austuser wrote:this article has some interesting points about the dosages of vitamin c, although he does make some bold statements. Maybe he's a vitamin c-counsil worker, who stands on street corners dressed in a big vit-c costume....
http://www.articlebeach.com/article6680.html
This is the article austuser provided. Obviosly the author, Dr. Bates, is pro-vitamin C. As convincing as this article is, anti vitamin C people will argue against the high usage of vit C, and everything else for that matter.
So, decide for yourself.
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Myths and Truths about Vitamin C By: Philip W. Bate PhD
It’s amazing the number of lies and distortions that have been told about Vitamin C. There have been several so-called “scientific” tests of this wondrous vitamin that claimed it was not efficient as a bacteria and virus killer. Yet just a little knowledge shows that these supposedly “scientific“ tests” have all been wrong. Vitamin C is very effective at killing both bacteria and viruses in the blood.
A little knowledge about how bacteria and virus reproduce will show you what’s been wrong about most of these tests. Did you know that both bacteria and viruses actually reproduce so as to double in numbers within about 20 minutes or so? That’s BINARY multiplication.
Maybe you’ve heard the old story about the ancient king whose kingdom was being ravaged by a plague. A wizard was called in, and he solved the problem. The grateful king wanted to reward him, and offered him his weight in gold, or precious jewels, but the wizard only asked for 1 grain of wheat on one square of a chessboard, and 2 grains on the next square, and 4 on the next, doubling the number of grains on each succeeding chess square.
The king thought that was a pretty cheap deal, and immediately agreed, but he didn’t think it thru. The wizard now owned the kingdom. This is binary math (ask your kids about it). There are 64 squares on a chessboard, so the 10th square had over 1000 grains of wheat, the 20th square had over a million grains of wheat, the 30th square had over a billion grains of wheat, etc (you do the math for 64 squares - you’ll find out that it’s 2 to the 64th power! There isn’t that much wheat on the planet!
So, going back to these “scientific” tests, let’s suppose that we (like some popular ads) kill 99% of the bacteria/virus. In just 200 minutes (3+ hours or so), the bacteria/virus is back up to full strength.
That’s just one factor that these “scientists” overlook. It’s also necessary to “saturate” the entire blood stream with vitamin C. This takes a lot more than the RDA (Recommended Daily Allowance) of 75 milligrams. Most of these “scientific tests” paid for by the drug companies (who don’t like competition of any kind or type) use amounts like 500 mg. This doesn’t saturate the blood at all, and of course, whatever virus or bacteria is present isn’t even slowed down much at all. So, their (“scientific”) report shows (again) that Vitamin C isn’t effective against viruses like the common cold.
All too many people “think” that the RDA amounts of vitamins and minerals is sufficient for good health because of the “spin” of advertising. (The original MDA was determined by the cereal companies, and they lobbied to get the name changed to RDA instead, because it made cereals look better. Since it was designed originally as a MINIMUM amount to prevent nutritional deficient diseases such as scurvy, pellagra, and beriberi, it obviously isn’t even close to a formula for good health.
Next, let’s look a bit closer at the “real” vitamin C requirements for “good health”. Zoo vets have found that a 150 pound ape requires a minimum of 4 grams (4000mg) of vitamin C per day for good health. (Apes are pretty valuable animals!). That’s a big difference - 75 mg or 4000 mg!! (I’ve been taking 4 grams a day of vitamin C for many years.)
Whether you believe that man is descended from apes or not, the plain fact is that we share the same mechanism and need for vitamin C as does the entire primate family. Most other animals on this planet actually are able to manufacture vitamin C in their own bodies, but somehow about 65 years ago, we “primates” lost an enzyme that is needed for the manufacture of vitamin C. Ironically, the other animals manufacture vitamin C out of glucose. With the amount of sugar we, in our culture, consume, we’d be in pretty good health if we could still do this.
Here’s another interesting fact. When other animals are stressed, they manufacture (and use) much more vitamin C. If you correlate size to size, we find that a mouse, or a horse, actually generates about 10 grams of vitamin C per 150 pounds when under stress. This makes it pretty obvious that stress uses up vitamin C, and much more is needed when under such stress conditions.
Normally, taking too much vitamin C (like other “overdoses”) causes diarrhea. For most persons in our culture on less than 1000 mg per day, 10 grams or so will start diarrhea in a reasonably healthy person. An amazing fact - If there is a bacteria/virus present, doses up to 100 grams often do not cause diarrhea.
This fact gives us a valuable clue to the dosage needed to combat a viral or bacterial infection. Take enough vitamin C every hour to just stay just below the “bowel tolerance”level. Of course, this amount will vary depending on the individual, and also on the virus/bacteria as well as on the severity of the infection. (I once had a patient with viral hepatitis who went up to 65 grams for two days, and cured himself in two days.)
So, now, let’s put these above facts together with a few more. It’s been shown that 1000 mg (1 gram) of vitamin C will saturate the blood of a 150 pound person. However, this “saturation” doesn’t last very long, as vitamin C combines with all minerals in the blood, and it’s dissipated by stress as well. So, the blood saturation with 1000 mg of vitamin C may last only minutes if under stress such as a virus attack. In a reasonably healthy person, the 1000 mg of vitamin C will only be ”useful” for a few hours in any case.
So, how much vitamin C should a reasonably healthy person take every day to stay healthy? From the above facts, it should be obvious that a minimum of 3-4 grams per day (depending on how much fruits and vegetables are ingested) per 150 pounds of weight. Since vitamin C is metabolized within a few hours, then these 3-4 grams should be spread out as much as possible. Every six hours taking1 gram would be excellent, but for most people, 2 grams in the AM, and 2 grams in the evening is good enough. The blood will be saturated every 12 hours or so.
Of course, if you even begin to feel a cold or virus coming on, up that dosage to bowel tolerance immediately, and the virus will be defeated early. (If the “bird” virus comes to the US, I plan to up my vitamin C to 2 grams every 3-4 hours during the day.)
Next, let’s look at an under use of vitamin C. There has been a lot of hype about “chelation”, and mineral toxicity, particularly in the case of Autism and mercury. Did you know that mercury is also a major factor in Depression? Copper toxicity is a major factor in Schizophrenia. Cadmium and Lead are potentially toxic minerals causing various “brain problems”.
While vitamin C is NOT a true chelator in the usual sense, it does combine with minerals in the blood stream, metabolizes them, making them water soluble, and then carries them out of the body via the kidney/urine pathway. In effect, vitamin C does the same job as the more expensive chelators.
While I was in active practice, EDTA was the favored choice of chelation. Not being an MD, I could not do this, but did refer a few to an MD who could do it. For most, I simply advised them to start with 4 grams per day, and gradually work up to 10 grams per day. It takes at least a year to take out excess copper, mercury or other toxic minerals, but at least for the several schizophrenics I worked with, the symptoms, hallucinations, etc disappeared within a week or so. Vitamin C has the advantage over all other mineral removal methods in that it also has extra health benefits, and it’s much cheaper than any other chelation method. My hair analysis (done many years ago) showed my levels of toxic minerals was way below average, and that’s from just 4 grams per day!
I hope these few real facts have helped you in your search for answers and better health.
Dr Phil Bate is the inventor of the new (Patent Pending) Auditory Brain Wave Training system which does the same thing as EEG Biofeedback/neurofeedback - solving brain problems such as ADD/ADHD. Depression, Insomnia, etc. Dr Bate is a retired Orthomolecular Psychologist helping people at free advice websites:
do you think maybe you could gather different opinions from other doctors and medical professionals regarding how safe it is to take such a high dosage of vit c as a long term solution?
