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Thread: Vitamin C

  1. #1
    Founder Sheila's Avatar
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    Vitamin C

    Here are assorted notes I took when researching megadose Vitamin C in August 2011.


    Caveats -- Everyone has a unique situation in w/d. Some people are super-sensitive to supplements. Others are not sensitive at all. I have been somewhere in the middle. I was 5 1/2 years out when I went up to about 6,000 mg Vit. C. And 6 1/2 years out when I went up further. Generally, the slower you taper up in dosage, the better. I found information on megadose Vit. C for many illnesses, but none for neurological disorders, and, therefore, none for dysautonomia. While you might find your bowel tolerance for Vit. C to be very high, you might find your dysautonomia limits how much you can handle. :(

    If you're going to try high dose Vit. C, you have to take very many small doses throughout the day and night, or you'll pee it out unused. I'm using Trader Joe's "sustained release" pills, because I think that might help a bit with the problem of peeing out Vit. C before you can use it.

    There is some research on Vit. C and neurological stuff. If you come across a good article, please post it.


    My Vit. C history --

    -- When I went up to about 2000 mg / day Vit C many years ago, my incidence of colds went way down to about one per winter. Stayed this way, until mid-w/d, when I decided to switch to whole food Vit. C, which was so expensive, that I went way down to 300 mg / day which is equvalent to about 600 mg / day of artificial ascorbic acid. Started to get colds.
    -- Mid-2010, inadvertently went up to 6,000 mg Vit C only because it came attached to the Quercetin I was taking for severe hayfever. Got no cold winter of 2010. Also, saw improvement in w/d symptoms -- anxiety decreased, cognitive functioning improved.
    -- 8 Aug 11 -- I got the brainstorm to try real megadose Vit. C. I went up quickly to 26,000 mg / day because I'm an impatient nincompoop. However, I tolerated it remarkably well. Some diarrhea and gas, but worth it if it was going to help me heal.
    -- 18 Aug 11 -- I decided Vit. C was having a quasi-steroidal effect on me -- it works on cortisol and adrenaline -- I was having intense irritability, shoulders feeling stronger, muscle repair in legs, voracious appetite, difficulty sleeping. Barbara, who has never been exposed to psych meds, and tapered quickly up to 11,000 mg Vit. C, noticed very similar effects on her, but milder, and for her they abated.
    -- 20 Sep 11 -- I have slowly backpedalled to 10,000 mg in response to the "steroidal" / dysautonomic problems. But, I am now way below bowel tolerance. So, whereas with other illnesses, you only have to consider bowel tolerance, with our ailment, you have to consider the activating effect. I may try tapering up more slowly again, because, really, I did it too fast for someone with dysautonomia. ;)


    Assorted notes --

    -- Linus Pauling was the only person to win two unshared Nobel Prizes, second awarded for 1962, but given in Oct 1963 on day nuclear test ban treaty signed.
    -- ray34iyf and Mixter on pp experimented with high dose Vit. C -- second half 2010
    -- Altostrata has reported noticeable anxiety relief from low dose Vit. C

    -- The Mood Cure -- p. 111 -- Vit C counters adrenal depletion, very good at mega, even IV doses for detox, sometimes completely takes care of benzo w/d


    http://www.vitamincfoundation.org/faq.shtml
    http://www.orthomed.com/titrate.htm
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_C_megadosage
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abram_Hoffer
    http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=252375
    http://www.heal-me.com.au/vitc-project.html
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scurvy -- Vit. C not linked to scurvy until 1932!!! Wiki -- The knowledge that consuming foods containing vitamin C is a cure for scurvy has been repeatedly rediscovered and reforgotten into the early 20th century (Cegłowski 2010).
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_C


    -- you need and can tolerate much more Vit C if you are sick or stressed
    -- take Vit C to bowel tolerance
    -- all mammals manufacture Vit C, except us

    -- Pauling took 12,000 mg per day regularly; 40,000 when fighting a cold; lived to 93
    -- Everything Pauling thought is being vindicated slowly, including recently
    -- Vit C more important for brain and eyes than we realized
    -- We are all chronically deficient; heart disease is the result of lifelong deficiency; people would die less of leukemia if they weren't dying of severe Vit C deficiency
    -- Vit C counters excess hormones
    -- mega-dose Vit C helps Alzheimers

    -- People use Vit C to enhance drug trips, or mellow drug trips -- Erowid
    -- Vit C helps with paranoia and adrenal depletion on LSD trips
    -- Vit C reduces neurotoxicity and serotonin depletion caused by MDMA
    http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/mdma...article3.shtml

    -- More than 99.99% of animal species synthesize vitamin C (ascorbic acid) on average, adjusted for body weight, 5400 mg daily.
    -- An indication of the importance of vitamin C to eyesight is the fact that the concentration of vitamin C in the vitreous humor (the clear liquid in the eyeball) is about twenty-five times our serum level (the level in our blood), the retina 100 times.
    -- The adrenal glands use more Vit. C than any other part of the body.

    -- Cathcart: "Maintenance doses are established by the patient taking bowel tolerance doses 6 times a day for at least a week. He observes if there is any unexpected benefit such as clearing of sinuses, decrease in allergies, increase in energy, etc. Should any chronic problem be benefitted, then the dose is decreased to the minimum amount producing the effect. Otherwise a dose such as 4 to 10 grams a day divided in 3 to 4 doses is recommended. "

    -- Abram Hoffer, father of orthomolecular psychiatry, Wiki: "He hypothesised that schizophrenics may lack the ability to remove a hallucinogenic metabolite adrenochrome from their brains and speculated that he could decrease the concentration of adrenochrome in the brain by using vitamin C to reduce adrenochrome to adrenaline and using niacin as a methyl acceptor to prevent the conversion of noradrenaline into adrenaline. Hoffer called his theory the 'adrenochrome hypothesis'....Hoffer theorized that adrenaline, when oxidized to adrenochrome was an endogenous neurotoxin that could cause schizophrenia."

    -- So, if depletion of vitamin C causes excess production of cortisol, then it stands to reason that supplementation of vitamin C can reduce excess cortisol production and its associated destructive effects. This connection between stress and cortisol, and vitamin C, has been the focus of a great deal of research.

    -- You could eventually develop what is essentially scurvy of the adrenal glands from chronic anascorbemia (Cathcart). He thinks "chronic sub-clinical scurvy" is epidemic.
    -- Vit. C is probably epigenetic (Cathcart).

    -- Symptoms of Scurvy (Wiki) -- Early symptoms are malaise and lethargy. After 1–3 months, patients develop shortness of breath and bone pain. Myalgias may occur because of reduced carnitine production. Other symptoms include skin changes with roughness, easy bruising and petechiae [broken capillaries and lots of vein bumps] , gum disease, loosening of teeth, poor wound healing, and emotional changes. Dry mouth and dry eyes similar to Sjögren's syndrome may occur.

    -- Saying you only need 10 mg of C a day to prevent scurvy and the rest of the C is useless is probably analogous to saying "junk DNA" is useless just because we don't know what it does, and dark matter and energy are useless because we don't know what they do. Failure of imagination.

    -- Cathcart -- I think it is only that excess amount of ascorbate not absorbed into the body which causes diarrhea; what does not reach the rectum, does not cause diarrhea.

    -- It is interesting to know, when one speculates on the exact cause of this diarrhea, that while a hypertonic solution of sodium ascorbate is being administered intravenously, the amount of ascorbic acid tolerated orally actually increases.

    -- Cathcart -- Tolerance doses must be maintained until the patient senses he is completely well, or the symptoms will recur.

    -- 99% of mammals manufacture their own Vit. C. We don't. "...animals that make vitamin C on their own, make enormous amounts. Rats, for example, produce 70 mg/kg each day, which for an average human adult would work out to be 5-15 grams (5000 – 15000 mg) each day."

    -- Vit C can reverse cognitive dysfunction observed in rats with seizures as well as decrease neuronal injury in rat hippocampus. Arq Neuropsiquiatr. 2010 Aug;68(4):579-85.
    Neuronal damage and memory deficits after seizures are reversed by ascorbic acid? Tomé Ada R, Feitosa CM, Freitas RM.

    -- Vit C prevents damage from compression-type brain injury. J Cereb Blood Flow Metab. 2010 Jun;30(6):1121-36. Epub 2010 Jan 6. Ascorbic acid prevents blood-brain barrier disruption and sensory deficit caused by sustained compression of primary somatosensory cortex. Lin JL, Huang YH, Shen YC, Huang HC, Liu PH.
    Meds free since June 2005.

    "An initiation into shamanic healing means a devaluation of all values, an overturning of the profane world, a peeling away of inveterate handed-down notions of the world, liberation from everything preconceived. For that reason, shamanism is closely connected with suffering. One must suffer the disintegration of one's own system of thought in order to perceive a new world in the higher space."
    -- Holger Kalweit

  2. #2
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    Wow, Sheila...great info all in one place thanks so much!

  3. #3
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    Vitamin C

    For some time now, I've been taking high amounts of Vitamin C (mostly from natural sources). Months back, I had those continuous infections, colds, etc., but, knock on wood, it's improved. Of course, it could partly be b/c I am in the next stage of WD, but I am also strongly convinced that Vitamin C has helped a lot. It's really worth trying.
    Keep walking. Just keep walking.

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    i just eat 3 orange juice(once a week); i hate chemical C
    i do not know if it helps me, but it cannot worse me

  5. #5
    Founder Sheila's Avatar
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    I have seen a clear difference in how many colds I get per year depending on how much Vit. C I take. Vit. C is also used by the adrenals more than by any other part of the body. And our adrenals are depleted. I developed adrenal pain several years into w/d due to the chronic stress, and it went away when I raised my Vit. C
    Meds free since June 2005.

    "An initiation into shamanic healing means a devaluation of all values, an overturning of the profane world, a peeling away of inveterate handed-down notions of the world, liberation from everything preconceived. For that reason, shamanism is closely connected with suffering. One must suffer the disintegration of one's own system of thought in order to perceive a new world in the higher space."
    -- Holger Kalweit

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    Luc you said "next stage" of w/d. It has stages????

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    I merged this thread with the older "Vitamin C" thread. There is some really good info in the previous one.
    Keep walking. Just keep walking.

  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by grandmaD View Post
    Luc you said "next stage" of w/d. It has stages????
    It all depends on the way each of us reacts to the drugs in general, how long we were taking them, and many other things. In some cases though, the common denominator is that, even if the symptoms fluctuate, changing in their intensity and texture, they improve on average - the worst, and the most hellish, akathisia/obsessive thoughts/panic attacks-type stage eventually morphes into a less painful one. Then in the less painful, and so on, getting closer and closer to the point of healing. It doesn't, of course, happen in all cases. Some improve much faster than others. I'm, personally, one of those long-termers for whom recovery takes longer...
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    Vitamin C Protects Against Osteoporosis By Preventing Bone Loss, Mouse Study Shows

    Huff Post
    14 Oct 12

    Vitamin C may have protective effects osteoporosis, according to a new study in mice.

    If replicated in people, the findings could have "profound public health implications," study researcher Dr. Mone Zaidi, M.D., a professor and director of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine Bone Program, said in a statement. "What this study shows is that large doses of vitamin C, when ingested orally by mice, actively stimulate bone formation to protect the skeleton. It does this by inducing osteoblasts, or premature bone cells, to differentiate into mature, mineralizing specialty cells."


    The PLoS ONE study was conducted in two sets of mice -- one group had had their ovaries removed, a procedure that is known to decrease bone mineral density. The other had "sham" ovary removal surgeries, so their bone mineral density was not decreased.

    Then, the researchers split up the mice that had their ovaries removed into two groups. One group received a large amount of vitamin C over an eight-week period, while the other was not.

    Researchers found that the mice that had had their ovaries removed but were not given vitamin C had lower bone mineral density than those that received the vitamin C.

    Plus, the mice that had their ovaries removed and took the vitamin C had similar bone mineral density levels as the mice that had the sham ovary removals, according to the study.

    However, the researchers noted that more studies must be done to see if the findings also apply to humans. But "if so, the findings could be ultimately useful to developing nations where osteoporosis is prevalent and standard medications are sparse and expensive," Zaidi said in the statement.

    In 2008, a study from Tufts University showed a link between high vitamin C and less bone loss in elderly men, though the results were not seen in women, WebMD reported.

    The researcher of that Journal of Nutrition study, Katherine L. Tucker, Ph.D., told WebMD that vitamin C's powers may come from its antioxidant effects: "Antioxidants are needed to protect against oxidative stress, therefore protecting against inflammation. Inflammation drives bone resorption, which is basically taking calcium away from the bones. Vitamin C, theoretically, should help slow that resorption."



    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/1...6pLid%3D220717
    "You must have chaos within you to give birth to a dancing star." -- Nietzsche

  10. #10
    Founder Luc's Avatar
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    One great reason more to up the daily dose of Vitamin C. Really nice info, Barbara!
    Keep walking. Just keep walking.

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