Lowering Cholesterol with Vitamin C
Lowering Cholesterol with Vitamin C
Vitamin C helps to recycle cholesterol. Studies show that a deficiency of vitamin C causes cholesterol levels to rise.
Cholesterol is vitally important
Cholesterol is essential in your body for many functions, including the manufacture of hormones and Vitamin D. It also helps form the cell membranes - the semi-permeable outer layer of every cell in your body. Without enough cholesterol we would die, because our tissues are constantly being repaired and replaced with new cells.
Our body produces several thousand milligrams of cholesterol per day to carry out these essential functions, and each day the excess of cholesterol is supposed to be naturally recycled. If your body doesn't have enough new cholesterol each day, you cannot repair and replace your cell membranes and they will eventually degenerate.
The continual recycling of cholesterol happens naturally when you have sufficient Vitamin C. Excess cholesterol is naturally converted to bile acid and then excreted. But if you don't consume enough vitamin C (about 2000-3000 milligrams per day for an adult), cholesterol builds up in your bloodstream. It is here that doctors make a critical error: instead of telling you to take more vitamin C to recycle cholesterol naturally, they prescribe Lipitor, which may create a deficiency of new cholesterol.
Statin drugs inhibit HMG-CoA reductase, an enzyme which manufactures cholesterol and Co Enzyme Q10. It has been observed experimentally that when vitamin C levels are low, cholesterol becomes elevated, and when more vitamin C is consumed, cholesterol levels decline. The mechanism by which vitamin C lowers cholesterol was discovered around 1985. High Vitamin C levels inhibit the same the HMG-CoA Reductase enzyme as the statin drugs. The inescapable conclusion is that vitamin C does what statins do - lowers cholesterol -- without side-effects. If the statin drugs were patterned after Vitamin C, they lack many other benefits of the vitamin. For example, vitamin C promotes the production of coenzyme Q10 and lowers Lp(a).
Humans must supplement with extra Vitamin C
Humans (plus chimps and guinea pigs) lack a crucial enzyme required to manufacture vitamin C, unlike other all other mammals. Under normal circumstances the daily amount of ascorbic acid produced by mammals lies between 3,000 mg and 15,000 mg, with an average of 5,400 mg, when adjusted for comparison to the weight of the average male human being.
From this data, we can conclude that everyone should supplement 3,000 mg to 6,000mg vitamin C daily from birth, including during pregnancy. In addition information from several studies, involving small numbers of people, suggest that vitamin C (3 glasses of orange juice per day or up to 2000 mg per day as a supplement) may help decrease total and LDL cholesterol and triglycerides, as well as increase HDL levels (the good kind of cholesterol).
Articles about Vitamin C for lowering cholesterol
Linus Pauling Institute - Oregon State University