Hormone
ARE YOU AWARE THAT ADRENALS BURN THROUGH VITAMIN C UNDER STRESS? – (01-26-08)
Human adrenal glands secrete vitamin C in response to adrenocorticotrophic hormone
I have to admit, this one caused me to slow down and do a double take. It is well known that adrenals burn through Vit C under stress. I had always just assumed that this meant that Vit C was being used as a cofactor for some enzymatic process.
However, this study finds that, when the adrenals are stimulated via ACTH, they actually release high levels of Vit C for a short burst of time, presumably to assist in stress-related adaptations elsewhere in the body. This is a known mechanism in other mammals (humans are one of 4 mammals no longer able to make their own Vit C in the liver) that is used to combat stress, but I had never heard of any comparable process in humans. Maybe we just did.
