Decreased Resistance to Infection

A. F. Hess, in a paper on the pathogenesis of infantile scurvy, emphasized the fact that a lack of the antiscorbutic factor which leads to scurvy at the same time predisposes to infections. Banerjee wrote a review of many studies implicating ascorbic acid deficiency as a cause of decreased resistance to infection. A. Lawrynowicz reported observations of two vitamin C-deficient guinea pigs which led him to assert that scurvy can provoke infection from a bacterial source which, during normal nutrition, had lain dormant within the body of the animal. Males, aged persons, smokers, and those with achlorhydria, hemolysis, infection, hemosiderosis, or hypercupremia, and many other conditions need more ascorbic acid than others. Human ascorbic acid deficiency, even of mild degree, is associated with an increased blood histamine level, which is promptly reduced by the administration of ascorbic acid, as shown by C. Alan B. Clemetson.