Accidental find shows Vitamin C kills tuberculosis

[helvella]

Having seen many claims over the antibiotic properties of vitamin C over the past few years, the real surprise is that this effect has not been noticed before!

Again, as the Iodine blog a few minutes ago, the surprise was hearing it on the Today program on Radio 4. Not that the program doesn't cover health issues, but a surprise to hear two health stories in succession, both with strong "alternative" medicine links, being confirmed by medical research.

Accidental find shows Vitamin C kills tuberculosis

(AFP) – 15 hours ago

PARIS — Scientists said Tuesday they had managed to kill lab-grown tuberculosis (TB) bacteria with good old Vitamin C -- an "unexpected" discovery they hope will lead to better, cheaper drugs.

A team from Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York made the accidental find while researching how TB bacteria become resistant to the TB drug isoniazid.

The researchers added isoniazid and a "reducing agent" known as cysteine to the TB in a test tube, expecting the bacteria to develop drug resistance.

Instead, the team "ended up killing off the culture", according to the study's senior author William Jacobs, who said the result was "totally unexpected".

Reducing agents chemically reduce other substances.

The team then replaced the cysteine in the experiment with another reducing agent -- Vitamin C.

It, too, killed the bacteria.

<more at link below - but I expect more coverage in the media over the next few hours or days>

timesofindia.indiatimes.com...

A bit more here:

nanopatentsandinnovations.b...

Rod

[escalade]

Hi Rod

This may be of some intrest

orthomed.com/titrate.htm

mall-net.com/mcs/coldbody.html

Kathy

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK in reply to escalade]

Interest, yes, certainly. But doses which I view with fear! It is difficult to believe that such amounts can be to the long term good. Though that could simply be my fear rather than the real case.

Rod

[Marz]

...thanks Rod. Very interesting.

[OrangeGirl]

Interesting but the real test is how it would work on humans with active TB. Often things that work in vitro do not translate with the same results in humans.

[helvella Administrator Thyroid UK in reply to OrangeGirl]

So true.

We'll probably find the answer in humans is a prohibitively expensive tailored ascorbate and never even find out if regular versions of vitamin C work or not!