agent
in citrus. It was called vitamin C
or ascorbic acid.
The discovery of vitamin C
prompted a tremendous amount of research on
its role in health and disease in the 1930s
and 1940s for vitamin C - but
much of the work lay forgotten until the 1970s.
Vitamin C, researchers found,
is necessary for the growth of new tissue and
the replacement of old tissue, as in wound healing.
Vitamin C is necessary for
the formation of collagen, a protein that acts
as a biological cement holding the body cells
together. The vitamin is also necessary for
the formation of cartilage, dentine in teeth,
and bone. Vitamin C maintains
the integrity of our capillaries, the smallest
of our blood vessels, and prevents them from
bruising. It is a precursor to many hormones,
such as adrenaline and cortisone, which are
produced by the body as defenses. Vitamin
C also protects vitamin A against oxidation,
potentiates the benefits of vitamin B12, and
partly compensates for deficiencies of pantothenic
acid, another B vitamin.
Vitamin C is a powerful bacteriocide.
The human body has a magnificent array of immune
system defenses to combat infection, they all,
however, require large amounts of vitamin
C to perform optimally.
White blood cells scan your bloodstream, searching
for invasive microbes and, upon finding them,
they digest the foreign bodies. The white blood
cells require vitamin C in
order to perform efficiently.
Bioflavonoids enhance the antiscorbutic activity
of vitamin C. When bioflavonoids
are administered with vitamin C,
there is an increase uptake of the vitamin into
the liver, kidney and adrenal glands, and protection
of the vitamin C by the bioflavonoids,
which seems to work as antioxidants - that is
preventing the destruction of C.
UNLIMITED Vitamin C with hespurdin,
rutin, and bioflavonoids as the helpers and
enhancers of vitamin C, is
the key to daily maintenance and good health.
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