Vitamin and mineral insufficiencies are common amongst Western populations who consume the typical Western diet. This is because the Western diet contains high amounts of processed and refined foods that are devoid of meaningful levels of micronutrients. Vitamin and mineral insufficiencies are defined as intakes of micronutrients that are borderline between being sufficient and deficient. They result in subclinical symptoms that are difficult to detect and are often dismissed as unaccountable aches, pains and other minor maladies. An outright deficiency of vitamin C causes scurvy, the vitamin C deficiency disease characterised by a breakdown in the connective tissue of the body and internal bleeding. Vitamin C deficiencies are very rare in Western nations because of the large quantities of cheap food that is available, some of which contains adequate vitamin C to prevent scurvy. However, vitamin C insufficiencies may be more common and the symptoms they produce are not so clear cut.
One of the functions of vitamin C is to act as a reducing agent in certain neurotransmitter synthesis pathways in the brain. In particular, vitamin C acts as a cofactor in the hydroxylation reaction that leads to the production of noradrenaline. As noradrenaline is an important neurotransmitter that has regulatory functions on mood and motivation, low intakes of vitamin C may affect the mental state detrimentally. The effects of vitamin C supplements in those with poor vitamin C status were shown in a study hospital patients who were at risk of low vitamin C levels. Of the subjects in the study1, 75 % has insufficient vitamin C status and 30 % were deficient in vitamin C. Skin bruising was present in 20 patients and gingival bleeding in 2 patients. Supplementation with 500 mg of vitamin C per day for an average of about 1 week caused a reduction in the total mood disturbance score (a measure of abnormal mood) by 71 % and the distress thermometer score (a measure of psychological stress) decreased by 51 %.
These results suggest that poor vitamin C status causes mood disturbances, and supplementation with modest amounts of vitamin C can reverse much of these subclinical symptoms within a week of supplementation. Based on the large numbers of people who are now reliant of mood enhancing pharmaceuticals because of depression and anxiety, it is interesting to speculate that these people have similar vitamin C insufficiencies. It is now suspected that the typical Western diet causes deterioration of both the physical and mental state, and that much of the resultant pathology often is not attributed to diet, but more to bad luck, poor genes or a lack of exercise. The connection between a low quality diet and poor mental function is well established, and increasingly insufficiencies of vitamins such as the B vitamin are being seen as a contributory or causative factor in many cases of dementia. Vitamin C appears to belong to this group of vitamins that are essential for mental function, and low intakes are a cause of poor mood.
Dr Robert Barrington’s Nutritional Recommendation: The best insurance against the development of vitamin and mineral insufficiencies is to eat a high quality diet based on traditional eating patterns and to supplement this diet with a high quality multivitamin and mineral tablet. The typical Western diet does not provide adequate nutrition for a human being to be healthy, and consuming such a diet will cause mental and physical deterioration.
RdB
