posted
Dr.C said to add 1000mg a day till you got diarhea. I am up to 7000 and nothing. I've always had a problem with constipation so there's no telling how much I would have to take.
He said if vit C doesn't work to add magnesium but I don't know how much C I should take before I give up and try the mag.
Does anyone know how much I can take a day? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
posted
7 grams is more than I've ever taken. But vit C is good. I've never heard of anyone taking too much, though. I had a friend who I saw many times eat several grams at on sitting. I used to have to hide the vitamin C when he was around! He was very healthy! As for the constipation, be sure you have enough fluids coming in! That's really important with lyme, and easy to forget. Are you on oral abx? Do be sure to keep up the acidophilus, though for me lack of probiotics actually caused diarrhea. Are you on cholestyramine (..'questran'...)? That's well-known to cause constipation, even when taking and eating other things that normally fight it. Consider using psyllium husk powder instead. THAT will loosen you up for sure, and is good for toxin removal, as well. I had good result with .5 to 1 rounded teaspoon of psyllium husk powder in 8 oz water, taken 30 min before a meal (one you take abx with. (it's actually a regulator- fights diarrhea, as well as constipation). I hope you straighten it out soon!
You could always see about the ultimate-- getting on clarithromycin (..'biaxin'...)-- it's famous for helping one, uh, stay loose.... And good for fighting lyme, as well, in the right combination.... DS
Posts: 4567 | From ithaca, NY, usa | Registered: Nov 2000
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posted
7 grams is more than I've ever taken. But vit C is good. I've never heard of anyone taking too much, though. I had a friend who I saw many times eat several grams at on sitting. I used to have to hide the vitamin C when he was around! He was very healthy! As for the constipation, be sure you have enough fluids coming in! That's really important with lyme, and easy to forget. Are you on oral abx? Do be sure to keep up the acidophilus, though for me lack of probiotics actually caused diarrhea. Are you on cholestyramine (..'questran'...)? That's well-known to cause constipation, even when taking and eating other things that normally fight it. Consider using psyllium husk powder instead. THAT will loosen you up for sure, and is good for toxin removal, as well. I had good result with .5 to 1 rounded teaspoon of psyllium husk powder in 8 oz water, taken 30 min before a meal (one you take abx with. (it's actually a regulator- fights diarrhea, as well as constipation). I hope you straighten it out soon!
You could always see about the ultimate-- getting on clarithromycin (..'biaxin'...)-- it's famous for helping one, uh, stay loose.... And good for fighting lyme, as well, in the right combination.... DaveS
Posts: 4567 | From ithaca, NY, usa | Registered: Nov 2000
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Jellybelly
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 7142
posted
Hi Sapphire
I have heard the same thing. I have experienced this with magnesium. It takes 1000 mgs and more to give me a reason to run to the bathroom.
When my daughter was in the hospital to stop early contractions, they gave a form of magnesium. Usually it makes you shaky, your vision goes blury and you can get a headache. It is intended to relax muscles including the uterus and they give it in very large doses. They have to monitor very carefully.
My daughter is 5" 7" and slender, she never experienced had any of the symptoms that are expected. In fact it didn't even work that well on relaxing her uterus. They finally ended up giving her the max dose for a very large woman and it still didn't work. Her blood levels were even lower then when they first started giving it to her. Doctors were stumped.
My theory is that like me with magnesium, her body was starving for it and just sucked it up. She needed it.
I have taken massive amounts of C and never gotten diahrea either. Maybe our bodies need more then those who are healthy. Do some research and see if there is a level that is considered toxic and go from there.
posted
I have been taking 12 -15 grams a day, thats 12000-15000mg, twice what you are doing. I have no diarea or adverse symptoms. I have been told to up it until I find where it does start to give me loose stools and then back it down to just lower than this point. I was told by my care provider that 25000mg a day etc... is probably more of where I should be heading to.
How much your body needs is individual. We need more right now because of our ill health. I know part of my great need is due to metal toxitity, not just lyme bacteria.
So, I would recomend upping it, another bit each day, until your body tells you it's enough. Check with your doctor if you want to make sure theres nothing in your health history to preclude doing this.
Start thinking in terms of g not mg, and buy the 1g capsuls, spread out the dosage to take some after each meal, then it doesnt seem like so much. Then it's just 5 capsuls at a time, for example.
Posts: 222 | From Santa Cruz Mountains, CA USA | Registered: Nov 2004
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IMO,Tom Grier's essay on vitamin C and some other vits, should be considered when deciding on using mega doses of vitamin C.
I believe that there are 'stages,' and/or times when it should NOT be taken in large doses, if at all. It has to do with causing brain macrophages(?) to start pumping out large quantities of quinolinic acid, a natural neuro-toxin intvit.he brain. vits. b6, and b2 implicated as well in Quin acid production.
vitb3, and minerals temporarily, at least, minimize the production of quin acid.
b3 has its own prcautions w/rt the liver,and, maybe the heart. In lyme, at least, there can be this and similar pardoxical effects.
posted
Thanks everyone, I appreciate all the advice. I am just sick of swallowing pills, especially big ones like the C.
Can someone tell me what the normal dosage is for vit. C? I am just going to stick with that I think, for a while, anyway. I just can't handle all these pills right now.
posted
Hi Sapphire, I take a powder form of Vit. c. If you mix it with warm water it tastes fine. We take Vitality C. 1 tsp. equals 4000 mg. of C. I have heard of people increasing doses til diarrhea sets in and than decrease slightly.We have never done that. My daughter with Lyme takes 4000 mg a day but I know that is not a vey high dose.
Posts: 488 | From NY | Registered: Oct 2004
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posted
I'm taking 12,000-16,000 mgs of vitamin c per day and suffer no ill effects from it. I don't know that you could 'overdose' on vitamin c.
Posts: 703 | From Almost Heaven | Registered: Aug 2004
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Vitamin C May Be A Life-Saver Mega-doses Can Counter Avian Flu, Hepatitis & Herpes, And Control Advance Of AIDS By Jane Feinmann The Independent - UK 4-14-5
Imagine that a deadly virus is sweeping the world, killing and maiming hundreds of thousands of children. Nothing seems able to stop it - until a doctor stands up at the American Medical Association and reports on 60 cases involving severely infected children, all of whom have been cured. Yet his work, subsequently reported in a peer-review journal, is ignored, leaving the virus to wreak havoc for decades.
This isn't a docudrama about some futuristic plague - it's a true story about what happened in June 1949 when polio was at its peak. Dr Frederick Klenner, a clinical researcher from Reidsville, North Carolina, reported that a massive intravenous dose of Vitamin C - up to 20,000mg daily for three days (today's recommended daily allowance is 60mg) - had cured 60 of his patients. The findings were published in a medical journal, yet there was virtually no interest. Apart from a couple of minor trials, no attempt was made to find out if they had any scientific substance.
Relating this curious incident in a new book, Vitamin C, Infectious Diseases & Toxins: Curing the Incurable, Dr Thomas Levy, a US cardiologist, admits to being gripped by a range of emotions when he came across Klenner's work and other studies that replicated it. "To know that polio had been easily cured yet so many people continued to die, or survived to be permanently crippled by it, was difficult to accept."
Levy argues that the medical profession has routinely ignored research showing that high doses of Vitamin C can combat bacteria, toxins and severe viral infections including avian flu, SARS, hepatitis and herpes. And this is not a case of doctors sniffing at anecdotal evidence from a handful of enthusiasts. "Vitamin C is possibly the best-researched substance in the world. There are more than 24,000 papers and articles on the authoritative clinical website, Medline. Yet virtually the all the evidence has been dismissed." Levy even claims that Aids can be controlled if a high enough dosage of Vitamin C is maintained.
This is not the first time doctors have had their cages rattled over the benefits of Vitamin C. The controversy has been simmering since 1753, when just a couple of sucks of a lime were shown to prevent scurvy. In the 1950s the chemist Linus Pauling, a double Nobel prize-winner, promoted the use of mega-doses of Vitamin C, but his research was rubbished by clinicians.
Recently, the anti-Vitamin C sentiment has grown. It has been blamed for causing the formation of kidney stones, and a study published in the journal Science in 2001 found that even 200mg doses of Vitamin C "facilitated the production of DNA-damaging agents associated with a variety of cancers". This finding was widely interpreted as proving that Vitamin C causes cancer.
Britain's Food Standards Agency recommends taking a maximum of 1,000mg of Vitamin C a day. But a directive going through the European Parliament aims to reduce this to less than 100mg in an attempt to harmonise dosages across the Continent. Despite being dubbed "illegal" by the advocate general of the European Court of Justice last week, the directive could still be passed.
The controversy has not put off consumers, many of whom take Vitamin C to ward off colds. The 1,000 mg capsule is the most popular single vitamin in Britain, with the 500mg version second.
Some people argue that we can get sufficient Vitamin C from a diet rich in fruit and vegetables, but Levy disagrees. The problem, he says, is that a genetic design fault makes us unable to synthesise our own Vitamin C. Levy claims that while recommended daily allowances of 60mg are enough to prevent the development of scurvy in otherwise healthy people, much higher levels are required to maintain health when an infection strikes. At such times, the body begins to "metabolise unusually large amounts of vitamin C, keeping stores so depleted that the recommended daily allowance will not even prevent many of the symptoms of scurvy from developing".
Levy claims that the reason why most animals stay healthy throughout their lives, while humans spend years coping with one or more chronic diseases, is that animals make their own Vitamin C. The wild goat, for instance, makes around 13,000mg a day, rising to 100,000mg when faced with life-threatening infectious or toxic stress, according to a 1961 study published in the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.
So, is Levy right? Should everyone be taking mega-doses every day and having intravenous infusions when they fall ill? Possibly.
Dr Rodney Adeniyi-Jones regularly gives 20,000mg doses to people with arterial disease and as part of a flu treatment protocol, describing its effects as "beneficial... but not miraculous". And Professor George Lewith of the Centre for Complementary and Integrated Medicine says that while Vitamin C is not a panacea, it does have clinical benefits depending on the dosage. "There may be doses that are therapeutic, while another dose may be damaging for the same condition. It is not a dose-response curve as with pharmaceuticals, and we need to be cautious until this is better understood."
But he also warns that: "Many of the [Vitamin C] trials have been badly done and what evidence exists is mixed. Both those in favour and against high doses frequently misinterpret the data."
Levy may well be seen to have an axe to grind, yet the evidence seems to support his view that apart from causing diarrhoea, mega-doses of Vitamin C are not toxic. He says that a series of studies published in leading journals have shown that, far from causing cancer, Vitamin C is a safe supplement for chronic cancer patients. Further large studies suggest that supplements do not put a normal person at greater risk of developing kidney stones.
According to Levy, the problem is not that people might take too much, but that they won't take enough - and thus won't get the desired effects. "There's a popular medical view that taking Vitamin C just makes expensive urine. Some of it is lost in urine, but the more you consume, the more stays in your body."
With a new book on the way claiming that Vitamin C deficiency is also a primary cause of cardiovascular disease, Levy cannot be accused of underselling his case. Nor can he overcome the fact that proper clinical trials are still desperately needed. Considering its overall safety, there appears to be no good reason why anyone with a chronic or acute health problem should not try, at the very least, a couple of week's regime of two or three 1,000mg tablets of Vitamin C a day.
Need to Know: So how much should you take?
* For a cold
Three 1,000mg doses a day, according to the campaign group Consumers for Health Choice.
* For flu
Although it's more serious, the viral load is similar, according to research, and taking up to 20,000mg a day could be beneficial.
* For shingles
Research has shown that this painful post-viral condition can be pretty well cured by an injection of 3,000mg of vitamin C. Taking four 1,000mg tablets orally for three days could be worthwhile as well.
* For a hangover
Taking 1,000mg daily in the week before a booze-up reduces stress on the liver. If you're drunk and want to look sober, a large dose of vitamin C will prevent drunken behaviour, according to a 1986 study, "Alcohol and Alcoholism".
* To maintain your health
A 1,000mg daily dose is regarded as safe by the Food Standards Agency, and adequate to keep sufficient vitamin C in the plasma and tissues. "We believe this is absolutely safe and definitely beneficial to people's health," says Sue Croft of Consumers for Health Choice.
�2005 Independent News & Media (UK) Ltd.
Posts: 245 | From connecticut, the lyme state | Registered: May 2004
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posted
i think i take over 30,000mg of vitamin C. i am posative it is safe because it is only a couple tablespoons of powder made from organic berries that are naturally the highest in C as well as some other citrus support. i dont even worry about the measurement beacuse i know it is safe. i take C from the synergy company.
this is from their site. i think its really important to take natural vitamin C. vitamin C is not just some synthetic acid, it is a whole package.
this is from the site I get my C from. im not sure they are the best but i am really pretty happy with what i am getting. i think it may have helped me too, which is really saying something because i am quite ill and very little helps me.
Is your vitamin C supplement really vitamin C?
Probably not! Ninety-nine percent of all vitamin C supplements are ascorbic acid, calcium ascorbate, magnesium ascorbate or potassium ascorbate. Despite marketing claims, these laboratory-produced molecules are not natural vitamin C -- far from it. They are chemically synthesized molecules manufactured in a test tube and often made from genetically modified corn sugar. These synthetic molecules mimic only one of the numerous life-supporting molecules found in 100% natural vitamin C.
In the 1930s, Dr. Szent-Gyorgi won the Nobel Prize in medicine for identifying vitamin C and all its many health benefits. Although he successfully isolated the molecule ascorbic acid in his research, his studies clearly demonstrated the vastly superior benefits of consuming foods rich in vitamin C. For this reason, even though he discovered ascorbic acid, he did not recommend its use! In fact, Dr. Szent-Gyorgi affirmed over and over again that the best results occurred when people consumed vitamin C in its natural food form.
Today, most of us are familiar with the many scientific studies demonstrating vitamin C's important health-enhancing and antioxidant benefits. What people may not know is that like Dr. Szent-Gyorgi's research, much of this research is conducted using foods high in vitamin C and not synthetic ascorbic acid supplements. This is a very significant distinction -- scientists and healthcare providers consistently emphasize the importance of obtaining all our nutrients from whole foods such as Pure Radiance C. The proven health benefits we all associate with vitamin C are actually created by the intricate interaction of numerous supportive co-factors found only in food, not in isolated, synthesized molecules. Test-tube vitamin C simply cannot re-create the magnificent synergy of whole-food vitamin C.
My llmd suggested I start taking Kirkman buffered vitamin c powder daily.
I got it in the mail today and here are the dosing directions:
I am to take 1/2 teaspoon every 2 hours.
When I notice stomach discomfort and/or diarrhea, I am to count up how many doses/teaspoons it took me to get to this point.
My daily dosage will be approximately 3/4 of this amount.
So, say I take 1/2 tsp. at 8:00, 10:00, 12:00, 2:00, 4:00, 6:00, and at that point begin having stomach issues. My dosage will be around 2 1/2 tsp. a day.
Right?
Feeling so fuzzy today, seems like every little thought process is a huge effort for me.
Posts: 423 | From Upstate NY | Registered: May 2009
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posted
has anyone seen their blood pressure drop from taking big doses? Mine's already very low so i'm very cautious around vit C- would love to do big doses if it would help me.
Posts: 116 | From Texas | Registered: Dec 2009
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posted
I'll let you know what it does to mine, learning. Today's the day I start and I have very low bp too.
Just took my 8:00 a.m. 1/2 tsp. dose(2200 mg.) and I'll continue every two hours till I feel awful...nice. Really looking forward to that.
Nevermind on my question about figuring out dosage yesterday. Seems very straightforward and clear this a.m. I have no idea why is seemed so daunting yesterday.
Posts: 423 | From Upstate NY | Registered: May 2009
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massman
Unregistered
posted
This post is NOT about vitamin C, it is about ascorbic acid.
In these cases it is a fraction of real C being used like a drug.
My understanding is that this post is about vitamin c/ascorbic acid and how much we should take. The title is "how much is too much vitamin c?".
Vitamin C = ascorbic acid, yes?
The ascorbic acid my llmd recommended is called buffered vitamin c powder, so that's what I've been calling it.
And this terminology bothers you because...?
Just took my 4th 1/2 teaspoon 2 hour dose of the day and am waiting for something to hit me. Exactly what I don't know. Nothing so far. Feeling pretty fine actually.
Posts: 423 | From Upstate NY | Registered: May 2009
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gwb
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 7273
posted
quote:Originally posted by massman: This post is NOT about vitamin C, it is about ascorbic acid.
In these cases it is a fraction of real C being used like a drug.
Please use the correct terminology.
Could you posts some links to what you would consider good vitamin C?
posted
Is it safe to take vitamin C on and off? I feel what maybe some sort of die off reaction and then I go off the C, anyone else do this? thanks, j
Posts: 268 | From new york city | Registered: May 2008
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massman
Unregistered
posted
"Vitamin C = ascorbic acid, yes?"
NO NO NO NO NO !
Ascorbic acid is a small part of naturally occurring C. There are many other parts in naturally occurring C.
If we use an orange as an example, how much real C (with ALL the naturally occurring parts) is in it ? Thousands of milligrams ? Tens of thousands ? NOPE.
Linus Pauling essentially said that God forgot to give us the ability to make Ascorbic acid. Guess that Linus talked to God a lot more than I did.
And the Pauling Institute told me (personal conversation with them) that the naturally occurring co-factors that are always there in natural sources DO NOTHING !
Then why are those co-factors ALWAYS THERE in natural sources ?
Was God bored that day ? Silly ? Goofy ?
Has anyone here EVER read "The Real Truth About Vitamins and Antioxidants" by Judith DeCava ?
Ascorbic acid is a fraction of Real C. And a fraction is a PART !
Because almost everybody calls ascorbic acid Vit C does THAT make it C ?
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posted
"Because almost everybody calls ascorbic acid Vit C does THAT make it C ? "
Well, no. Not because everyone says so. I actually thought they were pretty much one and the same from everything I've read. Or at least that ascorbic acid is what you take for vitamin c requirements.
Now you've got me confused.
What do you suggest one should look for on the label? No ascorbic acid? Is that not good?
And if my label says ascorbic acid, does it really matter anyway? I mean, if it says I'm getting 1100 mg. of vitamin c per 1/4 tsp. serving, then that's what I'm getting, right?
Why does it matter so much as long as you're getting the c?
Please 'splain.
Posts: 423 | From Upstate NY | Registered: May 2009
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massman
Unregistered
posted
You are not getting the always there naturally occurring co-factors. And if I recall correctly the AA acts as an outer protective shell. protecting the co-factors.
The AA is about 15% of the real C. The other 85% does NOTHING ? I feel that we cannot measure what the co-factors do, so those not so brilliant chem engineers do not allow themselves say "I do not know."
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