Thirteen healthy adult males, ages 20-40, consuming self selected
diets, were given instructions to take one 500 mg tablet of ascorbic
acid three times a day with their meals for a period of ten weeks. The
effect of this daily supplementation on copper status was investigated.
An estimation made from a three day diet record kept by each subject
indicated their dietary copper intake to be 1.92 mg per day. Determination
of serum ceruloplasmin and serum copper done on the first day
of the ascorbic acid supplementation period showed that the subjects
fell within accepted ranges of normal. All further determinations of
these parameters during the experimental period were compared to initial
values so that each subject served as his own control.
At week seven the high ascorbic acid intake significantly decreased
ceruloplasmin by 26 percent. At the end of the ten week ascorbic acid
supplementation period, serum ceruloplasmin activity was significantly
lowered by 20 percent. The slight increase over week seven was attributed
to a drop in compliance to taking the ascorbic acid tablets.
Serum copper levels were not significantly affected during the 10 week
experimental period although a consistent decrease was observed. Two
weeks after acerbic acid was terminated serum ceruloplasmin activity
increased but was not significantly different from week ten values.
However, when compared to week seven values, a significant increase
of 14 percent was observed. Serum copper levels measured two weeks
after ascorbic acid supplementation was terminated significantly increased
14 percent over week ten values.
The results of this human volunteer study indicate that taking
a megadose of ascorbic acid for ten weeks will significantly decrease
serum ceruloplasmin activity much like that observed in laboratory
animal studies. Based on this finding, one may question the safety
of prolonged self-dosage of high amounts of ascorbic acid by adults
as encouraged by the popular press. / Graduation date: 1982
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ORGSU/oai:ir.library.oregonstate.edu:1957/27454 |
| Date | 14 August 1981 |
| Creators | Finley, Elizabeth Bidwell |
| Contributors | Cerklewski, Florian |
| Source Sets | Oregon State University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
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