Known as shilajit, this resinous nutrient-rich biomass has been touted for millennia by Ayurveda’s Materia Medica as the best carrier of energy and nutrition into the human body.
Modern science has recently proven this by identifying fulvic and humic acids, which are found in abundance in shilajit, as the main substances responsible for energy production within the cell
Vitamin C is a panacea for many conditions due to the fact that humans evolved to require a great deal more Vitamin C than we can eat. Unlike our ancestors, we humans can no longer make Vitamin C in our bodies.
All humans are born with a genetic defect. Our livers are missing a key enzyme, xl-gulono-§-lactone oxidase, which is required to synthesize ascorbic acid from glucose. The loss of this single gene prevents humans from making their own Vitamin C. The negative mutation of the so-called GULO gene has been well studied in both human and primate genomes. If this negative mutation could be corrected, most people would no longer need to supplement Vitamin C in their diets.
Thanks to modern science, it is easy and inexpensive to correct this damaged gene by supplementing Vitamin C (ascorbic acid or one of its salts) into one’s diet.
As with any inherited malfunction, the inability to produce the GULO enzyme has negative consequences. Most people are taught to believe that they can obtain enough Vitamin C in their food, and so they supplement too little. While this ‘food argument’ generally holds true for most other vitamins, the idea that one can obtain the necessary amount of Vitamin C in food sources is countered by facts.
When compared to all of the species alive today, humans are nearly the only species with a GULO-like genetic defect.
Most living things today make their own Vitamin C and do not have to obtain it through food sources. They do this by converting glucuronic acid (C6H10O7), derived from glucose (C6H12O6), into ascorbic acid (C6H8O6). The exceptions that cannot make their own Vitamin C are guinea pigs, fruit eating bats, the red-vented bulbul bird, and higher primates, such as gorillas and humans.
Most animals are able to synthesize ascorbic acid (AA) from glucose in either the kidney or the liver [1]. About 61 million years ago, some mammals and primates, including our human ancestors, lost the ability for this endogenous vitamin C synthesis [2]. This occurred due to the inactivation of L-gulono-lactone oxidase (GLO) gene with the consequence that the last step of the ascorbate synthesis from glucose was blocked. From then on, these species, including some primates, guinea pigs and Indian fruit bats, have been dependent on dietary, daily intake of AA.
All humans are born with a genetic defect. Our livers are missing a key enzyme, xl-gulono-§-lactone oxidase, which is required to synthesize ascorbic acid from glucose. The loss of this single gene prevents humans from making their own Vitamin C. The negative mutation of the so-called GULO gene has been well studied in both human and primate genomes. If this negative mutation could be corrected, most people would no longer need to supplement Vitamin C in their diets.
Thanks to modern science, it is easy and inexpensive to correct this damaged gene by supplementing Vitamin C (ascorbic acid or one of its salts) into one’s diet.
As with any inherited malfunction, the inability to produce the GULO enzyme has negative consequences. Most people are taught to believe that they can obtain enough Vitamin C in their food, and so they supplement too little. While this ‘food argument’ generally holds true for most other vitamins, the idea that one can obtain the necessary amount of Vitamin C in food sources is countered by facts.
When compared to all of the species alive today, humans are nearly the only species with a GULO-like genetic defect.
Most living things today make their own Vitamin C and do not have to obtain it through food sources. They do this by converting glucuronic acid (C6H10O7), derived from glucose (C6H12O6), into ascorbic acid (C6H8O6). The exceptions that cannot make their own Vitamin C are guinea pigs, fruit eating bats, the red-vented bulbul bird, and higher primates, such as gorillas and humans.