Abstract
During a recent study of the vitamin C needs of children which included determinations of the daily urinary excretions of ascorbic acid, one child developed a slight upper respiratory infection which interfered with night rest. He was given on 2 successive nights 2.5 grains of aspirin; and water ingestion was forced during 2 days. Since his food intake remained normal and his temperature was only slightly elevated, the experiment was not discontinued as is usual when a child who is under observation develops a cold. Analysis of the urine following aspirin administration showed an increased output of ascorbic acid. This was quite out of line with our general findings to the effect that following physiologic adjustment, at a given level of ingestion the daily excretions of ascorbic acid of the children under observation were surprisingly constant during the 10-day period of study (Everson and Daniels 1 ). Was the increased excretion of ascorbic acid due to conditions producing the elevated temperature, the effect of the acetylsalicylic acid, or to a washing-out process following the larger water intake? That infections may deplete the stores of vitamin C has been suggested by Dry, 2 by Harde, Rothstein and Ratish, 3 and by Harde and Benjamin. 4 On the other hand, Giardina 5 has shown that sodium salicylate will precipitate scurvy and death in guinea pigs receiving diets containing an insufficient amount of the antiscorbutic vitamin in a shorter time than in pigs on similar diets with no sodium salicylate.
To obtain further data regarding the effect of aspirin on vitamin C metabolism in the human organism, the 3 children between 4 and 6 years of age who were under observation were given constant weighed diets during which period the ascorbic acid intakes and excretions were determined daily.
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