I know this is a controversial topic to write about in a forum concerned with Natural Medicine. I posted it previously on Steem, and I thought that it might garner interest here. Perhaps by watching the video and writing about this, a reader might have a eureka moment and expand the discussion in their own direction.
I find the topic of health to have some interesting areas. It is mind-blowing when you think about how we ended up here when at some point, one of our ancestors was a single-celled organism. A second organism attached itself to the first and, through synergy, was able to share resources to become better. This was followed by a third and a fourth until we evolved into the multi-cellular organism that we are now.
This process continues. We carry some bacteria in our gut, which are necessary to support the cells in our bodies. I find it interesting that most mammals produce Vitamin C, including our closest companions like dogs, in the liver, yet primates (including humans) and flying mammals have lost the ability to synthesize Vitamin C. I imagine that replacing the segment of the nonfunctional L-gulono-gamma-lactone oxidase gene found on chromosome 8p21.1 would be a future topic of interest for bioethicists. The segment is there, but mutations disabled it in the past. There was likely sufficient Vitamin C in the foods our ancient ancestors consumed that normal evolutionary pressures didn't weed out those mutations. Should we fix those mutations?
Ascorbic acid functions as a cofactor for enzymes involved in the biosynthesis of collagen, carnitine, and norepinephrine. In addition, it acts as a powerful antioxidant, quenching reactive oxygen species and reactive nitrogen species, as well as being the first line of defence against oxygen radicals in the water-soluble component. Furthermore, ingestion of a large quantity of dietary vitamin C has resulted in the improvement of neutrophil functions such as chemotaxis, phagocytosis, and superoxide production in patients with recurrent furunculosis and impaired neutrophil functions. Thus, vitamin C is crucial to preserving health and preventing disease in all mammals.
Plasma concentration of vitamin C...
It is possible to mitigate the genetic mutations that shut down the L-gulono-gamma-lactone oxidase gene by eating Vitamin C-rich foods. If there was a "pill" that you could take that was able to correct those mutations, would you?