Vitamin C is a powerful antioxidant, capable of voraciously quenching reactive oxygen species (it’s added to food products for their protection from oxidative damage). Vitamin C is required in the manufacture of collagen; hence we age and get wrinkly when we are deficient. It is a powerful anti-microbial. Large IV doses of vitamin C have saved the lives of countless individuals with septicemia and similar overwhelming infections. Vitamin C is a powerful detoxer. Anyone encountering chemicals (or viral or bacterial toxins) needs the protection of vitamin C. Vitamin C is a vigorous anti-cancerous agent, with demonstrable cytotoxic effects at doses which leave human cells unharmed (around 3 mg per 100 mL)
Vitamin C is found in high concentrations in immune cells, and is consumed quickly during infections. It is not certain how vitamin C interacts with the immune system; it has been hypothesized to modulate the activities of phagocytes, the production of cytokines and lymphocytes, and the number of cell adhesion molecules in monocytes. Vitamin C is a natural antihistamine, which is why I found it so good for allergics. It both prevents histamine release and increases the detoxification of histamine. A 1992 study found that taking 2 grams vitamin C daily lowered blood histamine levels 38% in healthy adults in just one week!
Arterial Scurvy But the biggest breakthrough discovery is that deficiency of vitamin C is found to be a leading cause of atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries). In fact heart disease and ischemic myocardial disease is really best described as scurvy of the arteries. Even moderately raised blood levels of vitamin C measured in healthy persons have been found to correlate well with decreased risk of cardiovascular disease and ischaemic heart disease, and so an increase life expectancy. That is undoubtedly because it protects blood lipids from oxidation. Forget the cholesterol nonsense; cholesterol is pretty harmless as an isolated finding. It’s oxidized cholesterol that is dangerous and you can avoid that by maintaining a healthy vitamin C status, along with other antioxidants in your diet.
So: how much to take? The “correct” dose is not the minimum needed to prevent you dying of scurvy. That’s the MINIMUM dose, by definition. This kind of nutrition (pretend nutrition) drives me nuts. Linus Pauling made 2 grams a day seem the right thing and he’s famous! However, Pauling is WRONG. It’s too little. 10 grams a day is better and much more in line with what other animals manufacture for themselves; after all, we are bigger than goats on the whole. It’s my whole thing with Nature again: how could she possibly get it wrong? It’s her story, for goodness sake! So rather than bumble along with minimums, let’s go for the optimum. Problem (you’ll read about it sometimes): taking more than 300 mg a day does NOT increase blood levels of ascorbate. To most dumb scientists, that’s the end argument; no point in taking more. Very stupid.
Firstly, whoever said that blood levels were a good measure of total body load of ascorbate? Not logical, as Dr. Spock would say. If the body is in crisis with deficiency of vitamin C, wouldn’t you expect that however much you give the patient, it gets gobbled up by the tissues, where it’s needed? The best strategy is what we call fill-and-flush. Take as much as you can stand, till you get the benefits and it starts to spill out in the kidneys. For some people, diarrhea is the limiting condition. You can test for ascorbate levels in the urine, by using vitamin C test strips. These are easily available online (for example: http://www.indigo.com/test_strips/biology/...
Best Supply. I know Dr. Garry Gordon (www.longevity.com) wouldn’t forgive me if I forgot to mention his Bio En'R-Gy C. The R stands for ribose sugar, which is heart-friendly. The vitamin C is about 5 gr for a heaped teaspoon, so you would need 2 teaspoons a day to get 10 gr. Me, I’m lazy and I HATE taking pills, powders and potions. I recommend LivonLabs liposomal vitamin C called Lipo-spheric Vitamin C. It’s really good because 1 gram of this is the equivalent--in blood levels--of taking 10 grams of ascorbate powder, for just over $1 a day. Plus you get some phosphatidyl choline for your tired brain. www.livonlabs.com *Goats are also believed by some to produce as much as 100 gr of vitamin C daily when faced with life-threatening degrees of infectious or toxic stress!
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Never thought about Goat's milk and vitamin C. Don't think I liked the taste of Goat's milk...but I may try it once....:-)
Saturday, May 11th 2013 at 9:56AM
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