The health benefits of vitamin C in combatting the common cold, improving the immune system, preventing scurvy, strokes, and even preventing and fighting some cancers have been touted for decades. But, vitamin C’s least known and most powerful function may be in preventing and treating depression and anxiety. VITAMIN C DEFICIENCY CAUSES DEPRESSION AND CRAVINGS FOR SUGAR A deficiency in vitamin C, also called ascorbic acid, can cause neurological damage and the addition of vitamin C to the diet can improve or reverse symptoms of anxiety, depression and bipolar disorder. A recent study at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Department of Neuroscience in Nashville, Tennessee and published in the Journal of Neurochemistry deprived mice of vitamin C. The deprivation caused depressive and submissive behaviors as well as an increased preference for sugar. More importantly, there were decreases in dopamine and serotonin in the brain. Low levels of dopamine and serotonin are linked to high levels of anxiety and depression in humans as well as mice. VITAMIN C WORKS AS WELL AS PROZAC FOR STRESS-RELATED DEPRESSION IN MICE Another interesting study with mice was recently conducted in Brazil and published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research. The mice were subjected to “chronic unpredictable stress” (CUS) for 2 weeks. This CUS produced depressive behaviors and changes in brain chemistry. During the second week of the study, half of the mice were treated with fluoxetine (Prozac) and half were treated with vitamin C. The results were as powerful with the vitamin C as with the fluoxetine. In other words, the vitamin C reversed the detrimental effects and helped the mice cope with the ongoing stress as well as the Prozac did. The researchers concluded, “These findings indicate a rapid and robust effect of ascorbic acid in reversing behavioral and biochemical alterations induced by CUS in mice, suggesting that vitamin C may be an alternative approach for the management of depressive symptoms.” That’s some pretty strong evidence for the powerful effect of vitamin C on depression – and it gets even better: CHILDREN’S DEPRESSION IMPROVES MORE WHEN TREATED WITH VITAMIN C AND PROZAC THAN WITH PROZAC ALONE Researchers at the Global Neuroscience Initiative Foundation in Los Angeles, California studied the effects of fluoxetine (Prozac) alone and in combination with vitamin C in depressed children. Their results showed a significantly more positive effect in the group treated with both fluoxetine and vitamin C as compared to the group given fluoxetine and a placebo. The results suggest that vitamin C may increase the effectiveness of treatment with Prozac in depressed children. DEPRESSED ADULTS ALSO BENEFIT FROM...
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