Re: Hoping for Immune System Boost-Vit. C

[Guest guest]

i have a few questions regarding vitamin c that maybe tom or someone

else out there could answer.

what's the best form of vitamin c to take? what brands are best? what

do you think of country life acerola vit. c complex supplement

(ascorbic acid, sodium ascorbate, acerelo berry atract)? i got this

one for my kids because it's chewable.

>

> Katy,

>

> Taking 90g of vitamin C over three hours is pretty pointless. There is

> no way anyone's GI tract can absorb that much that fast, so you're

> going to have bad diarrhea. The diarrhea happens when excess

> unabsorbed C moves into your lower bowels and pulls water into the

> bowels due to osmosis. If you have loose bowels after taking vitamin

> C, it means you took more than you could use and you should back off.

> You are right that he sooner you start (after you realize you're

> sick) the better. My own advice for stopping a cold is as follows:

>

> Take 4 grams (4000 milligrams) of vitamin C every hour for at least 6

> hours. If you get loose bowels, lower the dosage to 2 or 3 grams per

> hour. If after a few hours you still feel the cold coming on or

> getting worse, try increasing the dosage to 6-8 grams per hour. If you

> start this treatment very early in the infection you should be able to

> get over it in a day or less. As a precaution I would take 10-20 grams

> a day for three days after you think you're all better, again using

> your bowel tolerance as a guide. If you don't start vitamin C until

> well into your cold (e.g., the first morning you wake up and feel sick

> for sure), it's much harder to stop. You can reduce the duration but

> you will have to take far more C than you would have at the very

> beginning.

>

> There is a lot of information online regarding vitamin C (ascorbate)

> megadosing for colds and other illnesses. It can be overwhelming. My

> advice above is based on my personal experience in treating colds with

> large doses of C. It's awfully fun when you realize you defeated a

> cold in record time!

>

> Tom

>

[Guest guest]

All I can say is regardless of the diarrhea I did have a mild cold where all the

people who had it at the same time [the ones I caught it from] were sick for

three or four weeks. I sweated, drank lots of water, and took my Vitamin C.

Me and Linus ing .........yeah!

i have a few questions regarding vitamin c that maybe tom or someone

else out there could answer.

what's the best form of vitamin c to take? what brands are best? what

do you think of country life acerola vit. c complex supplement

(ascorbic acid, sodium ascorbate, acerelo berry atract)? i got this

one for my kids because it's chewable.

>

> Katy,

>

> Taking 90g of vitamin C over three hours is pretty pointless. There is

> no way anyone's GI tract can absorb that much that fast, so you're

> going to have bad diarrhea. The diarrhea happens when excess

> unabsorbed C moves into your lower bowels and pulls water into the

> bowels due to osmosis. If you have loose bowels after taking vitamin

> C, it means you took more than you could use and you should back off.

> You are right that he sooner you start (after you realize you're

> sick) the better. My own advice for stopping a cold is as follows:

>

> Take 4 grams (4000 milligrams) of vitamin C every hour for at least 6

> hours. If you get loose bowels, lower the dosage to 2 or 3 grams per

> hour. If after a few hours you still feel the cold coming on or

> getting worse, try increasing the dosage to 6-8 grams per hour. If you

> start this treatment very early in the infection you should be able to

> get over it in a day or less. As a precaution I would take 10-20 grams

> a day for three days after you think you're all better, again using

> your bowel tolerance as a guide. If you don't start vitamin C until

> well into your cold (e.g., the first morning you wake up and feel sick

> for sure), it's much harder to stop. You can reduce the duration but

> you will have to take far more C than you would have at the very

> beginning.

>

> There is a lot of information online regarding vitamin C (ascorbate)

> megadosing for colds and other illnesses. It can be overwhelming. My

> advice above is based on my personal experience in treating colds with

> large doses of C. It's awfully fun when you realize you defeated a

> cold in record time!

>

> Tom

>

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1:50 PM

[Guest guest]

,

> what's the best form of vitamin c to take? what brands are best? what

> do you think of country life acerola vit. c complex supplement

> (ascorbic acid, sodium ascorbate, acerelo berry atract)? i got this

> one for my kids because it's chewable.

Vitamin C has only one form--ascorbate. Whether it's bound to a

hydrogen in ascorbic acid or a salt (sodium ascorbate, calcium

ascorbate, etc.), the vitamin itself is the same. Ascorbate is exactly

the same molecule whether you get it from a fresh orange or as a pure

crystalline powder produced commercially. In my opinion, all of the

brands of vitamin C which claim to be a more " natural " or more easily

absorbed form are scams to get you to spend much more money on a given

amount of the vitamin. This includes Ester-C and a whole slew of new

ones that have appeared. If it has a ® or TM someone is trying to make

a lot of money off it...

As believers in whole foods, some of us may not like that answer, but

it's incontrovertible that vitamin C really only has one form.

(Unlike, for example, vitamin E which comprises several different

tocopherols and tocotrienols.) However, Sally Fallon and Dr. Cowan

talk about a " vitamin C complex " and this is one point where I

disagree with them. There is little support for a claim that more than

one substance is involved. As far as bioflavonoids such as rutin, they

may be a good thing to take but any effect they have when taken with

vitamin C is minimal. Many studies have shown that vitamin C alone

works as well as vitamin C plus bioflavonoids in treating the common cold.

The brand I buy is NOW, because they seem to be the cheapest brand

that has good quality control and minimal binders and fillers. But

just about any brand should be fine.

Tom

[Guest guest]

Some of those chewable ones are very good, but usually you spend a

lot of money for the " chewable-ness " . I get vitamin C " crystals "

from The Vitamin Store at the mall for around $3 a bottle. It's sour

but you can mix it in with some juice and add baking soda to buffer

it. This makes sodium ascorbate and carbon dioxide - fizz. The

sodium ascorbate has very little flavor, so you've made your kids a

fizzy fruit drink. Lemonade is a good choice to put it in - covers

the flavor completely. 1/4 tsp is about 1 gram of vitamin C, and

you'd use half as much baking soda to buffer it - 1/8 tsp. That is

about the cheapest way to keep vitamin C on hand for colds. Those

chewables run out pretty quickly if they have a cold and start

popping them every couple of hours.

By the way, I also believe vitamin C works wonders with a cold. It's

the best cold medicine around! For me, if I take enough (usually 5

grams ever 3 - 4 hours) it gets rid of fatigue, achiness, fever,

headaches, etc. The sore throat takes longer, obviously since that's

a result of inflammation, but I believe it makes the cold less likely

to turn into strep or the other infections you can get. Since I

don't have anyone else to watch my young kids when I'm sick, the

vitamin C is a real life-saver here!

>

> i have a few questions regarding vitamin c that maybe tom or someone

> else out there could answer.

>

> what's the best form of vitamin c to take? what brands are best?

what

> do you think of country life acerola vit. c complex supplement

> (ascorbic acid, sodium ascorbate, acerelo berry atract)? i got this

> one for my kids because it's chewable.

>

> --- In , " Tom Jeanne " <tjeanne@>

wrote:

> >

> > Katy,

> >

> > Taking 90g of vitamin C over three hours is pretty pointless.

There is

> > no way anyone's GI tract can absorb that much that fast, so you're

> > going to have bad diarrhea. The diarrhea happens when excess

> > unabsorbed C moves into your lower bowels and pulls water into the

> > bowels due to osmosis. If you have loose bowels after taking

vitamin

> > C, it means you took more than you could use and you should back

off.

> > You are right that he sooner you start (after you realize you're

> > sick) the better. My own advice for stopping a cold is as follows:

> >

> > Take 4 grams (4000 milligrams) of vitamin C every hour for at

least 6

> > hours. If you get loose bowels, lower the dosage to 2 or 3 grams

per

> > hour. If after a few hours you still feel the cold coming on or

> > getting worse, try increasing the dosage to 6-8 grams per hour.

If you

> > start this treatment very early in the infection you should be

able to

> > get over it in a day or less. As a precaution I would take 10-20

grams

> > a day for three days after you think you're all better, again

using

> > your bowel tolerance as a guide. If you don't start vitamin C

until

> > well into your cold (e.g., the first morning you wake up and feel

sick

> > for sure), it's much harder to stop. You can reduce the duration

but

> > you will have to take far more C than you would have at the very

> > beginning.

> >

> > There is a lot of information online regarding vitamin C

(ascorbate)

> > megadosing for colds and other illnesses. It can be overwhelming.

My

> > advice above is based on my personal experience in treating colds

with

> > large doses of C. It's awfully fun when you realize you defeated a

> > cold in record time!

> >

> > Tom

> >

>