I've been talking with some people about vitamin C lately, and I thought it a good idea to share some of this information with others. Vitamin C is a fascinating element that is very important to good health.

Sailors used to get sick on long voyages until they discovered they could solve the problem by sucking on limes. That's why they came to be know as limeys. It turns out that the problem was a lack of vitamin C. They called it scurvy.

The symptoms of scurvy include a feeling of weakness, restlessness, rapid exhaustion and sallow skin. A vitamin C deficiency can also cause muscle pain, depression and hemorrhaging of muscles and tissues. In later stages a patient will exhibit extreme exhaustion, kidney and pulmonary problems, as well as diarrhea, which consequently leads to death.

Most mammals have an enzyme that allows them to synthesize their own vitamin C. Irwin Stone researched vitamin C for about 30 years, and discovered that humans, chimps, fruit bats, and guinea pigs do not have such an enzyme and therefore must get vitamin C (ascorbic acid) in their diets.

Through studying the amount of vitamin C that other mammals naturally make, Stone calculated that humans should get between 1.4 to 4 grams of vitamin C daily.

While 10 milligrams is enough to keep most people from getting scurvy, it is suggested that we get much more. Why be at death's door?

Another interesting thing is that vitamin C is not stored in the human body for very long. So we must have a regular intake of it. Fortunately we get vitamin C from just about all fruits and vegetables. Of course some are much greater sources than others.

Vitamin C is essential for the development and maintenance of blood vessels and cartilage. It is also necessary to allow the body to use fats in the production of energy. It is one of the best antioxidants that you can get. Stress in the body always lowers levels of vitamin C. It is necessary for the balance of the nervous system and the hormonal systems of the body.

Vitamin C has been found to be much more effective than over-the-counter cold and flu remedies.

An important consideration is that vitamin C does not work alone. If you take only ascorbic acid you won't get nearly the benefit of eating whole foods that contain ascorbic acid. For instance, an orange also contains fiber, B vitamins, vitamin A, potassium and calcium as well as phytonutrients. These all work together to boost the efficiency of the vitamin C in doing its work as an antioxidant. The B vitamins in particular seem to go hand in hand with helping vitamin C to do its job.

So, as in most cases, getting your vitamins from whole foods is much better than just taking a supplement.

However, in some cases, taking high doses of vitamin C supplements can be helpful. It is one of the very few substances that I would recommend as a supplement in cases of disease.

Linus Pauling was another biochemist, a Nobel prize winner, who after meeting with Irwin Stone, got fascinated with the study of vitamin C. He started using 3 grams per day. He noticed great health improvement. After more study he thought that people should take larger amounts than Stone had suggested. He said that people would enjoy greater health if they got between 4 to 10 grams of vitamin C daily.

Pauling proceeded to living the next 28 years of his life taking larger than normal doses of vitamin C. He generally took 10 grams daily. In later life he actually increased that amount to 18 grams a day.

Pauling had had Bright's disease at age 40. It was considered terminal with no cure at that time. He kept it under control with a special low salt, low protein diet until he met Stone. He was 65 when he met Irwin Stone and became convinced of the importance of vitamins and started to take extra vitamin C. He lived to be 93 years old. He did have pancreatic cancer when he died, but he was 93 years old. Those who try to detract from Pauling's work will often point out that he died of cancer, without mentioning that he lived so long in spite of the disease. I wonder how long Linus Pauling would have lived if he had actually used even higher doses as his theories eventually led others to do.

Another idea that came from Linus Pauling was that if vitamin C were taken in large enough doses, the antioxidant properties would take care of most diseases. One of the interesting things about this theory is that it can actually be tried, because even very large amounts of vitamin C in the human body are not toxic. The best calculations they can make for what might be a toxic level comes out to 11.9 grams per kilogram of body weight. In other words, if you weigh 110 pounds you could take 595 grams of vitamin C daily before it would become toxic to you. That is 595,000 milligrams.

Long before you get to that level of intake your body will let you know when it has more vitamin C than it wants. You will develop diarrhea. Linus Pauling and others who follow his line of thinking will tell you that that is the best way to determine how much vitamin C you could use to fight whatever disease you might be fighting. Gradually increase your daily dose until you start to get a loose stool, then back off a little on your dosage to a point where you don't have diarrhea. As your health improves that level will continue to drop.

If you ask the medical establishment about high doses of vitamin C to treat things like cancer, they will tell you that three studies were done with high doses of vitamin C and cancer patients and there was no benefit shown. What they don't tell you is that those studies called 10 grams of vitamin C high doses. Yes, that is higher than most people take daily, but that can't really be called a high dose if you realize that estimates for optimum daily recommended doses for people without cancer go that high. Those who promote the use of high doses of vitamin C, see 10 grams as a small beginning dose. It is a level to start at and then begin increasing the dosage up to the bowel tolerance level.

Many people claim to have been helped by higher doses of vitamin C. There are doctors that successfully treat cancer patients with almost nothing but vitamin C. Also many athletes will take extra vitamin C after a hard work out to cut down on the aches and pains that can follow a hard work out. It has been used to get relief from everything from the common cold to arthritis to cancer to stress.

If you decide to try high doses of vitamin C supplementation there are a few more things that you should know. Vitamin C has a very short half-life in the human body. It's half-life is about 30 minutes. That means that every half hour the amount of vitamin C in your body is cut in half. Because of this you should break up your daily dose into smaller doses to be taken at intervals through out the day. A good way to do this is take a smaller dose every four hours during the day.

IMPORTANT: You don't want to use straight ascorbic acid if you are planning to take high doses of vitamin C, because all that acid will cause problems in your stomach. For high doses you want to use the ascorbate form of vitamin C, or calcium ascorbate. This is a buffered form of vitamin C that won't cause the tummy problems.

Also you need to be aware that if you are on high doses of vitamin C for very long, your body gets used to having the high dose so that if you should stop using it suddenly your body could possibly show some of the symptoms of scurvy. So if and when you decide to come off of high doses of vitamin C, just decrease the dose gradually down to what ever level you have determined to come down to.

I only recommend high doses of vitamin C if you have a specific health problem that you are trying to deal with, and only in connection with a diet of healthy natural foods (generally raw). The better your diet, the lower your intake of vitamin C needs to be. The other nutrients in good raw foods will actually help to regenerate and recycle vitamin C in your body.

I used high dose vitamin C after being diagnosed with cancer. My cancer wasn't diagnosed until it was already in stage 4 and I only had a few months of life left if I continued on the same course I was on at that time. I went through very heavy doses of chemotherapy. I started the high doses of vitamin C even before my first chemotherapy appointment. I believe that the vitamin C helped greatly in my recovery. I had much less problem with the side effects of chemotherapy than many of the other patients that I visited with in the cancer clinic. The doctor and nurses were amazed at how quickly I recovered.

I only increased my vitamin C usage up to about 60 grams a day. Many cancer patients can go as high as 200 or more grams per day, but I was also working hard to eat a very healthy diet.

I can never over-emphasize the importance of healthy lifestyle. It can make all the difference in the enjoyment of your life.

Just eat a high quality natural foods diet, exercise, drink plenty of good clean water, make sure you get fiber (whole raw foods), get plenty of sleep, breathe deeply and have a gratitude attitude.

Your body will take care of you, if you take care of it.

Coach G.

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Success in health comes from lifestyle described here.

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Tags: ascorbate, ascorbic, ascorbic acid, health, high doses, Irwin Stone, Linus Pauling, vitamin c

Catagories: Antioxidants, Cancer, How To, Solutions, Vitamins, Warnings, lifestyle