Why Are Gorillas In Captivity Dying?
29 May 2008
Why is the recent epidemic of heart disease in captive gorillas important to humans? Surely we have enough human medical problems without wasting time on our close ancestor. But biologically we share with gorillas one startling similarity. Gorillas and humans lack an enzyme L-gulonolactone which is necessary to convert sugar glucose into vitamin C.
You might say, "So what?" Well, before you go back to enjoying your morning coffee, consider this point. Lions, tigers, cats, cows, dogs, chickens and elephants all make their own vitamin C. They make a lot of C, from 3,000 to more than 13,000 milligrams (mg) a day. Unlike humans they also don’t suffer from the same cardiovascular disease in the wild.
But recently gorillas in captivity have been dying from heart disease. Obviously zoo keepers don’t deliberately mistreat gorillas, so why are they dying?
Owen Fonorow, founder of the Vitamin C Foundation, reports that he believes something has changed in zoos. Captive gorillas may not be getting as much C from food as those in the wild. Their food may not be as fresh and has lost its vitamin C content. And there’s evidence they’re receiving more processed foods loaded with sugar.
So what is the point of this column? It’s that what’s happening to gorillas has been occurring to humans for years. This is well documented in a book called "Practicing Medicine Without A License?" by Owen Fonorow and Sally Jewell. The book repeats what Linus Pauling, two-time Nobel Prize winner, keep saying before his death in 1994 at the age of 93.
Ask any doctor or cardiologist about the worth of vitamin C and you’ll hear the usual answers. That "Vitamin C is water soluble so the only benefit is expensive urine". Or "It’s never been proven that vitamin C has any benefit". Or, "It’s a lot of nonsense".
I admit there’s never been a large study to determine whether vitamin C prevents heart disease. Why? Because there’s no money to be made. Vitamin C cannot be patented. But hundreds of millions have been spent on cholesterol research!
But for medical professionals to say there’s no evidence of the value of C is nonsense. The British Medical Journal reported in 1997 a Finnish study showing that those with low levels of vitamin C were 3.5 times more likely to have a heart attack.
In 2005 a Harvard study showed that the daily use of vitamin C decreased the risk of heart disease by 30 percent. Another report from the University of Cambridge in England, showed that those with the highest concentrations of C had a 42 percent lower risk of stroke.
The most dramatic evidence comes from Dr. Sydney Bush, an optometrist in Hull, England. While studying eye infections he decided to prescribe 3,000 to 10,000 milligrams of C. Luckily he also took before and after pictures of the retina. To his surprise he found that cholesterol deposits in retinal arteries were disappearing. So it’s logical to believe the same thing happens in coronary vessels Yet this discovery has not received the international attention it deserves.
What makes this happen? Pauling wrote that vitamin C, along with the amino acid lysine, are needed to build strong collagen that holds cells together. Just like mortar keeps bricks together. And that a lack of vitamin C results in weakened cracked arteries resulting in cholesterol deposits that block arteries causing death.
Cardiologists pooh- pooh this evidence. Most are totally devoted to the cholesterol theory and prescribe millions of cholesterol-lowering drugs. They may be right.
But "Practicing Medicine Without a License" provides several reports from patients whose angina has been relieved by LARGE DOSES of vitamin C and lysine. As Linus Pauling stressed to me, "It’s the dosage that’s important". Pauling took 10,000 mg of C twice daily.
I believe more vitamin C might save the lives of gorillas and humans if everyone had an open mind about its value. But remember, it’s your doctor, not this columnist, that decides on your medical care.
To order the book visit the web site www.vitamincfoundation.org
