Scientists have uncovered a new role played by Vitamin C in protecting the skin.

New research at LIFE – Faculty of Life Sciences at University of Copenhagen shows that vitamin C deficiency may impair the mental development of new-born babies.

Serious flaws in a recent study, which concluded that high doses of vitamin C reduce the effectiveness of chemotherapeutic drugs in the treatment of cancer, are revealed in the current issue of Alternative and Complementary Therapies.

Women who took beta carotene or vitamin C or E or a combination of the supplements had a similar risk of cancer as women who did not take the supplements, according to data from a randomized controlled trial in the December 30 online issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Neither vitamin E nor vitamin C supplements reduced the risk of major cardiovascular events in a large, long-term study of male physicians, according to a study in the November 12 issue of JAMA. The article is being released early online November 9 to coincide with the scientific presentation of the study findings at the American Heart Association meeting.

The days are getting shorter, temperatures are dropping, and the cold and flu season is beginning. Many people have started taking vitamin C tablets as a precautionary measure.

In pre-clinical studies, vitamin C appears to substantially reduce the effectiveness of anticancer drugs, say researchers at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

High-dose injections of vitamin C, also known as ascorbate or ascorbic acid, reduced tumor weight and growth rate by about 50 percent in mouse models of brain, ovarian, and pancreatic cancers, researchers from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) report in the August 5, 2008, issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

A new study appears to explain how humans, along with other higher primates, guinea pigs and fruit bats, get by with what some have called an “inborn metabolic error”: an inability to produce vitamin C from glucose.

Six-year vitamin E supplementation increased tuberculosis risk by 72% in male smokers who had high dietary vitamin C intake, but vitamin E had no effect on those who had low dietary vitamin C intake, according to a study published in the British Journal of Nutrition.

Taking vitamins C or E during pregnancy will not reduce a woman’s risk of experiencing pre-eclampsia, a Cochrane Systematic Review has concluded.

Scientists at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and Jefferson’s Kimmel Cancer Center have received approval for a first-of-its kind study on the effect high dose vitamin C has on non-Hodgkin lymphoma patients.