| Forces International | HOW THE ANTI-SMOKERS LIE ABOUT SMOKING AND VITAMIN C |
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| Forces International | HOW THE ANTI-SMOKERS LIE ABOUT SMOKING AND VITAMIN C |
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| The influence of smoking on Vitamin C status in adults. G. Schectman, JC Byrd,
HW Gruchow. American Journal of Public Health, Feb. 1989;79 (2):158-162 Gordon Schectman, whose claim that 91% of smokers are suffering from a Vitamin C deficiency has been uncritically and frequently recycled in the media, is not even qualified to make any dietary recommendations. This is because his findings are based on interviews, not measurement of dietary intake of nutrients. A recent US Department of Agriculture found that even trained peoples' reports do not agree with the results of metabolic ward studies. About 80% under-reported their intakes, while a small minority over-reported them. The US RDAs are also based upon careful laboratory study, not sloppy interviews. They were also established at a time when smoking was even more prevalent than now, and could not have failed to either detect or reflect an influence of smoking -- especially of such a magnitude as 200%. The RDAs were expressly developed "to provide for individual variations among most normal persons as they live in the United States under usual environmental stress," of which smoking is negligible. De-saturation experiments have shown that smokers use Vitamin C no faster than non-smokers. The recent increase to 100 mg reflects the political strength of health obsessiveness as well, perhaps, as pharmaceutical company desires for profits. At this intake, experiments have shown that tissues will be saturated, with white blood cell levels at 25 to 30 mg/100 ml, and serum levels above 1 mg/100 ml. If intake is increased, WBC and tissue levels will stay the same, while serum levels will rise to a maximum of about 1.89 mg/100 ml. Marginal risk of deficiency doesn't occur until levels of 0.4 mg/100 ml. One cup of orange juice provides about 120 mg of Vitamin C. (The minimum for prevention of scurvy is a little less than 10 mg per day.) If average, healthy people have low levels, it is because they are disregarding dietary advice. Schectman's measurements were of serum Vitamin C. These do not give an accurate measure of tissue levels, which are more important. Particularly at low levels, white blood cell readings are necessary. Serum levels also fluctuate hourly with intake. Higher WBC levels tend to correlate with lower plasma values. Plasma values tend to become lower as metabolic demands decrease, as with age. The mean Vitamin C level he measured in smokers was nearly 90% of saturation. It is
impossible that only 9% of smokers get adequate Vitamin C, as he claims. And no
ethical researcher would go around telling people that they are sick when they are
not. Were properly controlled studies to show that smoking depleted Vitamin C, the
proper response would be to notify the media that smokers should have this information in
a value neutral statement. Additional references:
Courtesy of Carol Thompson
08/23/93 |
Methods for
detecting and evaluating ascorbic acid deficiency in man and animals. HB Burch. In: Annals
of the New York Academy of Sciences, Vol 92:269-275.