Vitamin C and Markers of Metabolic and Cognitive Health in 50 Year Olds

by | Jan 22, 2018 | 2017, Vitamin C, Vitamins

Written by Joyce Smith, BS. Study participants with the highest levels of plasma vitamin C had significantly lower levels of weight, BMI, waist circumference, better measurements of metabolic health and lower levels of cognitive impairment.

vitamin CNoteworthy among an impressive list of health benefits of vitamin C is its role as a powerful water-soluble antioxidant and collagen rejuvenator in skin health and photoaging 1 . Our bodies, however, are unable to synthesize vitamin C which must therefore be obtained from dietary sources such as fruits and vegetables. While a mere 10 mg of vitamin C per day is enough to prevent scurvy, 2 greater than 100 mg per day are recommended for adequate vitamin C levels and good health. Up to 20% of the US population has hypovitaminosis C, defined as a plasma vitamin C concentration < 23 umol/L.

The 2012 CHALICE (Canterbury Health, Aging and Lifecourse) study, 3 involved 404 participants (49-51 years of age), who were randomly selected to participate in this prospective longitudinal study of health and well-being. Data on vitamin C status and various health indicators was collected and analyzed. Results were as follows:

  • Sixty-two percent of participants had inadequate plasma vitamin C concentrations (<50 µmol/L), 13% had hypovitaminosis C (<23 µmol/L), and 2.4% were vitamin C deficient. (<11 µmol/L).
  • Mean plasma vitamin C concentration was 44.2 µmol/L. Men had lower plasma vitamin C status than women (p=0.005), and more men were vitamin C deficient. Participants from lower socio-economic status 4,5 and smokers 6 (p<0.001) also had decreased Vitamin C levels.
  • Participants with higher vitamin C levels had lower weight (p=0.004), BMI and waist circumference 7(p<0.001), and better measures of metabolic health 5,8, including HbA1c (p<0.015), insulin (p=0.000) and triglycerides (p=0.029), all of which are risk factors for type 2 diabetes 9.
  • Highest plasma vitamin C correlated with lower levels of mild cognitive impairment. One μmol/L increase in plasma vitamin C was associated with a 3% reduced odds of mild cognitive impairment (p = 0.004). Also, the odds of mild cognitive impairment were twice as high for participants whose plasma vitamin C levels were below 23 μmol/L (p = 0.01). Plasma vitamin C showed a stronger correlation with markers of metabolic health (p<0.05) 10 and cognitive impairment 11 than dietary vitamin C.

The strength of this study was the fact that its analysis included vitamin C sources from both diet and supplements as well as cofounders of vitamin C status such as smoking, alcohol consumption, prescription medications and health conditions, all of which may affect vitamin C utilization in the body. This study was an observational study only, in which associations do not imply causation. In spite of this limitation the researchers felt that “the association of high vitamin C concentrations with the reduction in risk of impaired cognition is intriguing and merits further investigation.”

Source: Pearson, John F., Juliet M. Pullar, Renee Wilson, Janet K. Spittlehouse, Margreet Vissers, Paula ML Skidmore, Jinny Willis, Vicky A. Cameron, and Anitra C. Carr. “Vitamin C status correlates with markers of metabolic and cognitive health in 50-year-olds: findings of the CHALICE cohort study.” Nutrients 9, no. 8 (2017): 831.

© 2017 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

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Posted January 22, 2018.

Joyce Smith, BS, is a degreed laboratory technologist. She received her bachelor of arts with a major in Chemistry and a minor in Biology from  the University of Saskatchewan and her internship through the University of Saskatchewan College of Medicine and the Royal University Hospital in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. She currently resides in Bloomingdale, IL.

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