Why is everyone so concerned about getting Vit E and C to the brain. If you think that antioxidants will help, just take lipoic acid. It not only reaches the brain, it has been shown to reach the substantia nigra. It is a very powerful antioxidant and it recycles E which recycles C. Plus it generates L-glutatione which is scarce in PD people. It also chelates Iron. Builds strong brains in 4 ways! Ron Reiner (49/2) At 03:15 AM 12/3/97 -0400, you wrote: >---------------------------------------------------------------------- >Getting Vitamin C on the Brain >---------------------------------------------------------------------- > >NEW YORK (Reuters) -- Vitamin C levels are 10 times higher in the brain >than they are elsewhere in the body, and now researchers think they know >the reason why. > >A particular chemical form of vitamin C -- called dehydroascorbic acid -- >can slip past the blood brain barrier, resulting in higher concentrations >of the antioxidant in the central nervous system. > >"Our findings in this study suggest that vitamin C concentrations in the >brain could be increased by increasing the blood concentration of >dehydroascorbic acid," reported lead author Dr. David Agus, an oncologist >at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. > >Manipulating vitamin C levels in the brain may turn out to be helpful in >combating Alzheimer's disease or other neurological disorders. > >Vitamin C tends to mop up free radicals, damaging particles that might >contribute to neurological damage, according to the report in the Journal >of Clinical Investigation. > >"We now know how to get large amounts of an antioxidant into the brain," >said Agus. >Ascorbic acid, the form of vitamin C absorbed from the intestines, is >unable to cross the blood brain barrier. > >The barrier is a network of capillaries that prevents most chemicals from >gaining access to the sensitive central nervous system. > >However, Agus and colleagues found that when ascorbic acid was converted to >dehydroascorbic acid it could be ferried across the blood brain barrier by >a transporter molecule. > >Such transporters are found on cells lining the blood brain barrier, and >can transport compounds into the brain and spinal cord. > >In the case of dehydroascorbic acid it was the GLUT1, which normally >transports glucose, that moved the vitamin. > >Once inside the brain dehydroascorbic acid is converted back into ascorbic >acid -- thus explaining the mystery of high vitamin C concentrations in the >brain. > > >By Theresa Tamkins >SOURCE: Journal of Clinical Investigation (1997;100) >1997 Reuters Health eLine ><http://www.medscape.com/reuters/tue/t1201-1f.html> >---------------------------------------------------------------------- > >janet [log in to unmask] > >