VITAMIN C and Brain Size of Adults
This is to highlight an article published in NEJM on the 10th of July, 2026 by mainly Japanese authors.
There is a definite relationship with brain size and probably low incidence of dementia on non alcoholic individuals.
I do not believe that neural connections are permanent entities and no change can happen after birth.
It is shown in serious meditators the neural connections blossom at Jhana level 1 to 5.
Low dose of Vitamin C regularly enhance neural connections and thereby memory and attention span.
Poor sleeping or break in sleep has adverse effect on Memory and Attention.
It is prudent to suck a Vit C tablet at Day Break to mitigate this untoward manifestation.
I am not sure of the effect of Vit C on melatonin release.
On a different line of investigation, my friend Dr. Chandrasekara who is blind now discovered many moons ago that periodontists or gum disease has direct relationship with cardiovascular episodes. His research is confirmed by many other works on both these fields.
My connection is the relevance of atherosclerosis and heart disease.
1. Atherosclerosis does not cause heart disease. It is harmless deposition of extra fatty material on blood vessels. Abdominal Aorta is the major site. I won't talk about this Fatty Acid SAGA and Cholesterol except it is one component of large number of Fatty Acids.
2. Inflammation at the site of Fatty Deposits precipitates "fatty acids shower" that causes TIA and Stroke long before the first heart attack in many individuals. These episodes are painless unlike angina and many patients ignore these symptoms as mundane.
Treatment is simple.
Low dose Aspirin Therapy.
3. Inflammation is caused by Microscopic Injury that set in motion of release of Interleukin.
4. Periodontists cause the release of Interleukin and that was my friends contribution and the relationship of heart attacks.
5. All my life I was teaching Inflammation and I can remember my old Professor George Tennakoon finishing the introductory lecture series for our students saying:
There are inflammatory mediators in inflammation and learn them from this Dr.......
Then back at the department he gives me all the references from American Journal Pathology.
Of course, I graduated to NEJM which is again an American publication.
I hated British BMJ and it's British English.
Other benefits of VIT C include:
Potentiates Memory and Attention
Prevention of Macular Degeneration in eyes.
Possible lower incidence of heart attacks due to antioxidant activity.
No relationship with flue or the duration of the flu.
Dose of VITAMIN C
50mg assuming with the contribution from food (banana, lime, lemon mandarin and oranges), one gets the required 75mg a day.
Body does not produce Vit C.
My bone or contention is one cannot be sure how much one gets from a fruits and vegetables.
There is no label on the fruit and the size of the fruit that has 75mg.
The quantity of Vit C in a tablet is well known. So taking the tablet makes our life simple. No complications.
It is the ripe banana that has Vit C and all the Hexose and Penose sugars.
There is a caveat here.
Tablets available are 500mg.
Simply, just divide the tablet to 4 pieces and one gets 125mg. Assuming that the tablet is not made to High Quality, one can ignore the excess 50mg.
If one take the 1000mg (2 tablets) the excess is passed in the urine causing light burning sensation. Only the very high doses cause oxalic acid stones in the urine.
1. NEJM is my number 1 journal for over 50+ years.
I am not a fan of BMJ especially because of its language style. Whereas, NEJM has a crisp and direct language style and there are no Shakespearean twist in expression.
2. I was very much involved in childhood nutrition and milk formulae from SMA, Cow and Gate, Anchor and Vitamilk.
I am not a fan of Indian Amul milk.
Equally fan of milk toffee made of Nestlé Milkmaid condensed milk.
I am not familiar with Danish Arla and Australian milk Devondale and Woolworth
3. My interest was VITAMIN fortified milk not the standard milk.
In that sense SMA and Cow and Gate were my favorites.
4. Even though Expressed Breast Milk was an option for babies maintaining a Milk Bank except for Neonates was not feasible.
5. One has to look at the label on the milk cartoon or tin to see the composition. Little bit of iron and trace elements like zinc, copper and selenium are invariable in some formulae.
