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Scientists claim that vitamin C's daily recommended intake should be doubled as current levels are based on shocking Second World War studies.
Based on an 1944 study by The Sorby Research Institute, the World Health Organization recommends a daily intake 45mg. Similar amounts are recommended by the NHS at 40mg.
The guidelines were created by the now defunct research center to evaluate the nutritional levels of British citizens in a time when food was scarce.
University of Washington scientists have reexamined the research that informed current guidelines and found the methods shocking.
Scientists say that the current guidelines for vitamin-C intake do not aim to maximize overall health but rather to prevent scurvy.
Modern scientists and doctors have not been able to reexamine the university's 77-year-old research. It recommended that the dosages be increased.
Professor Philippe Hujoel, the lead author of findings published in American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, stated that "the vitamin C experiment was a shocking study."
"It wouldn't fly now"
They depleted vitamin C levels over time and caused life-threatening emergencies. It wouldn't fly today.
"The re-analysis of the Sorby data suggests that the WHO recommendation is too low for weak scar strength.
He said: Parametric analyses of trial data show that a daily intake of 95mg vitamin C is necessary to prevent weak scars for 97.5 percent of the population.
"This vitamin C intake is more that twice the daily 45mg vitamin D intake recommended by WHO, but it is consistent with writing panels for National Academy of Medicine (and other) countries."
Vitamin C, which can be found in citrus fruits, vegetables, and other foods, helps protect cells and maintain healthy bones, skin, blood vessels, and cartilage. Vitamin C aids in the healing of injuries.
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Experiment based on just 20 volunteers
Prof Hujoel stated that the failure to review the data from a landmark trial using new statistical methods, as soon as they were available, may have resulted in a misleading narrative about the vitamin C requirements for the prevention or treatment of collagen-related diseases.
Sir Hans Adolf Krebs, a British-German biologist who won the Nobel Prize in 1944, was the leader of the 1944 research.
Researchers conducted an experiment to monitor the vitamin C intake of 20 volunteers who had refused to join the military at the time.
Each conscientious objector was given different amounts of vitamin C to help the body produce collagen. They were also given wounds to see how fast their scar tissue healed.
This research was done to determine how much vitamin C navy personnel who live off rations needed to prevent them developing the deadly condition of scurvy. It did not focus on how much to improve overall health.
Scurvy was a common disease at that time. Some figures suggest that more Navy personnel were killed at sea from the disease than the enemy.
Reexamining the research revealed that University of Washington academics used modern statistical methods to manage small sample sizes which were not available at the time of the experiment.
This method, also known as the "eyeball", proved that the data assessment was inadequate and incorrect at the time.
