Ascorbic acid role in containment of the world avian flu pandemic.

In this Comment, the ultimate intent is to increase survival of the anticipated global flu pandemic. The apparent failure of "medicine" to provide a completely understood and logically based biochemical prevention and treatment for all influenzas (and many other viral diseases) may be an unavoidable result of the evolving complexity of the H5N1 virus. However, clinical experience cited in all accounts, including the 2003 to 2006 period, suggest that: (i) ascorbic acid is not being administered to humans infected or at risk for influenza, and (ii) ascorbic acid is (mistakenly) believed to be a vitamin ("vitamin C").

Controlling hyperglycemia as an adjunct to cancer therapy.

Hyperglycemia is commonly manifested in cancer patients. Although high intakes of sugar and refined carbohydrates and elevated blood glucose are strongly associated with the risk of cancer, much less is known about their effects on survival after cancer diagnosis. There is evidence that high carbohydrate intake is associated with poorer survival after diagnosis for early breast cancer.

Ascorbic acid, glycation, glycohemoglobin and aging.

The glycation of proteins alters both their structure and function. These changes have been linked to diabetic disorders and aging. The glycation of hemoglobin is also used as a diagnostic tool; the extent of glycation being a reflection of blood glucose averaged over a two to three month period.

Aneurysm: prevention and nonsurgical repair.

The approximately 4000 'normal' mammals that synthesize ascorbic acid produce on average circa 50 mg/kg per day routinely. Although humans have the same needs as normal mammals, they do not produce ascorbic acid at all and, on average, ingest only circa 1 mg/kg per day. The normal mammals' much larger production enables them to continually renew structural proteins, including both collagen, a flexible but inelastic tissue, and elastin, the elastic connective tissue.

Polyurethanes and childhood asthma.

Background: Asthma is the most common chronic disease of children. Its prevalence in affluent nations has steadily and dramatically increased in recent decades. Genetic and environmental factors play a role in development of atopy and asthma.

On reducing the need for arthroplasty: benefits for patients and budgets.

The need for arthroplasty, especially in the hip, arises primarily because of failure to replace damaged structural proteins as a result of improper balance in essential nutrients. The principal failure is an inadequate production of elastin resulting in cartilage consisting primarily of a collagen that may be flexible but is not elastic. In spite of the fact that an excess of protein, with adequate lysine, is commonly consumed by the affluent societies, this lysine is not utilized because of the inadequate intake of ascorbic acid necessary for virtually every step of the structural protein synthetic reactions.