Vitamins play a range of beneficial roles in your health, helping to maintain your tissues and prevent disease. In addition, some vitamins might play a role in the treatment of medical conditions, helping to reverse or minimize the symptoms of a disease or disorder. Vitamin E and ascorbic acid, or vitamin C, might play a role in the treatment of porphyria, a group of disorders that affect your blood or liver function.
Porphyria
Porphyria is a group of syndromes caused by an inability of your body to general sufficient heme, a ring-shaped molecule important to the synthesis of a number of enzymes. Heme makes up a component of hemoglobin, the oxygen-carrying protein found in your red blood cells, as well as component of cytochromes, proteins involved in metabolism and detoxification in your liver. Depending on the cell type affected, porphyria falls into two main cateogries: hepatic porphyria, affecting enzymes in the liver, and erythropoietic porphyria, affecting your red blood cells.
Role of Oxidative Stress
Oxidative stress plays a role in the progression of some types of porphyria. Your body continually produces reactive oxygen species, or free radicals, as a byproduct of your metabolism. Neutralizing reactive oxygen species proves important for your overall health, since these chemicals can damage other molecules within your cells, including the enzymes needed to produce heme. Some people with porphyria have genetic mutations that leave their body less able to neutralize reactive oxygen species, and a chronic state of oxidative stress worsens their porphyria.
Role of Vitamins E and Ascorbic Acid
Since they are antioxidants, vitamins E and C help your body to reduce oxidative stress. Consuming adequate amounts of these vitamins helps to optimize your body's ability to neutralize reactive oxygen species, minimizing damage to the enzymes responsible for making heme. A study published in "The British Journal of Nutrition" in 2010 found that taking vitamin E and C supplements reduced the levels of oxidative stress in individuals suffering from erythropoietic porphyria, and the vitamins increased red blood cell function.
Considerations
Taking antioxidant vitamins might help to restore red blood cell function in individuals suffering from one type of porphyria, but the role of vitamin E and ascorbic acid in other types of porphyria remains unknown. You should never try to treat porphyria using vitamin E and ascorbic acid without talking to your doctor: The vitamins might help treat all types of porphyria, and accidentally overconsuming vitamins E and C can negatively affect your health, increasing your risk of abnormal bleeding and kidney stones. If you suffer from porphyria, talk to your doctor about the potential benefits of vitamins and dietary supplements in managing your disorder.
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