Don’t wait for your doctor or public health authorities to produce a vaccine or a drug to prevent the predicted tripling of Alzheimer’s disease from 4.7 to 13.8 million by the year 2050. The research community has already identified the initial step in the development of Alzheimer’s but is reluctant to make a public health pronouncement that would upset the current pharmaceutical drug paradigm that predominates in modern medicines (none of the five classes of approved drug for this brain disease address its cause).
Alzheimer’s mental decline can be headed off years in advance of the occurrence of symptoms with the use of vitamin C supplements but not with oranges or apples that are considered to be vitamin C-rich foods.
The science building up to this “discovery” is as follows:
- Brain levels of vitamin C are higher than in other in other organs.
- Blood plasma levels of vitamin C are lower in Alzheimer’s patients than in healthy individuals
- Deficiencies in vitamin C are associated with mental decline.
- Smoking tobacco, which depletes vitamin C, is increases the risk for Alzheimer’s dementia,
- Supplemental vitamin C improves the behavior of laboratory animals genetically engineered to develop Alzheimer’s.
- Individuals who consume vitamin C supplements are at reduced risk for Alzheimer’s mental decline.
- Alzheimer’s patients have lower blood plasma and cerebrospinal fluid vitamin C levels despite adequate dietary intake.
- Repeated consumption of high-dose vitamin C to laboratory animals reduced beta amyloid plaque levels in the brain by 40.2% (hippocampus) to 57.9% (cortex) in the brain of laboratory animals. Low-dose vitamin C (just enough to prevent scurvy symptoms) was almost ineffective at preventing mental decline whereas doses 10-fold higher than the minimum requirement were demonstrably effective. However, it doesn’t matter whether people have a buildup of plaque in their brain or not, they still develop mental decline, says a recent study. Measurement of beta amyloid plaque should be abandoned in favor of vitamin C blood and cerebrospinal fluid levels to predict risk for Alzheimer’s disease.