“The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), which provides scientific advice to assist policy makers, has confirmed that clear health benefits have been established for the dietary intake of Vitamin C in contributing to:
- Vitamin C contributes to normal collagen formation for the normal function of blood vessels.
- Vitamin C contributes to normal collagen formation for the normal function of bones.
- Vitamin C contributes to normal collagen formation for the normal function of cartilage.
- Vitamin C contributes to normal collagen formation for the normal function of gums.
- Vitamin C contributes to normal collagen formation for the normal function of skin.
- Vitamin C contributes to normal collagen formation for the normal function of teeth.
- Vitamin C contributes to normal energy-yielding metabolism.
- Vitamin C contributes to normal functioning of the nervous system.
- Vitamin C contributes to normal psychological function.
- Vitamin C contributes to the normal function of the immune system.
- Vitamin C contributes to the protection of cells from oxidative stress.
- Vitamin C contributes to the reduction of tiredness and fatigue.
- Vitamin C contributes to the regeneration of the reduced form of vitamin E.
- Vitamin C increases iron absorption.
These health claims are authorized in the EU with specific conditions of use.”
Notice the use of the word “normal”? The definition of Drugless Functional Medicine is the restoration of normal functionality to the human organism through the reestablishment of natural human chemistry. The EU firmly acknowledges that “normal” means what is expected. The nutrient contributes to the normal, expected functionality of the human body. This also means that the absence of the nutrient results in the opposite of normal functionality, or, by definition abnormal functionality, meaning “not working right or as designed or as expected”. For example, if Vitamin C contributes to a normal functioning nervous system, then the absence of it results in contributing to an abnormally functioning nervous system.
This, by itself, is the logical proof for Deficiency-Based medicine and its requisite principles. If the EU consensus is that Vitamin C contributes to normal functionality of the human body, then the opposite must also be true, that the absence of Vitamin C contributes to abnormal functionality of the human body. It is so simple that it is unbelievable.
When are the US Wellness and Health Industries going to recognize these unavoidable facts about the importance of Vitamin C? Why do they continue to bury their heads in the proverbial sand while countless people suffer from very avoidable ailments that are the direct result of inadequate and insufficient Vitamin C? The almost complete absence of Vitamin C awareness, education, and clinical training in both the medical and alternative wellness industries is disturbing to say the least. I currently work with a supplement company that has about 12 different Vitamin C products on their roster, most of which I have used and recommended. The founder, since retired, of this company is regarded as a pioneer in the field of Vitamin C development and use. Since mid-2018 until the time of this writing in 2023, this company has not had one single webinar, seminar, training, or article about Vitamin C. When asked about this unusual and discouraging phenomenon, an executive at this company responded “we don’t feel it is important”.
It gets worse: in a personal conversation between myself (Dr Joseph) and a wildly popular “celebrity” scientist, this individual stated to me without hesitation that “Vitamin C is not an important nutrient for human beings”, in direct spite of the above-mentioned confirmed health benefits approved by the EU. Why would anyone make such a statement when so much evidence points to the contrary?
I have also recently read in a book written by a prominent scientist the author states “oxidized Vitamin C is dangerous”, which could not be further from the truth. Dehydroascorbate (oxidized Vitamin C), or DHA for short, is a transient, unstable form of Ascorbic Acid (AKA Vitamin C) that is either reduced (regenerated) by other antioxidants (such as Vitamin E and other Vitamin C molecules) or it degrades rapidly. It poses no biological harm in any way and if it did, 99% of life would cease to exist considering that all higher life forms make Vitamin C* and that Vitamin C chemistry is an integral part of mammalian biochemistry. It is also important to note that the DHA form of Vitamin C is the form that is transported into human cells via an enzymatic pathway that involves insulin, while the reduced form cannot travel past cell membranes. The oxidized DHA form of Vitamin C is an active part of Vitamin C chemistry as a transient molecule essential to the transport of the nutrient. It is not even remotely dangerous.
What we can see here is a terrible misunderstanding of the function of Vitamin C in the West, especially in the US, where the FDA refuses to approve such claims as what the EU has come to recognize. This is where politics and corporate interests become more important than science and biological fact. It is also unfortunate that the American Supplement industry has done absolutely nothing in the past decade or so to inform or educate the public on the critical importance of this nutrient, save for a big push a few years back to promote Liposomal Vitamin C. Other than that, we’ve been left in the dark, almost as if this nutrient was a “trend of the past”. Back in the 1970s and 80s, you couldn’t watch a single TV commercial about food without seeing a “Full day’s supply of Vitamin C!” in every ad. Since the early 90s, this as all but disappeared. What happened? Why is this Vitamin being ignored so blatantly and with such prejudice? We have endless amount of documented proof, as stated previously, on the absolute critical importance of Vitamin C for normal functionality of the human organism, yet all of this goes unheard while we get new “treatments” and “drugs” and “nutraceuticals” to deal with many of the conditions associated with or flat-out caused by Vitamin C deficiency. Instead of solving the biochemical deficiency we get new, elaborate, and ultimately expensive treatments that do little to correct the underlying problem: Humans don’t make Vitamin C, so we are predisposed to conditions associated with Vitamin C deficiency. It is so simple that the Latter-Day-Saints of the wellness industry cannot comprehend it. We are then left with an uneducated, uninformed public that isn’t getting any healthier, and in fact, they are getting worse. While new discoveries about Vitamin C and how it works in human chemistry are being ignored or vilified, people are getting sicker and sicker.
Lastly, Vitamin C chemistry is the backbone of Deficiency-Based Medicine, as it was for Orthomolecular Medicine (DBM’s grandfather). The key nutrient deficiency in humans is Vitamin C because it is involved in so many biochemical processes (see above) and when we are discussing deficiency we are, in many cases, really talking about conversion issues that directly involve enzyme pathways that Vitamin C controls. It is the nutrient and bio-molecule conversion processes that Vitamin C plays an unheralded but critical role. DBM focuses on this and other similar phenomena that involve Vitamin C, which makes this nutrient the central core figure of the Deficiency-Based model.
The EU got it right. When will the US?
*only 4 animals do not make Vitamin C: Guinea Pigs, Humans, a type of bat, and some primates (although I can never get a straight answer as to which ones can and cannot make Vitamin C)
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