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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!
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!
