Vitamin C might help people keep leukemia away
Make sure you get the daily intake of vitamin C you need, as it might bring you more benefits than you could imagine. A recent study showed that boosting the levels of this vitamin might prevent you from developing leukemia.
Vitamin C wards you off from leukemia
Older studies discovered that people who suffered from ascorbate deficiency (that is vitamin C) were at a higher risk of developing cancer. However, they couldn’t find any explanation for this phenomenon. Now, they managed to discover why this happens.
The explanation is present in a study, published in the journal Nature. It looks like stem cells accumulate high levels of vitamin C. This helps them function regularly and avoid any abnormalities in their development. As a result, the chances of getting leukemia get smaller.
The substance regulates DNA changes and prevents vital enzymes from mutating
Vitamin C helps stem cells keep under control all those changes which take place in the DNA. These are part of the epigenome, so they are normal. The epigenome is a cell’s inner mechanism controlling which cells are turned on and off. Ascorbate helps the epigenome function normally. If it doesn’t get enough ascorbate, it might not function normally, increasing the leukemia risk.
In fact, vitamin C controls an enzyme called Tet2. If cells suffer mutations which lead to the enzyme becoming inactive, the leukemia risk increases. Also, ascorbate deficiency affects the well-functioning of Tet2 in cells and tissues.
The results are relevant for people suffering from a condition called clonal hematopoiesis. It often happens that these people lose a copy of Tet2, making them even more vulnerable. Therefore, if a person is suffering from both clonal hematopoiesis and an enzyme mutation, he should not miss any dosage of the daily recommended ascorbate intake.
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