8 Vitamin C Benefits (and Some Common Side Effects)

I took 6 mgs of Vitamin C last night in error. I picked up the wrong size of measuring spoon!!..luckily! I had been up the prior two nights coughing up mucus, but last night I slept through the night. I couldn't figure it out since I needed to take bendryl the other nights just to not choke on the mucus. It appears that the 6 mg of Vitamin C did it's job to replenish my Vitamin C and to help with my asthma.

I woke up with the usual morning junk to cough up and spit out. I took 1000 mg of vitamin C and it stopped this problem dead in it's tracks. People need to read about what vitamin C does, especially for people with Asthma and food allergies. Also, the baking soda should NOT be recommended on this site.

It depletes the Vitamin C. If someone is already low in Vitamin C it can cause Survy Symptoms as it did in me.

I love this site, but I think promoting Baking Soda that depletes Vitamin C is wrong. Also, I love Apple Cider Vinegar and it is promoted her as the top natural relief, but I never hear any talk of vitamin C. It works wonders for Asthma, Hay fever and a load of Respiratory illnesses and other illnesses.

The amount tends to vary a little depending on my needs, but always taken in smaller doses throughout the day.

I have used many expensive brands, including Ester C & Acerola but have not heard of nor used lypho-spheric vitamin C, and now only buy the inexpensive powder form of sodium ascorbate. If you use a lemon for something, instead of throughing out the peel, eat the pith (white part) and this way you are getting your bioflavanoids. If the lemon is organic you can also eat some of the yellow rind (not a great taste) as it contains limonene.

Having the pith most days and the sodium ascorbate, I have found this to work as well as any brands I've tried and better than most. I am very fortunate to have access to meyer lemons as the pith tastes quite nice.

I had a friend of mine who got a full body flu...he said he ached from head to toe...he was shivering and sweating a lot and looked very pale. I suggested that Vitamin C might help...to take 500mg every hour (if wake up a night = take another 500mg). He took the C with a little snack, like a cracker or small slice of bread...something to buffer his stomach from the acid. Within 24 hours all his symptoms were gone and didn't come back.

When I first notice symptoms of a cold coming on (slightly swollen throat or my nose starting to drip or pressure in head or just a feeling some kind of bacteria has gotten into the body), I immediately start the following:

If the symptoms are mild, I will take 500 to 1000mg Vitamin C powder (can also use capsules or tabs) every 2 hours. I sometimes add it to my Apple Cider Vinegar and Honey tea, or just with water or just before a meal...but I never take the C on an empty stomach.

If the symptoms are bad, I will take 500 to 1000mg C every hour.

What happens in the body is that when a person has a cold or flu, they tend to have to urinate more. When sick the body uses up Vitamin C very fast. Even if you take 5000mg or more in one shot, within 2 hours all of it will be gone through the urine. That's why it is so important to take it in smaller doses every hour or two.

I discovered this approach from Adelle Davis in her book Let's Get Well...it was published in the 1960s. I have been able to kill all cold and flu symptoms within about 24 hours for over the last 20 years...I have not had a full blown cold or flu since. The Keys are (1) start early when first get symptoms and (2) take the Vitamin C every hour or two until better.

It is virtually imposible to remove the shipping poisons from citrus which is naturally oily and disolves the hydrocarbon based poisons deep into the peel.

How about the new "grease' sprayed on apples-instant prolonged headaches. Be careful, watch everything you eat.

To make the ascorbate form from the ascorbic acid form in water, just add baking soda(Arm & Hammer is fine to use) until the fizzing stops and take each dose like that. This creates the alkaline form -- sodium ascorbate. Using baking soda will not interfere with absorption of Vitamin C -- in fact it helps absorption. This can be more clearly understood because the ascorbic acid form of Vitamin C is never used by IV(dangerous and acidifying for the blood) so that's why the the alkaline form is normally always used for Vitamin C by IV.

My doctor is F R Klenner. He died in 1984 and his vitamin therapy is used today around the world. You will find his papers on the internet. He has been given the AMA's highest recommendation, by blackballing his name and work for over 60 years. If you do not take at least 5 grams of ascorbic acid a day, you are in trouble or will be. Even a 140lb goat makes 5 grams a day in its liver and up to 60 grams a day when sick or injured. Goats also do no not ingest processed foods, sugars, oils and junk food and neither do I.

And to any women reading this... I tried hydrogen peroxide, acidophilus, folic acid etc to no avail.

Truly, I stuck half a 1000mg vitamin c tablet in my vagina and by the next day the classic bv odor and sticky discharge was gone. (rinsed the vitamin in hot water first to get off any lubricating coating).

If you've tried everything else, try this.

Good luck!

-Cut the peels into thin strips and lay them out on cheesecloth, or use a dehydrator to dry out the peels. After a few days, or when fully dry, put the dried peels into a coffee grinder to make into a powder. One spoonfull is said to be all you need for a whole day. Add the powder to your food or drinks, store in an airtight container.

You can use organic grapefruit, tangerines, oranges, lemons or limes. :-)

According to experiments, "In two normal young adults the rate of urinary excretion of ascorbic acid, during controlled conditions of vitamin C [ascorbic acid] depletion and saturation, was consistently lower during periods of administration of NaHCO3 to produce an alkaline urine, than when NH4C1 was given to produce an acid urine."

NaHCO3 is sodium bicarbonate, or baking soda. Vitamin C excretion was LOWER when baking soda was given, not higher as Elaine concluded from the fact that she had some bruising.

Baking soda helps one retain vitamin C.

As background info I am a 56 year old male who had a heart attack 18 months ago and had 2 stents placed at that time. I take simvastatin (Zocor generic statin drug) and 1 full aspirin daily. I cannot be certain what is the major benefit whether it is the stents, drugs, exercise, or the vitamin C and lysine mixture but I am feeling good and not had any problems since. My hunch though is that it's the vitamin C - lysine mixture and exercise that is helping quite a bit.

I plan to keep taking the vitamin C and lysine forever so I would like to find a way to cure the frequent urination problem. Thank you for any suggestions.

There is research to show that any benifit of a single large dose of vitamin C is significantly reduced in the human blood stream within 5 hours. Split your dose across your day at 4 hour intervals to maximize its benefits. This makes sense since most animals make their own vitamin C and have a continuous flow of it into their bloodstream rather than a big "hit" once a day. They also make even more than normal amounts of vitamin C to cope with stress or injury. Also spreading the supply across time as required allows the body processes that can use the extra vitamin to basically operate their processes continually rather than starting up when adequate vitamin C is available and then shutting down these processes a few hours later when supply is low.

FYI: Doctor Irwin Stone and Doctor Mathias Rath both worked with or corresponded with Doctor Linus Pauling on vitamin C and both of these men have written books on vitamin C and the heart. You can find both books free online.

Also, I'm not sure what caused your heart attack but you may be interested in research done by a man named Dr Max Gerson and his daughter Charlette. They have both been curing cancer, and many other ailments for over 70 yrs, by nurishing the body with what the body needs in order to regenerate. It might be worth looking into.

Wishing you all the best of luck. ~T~

My children usually get sick at the beginning of the spring and the beginning of fall... most likely allergies. They also usually get whatever sickness is going around school. For the last year, I've been successfully giving my 6 and 8 year olds 500 mgs of vitamin c under the recommendation from the Linus Pauling Foundation. They love the chewables (ascorbic acid). They havent gotten sick AT ALL in that time. Meanwhile, my 13 year old has gotten broncitis and pneumonia who refuses to take the vitamin c. I've been trying to get her to take the vitamin c but she is not big into the taste of the chewables and doesn't like taking pills. Everytime she gets sick, I try to reason with her that the other two are not getting sick anymore, and in fact, NONE of us are, so why is she the only one in our house getting sick?? It used to go from one of us to the next and the next like a domino effect. Now, it's just her.( My husband and I take 2000 mg of Vitamin C per day, also recommeded by the Linus Pauling Institute)

Me and my family started using ___after my five (5) year old son had a surgery for a Mesynteric augmental cyst that developed outside of his intestine as big as my son's fist. after the operation his pedia sugeon gave him this natural vitamin c. His wound which was about 4 inches long healed in just a matter of days. And also the best thing that happened to us with this vitamin c is that the recurrent asthmatic syndrome which my three kids usually experienced and made us visit the hospital almost every month was gone. Now they are more healthy than ever before. My sinusitis, arthritis, backpain, migrain as well as vertigo were gone. I am taking 2,000-6,000 mgs/day.When I share the product with my friends and relatives they claimed relief especialy when they under stress. I also share the product with my friend who was suffering from "psoriasis" i was truly amazed because she was relieved from the disease in just one week of taking 10,000 mgs/day of course with our company physician's advice.She suffered from this i should say depressing disease for over 10 years. I also share this particular vitamin c to many. My friend who is a hypertensive, it regulated her blood pressure by taking 3,000- 5,000 mgs/day. There are also a lot of people with heart disease who are saved from by-pass surgery because of this vitamin c. By the way, our company physician have been prescribing this vitamin c for more than five (5) years already and it helped a lot of hopeless people in our place especially those suffering from the dreaded cancer. For me vitamin c is very essential to every human forms. In fact, i consider this as the twin of our body becaue without this essential nutrient we will surely suffer from scurvy when our body doesn't get enough vitamin c. But we should be careful in choosing the kind of vitamin c. Better choose only the natural, non-acidic, alkaline vitamin c or eat a lot of alkaline forming fruits and vegetables. Sad to say, we don't get enough vitamin c from eating fruits and vegetables because of so many factors. That is why we need to take supplements.

i have naturally low stomach acid (hereditary) which has caused trouble all my life... I began taking plain Ascorbic Acid for flu, and it gave me symptoms of heartburn & reflux... so I buffered with Baking Soda to see what that might do- felt hesitant because of allready low HCl- but it did the trick. immediately began to recover from virus and not only that I NO LONGER HAVE ANY LOW HCL SYMPTOMS as long as I take about 1g Buffered-C daily. Seems that something in the combination has actually boosted my stomach acid production to something a lot more like Normal :) FWIW!

yet. we we met..maybe by God's grace...I've share to her the power of daily C that wvwn cancer patient will heal of it...becuase primarily it is anti- cancer and cardiovascular deases (CVD)... so let me to continue..

After few days. her husband...told me that there was something happened after she take daily C....first he told me that his wife's strentgth returned and her coughing stopped.

(bumalik ang kanyang lakas..at yong pag uubo at nya nawla..)

then she's able to walk even how long it is..then when i said to him...maintain to her the mega dosing of Daily C...take 5000 - 10000mg of daily C everyday... so few months...his wife is so energitic and thankful to me becuase the doctor told her that her sickness is alreldy going to heal... so I'm thankful to God that becuase of daily C...I've a lot of people enjoy..and insured of their lives...Becuase of DAILY C..(NON ACIDIC VIT. C)

What you are experiencing when you go cold-turkey on Vit C is nothing less than acute scurvy. The phenomenon is technically known as "rebound scurvy" in orthomolecular circles. The condition is temporary and can be dangerous if a patient's health is already extremely weak, and it is avoided precisely as you have indicated.

Rebound scurvy is also used as a natural means to cause miscarriages, and perhaps the most dependable and safest ways to do so. In involves taking massive doses for a few days (like 10-30 grams per day) then going completely cold turkey. Some have wrongly concluded that the Vitamin C causes the miscarriage, but it is in fact the rebound scurvy brought on by starving a body of this essential molecule after it has grown accustomed to use it up quickly and not conserve it.

Dear sirs. As much as I appreciate buffering of ascorbic acid with lets say sodium bicarbonate, a much better way has been devised by one Jan Hromada in Czech Republic, who has passed the information into public domain. Ascorbic acid being rather a strong acid quite readily replaces many other organic acids in fruits and also readily ties to red pigments, for example betanins.

Jan Hromada has found out through his keen observation and following research, that tomatoes are one of the ideal red vegetables for this purpose, even if they are not of the best quality.

When 5g of crystalline ascorbic acid is blended with one whole average field tomato, a person can digest at least 40g of ascorbic acid (spread through out a day) in this form without the usual consequences of ascorbic acid overdose. Well, at least I can and I am not alone. I found this form even more accetable than liposomal C form. I believe that this information will further help many people to appreciate what high oral dosing of vitamin C can do for them.

With kind regards, Slavek.

Linus Pauling, of Vit. C fame, wrote a forward to a 1982 book, The Healing Factor, by Irwin Stone. Older books often hold outstanding information. I found this book free, online, in its entirety.

What we call Vit. C is actually more of a neccesary nutrient / elemental co-factor / enzyme process. It has its own precursor to the formation of Vit. C, which actually then takes place within the body.

This originating substance is what they are calling the healing factor. This vital enzyme is called L-gulonolactone oxidase, and it converts glucose into Vit. C within the body.

We lack the gene, or it has mutated, that allows us to simply produce Vit. C all by itself, as most animals do. So, we need the outside food sources to set this process in motion. And it is not merely something with a minumum daily requirement... Enough to keep us from the edge of death by scurvy... But a great deal more is required in order to actually restore us to health. Virtually the whole world is on the bare edge of scurvy!

I was shocked to read the symptoms of scurvy, and compare them with my own presenting probems. By my reading I have determined, based on all my symptoms, that I have been suffering wih a chronic, medium-grade, scurvy.

The deep bone ache and numbness in my legs, the bloodshot dry eyes, blood in stools, broken blood vessels causing red hands and neck, poor circulation, and the list went on and on.

I had been to top level neurologists at Kaiser, only to find that their initial diagnosis of peripheral neuropathy was proven wrong. That was all they could say.

I simply could not believe how much better I feel already, just 24 hours into a four-day high-dose run, to redress my longstanding, and deep, Vit. C deficiency. Smashing success! Healing miracles!

A word to the wise is sufficient. Blessings. --T.

I take MANY grams of vitamin C every day, and have to take ascorbic acid powder (I put it in capsules because it will dissolve your teeth, as it did my parents') -- I cannot tolerate the sodium in sodium ascorbate, and neither that nor calcium ascorbate or others "pack enough punch" to do what I need, which is to stop edema. I just want to say here that over the years of taking ascorbic acid powder I have checked different sources and noticed that when GMO corn became prevalent (I think it was in the 1990s) I ran into ascorbic acid powder that gave me stomach aches, and had to seek out sources that claimed to be purified of all traces of corn -- Nutribiotic brand USED TO be made in the US and claimed like "16 stages of purification" on its label, with a big NO GMO sign. For a couple of years now, however, it is apparently mfrd in China, so I am wary, but it seems ok for me -- but Bronson makes a powder that seems the same to me, and is considerably cheaper.

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by Daniel P. Kray, Senior Editor
Published June 22, 2011

We like Vitamin C for a lot of things, from prevention to post-infection treatment. That's why we're concerned about the popularity of certain hyped Vitamin C products. A natural cold and flu remedy would be great, but what sort of extra baggage is hitching a ride on these packs of Vitamin C supplements? Turns out, a pair of unnecessary ingredients, aspartic acid (or asparagine) and sucralose, are often tagging along. You may have to look into the fine print of the ingredients list, but you'll be surprised at how often they show up.

L-aspartic acid is one of our non-essential amino acids. The body makes it, so we don't need to get it from our diets. We definitely need it for energy creation, nerve function, and a host of other bodily activities. But like most good things, too much can be bad. In excess, aspartic acid becomes an excitotoxin, revving the neurons and nervous system up so high that nerve damage can be a result. In effect, excitotoxins cause our neurons to die from excitement!

In fact, if the facts behind Aspartame make you uncomfortable, aspartic acid is a large part (40%) of the reason. In our bodies, this artificial sweetener breaks down into phenylalanine, methanol, and aspartic acid. Methanol is just plain toxic, but the overdose of amino acids can likewise do great harm. Sucralose (Splenda) is of course much the same thing as Aspartame-an artificial sweetener. This one mostly passes out of the body without being metabolized, but some 15-20% does not pass out of the body immediately. Since sucralose is an organochloride (an organic chlorine compound), many of us are justifiably concerned about the possibility of introducing free chlorine molecules into our bloodstream and tissues. Makes you nostalgic for good old belly-expanding glucose!

Since the liver can produce aspartic acid whenever bodily levels are low, we never experience true aspartic acid deficiencies, so there is no need to get it through supplements. Easy then, we won't take aspartic acid supplements. That is, unless we don't know it's there in our other supplements! Now, weight lifting supplements often contain aspartic acid along with a medley of the other amino acids, so there is an issue there. However, for the Earth Clinic community we're more concerned about products like Ester-C (the brand) and Emergen-C, both of which add aspartic acid to their Vitamin C supplements. Just check out the Other Ingredients on the fine print on this ingredients list to see for yourself.

Products advertised as energy boosters frequently contain aspartic acid, as do whey powder products. Airborne and Super C Vitamin C products do not seem to use aspartic acid (please do not read that as a general endorsement); however, Airborne and Super C do contain sucralose as a sweetener, as do FRS Healthy Energy products.

Additionally, you're likely to find aspartic acid in these products:

• Various collagen formulas
• _____ Liquid Aminos
• Many potassium-magnesium supplements
• Many folic acid tablets
• Many lipoic acid supplements
• Many Nature's Plus products
• Some Solgar vitamin supplements
• Some Nutritech supplements

Now, plenty of foods naturally contain aspartic acid as well, and the body is happy to find it there. It is nature-made, not man-made (unlike sucralose). We don't want to alarm anyone, just let you know what you're potentially putting in your body. Toxic levels of this amino acid are definitely possible, so take a look at your supplement labels and make the best choice for your own health.

The following Earth Clinic reader contributions (and a note from Ted) should help you make the decision that is right for you.

Vitamin C and Excitotoxins

Catherine from Seattle, WA writes: "I was fighting a sinus infection last week after landing in California and went to a Whole Foods to get some Vitamin C. I decided to get Emergen-C to add to water because it had a really tempting fruity flavor. Immediately after taking my first packet (which was delicious), I felt a weird sensation in my head and then I got really edgy (as in bad mood edgy). I read the ingredients on the box and sure enough, the vitamin C used in this brand is Aspartic acid, an excitotoxin. The Emergen-C also contained "natural flavors", aka MSG. I waited 24 hours and tried again to see if I would have the same side effects. Again, within a minute of drinking the packet, I got the same sensation in my head. My question is, are you doing more good or harm to the body when you take this form of vitamin c?!!"

Ted from Bangkok, Thailand replies: "Aspartic acid is a well known excitotoxin and so is monosodium glutamate or MSG. In the long run it's going to destroy the immune system through a neurodegenerative disorder. Once the excitotoxin is destroyed the immune system is down. Now in a pharmaceutical formulation adding this results in the need to take that since you get sicker and so you might feel some relief, the long term is it's going to make a person sicker, which result in greater sales for product with excitotoxins added. Now imagine a child who is a borderline autism, ADHD, these can result in many other neurodegenerative disorders and metabolic acidosis. As for me decades ago I took accidentally soft drinks with aspartame resulting in deafness, but also a permanent partial macular degeneration of the eyes. So the systematic destruction is almost wholesale if given long term use. Luckily Emergen C is not sold in Thailand, although some friends of mine have given me this, I don't take it. I prefer to buy bulk vitamin C and mix them myself. There are other excitotoxins, but aspartic acid, aspartame, monosodium glutamate, and glutamic acid are the most well known...

Therefore most effervescent products sometimes they are not labeled so I ended up calling the factory sometimes. One easy way to measure excitotoxin poisoning is that the urinary pH suddenly become very acid, such as pH 5.5 or lower and even taking more baking soda barely raise the pH long enough to be satisfactory. Such as it can't raise the pH for the entire day. It also takes weeks for the pH to be near normal after taking b complex and baking soda for a week or two. A long term taking of this can also resulted in higher urinary sugar and damaged pancreas, besides damaging the brain. One of the worse advertisement I have seen is Michael J. Fox supporting Diet Pepsi, which contains aspartame, and he himself has Parkinson's disease, which will make such conditions much worse. The remedy is not to take aspartame for Parkinson's disease or to undergo stem cells, since it's not yet legal at the moment and stem cell research has been blocked for at least 8 years. Methylene blue taken at 2 drops at 0.1% concentration might reverse some of the effects of excitotoxins as it is one of my remedies for Parkinson's disease also.

Taking excitotoxins is a long term damage that may lead to degenerative disorders, metabolic acidosis, and lowered immune system. Therefore I would avoid them as best as I can.

Ted"

Supplements Brought on Rage

Wes from Webster, TX writes: "I'm 220 and work out almost everyday. I started taking 2000mg of vitamin C. Ester C tablets. A few days later I noticed I was very easily enraged. I did this for about 4 weeks and decided it wasn't worth it. I recently started taking and animal pack vitamin package. After taking for several days I noticed the same effect. Read the ingredient 2000 mg Vitamin C. So I stopped taking it. Is there anyway to counteract the aggressiveness. IE some other vitamin."

Christine replies: "This afternoon, I visited your site and noted a comment by a reader who said that Ester C made him enraged. It's not the Vitamin C, it's the aspartic acid in the Ester C product. I verified this with an aspartame activist. Aspartic acid is an excitotoxin, a poison that kills brain cells. Yep, it's the same stuff as in aspartame. All of the studies done on Vitamin C were done with sodium ascorbate, which is a type of chemically buffered Vitamin C. It's best to take it as a powder in water, because you can get gastritis if you take too many pills."

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We found a site called doctoryourself. Com, and followed his advice about taking vitamin C, and she is cured after only about 3 weeks. Thank you for the opportunity to comment. Be blessed in your efforts to aid in healthy remedies.

The rudimentary rule and equation for buffering is here:

Acid plus Base = Salt plus Water

Thus the citric and ascorbic acids are converted to their alkaline salts -- citrates and ascorbates -- which do not taste sour. Because these acids are converted to salts this does not erode your teeth and it tastes less sour when you drink it.

Just add baking soda to the fresh orange juice until the fizzing stops and then drink it -- very similar to the process of adding baking soda to ascorbic acid to just create ascorbates. You will be drinking the citrates and ascorbates in solution and not their acid forms which is far kinder on your digestive system. This method also causes less stomach upset and less diarrhia because its not so acid. It's also been my experience that your intestines can absorb far more ascorbates than ascorbic acid in your intestines for this reason.

This buffering process is exactly the same when you add sufficient sodium bicarbonate to lemon or lime juice(Ted's Alkalizing Remedy). Same result -- alkaline salts which are more easily absorbed in the intestines.

You should also be able to add extra ascorbic acid to the orange juice then just buffer it all as normal with the sodium bicarbonate. Quite safe.

The best way to take ACV is combined with Baking Soda (Arm and Hammer brand), recipe given here:

Ted's ACV Acid Reflux Remedy

It seems that you might also have certain food intolerances -- read Ted's remedy suggestions here:

Food Intolerance Remedies