Vitamin C is a water-soluble vitamin, which means it is not stored in your body. Any excess you consume through diet or supplements is excreted through urine. While your body works hard to eliminate any vitamin C that is not needed, it can cause gastrointestinal distress in the process. If you take a vitamin C supplement, let your physician know to make sure it doesn't interact with any of your medications. Vitamin C Benefits Vitamin C is known for its ability to help your immune system fight off foreign bacteria, keeping you healthy, but it also has other benefits. It acts like an antioxidant by warding off free radicals that permanently damage cells. You need vitamin C to help make collagen, a component of skin, connective tissues and bones. Without adequate vitamin C, your immune system can be compromised, collagen may break down and you can experience increased inflammation. To sustain these everyday functions, women need 75 mg of vitamin C, and men require 90 mg. Absorption of Supplements You can absorb 70 to 90 percent of your vitamin C supplement as long as you keep your total daily dose to a minimal 30 to 180 mg per day, says the National Institutes of Health Office of Dietary Supplements.
Ingesting 1 g or more per day decreases absorption to less than 50 percent. The overabundance of vitamin C travels through your gut as unmetabolized ascorbic acid, increasing distress in your stomach as your body works to excrete it. Negative Effects While vitamin C is generally safe at high doses, too much can cause some discomfort. Consuming too much vitamin C at once can lead to stomach cramping, bloating and diarrhea, since your kidneys are pulling water to dilute it for excretion. These negative effects are unpleasant but are generally harmless and will resolve on their own. Avoid having these side effects by limiting your intake to less than 2,000 mg, or 2 g, according to the Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University. Having more than 10,000 mg, or 10 g, per day can cause serious health problems, such as kidney stones, birth defects and atherosclerosis. Vitamin C in the Diet Stomach upset from vitamin C can occur from too much vitamin C in your diet, not just from excessive vitamin C supplementation.
A variety of fruits and vegetables are loaded with vitamin C. A 1/2-cup serving of red pepper slices has 95 mg, one medium kiwi provides 70 mg, 1 cup of whole strawberries offers 100 mg, a medium orange contains 70 mg and 1/2 cup of steamed broccoli provides 50 mg. Many of these foods, such as citrus fruits and peppers, cause stomach upset on their own because they are acidic or difficult to digest. email Office of Dietary Supplements: Vitamin CLinus Pauling Institute: Vitamin C DON'T MISS How Long Does it Take to Get Vitamin B Complex Out of Your System? What Happens If the Body Does Not Have Enough Vitamin E? Are Chewable Calcium Supplements Better Absorbed? Eur J Cancer Prev. 1998 Dec;7(6):449-54.Jarosz M1, Dzieniszewski J, Dabrowska-Ufniarz E, Wartanowicz M, Ziemlanski S, Reed PI.Author information1Department of Metabolic Diseases and Gastroenterology, National Food and Nutrition Institute (WHO Collaborating Centre for Nutrition), Warsaw, Poland.AbstractLow gastric juice total vitamin C concentration in the presence of Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection probably plays a role in gastric carcinogenesis.
In vitro vitamin C has been shown to inhibit the growth of H. pylori. The aims of this study were to determine the effect of high dose vitamin C administration on H. pylori infection and on gastric juice total vitamin C concentration in patients with H. pylori related chronic gastritis. Sixty patients with dyspeptic symptoms and proven chronic gastritis and H. pylori infection, who were undergoing routine endoscopy, entered the study after giving informed consent. They were randomly coded into two treatment groups. Group 1 (controls, n = 28) were treated with antacids for 4 weeks and Group 2 (n = 32) received vitamin C 5g daily also for 4 weeks. Nine patients did not complete the study and were excluded. Plasma and gastric juice total vitamin C levels were measured at baseline, at the end of 4 weeks treatment and again 4 weeks after treatment cessation. In the control group H. pylori infection remained unchanged in all 24 patients throughout as did the mean gastric juice total vitamin C concentration.
However, in the vitamin C treated group eight of 27 patients (30%) who completed the treatment course the H. pylori infection was eradicated (P = 0.01). In these patients the mean gastric juice total vitamin C concentration rose significantly from 7.2 +/- 1.6 micrograms/ml after 4 weeks treatment (P < M 0.001) and 19.8 micrograms/ml 4 weeks after treatment was discontinued (P < 0.001). In the remaining 19 patients with persistent H. pylori infection, the mean gastric juice total vitamin C concentration rose less than in those with successful H. pylori eradication; 6.3 +/- 1.7 micrograms/ml before treatment, 10.8 +/- 1.5 micrograms/ml after 4 weeks treatment (P < 0.05) and a return to pre-treatment levels (7.1 +/- 2.7 micrograms/ml) 4 weeks after vitamin C intake stopped. There were no side effects of vitamin C treatment. This study has shown that 4 weeks daily high dose vitamin C treatment in H. pylori infected patients with chronic gastritis resulted in apparent H. pylori eradication in 30% of those treated.
In those patients there was also a highly significant rise in gastric juice total vitamin C concentration which persisted for at least 4 weeks after the treatment ceased. A significant, though less marked, gastric juice total vitamin C concentration increase was observed during vitamin C treatment even in subjects with persistent H. pylori infection, though this was not maintained after treatment ended. The mechanism whereby vitamin C treatment appeared to result in H. pylori eradication is unclear. Further confirmatory studies are indicated.PMID: 9926292 [Indexed for MEDLINE] Publication typesClinical TrialRandomized Controlled TrialMeSH termsAdolescentAdultAluminum HydroxideAntacids/therapeutic useAscorbic Acid/administration & dosageAscorbic Acid/analysisAscorbic Acid/pharmacology*CarbonatesFemaleGastric Juice/chemistry*Gastric Juice/drug effectsGastritis/microbiology*Gastritis/therapyHelicobacter Infections/therapy*Helicobacter pylori/drug effects*HumansMaleMiddle AgedSubstancesAntacidsCarbonatesalugastrinAluminum HydroxideAscorbic AcidFull Text SourcesOvid Technologies, Inc.MedicalHelicobacter Pylori Infections - MedlinePlus Health InformationVitamin C - MedlinePlus Health InformationMiscellaneousALUMINUM HYDROXIDE - Hazardous Substances Data BankSodium ascorbate - Hazardous Substances Data BankL-Ascorbic Acid - Hazardous Substances Data Bank