Vitamin C is needed by the body to maintain health. It is a "macro-vitamin," because although not required in large quantities to support energy metabolism, it is required in the diet in amounts much larger than most of the other known "micro-nutrient" vitamins.[1] Typical best daily doses for adults range from 500 to 10,000 mg (milligrams) or more, depending on the stress level and disease condition.[1] It is the most important water-soluble antioxidant in the body, essential for providing antioxidant protection against the onslaught of oxygen, light, and toxins. It is also required to create and maintain collagen, the most common protein in the body, found in the skin, arteries and veins, eyes and brain, and in all organs. [2] However, most people don't get enough vitamin C even when their diet includes excellent quantities of fresh vegetables and fruits.

Medical research over the last 75 years has shown that supplements of vitamin C can prevent or reverse many progressive diseases such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes, arthritis, and chronic eye disease.[1-5] The effect of vitamin C on disease conditions and maintaining health continues to be studied. Each of the research studies cited below increments our knowledge of essential nutrients. The latest research from the past several months provides important new evidence about the vital health benefits of vitamin C:

"He who pays the piper calls the tune." - Robert Browning

"Similar conflicts of interest and biases exist in virtually every field of medicine, particularly those that rely heavily on drugs or devices. It is simply no longer possible to believe much of the clinical research that is published or to rely on the judgment of trusted physicians or authoritative medical guidelines. I take no pleasure in this conclusion, which I reached slowly and reluctantly over my two decades as an editor of The New England Journal of Medicine." - Marcia Angell, MD, author of "The Truth About the Drug Companies: How They Deceive Us and What to Do About It"

"The results of (usually Big Pharma-sponsored) clinical trials are submitted to the FDA, and if one or two drug trials are positive—that is, if they show effectiveness without serious risk—the drug is usually approved, even if all the other trials are negative." — Marcia Angell, MD, author of "Drug Companies and Doctors: A Story of Corruption"

"In view of... the conflicts of interest that permeate the enterprise, it is not surprising that industry-sponsored trials published in medical journals consistently favor sponsors—largely because negative results are not published, positive results are repeatedly published in slightly different forms, and a positive spin is put on even negative results. A review of seventy-four clinical trials of antidepressants, for example, found that thirty-seven of thirty-eight positive studies were published. But of the thirty-six negative studies, thirty-three were either not published or published in a form that conveyed a positive outcome." — Marcia Angell, MD

"Our health care system is based on the premise that health care is a commodity like VCRs or computers and that it should be distributed according to the ability to pay in the same way that consumer goods are. That's not what health care should be. Health care is a need; it's not a commodity, and it should be distributed according to need. If you're very sick, you should have a lot of it. If you're not sick, you shouldn't have a lot of it. That is a fundamental mistake in the way this country, and only this country, looks at health care. And that market ideology is what has made the health care system so dreadful, so bad at what it does." — Marcia Angell, MD

(In 2002)"the combined profits for the ten drug companies in the Fortune 500 ($35.9 billion) were more than the profits for all the other 490 businesses put together ($33.7 billion). Over the past two decades the pharmaceutical industry has moved very far from its original high purpose of discovering and producing useful new drugs. Now primarily a marketing machine to sell drugs of dubious benefit, this industry uses its wealth and power to co-opt every institution that might stand in its way, including the US Congress, the FDA, academic medical centers, and the medical profession itself... Most of its marketing efforts are focused on influencing doctors, since they must write the prescriptions." - Marcia Angell, MD

I recently ran across an important 2013 JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) article, the content of which is printed below. It is about a new form of medical propaganda, physician conflicts of interest, the cunning of Big Pharma's advertising and how most physicians are at risk of being mis-informed and mis-educated at a time when they are being pressured to spend less and less time with their patients and to rely on the over-prescribing of Big Pharma's synthetic chemical drugs. As I often told my patients, it only takes 2 minutes to write a prescription but it takes 20 minutes to NOT write a prescription.

I have shortened and slightly modified the article, mainly for length considerations. The original is available for those who wish to read the entire article - as noted below. The article seems to have been cunningly well-hidden from us physicians and by the consumers of healthcare by the powers that be - probably because of the sensitive nature of its contents.

Clinical trials for a new Lyme disease vaccine will be conducted in the U.S. and Belgium after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and European Union's Clinical Trial Application gave Biotech firm Valneva of France clearance to begin Phase I testing.¹

Valneva is developing VLA15, a hexavalent, protein subunit-based vaccine for protection against Lyme's disease, a tick-transmitted bacterial infection characterized by fever, headache, fatigue and skin rash that, if left untreated, can spread to the joints, heart and nervous system and cause severe, chronic health problems.² The vaccine targets the outer surface protein A (OspA), one of the most dominant antigens expressed by the Borrelia bacteria transmitted by a tick.¹

The serotypes expressed by the U.S. species of the Borrelia bacteria differ from the European version of the bacteria. In fact, there are six types of the proteins. Valneva's vaccine aims to target all different strains of OspA and teach the body's immune system to recognize the bacteria and launch an attack.³

First Lyme Vaccine Withdrawn After Injury Claims

This is not the first time a company has pursued a Lyme disease vaccine candidate, although there are no vaccines currently on the market.

A radical new therapy which uses the drug ketamine to wipe out booze-related memories could revolutionize how alcohol addiction is treated, scientists say.

Researchers at University College London (UCL) are experimenting with a potential ketamine treatment to see if a single, one-off dose can treat the condition.

They say there is growing evidence that ketamine, which is used as a recreational narcotic, can have a positive impact on those dealing with alcoholism.

"There is evidence that it could be useful as a treatment for alcoholism," head researcher Ravi Das told the Guardian.

The drug could have the effect of suppressing memory triggers - clinking glasses, the sight of beer, arriving home after work - which create the urge to drink alcohol, he said.

Many comedians, over the years, have made jokes about their wives becoming more like their mothers as they get older.

Well, Les Dawson and co were actually on to something. We were astonished to discover just how much our mothers can affect the speed at which we age.

The data is in: we've seen the proof at the end of our microscopes.

We are a Nobel Prize-winning molecular biologist and a health psychologist who've devoted years to understanding how you can slow ageing. We've been revealing our findings all this week in the Mail and giving you tips on getting your youthful glow back. What's more, it's never too late to start slowing life's clock.

If you've been following our series, by now you'll be familiar with how we know all this: through examining the end of your chromosomes — the string-like structures where your DNA lives.

Chromosomes, remember, can be found in every single cell in your body, from the surface of your skin to the core of your liver.

Children with autism may see their symptoms reduced after receiving fecal transplants, a method of introducing healthy microbes that rebalance the gut, a new study finds.

A team of scientists from Ohio State University, Northern Arizona University, and University of Arizona released on Monday the results from their study, "Microbiota transfer alters gut ecosystem and improves gastrointestinal and autism symptoms," which claims that mental problems like autism are linked to bacteria and viruses that inhabit the gut.

In the small study, 18 children, aged seven to 16, who suffer from autism symptoms, saw positive changes that lasted for at least eight weeks after a fecal transplant.

The team claims that parents saw overall improvement in their children in 17 different autism-related symptoms, including social skills, irritability, hyperactivity and communication.

Most of us worry about our health at some point. You may notice a new symptom or change in your body and become convinced it's a sign of a horrible illness; a loved one might become ill and you might worry it may also happen to you.

In fact, it can be helpful to be concerned about your health. This is the type of concern that might motivate you to visit your doctor to check a sore back, apply sunscreen to prevent skin cancer, eat well, exercise or drink enough water.


Usually, worries about your health are short-lived and disappear after symptoms go away or after you receive the all clear from your doctor.

But for some people, what starts as a normal health concern can tip over into a serious mental health problem you might know as hypochondria, health anxiety or to give it its official title, illness anxiety disorder.

So how can you tell if your health concerns are helpful or harmful? And where can you go for help?

Only nine days away from his swearing-in as president, Donald Trump held his first press conference since the election and announced that the pharmaceutical industry was "getting away with murder" and that during his presidency he would do something about high drug prices with more competitive bidding for federal contracts. His remarks sent drug stocks into a sudden nosedive.¹

As noted by Brad Loncar, manager of Loncar Cancer Immunotherapy ETF: "When somebody that high-profile says something that negative, people do not want to invest in it." According to Reuters:²

"Trump's campaign platform included allowing the Medicare healthcare program to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies, which the law currently prohibits.

He has also discussed making it easier to import drugs at cheaper prices. 'We are going to start bidding. We are going to save billions of dollars over time,' Trump said."

Trump's comments came only one day after Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told reporters that Trump had asked him to "chair a commission on vaccine safety and scientific integrity."


Although the Trump transition team quickly denied that any decision had been made on such a commission, shockwaves reverberated throughout the drug industry in speculation as to what impact this commission, if formed, might have on vaccine uptake and sales.³

Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) therapy may help addicts overcome substance abuse via the extinction of conditioned drug-seeking behaviors, according to a groundbreaking preclinical study.

The new report, "Vagus Nerve Stimulation Reduces Cocaine Seeking and Alters Plasticity in the Extinction Network," was published in the January issue of Learning and Memory.

Although this is an animal study, the researchers believe their findings could eventually be applied to people who struggle with drug addiction or substance abuse disorders. VNS therapy has already been approved by the FDA as a treatment for certain illnesses, including clinical depression, epilepsy, and inflammation.

This new research adds to a growing body of evidence on the benefits of VNS therapy. For example, a February 2016 study found that VNS therapy improved functional connectivity of the default mode network which reduced symptoms of Major Depressive Disorders (MDD).

Additionally, a July 2016 study by neuroscientists and immunology experts found that VNS therapy inhibited "the inflammatory reflex" by blocking the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines. This research was the first human study designed to reduce symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis by triggering a chain reaction that reduced cytokine levels and inflammation.

Review of the response to the Ebola virus points to the world not being prepared for infectious disease outbreaks

An analysis of reports on the response to the Ebola virus outbreak in West Africa has researchers sounding the alarm about worldwide infectious disease outbreak preparedness.

Suerie Moon of the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, Switzerland, and a team of researchers examined seven post-Ebola reports.

They identified critical problems and made recommendations including strengthening compliance with the International Health Regulations, or IHR, improving outbreak-related research and information sharing, reforming the World Health Organization, or WHO, and broadening the humanitarian response system.

"We found remarkable consensus on what went wrong with the Ebola response and what we need to do to address the deficiencies," study authors said in a press release. "Yet not nearly enough has been done. Ebola, and more recently Zika and yellow fever, have demonstrated that we do not yet have a reliable or robust global system for preventing, detecting and responding to disease outbreaks."

The team urged the world "to mobilize greater resources and put in place monitoring and accountability mechanisms to ensure we are better prepared for the next pandemic."