The Power of Vitamin C & Taking the Correct Dose

Cold and flu season is upon us, and that combined with the business of everyday life can make it much more challenging than usual to stay healthy. I’m sure many of you are wondering what you can do to avoid getting a cold or the flu (or get better!) in the new year without having to slow down. One recommendation I have is to find a way to include more Vitamin C in your diet. While it has the reputation of being mainly a pirate’s cure for scurvy, Vitamin C can have a constellation of positive effects on a person’s health, helping to overcome illnesses like bronchitis, gum disease, influenza, stomach ulcers, bladder infections, to name only a few. It’s all a matter of taking it at the right time, in the right form, and in the right amount, all of which I will explain in this newsletter.

If you’re skeptical of the power of Vitamin C, you should know that its effect on the body has been thoroughly tested and understood by researchers and scientists. In a normal, healthy person, the vitamin acts as an antioxidant and helps generate the synthesis of collagen, which helps strengthen blood vessels and body muscles. Because of these regenerative properties, Vitamin C has been tested as a healing agent against many viruses. Scientists have found it to have significant therapeutic power in the face of even devastating diseases like AIDS and Polio. Today, Vitamin C is believed to play a valuable role in a person’s general health, doing everything from treating a common cold (and other viruses), boosting the immune system, and lowering hypertension, to curing cataracts, treating cancer, combating stroke, maintaining skin elasticity, and even controlling the symptoms of asthma. Vitamin C has also been found to speed up wound healing by facilitating the growth of connective tissues. The vitamin can even affect the mood of a person by assisting with the production of neurotransmitters—key for proper brain function!

Given all this scientific evidence, we can see how important it is to include Vitamin C in our diets—and there are a few different ways to do this. Vitamin C supplements come in tablets, capsules, powder, and food. Going with regular, low-cost, ascorbic-acid is my recommendation. I know there are several mineral ascorbates on the market, touting better absorbance; however, these forms of the vitamin only carry about half the antioxidant content of regular ascorbic-acid, and therefore are only about half as effective—so skip the minerals. Additionally, when you’re ingesting Vitamin in large amounts, you’ll want to stay away from most tablets and go for a capsule instead. Tablets often contain a lot of fillers, things you don’t want in high amounts. Be sure to check the ingredients of any supplement you buy; you want as few chemicals/fillers in it as possible. You’ll also want to look into liposomal Vitamin C if you plan on taking ascorbic acid in large amounts. Liposomes help the body absorb Vitamin C, so it’s a good idea to alternate between doses of regular Vitamin C and liposomal Vitamin C to get the best results out of your supplements.

Finally, the most cost effective way to take ascorbic acid is to just buy it in powder form and dissolve it in water. This approach is fine, but be sure to measure carefully and drink the water through a straw (to protect tooth enamel). Of course, you can also modify your diet a bit to include more Vitamin C rich food if supplements aren’t your thing. See the chart below for some great examples of foods by Vitamin C content:

Do know that, whichever form of Vitamin C you choose, you’ll need to ingest it in rather large amounts in order to experience any of its therapeutic properties. Most people don’t take nearly enough Vitamin C to really be effective. If you’re currently healthy, I would suggest taking about 500-1,000mg of Vitamin C a day as a preventative measure. But if you are actively trying to fight off a cold or the flu, you need at least 8-10g (8,000-10,000mg) of vitamin C a day. My suggestion is to take 2,000mg every hour, alternating between regular ascorbic acid and liposomal Vitamin C, in order to have a chance at beating a cold or the flu.

Perhaps even more important than the amount of Vitamin C you take is the timing at which you take it. Scientists, doctors, and nutritionists alike will tell you that all the benefits of the vitamin are entirely contingent upon how you take it and when, so let’s go over a few basic rules for taking Vitamin C.

The first rule to remember is to pay careful attention to the timing of when you take each dose. I cannot stress this point enough. The thing about Vitamin C is that it helps with illnesses because, when taken in large doses, not all it can be absorbed in the blood; some stays in the gut, and can then be pulled in by the body to fight a virus. In order to achieve these sorts of vitamin C reserves in the gut, you’ll want to take medium-sized doses of Vitamin C often as opposed to one large dose once a day, in order to keep a steady flow of it in the body. Remember, Two doses of 3 grams, taken twelve hours apart, are better than 6 grams taken all at once. 

The second rule is to start small. Vitamin C intake is going to be limited by your bowel tolerance, so start at about 500-1000mg and see how it affects your stomach. If you’ve exceeded bowel tolerance, you may experience gas or loose stools. At the first sign of these side effects, simply scale back your dosage a bit and let your stomach acclimate before taking more Vitamin C. However, so long as your bowel is tolerant, don’t be afraid to take it in what may seem like excessive amounts. With Vitamin C, there is a “threshold” that needs to be reached, above which the vitamin can have dramatic effects. You’ll need to take Vitamin C in very large amounts in order to reach this threshold; if the threshold isn’t reached, the Vitamin really doesn’t have much of an effect at all. Again, 10,000mg is needed to fight off a cold or flu, but for more serious diseases, like cancer for example, 60,000mg-100,000mg of Vitamin C a day is needed. This large of an amount can only be taken through IV therapy. 

Lastly, to ensure that large doses of Vitamin C have a positive impact on your health, you’ll want to create optimal conditions in your body so that it can use the vitamin effectively. I advise you cut back on carbs/sugar and smoking, both of which mute the vitamin’s effects. Further, if you’re worried about kidney stones, you can add magnesium citrate (it can be hard on the gut) to your supplement regimen. If you have oxalate toxicity, kidney disease, iron overload disease, or glucose-6-phosphatase deficiency, however, you shouldn’t take Vitamin C in high doses at all.

I hope you will all consider adding more Vitamin C into your health care regime, either as a complement to existing flu/cold medications or even as a non-drug alternative—you really can never be too safe at this time of year.

This article was written by Gary Merel, LAc, during his independent practice as a licensed acupuncturist. Any recommendations on supplement type, dosage, or frequency are included only as part of the original article and are not intended as specific guidance for any reader. No supplement — even Vitamin C — should be started without the advice and supervision of a qualified medical professional.

Please contact us to schedule a free consultation and evaluation. At Ann Arbor Holistic Health, we are known for providing professional and compassionate care. We strive to guide people towards a comprehensive and holistic healing strategy. Restoring your body to health will restore the quality of your life.