Surgery deprives the body of vitamin C

Definition: "An ergogenic aid is any substance or phenomenon that enhances performance "

19.10.2024

After a surgical procedure, the concentration of vitamin C in the body plummets, concludes a meta-study published in 2020 in the British Journal of Nutrition. Do patients need more vitamin C after surgery?

Surgery deprives the body of vitamin C

Study

Australian researchers, affiliated with Swinburne University and the National Institute of Integrative Medicine, analyzed 23 previously published studies in which participants had undergone surgery. The participants had given blood samples before and after the operation - and laboratories had determined the concentration of vitamin C in them.

Results
In the first week after the operation, the concentration of vitamin C in the blood was reduced by 39 percent compared to the concentration before the procedure.

The figure below shows this. Click on it for a larger version.

After the first week, the concentration of vitamin C was still 21 percent lower than before the procedure, as shown in the figure above.

The researchers broke down their data by type of surgical procedure. They discovered that it didn't matter what type of surgical procedure the participants underwent - their vitamin C levels dropped.

Mechanism

"Ascorbate may be used for a number of additional post-operative physiological processes such as L- carnitine production, collagen, nitric oxide synthesis/preservation and immune system modulation, in an effort to return to post-operative physiological homoeostasis", the Australians speculate.

Supplementation after surgery
"Consequently, post-operative vitamin C depletions may interfere with a number of these functions", write the researchers.

"Preliminary studies have revealed that post-operative depletions in vitamin C may be potentially associated with impaired wound healing, disrupted pain modulation (through impaired vitamin C histamine synthesis), impaired cognition, increased risk of arthrofibrosis and prolonged hospital stay."

This may mean that vitamin C supplementation accelerates recovery after surgery. Whether this is really the case cannot be determined on the basis of the Australian meta-data. But other research certainly points in that direction.

Source:
Br J Nutr. 2022 Jan 28;127(2):233-47.

More:
Accelerated recovery and fewer complications after heart surgery with extra vitamin C 22.12.2023
Significantly less pain after surgery due to vitamin C supplementation 26.11.2023

Archives:
Vitamin C
Vitamins



Vitamin C supplement accelerates foot ulcer healing Foot ulcers that do not heal are not only painful, but also dangerous. They can eventually lead to an amputation of the foot.	Vitamin C can reduce alcohol-induced performance dip A training session done after drinking alcohol is by definition a bad training session - and for every year that you age, the negative effect of alcohol on performance increases.	Vitamin C accelerates the healing of a torn rotator cuff According to this French study, which appeared in 2020 in the European Journal of Orthopedic Surgery & Traumatology, a daily dose of 500 milligrams is already effective.