[net.med] Vitamin C can cause Ulcers

werner@aecom.UUCP (Craig Werner) (05/15/85)

	Reported quite often in the literature are cases of people on strict
vegetarian diets taking massive doses of Vitamins, including/especially
Vitamin C.
	Partly as a result of malnutrition (lack of protein) and partially
as a result of increased acidity (both to extremely high levels of Ascorbic
Acid - which is Vitamin C and lack of the normal buffering capacity that
proteins serve in the stomach on their way to digested)  these people have
extremely high rates of gastric and duodenal ulcer.

	Of course, it may be argued that the more enlightened vegetarians/
Megadosers are more rational and escape detection by the medical system.
The same argument could be made, however, for those people who try home
cancer remedies and don't recover.  They never live to tell the virtues of
non-conventional cures.

	Of course, complications with Vitamin C are rare compared to some of
the problems that occur with Vitamin A overdose (skin rashes, cataracts, and
other nasty things).

	Now who was it on the net who was saying that Vitamins were 
innocuous ....?

-- 
				Craig Werner
				!philabs!aecom!werner
		What do you expect?  Watermelons are out of season!

seifert@hammer.UUCP (Snoopy) (05/20/85)

In article <1586@aecom.UUCP> werner@aecom.UUCP (Craig Werner) writes:

>	Reported quite often in the literature are cases of people on strict
>vegetarian diets taking massive doses of Vitamins, including/especially
>Vitamin C.
>	Partly as a result of malnutrition (lack of protein) and
>  [...] these people have extremely high rates of gastric and duodenal ulcer.

Try again, vegetables contain protein.  Eating about 2 parts grain
to 1 part legume will provide all eight essential amino acids, forming
a complete protein.

What vegetables don't provide is B12.  But the B12 needs of a healthy
body are small, and can be provided by the bacteria in the food,
and/or the bacteria in the intestinal tract.  This may or may not
be enough for a body with a need for greater than normal amount of B12.

>	Of course, complications with Vitamin C are rare compared to some of
>the problems that occur with Vitamin A overdose (skin rashes, cataracts, and
>other nasty things).
>
>				Craig Werner
>				!philabs!aecom!werner
>		What do you expect?  Watermelons are out of season!

	Of course complications with any vitamin are rare compared to
the problems of drugs.  (death is a good example)

				Snoopy
				tektronix!mako!seifert

werner@aecom.UUCP (Craig Werner) (05/23/85)

In response to seifert@mako and two panicky letters.

	There is nothing in and of itself wrong with vegetarianism. If done
right, it will not result in malnutrition.  My point was that some people do
not do it right, and they are the ones that end up in the clinic waiting to
see the doctor.
	The same is true of Vitamin C and A complications.  Vitamins, just 
like drugs, are not benign, and can be abused, albeitly not as often (for
one - there are few of them, and two, the body has a wide range of tolerance,
unlike that for many drugs.)

	My apologies. I used a deliberately combative prose on the series of
three articles.  The point remains however, there are no easy answers.

-- 
				Craig Werner
				!philabs!aecom!werner
		What do you expect?  Watermelons are out of season!