Cystic fibrosis patients can benefit from vitamin supplements, research shows

Medical Xpress / Oregon State University / Nutrients ^ | Sept. 28, 2022 | Steve Lundeberg / Maret G. Traber et al

[ConservativeMind]

Cystic fibrosis patients who supplement their diet with vitamin C can also derive greater benefit from another antioxidant, vitamin E, resulting in a reduction in damaging inflammation, a study suggests.

"Cystic fibrosis is a genetic disease that is associated with increased inflammation, and it comes with a large amount of oxidative stress," said Maret Traber.

"In addition to oxidative stress, cystic fibrosis is also characterized by problems with fat absorption, which limits uptake of vitamin E, a fat-soluble antioxidant," said Traber. "Low vitamin E levels plus high oxidative stress is a recipe for more inflammation."

Patients' difficulties with fat absorption mean that they need to consume larger than usual amounts of fat-soluble vitamins like vitamin E, Traber said. Patients need at least 400 milligrams of vitamin E daily to achieve normal blood concentrations, she said.

In this study, the researchers looked at whether vitamin C supplements could help patients better use their absorbed vitamin E. Vitamin C can recycle oxidized forms of vitamin E, and it is also helpful at tamping down the oxidative stress aspects of inflammation, Traber said.

After 3½ weeks of daily 1,000-milligram doses of vitamin C, the patients in the study trended toward lower blood concentrations of a key oxidative stress biomarker, malondialdehyde or MDA, and also toward a slowdown in vitamin E elimination from the bloodstream.

"Since vitamin E is hanging around longer, it might be able to get into tissues better, and better protect cell membranes from oxidative stress," Traber said.

The benefits of the findings are not unique to cystic fibrosis patients, she noted. Smokers, for example, typically have problems associated with oxidative stress and can benefit from extra vitamin C and possibly extra vitamin E. Metabolic syndrome patients have issues with vitamin C and E as well.

[ConservativeMind]

400 mg of Vitamin E and 1,000 mg of Vitamin C was what they used to edge down malondialdehyde.

There are many other supplements that can also bring down malondialdehyde, if these don’t fit your situation.

[ConservativeMind]

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[Veto!]

Oregon State is home to the Linus Pauling Library. Pauling wrote How to Live Longer and Feel Better back in the early ‘60s, and I read it then. He describes the positive effect of Vitamin C and other vitamins. I had a very sick little boy then and when I added 1 GRAM of C and other nutritional supplements to his diet, he got well right away. That was so long ago, I didn’t know what a “health food store” was, and there weren’t many.

I’ve been taking about 10 nutritional supplements every morning since then, including that gram of C, and never, as in NEVER, get sick. Not in anyone’s “high risk” group though I’m 86. Weigh 112, work out at the gym, in the last 20 years I was down with a plain old cold once for 5 days. Took cough drops, cheap OTC chlor-trimeton, and got over it in great shape.

I recommend How to Live Longer and Feel Better to everyone. A “somewhat revised” edition is available at AMZ.