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Vitamin C. Why you might what to up your intake.

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  • Vitamin C. Why you might what to up your intake.

    Disclaimer: I’m not, nor claim to be, a medical expert. The info I offer here is based solely upon my own personal research and experiences.

    As we all know, Vit C is an essential vitamin we should consume on a very regular basis, if not daily. According to the Office of Dietary Supplements, the range of daily of daily Vit C intake for healthy individuals can vary from 15mg for children 1-3 years of age up to 120mg for lactating/breastfeeding women. They also recommend an additional 35mg per day if the person smokes or is exposed to second hand smoke on a regular basis. The primary goal of these recommendations is to prevent the onset of scurvy. But is simply preventing scurvy all that Vit C is good for?

    Dr. Robert F. Cathcart, III, M.D., has extensive experience in treating patients using high dose Vit C which according to him spans a 9 year time period and involved over 9000 patients. He developed a method whereby the at home patient could determine the correct dosage for themselves and coined it “the bowel tolerance method.” Simply put, if you consume more Vit C than your body needs at any one time the person will develop diarrhea. Dr. Cathcart also noted that the sicker a person is or the more stress they are under the more Vit C a person can tolerate. This method is spelled out in detail in Dr. Cathcart’s paper entitled, “The Method for Determining Proper Doses of Vitamin C for the Treatment of Disease by Titrating to Bowel Tolerance.” Basically, you take Vit C until you reach bowel tolerance, then back off that dose and maintain. In this paper he provides a table of general guidelines for dosages depending upon the condition, which you’ll find below:

    Condition / Grams Per 24Hours

    Normal, well / 4 – 15

    Mild Cold / 30-60

    Sever Cold / 60-100

    Influenza / 100-150

    Vial Pneumonia / 150-200+

    Hay Fever, Asthma / 15-25

    Burn, Injury, Surgery / 25-150

    Anxiety, Exercise & / 15-25
    Other mild stress

    Rheumatoid Arthritis / 15-100

    Bacterial Infections / 30-200+


    For our uses, I’d like to focus on the use of Vit C in the realm of an effective tool in fighting stresses brought on by daily life and exercise. Cortisol is a steroid hormone typically termed “the fight or flight” hormone. Physical and emotional stress along with illness can increase the amount of cortisol released into your system. Cortisol levels naturally fluctuate throughout the day, peaking upon waking and at its lowest while we sleep. High levels of cortisol can result in various diseases and as we all know can lead to excessive and unwanted weight gain. Fortunately, Vit C is a known cortisol antagonist. See this PubMed article for more info. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11590482

    So what is the optimal dosage for Vit C? Well, that is going to be different for different people due to our different lifestyles, habits, environments, etc, etc. The trial ran in the PubMed article I provided used a 1500mg/day dose for 7 days prior to an ultramarathon event. Another factor to consider is the form of Vit C. Ascorbic Acid is the primary form. Sodium Ascorbate is another popular form which is buffered using sodium. Many people like this version as it is less harsh on the enamel of the teeth. Another form gaining popularity is liposomal Vit C which is typically sodium ascorbate encapsulated in a liposome or essentially a ball of fat. This ball of fat does a couple of things; 1) it protects the Vit C from the digestive tract where more traditional forms such as pills or powders are destroyed before use, 2) the liposome mimics the same structural make up of cell wall allowing for the Vit to be delivered in an intracellular manner, or that’s the claim of the researchers, and 3) there is NO gastric distress or diarrhea associated with the liposomal form. I can attest to this personally as I’ve used the product and at relatively high doses. As to dosage, all I can give you is what I take…~ 3g upon waking and ~ 1.5g every 1-2 hours through the day. I’ve been doing this for about 6 months now and this is the first year I’ve not had the flu or recurrence of bronchitis which I typically come down with. I did have a cold in December but it lasted less than a week. One major factor I’ve noticed is taking it first thing in the morning. For me, it’s better than a cup of coffee. I can definitely tell when I miss the morning Vit C. Also, taking ~ 2-3g immediately after a workout will aid in keeping down the cortisol associated with the physical stress of working out. Vit C is also essential for collagen production and health. One interesting note: many animals, including dogs can actually produce their own Vit C whereas humans cannot.

    I decided to put this up, not to provide all the nuances and intricacies of Vit C because as I stated at the outset, I'm not a medical professional by any stretch, but to perhaps entice some readers to dig further for themselves. Thanks for playing along!
    Last edited by OdinsOtherSon; 04-20-2013, 12:47 AM.

  • #2
    Excellent post and lots of great information!

    I am guilty of intaking less vitamin C than I really should on a regular basis. It is, after all, one of the vitamins that your body cannot overdose on and it holds so many important beneficial effects. Your post explains it all. Take as much as you want, the only risk is diarrhea from too much.
    Chief writer for Steroidal.com
    Formerly known as Atomini
    Steroidal.com: the world's largest informational resource on anabolic steroids and all things performance enhancing drug related!
    "Strongest minds are often those whom the noisy world hears least" - William Wordsworth

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    • #3
      Hey Dan! Thanks for dropping in and checking out my efforts here. That means a ton coming from you!

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      • #4
        Not a problem. I also want to quickly add that the time released versions of vitamin C should always be preferred, because they will slowly release vitamin C so that the body will be more apt to use it. If a lot of vitamin C is released into the body at once, the body can only use so much of it at any one given time and the rest of it will be excreted, effectively being wasted (and wasting the money you spent on it). I always invest in the time released version.

        As a side note, if/when I ever get sick, at the first sign of infection or if I even suspect any infection, I will take at least 1,000mg of time released vitamin C every hour on the hour until the symptoms are gone. If I do this early enough in the infection, the virus or bacteria doesn't seem to be able to gain a foothold at all and normally disappears 12 hours later. It has never ever failed me. But you need to "catch" the infection in its early stages. If you wait until the sore throat or whatever is in full swing, then the virus or bacteria has infected enough cells and multiplied too much for you to end it very quickly.
        Chief writer for Steroidal.com
        Formerly known as Atomini
        Steroidal.com: the world's largest informational resource on anabolic steroids and all things performance enhancing drug related!
        "Strongest minds are often those whom the noisy world hears least" - William Wordsworth

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        • #5
          Excellent post, thanks.

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          • #6
            My understanding is that the amount of Vit. C tyoically in a 1 a a day is plenty and that you will piss out anymore than that. I also understand that it's effect on colds and such is a wifes tale essentialy and that Zinc, Magnesium and Vit A are actualy effective at maintenance doses during cold season and then double or triple the dose for 5-7 days id you do get a cold.

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            • #7
              Originally posted by Link View Post
              My understanding is that the amount of Vit. C tyoically in a 1 a a day is plenty and that you will piss out anymore than that. I also understand that it's effect on colds and such is a wifes tale essentialy and that Zinc, Magnesium and Vit A are actualy effective at maintenance doses during cold season and then double or triple the dose for 5-7 days id you do get a cold.
              I would agree that once a cold, flu or any illness has taken hold that Vit C is really a non issue. I may have not conveyed that clearly enough. My points were meant to convey that in using Vit C daily and in larger doses than the RDA of 60mg one would essentially "have the pump primed" and in the event you did start to come down with a cold or whatever, an immediate increase in Vit C would help in alleviating that issue. But I agree, its not a cure...especially when you wait until you're full blown sick and then try to use it.

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              • #8
                Good post. I take a gram a day and havent been sick in 2 years. Those are some high doses from the study you put forth! I had no idea that much was even taken. Nice work.

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                • #9
                  Thanks warmouth. Yeah those are indeed high, well they are high relative to what most people generally take. Like Dan mentioned, after a certain point you're just wasting the product because your body will excrete it. The primary method of excretion is diarrhea when a person has reached the limit their body can use and injury, stress, illness will raise the threshold. So if you're taking C and haven't developed diarrhea then either you've not reached your body's requirement or its being destroyed in the GI tract. I'm currently using the "NOW" brand of powdered sodium ascorbate which is a pharmaceutical grade product. I don't really like it because its such a volatile product. That particular product should be used ideally in an intravenous application, which I failed to mention in my original post. Gastric distress cannot be reached via this method of intake just as with the liposomal form and the IV delivery is also how you're going to reach those high doses for the more serious aliments listed above. Getting you health care provider to play along and administer the C is going to be the big hurdle. Also, as Dan mentioned, the time released capsules are probably the most ideal oral delivery system outside of the liposomal form. Also, if you will take your encapsulated form with food, I think it reduces the amount of C that is destroyed in the GI tract, while conversely, you want to take liposomal C on an empty stomach for better absorption as the liposome protects the C in that application.

                  Personally, my main focus for taking large amounts of C is to aid and assist in stress/cortisol control. If you really want some very interesting info regarding high dose Vit C, go to you tube and search Dr. Thomas Levy, then search, "New Zealand man saved by Vit C." Pretty remarkable info.
                  Last edited by OdinsOtherSon; 04-20-2013, 06:10 PM.

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                  • #10
                    Hmmmm....... Interesting stuff. I am wondering how the body would react to brewing it down for IM use? I bet it would burn like a mother!

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                    • #11
                      Very good read. Thanks for sharing the knowledge !!!

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                      • #12
                        Originally posted by warmouth View Post
                        Hmmmm....... Interesting stuff. I am wondering how the body would react to brewing it down for IM use? I bet it would burn like a mother!
                        Whoa! I bet it would! As I said, the powdered form I'm using is ideally suited of intravenous use. I know that some people make their own homemade liposomal C using Ascorbic Acid, lecithin (non GMO) and a sonic jewelry cleaner. Its said the encapsulation isn't nearly as good as the commercially available product but that the lecithin probably does help protect the C in the GI tract.

                        Originally posted by Mini-G View Post
                        Very good read. Thanks for sharing the knowledge !!!
                        Thanks man! I appreciate you stopping in and reading it!!

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