[YEA]  01/17/2007: Lorenzo from Green River, Wyoming: "Quick success with Sore throat. One tablespoon of raw crushed garlic. One day flu cure: 20 grams of vitamin C. Was taking Vitamin C several times a day to keep a tooth from hurting until the Dentist appointment. Then in place of taking anti-biotics one hour before the appointment I took more vitamin C. The Dentist had to give me more novocaine than normal as it kept wearing off. I mentioned this on the Cavemanfood list and another writer said he had the swame experience. We had a teen age visitor with a toothache, she took Vitamin C and was happy again."

[WARNING!]  05/25/2011: Granny Laura from Waco, Tx Usa: "I have to speak to the contributor that can't find a Vitamin C source that doesn't make him sick. All Vitamin C isn't from the same source.

I had to see a good allergist to find out that the Vitamin C I was taking was made from CORN! It left me shakey and unable to sleep for 3 days, and I had cut a 100 mg tablet in half so all I got was 50 mg!

Since finding that I am allergic to corn, I now take Vitamin C in the Palmitate form, as labeled on the bottle. And, I'm taking about 10 grams a day.

I take TwinLabs Allergy C, it is buffered w/calcium and magnesium. An aside, Vitamin C helps you to absorb the cal/mag for your bones. It's a win-win!"

[YEA]  10/26/2008: WT from Spartanburg, SC: "Vitamin C is truly a medicine to take everywhere you go. I've used it for a spider bite I got while canoeing down a creek. My arm swelled and hurt and I didn't realize why at first. It finally dawned on me that I had brushed a limb at the start of the trip and spiders galore fell in the boat with me. Evidently one bit me!

I took 3-4G every 1.5 hours or so after getting home and continued the next day. Never got any signs of overdosing ie gas or diarrhea. I estimate I took 40G over 24 hours! It killed most of the swelling by nightfall the day of the trip!

Also had an employee get stung by a wasp. He told me the last time he got bit he had to go to the hospital. I gave him 5G and sent let him leave. He told me in an hour or so the pain and swelling had diminished greatly. He didn't have anymore vitamin C but he didn't need to visit the hospital!"

[QUESTION]  06/14/2009: Luis from Cali, Colombia: "Nitrosamines, potentially cancerous, are generated in conditions of a lot of acidity, and therefore, the stomach is a suitable place for it by the presence of gastric juices. The reaction of the nitrates (some vegetables) with the amines (hot cooked proteins, fish and fermented products) that exist in food produces nitrosamines.

Without the presence of greases or lipids vitamin C reacts with nitrates in the acid middle generating nitric oxide (good for your arteries and blood pressure), but in presence of greases and oxygen nitrosamines appear, between 8 and 140 times more than without vitamin C addition.

According to the study that I add below, my first conclusion is that I should not eat or take juice extracts of lettuce, beetrot, radish, celery, spinach (high-nitrate vegetables), cabbage, parsley (medium-nitrate vegetables) and broccoli, brussels sprouts, cauliflower (low-nitrate vegetables), along with foods, but among foods, adding vitamin C (generates nitric oxide), and not to consume any grease neither animal protein just then. My second conclusion is that I should not take vitamin C along with large foods.

- Am I right? I would like to know other opinions.

Thanks.

I include abstract of the original study.

GUT Journal
Gastric cancer
Fat transforms ascorbic acid from inhibiting to promoting acid-catalysed N-nitrosation
E Combet1, S Paterson1, K Iijima1, J Winter1, W Mullen2, A Crozier2, T Preston3 and K E L McColl1

1 Division of Cardiovascular and Medical Sciences, Western Infirmary, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, Scotland
2 Plant Products and Human Nutrition Group, Division of Environmental and Evolutionary Biology, Graham Kerr Building, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, Scotland
3 Stable Isotope Biochemistry Laboratory, SUERC, East Kilbride, Scotland

Correspondence to:
Professor Kenneth E L McColl, Medical Sciences, Western Infirmary, Glasgow G11 6NT, Scotland, UK; k.e.l.mccoll@clinmed.gla.ac.uk

Background: The major potential site of acid nitrosation is the proximal stomach, an anatomical site prone to a rising incidence of metaplasia and adenocarcinoma. Nitrite, a pre-carcinogen present in saliva, can be converted to nitrosating species and N-nitroso compounds by acidification at low gastric pH in the presence of thiocyanate.

Aims: To assess the effect of lipid and ascorbic acid on the nitrosative chemistry under conditions simulating the human proximal stomach.

Methods: The nitrosative chemistry was modelled in vitro by measuring the nitrosation of four secondary amines under conditions simulating the proximal stomach. The N-nitrosamines formed were measured by gas chromatography, ion-trap tandem mass spectrometry, while nitric oxide and oxygen levels were measured amperometrically.

Results: In absence of lipid, nitrosative stress was inhibited by ascorbic acid through conversion of nitrosating species to nitric oxide. Addition of ascorbic acid reduced the amount of N-nitrosodimethylamine formed by fivefold, N-nitrosomorpholine by >1000-fold, and totally prevented the formation of N-nitrosodiethylamine and N-nitrosopiperidine. In contrast, when 10% lipid was present, ascorbic acid increased the amount of N-nitrosodimethylamine, N-nitrosodiethylamine and N-nitrosopiperidine formed by approximately 8-, 60- and 140-fold, respectively, compared with absence of ascorbic acid.

Conclusion: The presence of lipid converts ascorbic acid from inhibiting to promoting acid nitrosation. This may be explained by nitric oxide, formed by ascorbic acid in the aqueous phase, being able to regenerate nitrosating species by reacting with oxygen in the lipid phase.

Keywords: cancer; diet, gastro-oesophageal junction, nitrite; nitrosation
"

06/17/2008: Joyce from Joelton, Tn: "The first use of Vitamin C IV that I remember reading about was Norman Cousins, "Anatomy of An Illness" I think was the title. He became very ill, with an undiagnosed illness (he thought it was caused by the chemicals exposed to when he was caught in the jet stream of the plane he was trying to board) since that was the only difference that he could come up with that his wife wasn't exposed to and she accompanied him on this trip. Cousin's was bedfast and decided that his best chance of recovery was Pauling's Vitamin C IV and watching all the old cartoons that they could round up. He, wonder of wonders, found a doctor who would let him check into a hotel room and do therapy his way (after he signed a release for the doctor's not being responsible for any adverse outcome), also do lab work to check to how it was progressing. His therapy worked and the labs did show that after good belly laughter, his labs showed improvement."

[YEA]  08/18/2007: Richard from Dayton, Ohio: "I started taking Vitamin C because I heard that mega-dosing on it helped with remyelination of nerve cells. Two other side effects resulted. First I lost about 20 pounds in two months. I didn't really change my diet or exercise any more than usual. Also, I noticed that I was not suffering from my seasonal allergies. Normally I get seasonal allergies in May and late summer. This past may I only took one over the counter pill. So far this summer I haven't had to take any."