Another Bogus Vitamin C Report

[Guest guest]

" askbillsardi.com "

Another Bogus Vitamin C Report

Sat, 5 Jun 2004 13:25:06 -0700

 

ANOTHER BOGUS VITAMIN C REPORT --- LIKE THE OTHERS, DISREGARD THE ADVICE

Like other negative scientific reports about supplemental vitamin C in recent

years, the study from Duke University Medical Center was released late on Friday

when criticism and rebuttal would be minimal. The report, published in the June

issue of Arthritis & Rheumatism [June 2004; vol 50: pp 1822-1831], claims that

high-dose vitamin C, when given to guinea pigs, worsens the occurrence of bone

spurs in the knee joint. The Duke University researchers warned the public away

from vitamin C supplements stating: " Our findings suggest that dietary intake

should not be supplemented above the currently recommended dietary allowance: 90

milligrams per day for men and 75 milligrams per day for women, " according to

researcher Virginia B. Kraus, MD, PhD, of Duke University Medical Center, and

colleagues.

 

But there are glaring inconsistencies in the Duke University report.

 

First, most animals, except for guinea pigs, fruit bats, primates and humans,

produce their own vitamin C and do not exhibit any increased risk for arthritis.

A 160-pound goat for example may produce up to 13,000 milligrams of vitamin C

per day.

 

Second, why did Duke University researchers warn the public away from

supplemental vitamin C based upon a small animal study when a more comprehensive

human study published in the same journal in 8 years earlier by researchers at

the Arthritis Center, Boston University Medical Center, found that adults who

consume high-dose vitamin C experience a 3-fold reduction in the risk for

progression of their knee osteoarthritis and that supplemental vitamin C reduces

knee pain? [Arthritis Rheumatism 1996 April;39:648-56]

 

Furthermore, vitamin C was apparently doing its job --- reducing pain and

inflammation. But that would make it possible for guinea pigs to be more

physically active and thus induce more wear-and-tear in the knee joint. The same

problem occurs when non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs like ibuprofen are

used to treat arthritis pain. Arthritic individuals would be served better by

taking supplements that cushion joints, like oral hyaluronic acid, glucosamine

or chondroitin, with their vitamin C.

 

Two years ago another flawed report, published in Science Magazine, suggested

high-dose vitamin C might damage DNA and warned the public to avoid high-dose

vitamin C supplements. [science 294(5543):788, October 26, 2001] The test was

conducted in a laboratory dish. But five human studies had already been

published showing up to 10,000 milligrams of vitamin C taken orally by humans

does not damage DNA. [science. 293(5537):1993-5, Sept. 14, 2001]

 

####

 

Copyright 2004 Bill Sardi, Knowledge of Health, Inc.

 

 

 

 

 

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[Guest guest]

All, Sounds like dis - information to me, as in who paid for the study, who

will *use * the study, and who do they think will not swallow vitamin C on

their advice!!!! NG

 

 

-

" Frank " <califpacific

<alternative_medicine_forum >

Saturday, June 05, 2004 9:48 PM

Another Bogus Vitamin C Report

 

>

> " askbillsardi.com "

> Another Bogus Vitamin C Report

> Sat, 5 Jun 2004 13:25:06 -0700

>

> ANOTHER BOGUS VITAMIN C REPORT --- LIKE THE OTHERS, DISREGARD THE ADVICE

> Like other negative scientific reports about supplemental vitamin C in

recent years, the study from Duke University Medical Center was released

late on Friday when criticism and rebuttal would be minimal. The report,

published in the June issue of Arthritis & Rheumatism [June 2004; vol 50: pp

1822-1831], claims that high-dose vitamin C, when given to guinea pigs,

worsens the occurrence of bone spurs in the knee joint. The Duke University

researchers warned the public away from vitamin C supplements stating: " Our

findings suggest that dietary intake should not be supplemented above the

currently recommended dietary allowance: 90 milligrams per day for men and

75 milligrams per day for women, " according to researcher Virginia B. Kraus,

MD, PhD, of Duke University Medical Center, and colleagues.

>

> But there are glaring inconsistencies in the Duke University report.

>

> First, most animals, except for guinea pigs, fruit bats, primates and

humans, produce their own vitamin C and do not exhibit any increased risk

for arthritis. A 160-pound goat for example may produce up to 13,000

milligrams of vitamin C per day.

>

> Second, why did Duke University researchers warn the public away from

supplemental vitamin C based upon a small animal study when a more

comprehensive human study published in the same journal in 8 years earlier

by researchers at the Arthritis Center, Boston University Medical Center,

found that adults who consume high-dose vitamin C experience a 3-fold

reduction in the risk for progression of their knee osteoarthritis and that

supplemental vitamin C reduces knee pain? [Arthritis Rheumatism 1996

April;39:648-56]

>

> Furthermore, vitamin C was apparently doing its job --- reducing pain and

inflammation. But that would make it possible for guinea pigs to be more

physically active and thus induce more wear-and-tear in the knee joint. The

same problem occurs when non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs like

ibuprofen are used to treat arthritis pain. Arthritic individuals would be

served better by taking supplements that cushion joints, like oral

hyaluronic acid, glucosamine or chondroitin, with their vitamin C.

>

> Two years ago another flawed report, published in Science Magazine,

suggested high-dose vitamin C might damage DNA and warned the public to

avoid high-dose vitamin C supplements. [science 294(5543):788, October 26,

2001] The test was conducted in a laboratory dish. But five human studies

had already been published showing up to 10,000 milligrams of vitamin C

taken orally by humans does not damage DNA. [science. 293(5537):1993-5,

Sept. 14, 2001]

>

> ####

>

> Copyright 2004 Bill Sardi, Knowledge of Health, Inc.

[Guest guest]

Nora Gottlieb said:

> All, Sounds like dis - information to me, as in who paid for the study,

> who will *use * the study, and who do they think will not swallow

> vitamin C on their advice!!!!

 

In addition to downloading the full original paper, I collected a number of

news articles that all covered the study.

 

One good thing is that the paper itself never mentions " vitamin C " . It only

mentions ascorbic acid. And as we here on the group know, Vitamin C is not

ascorbic acid.

 

There must be some flaw somewhere, and I think it's in the evaluation of

osteoarthritis. After all, even the basic guinea pig chow based on the

human equivalent of 5 fruits and vegetables a day was shown in this study

to be bad for OA. They were using biochemical techniques on samples of

synovial fluid to determine the level of osteoarthritis. And if those

techniques themselves were flawed or somehow don't capture the full picture

of the progression of OA, then the data doesn't mean much, and the

conclusions are false.

 

Who paid for the study?

Arthritis Foundation

NIH; Grant Number: R29-AG-15108, AR-45644 (U.S. National Institutes of

Health)

IGA MZ; Grant Number: NK/6813-3 (Czech Republic Internal Granting

Agency, Ministry of Health)

 

It turns out that it was paid for by the Arthritis Foundation & governments

of U.S. and Czech Republic. Nothing really all that suspicious there. The

Arthritis Foundation has been funding nutritional studies lately and I

encourage them to continue. And drug companies aren't going to research

into vitamins, (generally) so governments need to sponsor the research.

 

In this journal, there was no section for declaring or announcing conflicts

of interest, so I can't tell if there have been " none declared " .

 

Under the Acknowledgements:

" We wish to express our gratitude to Mr. Tom Tlusty for veterinary

technical assistance, to Dr. Greg Samsa for statistical advice, to Connie

Ba for technical advice about dietary surveys, and to Drs. Jeroen DeGroot,

Nicole Verzijl, and Johan TeKoppele for scientific advice and encouragement. "

 

The question is, what about those who provided " scientific advice " -- do

any of them have conflicts of interest?

 

Here is more info:

 

Ascorbic acid increases the severity of spontaneous knee osteoarthritis in

a guinea pig model

Virginia B. Kraus 1 *, Janet L. Huebner 1, Thomas Stabler 1, Charlene M.

Flahiff 1, Lori A. Setton 1, Christian Fink 1, Vladimir Vilim 2, Amy G.

Clark 1

1Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina

2Institute of Rheumatology, Prague, Czech Republic

 

email: Virginia B. Kraus (vbk)

 

*Correspondence to Virginia B. Kraus, Duke University Medical Center, Box

3416, Durham, NC 27710

 

======

In the end, I suspect it's the simplest explanation - just bad science.

It's not big pharma influences.