bY Michael Ravensthorpe
(NaturalNews) Vitamin C is one of the most important antioxidants on Earth, and its ability to aid tissue growth and repair is well-known. However, British researchers at the Imperial College of London have found another good reason to eat more oranges and lemons – vitamin C can also guard us against the negative effects of air pollutants such as car exhaust and power plants.
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The researchers studied 209 London-based patients between the years of 2008 and 2009 to determine the link between oxidative stress and coarse particulate matter (air pollution produced mainly through fossil fuel combustion). Most of the patients were between the ages of 54 and 74, and all of them were hospitalized due to asthma or COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease).
The researchers found that there was a 35 percent increased risk of hospitalization for asthma or COPD for every additional 10 micrograms per cubic meter (mcg/m3) in coarse particulate matter to which the patients were subjected. They also found that the risk of hospitalization was 1.2 times greater among patients with low vitamin C levels – a correlation that remained true even when elderly patients and former smokers were excluded from the analysis.
“The protective effect of vitamin C was still present after excluding smokers and elderly subjects, implying that the effect of this antioxidant was not explained by smoking or age,” said Dr. Cristina Canova, study co-author and research associate at the university’s Respiratory Epidemiology and Public Heath Group.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and its European equivalents have set the ‘safe’ standards for air pollution levels as 50 mcg/m3 for coarse particulate matter.
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