By various estimates, modern living has placed approximately 3 out of every 4 adults into a state of chronic stress. Chronic stress contributes to chronic diseases including diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, obesity, and is characterized by feelings of unwellness with fatigue, anxiety, depression, infections, body aches being just a few. With long-standing stress, the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis becomes chronically overactivated and out of synch with the Circadian rhythm – a rhythm essential to our health. Biochemically, this state is characterized by cortisolemia, with cortisol continuously produced by the adrenal glands. It has long been asserted that ascorbic acid is used in the synthesis of cortisol and, not surprisingly, adrenal glands have one of the highest requirements for ascorbic acid of all bodily tissues. Interestingly, however, more recent findings indicate that ascorbic acid inhibits adrenal steroid hormone production. This suggests that the association of low ascorbic acid levels seen in chronic stress results in reduced inhibition of cortisol and DHEA-sulfate (DHEA-s) synthesis, thereby contributing to hypercortisolemia.
This study enrolled 69 adult females without recent acute stressors, but with chronic low-level, symptomatic stress, and with functional plasma hypercortisolemia (171-536 nmol/L) and/or elevated DHEA-sulfate (greater than 10µmol/L). The functional hypercortisolemia was confirmed with a dexamethasone test. The participants were randomized to determine the effect of 1 g of oral ascorbic acid daily. The participants were first divided into one of three groups: those with high cortisol and normal DHEA-s (n=23), those with elevated cortisol and DHEA-s (n=24) and those with normal cortisol and elevated DHEA-s (n=22). Each group was then randomly divided into a subgroup who received 1g ascorbic acid daily for 2 months and the remainder who were observed without any intervention.
There were no study dropouts and at the end of 2 months, plasma cortisol and DHEA-sulfate were remeasured. In those patients with elevated cortisol and normal DHEA-s, those receiving ascorbic acid experienced a decrease in cortisol by 35% or more (p= 0.000065) compared to a 10% decrease in the observed patients (p=0.00003). In patients with elevated cortisol and elevated DHEA-s, ascorbic acid decreased to within normal range (p=0.005), whereas there were no significant changes in the controls (p = 0.14). Patients in both groups with elevated DHEA-s levels experienced significant decreases with ascorbic acid supplementation (p=0.0007 and p=0.003), compared to no change in the untreated controls.
The findings of this study demonstrate the clinically significant effect of 1g of ascorbic acid in lowering cortisol and DHEA-sulfate in chronically stressed individuals with functional hypercortisolemia. This could result in a reduction of symptoms associated with chronic stress, and, over time, even reduce the incidence of stress-related pathologies.
Reference:
” Beglaryan, N, Hakobyan G, Nazaretyan E. Vitamin C supplementation alleviates hypercortisolemia caused by chronic stress. Stress and Health. 2024 Jun;40(3):e3347
