ABSTRACT
The ascorbic acid levels of the four with achlorhydria and chronic atrophic gastritis were among the lowest and they "responded somewhat less satisfactorily to oral doses of ascorbic acid than did patients with similar degrees of deficiency but other forms of gastric pathology. Histamine-fast achlorhydria was observed by Hyams and Ross in a 54-year-old housewife admitted to St. Paneras Hospital in London with osteoporosis and megaloblastic anemia due to scurvy. Another possibility is the existence of a vicious cycle, if achlorhydria can lessen ascorbic acid levels and low ascorbic acid levels can impair gastric acid secretion. Guinea pig feeding experiments by La Mer et al. confirmed that vitamin C is more stable in acid than in alkaline solutions. Guinea pig studies by Hughes and Lewis have shown that ascorbic acid can be rapidly absorbed by the stomach and also more slowly by the intestine.
