Vitamin C: Its molecular biology and medical potential ( Orthomolecular Medicine )

Vitamin C has been for a long time the subject of conflicting and controversial discussion. Until this book, evidence adduced on either side had been of a clinical and experimental nature. Dr. Lewin breaks fresh ground by providing theoretical backing at a molecular level to reconcile these discrepancies. He critically reviews and summarizes much previously published material dealing with the chemistry of ascorbic acid, its biological effects (including biosynthesis and metabolism) and the medical and genetic bases for the use of mega doses. To this is added original data collected by the author and research results that elucidate and account for the observations that have been made both by others and by himself. Since this book examines vitamin C from both biochemical and medical aspects, it should be of interest to doctors and biochemists alike. Its particular usefulness in these fields and in the related ones of physiology and chemistry, lies in the fact that it is the only scholarly work devoted to vitamin C that presents such a total picture of the uses of ascorbic acid and the rationale for its varying effects. ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Dr. Sherry Lewin held the degrees of B.Sc., M.Sc. and Ph.D from the University of Leeds in Chemistry, Physical Chemistry and Biochemistry. He belonged to several learned societies and was a Fellow of the Royal Institute of Chemistry. At the time of his death, just after this book was completed, he was Head of the Department of Postgraduate Molecular Biology at the North East London Polytechnic. He had been working on the subject of ascorbic acid for some years and had many previous publications on this and other subjects.