8 Vitamin C Benefits (and Some Common Side Effects)

Hello Everyone. I love Earthclinic, thanks to all for this great source of information. I have been struggling with skin related conditions, on my face and especially on my hands for over 3 years. Last night I tried the vitamin C and aloe vera mix, and I am happy to report that it has helped me greatly. Here is a little background of my problem, for which I have been to several doctors and have used a number of medications and remedies. Every time I think I have figured out what it is and start using a remedy with some level of success, the condition changes, for example, I identify something as ringworm and start treating it, soon, I see warts and then, as I treat the warts, something similar to ringworm starts spreading all over my hands, but know it does not not have the characteristic round pattern of ringworm. I am convinced that it is immune system related, it itches like crazy and the little blisters/wounds ooze some clear liquid. I have noticed that it worsens during winter. Last night it got to a point in which I could not stand the itching and discomfort, so I searched here and decided to try mixing aloe vera (leaf) and vitamin C powder (sodium ascorbate) and rub it on my hands really well, in addition, I took 1 tablespoon of turmeric powder, and 1 tablespoon of cayenne pepper. I am happy to report that the itching stopped almost instantly and the blisters seem to be starting to heal.

I found that 3% H202 helped me with my pneumonia and airway track infections which I have had twice this year: My breathing is so much better. Also found it to move on sore throats and blocked noses from flu..gone instantly: I use it daily as spray inhaler: And I will find it does so much more:

Change:
Vitamin C Powder: IT WORKS and simple

It worked for me: Skin cancers gone
Now another that is wonderful is Vitamin C powder....great to move on skin cancers, boils, warts and many many other things....Method to use the powder is to wet infection by either sorbaline or olive oil....then taken a large pinch of Vit C dust and rub into the infected area keep rubbing until it turns into paste then keep rubbing until it disapates......do each day until skin cancer moves away: It worked for me: Skin cancer is just a virus...I also have heard that it also helps with cancers within...

NOTE: Now it must not be used on Kemo people to use it.....as it will not work..it will crystalize inside ones body: The powder can be taken orally with water or juice it can be purchased from either a chemist or health food stores for around $10 Aus

And it does much more: Injections of high dosage Vit C into infected area's also helps for ones who R ill...I also wonder about aids plus other viruses and infections? Much more

Ken

I found the information about aspartame in Ester C product interesting. I've had two spinal fusion and my Doctor wants me to take vitiman C for healthy cell growth etc. I could not take regular vitamin C after awhile needing nexium for months. I switched to Ester C. 6 months ago taking 500-1000mgs. a day. I had have a burning, tingling and pain in legs for months only getting extremely worse over the past 2 months. Now I am taking Neurontin 300mg;bid. My neurosurgeon wants me to go through an EMG again. I've been throught every MRI/scan to rule out my fusions/nerves at spine. After reading this and how aspartame can effect peripheral nerves it makes sense. It must be the Ester C? Thanks again for the insight.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

This afternoon, I visited your site and noted a comment by a reader who said that Ester C made him enraged. It's not the Vitamin C, it's the aspartic acid in the Ester C product. I verified this with an aspartame activist. Aspartic acid is an excitotoxin, a poison that kills brain cells. Yep, it's the same stuff as in aspartame. All of the studies done on Vitamin C were done with sodium ascorbate, which is a type of chemically buffered Vitamin C. It's best to take it as a powder in water, because you can get gastritis if you take too many pills.

Hope that helps,
Christine

"Aspartic acid is an amino acid. Well, amino acids are good for us, right? Don't they keep us healthy ? The answer is yes, amino acids are necessary for good health, EXCEPT when you separate the individual amino acid from its protein chain, and use it as an "isolate" or by itself. (S.Sawada, et al '98)

In aspartame, these become synergistic toxins; one component playing off the other in a dangerous, systemic downward spiral. This eventually gives way to clinical manifestations; "hard-to-diagnose" health complications, and a myriad of medical symptoms and illnesses, which can eventually cause irreversible medical complications and death.

Aspartic acid, in aspartame, is an excitotoxin. An excitotoxin, is a deleterious substance that excites or over stimulates nerve cells. This occurs in the brain, as well as the peripheral nerves, because aspartic acid, in free form, easily crosses the blood-brain barrier. This pathological excitation of nerve cells creates a breakdown of nerve function, as we will see. (L.E.Rosenberg, McGraw-Hill 1991)

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!

Colds and Allergies

My children usually get sick at the beginning of the spring and the beginning of fall... most likely allergies. They also usually get whatever sickness is going around school. For the last year, I've been successfully giving my 6 and 8 year olds 500 mgs of vitamin c under the recommendation from the Linus Pauling Foundation. They love the chewables (ascorbic acid). They havent gotten sick AT ALL in that time. Meanwhile, my 13 year old has gotten broncitis and pneumonia who refuses to take the vitamin c. I've been trying to get her to take the vitamin c but she is not big into the taste of the chewables and doesn't like taking pills. Everytime she gets sick, I try to reason with her that the other two are not getting sick anymore, and in fact, NONE of us are, so why is she the only one in our house getting sick?? It used to go from one of us to the next and the next like a domino effect. Now, it's just her.( My husband and I take 2000 mg of Vitamin C per day, also recommeded by the Linus Pauling Institute)

Response to Eve-Marlboro, MD -- I also had a reaction to vitamin c all my life. I was so sensitive I would eat an orange and breakout with rash in the back of my knees. I noticed you said your Dad was recommending a liquid supplement. I am taking a liquid all natural supplement. Have had no reactions at all. You are welcome to contact me.

Kat,

Ascorbic acid IS Vitamin C. Just the scientific name. It by no means refers to the ingredient in "off brand" and "lower priced" vitamin C supplements. Other ways you may see it on the back of bottles and such is "sodium ascorbate" or "calcium ascorbate" which is actually mineral vitamin C and can help people who suffer any heatburn problems from taking to much ascorbic acid. The sodium, and calcium ascorbates are cut as to not be so acidic. The downside is that you need to watch your intake as i think calcium is NOT water soluable. As far as it being used for miscarriages, I doubt it. You'd have to take quite a bit.

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

Oral vitamin C therapy as recommended by Dr. Robert Cathcart was employed to resolve within 14 days a case of mononucleosis contracted by my 17-year-old grand-daughter.

Procedure:
1st 24 hours, 7000mg ascorbic acid powder in orange juice every hour.
Subsequent days: 1000mg every hour until bowel tolerance syndrom; thereafter, an amount of the vitamin every three hours just short of bowel tolerance syndrome.

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.

A study I read about several years ago might help you understand why the high dosage Vit. C got rid of your angina. During Paul Linus' heyday, a nursing home did a study in which they were giving nursing home patients 500 mgm. Vit. C 4 x per day, expecting it to lower their cholesterol readings. Ooops! These patients' cholesterol levels skyrocketed upward, instead of decreasing, scaring them so badly, they halted the study immediately. Logical thinking tells me that the Vit. C was flushing cholesterol from their blood vessels, unless they had also been put on a high cholesterol diet at the same time.

I used to have angina. Probably for 2-3 years. Never severe but painful nonetheless. What brought about the end of angina was megadoses of Vit C. I had been taking probably 20+ grams/day for stubborn allergies in the spring of the year. I continued to take it at night for dust mite allergies at bedtime instead of medications. I noticed one day in the fall that I hadn't had any chest pains for quite a while. It's been I think two years now since I had any. Vitamin C megadoses, according to Linus Pauling and Matthias Rath, allow the arteries to heal which reverses plaque buildup in all but completely blocked arteries. They also recommend adding L-Lysine and Proline to your regime along with the C.

According to over 70 years of scientific, medical and clinical research, natural vitamin c is necessary to over 300 metabolic funtions in our body and its is also regarded as the "Mother of all vitamins" because it can worked out in our body without any other vitamins but other vitamin from a-zinc need vitamin c in order to be absorbed and function in our body. And according to Dr. Erwin stone, a biochemist, there is no one single factor in our body that is not affected by vitamin c. meaning human body is very much dependent on this particular vitamin that whenever it is depleted from our body, we surely will suffer a disease called scurvy. Human body does not manufacture vitamin c that is why we take it from foods that we eat everyday, and from supplements. According to study with Dr Linus Pauling, our body needs at least 1000 to 2000 mgs/day for it to function normally and protect the body from free radicals that usually destroys our cells. But in case of disease, we need to take more to fastly recover from illness. Also, vitamin c gives us energy which we need everyday not only for our mobility but more importantly for our body's cellular activities. Vitamin c also aids in the production of collagen which is the 2nd most important function of vitamin. Colagen helps strengthen and repairs the body tissues especially the heart and all other organs. it also promotes the immediate healing of wounds. Also because vitamin c is anti-oxidant, it aids our liver to facilitate the elimination of toxins and free radicals from the body. It also boost the immune system keeping the body cope and heal itself from any ailments. There are varied vitamin c in the market today. There synthetic or chemically induced vitamin c and the natural vitamin c. Most common vitamin c that is available in the market is the synthetic brands which is the acidic based. In my opinion and experience, the most effective one is ________ because aside fom being natural it is also an alkaline vitamin c with a pH of 72-78, which is found to be the most potent anti-oxidant. It gives us all we need from a vitamin c, we get the goodness of vitamin c and alkalinity.

Me and my family started using ___after my five (5) year old son had a surgery for a Mesynteric augmental cyst that developed outside of his intestine as big as my son's fist. after the operation his pedia sugeon gave him this natural vitamin c. His wound which was about 4 inches long healed in just a matter of days. And also the best thing that happened to us with this vitamin c is that the recurrent asthmatic syndrome which my three kids usually experienced and made us visit the hospital almost every month was gone. Now they are more healthy than ever before. My sinusitis, arthritis, backpain, migrain as well as vertigo were gone. I am taking 2,000-6,000 mgs/day.When I share the product with my friends and relatives they claimed relief especialy when they under stress. I also share the product with my friend who was suffering from "psoriasis" i was truly amazed because she was relieved from the disease in just one week of taking 10,000 mgs/day of course with our company physician's advice.She suffered from this i should say depressing disease for over 10 years. I also share this particular vitamin c to many. My friend who is a hypertensive, it regulated her blood pressure by taking 3,000- 5,000 mgs/day. There are also a lot of people with heart disease who are saved from by-pass surgery because of this vitamin c. By the way, our company physician have been prescribing this vitamin c for more than five (5) years already and it helped a lot of hopeless people in our place especially those suffering from the dreaded cancer. For me vitamin c is very essential to every human forms. In fact, i consider this as the twin of our body becaue without this essential nutrient we will surely suffer from scurvy when our body doesn't get enough vitamin c. But we should be careful in choosing the kind of vitamin c. Better choose only the natural, non-acidic, alkaline vitamin c or eat a lot of alkaline forming fruits and vegetables. Sad to say, we don't get enough vitamin c from eating fruits and vegetables because of so many factors. That is why we need to take supplements.

I have used vitamin c for years for bleeding gums, bad nosebleeds and any other bleeding problems. I either take a stress vitamin with 500vit c or just a vit. c by itself -preferably a chewable one. Especially during menopause -taking 500 vit c every 3-4 hours will stop hemoraging and blot clots and normalize the flow. You must take it every 3-4 hrs. or it will start up again. It is better if at least one of the doses is a stress b vit with 500 added vit.c in it. I fell and hit my head on a concrete wall and opened a 4 inch gapin my scalp with excessive bleeding. I chewed 2 500 vit. c and immediately the bleeding completely stopped, helping me on the inside and outside of my head. I didn't have to have any drainage from fluid buildup inside my head and the wound healed very fast. Vit c normalizes the blood-helps with blood clots that are already there to help dissolve them and is so important is excessive bleeding that no one should ever go to the dentist or go into surgery without taking it if you bleed easily. It could save your life. I used to literally take a sheet to bed with me after haveing a tooth pulled to wipe the blood on. After I learned about vit c and took it before i went to the dentist, the bleeding stopped before I got off the parking lot. I really think I could have even done better without the cotton! Hope this helps someone keep from having an hysterectomy or other complications. I have used vit c for these things for over 30 years. I don't take it on a regular basis, mostly if I get sick with a cold or stomach flu which about 10 grams -I take it in peanut butter and syrup- the powdered vit c. Take 2 doses about a hour apart sometimes will kill stomach flu completely out if you catch it in time. Thanks.

re: Large doses of Vitamin C. I took 3 grams/day for periodontal disease. I'm cutting back because I would sneeze so hard I became congested and would turn to inhalers. My lungs constricted.

Whenever I get a toothache I think back to see if I took large amounts of vitamins, especially C, and then suddenly stopped. Toothaches can be the result of sudden withdrawal from vitamin C. If so, it's best to return to using it and gradually withdraw from its use rather than do it all at once. Sudden withdrawal from C can cause joint pains as well. Such pains are normally temporary, but they can be quite disconcerting if one doesn't know their source.

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.

I ran across your request for vitamin C allergies. I experience bloating and weight when I take it and I don't know why. I've tried chewable forms, ascorbic acid, and calcium ascorbate. I also have similar reactions with other vitamins I've tried. I thought it might be a hidden filler or preservative. I have Graves Disease and am trying natural remedies. Any information you might have would be helpful

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.

Recently had bladder infection, solved with soda and ACV. Nobody ever discusses Vit C problem. If I take Vit C or even a health bar with citric acid, I develop kidney or bladder problem. Would love to cleanse with your 1/4 tsp lemon, soda and pinch of Magnesium and potassium.

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

I've been taking vitamin C crystals and vitamin C powder alternately for quite some time now. i take it everyday together with vit.E. So far i haven't noticed any significant improvement as to my susceptibility to upper respiratory illnesses is concerned. My concern right now is my gaining of weight. which is very visible due to my increased body weight and size. i am not sure if it is really the pure vit.C (2-4 500mg capsules a day) that has caused the weigh increase but the time i started gaining weigh and taking pure vit.C came at the same time.

I take high doses of Vitamin C whenever I get a cold. I always get a rash on my abdomen, breasts and underarms afterward. I don't know if the vitamin C causes it, but I wonder now if the two are linked.