File this under “if a little bit is good, a lot isn’t necessarily better:” taking high-dose vitamin C appears to double a man’s risk of developing painful kidney stones. In an article published yesterday in JAMA Internal Medicine, Swedish researchers detail a connection between kidney stone formation and use of vitamin C supplements among more than 23,000 Swedish men. Over an 11-year period, about 2% of the men developed kidney stones. Those who reported taking vitamin C supplements were twice as likely to have experienced the misery of kidney stones. Use of a standard multivitamin didn’t seem to boost the risk. The average man needs 90 milligrams (mg) of vitamin C a day; the average woman 75 mg. The vitamin is important for making and repairing connective tissue, skin, and bones. It also helps the body absorb iron. Good food sources include red peppers, papaya, and citrus fruits. Vitamin C supplements can deliver 10 times or more of the daily requirement. In part because of the tireless but misguided efforts of Nobel laureate Linus Pauling and others, many people believe that extra vitamin C can prevent colds, supercharge the immune system, detoxify the body, protect the heart, fight cancer, and more.
To date, though, the evidence doesn’t support claims that extra vitamin C is helpful. Despite that, vitamin C represents the biggest single category of vitamin and mineral sales; Americans bought more than $200 million worth of it last year. The Swedish study isn’t the first to link vitamin C with kidney stones. A similar connection was observed in men by Dr. Gary C. Curhan and colleagues at the Harvard School of Public Health. Curiously, in an almost identical study in women, Curhan’s team didn’t find any association between vitamin C intake and kidney stones. Kidney stones form for a variety of reasons. Genes matter, as do gender (men get them more than women), weight (obesity boosts the risk), and diet (eating a lot of animal protein, not drinking enough fluids). The most common type of stone is a mixture of calcium and oxalate, a substance found in many foods. Some people break down vitamin C into oxalate, which may explain the connection with kidney stone formation.
Is there enough evidence to warn men, at least, from taking vitamin C supplements? Yes, says Dr. Curhan. “High dose vitamin C supplements should be avoided, particularly if an individual has a history of calcium oxalate stones.” In a commentary accompanying the vitamin C article, Dr. Robert H. Fletcher, emeritus professor of ambulatory care and prevention at Harvard Medical School, made the point a different way. If there’s truly a cause-effect relationship, then one of every 680 people who take high-dose vitamin C (also known as ascorbic acid) would develop kidney stones. “This is not an insignificant risk,” Fletcher writes. “But more to the point, is any additional risk worthwhile if high-dose ascorbic acid is not effective?” Related Information: Vitamins and Minerals: Choosing the nutrients you need to…“In fact even when there is not a single outward symptom of trouble, a person may be in a state of vitamin C deficiency more dangerous than scurvy itself.
When such a condition is not detected, and continues uncorrected, the teeth and bones will be damaged, and what may be even more serious, the blood stream is weakened to the point where it can no longer resist or fight infections not so easily cured as scurvy.” –Food and Life Yearbook 1939, U.S. Department of Agriculture. Vitamin C has been a long-time favorite supplement for many and for very good reasons. It is the one thing that has made the whole difference for detox purposes, but it has also saved the lives of many around the world. It has regained popularity recently as a DNA protector from free radical damage in workers with severe radiation exposure at the Fukushima nuclear plant, where workers had no significant change in both free DNA and overall cancer risk when supplemented with vitamin C. Vitamin C also helps manufacture collagen, vital for the health of all our tissues and the repair of blood vessels, teeth, joints and bones. It also helps to normalize blood pressure, heal degenerative diseases and prevent premature aging.
It is vital so our immune system can fight viruses, bacteria and other microbes. Vitamin C is also important in the synthesis of brain chemicals such as our happy mood neurotransmitter – serotonin. Nobel Prize winner, Linus Pauling and Dr. Irwin Stone have helped pioneer the concept of orthomolecular medicine which uses megadose vitamin therapy – vitamin C in doses higher than those required for normal cellular functions. When taken in very high doses (10 or 100 grams or more per day, depending upon the person’s requirements and illness) vitamin C fights off serious illness. For instance, when the body is challenged by cancer, colds, toxicity or diseases, we are overwhelmed with free radical production. This is when our requirements of vitamin C increases. Read about Vitamin C’s Historical and Miraculous Record. Mainstream medicine remains in the dark when it comes to knowledge about vitamin C despite the miraculous effects it has had on people whose prognosis was fatal.
Vitamin C or ascorbic acid, is something you want to have in your medical cabinet, as it can save your life as it had done so for so many people around the world. Vitamin C is also the best thing so far for adrenal support during very stressful times and/or when we feel extremely fatigued. As a powerful water-soluble anti-oxidant that we are not capable to synthesize within our bodies, you might want to take 1 heaping teaspoon (4 grams) per day, when you first start detoxifying. During stressful times (either emotional or from illness) more doses are required, especially when you are eating a diet rich in carbs. As it happens, vitamin C and sugar use the same port entry to access our cells and when there is little to no sugar to compete, a higher percentage of vitamin C gets into the cells making our requirements shrink. This is why our need for vitamin C goes down to the point where most people had to minimize or even eliminate it in a ketogenic diet – a diet based on animal foods and fats.
And since most animals make their own vitamin C, it is possible to get enough vitamin C in a ketogenic diet without any plant foods by eating the proper parts of the animal: organs. Keep in mind that vitamin C dosage should be built up gradually, and the same is also true for lowering the dose of vitamin C, in order for our bodies to adjust to the change. Going slowly also prevents Herxheimer reactions which come when you first start detoxifying. A Herxheimer reaction is an excretion of toxins from dying microbes (i.e. yeast overgrowth), sometimes called a ‘die off’ reaction. Some say that pregnant women should not exceed 5 grams of vitamin C a day, although early pioneers on vitamin C have used very large doses for the benefit of both the mother and the baby. Large doses can cause diarrhea since excess vitamin C than your body requires doesn’t get absorbed. In time of illness, you can gradually increase vitamin C by 2 to 4 grams each hour until your tummy starts to gargle or you have a loose stool.
This is what is known as titrating doses of vitamin C. The most inexpensive vitamin C is ascorbic acid which you can get in bulk size, although other high quality forms and alkaline and better absorbed versions are available such as sodium ascorbate. If ascorbic acid gives you acidity, mix with some stevia, xylitol or a little bit of sodium bicarbonate to take the bite off. For those concerned that vitamin C will increase their blood sugar levels, well, it seems that it doesn’t, even at doses of 2 grams every 3 hours. Unfortunately, with so many medical regulations and drug protocols, vitamin C’s healing effects has remained in the back stage in a system ruled by Big Pharma. Despite this, it continues to help many around the world and it is starting to regain increasing popularity in conditions where no drug has made such a difference as vitamin C does. Nowadays there are options that can substitute the intravenous (IV) vitamin C therapy in megadoses in the form of liposomal vitamin C which can be taken orally and made at home.
If you are interested in getting the benefits of IV vitamin C in megadoses from the comfort of your home, don’t miss this relevant information! A liposome is like a bag that carries a substance into your body and its cells. It is incredibly effective at this task since it is made out of fat. As it happens, it is the same type of fat that make up cell membranes, making the job of crossing this barrier much easier. Plus, liposomes are super tiny and in that way, they can go through every teensy crack of our cell barriers. In order to achieve an effective megadose vitamin C dose – for instance, to kill cancer cells – you need to achieve a vitamin C blood level of around 250-350 mg/dl. An average person will typically have around 1 mg/dl on a fairly decent diet. After a 25 to 50 grams IV vitamin C therapy delivered in about a 90-minute period, the blood level is in the 200 to 300 mg/dl range. Reports say that 6 g of oral liposomally-carried vitamin C is equal in delivering vitamin C inside cells, where it does its work, to 50 grams of intravenous vitamin C.
To make Liposomal Vitamin C, you need an ultrasonic jewelry cleaner like the one in the image. or other store of your convenience and see which size is the most practical one for you. Then you’ll need sunflower lecithin or non-GMO hexane free soy lecithin, and the vitamin C, preferably as sodium ascorbate. 3 level tablespoons of lecithin. 1 level tablespoon of sodium ascorbate. Dissolve the lecithin in 1 cup (240cc) of warm or cold water, preferably distilled. Let it soak for a couple of hours or so. It doesn’t have to clump, so using warm water is preferable (not hot!). Dissolve the sodium ascorbate in 1/2 cup warm water, preferably distilled. Pour both solutions together into the ultrasonic cleaner and mix for around 20 to 25 minutes. A loading dose, for several months, of liposomal vitamin C is likely 2,000 mg three times a day, maintenance , 1,000 mg twice daily, increasing doses and amounts when needed. This recipe provides 12 grams (12000 mg) of Vitamin C Ascorbate at about 70% – 90% liposomal encapsulation efficiency.
It will keep at room temperature for about 3 to 4 days and refrigerated, it will keep much longer. Recall that 6 grams of this stuff is the equivalent of 50 grams IV vitamin C. So you can take half the solution throughout the day for a day or two in case of illness. Wean off gradually throughout the days though, so no artificial drastic lack is perceived by the body. I’ve used 3 tablespoons of sodium ascorbate with good absorption results as well. Three tablespoons instead of one tablespoon as indicated in the above recipe will yield around 16 grams of vitamin C per cup. The absorption of the liposomal variety is about 5 times the absorption of vitamin C straight, so that is approximately 80 effective grams (IV therapy). That is a very high dose indeed! You will have to take that one cup throughout the day though, I doubt you’ll tolerate drinking in one seat without having diarrhea. Those with iron overload (ask your physician to test for ferritin, transferrin, TIBC and iron) should keep in mind that vitamin C increases the absorption of iron into the body, especially in the heart where it can cause heart failure, palpitations and others.