| From Nutrition Newsbytes Your link to nutrition discoveries IN THE NEWS BOOST VITAMIN C INTAKE TO FIGHT ILLNESS A recent study confirms it: megadoses of vitamin C can fight illness. A study of rats showed taking 200 mg of vitamin C reduced levels of stress hormones. The adrenal glands react to stress by releasing hormones that trigger the "fight or flight" reaction. Stress is well-known for suppressing the immune system. Vitamin C also reduced indicators of stress, such as weight loss, adrenal gland enlargement, and reduction in the size of the spleen and thymus gland. Researchers immobilized a group of rats for an hour a day to stress them. A control group was not immobilized. The increase in antibody level was greater in the unstressed rats, suggesting the stressed animals may need larger vitamin doses to support their immune systems, according to P. Samuel Campbell, chairman of the biological sciences department at the University of Alabama at Huntsville, in his recent speech to the American Chemical Society. Megadoses of vitamin C increased levels of an antibody that fights germs and viruses in both stressed and unstressed rats in the study. Campbell suggests increasing the recommended dose of vitamin C, which is now based on the amount needed to prevent scurvy and anemia. Reprinted with permission; Copyright 2000 Enzymatic Therapy. (Enzymatic Therapy manufactures and distributes more than 200 nutritional |