8 Vitamin C Benefits (and Some Common Side Effects)

What you are allergic to are the fillers and/or bioflavanoids. You need vitamin C to live .. without it you get scurvy. Humans do not create their own vitamin C like most all other animals do.

Many ailments, like the common cold, are a kind of scurvy. In fact you can experience temporary acute scurvy by taking large Vit C doses over a long period and then stopping cold-turkey - it will last a day or so but you will experience all the symptoms of scurvy and then very quickly recover, so best bet is to taper off usage after consuming therapeutic ascorbate levels.

For allergy sensitive people your best bet is to get powdered pure ascorbic acid with no additives of any kind. Mix 1 teaspoon with 8 oz water, add sweetner if desired. Add .5 teaspoon of baking soda to neutralize the acid if desired to create sodium ascorbate.

If taking the acidic version (not buffered with baking soda), brush teeth after wards or it can attack enamel. If you keep it off your enamel vitamin C in your bloodstream will build your enamel (Vit C is also called the "invisible toothbrush" for this reason).

It might be the calcium, as well as bioflavanoids. Ester C is C buffered with calcium and it also contains bioflavanids, and some people are more sensitive to calcium supplements than others and bioflavanoids are a problem for many people. Most creams with Vitamin C buffer it with calcium and throw rose hips and other junk in there to make it sound even more beneficial even though it's they're far more likely to give you an adverse reaction.

Skin especially needs vitamin C. It's a primary ingredient in the process of creating collagen which gives skin elasticity and keeps it from getting saggy.

I would suggest pure ascorbic acid for consumption. Most studies indicate pure Vit C is just as viable as buffered solutions and complexes including bioflavanoids.

With adequate C intake local application of the C to your skin should not be necessary. You could however put super concentrated vit C fluid + baking soda (to make sodium ascorbate, a non-acidic version of Vitamin C) in a dropper and rub it in to your face each night before you go to bed. Powdered pure vit C and baking soda is cheap and easily obtainable and I guarantee it will not give you a rash if mixed to become neutral.

Dear Pat: If I have a bladder infection or even a kidney problems, yes, vitamin C and citric acid is not helpful. But it is NOT the vitamin C or the citric acid being the problem. It is the pH of the things you are consuming. In event of this problem (uti), the pH should be over 8.

Vitamin C are of two types and people tend to lump them all together. One is the ascorbic acid which is acid and tends to promote bacteria growth by acidity. A sodium ascorbate vitamin C has a pH of about 8 and it prevents bacterial growth. A vitamin C can be both a pro-oxidant and an anti-oxidant depending on the pH. Vitamin C is a two edge sword. If the vitamin C is acid, it is a pro-oxidant. If the vitamin C is alkalline it is an anti-oxidant.

Citric acid and sodium citrate are very different, but chemically they are the similar in most ways, but at different pH.

When a baking soda is reacted with citric acid, it becomes sodium citrate and its pH is over 8. So in event of a kidney and bladder infection whatever you eat, its pH should be 8, or at least 7.

How do I know this is the issue. You mentioned you were helped with baking soda and ACV. The pH is about 7, but if reacted long enough it is between 7.5 to 8.0

It is the same with the other ones. It helps therefore to get a good pH paper and measure it and make sure it is alkaline and pH is about 8 in event of an infection.

Sea salt -- 1 teaspoon one dose only in one glass of water usually will kill the bladder infection. But for tough cases take this along with cranberry juice and some baking soda to increase the alkalinity of cranberry juice to about pH of 8. Sea salt pH is quite often pH is between 7.5 to 8.5. A good quality sea salt will have a pH of 8, a very bad one I have seen (overprocessed overpurified) can be as low as 6. A good sea salt is light brown and never bleached white.

Congratulations: You're one of the first people I've ever encountered to correctly assess what is happening in this scenario. Most people blame it on the vitamin C, when in reality it's a reaction to going cold-turkey from the most beneficial nutrient known to mankind.

What you are experiencing when you go cold-turkey on Vit C is nothing less than acute scurvy. The phenomenon is technically known as "rebound scurvy" in orthomolecular circles. The condition is temporary and can be dangerous if a patient's health is already extremely weak, and it is avoided precisely as you have indicated.

Rebound scurvy is also used as a natural means to cause miscarriages, and perhaps the most dependable and safest ways to do so. In involves taking massive doses for a few days (like 10-30 grams per day) then going completely cold turkey. Some have wrongly concluded that the Vitamin C causes the miscarriage, but it is in fact the rebound scurvy brought on by starving a body of this essential molecule after it has grown accustomed to use it up quickly and not conserve it.

I thought I had an allergy to vitamin c growing up. My pediatrician said no, it was an allergy to contaminants and biproducts. Some experts feel you cannot be allergic to a vitamin, but that plant biproducts, bioflavenoid, rhutin can induce allergic reactions. I know because I used to break out in pinpoint rash on my abdomen from vitamin c and had to take liquid drops which were pure. While I was growing up, I had to take this liquid form. If I was truly allergic to c, I would still have broken out, which I did not in the purest form.

Stay away from rose hips and extras. Buy the powder without the extra's. Buffered is good so don't mistake potassium, magnesium, calcium as extras. Just straight c, buffered or not.

Your liver used to make vitamin c as does every mammal. Somewhere along the line, primates lost their ability to manufacture their own c. This is why some people feel you can't be allergic to the vitamin, but can be allergic to the stuff that comes along with it. It's like being allergic to a hormone that your body already makes. If you take synthroid and have a reaction, chances are it's not the synthroid as your body manufactured this hormone naturally, it is something in the synthroid which causes reactions.

So seek out powder form, no flavenoids and such. No rose hips.

Good luck. This is a very important vitamin. Bret Peirce

The vitamin C depends on the TYPE OF VITAMIN C you are taking. There is the acid form and there is an alkaline form. The acid form of ascorbic acid will cause weight gain, while the alkaline form of vitamin C sodium ascorbate will cause a weight loss. An easy way to check is to add baking soda to the powdered vitamin C in to the glass of water. If there is a fizz, then it is an acid form. It appears you took an acid form of vitamin C. The biggest secret to weight loss is whether the food you are taking causes your urine to be acid or alkaline. This is the most effective method I have seen yet towards weight loss (plus the borax), but this remedy will never be as a well known weight loss as Dr. Atkins, but in practice, the acid/alkaline issue appears to be the foundation towards weight loss

Also, 2-4 500mg capsules a day is not enough to affect your respiratory health. Vitamin C will not significantly affect your respiratory heath until you take 10 to 20 times more per day. You have to reach your therapeutic threshold for it to have any effect, otherwise you are mostly wasting vitamin C. You receive all the nutritional benefits at the concentrations you're using, but that will be useless for therapeutic effect.

In short, it is not advisable to megadose Vitamin C to prevent respiratory problems as the required concentrations are just too much for many people. Continue taking them at your current levels for general nutrition, but if respiratory problems get back start megadosing (15 to 100 grams / day), using bowel titration as your guide. Do a search for ascorbate bowel titration for more info. When your condition has alleviated go back to the low doses of 1-2 grams/day.

Hi, I am really confused... What type of vitamin C should I be taking? I have been taking Ascorbic Acid form of vitamin C, 3000 mg a day for hairloss as well as juicing 3 lemons with baking soda a day. I have noticed that I have gained weight and did not understand why. Could the vitamin C as well as the Lemons be causing this? I have been trying to treat my hairloss with this regimine. How do I tell when purchasing vitamin C if it is acidic or alkaline? Thanks Sue

Sue, are you sodium sensitive? I experienced weight gain as well when I was adding baking soda to the ACV. I would gain several pounds overnight. I determined it was from the baking soda - it was water weight from the sodium portion of the baking soda.

My mother's side of the family had always reacted this way to sodium and I am the same. My only choice has been to reduce the baking soda, and use it with the ACV just some of the time. I probably only add it 2 or 3 times a week now. The rest of the time I take the ACV with just water.

I've noticed that although Ted suggests adding baking soda to ACV, EarthClinic does not recommend it as many report issues from the baking soda. Hope this helps you.

Linda :-)

Ascorbic is acid forming and calcium ascorbate while alkaline tends to cause bloating also. The preferred form is ascorbic acid, powdered, then add baking soda until the fizz stops then add a pinch of potassium bicarbonate then add some water. This is alkaline forming and free of calcium. Calcium is often use for weight gain and is not recommended if you have bloating problems. Bloating problems is acid forming and ascorbic acid is never really recommended and this is why baking soda is always added. I found alkaline supplements of boron (in form of borax pH= 8) or baking soda (with pinch of potassium bicarbonate), quite often lead to weight loss since the food spends less time in digesting and therefore weight loss and bloating is reversed. Usually at least 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda to 1/2 glass of water taken twice a day on an empty stomach will often quite slowly cause the body to be more alkaline and reduce bloating, however it is best to monitor the urinary pH and vary the dosage accordingly within the 6.5- 7.35 pH range. Most people who are constipated and bloating are quite often the urinary pH is often below 5.5 if they do have problems.

It isn't the vitamin C. If Tomato juice causes it it's likely bioflavanoids that often come with vitamin C. You need C to survive, and your body doesn't produce it. You need to ingest it. Vitamin C is without doubt the most misunderstood nutrient and wrongfully disparaged therapeutic substance in modern medicine.

I agree with people linking Vitamin-C to cold sores. So, I am not alone! When taken in a dose as high as 500mg I start to get cold sores or ones already present get worse, talking about lip-condition here. I wonder what the explanation is! Reacta-C is one I took and it gives me cold sore symptoms. If I buy a formula where Vitamin-C is a part, I make sure it's not more than 50mg or else I don't buy the formula at all. B-Complex for eg. comes with Vitamin-C as part of it, some with 50mg some with 500 mg. So yea, may be taking Vitamin-C in small doses is okay or make your own like suggested here by grinding dry citrus fruit peels.

One of your writers stated that while on mega doses of vitamin C he landed himself in the hospital for an imbalance of other minerals. However, he does not say what he considered a mega dose. NOR does he mention how long he had been taking this 'mega dose'. Some people think that anything over the RDA is a mega dose. I read about a doctor/researcher who would give up to 200 milligrams per day. I, myself just finished taking 3 teaspoons/12,000 milligrams AND yet another guy, that just posted here, stated that a mere 5,000-10,000 milligrams a day are helping a woman who has (what doctors had told her was) terminal lung cancer. He thinks these are mega doses. So again, what is 'considered' a mega dose?

I too experienced something like the above post in my case it was very odd and scary palpitations. After going to the doctor several times and being in the emergency room more than once I lowered the C and things started to get better. I had EKG's performed and wore a halter monitor but of course over the 24 hours period I wore the monitor nothing happened. I found more information on the internet about this before but I can't remember where. At the time of problem I was taking 5-15 grams a day of chewable sodium ascorbate with 1 gram of sugar in it (unfortunately). I now take 2-6 grams a day of pure powder ascorbic acid and I always try to take it with a meal and a cookie. :) In addition I supplement with 250mg-600mg of magnesium.

Jacqueline do you mean 200 grams? 200 milligrams is not that much.
"read about a doctor/researcher who would give up to 200 milligrams per day"