Some thoughts on the epidemiology of cardiovascular disease, (with special reference to women "on the pill"). Role of ascorbic acid.

Consideration of nine major factors predisposing to cerebral thrombosis, coronary thrombosis or thrombosis in the deep veins of the calf, reveals that these factors all have one thing in common. Estrogen administration, pregnancy, ageing, smoking, infection, trauma, surgery, soft water and winter season are all associated with a tendency towards decreased plasma ascorbic acid levels. Normally, ascorbic acid deficiency is thought of as causing a tendency towards hemorrhage rather than thrombosis, but it is here suggested that petechial hemorrhages under the endothelium of the blood vessels may precipitate thrombosis on the damaged endothelium. Is not blood coagulation the normal mechanism for the arrest of hemorrhage?