I just had some labs and I had my Vitamin C levels tested. My readings were 4.0 mg/dl and the range was 0.4 to 2.0. My diet is high in vitamin C and I also take daily supplement of 6 to 10 grams. Anyone aware of research showing that high blood levels of Vitamin C could be harmful?
Most forms of Vitamin C come as water soluble. Take more than your body processes/needs and you’ll pass the balance with your urine.
Outside of affecting some specific blood tests and the very rare mentions of kidney stones and iron retention, the more the better.
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6-10 grams is a lot. I was doing it for awhile and got a kidney stone. Take lots of citrate, and maybe lumbrokinase to avoid stones. I think vitamin K2 helps too.
Linus Pauling calculated total need is around 2.5 grams/day
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You can’t overdose vitamin C unless you take more than 10 grams a day (but it can be hard for kidney) but the problem may be that Vitamin C as antioxidant can lower longevity benefits from Rapamycin
Antioxidants decrease ROS which lowers expression of heat shock proteins and it lowers autophagy
Many antioxidants cancel lifespan effects of longevity interventions (at least in C Elegans and in mice)
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I’ve been taking Vit c regularly for past 15 years at doses 2gr-10gr daily and have not had any issues that I can tell. I always take it in combination with Lysine 2-6gr daily. I know for a fact that because of Vit C and Lysine, i have not contacted any of the Sars viruses or other cold viruses for last 15 years. Funny about timing of this question, just last week had cough and signs of flu (first time in 15 years). So, i thought oops so much for Vit c and Lysine which I always take daily. To my surprise it was the 100 day cough thing that is actually caused by a bacteria and NOT a virus. Clearly, the combination of Vit C and Lysine only has helped me against viruses, but it does NOT protect (at least in my case) against bacterial infections (this is second time I’ve had a bacterial infection in last 15 years that I’ve done Vit c and Lysine, but never a viral infection of any kind)
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I have not studied this a lot, but aiui taking vitamin c is best cycled. I take vm2000 (solgar) two days a week which has 300mg of vitamin c along with a wide range of micronutrients. My concernis that daily use of such would deactivate the bodys own systems of defence. I have, however, no anecdotal information on this.
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I hear you, and I do cycle all supplements (always do resting periods of 3-4 days on and 2-3 days off). I definitely can’t speak of any affect good or bad on longevity (for vit c and lysine) but I mainly take it to ward off viruses. The reason I hate the flu or cold is because for whatever reason when I used to get it (over 15 years ago) I would always be bedridden for up to 5-7 days, most horrible thing ever, chills, fever, vomiting, vertigo, and everything else. That is the only reason I take such high amounts of Vit c and Lysine, otherwise i would NOT take more than 1-2gr each daily. I think Johnson does take them both also at about 1-1.5gr daily.
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I’ve heard that excess vitamin C is simply excreted. So I don’t think any doses below 10 g a day should be worrisome. Now, whether or not a dose that large is beneficial is another story altogether.
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I think the issue is undermining NRF2- if the cells think they don’t need to exercise their endogenous anti-oxidants then this system is slightly switched off. It may even end up methylated.
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I know that is always said, but based on my experience it is not correct. I only get the benefit of not getting a cold or flu if i do over 4 grams daily (in flu season. Obviously i always take it together with Lysine). I wanted to come up with smallest dose possible and tried various doses such as 500mg, 1 gr, 2 gr etc. and all of them failed when at high risk of flu virus. For me only doses of 4gr (2+2 daily) and up worked well against flu which I take it to mean that my body does use the higher doses, otherwise I would see no difference than when I took lower doses. I think the medical field tends to generalize things a bit when they say things such as body will only use 500mgs of vit C daily etc… On this one I’m 100% sure that my body uses much more than 500mg.
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