The March, 2006 issue of The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition published the findings of UK researchers of an association between dietary and plasma levels of vitamin C and reduced markers of inflammation and endothelial dysfunction in older men. S. Goya Wannamethee and colleagues studied 3,258 men between the ages of 60 and 79 who had not been diagnosed with heart attack, stroke, or diabetes.

Inflammation and messengers from the immune system associated with inflammation are a major part of the destruction to organs and tissues that occurs in autoimmune disease. These researchers have recently shown that Perna Canaliculus prevents the development of autoimmune diseases such as Systemic Lupus Erythromatosis and Rheumatoid Arthritis in laboratory animals. In the present study it was found that Perna Canaliculus effectively decreased levels of TNF-alpha and various cytokines involved with autoimmune disease destruction, and it nearly abolished the effects of the COX-2 enzyme by inhibiting its activity.

After nerve damage, regenerating the axon (the hairlike extension of a nerve that carries a signal to the next nerve) is important to the recovery of damaged nerve tissue. Centella asiatica has been used for centuries in Ayurvedic medicine as a nerve tonic. Here the researchers show that a Centella asiatica ethanolic extract causes a marked increase in neurite outgrowth (repair of the axon or dendrite).

The antiviral medication used in HIV positive patients causes damage to nerve tissue leading to toxic neuropathy. Medical therapy only offers partial benefit and eventually the patient will often discontinue using the antiretroviral medication due to the degree of nerve pain. It is thought that the mitochondria (the powerplant) of the nerve cell doesn't function well.

The concentration of vitamin C rapidly declines in the plasma and leukocytes during infection or stress according to Swiss researchers. Supplementing with Vitamin C improves components of immune function in humans such as the ability to fight bacteria and Natural Killer Cell activity, and also improves the proliferation of lymphocytes and the actual immune punch these cells have against rampaging infections. Vitamin C also protects our cells from the very activity of our own immune system.