How Much Do You Need?
The Dosage
Controversy
___________________
There is
an extreme difference between
the 45-60 mg Recommended
Daily Allowance (RDA)(179)
and the 10, 20 or more GRAMS
of Vitamin C suggested to
therapeutically treat various
illnesses(46). The very
low RDAs are the amounts
of Vitamin C which have
been shown to prevent overt
scurvy, and without this
low amount of Vitamin C,
humans will die.
It is very
difficult to calculate or
even measure our state of
health, because it is in
constant fluctuation, according
to a number of parameters:
exposure to pathogens (viruses,
bacteria); exposure to allergens;
physical and emotional stresses,
dietary abuse (too much
sugar, caffeine, alcohol,
etc.). Also, our emotional
and psychological sense
of well-being affects so
many of the body's metabolic
processes.
The myth
that almost everybody believes,
even in the face of extensive
clinical evidence to the
contrary, is that the body
can only store a limited
amount of Vitamin C, and
it is a waste of money to
take any more than this
amount, since it will only
be excreted in the urine.
The truth is that our bodily
reserves of Vitamin C fluctuate
according to how much is
needed to buttress the immune
system, scavenge free radicals,
regulate cholesterol and
sugar metabolism, repair
wounds, etc. etc.
Accordingly
to Dr. Robert Cathcart,
a well-nourished person
would normally have more
than 5 grams of Vitamin
C in their body(46). Most
individuals' Vitamin C levels
are far below this level,
placing them at substantial
"risk for many problems
related to failure of metabolic
processes dependent upon
ascorbate". In fact,
the list of problems Dr.
Cathcart suggests may become
exascerbated with "severe
depletion of ascorbate"
is considerable: immune
disorders; rheumatoid arthritis;
allergic reactions; chronic
infections; scarlet fever;
blood coagulation processes;
heart and blood pressure
conditions; stress-coping
mechanisms of the adrenals;
impaired wound healing of
conditions such as bed sores,
hernias; spinal disc degeneration;
nervous system and even
psychiatric disorders; cancers.
Thus, in
an optimal state of health,
lack of stress, etc., an
individual's bodily requirement
for Vitamin C could be in
balance with his dietary
and supplementary intake.
However, if this person
suffered from hay fever
and was exposed to rag weed,
or if (s)he came down with
a nasty cold, his/her immune
system would require many
times more Vitamin C in
order to restore his/her
good health. In other words,
when under severe stress,
the body can literally "soak
up" Vitamin C, which
at other times it wouldn't
need.
While it
is clear that there can
be NO hard and fast rule
about exactly how much Vitamin
C to take for your particular
momentary state of health,
Drs. Linus Pauling(166),
Emanuel Cheraskin(54) and
others give APPROXIMATE
guidelines in advising the
intake of 1-3-5 g per day.
But really the ABSOLUTE
BEST way to know how much
Vitamin C you need is to
ASK YOUR BODY!
And this
is what the "Bowel
Tolerance Technique"
is about: titrating your
individual body chemistry
at any particular moment
in time to ascertain how
much Vitamin C you need.
This method was developed
by Dr. Robert Cathcart(46),
who has extensive clinical
experience with Vitamin
C, (more than 13,000 patients),
and who has used Vitamin
C to therapeutically treat
a large list of conditions
including colds, hepatitis,
mononucleosis, cancer and
AIDS.
The Bowel
Tolerance Technique
_____________________________
This method
takes advantage of the body's
way of showing you when
you have taken enough Vitamin
C, i.e. diarrhoea occurs.
This is because when there
is a concentrated solution
(say of Vitamin C) in the
intestinal cells, this pulls
water in from the surrounding
cells, loosening the stool
and producing diarrhoea(28).
Diarrhoea only occurs in
response to the excess Vitamin
C that reaches the intestines
and is not absorbed by the
body(46). In other words,
when you have exceeded the
level of how much Vitamin
C you need at a particular
time, your body lets you
know by producing diarrhoea.
Therefore, the optimum level
of Vitamin C to take is
just short of this "bowel
tolerance" or diarrhoea
causing level.
The bowel
tolerance level of your
body will shift quite dramatically,
depending upon how stressed
your body is. It may range
from 1 g or less when you
are perfectly healthy to
20 or even 50 g when you
have a very bad cold or
influenza, or even 150-200
g for mononucleosus. It
would be difficult to orally
take 200 g; these high doses
are achieved with both oral
and intravenous doses of
Vitamin C, administered
by physicians such as Dr.
Cathcart. Table 8 lists
various conditions and their
Vitamin C doses recommended
by Dr. Cathcart:
Table 8: Usual Bowel Tolerance
Doses
______________________________
Grams Vitamin C No. of Doses
Condition per 24 hours per
24 hours
______________________________
Normal
4-15 4
Mild Cold 30-60 6-10
Severe Cold 60-100 8-15
Influenza 100-150 8-20
ECHO, coxsackievirus 100-150
8-20
Mononucleosis 150-200 12-25
Viral Pneumonia 100-200
12-25
Hay Fever, Asthma 15-50
4-8
Environmental & Food
Allergy 0.5-50 4-8
Burn, Injury, Surgery 25-150
6-20
Anxiety, Exercise, Mild
Stresses 15-25 4-6
Cancer 15-100 4-15
Ankylosing Spondylitis 15-100
4-15
Reiter's Syndrome 15-60
4-10
Acute Anterior Uveitis 30-100
4-15
Rheumatoid Arthritis 15-100
4-15
Bacterial Infections 30-200
10-25
Infectious Hepatitis 30-100
6-15
Candida Infections 15-200
6-25
From Cathcart:
"Vitamin C, Titrating
to Bowel Tolerance, Anascorbemia
and Acute Induced Scurvy".
Medical Hypotheses: 7: 1359-76.
1981(46) .
__________________________________
How to
Achieve Bowel Tolerance
______________________________
Bowel tolerance
level is that level where
"maximum relief of
symptoms which can be expected
with oral doses of ascorbic
acid is obtained at a point
just short of the amount
which produces diarrhoea".
Dr. Cathcart notes that
effects upon acute symptoms
do not occur until doses
of 80-90% of bowel tolerance
are reached. This means
that if you take less Vitamin
C than what your body actually
needs, you may not notice
dramatic or even any effects
upon your symptoms. The
small doses prescribed in
many of clinical trials
with colds did exert some
effect, but probably not
the optimal effect which
could have been achieved
with subjects being "pushed"
to bowel tolerance.
It is relatively easy to
determine your own bowel
tolerance level. You may
need to start gradually
and build up to this level.
Many people can absorb up
to 10 g Vitamin C without
diarrhoea; others have diarrhoea
with only 1 g. Start taking
1-2 g Vitamin C 3 times
per day, for a total daily
dose of 3-6 g. After 1 week,
slowly increase this amount
to 4 daily doses, then 5,
until you reach the point
when cramps and loose stools
occur. This will be very
easy to notice. The amount
that you have taken represents
your bowel tolerance of
Vitamin C at that particular
time. It is important to
take Vitamin C regularly
throughout the day, at least
3 times daily. When you
are ill, it may be necessary
to take 1-2 gm each hour
to experience relief. With
some experience, you will
be able to instinctively
know how much Vitamin C
to take, somewhere in between
the amount that makes you
feel good and the amount
that causes diarrhoea. And
you will surely notice that
this level will increase
dramatically when you are
sick, and then return to
normal when you are well.
Taking Vitamin C to bowel
tolerance level will mean
that you will always be
giving your body its optimum
requirement of this vital
nutrient.
The majority
of people, perhaps 80-85%,
tolerate Vitamin C without
any difficulties; however
a significant minority do
suffer gastrointestinal
upsets, including gas and
diarrhoea. It should be
borne in mind that often
the underlying problem behind
such gastric upsets is an
unbalanced ecological flora,
especially the overgrowth
of organisms such as Candida
albicans. Attention to,
and restoration of the correct
balance of intestinal flora
will often enhance many
aspects of a person's health,
not merely their tolerance
of Vitamin C.
The producers
of buffered mineral ascorbates,
including Ester-CR ascorbate,
claim one of the advantages
of their Vitamin C is that
it produces less stomach
and intestinal upset than
ascorbic acid due to its
buffered nature. The acidity
of Vitamin C in the intestines,
where absorption occurs,
causes Vitamin C to be pushed
out rapidly due to irritation
of mucous membranes. Buffered
Vitamin C does not produce
this effect, although it
does produce CO2 gas. Ester-CR
ascorbate does not produce
CO2 gas, since it has been
bonded and pre-reacted during
its synthesis.
Dr. Cathcart
uses ascorbic acid, rather
than buffered Vitamin C,
initially in crystals rather
than capsules, because he
feels it has a stronger
"punch"(49). Once
experienced with crystals,
patients "graduate"
to capsules or tablets.
Other physicians prefer
buffered ascorbates such
as Ester-CR ascorbate because
of these digestive attributes.
Because of the biochemical
individuality, after trying
various forms of Vitamin
C, each person can usually
decide which suits him or
herself.
If you
are persuaded by the evidence
that Vitamin C can positively
affect your health, you
owe it to yourself to experience
the optimum effect, which
means going all the way
to bowel tolerance level.
Other Methods
to Determine Vitamin C Levels
____________________________________
Urine C-Strips
______________
There are
a number of commercially
available test papers which
can providea good approximation
of the level of your urinary
Vitamin C concentration.
With one of these, for example,
C-StripsR (Wholesale Nutrition),
Vitamin C turns the blue
strips white. The number
of seconds it takes for
the strip to turn white
can be converted to the
concentration of urinary
Vitamin C by reference to
tables provided. There are
also guidelines of optimum,
borderline and "sick"
ranges of Vitamin C urinary
levels.
Urinary
excretion levels are subject
to considerable variation,
and are thus
recommended as an APPROXIMATE
rather than a PRECISE measure
of body Vitamin C levels(54).
They are a most important
alarm indicator if they
indicate NO detectable Vitamin
C in the urine. This indicates
that your body reserve of
Vitamin C has been depleted,
and should be replenished
to afford you maximum health
protection.
Laboratory Tests to Measure
Plasma and Leukocyte Vitamin
C Levels
_____________________________________________________
A reliable
yet convenient indicator
of Vitamin C levels is still
being sought(134). Plasma(98)
is considered to indicate
metabolic turnover status
of Vitamin C, while leukocyte
concentrations are thought
to provide a better measure
of tissue stores of Vitamin
C. However, Vitamin C utilization
differs even within the
different types of leukocyte
cells (Mononuclear and Polymorphonuclear),
and there is no easy or
reliable correlation between
plasma and leukocyte Vitamin
C levels(26). It is more
technically difficult to
prepare these different
leukocyte fractions than
to simply assess plasma.
Applications of techniques
such as High-Performance
Liquid Chromatography (HPLC)(19,162)
will doubtless accelerate
the development of a simple,
easy and reliable test of
Vitamin C concentration.
Intradermal
Test
_____________
This somewhat painful, inconvenient
and time-consuming procedure
has also been used to measure
tissue levels of Vitamin
C. It involves injecting
a dye solution to produce
a wheal on the forearm,
and timing how long it takes
to be completely decolorized.
Twenty minutes or less is
a good result, from twenty
to thirty minutes borderline,
anything longer than thirty
minutes is unacceptable(54).
Not exactly the most friendly
do-it-yourself technique;
recommended only for those
who enjoy sticking themselves
with needles.
Lingual
Ascorbic-Acid Test (LAAT)
_________________________________
This is
a much more palatable measure
of Vitamin C status. A drop
(from a 25 gauge needle)
of blue dye (2,6, dichloroindophenol
sodium salt solution) is
dropped onto the tip of
the tongue. The time is
takes for the dye to disappear
is again a measure of Vitamin
C status. Less than twenty
seconds is good; between
twenty to twenty-five seconds,
marginal; longer than twenty-five
seconds represents depletion
of Vitamin C levels(54,175).
