vitamins for fast wound healing

C: The Blog
===========

This is the Cforyourself vitamin C Blog. This has replaced the old
Message Board that used to live here. Please keep your posts and
comments on topic, that is, vitamin C and related health issues.
Anyone may comment, only members may Post new subjects. I invite
anyone to join, so please e-mail me and I will send you an
"invitation" to join (that's the way the system works). Thank you and
welcome.

Sunday, January 03, 2010
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Vitamin C, Vitamin D, Niacin, Thiamine, and Wound Healing: Fantastic
Proof for Vitamin C

If your body is injured, there is much to gain and nothing to lose by
getting extra vitamin C, vitamin D, niacin, and thiamine. There is
strong scientific support for this assertion. With that said, in light
of the large sums of money spent by the medical industry treating and
caring for the injured, little is invested in careful scientific
studies directed at further elucidating the role of the only four
vitamins associated with named deficiency diseases (scurvy, rickets,
pellegra, and beriberi respectively) in the healing of various types
of injuries. Plenty of resistance to the idea that injured people will
benefit from extra sunshine (more vitamin D) and vitamin C, niacin,
and thiamine supplements remains. The quantity and quality of the
scientific research has not yet convinced enough people to act.
Medical professionals are more to blame than the rest of us, but they
are, for the most part, not hypocritical. In fact, I expect that
medical professionals are less likely than the average person to get
the full benefit from these four special nutrients because medical
professionals are more likely to follow the recommendations of their
colleagues on the food and nutrition board.

Using vitamins optimally isn't easy. I've known now for many years
that vitamins accelerate wound healing and have only recently
discovered how to take advantage of my knowledge. I originally thought
that taking supplements was the best I could do. I just didn't
appreciate how practical and effective topical application can be. I
am constantly subjecting myself to minor skin injuries - most often to
my fingers. I keep a small bottle of ground up vitamin C and niacin
tablets (80 wt% vitamin C, 20 wt% niacin) in the kitchen along with a
tube of topical analgesic cream. When I get a minor burn or scrape, I
rub powder into the injury with the cream and put on a band-aid. I
have found this to be remarkably effective. Read more here.

I'm writing today's blog to call attention to a fantastically detailed
study of the role of vitamin C in wound healing. The study was carried
out by Hoffman La Roche - a leading manufacturer of vitamins. It looks
to me like the study was carried out at the request of the fish
farming industry. More likely than not, fish farmers discovered that
adding alot of vitamin C to their feed was improving yields of fish.
Adding vitamin C is expensive, and there was a need to figure out how
to optimize the feedstock formulation to minimize the cost of bringing
the fish to market. I place fish farming in the world of commodity
manufacturing and healing injured people in the world of the service
industry. These are two very different worlds which might partially
explain the lack of attention that these results have gotten in the
medical world.

OK. So here's the study. A large number of fish were divided into
three groups - 20, 150, and 1000 mg vitamin C per kg of feed. Humans
consume an equivalent of roughly 3 kg of food per day so these doses
roughly translate to taking 60, 450, and 3000 mg of vitamin C per day
in highly divided doses (in other words taking a small vitamin C
supplement with every serving of food and beverage). All the fish were
identically wounded (cruel - but not so cruel with fish) and the
healing process was monitored with time. Here are the conclusions:

Conclusions: (1) dietary vitamin C intake influences the rate of wound
healing in rainbow trout, (2) increasing the dietary level of vitamin
C from 150 to 1000 mg AA/kg feed enables the establishment of larger
pools of AA in various tissues, and (3) with larger tissue AA pools,
the increased AA demand following wounding does not become a rate
limiting step, thus healing may proceed more quickly.

To read the entire abstract, click here

A much less expensive study was done in the 1980's with a few rats.
This study proved that very high doses of vitamin C dramatically
accelerated the healing of wounded rat tails. The researchers found
conditions under which treatment with high doses of vitamin C saved
the entire tail of the rat, medium doses saved half of the tail, and
doses associated with the vitamin C available from a normal diet
(roughly 1 RDA) resulted in most rats losing their entire tail. The
reference is "Spillert et. al., "Protective Effects of Ascorbic Acid
on Murine Frostbite" in Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences,
Volume 498, 1987.

Overwhelming evidence also supports the effectiveness of high doses of
vitamin C for healing wounded skin, including an incredible
double-blind trial using severely burned sheep. Read more here.

Similar studies are not going to be carried out with growing children.
If scientific evidence from rats, sheep, and fish is insufficient to
change the behavior of the medical industry, then scientific evidence
is insufficient to cause the change and some other additional advocacy
will be required before people get the full benefit of this knowledge.

I try to review all the vitamins studies I can find on the web - so
I've seen alot of studies. I would like to see more studies on niacin,
thiamine, and vitamin D and wound healing. For vitamin C, more studies
will provide little in the way of additional knowledge because the
evidence is already conclusive. While healing from injuries, it is
useful to take as much vitamin C as you can and to use it topically as
well. Read more here, and here.

While waiting for more studies, there is much to gain and almost
nothing to lose (you half to learn to avoid or manage minor side
effects) by also getting extra sunshine (more vitamin D), niacin, and
thiamine.

posted by Steve @ 8:13 AM 12 comments

12 Comments:

At 4:13 AM, Blogger David said...

Very interesting reading. Made me think about early days of
vitamin C research. They showed that scar strength on Guinea
Pigs was proportional to vitamin C intake. The maximum scar
strength was reached at some very high level. If you want I can
dig out the ref's - assuming that I can find them again! Send me
a email reminder - just about to got to bed and have a very very
very busy week ahead.

At 2:47 PM, Blogger Ken said...

Alternative view of Vitamin D. (scroll down a bit)

Black-White Differences in Cancer Risk and the Vitamin D
Hypothesis

At 2:25 PM, Blogger jdawg said...

Steve, I know this is off topic here, but is there evidence of
wheat or dairy sensitivity going away with vitamin dosages
you've recommended? I'm very interested and having trouble
myself.

thanks,
Jody

At 5:40 PM, Blogger Steve said...

Jody,

I believe that your question is,in fact, right on topic here.
People often take a narrow view of what a wound is.

There isn't much evidence about wheat and other food allergies
being "cured" with vitamins. A big problem is that these
problems tend to come and go spontaneously with or without
vitamins. It's very hard to do clinical trials.

I suspect that injury to the intestinal tract is a root cause of
wheat, dairy, and other food allergies. When injury is the root
cause, taking the vitamins I recommend in the doses I recommend
should accelerate the healing.

Remember, allergies often going away without taking any
significant action. If you start taking the vitamins now and the
allergies clear up over 6 months time, there is no proof the
vitamins were the cause of the cure. Once cured, when you stop
taking the vitamins you will stayed cured.

Well - there it is. Proving that vitamins help isn't easy so
it's hard to persuade people to take them.

Steve

At 5:46 PM, Blogger Steve said...

Ken,

Thanks so much for the link. I read it with interest.

I did not see this as a contrarian view at all. I'm very
concerned about vitamin D toxicity. I recommend that people get
vitamin D from the sun. No matter what your heritage, you are
meant to get out in the sun and make vitamin D in your skin.
Given generous sun exposure, the body will optimize vitamin D
production naturally by optimizing skin color. If you stay
inside all the time, the skin will get as pale as possible and
then deficiency sets in because even pale skin can't make
vitamin D unless it sees regular sunshine.

Testing and supplementing is a bad idea that benefits doctors
and supplement manufacturers. Testing is a bad idea period
since, as the link you provided proves, there isn't enough data
to know what the right tests results are yet. Far better to get
regular sunshine and let bodies take care of themselves without
expensive testing and pill taking (pills and procedures- pills
and procedures - pills and procedures). Real health care reform
means alot less pills and procedures and alot more nutrition and
environmental clean up.

At 1:45 AM, Blogger David said...

Steve you are assuming that the metabolic pathway to generate
Vitamin D is working at 100% efficiency. I don't know of the top
of my head which enzymes are involved... however I would
strongly suspect that the B vitamins are involved as co-factors
in the enzymes. Thus without B's you wouldn't generate optimal
vitamin D status.

I do agree with the principle about getting out into the sun -
cause this normally means being out of air conditioned air and a
big dose of enjoyment.

At 1:56 AM, Blogger David said...

Jody

Allergic reactions and inflammation go hand in hand. So
vitamins/minerals/nutrients that reduce inflammation may reduce
allergy's. There is a lot of work connecting nutrients and
inflammation but as Steve says it id difficult to set up a study
that measures nutrients and allergies.

I do remember one study that had 2mg of vitamin C and omega 3
oil a day that reduced peoples asthma....

At 4:34 PM, Blogger jdawg said...

And Steve, do I assume you would recommend the C being started
first if I were sick or sensitive to stuff? I've been wondering
and I'm already taking a multi w/o iron.

Thanks again,
Jody

At 10:28 PM, Blogger Steve said...

Jody,

All I'm really recommending is that you keep on trying rather
than accepting chronic illness. I don't know enough, and I don't
know who else knows more about optimizing vitamin doses. With
any luck, all will become clear in the future. For now, you just
have to do the best you can.

So -I'm recommending concentrating for starters on just four
vitamins: vitamin C, niacin, thiamine, and vitamin D. These are
the only four vitamins associated with named vitamin deficiency
diseases in western languages. Generous doses of vitamin D can
be had with minimal side effects by getting plenty of sunshine.
Because of side effects, I have nearly stopped vitamin D
supplements altogether. I try to get into the noon time sun with
my shirt off every day that it is sunny. That leaves just three
supplements as pills. I have recommended, for starters, 2 100 mg
thiamine tablets daily (morning and afternoon), 4 1000 mg
vitamin C tablets daily (morning and afternoon), and one 250 mg
time release niacin table daily.

Vitamin C is easy to use - the side effects are reliable and
obvious. Thiamine is easy to use because only a small amount of
each tablet is absorbed. Vitamin D requires effort to get from
the sun and is difficult to use as a supplement. Niacin is
difficult to use so I recommend my column on niacin side effects
even for the 250 mg/day time release tablet that is typically
well tolerated.

Vitamins are not a fast cure for wheat, dairy, and other food
allergies. There's no harm using the supplements, and with luck
the allergies will fade away.

Steve

At 11:04 AM, Blogger jdawg said...

Steve, thank you. Vitamin D is one I'm going to have a problem
with, since I live in eastern Canada. I haven't had any luck
finding time release niacin either so I may have to get it
online. I did order some sodium ascorbate powder and that should
be here soon.
This is such a great resource. There's nothing else online like
it.

Jody

At 7:31 PM, Blogger Steve said...

Jody,

It's a good thing the internet has emerged to grant everyone
access to inexpensive vitamin supplements.

Just want you to know that I don't have much experience with
sodium ascorbate. I use 1000 mg tablets of ascorbic acid. I have
some experience with ascorbic acid powder. I prefer the tablets
because they dissolve more slowly. Four or five grams of powder
in a single shot can hit the stomach a little hard.

There's nothing else on line or off line like my blog because
very few people share my views. I've experienced the incredible
healing powers of vitamin C, vitamin D, niacin, and thiamine
working together. I have made it a point to experience vitamin
side effects personally. So, in addition to clinical feedback, I
have personal experience of a great many of the reported side
effects from vitamin C, niacin, and vitamin D (there are no side
effects from thiamine, nor have I experienced any).

You can't really share my views until you have also experienced
the same incredible healing powers. Surely there are children in
your family with pale faces and dark circles, or elderly folks
struggling with dental work, weakening bones, and joint pain.
Don't just read this site. Purchase extra vitamins on line and
get those around you who are suffering to try the recommended
vitamins. Remember that patience is required - it can take over
a year for the vitamins to prove their merit. My scientific
training tells me you'll have similar experiences to me, and
you'll see impressive turn-arounds in the health of your friends
and family. Then you can fire up your own blog and join your
voice to mine.

Steve

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