Thanks Ralph, that is an excellent discussion, although somewhat long. I'll highlite a few of my favorite quotes here for those that won't read the entire article
"However, in 1938, Dr. Szent-Gyorgyi reported that he could not substantiate that bioflavonoids were truly essential nutrients.
"Occasionally, Dr. Szent-Gyorgyi and I would discuss the role of bioflavonoids as nutrients, and that Dr. Szent-Gyorgyi still thought that some good modern research would clarify the "essential or nearly essential" importance of bioflavonoids.
"In the foreword to one of Professor Miklos Gabor's books, Dr. Szent-Gyorgyi remarked in 1972, "American science did not take in a friendly spirit to vitamin P and the name "vitamin" was dropped. More than that, discussions have been going on to strike the flavones altogether from the lists of (nutrients and) drugs, since no therapeutic action has been found. I think the contradiction is due to the fact that in the USA, citrus fruits belong to people's regular daily diet. They are rich in flavones, so a (total) lack in flavones is very rare, and if there is no deficiency, a vitamin has no action. In contrast to this, in countries where citrus fruits are expensive, the lack of flavones may cause trouble and their medication may show favorable effects. While these discussions were going on, important experimental material was collected in Hungary which, in my mind, leaves no doubt about the vitamin nature and the biological activity of flavones. "
"Keep in mind that Dr. Szent-Gyorgyi's experiments indicated that at least a trace of vitamin C must be present to observe the vitamin-like effect of the bioflavonoids.
"vitamin P requires for its activity the presence of ascorbic acid. A scurvy diet frequently contains traces which in themselves have no influence on the development of scurvy, but enable vitamin P to act. In the total absence of ascorbic acid, vitamin P is inactive." [Nature 140:426;1937]
"So, if low capillary resistance is common in people with high blood pressure, and this is a major factor that leads to stroke and retinal hemorrhage, your study is of major importance to the millions of people with high blood pressure. Your findings could drastically reduce the incidence of strokes. Please elaborate on your study.
"Gabor: It has long been known that the capillary resistance is pathologically decreased in a considerable proportion of hypertensive persons [Griffith and Lindauer, 1944; Kuchmeister and Scharfe, 1950; Gough, 1962; Davis and Landau, 1970; etc.]
After we demonstrated the permeability-decreasing action of haematoxylin compounds, we examined their ability to normalize lowered capillary resistance. The permeability of capillaries is quite important to health, and the effect of various nutrients on capillary permeability fascinates me. My first book deals with the pharmacology of capillary resistance, including the effects of bioflavonoids
Evidence is lacking that bioflavonoids are essential nutrients. Is that because they are not essential or is it merely because that no diets have been developed that are totally free of bioflavonoids? I note that in the scientific literature you have studied the blood brain barrier and aorta structural abnormalities produced by what you call "P avitaminosis" (a deficiency of "vitamin P") produced by flavonoid-free diets. Would you please elaborate a little for us on "P avitaminosis? Do humans and other animals get enough bioflavonoids in their experimental or normal diets to prevent a recognized bioflavonoid deficiency from being observed?
Notes:
1. Vitamin C and Vitamin P (if it exists, i.e. certain bioflavonoids) are interrelated, but it is a mistake to confuse what these men are saying as "Vitamin P is thus the "real" vitamin C" .
2. Vitamin P still fails the "ensure" test, so while valuable to health, it is quite certainly NOT essential
3. Since capillary fragility is a key risk factor in unstable plaques (according to Levy) this work could be very important for preventing MIs (heart attacks).
Also, the following (Zucic) is quite interesting in view of our other discussion. If cancer proteins are indeed of a different color, then the chirality may explain the color difference!He had observed that structural proteins in cells are the color of "a good Swiss chocolate." The color is due to the presence of an electron transfer system in structural proteins which transforms them into free radicals. However, the structural proteins in cancer cells are colorless, indicating that their electron acceptors are missing or have been damaged.
All in all, quite a good article!
Owen R. Fonorow
HeartCURE.Info
American Scientist's Invention Could Prevent 350,000 Heart Bypass Operations a year