WE ALL know that vitamins are good for us, but do the nationally recommended
daily allowances give us enough? Not so far as vitamin C is concerned, according
to Balz Frei and colleagues at the University of California at Berkeley.
The
WE ALL know that vitamins are good for us, but do the nationally recommended
daily allowances give us enough? Not so far as vitamin C is concerned, according
to Balz Frei and colleagues at the University of California at Berkeley.
The team looked into the role of this vitamin (which is also called ascorbate)
in the bloodstream, where it combats damaging oxidation reactions.
Oxidation can damage delicate blood fats, genes and proteins. Such damage
is associated with ageing and ailments such as heart disease, strokes, cataracts,
arthritis and even cancer. There are oxidants in our diet and in environmental
pollutants such as car exhausts. These oxidants also appear in our bodies
in the course of normal metabolism or when we are fighting infection. Natural
antioxidants inactivate the oxidants before they do any dam