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Query: UMLS:C0917801 (insomnia)
 10,606 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Vitamin C participates in several physiological processes, among others, immune stimulation, synthesis of collagen, hormones, neurotransmitters, and iron absorption. Severe deficiency leads to scurvy, whereas a limited vitamin C intake causes general symptoms, such as increased susceptibility to infections, fatigue, insomnia, and weight loss. Surprisingly vitamin C deficiencies are spread in both developing and developed countries, with the latter actually trying to overcome this lack through dietary supplements and food fortification. Therefore new strategies aimed to increase vitamin C in food plants would be of interest to improve human health. Interestingly, plants are not only living bioreactors for vitamin C production in optimal growing conditions, but also they can increase their vitamin C content as consequence of stress conditions. An overview of the different approaches aimed at increasing vitamin C level in plant food is given. They include genotype selection by "classical" breeding, bio-engineering and changes of the agronomic conditions, on the basis of the emerging concepts that plant can enhance vitamin C synthesis as part of defense responses.
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PMID:Strategies to increase vitamin C in plants: from plant defense perspective to food biofortification. 2373 60

Fatigue is a common, often debilitating, side effect of cancer chemotherapy. Pharmacologic vitamin C has been used as an alternative treatment for the disease itself but its effects on fatigue have not often been documented. Here we report on the case of a woman with recurrent breast cancer, undergoing weekly chemotherapy, with lethargy as a major symptom. Vitamin C (50 g/session) was administered twice weekly and quality of life and multidimensional fatigue symptomology questionnaires were undertaken. Dramatic decreases in fatigue and insomnia were observed, as well as increased cognitive functioning. There were no adverse side effects of i.v. vitamin C.
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PMID:Relief from cancer chemotherapy side effects with pharmacologic vitamin C. 2448 89