Vitamin C treatment reduces elevated C-reactive protein

[kulina]

I found this study from the National Institute of Health (US) interesting.

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl...

[SnazzyD]

Interesting. I haven't got a brain at the moment to pull it apart, but I need to work out if they tested to see if the vit C affected the CRP test to make it look lower than it was first or whether it was definitely lower due reduced inflammation. You'd hope they did though.

[PMRpro Ambassador]

"Plasma C-reactive protein (CRP) is an inflammatory biomarker that predicts cardiovascular disease."

That only applies in normal healthy adults - whose CRP is at a very low level anyway and any elevation of it is said to be predictive of cardiac problems. A different technique called a high sensitivity assay estimates hs-CRP. The levels that our CRP is usually at in inflammatory diseases swamps this predictive potential and is what is measured in the usual CRP assay.

Personally, I suspect this may be the same as statins - statins reduce the rate of reoccurrence of cardiac events. They also reduce cholesterol. But they don't reduce the reoccurrence of cardiac events BECAUSE of the lowering of cholesterol, it is what is called a surrogate marker. They do something else. Unfortunately, reducing the cholesterol level too far in older patients results in an increased risk of developing other illnesses - including certain dementias.

[kulina]

PMRpro your are right about statins. At 1000 mg/day of vitamin C this is what they found: "Among participants with CRP indicative of elevated cardiovascular risk (≥1.0 mg/L), vitamin C reduced median CRP by 25.3% vs. Placebo (p=0.02), (median reduction in the vitamin C group, 0.25 mg/L, 16.7%). These effects are similar to those of statins."

Also, "Other nutrients that provide your adrenal glands with the raw materials to produce natural steroid hormones are vitamin C (1-2 g a day), vitamin B6 (50-100 mg a day as part of a B-complex supplement) and vitamin A (12,500- 25,000 IU a day, but avoid in pregnancy)." from thedailyhealth.co.uk/natura...

I guess vitamin C, being an anti-oxidant, helps but the daily maximum dose is 2000 mg (2 g).

[Meg1711b]

Thank you for posting this. It is, indeed, very interesting.

[kulina in reply to Meg1711b]

You're welcome Meg1711b! It certain;y wouldn't hurt to help ourselves with supplements.

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to kulina]

You don't necessarily "help" yourself with supplements. Just because a bit of something is good doesn't make more better. Too much of many things actually cause problems long term and while they flog the concept of "antioxidants" being "good" it isn't always true. Some of the "oxidants" are needed to protect us from cancers and some other diseases.

[Hidden in reply to PMRpro]

Nice comment PMRpro, but how do we know which "oxidants" do we want and conversely which "antioxidants" should we not consume? What a complicated subject this is. Particularly when some of our drugs (medicines) can cause depletion of some (oxidants/antioxidant/nutrients) For example my doctor will not do a blood test to see if my VitD is too low or too high etc. I have to get that done privately.

Pete

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to Hidden]

Mother Nature does a very good job as long as we do our bit with a sensible diet with lots of fruit and veg together with protein and fat.

Your GP needs a clip round the ear and told to get up to date. We've just had this discussion over on LupusUK - "We don't routinely do vit D testing - it's a very expensive test..." It should be standard once a year in patients with autoimmune disorders and on bone meds.

And privately from this place it is £23 for bulk orders in the UK - I imagine they charge the NHS less...

vitamindtest.org.uk/index.html

[Hidden in reply to PMRpro]

Thanks for info.

[piglette]

On the other hand supplements can give you just very expensive pee if you eat a well balanced diet!