HEALTH: Vitamin C - How Much Too Much?

[Guest guest]

How Much Vitamin C Is Too Much?

By Jack Phillips

 

It’s generally accepted that a healthy dose of vitamin C can help ward

off colds. But just how much is enough?

 

Many people do not realize that man is one of the few mammals which does

not manufacture its own supply of vitamin C, also known as ascorbic

acid.

 

The rates of production by a number of different animals like the cat,

dog and goat have been measured. The heavier the animal the more vitamin

C it produces.

 

However, a 154-pound man would need to produce between 1.75 and 3.50

grams per day to keep up with the other animals.

 

There are experts who feel that taking more than 140 milligrams per day

of this vitamin is wasteful because, for many people, more than this

amount results in urine containing the vitamin— “Expensive Urine.”

 

Loading tests have shown that 20 to 25 percent of a 1 gram per day dose

shows up in the urine within 6 hours. When much larger doses are taken,

as much as 62 percent can show up within hours.

 

Generally speaking, the recommended daily allowances have been based on

the amounts needed to prevent scurvy in healthy young men.

 

But healthy young men represent only a small part of the total

population.

 

To my knowledge, no one has determined how much of any vitamin is

required by unhealthy old men—or women.

 

The results of a test involving 88 patients, half being schizophrenic,

are reported in Dr. Linus Pauling’s book How to live Longer and Feel Better.

 

Each was given 1.75 grams of vitamin C by mouth. During the following 6

hours each patient’s urine was collected and then analyzed.

 

The amounts excreted varied from 2 percent to 40 percent of the amount

ingested. The mental patients excreted about 60 percent less than the others.

 

This clearly indicates that the need for vitamin C is quite variable.

Just as one size shoe doesn’t fit every foot, the recommended daily

allowance is not going to fill everybody’s need for this essential vitamin.

 

Incidentally, excreted vitamin C is not a complete loss. According to

Dr. Pauling, it protects against urinary tract infections.

 

Large doses can have a laxative effect causing looseness of the bowel.

This is said to be greater when the vitamin is taken on an empty stomach.

 

Dr. Pauling recommended using this laxative effect to reduce chances of

developing colon cancer. Additionally, the vitamin appears to be most

effective in fighting disease when the dose is close to the bowel

tolerance limit.

 

Vitamin C is one of the few naturally anti-viral materials. There has

been much controversy about its usefulness against colds and influenza.

 

It is notable that Dr. Pauling’s interest in vitamin C was sparked by

his observation that he and his wife experienced a striking decrease in

the number and severity of colds after they started taking large

quantities of it. I have enjoyed the same benefit.

 

The effects of the vitamin are dose related. Many tests at low dosages

during the early years of this controversy showed little effect except

reductions in the duration of symptoms.

 

However, physicians experienced with this therapy recommend intakes near

the bowel tolerance limit, said to be between 4 and 15 grams per day for

people in good health.

 

Dr. Irwin Stone, a pioneer in the use of vitamin C, recommended taking

1.5 to 2 grams by mouth at the first sign of a cold and repeating the

dose at 20 to 30 minute intervals until symptoms disappeared. He said

this usually happened by the third dose.

 

Collagen is the material that holds your body together. Vitamin C is

destroyed in the process of producing collagen. If your skin is cut,

collagen is generated to make scar tissue.

 

It seems obvious that the more extensive the damage, the greater the

amount of vitamin C needed for the repair.

 

There are many references in the scientific literature attesting to the

efficacy of vitamin C in wound healing.

 

When I had a need for a hernia repair, I put the theory to a test. I

increased my intake of vitamin C prior to the surgery and took 52 grams

of it in the 24 hours after it at the rate of about 2 grams per hour.

 

I experienced no digestive difficulties, my wound healed well and I did

not need the prescribed pain medication.

 

I was careful to reduce this high intake over the next 3 days to avoid a

rebound effect. If you take a lot of vitamin C and stop taking it

suddenly, your liver will take it out of your immune system leaving you

vulnerable to infection.

 

It is interesting to note that your bones are made up of layers of

collagen and the mineral apatite which together form a matrix of

semiconductors. It is reasonable to believe, therefore, that vitamin C

is also of value in maintaining the integrity of your skeleton.

 

POISON?

 

There are those who say that large quantities of vitamin C are poisonous.

 

Dr. Pauling reported that he took 18 grams of it every day and he lived

to be over 90.

 

In bulk, vitamin C is not expensive. It costs about 3.5 cents per gram.

Thus 1.75 grams costs about 6 cents and 18 grams about 65 cents.

 

Of course your body needs other supplements to stay healthy.

 

Dr. Joel Wallach has stated that there are 60 minerals, 16 vitamins, 12

essential amino acids and 3 essential fatty acids that your body

requires in order to prevent dietary deficiency diseases.

 

The soils in the United States have been deficient in minerals for years

so you cannot get everything you need from food alone.

 

In 1994, Dr. Wallach stated that the life span for the average American

was 75.5 years, but was only 58 years for medical doctors.

 

An attempt to update the life span for physicians was unsuccessful

because a representative of the American Medical Association stated that

they no longer keep these statistics.

 

Possibly the physicians who have been advising their patients to avoid

“Expensive Urine” have been taking their own advice—and dying early of

“Cheap Urine.”

 

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[Guest guest]

Thanks for this information on vitamin C. I have far fewer colds since taking 1 gram of vitamin C daily, and the ones I do have do not last as long.

 

I have heard that the stories of larger doses of vitamin C being poisonous were based on test tube research, and that this effect had not been found in the human body.

 

Jo

 

 

How Much Vitamin C Is Too Much?By Jack Phillips

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