ABSTRACT
The smokers all had low vitamin C levels in plasma and in whole blood compared with nonsmokers. Evans et al. exposed two groups of 15 male guinea pigs each to cigarette smoke for two 10-min periods each day for 28 d and found that the "smoker group" gained weight less rapidly than the control group and had lower vitamin C levels in the adrenals. A study of teenage girls by Keith and Mossholder showed much lower plasma ascorbic acid total ascorbic acid (TAA) levels in smokers than in nonsmokers. This difference was partially due to a greater dietary vitamin C intake by the nonsmokers, but even when plasma ascorbic acid levels were adjusted for vitamin C intake, smokers were still found to have significantly lower plasma ascorbic acid levels than nonsmokers. This is particularly interesting because the health hazards of cigar and pipe smoking are known to be much less than those due to cigarette smoking.
