Thank you for your quick response to my question. I am a new, enthusiastic customer with high hopes for Vitamin C therapy for my husband who has Undergone bypass surgery (9/13) for arthroscleroses. He is 46 years young…
Guessing he has not been a vitamin C supplement er in the past. Make sure he takes at least 10,000 mg of vitamin C daily and don't forget 2-6 grams of lysine. Because of bypass, I would avoid the proline supplementation for a while.
My question regarding vitamin C and iron originated in Dr. Stephen Sinatra’s book “Reversing Heart Disease”. He states that: “Vitamin C enhances Iron absorption” …
True. this is “free-iron – not participating in hemoglobin formation or other iron requiring biochemical processes, act as a free radical promoting oxidation of LDL …”
Not necessarily true. He further states that “iron excess is associated with endothelial dysfunction and an increase risk for CVD” (pg 119) When talking about Vitamin C he states “Do not take more than 500mg of Vitamin C per day until ferritin level has fallen” (pg 219) under target of 30 mg/dl.
I think Dr. Levy might agree with the iron numbers and recommendation to lower serum iron, and there are iron chelators (IP6 comes to mind) that may help do this. However, Dr. Levy, an expert in vitamin C, recommends thousands of milligrams of vitamin C daily.
Here are some of the Foundation advisers (vitamin C experts) answers to questions about iron
http://www.vitamincfoundation.org/faqdoc.shtml
I love Dr. Sinatra and I have learned a great deal from his books. He is an expert in CoQ10, not vitamin C (apparently).
My husband’s serum ferritin level is 209 mg/dl – by some standards not too high but certainly exceeding recommendation above. I am concerned with pursuing Vit C therapy until we can manage to get ferritin levels down…
In my opinion, hHigh Vitamin C will most likely lower this serum level of iron.
See that link to FAQ. We are further testing iron saturation levels and then may proceed with genetic test to determine if factors present for hemochromatosis – after we determine this we can pursue therapeutic phlebotomy if needed to get levels down– a challenge as it is difficult to get MD to prescribe for therapeutic blood draw! I began my quest for Vitamin C therapy after reading Pauling’s study and becoming educated regarding Vitamin C and relation to LP(a). My husband’s LP(a) levels far exceed normal at 290 and believe Vitamin C therapy can help reduce this factor greatly.
Wow If the lp(a) units for 290 are mg/dl - I doubt it - no matter what the units, that number makes it imperative that he takes high vitamin C/lysine. He needs lp(a) binding inhibitors to prevent regrowth (restenosis) of the plaque. He needs to be taking vitamin C and lysine to counteract and nullify his very high Lp(a).
If you can provide any information, guidance, experience I would appreciate it thoroughly as this new concern for us is difficult to traverse…thank you!
Clinically, vitamin C lowers high iron (in fact I am considered anemic and have started taking a small iron supplement). The reasons are probably explained by Russell Jaffee who has calculated the affinity vitamin C has for metals and how you can detoxify with high vitamin C. Lot more to this, but search for iron chelators, such as IP6, which he can take with his high vitamin C and lysine.
Finally, Dr. Levy has published his Unifying theory of disease in his most recent book, DEATH BY CALCIUM. If as Dr. Levy suggests, toxins, in this case iron, are toxic because they steal electrons, then high vitamin C would be the ideal molecule to detoxify the iron/ferriten in your husbands blood - rendering it inert.
Owen R. Fonorow
HeartCURE.Info
American Scientist's Invention Could Prevent 350,000 Heart Bypass Operations a year